QMUL School of Engineering and Materials Science News

Dr Rehan Shah wins Queen Mary SEED Educator Prize, students win SEED awards

rehan.shah@qmul.ac.uk (Rehan Shah) — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Dr Rehan Shah has won Queen Mary's Student Enhanced Engagement and Development (SEED) Annual Educator Prize for 2025-26, awarded to only one of three academic staff recipients across the university each year for recognition of significantly impactful co-creation scholarship work with students. The panel commented on how Dr Shah had "engaged co-creatively with students and the extent to which the co-creative activities have led to impact." They also noted how "it is work like this which continues to enhance and shape education at QMUL, and on behalf of the university community we thank you for your contribution."

Dr Shah has an active scholarship research group 'QMULtipliers', which has had 20 undergraduate and postgraduate student members thus far, 13 of whom have already successfully received SEED awards from Queen Mary Academy for their co-creation scholarship contributions across 11 different scholarship projects, several of them being funded, cross-institutional ones. In addition to Dr Shah receiving a certificate for the prize from Queen Mary Academy, two of his group's second-year Design Engineering undergraduate students, Maneeha Siddiki and Sara Hamandi also received SEED awards for their work with Dr Shah on respective cross-institutional scholarship projects.

Maneeha was recognised for her significant contributions as a student research assistant on Dr Shah's project “AI in Academia" which involved conducting an audit of educational developers’ use of, and attitude towards GenAI in higher and further education, in collaboration with Dr Matthew Cole (Hartpury University), Dr Noleen Chikowore (University of Leeds) and funded by a 2025 Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) Research Grant.

Maneeha was instrumental in contributing to every stage of the project which included conducting literature reviews on empirical research and institutional policies, designing and disseminating a national UK-wide staff survey, facilitating focus groups with academics and educational developers, and undertaking qualitative and quantitative data analysis. The project generated evidence from 49 survey respondents across 16 UK institutions and featured 3 focus groups involving 13 staff participants from 6 institutions. She worked with academic colleagues to compare interpretations of emerging themes, discussing how educator experiences should be represented in the findings, before agreeing on the final thematic framework. She presented the findings with the team as a poster presentation at QMUL Festival of Education (June 2026), an oral presentation at the SEDA Spring Conference held at Liverpool John Moores University (May 2026) and will produce forthcoming open-access blog articles for the SEDA website and a co-authored research paper for SEDA’s flagship Innovations in Education and Teaching International (IETI) journal.

Sara on the other hand, worked with Dr Shah on a student-community partnership project titled "Social Enterprise Education Design with AI", funded by a 2025 Researching, Advancing and Inspiring Student Engagement (RAISE) Network Research Grant, in collaboration with Prof Anne Preston (UCL), Craig Martin (UCL) and Liza Fletcher (community partner from E17 Films). The project focuses on co-designing (with students and a local East London community organisation (E17 Films)), a template framework for a new, shared social entrepreneurship module/short course using ethical and creative applications of GenAI.

Sara's main contribution was in transforming the learning design into a practical structure for the proposed module. Drawing on established design thinking approaches, she helped shape the process into an iterative cycle of 'Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test and Reflect'. She also considered how each stage could support student learning, where community partner involvement could be built in, and how reflection could strengthen the process. This helped move the project from broad aims towards a usable module framework. She presented the findings with the team as a poster presentation at QMUL Festival of Education (June 2026) (which received the 3rd Prize for Best Poster among 62 posters), an oral presentation at the RAISE Annual Conference (Sept 2026) and will produce forthcoming open-access blog articles for the RAISE website and a co-authored research paper for RAISE’s flagship Student Engagement in Higher Education journal.

The panel were exceedingly impressed by both of their contributions work stating that both were "very good applications that clearly explains the project and how you co-created with staff and the community partner". They also noted how the application "demonstrates how you reflected during the process to make the project as successful as possible, how you’ve reflected on all the skills you’ve developed and it's very impressive that you reflected on how to use GenAI responsibly as part of the project and designed it to ensure that AI wasn’t being used to replace human creativity."

Ms Umaiza Bhatti wins SEED Award for Notable Contributions to QMCUR’s Educational Infrastructure

g.viola@qmul.ac.uk (Giuseppe Viola) — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 23:00:00 +0100

We are delighted to announce that Ms Umaiza Bhatti, a second-year Biomedical Engineering student currently serving as Development and Engagement Lead at QMCUR, has been awarded the SEED Award in recognition of her contributions to enhancing the learning environment and supporting tools for undergraduate researchers.

During her tenure, Umaiza has developed several high-impact resources that are now integral to the Centre's operations, including:

Induction Package: a detailed document that introduces newly enrolled students to the philosophy, operational procedures, and resources available at QMCUR, alongside a “learning agreement” that sets mutual expectations and commitments.
Structured Logbook and Opportunity Tracker: these tools support students in managing their research projects and professional development. Both facilitate systematic activity tracking and navigation of the Vitae Researcher Development Framework, regarded at QMCUR as the current gold standard for researcher development. The Structured Logbook provides a streamlined way to document progress, focusing on key aspects while maintain high-quality records. The Opportunity Tracker helps students identify and pursue a wide range of additional opportunities, including bursary applications, research internships, and placements. The QMCUR core team will explore the use of these tools in partnership with the students in appraisal-like process to oversee development and co-design potential future growth pathways.
Tools for Managing Complex Schedules: these instruments were developed to empower students to balance QMCUR research projects with curricular and other extracurricular commitments. These resources include time management strategies, prioritisation techniques, task-switching methods, and guidance on preserving leisure time and personal well-being. The content was originally developed for a series of in‑person workshops and was then adapted into a dedicated QM+ module, to widening participation, allowing for a deeper, more structured engagement with the material, and offering a more immersive, self-paced learning journey. All new QMCUR members are required to complete this module within their first month of enrolment. The module includes a range of quizzes, exercises, and assessed tasks, with a certificate awarded upon successful completion, subject to Umaiza's approval.

This SEED award reflects Umaiza's dedication, creativity, and strong commitment to improving the undergraduate research experience at QMCUR. We believe her work will influence and benefit all students who encounter these tools, helping them not only at QMCUR but also in other contexts, as lifelong skills.

Umaiza is currently undertaking her placement year at Unilever, working within the R&D team. She will be stepping down from her QMCUR role but will remain available in an advisory capacity to support her successor, who is currently being recruited.

