QMUL School of Engineering and Materials Science News

Talk to your journey planner: How AI brings conversation to public transport

k.evans@qmul.ac.uk (Kerry Evans) — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Talk to your journey planner: How AI brings conversation to public transport

A new Queen Mary study introduces ChatPlanner, an AI framework that lets travellers ask for a quieter, step-free, safer or more scenic journey in ordinary language, and builds those wishes directly into the route search. Tested on London's public transport network, it reliably delivered journeys that travellers could actually make, whereas a state-of-the-art general-purpose AI model equipped with mapping tools frequently fell short.

Beyond the fastest route

Most journey planners focus on travel time and the number of changes, and treat personal needs as filters applied after routes are found. The best route for a wheelchair user, or a parent with a pushchair at rush hour, may therefore never be considered.

A new study sets out a different approach. It appears in Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, one of the most influential journals in transport research and a global reference point for how artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies are reshaping the way people travel and how cities function. It forms part of the journal's special issue Foundation Models and Large Language Models in Urban Mobility, the first the journal has devoted to foundation models. This marks a landmark moment as the AI behind tools like ChatGPT reaches the world of transport. The issue brings together work on how such AI can help cities tackle congestion, inequality, safety and climate resilience.

The paper is authored by Tingting Yang and Dr Jun Chen from the School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS), together with Chenhao Xue from the University of Oxford and the Oxford e-Research Centre. The research was conducted under the supervision of Dr Chen.

ChatPlanner combines a large language model, the technology behind modern conversational AI, with a multi-criteria route-search algorithm. Travellers describe their journey in their own words, and the system works out how much accessibility, crowding, safety and sightseeing matter to them. It then searches for routes that reflect those priorities, including options that standard planners overlook. To teach the system to understand the language of travel, the team trained it on requests from eight types of traveller, from daily commuters to families with children and older people, across everyday situations such as rush hour and bad weather.

The design is what makes it dependable. The language model only interprets what the traveller wants, while a dedicated routing algorithm works out the journey using real timetable data. This avoids the wrong stations, non-existent connections and missing legs that appeared when a general-purpose AI model was asked to plan routes itself.

"We hope this work contributes to more conversational, inclusive and human-centred public transport planning," said Tingting Yang.

The paper is published open access and is free to read.

Cite: T. Yang, C. Xue, J. Chen* (2027) ChatPlanner: A large language model framework for personalized public transit routing, Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 194, 106017. DOI: 10.1016/j.trc.2026.106017

Dr Muzumil Anwar Receives Silver Reviewer Certificate for Teaching Recognition Programme

exx949@qmul.ac.uk (Muzumil Anwar) — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Dr Muzumil Anwar has received the Silver Reviewer Certificate from the Queen Mary Academy Teaching Recognition Programme in recognition of his contribution as a reviewer supporting colleagues seeking professional recognition for their teaching practice.

Alongside his teaching responsibilities, Muzumil contributes to the Teaching Recognition Programme by reviewing Fellowship applications and supporting colleagues in reflecting on and evidencing their higher education teaching practice. His involvement reflects an ongoing commitment to professional development, peer support and the enhancement of teaching and learning across the university.

The recognition also builds on Muzumil's wider contribution to academic development, including mentoring colleagues pursuing Associate Fellowship and Fellowship and sharing good practice in teaching, assessment and student support.

Three members from Panwisawas’ Research Group delivered talks at Alloys for Additive Manufacturing Symposium (AAMS 2026) at the University of Cambridge

c.panwisawas@qmul.ac.uk (Chinnapat Panwisawas) — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Led by Dr Chinnapat Panwisawas, three members from Panwisawas’ Research Group have attended the Alloys for Additive Manufacturing Symposium (AAMS 2026) at St. John’s college, the University of Cambridge between 16th and 18th September 2026.

The AAMS 2026 was the 9th edition (and 10th anniversary) of Alloys for Additive Manufacturing Symposium Series and co-organised by University of Cambridge and University of Sheffield. The AAMS 2026 was attended by more than 150 people who are academics, industrialists and government officers from 20 countries across the globe.

Dr Panwisawas was invited to give a Keynote Talk on “Multi-scale multi-physics modelling as a computational materials engineering framework for science-informed materials discovery.” His talk focused on computational materials engineering enabled materials discovery and the development of a holistic computational AM framework to enable predictive multiscale materials design for materials engineering, especially, discovery of new materials and processing route for high-temperature and biomedical applications.

