UCL News: Engineering

Professor Mark Miodownik (UCL Mechanical Engineering) has been appointed the new Royal Society Professor for Public Engagement in Science, with a mission to transform our understanding of how we make, use, reuse and recycle products.

Leading chip designer NVIDIA will partner with UCL to help optimise the UK’s national artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, as part of a Europe-wide initiative to help countries develop their own ‘sovereign’ AI systems.

A low-cost, durable, highly sensitive robotic ‘skin’ that enables robots to detect information about their surroundings in a way that’s similar to humans has been developed by researchers from UCL and the University of Cambridge.

UCL hosted Ekaterina Zaharieva, EU Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, and the EU Delegation to the United Kingdom this week, to discuss the vital role universities play in fostering growth.

The UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology has been gifted more than £5 million by the Reta Lila Weston Trust for Medical Research, in support of initiatives to prevent, diagnose and treat a range of neurodegenerative diseases using artificial intelligence (AI).

Eight UCL researchers have been elected Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences in recognition of their ground-breaking research and delivery of new benefits to patients.

Professor Andy Nisbet has been announced as UCL’s new Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences, effective 1 August 2025.

A new technique to extract tiny cellulose strands from cow dung and turn them into manufacturing-grade cellulose, currently used to make everything from surgical masks to food packaging, has been developed by researchers from UCL and Edinburgh Napier University.

Twelve UCL alumni and students have been recognised in nine different categories in Forbes’ annual 30 Under 30 Europe list for 2025, which celebrates the young entrepreneurs and creatives in Europe.

Dr James Seddon (UCL Electronic and Electrical Engineering) is among 11 talented researchers to be awarded the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Quantum Technology Career Acceleration Fellowship. 

Two UCL researchers have been named as Schmidt Science Fellows, an award only given to 32 exceptional early career researchers worldwide.

Some ‘unofficial’ parental control apps have excessive access to personal data and hide their presence, raising concerns about their potential for unethical surveillance as well as domestic abuse, according to new research from UCL and St. Pölten UAS, Austria.

Tiny, individual, flexible ribbons of crystalline phosphorus discovered by UCL researchers in 2019 exhibit magnetic and semiconducting properties at room temperature, opening new possibilities for next-generation electronics, finds a new study involving members of the same team.

The Big Toilet Project, which will be run by a team of researchers from UCL, is inviting parents and care givers to help them explore why the average toilet training age of children has risen and how to reduce the environmental burden of disposable nappy waste.

UCL researchers will be involved in four multi-million-pound research hubs that will focus on advancing progression towards net zero.