newsletter · executive introduction department of engineering ... newsletter ongoing earthworks...

The Department is unusual for being asingle integrated engineering department.This quirk of history is now a key strengthas engineering challenges increasinglydemand large-scale multidisciplinaryapproaches.

The basic growth statistics speak forthemselves: research expenditure hasdoubled since 2000; so has the number ofpost doctoral researchers; and researchstudent numbers are up by 40%. Butperhaps the most interesting metric is theDepartment’s share of expenditure ongrants jointly held with other departments,which has increased by a factor of six. Thisincrease in multidisciplinary research isexemplified and increasingly driven by theDepartment’s three themes: sustainabledevelopment; cognitive systems; andengineering for life sciences.

In 2008, we will continue to drive formore collaboration among engineering

academics and with those from otherdepartments. The themes will play animportant role. Investment in infrastructurewill also be essential. Development on theTrumpington Street Site in the centre of the City and new facilities on the WestCambridge Site will open opportunities to build new and stronger connections.

The results of the Research Assessment Exercise will be publishedtowards the end of 2008 and, in themeantime, we are encouraged by the two most highly respected world university rankings produced last year: the Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranking in the broad field ofengineering/technology and computersciences; and the Times Higher EducationSupplement ranking in the field oftechnology. Both of these rankings placedCambridge above all other institutionsoutside the USA.

Executive Introduction

Department of Engineering

In this issue2 Teaching excellence rewarded

2 Bridging the gap before term starts

3 Cambridge researchers scoop breast cancer

3 Chancellor visits Schofield Centre

4 Gopal Madabhushi wins Medical FuturesInnovation Award

5 Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge –Europe

6 Cambridge students build Millau bridge

7 The car that diagnoses its own servicing needs

8 Igniting engineering ideas

9 Professor Palmer recieves an honorary doctorof science degree at Clarkson University

10 CUEA Annual Conference

11 Celebrating 21 years of materials selection

12 Engineering students display their design skills

14 European Material Research Society GraduateStudent Award

15 Cambridge University to compete in WorldSolar Challenge

16 New technology improves the reliability ofwind turbines

17 Set your clock to ‘British green time’

18 Inclusive design toolkit

19 School pupils come face to face withnanotechnology

20 Alumnus shares Nobel Peace Prize for 2007

21 Cambridge launches project SMiRT

22 Graphic chips rev up research results

23 Jan Maciejowski’s book recieves the 2007 besttextbook award

23 First Hibbitt Lecturer, Dr Garth Wells isappointed

24 George Stephenson Gold Medal

Issue 6 | February 2008

Newsletter

Ongoing earthworks in Ebbsfleet Valley in Kent Thameside where Land Securities plc isdeveloping a sustainable community over the next 30 years. An exemplary example of

multidisciplinary collaboration where the Department's Centre for Sustainable Development isworking with the Departments of Architecture and Land Economy.

Photo courtesy of Dr Heather Cruickshank

The Department’s progress since 2000 was revealed in a set of factsand figures gathered for the UK Government Research AssessmentExercise last year (www.rae.ac.uk). They show that the Departmenthas not only grown rapidly, but also developed more connectionsboth between its divisions and out to other disciplines.

An integrated engineering departmentfounded on core strengths spanning allengineering disciplines and also cross-connected by three strategic themes:• Cognitive Systems Engineering• Engineering for Life Sciences• Sustainable Development.

www.eng.cam.ac.uk

Date for your diaryAlumni Weekend 2008Friday 26th – Sunday 28th SeptemberCities of the FutureSpeakers:•Professor Nick Collings

Streets ahead: the future of personaltransport

•Professor Randall Thomas Sustainable cities: mirage or miracle?

•Dr Stuart Scott Powering our cities in the 21st century

www.foundation.cam.ac.uk/weekend.php

2 | Engineering Newsletter | Issue 6 | February 2008

All of the lecturers have made outstandingcontributions to the development ofteaching in their departments and faculties. The benefits of their work have reached notonly students at the University ofCambridge, but also other students andprofessionals world-wide.

Dr Tom Hynes has been for many yearsone of the most dependable, flexible andsuccessful lecturers in the department. In atypical year, he may be founddemonstrating computing to first-yearundergraduates, lecturing part 1B studentsin thermo-fluids and mathematics, andlecturing in specialist modules on turbo-machinery.

All of Dr Hynes’s courses are noted fortheir clarity. His success in conveyingMathematics to students has been aparticular cause for congratulations. Dr Hynes is an attentive teacher who takesgreat care not to make assumptions abouthis students’ needs.

