IfM News March 2013No 183

Focus on: Manufacturing Industry Education Research GroupFormed two and half years ago, MIERG is a growing research group interested in educational issues related to engineering education and manufacturing industry. Weekly meetings are held (teaching commitments allowing) to review interesting research, share progress on activities and to plan the group’s research agenda. The overall aims are to undertake research where new knowledge will benefit the learning and development of people, in becoming effective and excellent practitioners in manufacturing industry roles, and manufacturing industry companies, in developing and sustaining the capabilities needed to compete in the global industrial ecosystem.

There are a number of active research projects across a wide range of issues, including the perspectives of primary school children of engineers, IfM education practice and determining key knowledge and skills to address specific issues in industry.

As well as publishing conference and journal papers, the group has committed to doing one buns talk a term featuring aspects of their research and also sharing research that they hope will inform and assist their IfM education practice.

MIERG is actively working and gaining support to bring different stakeholders together to facilitate the development of a national UK roadmap for Engineering Education that will support the realisation of a High Value Manufacturing and emerging technology UK industrial landscape. This will enable a considered Engineering Education Research agenda to be identified and we hope funded. The group is also in the process of getting a small amount of funding from HEA to map journals in the field of Engineering Education to inform discussions on how quality and impact can be improved.

Group membersTom Ridgman

Tom’s general field of interest is how engineering education prepares students for both current and future manufacturing industries. Past research in collaboration with ISMM students has looked at the knowledge and skills gaps in early career

engineers from the perspectives of students and employers in China and India. Similar projects have looked at

how high tech start-ups make the transition into manufacturing and the knowledge and skills gaps they face. Other work includes sitting on the Engineering Council which sets and maintains the competence standards for UK engineers and trying to consolidate an accumulation of engineering education research papers into the snappily titled ‘Reference Repository for Education for Manufacturing Industry’ .

Tim Minshall

Tim’s research interests within MIERG are focused on perceptions of engineering among schoolchildren.

Work in this area can be summarised as follows: “An international comparison of children’s perceptions of engineering as a career: Implications for education, industrial and innovation policies”. It has been noted that there are problems in attracting students to engineering at university level, and part of the problem stems from poor perceptions of the role of engineers in an economy. Such perceptions

March News

may be formed at a very early stage and once made can be hard to change. The aim of this research is to assess the perceptions of elementary/primary school children of engineers and engineering as a career in different national contexts, and the implications this may have on education, innovation and industrial policy.

Judith Shawcross

Judith’s doctoral research concerns the development of complex workplace skills during Higher Education (HE) with ISMM being her main case study at the moment.

The aim is to develop a proven skill development framework that can be applied in HE and beyond! Now 2.5 years into

a part-time PhD, many key aspects of skill development have been identified and an activity model of ISMM industrial placements is being finalised. This will enable further research next academic year on skill assessment and the interrelationships between the different aspects of the skill development. Judith’s other education research interests are linked to her role as Education Programme Manager in IfM ECS where effective learning methods and programme evaluation are current themes.

Manjusha Thorpe

The scale-up of manufacturing processes from prototype through to commercial production is fraught with problems. In particular, the expertise needed to perform scale

up activities is often lacking. Manjusha’s PhD research indentifies the types of problems that occur in scale-up and

the conditions under which these are most likely to occur. The research also focuses on identifying the nature of the expertise and knowledge that is required to overcome these problems. The current domain of the research is the chemical industry and it is intended that the research will be expanded to address other sectors of the manufacturing industry.

Nazri Mahmud

Before coming to Cambridge, as a university lecturer, Nazri was heavily involved in improving the quality of an Electronic Engineering degree

programme in line with Washington Accord requirements. Three months into his PhD here in Cambridge,

he continues his interest in the skill and competency development of engineering graduates, especially with regards to their readiness to contribute to the creation of new technology-based industries.

Claire Barlow

Claire has a keen interest in Engineering Education being Director of Undergraduate Teaching for Engineering Department and a previous MET Course Director. She has recently been awarded £15k from the University of Cambridge Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund for an initiative to develop tablet-based teaching and learning. This should open up many new possibilities for the way we teach - as well as saving lots of paper and photocopying! The intention is to start a pilot study in October 2013 with the incoming group of METIIA students. This project is at the early stages and suggestions for how this can be done or examples of effective practice would be much appreciated.

www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/mierg

Contact: Judith Shawcross jks45@cam.ac.uk

OutreachA successful outcome for the Science FestivalOn Saturday 23 March, the IfM opened its doors to the public for an afternoon full of exciting activities and talks aimed at children of all ages.