EduGrade AI selected for Innovate UK ICURe Exploit spinout-readiness programme

d.deepshikha@qmul.ac.uk (Deepshikha Deepshikha) — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 23:00:00 +0100

EduGrade AI, an educator-controlled assessment and feedback platform developed and led by Dr Deepshikha in the School of Engineering and Materials Science, has been selected for the Innovate UK ICURe Exploit Business and Spinout Readiness programme.

The achievement marks an important step towards potential spinout formation and the wider adoption of EduGrade AI across higher education.

EduGrade AI was developed to address a significant challenge facing universities: providing detailed, consistent, and timely feedback while managing increasing academic workloads. The platform uses artificial intelligence to generate rubric-aligned draft feedback and indicative scores against criteria defined by educators.

Academic judgement remains central to the process. Educators review, edit, and approve all feedback and marks before anything is released to students.

“AI should give academics their time back, not take their judgement away. Every decision that matters still sits with the educator,” said Dr Deepshikha.

The selection follows EduGrade AI’s successful participation in the ICURe Explore programme. Through an extensive market discovery process, the team engaged with university leaders, academics, professional services teams, and technology partners to evaluate the need for responsible AI-enabled assessment infrastructure.

Following the team’s presentation to the ICURe panel in Belfast, the project was invited to continue towards potential spinout formation through the Exploit programme. The panel recognised the team’s strong domain knowledge, market engagement and understanding of the challenges surrounding AI adoption in higher education.

ICURe Exploit programme will support the team in translating this research-led innovation into scalable assessment infrastructure, developing the wider leadership team, and preparing for potential spinout formation.

Remembering Prof John Rose

j.busfield@qmul.ac.uk (James Busfield) — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 23:00:00 +0100

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Professor John Rose. John first joined Queen Mary as an undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering in 1955. He graduated from his undergraduate degree in 1958. He stayed on to undertake research for a PhD with advisor Prof Edwin Le Fevre, which he completed in 1964. John also completed a Doctor of Science degree in 1979. He was made an Assistant Lecturer in 1961, was promoted to Lecturer from 1962, and was further promoted again to Reader in 1975. He was appointed as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 1985.

John was the Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering from 1991–1995. Officially, John started taking his pension in 2001, but he most definitely did not retire. He carried on teaching part time for many years whilst maintaining a full-time research profile winning grants and publishing his research.

He was a Fellow of the IMechE since 1980 and of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers from 1995. He was a member of the UK Heat Transfer Committee and of the UK Heat Transfer Society of which he was president from 2007 to 2008.

His teaching interests were in the fields of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and heat transfer. He held sabbatical appointments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US Naval Postgraduate School and the Universities of Tokyo and Kyushu.

In 2018 John received the Max Jakob Memorial Award bestowed jointly by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers which is “the highest honour in the area of heat transfer that the participating societies can bestow”. In 2024 he was awarded the UK National Heat Transfer Committee’s Lifetime Contribution Award, awarded in recognition of a “long-term, high-quality contribution to research and teaching in heat transfer”.

Over a long and distinguished career, Prof John Rose became a world recognised pioneer in a wide range of topics related to phase-change heat transfer. The elegance of his approach was evident in the way he extracted essential insights and developed simple closed-form equations with excellent predictive capability. Such features make his research particularly amenable to implementation in real-world designs, rather than being relegated only to scholarly publications. His research has been widely adopted in a variety of industries, including nuclear, process plant, refrigeration and air conditioning. His papers are widely quoted not only in journal literature but also in textbooks and reference handbooks. His work was supported by and benefited many industrial organisations including: British Gas, AEA Harwell, National Nuclear Corp, Cal Gavin Ltd, Ford Motor, Modine Co., Compagnie Industrielle d’Applications Thermiques. John also won grants from national or governmental funding bodies including EPSRC, Royal Society, Leverhulme Trust, National Science Foundation and Office of Naval Research (USA).

John was a highly sought after speaker for invited lectures and presentations throughout the world at conferences, in universities and companies, notably in the USA, Japan, Korea, Brazil, India, as well around Europe and the UK.

But out of all these achievements there is one thing that stands above all the others. John Rose joined Queen Mary in 1955 as an undergraduate student. He never left the institution and last year we recognised the 70th anniversary of his first walk along the Mile End Road to Queen Mary by awarding him the Queen Mary honorary fellowship. Throughout these seven decades, John gave unstinting continuous and loyal service to Queen Mary. We regularly recognise staff who have achieved 25 years of service, but we are not aware of anyone else who has given so selflessly, honourably and enduringly to the Queen Mary cause.

There are undoubtedly many former students and colleagues who have much to thank John for and who like us will be very sorry to hear this sad news. Our thoughts at Queen Mary are with John's wife Lisa, his daughter Jacqueline, his son-in-law, Neil and his grandchildren Heidi and Christina at this difficult time.

John’s funeral took place Wednesday, 19th August at The City of London Crematorium. This was followed by a wake at The North Star Pub.

Engineering students visit Griffon Marine shipyard

e.avital@qmul.ac.uk (Eldad Avital) — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Undergraduate engineering students visited Griffon Marine’s shipyard in Portchester on Friday 7th August to present their projects, discuss future collaboration and gain first-hand experience of marine engineering in industry.

During the visit, Morshid Sarker presented his project on offshore aquaculture service vessels, while Amira Montalto and Anton Poon presented their work on water recirculation units. The projects were supervised by Dr Eldad Avital, who also led the visit, with support from PDRA Dr Shuo Mi and PhD student Raima Rahman.

The students toured Griffon Marine’s facilities, seeing several hovercraft under construction and learning about vessel design, manufacturing and marine operations. Technical discussions also explored continuing the collaboration between Queen Mary University of London and Griffon Marine through future MEng and PhD projects in offshore aquaculture. The visit ended with lunch overlooking the bay.

The visit demonstrates the School’s commitment to giving our students opportunities to work on real engineering problems, interact directly with leading industry, and connect their academic studies with engineering practice.

The visit and student activities formed part of the Safe and Sustainable Offshore Aquaculture programme supported by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, the Water Recycling project funded by the Royal Society, and the QMUL STRIDE programme.

International partners come together for first annual offshore aquaculture workshop at Queen Mary

e.avital@qmul.ac.uk (Eldad Avital) — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Queen Mary University of London hosted the first annual hybrid workshop of the Safe and Sustainable Offshore Aquaculture project on 5th August, led by Dr Eldad Avital, the leader of the international consortium.

The workshop brought together academic and industrial partners from the UK, Norway, Greece, India and China to review Year 1 progress and plan the next stage of the project.