The Pilkington Prizes were set up by thelate Sir Alastair Pilkington, former Chairmanof the Cambridge Foundation. The prizesare supported by Cambridge UniversityPress, and are awarded annually by the

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alison Richard. Professor Richard said, “These rewards havegone to outstanding lecturers andprofessors and reflect the breadth anddepth of this University’s commitment tooutstanding and innovative teaching.” Andrew Gilfillan, Managing Director ofEurope, Middle East and Africa, atCambridge University Press, said,

“We are delighted to support the annualPilkington Teaching Prizes award ceremony.Today’s prizewinners have been selected bytheir own students and peers; we know ofno better testimonial to their talents and wecongratulate them on the recognition theyhave received.”

Teaching excellence rewarded

Dr Tom Hynes receiving his prize from Professor Alison Richard, Vice-Chancellor of the UniversityPhotographer Mike Cameron

Dr Tom Hynes, a SeniorLecturer in the Department ofEngineering, is one of elevenUniversity of Cambridgelecturers who have beenrecognised for their excellencein teaching, at an awardsceremony for the 2007Pilkington Prizes.

Students come to Cambridge with varyinglevels of knowledge and experiencebecause there is a very wide range ofoptions at A-level. For example, some havetaken several mechanics modules andothers very few. Some have taken FurtherMaths and others not. This presents asignificant challenge to the first yearlecturers, who typically have to cover theirsubject area in just 16 lectures. Ideally,some students would receive more tuitionin some areas before starting the lectures.

Before they arrive, new undergraduatesare sent a Preparatory Problems Booklet,which shows them the level that is

expected at entry and helps them toidentify any areas in which they couldimprove. This year a website has beencreated to run in conjunction with thebooklet. It provides a wide variety ofresources, ranging from a simple mathsformula sheet to tutorial-like animationsfrom the first year lecturers, as well as linksto good external sites. The aim is to makeit very easy for students to fill any gaps intheir knowledge before coming toCambridge.

The website has been funded by RLO-CETL (The Centre for Excellence inTeaching & Learning in Reusable Learning

Objects) and created by Megan DaviesWykes, a UROP (Undergraduate ResearchOpportunities Programme) studentsupervised by Matthew Juniper. The projectis led by Dawn Leeder, with technical inputfrom Matthew Juniper, Jim Woodhouse,Andrew Gee and Tom Hynes.

A new way of bridging the gap between A-leveland university

Bridging the gap before term startsA new way of bridging the gap between A-level and university isbeing pioneered by the Department of Engineering.

Engineering Newsletter | Issue 6 | February 2008 | 3

Part of the Department of Engineering, theCentre carries out simulations ofearthquakes, tsunamis and othergeological phenomena to inform and assistindustry on the design of tunnels, pipelinesand even housing.

The Chancellor had previously visitedthe Centre in 1989. He was keenlyinterested in and impressed bydevelopments in technology andunderstanding since then, as he wasshown around by Professor MalcolmBolton and Professor Robert Mair and metseveral researchers.

The building he visited was completedin November 2001. It was designed aroundthe existing Schofield Centrifuge Centre,which opened in 1986 and is named afterthe University's Emeritus Professor of SoilMechanics, Andrew Schofield, who waspresent to meet the Chancellor.

Further information on the SchofieldCentre can be found at: www-civ.eng.cam.ac.uk/geotech_new/geotech.htm

Chancellor visits Schofield CentreThe Chancellor, His Royal Highness Prince Philip, and the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alison Richard, visited the SchofieldCentre in October 2007.

Alec Marshall, a second year PhD student,discusses his research project with the Chancellor

The primary objective of the CambridgeBreast IMRT Trial is to prove that IMRT(Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy)decreases toxicity compared with standardbreast radiotherapy. Over 1100 patientshave now been recruited.

In order to do this it is necessary tomeasure the way that the size and shapeof the breast changes in response to theradiotherapy. This involves comparing thethree-dimensional outline of the breast atregular intervals during the treatment withits initial outline. The complex curvedshape of the breast makes this comparisondifficult to achieve in a repeatable andreliable way.

A novel analytical tool to assess breastshrinkage after radiotherapy has beendeveloped in collaboration with Dr GrahamTreece and his team here at theDepartment of Engineering. Graham wrotethe laser surface matching software basedon an original algorithm devised by TomDrummond. This laser surface matching

software will give information about theposition and extent of breast shrinkage, bymeasuring the subtle changes in the 3Dbreast shape and hence measure thequantitative effects of the varioustreatments under evaluation. This can thenbe mapped to the original radiotherapyplan.

This high quality clinical trial data islinked with patient blood DNA samples tolook for genetic variation in normal tissueside effects. The IMRT Trial has nowcontributed 50% of samples for the multi-centre translational study RAPPER,developing individualised radiotherapybased on patient’s genetics.