Apart from Dr Panwisawas’ Keynote Talk, two members from his “Computational materials engineering of advanced manufacturing (CMEAM) Research Group" delivered two oral presentations.

Jang Terry Griffin (his second-year PhD student) gave a talk on “Exploiting oxide formation to control melt pool dynamics and material properties in metal Additive Manufacturing: A high-fidelity multiphysics framework for oxygen transport and oxidation. ”
Qianglong Wei (his visiting PhD student from Shanghai Jiao Tong University) gave a talk on “Quantifying the absorptivity in laser additive manufacturing and welding of aluminum alloy and copper in the conduction mode.”

All three talks from CMEAM Research Group were very well received and generated several discussions and potential collaborations in the near future.

Liz Tanner chairs European Society for Biomaterials 50th Birthday Session

k.e.tanner@qmul.ac.uk (Elizabeth Tanner) — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

The European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) was founded in 1976 so at this year's conference in Antwerp 7-11 September a Special Session on the history and activities of ESB over the last 50 years was chaired by Liz Tanner and Gino Ambrosio (University of Naples and periodic visitor to the IRC in Biomedical Materials). Liz was Secretary General of ESB 2005-2009 as well as the IRC in Biomedical Materials running the 2001 ESB conference in London.

The session speakers included Josep Planell (former QMC Materials PhD student more later Rector of the Open University of Catalonia) and Liz. The subjects covered included changes in the requirements and assessments of biomaterials in the last 50 year, the newer applications of biomaterials including tissue engineering and lab-on-a-chip, some of the current research areas of SEMS. Other discussions included the use of AI in Biomaterials discovery and teaching methods when providing distance learning versus in person lectures.

Professor Julien Gautrot gave an invited talk at ESB in the session on Women's Health discussing engineering niches and systems to model ovarian cancer.

Dr Jie Yang Successfully Passed his PhD viva

wei.tan@qmul.ac.uk (Wei Tan) — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Congratulations to Dr Jie Yang who passed his PhD viva for a thesis entitled, "Multiphysics Modelling and Optimisation of Advanced Battery Electrodes." Jie completed his PhD journey under the supervision of Dr Wei Tan, with second supervisor Prof Ana Sobrido providing invaluable guidance throughout.

The thesis tackled mass transport and interfacial reaction limitations across two key energy storage systems: lithium-ion battery silicon anodes and vanadium redox flow battery electrodes. Jie developed coupled phase-field and elastoplastic fracture models to design porous and hollow ellipsoidal silicon particle architectures that resist the fracture and pulverisation caused by huge volume expansion during cycling. On the flow battery side, he correlated bismuth electrodeposition conditions with catalytic performance and elucidated bilayer carbon electrode mechanisms — work that delivered substantial gains in discharge capacity and energy efficiency.

Jie's examiners were Dr Salvatore Grasso (internal) and Dr Xu Yang (UCL, external), who both engaged closely with the multiphysics and multiscale nature of the work spanning experiment and computation.

His research has already resulted in one published paper — on phase-field modelling of fracture in silicon particles during lithiation-delithiation (Engineering with Computer), with two further papers on redox folow battery currently under review.

Wei commented that "Jie has been very creative and persistent to address problems in research and has created strong bond with Dr Tan and Prof Sobrido's group. He has mastered both experiment and computational skills, it has been wonderful to work with Jie in the last 4 years."

Dr Rehan Shah and engineering student discuss co-creation as invited panellists for UK History for Diversity in Mathematics workshop

rehan.shah@qmul.ac.uk (Rehan Shah) — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Dr Rehan Shah and second-year undergraduate student Amelia Stringfellow discussed their experiences of staff-student co-creation on their QMUL scholarship project ‘Beyond the Formula’: Empowering students through co-creation of inclusive mathematics curricula (also undertaken in collaboration with third-year undergraduate Nilah Holmer) as invited panel speakers for the UK History for Diversity in Mathematics Workshop held on 7th and 8th September 2026 at the University of Manchester.

As part of the discussion, they shared insights related to the emergence, implementation, benefits and challenges of undertaking co-creation work on this project, which has been impacting over 800 SEMS students each year from Dr Shah's first and second-year undergraduate mathematics modules EMS412 and EMS506 by raising awareness of inclusivity and diversity in STEM disciplines. As Steering Group Member of the UK History for Diversity in Mathematics Network, Dr Shah was also invited to deliver a 20min short talk to share the details of the implementation, feedback and impact of the project undertaken at QMUL since the past 3 years.

