News
May 2020 | ||
 Rejish Jesudasan successfully defends his thesis22 May 2020Rejish Jesudasan successfully defended his thesis on "An Adaptive Parametrisation Method for Shape Optimisation Using Adjoint Sensitivities". Owing to COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2, the viva was conducted over video conferencing, but even with noise of his ceiling fan (essential in his Indian home at this time), the finer details of his algorithm ... [more] | ||
 New state-of-the-art microscope to support research in the School of Engineering and Materials Science20 May 2020Queen Mary underlined its strong commitment to the ongoing research in SEMS by investing into a £375K state-of-the-art super-resolution spinning disc microscope. Microscopy imaging approaches have long been a major research strength within the school, facilitating new collaborative links and supporting significant research funding and outputs in leading journals. The ... [more] | ||
 Renewal of Royal Society University Research Fellowship for Dr Fenwick to study low dimensional energy materials15 May 2020Nanomaterials have dimensions less than 100 billionths of a metre, and on these length scales they can acquire completely new properties. Examples include metal quantum dots less than 10 nanometres in diameter which emit light, or graphene which, being a single layer of carbon atoms, is nano-sized in one dimension and exhibits ... [more] | ||
 SEMS Students Win Global Entrepreneurship Challenge - The Hult Prize 202015 May 2020The Hult Prize is the largest socio-entrepreneurship student competition in the world. The 2019 Hult Prize Challenge was announced by President Bill Clinton at the United Nations. This was an invitation to student teams around the world to develop innovations that can be scaled to improve the lives of millions whilst ... [more] | ||
 Scientists at Queen Mary developed extremely energy-efficient manufacturing for future composites, reported by the Materials World magazine in its latest issue7 May 2020Research led by Dr Han Zhang at the School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, has devised a sustainable manufacturing method for future composites towards the clean growth of the composite sector. An extremely energy-efficient and intrinsically safe curing process has been developed based on nanostructured ... [more] | ||
 Queen Mary & Emulate Organs-on-Chips Centre supports COVID-19 initiative6 May 2020The Queen Mary & Emulate Organs-on-Chips Centre is supporting a new initiative to use predictive in vitro models, also known as organ-chips, in the fight against COVID-19. Emulate, Inc is participating in the Organs-on-Chips against COVID-19 initiative (#OoCovid) and donating a set of Organ-Chips to the UK Organ-on-a-Chip Technologies Network which ... [more] | ||
April 2020 | ||
 Researchers use magnetism to keep drugs at disease sites30 April 2020The researchers were able to use magnetism to hold ‘magnetically responsive’ microscopic drug carriers at chosen sites, even in the presence of external forces, such as flowing liquid, which would normally displace them. They also found that magnetism restricted the movement of cells containing these drug capsules. This suggests that ... [more] | ||
 New study reveals unexpected softness of bilayer graphene30 April 2020In the study, published in the journal Physical Review B, the researchers showed that bilayer graphene, consisting of two layers of graphene, was noticeably softer than both two-dimensional (2D) graphene and three-dimensional (3D) graphite along the stacking direction. This surprising result differs from previous research which showed that 2D graphene, ... [more] | ||
 SEMS student Humaira Patel was a runner up in the The McLaren Future Mobility Challenge24 April 2020Humaira Patel, a second year mechanical engineering student, entered for The McLaren Future Mobility Challenge category of The Telegraph newspaper's STEM Awards 2020. Humaira applied her knowledge of materials engineering, gained from her Engineering Materials for Design module, to propose an idea for the automotive sector - using spider silks as ... [more] | ||
 The Centre for Advanced Robotics @ Queen Mary (ARQ) provides essential support for NHS staff during the COVID-19 crisis21 April 2020Members of the Centre for Advanced Robotics @ Queen Mary (ARQ) provide frames for visors urgently needed by frontline NHS staff at main London hospitals including the newly created Nightingale Hospital. In collaborations with clinicians from the Royal London Dental Hospital, Prof Shakeel Shahdad and Ahmed Din, ARQ have taken on ... [more] | ||
 Queen Mary secure new Knowledge Transfer Partnerships to support industry engagement17 April 2020The new KTPs, which represent funding of over £500,000, will support engineering projects aimed at developing new biomaterials for bone healthcare treatments, and novel woven colour-changing fabrics for clothing. Improving bone healthcare treatments Working with Lucideon, who are a leading organisation in materials development and commercialisation, Queen Mary will develop new ... [more] | ||