Presenting the ‘Research Team of theYear 2007’ prize at the inaugural awardsceremony at the House of Lords, Professor

Alastair Thompson, Chair of theCampaign’s Scientific Advisory Board said,“Campaign’s Research Team of the YearAward, now in its fifth year, is given to theCampaign research team whose work hasmade valuable advances in breast cancerresearch during the past year.”

Dr Charlotte Coles said “We aredelighted to receive the Team of the Yearaward. Campaign’s funding has allowed usto establish a large trial and follow-uppatients over several years to assess thesuccess of this new type of radiotherapy.”

For further information please contactDr Graham Treece email:[email protected]

Cambridge researchers scoop breast cancerprizeDr Charlotte Coles and MissJenny Wilkinson acceptedBreast Cancer Campaign’s‘Research Team of the Year2007’ award on behalf of theCambridge Breast IMRT TrialManagement Group atAddenbrooke’s Hospital, fortheir outstanding work lookinginto improving radiotherapyfor breast cancer patients.

An image of the 3D surface of the breast captured with a laser scanner. The colour from blue to redsignifies how much the breast has changed shape after radiotherapy - red indicates a significant change


Theirs was selected from over one hundredentries and described the development andtesting of a new technique to improve thecompaction of bone graft in revision totalhip replacement. The use of vibration tocompact bone graft (crushed bone) aroundthe prosthesis leads to smaller hoopstresses in the femur improving the successof the revision hip replacement operations.It also gives the surgeons better control onhow much compaction is required toachieve good results without the risk offracturing the femur.

Doug Dunlop and Ben Bolland fromSouthampton General Hospital providedthe clinical input and Andrew New of theSchool of Engineering Sciences and GopalMadabhushi of the Geotechnical andEnvironmental Research Group here at the

Department provided the engineeringknow-how. The team were awarded theprize at a gala awards ceremony hosted byJoanna Lumley and Rory Bremner at theHonourable Artillery Company in London.The paper on this work has also appearedin the May 2007 issue of The Journal ofBone and Joint Surgery.

An abstract of the paper can be foundat www.jbjs.org.uk/cgi/content/abstract/89-B/5/686

More details on the Medical FuturesInnovations Awards can be found atwww.medicalfutures.co.uk

Above: Gopal Madabhushi (second from left) and team win a Medical Futures Innovation Award.Below: Normal and improved prosthesis.

A team of surgeons and engineers from SouthamptonUniversity Hospitals NHS Trust, the School of EngineeringSciences at the University of Southampton and theDepartment of Engineering at the University of Cambridgerecently won the Best Surgical Technology award in Bone andJoint Category of the Medical Futures Innovation Awards2007.

Gopal Madabhushi wins a Medical FuturesInnovation Award

Since 2000 the Departmenthas created over 20 spin-outand start-up companies with

a total investment of over£50 million.

FACT BOX


Correction

This is the first year Cambridge hascompeted in the SAUC-E competitionand the team won second prize. This is afantastic achievement for anundergraduate student team comprisingmostly first years. Paul Esparon, RichardMathie, Alex Ridge, Simon Calcutt, SunilShah, Oliver Hughes and Andy Pritchardhad no prior experience of autonomy orunderwater vehicles. As the team said “A most significant factor in our successwas the generous donations from oursponsors Sentec, Qinetiq and IET withoutwhich there would be no team.”

The students gained an enormousamount of real life engineeringexperience, putting ideas into practice,and they all thoroughly enjoyed theevent. Paul Esparon, project director ofthe team, said “It is definitely abeneficial part of our engineeringdegree. We learned how to work on anengineering project against all adversityand set backs which is a vital skill thatsets any student who undertakes such achallenging project a cut above the rest.”

The event was four days long. Thefirst two days were practice and time tomake last minute adjustments to theAUV. The third day was qualifying andthe fourth day the finals. Points wereawarded based on the final run,technical documentation, presentationsand innovation.

The competition will be held in Brest,France in 2008 and the team areenthusiastic about recruiting moremembers. The current team have alreadybegun new designs for 2008.

Further informationwww.cambridgeauv.co.uk

Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge –Europe

AUV at pool test during early stages ofdevelopment.

The Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge – Europe (SAUC-E) is a competition for students fromacross Europe to design and build Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) to attempt an underwaterassault course. The course varies from year to year but can consist of gates, drop targets, surfacezones, and many other obstacles. The aim is to advance the state of the art of AUV technology and thecompetition provides opportunities for students to gain industrial links.

The team from left to right Alex Ridge, Simon Calcutt, Sunil Shah, Paul Esparon (Team Captain),Oliver Hughes, Richard Mathie, Andy Pritchard. Photo courtesy of Crown Copyright DSTL.

