Huddersfield EPSRC Centre advisors pledge to boost British indust
Wed, 19 Dec 2012 11:09:00 GMT
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The Advisory Board of leading scientists and industrialists who oversee the University of Huddersfield’s £8 million EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Advanced Metrology has stressed the vital importance to the UK of encouraging greater numbers of young people to take up engineering.
Board members are convinced that the Centre – which receives funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) plus a roster of leading firms – is perfectly placed to play a key role in fostering the next generation of UK engineers.
The theme emerged at the latest meeting of the Advisory Board, which is chaired by the eminent physicist Prof Sir Peter Knight, who has stressed the need for Britain to boost its high-value manufacturing sector.
The meeting took place at the end of November, at the University of Huddersfield, and the board members had the opportunity to meet some of the scientists and engineers of the future. They met PhD students based at the EPSRC Centre and viewed posters which illustrate their current research.
The Board is a mixture of academics, policy makers and industrialists from globally famous manufacturers that include Airbus, AWE, Rolls Royce, Renishaw and Taylor Hobson. At their meeting, they heard updates on research at the EPSRC Centre as well as outreach activities, which will include a series of industry days, scheduled for the 2013 and focussing on specific sectors.
The Advisory Board were given a tour of the University’s 3M Buckley Innovation Centre, where the EPSRC Centre has two labs. Their guide was Professor Liz Towns-Andrews, who holds the 3M Chair of Innovation and is the University’s Director of Research and Enterprise.
