NSIRC Research and Innovation Conference 2021 Award Winners

Wed, 10 November, 2021

The award winners for the NSIRC Research and Innovation Conference 2021 have been announced.

At the 2021 conference, over 35 industry focused PhD students made oral presentations about their on-going research, with four prizes in total for third and second year students.

There were also two awards for best research poster presentation, a category specifically for first year PhD students.

Oral presentations were made virtually to a conference of over 300 industry technology experts, academics and research peers.

These presentations summarised the PhD topic, reviewed initial findings in the field as well as current research, finished with future plans for further investigation and a question and answer session.

Each oral presentation lasted 15 to 20 minutes and formed a packed two day schedule, that also included presentations from PhD Supervisors on the TWI Core Research Programme.

All presentations and posters, from each PhD, can be found on YouTube and conference web page.

Congratulations to the winners of the NSIRC Research and Innovation Conference 2021 Awards, and to all students for their excellent presentations of research at the highest level.

 

Third Academic Year Oral Presentation Winners

Winner: George Brooks – Sheffield Hallam University and TWI

Investigation into the influence of friction stir welding in thick section aluminium alloys

In his extended conference abstract, George said, “The primary aim of the research project is to investigate the influence of welding variables on the microstructure and mechanical of welds created in thick section aluminium and thereby develop the technical and commercial benefits of the FSW process.” 

 

Runner-up: Norbert Sieczkiewicz – Lancaster University and Lloyd’s Register Foundation

Electron beam characterisation using time series imaging and deep learning

Regarding the impact of his research, Norbert says, “The output from this work, when applied in production manufacture, is expected to provide high confidence quality assurance in real time for the electron beam process.”

 

 

Second Academic Year Oral Presentation Winners

Winner: Maciej Gierulski - University of Sheffield and Non-metallic Innovation Centre

Electrofusion (EF) couplers for thermoplastic composite pipe

From his conference abstract, Maciej said, "Recently, thermoplastic composite pipes (TCPs) have been developed that have pressure capacities comparable to that of the metallic solutions, but they still are connected with steel joints. The aim of this project is to design athermoplastic connector for polyethylene (PE) TCPs that utilises EF welding technology."

 

Runner-up: Saad Syed Iqbal Ahmed - University of Manchester and Lloyd's Register Foundation

Correlating defects to fatigue performance in selective laser melted Al-Si10-Mg alloys

Saad says in his abstract introduction, "Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is a revolutionary technology pertinent to many high-value applications in the biomedical, automotive, and aerospace industries. It has the potential to produce topographically optimized parts comprising of complex geometries previously not possible by traditional subtractive manufacturing methods."

 

First Academic Year Research Poster Winners

Winner: Magali Rego - The Open University and Lloyd's Register Foundation

Recycling of thermoset resins via the development of a solvent trigger de-curing system

Magali Rego Poster - Recycling of thermoset resins via the development of a solvent trigger de-curing system - pdf - 1mb

 

Runner-up: Cheung Man Chi - Brunel University and London and TWI Core Research Programme

Hybrid composite to metal joining for naval vessels

Man Chi Cheung Poster - Hybrid Composite to Metal Joining for Naval Vessels - pdf - 1mb