The Queen Mary team presented progress in high-fidelity CFD and fluid–structure interaction modelling, offshore cage systems, renewable-energy integration and service-vessel studies.

Excellent in-person contributions from AKVA Group Norway covered biofouling mitigation and CFD, while NTUA Greece presented work on cage and experimental design, hydrodynamics and CFD validation, and Griffon Marine UK discussed the development of service vessels for offshore aquaculture. BFP-Tech Greece and IIT Madras India joined online, presenting research on anti-biofouling treatments and wave-energy converters, simulation and experimental testing.

Technical discussions focused on cage reliability, biofouling, renewable-energy integration, experimental validation and strengthening integration between the different research activities.

The workshop demonstrated the value of bringing together academia and industry across several countries and disciplines to address the engineering challenges of moving aquaculture further offshore and to develop the skills and training needed by the sector.

The project is funded by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

Queen Mary research presented at IEEE WCCI 2026 explores AI-assisted optimisation

a.wilkes@qmul.ac.uk (Ayden Wilkes) — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Research from the Centre for Intelligent Transport, School of Engineering and Materials Science at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), presented at the 2026 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence (WCCI 2026) in Maastricht, explores how machine learning can improve optimisation algorithms.

The study, conducted in collaboration with Bangor University, addresses a common challenge in combinatorial optimisation: algorithm parameters are usually fixed or manually tuned, but this often leads to poor performance across different problem instances.

To overcome this, the proposed method uses machine learning to predict good parameter settings based on problem features, allowing the optimisation algorithm to adapt to each instance before the search starts. This is an example of learning-assisted optimisation, where AI is used to enhance traditional optimisation methods.

The approach was tested on the Electric Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem and showed better performance than standard globally tuned configurations on unseen instances.

The paper, “Instance-Aware Parameter Configuration in Bilevel Late Acceptance Hill Climbing for the Electric Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem,” was co-authored by Yinghao Qin, Dr Xinwei Wang, Dr Mosab Bazargani (Bangor University), and Dr Jun Chen, and presented by Yinghao Qin at WCCI 2026.

Reflecting on the work, Yinghao Qin said:

"Machine learning can help optimisation algorithms adapt to different problem instances, improving their performance without replacing them. We hope this work contributes to the growing field of learning-assisted optimisation and encourages closer integration between AI and optimisation."

The work highlights Queen Mary’s contributions to computational intelligence and the growing role of AI in optimisation.

Queen Mary team wins third place at IEEE WCCI 2026 International Optimisation Competition

a.wilkes@qmul.ac.uk (Ayden Wilkes) — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 23:00:00 +0100

A research team from the School of Engineering and Materials Science at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), has been awarded Third Place in the Traditional Evolutionary Algorithm Group of the Competition on Expensive Optimization for Mixed-Variable Optimization Problems at the 2026 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence (WCCI 2026), held in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

WCCI is one of the world's leading conferences in computational intelligence, bringing together researchers from academia and industry in evolutionary computation, neural networks, and fuzzy systems. The competition challenged participants to develop algorithms for mixed-variable expensive optimisation, where problems involving both continuous and categorical (or discrete) decision variables, where evaluating a candidate solution is computationally or financially expensive.

A representative application is combustion research. Engineers aim to optimise fuel compositions and operating conditions to improve combustion efficiency while reducing emissions. Traditionally, this has relied on repeated physical experiments, which are both costly and time-consuming. Recent advances in artificial intelligence and high-fidelity simulation have made it possible to accurately predict combustion behaviour before conducting real experiments. This creates an opportunity to combine optimisation with simulation: optimisation algorithms can efficiently search for promising fuel mixtures and operating configurations using the simulation model, allowing only the most promising candidates to be validated through physical experiments. By significantly reducing the number of costly experiments required, this approach has the potential to accelerate scientific discovery while lowering research costs.

The team developed a novel optimisation algorithm, ASMLS-MiSACO, which demonstrated strong performance across the competition benchmark suite and was recognised with Third Place. The team consisted of Yinghao Qin, a PhD student in the Centre for Intelligent Transport, and Dr Jun Chen, Reader in Computational Intelligence at Queen Mary.

Reflecting on the achievement, Yinghao Qin said:

"It is a great honour to receive this award at WCCI 2026. The competition provided an excellent opportunity to benchmark our research against leading international teams and highlighted the growing importance of intelligent optimisation methods for solving real-world engineering problems."

The award highlights Queen Mary's continuing research strengths in computational intelligence and optimisation, and demonstrates how advanced optimisation algorithms can contribute to more efficient scientific research and engineering innovation.

EduGrade AI awarded $25,000 in Google Cloud credits through Google for Startups

d.deepshikha@qmul.ac.uk (Deepshikha Deepshikha) — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

EduGrade AI, an educator-led artificial intelligence platform developed at Queen Mary University of London, has been accepted into the Google for Startups Cloud Program and awarded $25,000 in Google Cloud credits over two years.

The platform helps educators produce rubric-aligned assessment feedback and indicative grades while keeping academic judgement and final decisions firmly with the marker.

Created by Dr Deepshikha of Queen Mary's School of Engineering and Materials Science, EduGrade AI responds to the rising assessment workload in higher education. It drafts personalised feedback against an academic marking rubric, which the educator then reviews, edits and approves before it reaches students.

The credits give the team access to cloud computing, data processing and AI development tools. That infrastructure will support work on the grading and feedback engine, strengthen scalability and open the way to integrations with institutional learning management systems. The programme also brings technical training, online courses, hands-on labs, dedicated startup support and membership of the Google Cloud Startup Community.

Dr Deepshikha said:

Acceptance into the Google for Startups Cloud Program is an important milestone for EduGrade AI. These credits let us strengthen the platform's technical infrastructure and build a solution that scales across disciplines and institutions.

"We are not replacing educator judgement. We are returning time to academics, so they can focus on meaningful engagement with students, curriculum development and high-value teaching. It matters to us that this support helps keep responsible AI and educator control at the core of the platform."

The team will use the Google for Startups support to develop the platform further, strengthen its institutional integration capabilities and prepare for wider adoption across the higher education sector.

Queen Mary returns to IMechE UAS Challenge after eight-year absence

d.carolan@qmul.ac.uk (Declan Carolan) — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Queen Mary University of London has returned to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Challenge for the first time in eight years, with its student team competing against 54 teams from 16 countries at BMFA Buckminster.

The Queen Mary Unmanned Aerial Systems (QMUAS) team designed and built a 2.8 m wingspan fixed-wing aircraft for this year's challenge, which required teams to develop an autonomous platform capable of delivering water for a simulated agricultural mission while navigating a geo-fenced waypoint course.