Hundreds of children and adults attended the event, challenging each other in the popular Rocket Racing

and Laser Bunny Hop, observing the world being slowed down thanks to a high speed imaging camera system and singing to drops of water to see them separate and go upwards thanks to waves produced by sound and light.

Videos, photos and leaderboards can be found online:

www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/events/science-festival/

EventsSTIM Consortium launchedThe first meeting of the Strategic Technology & Innovation Management (STIM) Consortium programme took place on Thursday 14 March, providing an opportunity for members to have an update on progress, and to engage with all research projects. This will help to identify specific opportunities for collaboration in case studies and pilots. The broad range of sectors represented by the nine participating companies ensures rich opportunities for sharing practice, and informing the research direction.

To find out more visit: www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/ctm/stim/

Food safety technology wins first OI Forum Pitching EventThe Open Innovation Forum held its first Pitching Event on 11 March at the Hauser Forum.

The event saw 18 innovators from start-ups, spin-outs, SMEs and universities present their ideas to an audience of senior leaders and decision-makers from major companies such as Unilever, Siemens and Tate & Lyle, all with an interest in the Food and FMCG sectors. Using a points system, pitchers were judged on their degree of innovation, if their idea addressed the companies’ innovation needs, and how much scope it had for commercialisation. Ideas were presented as a five-minute pitch followed by a Q&A session.

The event’s winner was Anacail,

a spin-out of the Astrophysics Department at Glasgow University, with its unique patented technology for the easy, safe and chemical-free generation of active oxygen (ozone), a recognised powerful germicide, inside sealed containers.

Find out more here: bit.ly/ZKgGJK

Future of manufacturing workshop

Elliott More and Steve Evans recently attended a workshop in Berlin as part of the UK Government ‘Future of Manufacturing’ Foresight project. Hosted at the British Embassy, the workshop brought together 20 leading manufacturing experts from all around Europe to canvas opinion on potential drivers of change most likely to impact the sector over the next 40 years.

Two further international workshops followed in Washington and Singapore, which together aim to gain an understanding of different perspectives between the EU, US, and Asia. The results of the workshops will contribute to the UK Government Office for Science Foresight report due out in autumn 2013.

i-Teams workshop on commercialising researchOn Wednesday 6 March, the “Inspiring Research through

Industrial Collaboration” Theme, led by Tim Minshall, held a workshop to help researchers

maximise their impact. This is part

of a series of workshops run within an i-Teams project.

An i-Team consists of about six postdocs or PhDs, typically from science and technology backgrounds, guided by an experienced mentor, often an entrepreneur or technology consultant and they look for the application possibilities and markets for the technologies and products of research. The i-Teams programme runs three projects a term for each term.

For more information or if you think you might have a project contact Amy Mokady am678@cam.ac.uk or visit www.iteamsonline.org/

If you would like to be on the mailing list for future talks in this series please contact Tim Minshall thwm100@cam.ac.uk or Charles Boulton cb683@cam.ac.uk, or have a look at ‘talks with impact’ for the next in the series talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/42183.

DIAL Seminar on the future of construction and infrastructure information Dr Peter Demian, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Civil and Building Engineering at Loughborough University, shared his on the future of construction and infrastructure information as part of Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory seminar series.

This talk was organised in association the Cambridge University Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction and was moderated by Tariq Masood tm487@cam.ac.uk.

Cranfield and Imperial cohort catches up with IfMOn Wednesday 20 March, members of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability cohort from Cranfield and Imperial descended on the IfM to work with lead researchers and fellow students discuss the tool development process and IfM ECS.

The day included a talk by Tim Jackson on alternative economic models for a planet with physical limits.

Research Seminar on writing a winning research proposalThe third research seminar of the IfM Research Capability Development Programme was held on Friday 1 March. This was a joint event of IfM research Capability development group and IfM research and communication club. Steve Evans, director of research in Centre for Industrial Sustainability, gave a talk titled “Writing a winning research proposal”. A copy of proposals discussed is available, please contact Leila Alinaghian lsa27@cam.ac.uk.

Upcoming Research Capability Development events:

Andy Neely to join European Commission’s High Level Group on Business ServicesAndy Neely has been asked by the group, consisting of senior representatives from across Europe to identify and propose new policies

to stimulate growth in the business service sector. The group is expected to report in May 2014.

Inkjet experiment is world firstInkjet group collaborator Dr Neil Morrison is in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Leeds, UK. An ultra high speed camera (1 million frames per second) and flash lamps were borrowed from the EPSRC Engineering Instrument loan pool to enable to track 2µm diameter particles within the viscous fluid flow being jetted from a 80 µm diameter see-through nozzle. This experiment is a world first on this scale.

