www.bris.ac.uk/composites

6th Annual Conference of the

CDT in Advanced Composites for Innovation and Science

(ACCIS CDT)

www.bris.ac.uk/composites

Introduction and Update on ACCIS CDT Activities

Professor Paul Weaver (CDT Director)

• Established in 2009 with £7.1 million award from the EPSRC

• Funding secured to continue training outstanding graduates until 2022

• Embedded within the Bristol Composites Institute (ACCIS)

• Funded by EPSRC, University and industrial partners

EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Composites for Innovation and Science

Vision: To develop the next generation of technical leaders in advanced composites by stimulating adventurous interdisciplinary research, which bridges the length scales, connects to and interfaces between the disciplines of engineering, chemistry, physics and life sciences,

and bestows enhanced and added functionality to composite materials.

• Significant industrial support

• National and international academic collaborations

• Memorandum of Understanding with the National Institute of Aerospace

• Wide choice of cutting-edge PhD projects – blue skies and applied

EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Composites for Innovation and Science

www.bristol.ac.uk/composites/cdt/

• 4-Year PhD in Advanced Composites

• Cohort-driven training approach

• Transferable skills training

• Public engagement

• At least 10 funded places per year

(UK/EU and International)

• Integrated taught component

– Small group teaching

– Flagship group design, build and test (DBT) project

– Individual 6-month exploratory research project

composites-cdt@bristol.ac.uk

CDT Staff and Management Committee

CDT ChairProf. Michael Wisnom

CDT DirectorProf. Paul Weaver

Head of the Queen‘s School of EngineeringProf. Ian Bond

Teaching Co-ordinatorDr Ian Farrow

CDT LecturerDr Dmitry Ivanov

CDT LecturerDr Alberto Pirrera

Deputy Director and Research Co-ordinatorDr Ian Hamerton

ACCIS Project ManagerMrs Katie Drury

CDTManagerMs Sarah Hallworth

PG Administrator Miss Irantzu Pérez

DTC13 RepsJ HartleyM Othman

CDT14RepsC AzaC White

CDT15 RepsV MaesT Rev

CDT16 Reps C BranfootK Kanari

News

• ACCIS chosen as one of seven new Specialist Research Institutes. Now the ‘Bristol Composites Institute (ACCIS)’

• Successful EPSRC Evaluation Framework ‘mid-term review’

• First industrially supported prizes awarded and new prizes confirmed

• Student-run industrial lecture series well underway – Hexcel, GKN, Technical Fibre Products . . .

Tamas Rev receiving the 2016 Hexcel prize for the best Extended Research Project (XP)

Vincent Maes receiving the 2016 Dassi Bikes prize for the best taught mark

Our Students

• 99 students since 2009

• 18% female

• 8th cohort of 16 students started Sept 2016

• Engineers and scientists with exceptional academic records from the UK, Europe and wider world

• Students benefit greatly from the diversity of their collective cultural and education backgrounds

“I am a better engineer, professional, and researcher from things I learned from my

cohort during my first year”

“Everyone has come from a different background and therefore has an

individual speciality which they can share with the others in the cohort”

Building Strong Cohorts

2013/142014/15

• 2nd inter-cohort design challenge – ‘Eggscape from New Yolk’

• Cider making – a ‘taste’ of Bristolian culture

• World café knowledge exchange event

Our Graduates

Recent Destinations

• Blue Origin

• Decision Analysis Services

• Inductosense

• Thales Alenia Space UK

• NCC

• Swansea University

• University of Bath

• University of Bristol

• Withers & Rogers LLP

• Yoox Net-a-Porter group

• 33 PhDs submitted; 29 completed

• 5 Faculty thesis commendations

• 100% recruitment

• Growing trend for targeting start-ups and SMEs for first employment

• Alumni starting to ‘give back’, supervising projects

“The training gained in the CDT has helped me considerably in gaining my first job, as the skills required matched

exactly those needed for the job”

Industry

Academia

Current destination by sector

Research Projects

Six-month Extended Research Projects (XPs)

• Undertaken in the first year (June to December)

• Co-supervised by ACCIS and collaborator(s)

• Can develop into a PhD project

• Fully-funded by the ACCIS CDT

PhD Projects

• Undertaken in years 2-4

• 30 of 82 PhD projects undertaken with an academic partner, and 30 an industrial partner

• Individual budget for conference travel, equipment etc

• International placement scheme

• Next project call: Sept/Oct 2017

Public Engagement

• RAeS Cool Aeronautics events

• Smart plastics workshop for the 8th Skirting Science day

• Composites workshops for the Crypt School and Stow-on-the Wold Primary School

• I’m an engineer, get me out of here! event finalist

• Segment on materials testing in relation to bird strikes for The One Show – aired 22nd March ‘17

• STEM for Britain event at the House of Commons

• UoB 3MT finalists every yearEvangels Zympeloudis discussing his work with Bristol Labour MP Thangam Debbonaire

Steven Rae and Simon Bates showing the One Show’s Marty Jopson how materials are

tested using an impact tower

Achievements

• Publications

− 93 journal papers

− 36 different journals, including the leading composite journals: Composite Structures, Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, and Smart Materials and Structures

• Conference participation

− 197 conference presentations delivered at major national and international conferences in 19 different countries

− Recent conferences:

➢ 2017 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit, April 2017

➢ 8th International Conference on Composites Testing and Model Identification (CompTest 2017), April 2017

➢ 24th Annual International Symposium on Smart Structures and Material Systems + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring (SPIE 2017), March 2017

➢ 58th AIAA/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference (AIAA SciTech 2017), January 2017

Achievements

Nima Composites Start-up Company Jamie Hartley and Evangelos Zympeloudis, 2013 cohort

New Shape Changing Metamaterial using KirigamiRobin Neville, 2011 cohort

• Carbon fibre covers for high value electronics

• Uses aircraft grade woven carbon fibre to craft a thin, lightweight, strong and aesthetically pleasing shell

• Manufacturing based in Greece

• Published in Scientific Reports

• A new investigation of the Poisson’s ratios of a family of cellular metamaterials based on Kirigami design principles

• Kirigami is the Japanese art of cutting and folding paper to obtain 3D shapes