Over the academic year, teams were assessed through a series of technical submissions covering all stages of aircraft development. The aircraft featured a composite carbon-fibre airframe manufactured in-house using 3D-printed moulds, alongside a 3D-printed water tank and electric propulsion system. The design was validated using computational fluid dynamics and mission simulations with X-Plane and ArduPilot software.

At the competition, the aircraft successfully passed safety scrutineering and reached the flight line. However, high winds on the day prevented a successful take-off.

Team Lead Allegra Celesia said the competition was a valuable learning experience and highlighted the potential for this team in the future. Head of Propulsion and incoming Team Lead Imen Ouared described passing scrutineering as a significant achievement and said the team would build on the experience for next year's competition.

Supervised by and supported by academics and technical staff, QMUAS received sponsorship from Airtech, Filamentive, Easy Composites, RS Components and Bitrez. The team is already preparing for the 2027 season, having recently secured additional sponsorship from Leybold.

PhD success for Jiazhe Zhao

s.krause@qmul.ac.uk (Steffi Krause) — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Congratulations to Jiazhe Zhao for successfully passing her PhD viva with her thesis entitled "3D Photoelectrochemical Imaging".

Jiazhe completed her work as a member of the Electrochemical Sensors group in the School of Engineering and Materials Science at Queen Mary University of London and was supervised by Steffi Krause and Joe Briscoe.

In her PhD, Jiazhe pioneered the first imaging technique that can be used for mapping electrochemical reactions in a 3D porous structure. Potential applications of this technique include the recording of electrochemical activity in electrocatalysts in three dimensions or functional imaging in 3D tissue culture.

Jiazhe presented her work at five international conferences, including the 248th Meeting of The Electrochemical Society, and one national one. She received the Best Oral Presentation Award at the 39th Topical Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry.

She is currently preparing a publication to disseminate her novel imaging platform to the wider scientific community.

Dr Rattapong Numard Successfully Completes His PhD

j.busfield@qmul.ac.uk (James Busfield) — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Congratulations to Dr Rattapong Numard who passed his PhD defence on the 28th July 2026 for a thesis entitled, “The Effects of Carbon Black Surface Activity on the Filler Reinforcement of Natural Rubber.” Rattapong completed his PhD journey as a member of James Busfield’s Soft Matter Group in SEMS at QMUL. He was financially supported throughout his studies by a Scholarship from the Royal Thai Government.

Rattapong’s examiners were Prof Paul Hogg (Royal Holloway, University of London) and Dr Guogong Ren (University of Hertfordshire). The viva was completed in just 2 hours with both examiners enjoying Rattapong’s discussion of the rubber-filler interface and the role it plays on the key tyre performance indicators that are related to enhanced grip, reduced wear and lower fuel consumption.

Rattapong is the seventh student from James’ group to complete his PhD in the last 18 months. He will return to Thailand this weekend as he has already started an academic position as a lecturer in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Songkhla Rajabhat University. He will be busy as he has classes starting next Monday.

From student projects to the International Stage: Aerospace teams shine at ICMAE 2026

e.avital@qmul.ac.uk (Eldad Avital) — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Two teams of the School’s MEng and BEng Aerospace Engineering students presented their research at the 17th IEEE International Conference on Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (ICMAE 2026), hosted at Queen Mary University of London from 15th –18th July.

MEng students Emmanuel Airiofolo, Hardit Saini, Anuhya Kotakadi and Dahir Moallim presented a low-cost approach to measuring wing vibrations using LiDAR and a reduced number of accelerometers. They were supervised by Dr Fariborz Motallebi and Dr Eldad Avital. BEng and MEng students Denis Kuropatkin, Sam Al-Jaboby, Jigarjot Natt and Arrin Fernandes presented research on Operational Modal Analysis for future active flutter suppression, with the PhD student Raima Rahman also contributing as a co-author. They were supervised by Dr Ranjan Vepa and Dr Eldad Avital. Both projects were supported by Airbus Defence and Space.

Their achievement demonstrates how Engineering students can transform university projects into industry-supported research and present their findings on an international stage, at a conference where the paper acceptance rate was below 60%. It also reflects the exciting opportunities available at Queen Mary for students to work with academic and industrial experts on real aerospace engineering challenges. These types of projects and opportunities will continue to be offered to our students in the coming years.

Queen Mary hosts global showcase of bone and musculoskeletal research

s.verbruggen@qmul.ac.uk (Stefaan Verbruggen) — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Queen Mary University of London has reinforced its position as a leading international centre for musculoskeletal research by successfully hosting two major scientific conferences back-to-back on its Mile End campus this July.

The XVIIth Congress of the International Society of Bone Morphometry (ISBM 2026) from 4th - 7th July was followed immediately by the Bone Research Society (BRS) Annual Meeting 2026 from 8th - 10th July. Dr Stefaan Verbruggen, and his team at the Verbruggen Lab, chaired both events, bringing together leading researchers, clinicians, engineers, imaging specialists, healthcare professionals, industry partners and early-career investigators from around the world to London for an exceptional week of scientific discovery, collaboration and innovation.

The International Society of Bone Morphometry Congress showcased the latest advances in quantitative skeletal imaging, bone biology and musculoskeletal research. Delegates explored topics ranging from osteocyte biology and mechanosensing to spatial omics, artificial intelligence, computational imaging and bone regeneration. The congress highlighted emerging technologies that are transforming our ability to understand skeletal tissues across multiple scales, while providing valuable opportunities for training, networking and collaboration across disciplines.

Immediately following ISBM 2026, Queen Mary welcomed the Bone Research Society Annual Meeting back to London for the first time in almost two decades. The three-day conference featured internationally recognised speakers, scientific symposia, workshops, poster presentations and networking events spanning fundamental, translational and clinical research. Key themes included osteoporosis and fracture prevention, rare bone diseases, osteoarthritis, bone cancer, advanced imaging, spatial multi-omics, mechanobiology, regenerative medicine, biomaterials and novel in vitro models.

The two meetings reflected both the breadth and depth of Queen Mary's research strengths. Delegates had the opportunity to visit the Queen Mary NanoVision Centre and the Centre for Predictive In Vitro Models, showcasing cutting-edge facilities that are helping to drive advances in imaging, organ-on-a-chip technologies, tissue engineering and computational analysis. These facilities exemplify the interdisciplinary approach that underpins much of Queen Mary's research activity and its commitment to developing innovative approaches to understanding and treating musculoskeletal disease.