Completed AUV submerged and ready to tacklethe final competition run. Photo courtesy of

Crown Copyright DSTL.

Victoria Grinevich has written to us to pointout a correction that is needed in the"Professor Kenneth Johnson awarded theTimoshenko Medal" article in the last issueof the Department Newsletter. In the 4th

paragraph it is written: "When Timoshenkoemigrated from Russia to the US...", and itshould have been written "WhenTimoshenko emigrated from Ukraine (a partof Russia at the time) to the US...".

Stephan Timoshenko (Ukrainian: StepanTymoshenko) was born in the village ofShpotivka in Poltava Gubernia (currentlyChernihiv Oblast, Ukraine).


The scheme is run at the NationalConstruction College in Norfolk. Eachuniversity is teamed with a Contractor. Theteam from the Department of Engineeringteamed up with Stephenson Constructionand Consulting Engineers WhitbyBird. Thestructure had to be completed within aweek.

The students had to excavate thefoundations, cast reinforced concrete bases for the abutment bearings and thecolumns, erect the columns and assemblethe cable-stayed deck units onembankments at the side. These had to be launched across the valley and werethen locked into position before anyone was allowed to cross the structure.

The steelwork for the structure hadbeen prefabricated, but had to beassembled by the students, and as in reallife they found that the steelwork did notmatch the drawings exactly, nor could thestructure be launched in the wayenvisaged. These problems had to be

overcome, as did some errors introducedby the students themselves.

The final structure almost met perfectlyin the middle, and was declared safe by anengineer, allowing the team photograph tobe taken. The project was hard work butwas a great introduction to real-worldengineering, and showed how anengineering drawing, showing precisemillimetre tolerances as used in the originalstructural analysis, is not always a realisticview of what happens on site.

It is intended that the scheme will berepeated next year, with a larger number

of students undertaking several differentprojects.

We would like to express our thanks toStephensons and WhitbyBird for theirfinancial sponsorship and the investmentof their time, and to Constructionarium formaking the whole scheme available to theUniversity of Cambridge.

Further information can be found atthe link below:Constructionarium website:www.constructionarium.co.uk

Cambridge Students build Millau Bridge

The final structure. Photograph courtesy of Jenny Auton

Seventeen third-year students from the Department have taken part, for the first time, inConstructionarium, a scheme designed to introduce students to team working, constructionmanagement, and practical issues that affect work on site. The students built a small-scale version ofthe new Millau Viaduct in France, but with a central span of 10 metres it was a still a sizeablestructure in its own right.

Millau Cable Bridge, between Clermont-Ferrand and Béziers in southern France


The specially-adapted Fiat prototype, whichwas presented at a European technologyshow, can tell garage staff about the stateof its components in seconds by usingelectronic tags inside its engine.

The system has been designed byacademics at the Institute forManufacturing (IfM), part of theDepartment of Engineering. In conjunctionwith sophisticated software, it could beused to speed up servicing, and identifywhich parts can be recycled or reusedwhen the vehicle reaches the end of itslife. Combining such information frommany vehicles would pinpoint which partsof a car need redesigning.

In those rare cases that a faulty batchof cars are actually sent to showrooms, thetechnique could instantly single out whichmodels need to be recalled before they hitthe road.

Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID)tags, each with its own uniqueidentification number, are attached to thecar’s engine parts. The vehicle is thendriven at low speed over a one-metresquare servicing pad, which is fitted withan Ultra-High Frequency reader and fourantennae.

As the car passes over the pad, thereaders transmit the ID number from theelectronic tags to a computer. By cross-referring this information with acomputerised database – for example oneshowing the parts’ date and manufacturer– mechanics would be able to identifythose parts that needed to be checked forwear at the click of a mouse.

Professor Duncan McFarlane, from the University of Cambridge’s IfM said;“Ultimately motorists could be driving into a garage over the same sort of sensor, which would instantly tell both the driver and the garage staff which parts needed replacing and which mightbe good for several thousand miles more.

“But there are potentially greatbenefits beyond this as well. When the caris sent to be scrapped, for example, RFIDtagging could be used to identify whichparts still have a useful life left in them.The system will tell the car producer

whether separate parts can be reused,recycled, or need to be disposed of inlandfill. It will also highlight which partsneed improving for a longer life.”

This demonstrator forms part of a EUfunded project called ‘Product LifecycleManagement and Information TrackingUsing Smart Embedded Systems’,conveniently abbreviated to PROMISE. Thesystem has already been demonstrated atFiat’s research centre in Turin.

“The PROMISE system has much widerpotential as well,” Professor McFarlaneadded. “It allows us to trace and updateinformation about any product, after itsdelivery to the customer and up to the endof its useful life. In time it could bepossible to tag all sorts of products,components, and even airport baggageand boarding passes.”