The panel discussion and talks were very received and raised insightful questions and sparked interesting avenues for future exploration on the topic from the 32 attendees, both in-person and online. It was also refreshing to see how Dr Shah and his students' work had inspired colleagues from other universities (Maynooth University in Ireland) to co-design and embed similar EDI resources within their own mathematics curricula. The details and outputs from the work have been featured in two co-authored staff-student journal publications: one of which has already been published in New Directions in the Teaching of Natural Sciences, while the second is due to be published very soon in MSOR Connections.

Dr Deepshikha's Responsible AI Assessment Project Shortlisted for QS Reimagine Education Awards 2026

d.deepshikha@qmul.ac.uk (Deepshikha Deepshikha) — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Dr Deepshikha from Queen Mary University of London’s School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS) has been shortlisted for the Learning Assessment Award at the QS Reimagine Education Awards 2026 for her project, Responsible AI Assessment and Feedback Innovation.

The recognition follows a highly competitive international evaluation process. This year, the QS Reimagine Education Awards received more than 2,200 projects across 15 award categories, and over 1,000 international judges evaluated them.

This recognition reflects work done with colleagues and students at Queen Mary, and I'm grateful to Giuseppe Viola and Xinru Deng for their contributions.

The project centres on developing and implementing EduMark AI, an educator-controlled AI platform designed to support assessment and feedback while ensuring the educators retain final academic judgement.

Rather than replacing educators, EduMark AI uses artificial intelligence to generate rubric-aligned feedback, structured analysis, and indicative scoring that academic staff can then review, refine, and approve. The approach is designed to improve the efficiency, consistency and usefulness of feedback while maintaining human oversight throughout the assessment process.

The work has developed from an initial SEMS-led innovation into a wider programme of institutional testing, external engagement and responsible AI development. It has included pilots within Queen Mary and other educational settings, alongside work on data protection, governance, educator control and integration with institutional learning environments.

Dr Deepshikha said:

“I am delighted that our Responsible AI Assessment and Feedback Innovation project has been shortlisted for the QS Reimagine Education Awards 2026. This recognition is particularly meaningful because our aim has always been to explore how AI can support educators while keeping human judgement firmly at the centre of assessment.

EduMark AI is not about replacing educators. It helps them provide timely, personalised, and constructive feedback more efficiently, while retaining full responsibility for the final academic decision. Being recognised in the QS Reimagine Education Awards gives us further encouragement to continue developing and evaluating this approach.”

The QS Reimagine Education Conference and Awards will take place from 6–8 December 2026 at the InterContinental London – The O2.

With wider institutional pilots now underway, the shortlisting adds to a growing body of work at Queen Mary on responsible AI and evidence-led assessment, built on the principle that AI should extend academic judgement rather than substitute for it.

James Busfield Chairs ECCMR 2026 in Oxford

j.busfield@qmul.ac.uk (James Busfield) — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Prof James Busfield has recently chaired the European Conference on Constitutive Modelling of Rubber XIV (ECCMR) from the 9-11 September 2026. Having hosted the conference previously at QMUL in 2003, the event was organised in a new location in the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford. There were 88 talks and 24 poster presentations filling a full three-day program.

Despite the best efforts of UK National Air Traffic Control System to mess up the program on the opening day, in the end only a small number of delegates did not arrive, with some delegates still turning up on the final day having had to deal with 48 hours of air travel chaos. James and the rest of the local organizing committee: James Lee (IOM3), Davide de Focatiis (Nottingham University) and Mokarram Hossain (Swansea University) had their work cut out to reorganize the schedule to ensure that every speaker was able to present once they had arrived.

The conference was a great success with a significant number of excellent talks including 7 from QMUL, that highlighted significant recent breakthroughs in the modelling of elastomer materials.

The local organizing committee would like to thank all the sponsors (Endurica, SPC Rubber Compounding, Birla Carbon, Dunlop, Leartiker, Coesfeld, Englemann & Buckham), the scientific committee members, the session chairs, the speakers and all of the delegates for the spirit of collaboration that has always been a very important feature of this conference.

One Material, Two Functions: Ferroelectric Ceramic Combines Large Strain with Highly Reversible Electrical Tunability (accepted in Nature Communications)

h.x.yan@qmul.ac.uk (Haixue Yan) — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have developed a ferroelectric ceramic that combines two useful properties that are normally difficult to achieve together: large mechanical deformation and highly reversible electrical tunability. Such a combination could help simplify future electronic devices that need to both move or change shape and rapidly adjust their electrical response.