 Queen Mary steps up to support its community through coronavirus16 April 2020Community outreach work and engagement have always been intrinsic to what we do at Queen Mary. Now, in the face of the pandemic crisis, our staff and students are finding ways to further support communities at the local and national levels, whether by joining the NHS frontline or volunteering to ... [more] | ||
 SEMS student Mughees Asif awarded Royal Academy of Engineering Scholarships14 April 2020Mughees Asif, a second year Aerospace Engineering student, has been award both the Engineering Leaders Scholarship and the prestigious Sir Ralph Robins Scholarship by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng). The Engineering Leaders Scholarship is awarded to 30 students attending Universities in the UK who have the potential to become leaders ... [more] | ||
 Dr Ralph Stevens8 April 2020It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Dr Ralph Stevens. Ralph arrived to Queen Mary in 1964 as a lecturer in The Department of Mechanical Engineering, from where he went on to help establish the Materials Department. Prof Bill Bonfield (former Head of Materials) notes that, “Ralph ... [more] | ||
 Advanced Energy Materials Cover on 3D Carbon Materials for Efficient Oxygen and Hydrogen Electrocatalysis1 April 2020A review by Ana Jorge Sobrido (QMUL), Rhodri Jervis (UCL), Magda Titirici (ICL) et al. has been featured as the cover for the latest edition of Advanced Energy Materials journal. The cover was designed by PhD student at ICL Jingyu Fen. This review summarises the latest advances in 3D porous ... [more] | ||
March 2020 | ||
 New date for World Biomaterials Congress 2020 announced31 March 2020The World Biomaterials Congress with Liz Tanner as a member of the Executive Committee has been postponed from May to December 2020 due to Covid-19. The new dates are Thursday 11th December to Wednesday 16th December. The programme will be similar but there will be new events announced nearer the time. [more] | ||
 SEMS staff recognised in Education Awards26 March 2020Two of our academic staff have been recognised this year at the QMSU Education Awards. This event is the annual QMUL ‘OSCARS’ ceremony with 12 different award categories. This year James Busfield won the Employability Enhancement Award and Folashade (Shade) Akinmolayan won the Innovative Teaching Award. The citation for Shade states, “... [more] | ||
 First PhD from the Centre for Advanced Robotics @ Queen Mary (ARQ)23 March 2020Alberto Caenazzo successfully defended his PhD studies on "Integrated Hydraulic Steering and Signal Transmission Technologies Applied to Novel MRI-Compatible Intravascular Catheters". Because of the coronavirus crisis, the viva was conducted entirely online. Despite that the viva was completed without a hitch, allowing Alberto to present his novel research in catheter ... [more] | ||
 Michele Ghilardi successfully completes his PhD in the Soft Matter Group16 March 2020Michele Ghilardi became the third of James Busfield's PhD students to pass his PhD already in 2020. Michele completed his PhD viva on the 16th March defending a thesis entitled, "Soft smart machines: electrically tuneable devices made of electro-responsive elastomeric smart materials." Michele was also significantly supported by Prof Federico Carpi ... [more] | ||
 Double Success with KTP Grants Awarded11 March 2020SEMS has secured two new Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTPs) grants this month. This success represents a total of about £500K in grant funding and a doubling of SEMS portfolio to a total of 4 live KTP projects. This is all of the live KTP projects running at QMUL currently. The first ... [more] | ||
 Researchers use microwaves to measure signs of dehydration5 March 2020The researchers are now looking to develop the technology into a wearable device that could be used by athletes, or in healthcare settings, to monitor hydration in real time. For the study, the research team utilised a microwave-based measurement system, developed by NPL, to examine changes to salts and proteins ... [more] | ||
February 2020 | ||
 3rd Year Project Poster Winners Announced26 February 2020The Spring Industrial Liaison Forum one again played host to the 3rd year project student poster showcase. Two winners were selected from the 300+ posters that were submitted. These were from Thomas Kellock for his poster on "Spiral Microfluidics for Circulating Tumour Cell Isolation" who is supervised by Yi Sui and ... [more] | ||
 Another Hugely Successful ILF Completed26 February 2020The School of Engineering and Materials Science hosted another successful Industrial Liaison Forum (ILF) on Wednesday 26th February 2020 which attracted 85 visitors during the day. The focus was on our Taught Programme Student Projects with more than 100 of our students having the opportunity to discuss their projects with each other, QMUL ... [more] | ||