For further information please e-mail:[email protected]

The car that diagnoses its own servicing needs

Fiat prototype car with sensor pad

An intelligent system thatcould before long enablecars to tell mechanics whichof their parts need servicinghas been unveiled byengineers here at theDepartment.

“Ultimately motoristscould be driving into

a garage over thesame sort of sensor,

which wouldinstantly tell both thedriver and the garage

staff which partsneeded replacing andwhich might be goodfor several thousand

miles more...”


“This collaboration with CIKC is a greatopportunity for us to foster innovation atthe University”, stated CfEL ProgrammeManager, Yupar Myint. “CIKC’s objectiveto enable and accelerate thecommercialisation of technology throughbuilding appropriate business skills is aperfect fit with Ignite. The CIKC support isa significant bonus for the programmeensuring a high quality of delegates andtechnology ideas.”

CIKC received a large number ofapplications for the course when thesponsorship was advertised and three ofthe five successful applicants were fromthe Department of Engineering. ZhihanWang, currently completing his PhD underDr Patrick Palmer’s supervision in thePower & Energy Conversion Group, foundthe course instructive and beneficialparticularly because during the course hewas introduced “to a very supportivenetwork of seasoned entrepreneurs,venture angels, business mentors and MBAstudents”. Zhihan is now discussing thefeedback from the course with hiscolleagues and supervisor and the nextstage will be to utilise the CambridgeVenture Programme to explore marketresearch opportunities and to approachCambridge Enterprise aboutcommercialising their idea.

Another PhD student from ElectricalEngineering, Hang Zhou, felt that thecourse gave him the confidence toconsider starting his own business in thefuture. Hang learned about importantaspects of marketing as well as the kind ofbusiness model that would be best suitedto exploit his product commercially. Hangwas judged an ideal candidate for thecourse, since he arrived with a “businessidea that seemed to be a viable piece oftechnology and made a good economiccase for its potential and opportunity”.

The third delegate also from ElectricalEngineering was Chi Hang Kwok, currentlycompleting his PhD under the supervisionof Professor Ian White, Head of thePhotonic Communication Group. Chi Hangapplied for one of the CIKC funded placesalready armed with a well preparedbusiness plan and was keen to attend the

course, not only to subject his businessideas to expert scrutiny, but to “increasecontacts and to improve my networkingskills”. He commented that “the practicalcontent of the course improved mybusiness proposition and presentation skillswhich are invaluable for taking mybusiness plan forward in the future”.

The course has been a great successand the CIKC are planning to repeat theirsponsorship next summer.

The CIKC has been set up with fundingfrom the Engineering and Physical SciencesResearch Council (EPSRC) to developadvanced manufacturing technologiesbased on new macromolecular materialssystems, for example polymer electronicsor advanced liquid crystals, and to createvalid commercial exploitation models forthese innovations.

CIKC brings together research activitiesin molecular and macromolecular materialsin the Electrical Engineering Division (inparticular, the Centre for AdvancedPhotonics and Electronics) and in theCavendish Laboratory.

It also draws on the expertise of JudgeBusiness School, the Institute for

Manufacturing (IfM) and the Centre forBusiness Research (CBR), to createinnovative knowledge exchange activitiesspanning business research, training andspecific exploitation.

Combining world-class research with astrong partnership with business, CIKCengage with industrial partners to shapeand prioritise the work programme, allowthe secondment of researchers fromindustry and from other universities forknowledge exchange, and enable theprovision of pilot manufacturing lines forprototyping.

The mission of the centre is to providethe business and technical expertise andinfrastructure to enable those withexploitable concepts to achieve commercialsuccess.

For further information please contactMaggie Tanner [email protected] more about the CIKC in theUniversity of Cambridge researchmagazine ‘Research Horizons’ - issue 3- Summer 2007 edition found at:www.rsd.cam.ac.uk/research_horizons/

Igniting Engineering Ideas - Engineering Studentsattend CfEL’s entrepreneurship programmeThe Cambridge Integrated Knowledge Centre (CIKC) recently sponsored five students to attend theIgnite programme which took place between 8th and 14th July 2007. The course, run by the Centre forEntrepreneurial Learning (CfEL) at Judge Business School, is an intensive, one week trainingprogramme for aspiring entrepreneurs and corporate innovators to trial and prepare business ideas forthe commercial environment. Now in its tenth year, Ignite attracted over 50 delegates from a widerange of business disciplines spanning many countries.

The five CIKC sponsored attendees at the Ignite course pictured with CIKC Administrator MaggieTanner and the Director of CfEL Shai Vyakarnam.


