Industrial Advisory Boards

The role of the Industry Advisory Boards are to facilitate the exchange of ideas between the board members, the academic staff and the students in the School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS) at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). There are four stream specific Industrial Advisory Boards in SEMS, one for each programme stream (Aerospace, Mechanical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering)

Terms of Reference (Agreed in October 2015):

  1. To provide a regular channel of communication between the School and relevant sections of industry.
  2. To ensure that that School receives appropriate and expert advice on the relevance of its teaching and research.
  3. To ensure that we maintain accreditation status with all our relevant professional bodies.
  4. To advise on other School activities as the Board sees fit.

Benefits to the School include:

  • The quality of the School's degree programmes is maintained.
  • The School is advised on which research activities might be undertaken to meet current industrial needs.
  • The employability of the School's students is enhanced.
  • The board can advise the School on ad hoc matters identified by either by the academic staff or by the panel members.

Benefits to board members include:

  • A raised awareness of the industrial partner's activities amongst staff and the students in the School.
  • To ensure that SEMS graduates have the essential skills that are required by them as future employees.
  • To provide a suitable academic partner to help secure EPSRC / Innovate UK funding for research projects.
  • Networking opportunities with other companies in the SEMS network.
  • Access to a large student population to undertake a wide range of projects.
  • Access to the extensive equipment and facilities that are available in the School.

The main methods of interacting with the School are:

  • Recruitment opportunities for either work experience or for graduate positions - Staff (often SEMS alumni) from the company are invited to participate in the various ILF activities. 
  • College/Industrial Studentships - Ensure that panel members are made aware of the competitive QMUL or CDT studentship opportunities, where projects are funded jointly by a college scholarship with an industrial top up.
  • Guest lectures are delivered by IAB members.
  • Industrial Visit Programme supported by visits to the IAB companies. The School undertakes about 20 industrial site visits each year.
  • Prize Day - Companies will support whenever possible student prizes, that are awarded at the annual prize day. This event will coincide with the annual research focused ILF in the School.

Actions from the IAB

  • The outcomes from each IAB meeting will generate a series of proposed actions for individual streams. 
  • These will be considered by the Education Board in SEMS which will then create and implement a school wide action plan. 
  • The outcomes of this action plan will be reported back at the next IAB.