By carefully adjusting the composition of a samarium-modified PMN-PT ceramic, the researchers controlled nanoscale polar regions inside the material. An optimised composition achieved 76.4% reversible electrical tunability and 0.31% strain under an electric field of 2 kV/mm, while retaining low remanent polarization.

The study shows that controlling these nanoscale polar structures can balance electrical and mechanical responses within a single material, providing a promising design strategy for adaptive electronics, precision actuators and tunable communication technologies.

Tiny Strains, Big Impact: New Lead-Free Material Enables Tunable Wireless Technologies (Publised in Science Advances)

h.x.yan@qmul.ac.uk (Haixue Yan) — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have developed a new way to control the electrical properties of materials for future adaptive wireless technologies. The team discovered that introducing a small amount of calcium into a layered ceramic creates tiny internal strains at the atomic scale. These strains generate nanosized polar regions that can respond rapidly and reversibly to an applied electric field.

This approach overcomes a longstanding challenge: materials that can be strongly tuned electrically often suffer from high energy loss and other undesirable electrical properties. The new lead-free ceramic combines strong tunability with relatively low electrical loss and low permittivity, making it attractive for microwave applications. The researchers demonstrated its practical potential by incorporating the material into prototype microwave resonators and antennas, where the operating frequency could be adjusted using voltage or temperature.

The work provides a new materials-design strategy for more adaptable and energy-efficient communication technologies.

Dr Deepshikha delivered King’s College London's inaugural REISE seminar series with an invited talk on responsible AI in assessment

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

Dr Deepshikha delivered the inaugural lecture of the Research, Evaluation and Innovation in STEM Education (REISE) seminar series at King’s College London on 9th September 2026.

Hosted by Dr Helen Coulshed, Associate Vice Dean Education and Senior Lecturer in Chemistry Education from the Department of Chemistry at King’s, the seminar, “Empowering Educators with AI: Responsible Innovation in Feedback and Assessment,” explored how artificial intelligence can support more effective and timely feedback while keeping educators firmly at the centre of academic decision-making.

The presentation focused on a human-centred approach to AI-enabled assessment, where technology supports rather than replaces professional judgement. The discussion considered how responsible AI can improve feedback clarity for students, reduce marking workload and turnaround times for staff, while maintaining appropriate educator oversight.

The seminar attracted significant interest across the higher education sector, with 74 attendees representing 26 universities, and 69% of participants joining from outside King’s College London. Universities represented included Bristol, Durham, Nottingham Trent and Edinburgh, with international participation extending to OTH Regensburg, Karolinska Institute and the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati.

The breadth of participation highlights growing sector-wide interest in practical, responsible approaches to AI in assessment and feedback, and reflects SEMS’ contribution to wider conversations about educational innovation and the future of assessment.

The full seminar recording is now available on YouTube.

Placements Bootcamp welcomes 70 students

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

Last week, Placements Officer Helen Green and Career Consultant Pash Selopal co-hosted the Placements and Internships Bootcamp, preparing second-year students to search for, apply for and secure work placements.

Across two days, around 70 students, mostly in their second year studying Engineering and Materials Science, took part in activities to identify strengths, write applications and ace interviews, as well as meeting real employers from WSP and AWE.

Alumnus Max Woolmer, who now works at AWE, and returning AWE placement student Zainab, both joined the event to give their advice and perspectives as people who had previously been in the students' shoes.

Professor Nike Folayan also joined the event to help the students with their networking and up-skilling, and Careers Consultant Pash Selopal led sessions on interview and assessment centre preparation.

A pre and post-event survey demonstrated that students' confidence in being able to secure a placement rose by nearly a whole point on a five-point scale.

Reflecting on the event, Helen said "these results provide encouraging evidence that targeted employability and personal development interventions can help students feel better prepared to navigate recruitment processes, present themselves effectively to employers and pursue future career opportunities with greater confidence."

Some of the students who attended commented:

"It was useful for identifying what my strengths are, which I found really helpful for when I need to sell myself in cover letters and interviews."

"Very informative with discussion and collaboration with people who have worked in industries and other students."

"I learnt about finding my strengths and how to present them. Also learned of new tools to track and improve my applications."

This is now an annual event, taking place at the beginning of September each year. Keep an eye out for next year's dates next summer.