Professor Palmer addressed the ClarksonUniversity class of 2007 telling them thatalthough he may not have the expecteduplifting and instructive graduationmessage for them, he would leave themwith three thoughts: “When you look backon your life, you don’t regret the thingsyou have done, only the things youhaven’t done,” he said. Second was aquote from the author, T. H. White:“When you feel unhappy, the remedy is tolearn something new.” His final thoughtwas an inspiration from George Fox, oneof the founders of the Society of Friends –the Quakers. Fox went on a mission toSouth Wales and climbed to the top of amountain, where he had a religiousexperience. Descending from themountain, he gave a sermon and told thefaithful, “Go cheerfully through the worldand speak to that of God in every man.”Palmer said he wasn’t certain he coulddefine God, “but I can say to you, gocheerfully and speak to that of goodnessin every man.”

Professor Palmer is the world’s leadingauthority on the incremental movement of pipes on the sea bed as a result of cyclic pressure and temperature changes –an area in which his knowledge of soilmechanics, stability theory and non-linearanalysis makes him a unique expert. He is also known for his contributions topipelines and the offshore industry, hiswork as a Professor of engineering and his successes in engineering consulting.

Professor Palmer earned his bachelor’sdegree in engineering from CambridgeUniversity in 1961, and after completinghis PhD at Brown University in the USA,followed by a spell at the University ofLiverpool, he returned as a lecturer in1967. Wanting to try real engineering, in1975 he joined a consultancy firm, R.J.Brown and Associates, the leadingconsultant in underwater pipelines. Heworked on underwater ploughs, icemechanics and new techniques for Arcticpipeline construction. He was the projectmanager for the first Arctic offshore

pipeline, built off the coast of MelvilleIsland in Canada.

In 1970 he advised BP on a soil-structure interaction problem, the effect ofthawing permafrost on the Trans-Alaska oilpipeline. A year later BP asked him about astructural analysis problem in theconstruction of the Forties pipeline, thefirst North Sea pipeline in what was thenthought of as deep water. “That soundsinteresting”, he replied “but I don’t knowanything about underwater pipelines”.”We think that’s an advantage”, BP replied“you’ll bring a fresh mind to it. Come andsee us tomorrow”. That telephone callchanged his life.

After another spell in academia, asProfessor of Civil Engineering at theUniversity of Manchester Institute ofScience and Technology (UMIST) (1979-82), he again departed to the immediacyof consultancy work, eventually setting uphis own company in 1985.

He founded Andrew Palmer andAssociates, a company of consultingengineers who specialise in marinepipelines and have been engaged inpipeline projects on every continent. After selling his company in 1993, Palmer remained as technical director until he returned to university teaching as the Jafar Research Professor ofPetroleum Engineering at CambridgeUniversity in 1996. He was a visitingprofessor in the Division of Engineeringand Applied Sciences at Harvard Universityin 2002–2003. He retired from Cambridge in 2005 and is now Keppel Chair Professor in the Department of CivilEngineering at the National University ofSingapore. Professor Palmer is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, aChartered Engineer, a member of theSociety of Petroleum Engineers and amember of the Academy of Experts.

He is the author of three books and more than 180 papers on pipelines,offshore engineering, geotechnics and ice.

Professor Palmer receives an honorary doctorof science degree at Clarkson University’s114th Commencement

Professor Andrew C. Palmer

Professor Andrew C. Palmer, an Emeritus Professor of the Department, has received an honorarydoctor of science degree at Clarkson University’s 114th Commencement. The degree was awarded“for his exceptional contributions to pipeline and offshore engineering, his years of dedicatedguidance of students of engineering, and his notable successes as both an academician and abusinessman.”

“When you look backon your life, youdon’t regret thethings you have

done, only the thingsyou haven’t done,”

Since 2000 over 500 researchgrants have been awarded

to the Department withover 25% of the funding

coming from industry.

FACT BOX


Enecsys – Asim Mumtaz, Lesley Chisenga, Nabin Shrestha, Andrabadu VirajEnecsys, a spin-out company from theEngineering Department, is developing aseries of power-conditioning units (PCU),or inverters, that take the output directlyfrom individual solar panels and conditionsit so that it can be fed directly into themains grid, thus qualifying for governmentincentives on ‘feed-in’ tariffs whereapplicable. The patented Enecsystechnology provides several keyadvantages over existing systems,especially ease and cost of installation,reliability and improved system efficiencygiving faster payback on capital costs thancurrent systems. The Enecsys teamdemonstrated this next generation powerconverter for solar modules.

Silent Aircraft Initiative – Alex QuayleThe aim of the Silent Aircraft Initiative is togenerate a credible commercial aircraftdesign that would be inaudible outside ofan airport in a typical urban environment.This Cambridge-MIT Institute project is ajoint venture between the two universitiesinvolving over thirty academics and a largenumber of industrial partners.