As musculoskeletal diseases continue to affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide, the discoveries, discussions and collaborations established during these conferences will help shape future advances in prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Queen Mary is proud to have provided the venue where many of those conversations began, further strengthening its reputation as a global leader in biomedical engineering, skeletal biology and musculoskeletal research.

Three PhD students join the role of honour in James Busfield’s Soft Matter Group

j.busfield@qmul.ac.uk (James Busfield) — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

At the first SEMS graduation ceremony on the 27th July 2026, three PhD students graduated from James Busfield’s Soft Matter Group at QMUL. Dr Kirsty Rutherford completed her PhD on the modelling of the viscoelastic behaviour of reinforcing fillers and Dr Aaron Duncan completed his PhD on modelling of the ageing of rubber. Both were funded by EPSRC iCASE award in collaboration with SLB and had Dr Dimitrios Papageorgiou as their second supervisor. Dr Eathan Plaschka worked on modelling the wear processes in tyre tread compounds. His PhD was funded by an F1 team, who now employ him as a tyre engineer.

During the graduation, Prof Keizo Akutagawa, who supported all three projects, was with James on the stage. James Busfield reflected that it was great that all three were able to graduate together. The three of them have done brilliantly producing 7 journal papers and 25 conference presentations in total between them all based on their different PhD studies.

Dr Mouna Chetehouna presents a Queen Mary-led Engineering Education Model at ECE2026

m.c.chetehouna@qmul.ac.uk (Mouna Chetehouna) — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Dr Mouna Chetehouna from the School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS) presented a Queen Mary-led education and training model at the 14th European Conference on Education (ECE2026), organised by The International Academic Forum (IAFOR).

The presentation, titled “An Integrated Education and Training Model for Safe Offshore Aquaculture Engineering”, was delivered within the conference stream Professional Training, Development & Concerns in Education. Led by Queen Mary University of London, the work brings together collaborators from the National Technical University of Athens, IIT Madras and Wenzhou Vocational College of Science and Technology, alongside industry and training partners working across offshore aquaculture, maritime systems, materials, seafood production and vocational training.

The presentation focused on a central challenge in engineering education, which is how research activity, student learning, industry expertise and frontline workforce training can be connected in ways that are educationally meaningful and practically useful. This challenge is particularly significant in offshore aquaculture, a sector with growing importance for food security and sustainable seafood production, but also one that operates in demanding marine environments where safety, infrastructure reliability, energy systems, fish welfare and environmental protection are closely linked.

At the centre of the work is the continued evolution of Authentic, Industry-Driven Learning (AIDL), an educational framework developed within SEMS by Dr Mouna Chetehouna and Dr Eldad Avital. AIDL reframes engineering student projects as authentic, industry-linked and dissemination-oriented learning experiences. In its earlier implementation, the framework embedded industrial mentorship, transnational collaboration and public research dissemination into student project work, while retaining academic rigour through established assessment structures including reports, presentations and viva.

The offshore aquaculture project represents the next stage in the development of this framework. AIDL is being extended from a student-centred project model into a five-year international research, learning and training programme. Through this expansion, the AIDL’s sphere of influence now reaches across academic partners in Greece and India, industry specialists contributing operational knowledge and technical expertise, and frontline training partners in China.

This wider application creates a layered model of participation and knowledge exchange. Students enter the project at multiple levels, from undergraduate summer research and MEng/MSc project work through to doctoral and postdoctoral research. Their work is connected to live engineering challenges, including modelling, simulation, hydrodynamics, materials research, wave-energy integration and deployment studies. Industry partners contribute operational data, specialist training, case-based learning and professional validation, while frontline partners support fishermen, technicians and aquaculture personnel through practical safety and sustainable-operations training.

Within SEMS and through CREME, the work demonstrates how educational scholarship can generate impact beyond modules and cohorts. By extending AIDL into an international offshore aquaculture context, the project connects authentic student learning with research translation, industry co-education, workforce development and sustainable engineering practice. It also contributes to QMUL’s established and growing reputation for engineering education that is globally engaged, evidence-informed and grounded in real-world challenges.

The presentation positioned AIDL as a transferable framework for research-integrated engineering education. Its broader contribution lies in showing how universities can design learning systems in which students engage with live engineering problems, industry partners act as co-educators, end users inform training needs, and educational impact is evaluated beyond academic grades. In doing so, the work contributes to the evolution of STEM education while extending QMUL’s educational influence across international academic, industry and training communities.

New Elsevier book showcases biomimetics research in aviation and marine engineering

e.avital@qmul.ac.uk (Eldad Avital) — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

A new Elsevier book, Biomimetics for Aviation and Marine Applications, has been published, bringing together leading researchers from around the world to explore how nature-inspired engineering can advance aviation and marine technologies.

The volume was edited by Dr Mahadi H. Masud (Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology), Dr Eldad Avital (Queen Mary University of London) and Prof Peter Dabnichki (RMIT University).

The book provides a comprehensive overview of biomimetic principles and their application to aviation and marine engineering, covering topics including bio-inspired aerodynamics and hydrodynamics, underwater and aerial vehicles, fluid-structure interaction, computational modelling, wind energy, robotics and advanced engineering design. It highlights how lessons from nature can inspire more efficient, sustainable and innovative engineering solutions.

The editors acknowledge the outstanding contributions of the chapter authors. Dr Avital expresses his gratitude to Dr Masud for leading the project, Prof Dabnichki for his expertise and support throughout the editorial process, and Prof Aloysius F. Hepp, Series Editor, for his guidance and encouragement in bringing the volume to publication.

The book further strengthens the international standing of the School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS) by showcasing its leadership in aerospace and marine engineering research and education, and its commitment to global academic collaboration. It also reflects SEMS' growing contribution to developing innovative engineering solutions that bridge fundamental science and practical applications.

Dr Haixue Yan awarded fellowship of the Institute of Physics

h.x.yan@qmul.ac.uk (Haixue Yan) — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Dr Haixue Yan has been elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP), one of the highest professional honours awarded by the Institute.

The Fellowship recognises Dr Yan's sustained and internationally recognised contributions to condensed matter physics, particularly his pioneering research on the physics of dielectric and ferroelectric materials. His research has helped establish new scientific principles governing dielectric and ferroelectric materials, advancing the fundamental understanding of structure–property relationships in functional materials. These discoveries have contributed to the development of next-generation technologies for energy-efficient electronics, electrocaloric cooling, sensors, actuators and other advanced functional devices.