Dr María José Munguía Romero Successfully Completes Her PhD

j.busfield@qmul.ac.uk (James Busfield) — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Congratulations to Dr María José Munguía Romero who passed her PhD defence on the 14th August 2026 for a thesis entitled, “Sustainable Future Footwear and Fashion Technology.” Maria completed her PhD journey as a member of James Busfield’s Soft Matter Group in SEMS at QMUL. Her supervision team included Dr Veronika Kapsali (University of the Arts London), Li Wang (QMUL) and Keizo Akutagawa (QMUL). This was very much a multidisciplinary project tackling a huge global issue.

Maria’s examiners were Prof Kate Goldsworthy (Central Saint Martins) and Dr Sara Hajikazemi. The viva was completed in just 90 minutes with both examiners enjoying Maria’s discussion of the challenges of making sports shoes more sustainable from a designer’s perspective and the associated challenges of generating a measure of this sustainability that is much more transparent to the consumers who buy the products.

James Commented that “Maria was working on a sustainability project that was quite different research area to the other members of the Soft Matter Group. She has proven to be remarkably resourceful at building networks of people both at QMUL and more broadly who she could work with to complete this very challenging and important project. It has been a wonderful experience working with her for the last four years.”

Maria is the eighth student from James’ group to complete her PhD in the last 18 months. She has published a journal paper in Scientific Reports already on her work with another couple of papers already in the pipe line.

Aerospace engineering student ranked 5th in UK Future Leaders

a.wilkes@qmul.ac.uk (Ayden Wilkes) — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Nduka Amakihe, a final-year MEng Aerospace Engineering student in the School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS), has been ranked 5th nationally on Powerlist Magazine's Future Leaders 2026/27 list.

Nduka represents Queen Mary among 150 rising Black leaders recognised from across the UK.

Alongside his degree, Nduka has been involved in multiple extra curricular groups and initiatives. He founded and led Team Polaris, one of four Queen Mary teams competing in the UK National Rocketry Championship, which launched in June 2026. Team Polaris' rocket was only one of four competing teams to clear every review gate and reach the pad.

Nduka also serves as Software Development Officer for the Aerospace Engineering Society, where he leads Mach Relay, a hypersonic re-entry simulation project, and as Head of Control Systems within the university's Electronics Society, helping prepare an unmanned aircraft for competition. He has now taken the responsibility of Aerospace Society president and Head of Operations at Aurora.

"This year's work has mostly happened out of view," Nduka said. "It means something to have it recognised at this scale, and it's given me more reason to keep pushing."

Congratulations to Nduka on this recognition.

Queen Mary academics contribute to new Handbook on Teaching Skills in Engineering

f.akinmolayan@qmul.ac.uk (Folashade Akinmolayan Taiwo) — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Three academics from the School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS) have contributed to a new international handbook on teaching transferable competencies and skills in engineering education.

The SEFI Handbook on Teaching Transferable Competencies and Skills in Engineering was officially launched on Wednesday 9th September 2026 at the 54th SEFI Annual Conference, hosted by the Czech Technical University in Prague.

Published fully open access by TU Delft Open Publishing, the handbook brings together the expertise of 155 contributors from 23 countries, spanning five continents and representing 56 institutions and professional bodies. It provides a comprehensive and practice-oriented resource for engineering educators, curriculum developers, programme leaders, educational researchers and students seeking to develop the transferable skills and competencies needed by engineers.

Three academics from the Centre for Research in Engineering and Materials Education contributed to the handbook:

Dr Faith Nightingale, corresponding author for Chapter 2.2: Process Management on a Process Level and Chapter 3.1: Navigating the Complexities of Competency Assessment: An Introduction.
Dr Folashade Akinmolayan, corresponding author for Chapter 3.4: Assessment Rubrics: Design, Development and Implementation.
Dr Rehan Shah, together with Ilanthiraiyan Sivagnanamoorthy (Student Researcher), contributed to Chapter 2.9: Embedding the Core Triad: Spatial Ability, Visualisation, and Representational Literacy.

The handbook explores the development and integration of transferable competencies across engineering education, covering key concepts and frameworks, curriculum design, accreditation and quality assurance, assessment, exemplary programmes and approaches to evaluating educational interventions and outcomes. Importantly, the handbook connects research and theory with practical guidance for educational practice, supporting educators to embed transferable competencies across individual modules and whole engineering programmes.

The handbook is available to read free of charge online, providing an accessible resource for colleagues and students across the engineering education community. Read the SEFI Handbook on Teaching Transferable Competencies and Skills in Engineering.