CUER Cambridge University Eco Racing– Geoff CunninghamCambridge University Eco Racing (CUER) isa student-led initiative aiming to designand build a Solar Electric Vehicle tocompete in the World Solar Challenge(WSC) in 2009. Founded in January 2007,CUER has successfully recruited 20enthusiastic team members and securedstrong departmental support. CUERdisplayed posters, photos and a slideshowabout the team, with sponsor packsavailable to pick up.

A small scale “Non-Inertive-Feedback-Thermofluidic-Engine” (NIFTE) pump –Christos MarkidesThis type of pump is thermally powered, inthe case of the demonstration by usingheat from an electric heater, but in a reallife application this would be waste heat,or heat from the sun, to produce hydraulic(pumping) work without the need of

mechanical moving parts. NIFTEs are self-starting and require only small temperaturedifferences to operate. They are simple,reliable and cheap to manufacture andrun. They have many humanitarianapplications, such as the supply of drinkingwater or water for agriculture in thedeveloping and third world, as well asother applications such as domestic hotwater circulation.

Sustainable manufacturing group atthe Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) –Kathryn JacksonProjects include incremental sheet forming,polymer recycling, recycling of aluminiumby cold bonding and removal of tonerfrom printed paper. A rig for removal oftoner from paper was demonstrated.

Cambridge Vehicle DynamicsConsortium – Jonathan MillerLong combination heavy goods vehiclesprovide benefits such as reducedcongestion and fuel consumption. Thesevehicles are not presently used in the UKbecause they cannot negotiate ourroundabouts. This project looks at activerear steering for articulated heavy vehiclesto make them safer and moremanoeuvrable.

High speed in-cylinder sampling ininternal combustion engines – Simon RegitzHigh speed sampling valves are useful toolsin understanding the combustion processand emissions characteristics of internalcombustion engines. In the work presenteda high speed sampling valve based on agasoline direct injector has beendeveloped. Cyclically resolvedmeasurements of in-cylinder nitrogen oxide(NOx) and carbon dioxide (CO2) have beencarried out to evaluate Exhaust GasRecirculation variations and nitrogen-monoxide (NO) formation.

Engineers Without Borders – MirandaSegar, Ben Taylor, Ciaran MalikEWB-UK’s mission is to facilitate humandevelopment through engineering. Run bystudents and assisted by professionalvolunteers, EWB trains and educatesstudents and recent graduates indevelopment theory and practice. EWB’sactvities include local community work,talks and trips, training courses forstudents, and running annual placementsfor suitable students and graduates inorganisations and developing communitiesaround the world. EWB-UK is a registeredcharity.

CUEA Annual Conference: Engineering – building a better worldThe Cambridge University Engineering Association conference was held as part of the annual AlumniWeekend. The event was a great success with contributions from the following groups in theDepartment:


Markerless Motion Capture UsingMultiple Cameras – Paris KaimakisMotion capture systems allow computersto quantify and digitise human motion.Once the motion has been captured, aseparate recognition process can takeplace. This technology can be used insurveillance systems and human-computerinterfaces. Other applications includeanimation and data compression.

Centre for Sustainable Development –Dr Heather Cruickshank and Priti ParikhThe Centre for Sustainable Developmenthas grown to encompass the delivery of aone-year full-time taught MPhil inEngineering for Sustainable Development,which was introduced in 2002 and aresearch community covering sustainabledevelopment issues in the fields of water,waste, sustainable communities,assessment methodologies and fragilenation states. The work adopts a multi-disciplinary approach and focuses on thecontext and complexity in whichengineering products and services aredelivered.

Geotechnical Engineering – Ulas CilingirSeismic behaviour of the undergroundstructures. Ulas is looking at the soil-structure interaction between the tunneland the surrounding ground during theearthquakes. His research involves advancedtechniques like dynamic centrifuge testing,digital image analysis and finite elementmodelling.

Department of Engineering EducationalOutreach – Joy WardeIntroducing young people to the fun andcreativity of engineering in a Universityresearch environment. In 2006-7 over 2200young people and their parents andteachers visited the University for a handson design-build-test engineering challenge.These events were supported by 110engineering student, staff and alumnivolunteers who acted as role models for thenext generation of engineers. To supportthese visits Joy has developed a variety ofhands-on projects for all age groups rangingfrom ‘Rocket Launchpad’ for primary schoolchildren, to programming lego robots for Alevel students to ‘Crane ConstructionChallenge’ for family teams. Outreachdisplayed a range of projects, feedback

from participants and plans for the future ofEngineering Outreach.