Election to this prestigious Fellowship reflects not only Dr Yan's outstanding research achievements but also his leadership within the international physics community through collaborative research, the supervision and mentoring of early-career researchers, editorial service, and his broader contributions to advancing the discipline.

On receiving the Fellowship, Dr Yan said:

"I am deeply honoured to be elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. This recognition reflects the collective efforts of my students, postdoctoral researchers, collaborators and colleagues over many years. I look forward to continuing our research into functional materials and exploring new scientific discoveries that address global challenges in sustainable energy and advanced electronics."

Professors Karin Hing and Keizo Akutagawa recognised with prestigious awards from I0M3

a.wilkes@qmul.ac.uk (Ayden Wilkes) — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (I0M3) has recognised two Queen Mary academics from the School of Engineering and Materials Science in their 2026 awards.

Prof Karin Hing has been awarded the Chapman Medal for distinguished research in the field of biomedical materials.

The award is named after Prof Dennis Chapman FRS, a scientist, whose research on phosphorylcholine led to his founding of Biocompatibles International plc. The award recognises research which has seen significant benefits for patients or created opportunities in the industry.

Prof Hing's work focusses on the development of pioneering biomaterials and healthcare therapies for tissue regeneration. Her work on tissue regeneration in bone was commemorated by Royal Mail on a stamp in 2019. She was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering's Silver Medal in 2011 and has since been awarded the Kroll Medal by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, and the Biocompatibles Prize by the UK Society for Biomaterials, both in 2013.

Prof Keizo Akutagawa has been awarded the Hancock Medal for outstanding service to the rubber industry.

The Hancock Medal commemorates Thomas Roger Hancock, a UK scientist in the field of mastication, mixing and sulphur vulcanization who patented sulphur vulcanisation in 1843, before Charles Goodyear.

Prof Akutagawa first joined Queen Mary in 1992 as a PhD student funded by Bridgestone, Japan. He studied alongside now Deputy Head of School Professor James Busfield in the Soft Matter Group, and his resulting research led to many innovations that were exploited by Bridgestone after Keizo had graduated and returned to Japan in 1995. He became a visiting professor in 2020 and was made an honorary fellow of Queen Mary in July 2025.

Both Professors will be presented with the awards at the formal ceremony in December.

IEEE-ICMAE 2026 showcases engineering excellence at Queen Mary

e.avital@qmul.ac.uk (Eldad Avital) — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

The 17th IEEE International Conference on Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (ICMAE 2026) welcomed over 140 delegates to Queen Mary University of London from 15th –18th July.

More than 100 papers were presented, covering advances across mechanical and aerospace engineering.

The School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS) featured prominently in the programme. Professor Huasheng Wang of SEMS delivered the keynote talk, “Modelling and Optimisation of Condensers with Liquid-Vapor Separation”. Professor Dr Khadijeh Mohri, a Queen Mary Aerospace Engineering graduate, gave an invited talk on 3D tomographic imaging of reacting and non-reacting flows. Two SEMS MEng and BEng student teams also presented their research on aeroelastic modelling and wing vibration measurements.

The conference demonstrated the School and University’s international appeal as an academic centre for high-quality engineering conferences. The local organising committee was led by Dr Eldad Avital. Special thanks go to all SEMS students who provided excellent support, particularly Denis Kuropatkin, Sam Al-Jaboby, Anuhya Kotakadi and Dahir Moallim.

Celebrating NSS success & leading the way in Student Voice

a.wilkes@qmul.ac.uk (Ayden Wilkes) — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

As Queen Mary celebrates our results in the National Student Survey (NSS), the School of Engineering and Materials Science has seen some of the greatest improvement in the University.

We saw particular successes in Student Voice and Academic Support, with Aerospace Engineering – and Engineering as a whole - coming first in London for Student Voice, showing that students feel their opinions are listened to, and that they have power to make change.

Engineering at Queen Mary also came first in London and 7th in the UK for Assessment & Feedback, and first in London and 9th in the UK for Academic Support.

Other successes include:

Second in the UK for Organisation & Management and Student Voice in Materials Science
First in London and third in the UK for Student Voice in our Mechanical Engineering courses
First in London and Fourth in the UK for Student Voice in Production & Manufacturing Engineering

Head of School, Professor Hazel Screen said “Our NSS results have improved significantly this year. These achievements reflect the dedication and commitment of all our staff”

Director of Education, Dr Sara Hejikazemi said “These results reflect the contributions of all colleagues involved in teaching, assessment, student support, technical services, professional services, programme leadership, and the many behind-the-scenes activities that help create a positive student experience. It is clear that our students feel listened to, supported and valued, which is something we should all be proud of.”

Innovative capsule endoscope designed by Queen Mary researchers granted patent

a.wilkes@qmul.ac.uk (Ayden Wilkes) — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Congratulations to Dr Hasan Shaheed, Dr Mohamed Adhnan Thaha, and Dr Julius Bernth on being granted their European patent for CE-Move, an innovative locomotion system for capsule endoscopes.

Today’s capsule endoscopes are little more than pills, swallowed like any other pill. Once swallowed, the only movement comes from gravity and your own body – both of which are a one-way system!

CE-Move uses electromagnetic principles to produce motion. An electromagnetic coil slides forward around a rail to create an impact force, propelling it forwards.

Everything is contained within the capsule itself, so it keeps its streamlined shape. There are no legs, wheels, tracks, propellors or any other external mechanisms which could get stuck, break off or damage tissues.

CE-Move will be the sister-spinout of CE-Track, an intelligent tracking system for locating the capsule. When used together, the two technologies give clinicians complete control over the capsule endoscope.

No longer merely a passive pill, these innovations represent a new generation of medical robots which could one day perform treatment as well as diagnostics inside the bowel.

EduGrade AI Receives $100,000 Microsoft Azure credits through the Microsoft for Startups programme

d.deepshikha@qmul.ac.uk (Deepshikha Deepshikha) — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

EduGrade AI, an AI-powered assessment and feedback platform developed at the School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS), Queen Mary University of London, has secured $100,000 in Microsoft Azure credits through the Microsoft for Startups programme.

The credits will support the continued development and scaling of EduGrade AI, enabling the team to expand its secure cloud infrastructure, enhance AI capabilities, and support pilots with higher education institutions.

Led by Dr Deepshikha, EduGrade AI has been designed to support educators by generating rubric-aligned draft feedback and indicative marking while ensuring that academic judgement remains central through a human-in-the-loop approach. The platform aims to improve consistency, reduce marking workload, and provide students with more timely, high-quality feedback.