Why graphene’s electrons have been counted the wrong way for decades

a.wilkes@qmul.ac.uk (Ayden Wilkes) — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

The standard method for extracting charge-carrier density from electrical measurements overcounts carriers in graphene by a factor of two to five, a new Queen Mary study shows — meaning reported mobilities have been systematically underestimated, and the best samples may be far better than the record books say.

A puzzle hiding in plain sight

Two numbers describe how well a material conducts electricity: how many charge carriers it has, and how easily they move — the mobility. Neither can be measured directly. Instead they are inferred from two routine measurements, the Hall effect and the electrical resistance, using textbook formulas developed for semiconductors such as silicon.

For years those formulas have produced a puzzle. Nominally identical graphene samples, made the same way, report mobilities that differ by a factor of ten. Sample quality has usually taken the blame.

Counting only the electrons that can move

A study published in Nano Letters by Dr Yiwei Sun from the School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS) and the University of Birmingham, together with Dr Oliver Fenwick (SEMS), Dr Dimitrios Papageorgiou (SEMS), Professor Sir Colin Humphreys (SEMS) and Professor David Dunstan (School of Physical and Chemical Sciences), with collaborators Dr Matthew Coak at the University of Birmingham and Dr David Holec at Montanuniversität Leoben in Austria, argues that the blame lies with the formulas.

The textbook method counts every electron above the edge of the conduction band as a carrier. In a semiconductor, where an energy gap separates the bands, that is exactly right. But graphene is a semimetal: it has no gap, and electrons fill the band continuously up through the Fermi level — the energy that separates occupied from empty states. Only electrons close to that level can respond to an electric field; those deeper in the band are locked in place by the filled states around them.

“Counting every electron in the band is like counting every person in a packed stadium to explain the flow through the exits,” said Dr Sun. “Only the people near the exits are actually moving. The others are there, but they’re not going anywhere.”

The team’s “Fermi model” changes the counting rule: carriers are counted from the Fermi level rather than from the band edge. In graphene at typical doping the difference is a factor of two to five — and because mobility is obtained by dividing the measured conductance by the carrier density, every overcount of carriers becomes an equal undercount of mobility.

A test with no adjustable knobs

The difficulty with any new counting rule is proving it. Conventional carrier extraction has a hidden advantage: it comes with adjustable quantities — the mobility, and how it varies with doping and temperature — that can be tuned to reproduce almost any measurement. A method that can always be made to fit can never be shown to be wrong.

The researchers’ solution was a new way of plotting the data in which those adjustable quantities cancel out entirely, so that each theory makes a single fixed prediction. In these “double-normalized polar” coordinates the conventional model predicts a vertical line and the Fermi model predicts a smooth arc — and no choice of material parameters can turn one into the other.

Five independent graphene datasets — measurements on four graphene-on-sapphire samples, and published data on ultraclean graphene from Cornell University — all follow the arc.

“For the first time, the conventional model was in a position where it could fail,” said Dr Sun. “And it did — while the Fermi model matched every dataset with zero fitting parameters.”

Why nobody noticed

The team also explains why a flaw in such a widely used method went unnoticed for so long. Whenever the Fermi level sits inside an energy gap, as in silicon or gallium arsenide, the new counting rule reduces exactly to the old one — so decades of success in semiconductors are entirely consistent with the correction. The two rules only part company in metals and semimetals, where the semiconductor formulas were borrowed without a second look.

Better than we thought

The most immediate consequence is for graphene’s record books. Reanalysed with the corrected count, the team estimates that the highest-quality graphene samples may have intrinsic mobilities exceeding 300,000–500,000 cm²/V·s — well beyond current record claims — and that mobility benchmarks across the two-dimensional materials literature will need re-evaluation. The same correction applies to other materials whose electrons behave like graphene’s, including Weyl semimetals and the surface states of topological insulators.

“The best graphene is even better than we thought,” said Dr Sun. “We just hadn’t been counting it properly.”

The paper is published open access in Nano Letters. The team also pays tribute to the late Dr Theo Kreouzis from Queen Mary University of London, whose early insights and enthusiasm helped shape the work.

Dr Sathiskumar Anusuya Ponnusami receives Global Young Investigator Award

a.wilkes@qmul.ac.uk (Ayden Wilkes) — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Dr Sathiskumar Anusuya Ponnusami has been awarded the 2027 Global Young Investigator Award by the American Ceramic Society, the largest professional body in the field.