Achievements Charity runOn 14 April Nancy Broken and husband Hidde-Jan Lemstra are running the Brighton Marathon. They are aiming to raise at least £800 for the charity Scope which promotes equal opportunities for disabled people.

If you would like to make a (however small) contribution to Scope visit this link: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/Nancy_and_Hidde-Jan

It will surely make them run faster!

Melanie Despeisse passes her PhD vivaMélanie Despeisse passed her PhD viva on the topic of sustainable manufacturing. The research delivered a library of 20 tactics (generic rules for sustainable manufacturing) as well as an improvement methodology to guide the tactics implementation.

It provides a structured and systematic approach for manufacturers to undertake the journey towards more sustainable practice by

improving resource flows (material, energy, water and waste) in their factory.

Sungjune Jung appointed Lecturer at POSTECHDr Sungjune Jung (Physics), active collaborator and former postgraduate student in the Inkjet Research Centre, has been appointed to a tenure-track Lectureship in the Department of Creative IT Excellence Engineering at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology), Korea, starting this Autumn.

More information on POSTECH can be found here www.postech.ac.kr.

CAROLESIMONIANVANESSATAIJATOMCLAIRE

Can you find the Professor’s Egg?Prof. Pierre Lapin, Emeritus Professor of Easter Egg Technology at the University of Caerbannog has hidden his latest creation. Can you solve his clues and track it down?

If you seek the second clue then within seven families you must search.

Treasure hunters are welcome to work independently or together but the treasure must be found by 5pm Thursday 28th March. Let the hunt begin! profpierrelapin@engineer.com

Easter treasure hunt

New people & rolesMohamed Zaki has joined the Cambridge Service Alliance (CSA) last month. The research with CSA aims to better understand data driven

opportunities to create, realise and share value within Complex Service Networks. Mohamed’s research

interests lie in the field of Information Governance, Business Intelligence and Big Data Analytics. His PhD investigated the impact of employing different business intelligence techniques to detect frauds in the stock exchange markets. Using the latest text mining and data mining techniques, an ontology driven framework for fraud purposes has been developed to help financial market monitoring surveillance systems to understand financial fraud practices and developing early detection techniques.

Carlos López-Gómez has been appointed Research Associate at the

new Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (CSTI) after completing his PhD under the supervision of Mike Gregory and Eoin O’Sullivan. Carlos’ research will be on the strand “Economic Value Capture from Industrial-Innovation Systems”. Before joining the IfM, Carlos gained industrial experience in the automotive and engineering services industries, both in Mexico and the US. Recently, he has collaborated with institutions such as UNIDO, the European Commission and the UK Government Office of Science on policy-related initiatives.

Antonio Andreoni was appointed Research Associate also within CSTI. Antonio is an industrial economist trained at the University of Bologna and Cambridge. His current research aims to bridge and cross-fertilise economics and engineering in order to advance understanding of the complex structures, competences and interdependencies within modern

technological, manufacturing and industrial systems. Since 2011, Antonio has been consulting national agencies such as the UK Government Office of Science and GIZ (German Development Agency) as well as international organisations such as UNIDO and OECD. He is also Adjunct Professor in Economic Development at the University of Bologna.

Bernhard Dusch has joined IfM ECS as a tool developer and designer after completion of this PhD. He will work on the PrISMS project which provides sustainable business support

to ESVs and SMEs.

Bernhard started his career as a professional photographer for industry and

CongratulationsA colourful weddingMaryam Masood, a doctoral student with the Centre for Industrial Sustainability at Cambridge University, has recently married Amad Ahmed in a ceremony held in Lahore, Pakistan.

Our congratulations to them both, and every good wish for the future.

fashion. He holds a Diploma in Communication Design from the Georg-Simon-Ohm University of Applied Sciences in Nuernberg/Germany and a Master’s with distinction in Industrial Design from Sheffield Hallam University. He had been working as a Designer for the German based design consultancy MetaDesign before he joined the IfM Design Management Group in May 2009.

J.R. Castrejón-Pita, S.D. Hoath, A.A. Castrejón-Pita, N.F Morrison, W.-K. Hsiao, I.M Hutchings, “Time-resolved particle image velocimetry within the nozzle of a drop-on-demand printhead”, Journal of Imaging Science and Technology, 56 Issue 5 (Sept/Oct 2012) 050401.

Lee, J.H., Phaal, R. and Lee, S-H. (2013), “An integrated service-device-technology roadmap for smart city development”, Technology Forecasting & Social Change, 80, pp. 286-306.