Receiving Microsoft Azure support represents another important milestone for the project, which has already attracted interest from universities in the UK and internationally. The Azure credits will enable the team to accelerate technical development, strengthen platform scalability, and further evaluate the technology across diverse educational settings.

Commenting on the achievement, Dr Deepshikha said:

"This support from Microsoft for Startups will significantly accelerate the next stage of EduGrade AI's development. It enables us to focus on building a robust, scalable platform that empowers educators while promoting responsible and transparent use of AI in assessment and feedback. We look forward to expanding our collaborations with universities."

EduGrade AI forms part of SEMS' growing portfolio of innovation in artificial intelligence for education, demonstrating how engineering, digital technologies, and educational research can come together to address real-world challenges in higher education.

Queen Mary Chemical Engineering students shortlisted in Young Engineers Awards for Innovation and Sustainability

f.akinmolayan@qmul.ac.uk (Folashade Akinmolayan Taiwo) — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Eight Chemical Engineering students from Queen Mary University of London attend the 2026 Young Engineers Awards for Innovation and Sustainability (YEAIS), hosted by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

The annual awards celebrate innovation, creativity and sustainability in chemical engineering, bringing together undergraduate finalists, graduate engineers, industry professionals and employers from across the UK. This year's event showcased projects addressing some of the sector's most pressing challenges, from digitalisation and artificial intelligence to energy, climate action and sustainable manufacturing.

Among the Queen Mary attendees were students whose project was shortlisted in the Energy and Climate Action category. The event provided an opportunity to present their work, engage with fellow students and professionals, and gain valuable insights into the future of the profession.

Reflecting on the experience, one student said:

"It was a great opportunity to meet fellow undergraduates, graduate engineers and industry experts, and to hear new ideas and perspectives related to a more sustainable future. One of the biggest takeaways was speaking with graduate engineers about entering the workplace and how sustainability is being increasingly embedded across a wide range of roles. It was inspiring to see how graduate careers are evolving alongside the industry's sustainability goals."

In addition to celebrating the achievements of this year's finalists, the event enabled students to expand their professional networks, learn about emerging trends in sustainable engineering and explore future career opportunities within the chemical engineering sector.

Providing opportunities for students to participate in national events such as YEAIS reflects Queen Mary's commitment to enhancing the student experience through opportunities that connect academic learning with professional practice. By engaging with leading engineers, employers and peers from across the UK, students gain valuable experience, broaden their perspectives and strengthen the skills and networks that will support their future careers.

Congratulations to all of the Queen Mary students who took part in this year's awards and represented the university at this prestigious national event.

HEPI publishes Dr Folashade Akinmolayan Taiwo's latest blog on AI and collaborative learning

f.akinmolayan@qmul.ac.uk (Folashade Akinmolayan Taiwo) — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Dr Folashade Akinmolayan Taiwo has authored a new blog for the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), the UK's only independent higher education think tank.

HEPI is recognised for producing evidence-based research and commentary that informs higher education policy and practice. Its publications are widely read by policymakers, university leaders and higher education professionals.

In the blog, Is AI quietly eroding the social core of student teamwork?, Dr Akinmolayan Taiwo examines how generative artificial intelligence is transforming collaborative learning in higher education. While AI tools offer clear benefits by improving efficiency, accessibility and productivity, the blog argues that their increasing use may inadvertently reduce opportunities for students to develop the interpersonal and professional skills that emerge through working together.

The blog explores how AI can become an intermediary in group work, replacing the conversations, negotiation and shared problem-solving that are fundamental to effective collaboration. It argues that these interactions are not incidental to learning but are essential for developing communication, teamwork, leadership and critical thinking skills that graduates need in the workplace.

Rather than advocating for restrictions on AI, the post calls for a balanced approach that enables students to use AI responsibly while preserving the human aspects of collaborative learning. It recommends embedding AI literacy into curricula, redesigning group assessments to encourage transparency and reflection on AI use, and providing clear guidance for students and educators on how AI can enhance, rather than replace, meaningful teamwork.

The blog contributes to the growing national discussion on the opportunities and challenges presented by generative AI in higher education, highlighting the importance of ensuring that technological innovation strengthens rather than diminishes the student learning experience.

This blog reflects Queen Mary's commitment to shaping the future of higher education through research and innovation. By exploring the opportunities and challenges of generative AI in collaborative learning, it contributes to sector-wide conversations about ensuring technological advances strengthen, rather than diminish, the interpersonal skills and collaborative experiences that underpin student success.

Queen Mary Materials technology on display at the NEC

o.fenwick@qmul.ac.uk (Oliver Fenwick) — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Technology from Queen Mary's School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS) was exhibited at the Advanced Materials Show at the NEC in Birmingham.

The trade fair, which takes place alongside the Advanced Ceramics Show, the Vehicle Electrification Expo and the Battery Cells & Systems Expo, featured over 300 exhibitors along with 100 speakers, and attracted more than 4000 visitors.

The Queen Mary stand had objects on display showcasing battery technology, AI-designed cellular structures, bone graft substitute materials developed by Queen Mary researchers, graphene technology, sensors and more. All of these objects attracted many new industry contacts who we hope to work with closely in the future.

SEMS spin-out, EcoBarrier, joined us on the stand. EcoBarrier was spun-out of pioneering work by Dr Colin Crick into superhydrophobic coatings. EcoBarrier-Food^TM is their latest coating. Developed utilising entirely natural materials, the coating delivers superior water resistance, low water vapor transmission rates, and low gas transmission rates. EcoBarrier coatings maintain complete compatibility with existing industrial composting and standard recycling infrastructures enabling use in the food industry.

In addition, Dr Xuekun Lu gave a fantastic talk on his in-operando tomography techniques for batteries that drew plenty of attention.

Dr Rehan Shah engages in mathematics scholarship work at Cambridge research retreat

rehan.shah@qmul.ac.uk (Rehan Shah) — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Dr Rehan Shah engaged in pursuing mathematics education scholarship research at the prestigious Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INI) in Cambridge as part of the academic mathematicians' retreat programme held this summer from 28th June to 4th July 2026.

INI Retreats offer mathematical scientists a welcoming and conducive space for a week-long retreat to re-immerse themselves in research or make progress on a project away from their usual commitments. Researchers are based in INI’s bespoke building in Cambridge and provided with dedicated office space and accommodation in INI flats.