This award is presented annually to an outstanding early-career researcher from the international ceramics community. Dr Ponnusami will win $1,500 and will subsequently give a keynote lecture at the Society’s flagship conference, the 51st International Conference and Expo on Advanced Ceramics and Composites (ICACC 2027) in Florida, where the award will also be presented.

Ceramics are used in some of the harshest environments we engineer, inside jet engines, power plants and spacecraft, because they can withstand temperatures where most other materials cannot. The challenge is that they are brittle, and predicting when and how they will fail is still difficult. Dr Ponnusami’s research focuses on developing computational models and frameworks to help design advanced ceramics and composites, including materials with capabilities such as self-healing, and to predict their failure more quickly and reliably.

Dr Ponnusami’s work began while working at TU Delft through his PhD, and continued at University of Oxford, and now continues at Queen Mary University of London, where he leads research in this area. His keynote speech, titled From Fracture Mechanics to Mechanics-Guided AI: Predictive Modelling and Design of Advanced Ceramics and Composites’, will draw on his research. Throughout his career he has collaborated with IISc, University of Florida, EPFL, and other industry partners.

Recently, his group has been combining machine learning with mechanics to make these simulations much faster, while preserving their reliability. This allows them to explore thousands of possible material designs rather than just a handful, and helps identify promising materials and designs for demanding applications.

Dr Ponnusami said “I am honoured to receive this prestigious award. It recognises work built over many years with brilliant students and collaborators, and it comes from the ceramics community itself, which makes it especially meaningful. I am proud to be carrying that work forward at Queen Mary, where we are bringing AI and mechanics together to design better high-temperature materials.”

Prof Sergey Karabasov gives talk at Roy K. Amiet Memorial Symposium

s.karabasov@qmul.ac.uk (Sergey Karabasov) — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Professor Sergey Karabasov delivered an invited talk at the Roy K. Amiet Memorial Symposium, held in Naples from 6th - 8th September 2026.

The symposium was organised by TU Delft, Politecnico di Torino, Roma Tre University, and the University of Naples Federico II.

Over the past decade, the field of aeroacoustics has undergone a profound transformation, driven by the widespread adoption of advanced experimental and computational techniques in both academia and industry. While several applications have reached a high level of maturity within the scientific community, others are emerging, bringing fresh theoretical, experimental, and numerical challenges. These developments, along with the associated scientific and technological challenges, were discussed by leading aeroacoustics researchers from Europe, the United States, and China who attended this three-day event.

Dr Rehan Shah presents scholarship work on research visit to Cornell University

rehan.shah@qmul.ac.uk (Rehan Shah) — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Dr Rehan Shah visited Cornell University, USA as part of a week-long collaborative research visit from 30th August to 6th September 2026, supported by a Queen Mary-Cornell Global Research Seed Grant Award, received in conjunction with Dr Alexandra Werth (Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University).

Their proposed funded project titled 'Towards an AI-Motivated Mathematical Skills Inventory for Future Engineers' aims to develops a framework for a skills-based mathematical assessment instrument that bridges the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical AI-oriented, engineering applications. To achieve this goal, Dr Shah and Dr Werth have established a synergistic, firm and lasting collaboration between their research groups at Queen Mary and Cornell respectively to accelerate and translate mathematics and engineering education research.

During the visit, Dr Shah spent valuable time with Dr Werth's group to discuss the scope and progress on their project, the first phase of which will involve piloting an existing Calculus Cognitive Diagnostic (CCD) assessment inventory developed by the LASSO education project across modules from all four years of their respective institution's engineering degree programmes. This cross-institutional, cross-sectional longitudinal study will help gauge and evaluate students' abilities to retain core calculus knowledge acquired through the spectrum of their academic degree studies from Years 1-4. The findings from the project will be shared through global conference presentation proceedings and peer-reviewed journal publications and will spur further applications for larger external grant funding.

In addition to this, Dr Shah also met with a wide variety of STEM academics, education developers, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students at Cornell to share and discuss insights from his varied mathematics and engineering education scholarship research projects. He also delivered an invited research talk for the Cornell Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) seminar on his pioneering co-creation scholarship work titled 'Teaching Ethics and Sustainability in Mathematics? Surely You Must Be Joking!' which discussed findings gathered over three years in conjunction from working with two undergraduate engineering students on embedding ethics and sustainability across the mathematics curricula within the department. The talk, which was extremely well attended with at least 40 people turning up from a wide range of STEM departments and faculties, was very well received and several academics were inspired by Dr Shah's work in this area and posed insightful questions in their keenness to explore it further.

