UCL Mechanical Engineering

The UCL Bright Ideas Awards aim to help bridge the gap that many new companies find themselves in when they search for their first funding.
In the university context, this is a particular problem for those businesses that emerge from unconventional beginnings or where they have a seed of an idea, but are not yet ready for venture capital investment.
The winners of these awards will share up to a total of £50,000 in funding that will be offered as a loan to help get their businesses up and running. Specifically, it is hoped that the money will allow the winners to reach the next crucial milestone in their development, whether that be the first prototype or support for landing the first customer.
The Bright Ideas Awards are awarded to companies that are being created by UCL undergraduate and post-graduate students.
The 2013 winners were:
Aero Forza, Bio-Bean, Beba Mtoto!, ComComm, CurrencyBird, HaikuJAM, SellPlex, Smartzer

When a stranger slashed the young Professor Mark Miodownik with a razor, he became acutely aware of the properties of steel.
This was the birth of his fascination with materials.
Read the Guardian article

Date: Thursday 9th May 2013
Time: 7:30pm
Location: The Bloomsbury Theatre,15 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AH
Tickets: £8 + booking fee (available from: The Bloomsbury Theatre )

Lecturer Dr Vanessa Diaz has recently been appointed Chair of the Science, Engineering and Technology Panel of the Postgraduate Fellowship Scheme of the Irish Research Council (IRC), which is the equivalent to the Research Council UK (RCUK). The Council funds excellent researchers across all disciplines and encourages interdisciplinary research and engagement with enterprise.  The Council facilitates the career development of researchers by funding those at an early stage of their research career to associate with established research teams who have achieved international recognition for their work.

Congratulations to Dr Kevin Drake who is joint winner of the Sounds of UCL competition

Sounds of UCL’ competition, invited staff and students to capture ambient audio clips that reflect the life of UCL. The competition was designed not only to present the life of UCL from a different perspective, but also to engage people outside the UCL community in university activity in an innovative way.

Thank you to all of you who participated in the first Mechanical Engineering photo competition. We had a number of good entries but could only choose 3.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering is pleased to announce the winners of the Summer 2013 Internships. They are:

The YARD Prize for 2011/12 was recently presented to Lt David Blatcher by Rear Admiral Simon Lister CB at Abbey Wood. The Prize is awarded to the Best Navy MSc student on the MSc Marine Engineering course.

Congratulations to Professor Nader Saffari who is a recipient of an EPSRC responsive mode grant in "Sound bullets for enhanced biomedical ultrasound systems", joint with Warwick and Leeds; the UCL component is £288K.

Dr Suwan Jayasinghe

Date: Wednesday 17th April 2013

Time: 5:00pm

Location: Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre

Date: Thursday 25th April 2013
Time: 1 - 2pm (Lunch will be provided at 12:30pm)
Location: UCL, 4th Floor, Room 421, Roberts Building, Torrington Place, WC1E 7JE
Open to: Academic | Alumni | Public | Student
Admission: FREE

You are warmly invited to attend a guest seminar by Prof Ahmed Al-Jumaily, on engineering innovation in lung therapies

Date: Tuesday 16th April 2013

Time: 7:30pm

Location: The Albany, Great Portland Street, W1W 5QU

Date: Tuesday11th — Wednesday 12th June 2013
Location: Faculty of Engineering Sciences, University College London, Torrington Place
Open to: All interested undergraduates, postgraduates, academics and industrialists
Admission: £25pp (includes conference dinner on board HQS Wellington)

In the recent QS world university rankings the Department of Mechanical Engineering was placed 7th in the UK and in 4th position when considering its reputation amongst employers.

A research grant has been awarded to Paul Hellier from the UCL Institute of Sustainable Resources Sustainable Cities Catalyst Grant Fund to develop fuels from micro-organisms in collaboration with Dr. Saul Purton of UCL's Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology.

Mending Broken Hearts – Dr Suwan Jayasinghe’s latest collaborative project.

Click here to read a recent news article, with accompanying video, about lecturer Dr Suwan Jayasinghe’s involvement in a research project to regenerate heart cells.

Date: Tuesday 12th March 2013
Time: 13:15 - 13:55
Location: Darwin Lecture Theatre access via Malet Place | Darwin Building
Open to: Academic | Alumni | Public | Student
Admission: FREE

NEW CLOSING DATE: 8th APRIL 2013

For a chance to win £150 – send us images capturing how you see the department, what it is like working, studying, being in Mechanical Engineering, images could include labs, equipment, students, people, places of study etc

The 2013 National Student Survey seeks your views this term

Animal cells behave like fluid-filled sponges in response to being mechanically deformed according to new research published today in Nature Materials.  Scientists from the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Mechanical Engineering at UCL have shown that animal cells behave according to the theory of ‘poroelasticity’ when mechanically stimulated in a way similar to that experienced in organs within the body. The results indicate that the rate of cell deformation in response to mechanical stress is limited by how quickly water can redistribute within the cell interior.

Dr N Swaminathan,  Reader in Mechanical Engineering, Cambridge University Engineering Department (CUED), will be giving a talk about his work on Wednesday, November 28, 2012. The seminar will be given in Room 421 at 1pm, while a buffet lunch will be provided in Room 422 from 1215 pm onwards.

Research study conducted by team of experts including Dr Rama Balachandran of UCL Mechanical engineering has been awarded the Sugden Prize by The Combustion Institute for the most signifant UK contribution to combustion research last year.

There has been a rather impressive 5 Senior promotions within our Department, listed below:

Professor Richard Bucknall Professor of Marine & Power Systems
Professor Nader Saffari Professor of Ultrasonics
Professor Ian Eames Professor of Fluid Mechanics
Dr Pavlos Aleiferis Reader in Thermofluids
Dr Paul Fromme Senior Lecturer

So well done to everyone!

The Department of Mechanical Engineering hosted an international conference on Medical Devices and Surgical Procedures under the auspices of the Institute of Mathematics and Applications.

Professor Lucy Di Silvio from King’s College London, UK will be giving a talk on the 21st November in Room 421 (Engineering Roberts Building) at 1pm. Sandwiches are available from 12.30pm, possibly in 410. The title of the talk is