Dr Shah used the retreat to meet with his research collaborator, Dr Maurice Chiodo (Assistant Research Professor in the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge) to work on his ongoing mathematics scholarship research project that is dedicated to understanding the need for the consideration of wider societal aspects within mathematics and to outlining some of the ways in which we can incorporate the teaching of ethics and sustainability within mathematics courses at university. The final output involves the compilation of a teaching resource toolkit, which will be published by Open Book Publishers, as an open-access book, containing a set of varied mathematical problems across different topics with key ethical and sustainability aspects embedded within them for use by lecturers and educators.

Dr Shah also used his dedicated office space and facilities to work on another of his mathematics scholarship research project focused on undertaking a systematic landscape literature review of mathematical anxiety faced by UK HE students studying mathematics degree programmes as documented over the past 50 years, with his academic collaborator, Dr Ric Crossman (Associate Professor, University of Durham). In addition to pursuing his research endeavors, the retreat also afforded Dr Shah significant opportunities for networking and interaction with other programme participants, to build valuable cross-institutional collaborations.

James Busfield's Group Publish Science Advances Paper on Robots that can “see” touch thanks to a new colour-changing tactile sensor

j.busfield@qmul.ac.uk (James Busfield) — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

The novel idea created by Giacomo Sasso, whilst he was a postdoctoral researcher in SEMS at Queen Mary University of London, working with Prof James Busfield, and it works by transforming invisible forces into dynamic colour patterns. This enables high-resolution maps to contact, strain and pressure to emerge instantly. When pressure is applied to a soft sensing surface, the material produces spatially varying structural colours that can be captured immediately using a standard camera, removing the need for complex reconstruction algorithms.

This technology enables the development of a robotic gripper assembling micro-scale components with the delicacy required in precision manufacturing, where every subtle variation in force becomes visible in real time. It can make a concurrent impact in healthcare where an external prosthetic (artificial limb) can get a richer sense of touch during delicate daily or clinical tasks. Simultaneously, it can allow surgical systems to distinguish healthy from abnormal tissue by reading fine pressure signatures directly through the material’s colour response.

Unlike traditional tactile sensors, the new system embeds sensing directly into the material itself. Mechanical interactions are transformed into colour fields that a low-cost USB camera can read in real time. The challenging task has already obtained results showcasing the first real-time solution in the field.

“You won’t guess how much information is generated when your finger presses a light switch. A human hand contains more than 10,000 mechanoreceptors to do the job, yet touch sensing remains one of the major challenges in robotics. We were happy to capture the finger ridges, as no existing technology can reproduce such sensor density at comparable scale and simplicity. The key idea behind this project was to think outside the box: instead of embedding dense and overengineered sensor arrays, sensing is moved into the material itself, where mechanical cues are directly transformed into colour fields and captured using a simple low-cost USB camera” says Giacomo Sasso. This produces rich pressure maps while simplifying the system architecture.

Co-authors on this project included collaborators from the University of Florence, University of Trieste and University of Trento in Italy agree with Professor James Busfield when he says “What is particularly powerful is that the information is already in the light signal. You are no longer reconstructing touch - you are observing it directly.”

The idea emerged from the need to overcome a persistent trade-off in vision-based tactile sensing: high-resolution systems typically require heavy computational pipelines to reconstruct contact geometry, introducing latency, while faster systems often sacrifice spatial detail.

The strong collaboration between Professor Federico Carpi, from the University of Florence and Professor Busfield, merges two research worlds of soft robotics and material science. Building on years of work on stretchable sensors and polymer characterisation, the team has progressively advanced the ability to interface mechanical compliance with functional sensing. Within this framework, mechanochromic materials represent a new direction: instead of relying on highly engineered microelectronics to interpret deformation (taxels), the material itself becomes the sensing medium, directly encoding mechanical interaction into visible optical signals.

You can read the full paper on the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Queen Mary to lead €3.7m European doctoral network advancing AI-accelerated modelling for clean energy and propulsion

a.paykani@qmul.ac.uk (Amin Paykani) — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Queen Mary University of London will coordinate a major new Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Network to train twelve PhD students as the next generation of researchers working at the interface of artificial intelligence, high performance computing and chemically reactive flows.

The project, ASCEND – Next-Generation Accelerated and Scalable Modelling Frameworks for Chemically Reactive Flows, has received €3.7 million in EU funding through the Horizon Europe MSCA Doctoral Networks programme.

Reactive flows are central to many technologies that underpin the transition to cleaner energy systems, including low- and zero-carbon fuels, sustainable propulsion, power generation and fire-safety applications. However, accurately simulating these systems remains computationally demanding because they involve complex interactions between fluid dynamics, turbulence, chemical reactions, heat transfer and emissions formation. ASCEND will address this challenge by developing new modelling frameworks that combine scientific machine learning, high performance computing and computational fluid dynamics. The ambition is to deliver fast, trustworthy and scalable simulation tools capable of reducing computational cost by orders of magnitude while preserving the physical fidelity required for predictive engineering design.

The consortium is coordinated by Dr Amin Paykani, Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Propulsion Systems in the School of Engineering and Materials Science, with support from Professor Xi Jiang and Dr Alexander Shestopaloff. Queen Mary will lead the overall coordination and contribute research expertise in combustion modelling, machine learning for chemically reactive systems, and uncertainty-aware modelling. ASCEND brings together Queen Mary University of London, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Ghent University, Technische Universität Braunschweig, the University of Edinburgh and Barcelona Supercomputing Centre. The network is supported by a wide group of associated partners, including Shell Research, Siemens Energy Industrial Turbomachinery, Etex, Virtwin Energy, Forschungszentrum Jülich, ETH Zurich, CNRS, North Carolina State University and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.

The award marks a significant success for Queen Mary’s growing research leadership in sustainable propulsion, AI-enabled engineering and European doctoral training. By combining advanced simulation, artificial intelligence and doctoral training, ASCEND will contribute to Europe’s green and digital transitions and strengthen Queen Mary’s role as a coordinator of international research networks addressing major challenges in clean energy, sustainable propulsion and computational engineering.

Dr Majid Taghavi appointed Vice President of the EuroEAP Society

m.taghavi@qmul.ac.uk (Majid Taghavi) — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Dr Majid Taghavi was appointed Vice President of the EuroEAP Society (European Society for Electromechanically Active Polymer Transducers & Artificial Muscles), an international scientific society dedicated to advancing research and innovation in electroactive polymers, soft transducers, and artificial muscles.

The Society brings together leading researchers and industry partners to promote collaboration, knowledge exchange, and the development of next-generation soft actuators, sensing, and energy-harvesting technologies. In his leadership role, Majid will contribute to shaping the Society's strategic direction and strengthening the global electroactive polymer research community.