All in all, the visit was immensely successful in establishing capacity for future collaborations through the exchange of ideas between colleagues at both Cornell and Queen Mary focusing on discipline-based STEM education research and demonstrated great potential in improving STEM teaching, learning, and assessment from a cultural, institutional, and disciplinary perspective.

First year students' research published in Journal of Applied Physics

g.viola@qmul.ac.uk (Giuseppe Viola) — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Queen Mary Centre for Undergraduate Research (QMCUR) is "popping champagne and raising a toast" to Jiang Feng and Valentin Marku, both first-year students in Aerospace Engineering, on the publication of their first paper titled "Sensitivity kernel for local Hall effect measurements: An adjoint finite-element approach" in the Journal of Applied Physics. This remarkable achievement was developed under the excellent supervision of Dr Yiwei Sun.

The study introduces a methodology to probe local inhomogeneities in semiconductor and 2D-material wafers by generating Hall‑conductivity maps using a dual‑configuration four‑point probe, with the adjoint method used to map the probe's spatial sensitivity. This detects non‑uniformities as small as 0.1%, without requiring any devices to be fabricated on the wafer, offering a novel, non‑destructive screening tool for semiconductor quality control.

It is worth highlighting the elegance of the mathematical formalism and tools used in the paper, which demonstrate how far Jiang and Valentin have moved beyond foundational learning during this venture.

A special note of merit goes to Dr Yiwei Sun, who guided Jiang and Valentin with trust and openness exposing them to the full complexity of the problem and solution without confinement. This should serve as an exemplary model of how undergraduate students can be mentored and empowered in their research journey.

The work will continue with a follow-up study focused on the experimental validation of the methodology. As part of their development, Jiang and Valentin will take part in a deep-dive scientific discussion where they will explain their work in further detail to QMCUR’s leadership and respond to questions in a PhD viva-like session. Additionally, they will disseminate their work at the upcoming research showcase events and conferences at QMUL over the next few months.

Congratulations to everybody involved; this is a shining example of what undergraduate research can achieve when talent, trust, and excellent supervision come together!

Dr Deepshikha recognised among UK's 2026 TechWomen100 Award winners

d.deepshikha@qmul.ac.uk (Deepshikha Deepshikha) — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Dr Deepshikha, in the School of Engineering and Materials Science at Queen Mary University of London, has been named a winner of the 2026 TechWomen100 Awards, recognising her contribution to technology, responsible AI and innovation in education.

The TechWomen100 Awards, organised by WeAreTechWomen, celebrate emerging and mid-career women making an impact across the UK technology sector. Dr Deepshikha was selected as one of the 100 winners in the Individual category for 2026.

Her work focuses on the responsible use of artificial intelligence in education, particularly in assessment and feedback. She is the founder and lead of EduGrade AI, an educator-controlled AI assessment and feedback platform developed at Queen Mary.

EduGrade AI is designed to help educators generate rubric-aligned draft feedback and indicative marks while keeping academic judgement firmly with the educator. The project aims to reduce the administrative burden associated with marking while improving the consistency, quality and usefulness of feedback provided to students.

The platform has been trialled across different assessment formats and has demonstrated substantial reductions in marking time. The project is also progressing through wider institutional pilots, technical integration and commercialisation activities.

Dr Deepshikha said:

“I am delighted to be recognised as a TechWomen100 Award winner. This recognition is particularly meaningful to me because my work brings together education, technology, and responsible AI. AI has enormous potential to support educators, but it is important that we develop and use these technologies in ways that preserve academic judgement, transparency and human oversight.

I am very grateful to my colleagues, collaborators, students, and everyone who has supported the development of EduGrade AI. I hope this recognition will also encourage more women from education and academia to see themselves as contributors and leaders in the technology sector.”

The award reflects the growing impact of interdisciplinary innovation within SEMS, where expertise in science and engineering is increasingly being combined with emerging technologies to address challenges in teaching, assessment and student experience.

Dr Deepshikha will join fellow TechWomen100 winners at the 2026 awards celebration at Mansion House in London in October.

Congratulations to Zixuan Wu on successfully defending his PhD thesis

h.x.yan@qmul.ac.uk (Haixue Yan) — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Congratulations to Zixuan Wu who successfully passed his PhD viva on Wednesday 1st September 2026 with his thesis titled ‘Response of Dipoles in Linear and Non-linear Dielectric Oxide Ceramics’.

His PhD examiners were Prof Antonio Feteira and Dr Yao Lu.

Zixuan was supervised by Dr Haixue Yan.

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.