 Caumaghen Sannassy wins the best MSc student Poster Award26 February 2020Caumaghen Sannassy won the best MSc student prize at the 2020 Industrial Liaison Forum in SEMS for his poster called, "Investigation of Air Flows within Urban Landscapes using Open FOAM". His project is supervised by Dr Andrew Buchan. [more] | ||
 Robot Hand Team Wins Top Prize at ILF26 February 2020A team of 4th year MEng students Jamie SENGUN, Ahmed DEIRI, Talha TAILOR, Kai PAGE & Mohammed KHAN who have been working on the "Soft 3D-printed Robotic Hand" project supervised by Dr Lorenzo Jamone & Dr Ketao Zhang won the best MEng group project prize at the Annual SEMS taught student Industrial ... [more] | ||
 Land Speed Record Attempt in Bolivia21 February 2020The findings of our former Aerospace MEng students (Salah Macan Markar, Karan Sumaria, Tanjir Zaman and Banjoab Kantangul) will be incorporated in the future Land Speed Record Streamliner by CMR Motorsport Challenges. The work has been carried out as part of their MEng project entitled "Land Speed Record Aerodynamics Design ... [more] | ||
 First outcome of our 'Hacking Hearts' art and science outreach collaboration with Central Saint Martins released online19 February 2020Central Saint Martins published a first story about the outcome or our art and science collaboration. This fast-paced project saw postgraduate students from across disciplines hack the research of our inaugural Scientists in Residence over the course of a week. You can read here: https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/... [more] | ||
 Join us for Professor Hazel Screen's Inaugural Lecture13 February 2020We are delighted to announce that Professor Hazel Screen's Inaugural Lecture will be taking place on Thursday 19 March. Hazel's research spans from the nano-scale to whole body mechanics, where she utilises a bioengineering approach to explore the relationships between tissue health and disease, and the surrounding mechanical environment. Hazel will ... [more] | ||
 Take the National Student Survey – and claim your £5 SU food outlet voucher!3 February 2020The National Student Survey (NSS) is an annual national survey of final-year undergraduate students in the UK. It gives you an opportunity to tell us what you have enjoyed about your time at Queen Mary as well as about anything you feel could have been improved. The NSS launched here ... [more] | ||
 New paper on the anti-inflammatory effects of low levels of cobalt ions3 February 2020Cobalt ions from some orthopaedic implants induce a dose-dependent cytotoxic and pro-inflammatory response. However, this new paper from Prof Knight and Prof Shelton's groups shows that low levels of cobalt are in fact beneficial and block pro-inflammatory signalling in cartilage. The authors showed that sub-toxic levels of cobalt (50uM) prevented ... [more] | ||
January 2020 | ||
 The Organ-on-a-Chip Shop – a Science Museum highlight!29 January 2020On 29 January, Organ-on-a-Chip Technologies Network scientists and engineers swapped their lab coats for aprons, to run the Organ on a Chip shop at the hugely popular Science Museum Lates in London. This Lates night celebrated the launch of the Museum’s new Medicine Galleries and attracted over 4,000 visitors. Promoted as ... [more] | ||
 Dan Bader Gives His Valedictory Lecture in Technical University of Eindhoven24 January 2020During his time as Professor of Medical Engineering at Queen Mary University of London, Prof Bader was also a part-time visiting professor in the Technical University of Eindhoven (Tu/E). There he worked closely with Prof Cees Oomens in the area of pressure ulcers as well as continuing his work ... [more] | ||
 Double Soft Matter Group PhD Success for Barnabas Shaw and Leihao Chen17 January 2020Barnabas Shaw and Leihao Chen have both successfully passed their PhD vivas within a week of each other. Barnabas completed his PhD viva on the 10th January with a thesis entitled, "Characterisation of Elastomers for Dynamic Sealing Applications ." Leihao completed his PhD viva on the 17th January with a thesis ... [more] | ||
 Queen Mary opens Organs-on-Chips Centre for advancements in medical research and drug development16 January 2020A new research centre which aims to revolutionise medical research and drug development using microengineered Organs-on-Chips has opened at Queen Mary University of London. Organs-on-Chips contain tiny hollow channels lined by living human cells that recreate the microenvironment experienced by cells within the human body. As miniaturised living systems with ... [more] | ||
 Queen Mary’s Aerospace Engineering Students Flying Again3 January 2020A group of our third year Aerospace engineering students recently took a short flight test course as part of our annual visit to Cranfield University. The course demonstrated performance and handling qualities of a real aircraft flight. They flew on a British Aerospace Jetstream Aircraft Series 31 turbo-prop, taking the role ... [more] | ||