GERI News in 2011

December 2011

Mr Anthony Walker commenced his role as GERI ERDF Outreach Project Liaison Engineer  on Monday 12th December 2011.

GERI jointly hosted an event with MTC in Coventry aimed at exploring the research agenda in functional surfaces within industry.

Professor David Burton, Dr Francis Lilley and Dr Mark Murphy have just returned from Magdeburg, Germany where they gave two invited lectures which were funded by a German national travel grant. They also met with researchers to discuss the preparation of a collaborative research application to the EU.

Dr Paul French from GERI's PIE Group has been awarded a £123,771, 12 month EPSRC first research grant, named LIMP2, to study "Laser Induced Micro Plasma Processing".

GERI staff Professor David Burton, Dr Francis Lilley, Professor David Harvey, Professor Xun Chen, Dr Michael Morgan, Dr Andre Batako, Dr Martin Sharp and Dr Paul French led and presented at a joint MTC/LJMU one day workshop event on Functional Surface Manufacturing at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) at Ansty near Coventry on 20th December 2011. This aimed to set a new national agenda in this emerging research area and involved many national and North West industrialists and academics.

November 2011

Mr Anthony Walker has been appointed as the GERI ERDF Outreach Project Liaison Engineer.

The new GERI office block was completed in late November 2011 and staff occupied the building in early December 2011.

Dr Francis Lilley, Professor David Burton and Dr Mark Murphy met with members of St Paul's Eye Unit, University of Liverpool, to discuss future research collaborations.

The MTC Director, Dr Clive Hickman, and senior staff from the UK's Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), along with the Vice Chancellor, Professor Nigel Weatherill, visited GERI on 14th October 2011 with GERI making a reciprocal return visit on 1st November 2011 for discussions around a new collaboration between GERI and MTC.

Professor David Burton and GERI researchers met with Chris White of the North West Health Brussels Office.

Dr Frederic Bezombes and Dr Martin Sharp have submitted a bid through the Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) on fibre optic sensors. This grant involves 3 North West SMEs. This brings the number of SME's involved in grant applications since July to 5, important for the ERDF target.

Dr Michael Morgan has just returned from the Czech Republic where he received an award for his contributions to manufacturing research. He also gave a presentation on GERI.

A conference paper with Dr Paul French as co-author was presented at the ICALEO 2011 symposium by Dr. Mo Naeem, GSI Group Limited.

Dr Martin Sharp gave a talk at the Materials Engineering Research Institute at Sheffield Hallam University.

September 2011

Shortlisting for the liaison engineer position has taken place.

Professor David Burton, Mr Gary Johnston and Mr Ahmed Ahtaiba presented papers at the IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP2011) held in Brussels on 11-14 September 2011.

Dr Bogdan Matuszewski from the University of Central Lancashire presented at the GERI seminar on Friday 30th September 2011.

Dr Frederic Bezombes has supervised a Nuffield student, Douglas Anderson, who has been shortlisted to participate in the Big Bang competition.

Dr Lei Zhang, Senior Post-Doctoral Researcher from Shandong University, is working with Dr Michael Morgan for 12 months. His work will focus on the area of grinding (fluid convection study).

The 6th International  Conference of Precision Machining (ICPM2011) took place from 13th to 15th September 2011. The conference was chaired by Dr Michael Morgan, hosted by LJMU and held at the Adelphi Brittania Hotel. The conference was opened by LJMU's Vice Chancellor Professor Nigel Weatherill, and a welcome to Liverpool was given by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool.

French student placement, Hugo Tricou, has completed his three month placement with Dr Paul French during which he has produced results that will be used in support of the STICK-2 FP7 proposal currently in preparation.

August 2011

Ahmed Ahtaiba was given the award for Best Student Paper at the 2011 International Conference of Signal and Image Engineering (WCE2011), 4-6 July 2011, London.

Work continues on the engineering annexe/new office space.

The GERI ERDF liaison engineer post has been advertised and many applications have already been received.

A GERI Away Day was held at the Automatic as a kick off to start off the GERI ERDF Outreach Project.

Cambridge student Robert Woodward has been working on a Nuffield Foundation Undergraduate Research Bursary with Dr Martin Sharp, examining the potential of laser texturing to create non-stick cookware.