Lubik, S., E. W. Garnsey, T. Minshall and K. Platts (2013). “Maximizing Value Creation from the Innovation Environment: Partnership Strategies from University Spin-outs”, R&D Management 4(2): 136-150.

Lubik, S., S. Lim, K. Platts and T. Minshall (2013). “Market-pull and Technology-push in Manufacturing Start-ups in Emerging Industries”, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management 24(1).

Masood, T. and Weston R.H., “Modelling Framework to Support Decision-Making in Manufacturing Enterprises”, Advances in Decision Sciences, vol. 2013, Article ID 234939, 23 pages, 2013.

This paper talks about systematic model-driven decision-making, which is crucial to design, engineering, and transforming manufacturing enterprises (MEs).

Mortara, L., Ford, S.J., Jaeger, M., In press. “Idea Competitions Under Scrutiny: Acquisition, Intelligence or Public Relation Mechanism? Technological forecasting & social change”

This paper analyses the outcomes of Idea Competitions in large multinationals investigating whether they are good mechanisms for acquisition.

Oakey, R., Groen, A., van der Sijde, P., Cook, G., Zhou, Y., Xu, G., Minshall, T. H. W. and Su, J. (2013). “A Policy Dimension Required for Technology Roadmapping: Learning from the Development of Emerging Wind Energy Industry in China”, International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 12(1), pp. 3-21.

Oughton, D., Mortara, L., Minshall, T., 2013. “Managing asymmetric relationships in open innovation: lessons from multinational companies and SMEs”, in: Martinez, M.G. (Ed.), Open innovation in the food and beverage industry. Woodhead Publishing, 2013, pp. 276-292.

This chapter presents key lessons learned from the experience of multinational companies in the FMCG sector in partnering with small firms and suggests the ways in which it may be possible to overcome the problems often occurring in these asymmetric partnerships.

Rincón- Argüelles, L., T. H. W. Minshall and L. Mortara (2013). “Effect of innovation management consultancy services on the R&D and marketing relationship”, DRIUD Academy Conference.

Shawcross, J. K. and Ridgman, T. W. (2013), “Manufacturing excellent engineers: skill development in a Masters

Recent publications

Image from ‘Time-resolved particle image velocimetry within the nozzle of a drop-on-demand printhead’

programme”, Engineering Education, Volume 7, Issue 2.

Short, S.W., Bocken, N.M.P., Rana, P. & Evans, S. 2012, “Business Model Innovation for Embedding Sustainability: A Practice-Based Approach Introducing Business Model Archetypes”, 10th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing (GCSM), Istanbul.

The paper investigates that the lack of a clear approach to help firms undertake transformation of the desired value proposition into practice may represent a significant barrier to sustainability and a gap in the tool set.

Short, SW, Rana, P, Bocken, NMP & Evans, S 2012, “Embedding sustainability in Business Modelling through Multi-stakeholder Value innovation” in Emmanouilidis, C, Taisch, M & Kiritsis, D (eds), IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology (IFIP AICT, Series ISSN: 1868-4238), Competitive Manufacturing for Innovative Products and Services: Proceedings of the APMS 2012 Conference, Advances in Production Management Systems.

This paper discusses how businesses might create balanced social, environmental and economic value through integrating sustainability more fully into the core of their business.

Xia, T. and T. Minshall (2013). “Understanding Patterns and Promotion of Investments in New Firms in Emerging Science and Technology-Based Industries in the UK. New Firms in the New Millenium”, Volume X. R. Oakey, A. Groen, P. van der Sijde and G. Cook.

Zhou, Y., G. Xu, T. H. W. Minshall and J. Su (2013). “A Policy Dimension Required for Technology Roadmapping: Learning from the Development of Emerging Wind Energy Industry in China”, International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development 12(1): 3-21.

Image from ‘Modelling Framework to Support Decision-Making in Manufacturing Enterprises’

A selection of this month’s media coverage:

Identifying your least profitable clients feels ruthless but is key to efficiency (with John Mc Manus)The Guardian www.guardian.co.uk/small-business-network/2013/mar/04/making-business-more-efficient Sustainability: It’s not easy being green, especially for SMEs (by Dai Morgan)The Manufacturer www.themanufacturer.com/articles/sustainability-its-not-easy-being-green-especially-for-smes/

Cambridge Science Festival – What is nanotechnology? (with Bill O’Neill)BBC Radio Cambridgeshire – Sue Dougan in the Afternoon

Tim Minshall wins Excellence in Teaching Award Cambridge Networkwww.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/news/tim-minshall-wins-excellence-in-teaching-award/

Festival volunteers braved the snowUniversity of Cambridge – Science Festivalwww.cam.ac.uk/sciencefestival

IfM in the news