Dr Paul French has submitted his first grant application to the EPSRC on Laser Induced Micro Plasma Processing. This also leads to the first output of the GERI ERDF Outreach project.

June 2011

We have received verbal communication that we have been successful in securing the ERDF Outreach grant. The expected start date is 1st July 2011.

The workshop offices have been demolished and the building of the new GERI office block will commence shortly.

Dr Martin Sharp has been offered an undergraduate research bursary to enable Robert Woodward, a 3rd year Engineering student at the University of Cambridge, to undertake a short project in the group over the summer vacation.

Dr Paul French will be supervising a French student for two months in the summer on a placement project based on the laser cutting of CFRP (composites).

Dr Martin Sharp represented LJMU and GERI at the UK Innovation Forum's technology brokerage event in Nottingham on 10th May 2011. 

Dr Paul French has received a £2000 Early Career Research Award to support the development of Metamaterial Projects.

Matthew Gibson of Loughborough University met with Dr Munther Gdeisat on Wednesday 18th May 2011 to discuss the licensing of GERI phase unwrappers within Loughborough University's spin-off  companies commercial products.

Mr Mohammad AlSa'd had his viva on Thursday 19th May 2011 and passed subject to minor  amendments. The amendments have been made and the final thesis submitted.

March 2011

GERI's European Regional Development Funding bid was submitted on Monday 28th March 2011.

GERI has submitted an application to the Alder Hey Burns Fund in conjunction with Professor Paul McArthur, Consultant Plastic Surgeon.

Dr Martin Sharp became President of the Association of Laser Users (AILU) at their two-day Industrial Laser Applications Symposium - ILAS2011 - held in Warrington on 15th and 16th March 2011. In addition three papers were presented by Dr. Martin Sharp and Dr. Paul French.

Mr Deng Wenqi has commenced his research studies at the General Engineering Research Institute. His research will focus on applications of signal and image processing to optical measurement techniques such as confocal and atomic force microscopy.

Publicity for the 6th International Conference of Precision Machining (ICPM2011) is in circulation. Dr Michael Morgan has had formal acknowledgement of Rolls Ryce and IET support for the forthcoming congress.

February 2011

Professor David Burton made a presentation to Mr Iain Gray, Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board, at Daresbury Laboratory on Wednesday 9th February 2011.

On 22nd February 2011 Professor David Burton, Director of GERI, met with Richard Heald, Chief Executive of UK India Business Council, to discuss possibilities of collaborative research with Indian companies. Mr Heald took information to incorporate into a government report he is preparing on the possible collaboration between the UK knowledge base and Indian manufacturing companies.

On 23rd February 2011 Professor David Burton, Director of GERI, attended a meeting called by the NWUA and NWDA at Lancaster University where he met with people to form a Centre of Sustainable Manufacturing, Innovation and Collaboration (COSMIC). 

Professor David Burton and Dr Francis Lilley visited Knowsley Safari Park on 9th February 2011 to meet with Safari Park staff (in collaboration with Dr Alan Gunn, School of Biology, LJMU) to discuss the production of a non-contact measurement technique for gauging the growth of baby rhinoceroses.

Dr Martin Sharp Dr Martin Sharp has been invited to give a talk on laser engineering at the University of Lodz, Poland, at the end of February.

Mr Ching Goh has commenced his PhD studies working with Dr Paul French and Dr Mark Murphy. His research will focus on the texturing of cells to modify their behaviour.

January 2011

Alastair Houston, a Nuffield student working under Dr Martin Sharp on laser welding of nimonic alloys, has been selected to participate in the National Science & Engineering Competition at the Big Bang Fair at ExCel London in March 2011.

Professor David Burton, Director of the General Engineering Research Institute, welcomed Juergen Maier (Managing Director) and Justin Kelly (Manager of Strategy & Communications) of Siemens to the Institute on Monday 17th January 2011. The visitors were accompanied by Professor Michael Brown, Vice Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University.

Dr Paul French has received a £2000 award from the University ECR award 2010/11.

A bid has been submitted to the Wellcome Trust in collaboration with the University of Liverpool, Biomer Technology and Opto Plc.