Wind Technologies Ltd – Ehsan Abdi JalebiWind Technologies Ltd was founded tobring to market a new generation ofelectrical generator systems for the windturbine industry. The new technology,through offering high reliability and lowcapital and maintenance costs, willsignificantly contribute to the wideradoption of wind power generation. Thetechnology promises significant applicationsin a wide spectrum of wind turbines, frommicro wind systems for domestic powergeneration, up to multi-megawatt turbinesfor on and off shore developments.

This year's Alumni Weekend, Friday 26th –Sunday 28th September, will focus on“Cities of the Future”. Speakers will be:Professor Nick Collings “Streets ahead: the future of personal transport”, ProfessorRandall Thomas “Sustainable cities: mirageor miracle?” and Dr Stuart Scott“Powering our cities in the 21st century”.More information can be found at:www.foundation.cam.ac.uk/weekend.php

In 1986, Professors Mike Ashby and DavidCebon first collaborated on developingsoftware tools to systematically selectmaterials for engineering applications.Their work, at the Department, led to thefounding of Granta Design and thedevelopment of new technologies andproducts that are now used by world-leading engineering organizations such asNASA, Rolls-Royce, Honeywell, GE, andEmerson Electric. These products include:

CES Selector – advanced softwaretools, used in industry to support analysisand selection of engineering materials andprocesses

GRANTA MI – an integrated system tomanage materials information throughoutthe engineering process

CES EduPack – the leading toolkit forteaching materials engineering, now usedat over 550 universities worldwide.

The celebration party, at Queens’College, Cambridge, brought togethercurrent and former employees andresearchers at Granta Design andCambridge University, and otherlongstanding friends of the materialsselection project. A display, supported by

hands-on demonstrations, charted thedevelopment of Granta’s materialsinformation technology from the “back ofan envelope” in 1986 to today’s advancedcommercial tools.

Granta Chairman, Mike Ashby,Managing Director, David Cebon and ChiefOperating Officer, Patrick Coulter, thankedall of those at Cambridge University,Granta Design, partners and customers,who have contributed to this progress.They also noted the promising future formaterials information technology. Gooddecisions about materials usage will becentral to eco-design and to the ability ofbusiness to reduce its carbon footprint andmeet environmental regulations. Thesedecisions require the right materialsinformation and analysis tools – soGranta’s solutions are well placed to play a vital role in an increasingly eco-awareeconomy.

Further information about GrantaDesign can be found on their websitewww.grantadesign.com

Celebrating 21 Years of Materials SelectionA “coming of age” party last year marked twenty-one years of materials selection software atCambridge University and Granta Design.

David Cebon and Mike Ashby


The Design Show is held each year for aninvited audience of local industrialists anddesigners. Students put together displaysto explain the technical and business ideasbehind the products, together with designdetails and prototype models of theproducts themselves.

“The students have been working on theirprojects for most of the past year and theresults are fantastic,” said Lecturer DrJames Moultrie. “Some ideas have realcommercial potential and they will beseeking finance to take them further.” Dr Moultrie said: “These designs not onlyreflect the imagination of our students, butthe emphasis we place on turningtechnology into products that areattractive, user-friendly and above all meeta real customer need. Hopefully some ofthe ideas will see the light of day in acommercial setting in the not-too-distantfuture.”

The projectsBrailleBelt: A revolutionary pocket-sized Braille output device

BrailleBelt saw a need to develop aportable device that would capture animage containing text and output theinformation in either audio speech orBraille. The reading material could beanything from newspapers to novels, fromcereal packets to medicine instructions andcould even include electronic displays suchas microwave LCD displays. BrailleBelt is now focusing purely on theBraille output technology. The studentsdeveloped a method of producing arefreshable Braille display on a small andflexible belt. New and existing Brailleproducts can use this device, allowingcontinuous reading and true portability.There are currently no commercial productsthat use a Braille output device smallerthan around a foot wide and the teambelieves its innovative technology canenable the world to make pocket-sized

Braille output devices. Team members: Pete Budge, Anne Jenkinsand Frankie Leung

The Clean Cup Sauna: no more plasticcups, no more washing up: an ecofriendly cup cleaning solution.

This team developed a radical new solutionfor office workers who enjoy a hot drinkbut are too busy to wash up. Unlike adishwasher which is time-consuming torun, or disposable cups which areunpleasant to drink from, the Sauna wouldbe a drop off for dirty cups, cleaning andstoring them, ready for re-use. Designed touse 85% less water than a traditionaldishwasher, the machine would be costeffective and eco-friendly. Team members: Andrea An, Justin Chang,Daniel Neal and Sarah Ong

Easy-Rise: An affordable alternative toadjustable beds

The Easy-Rise mattress will address theneeds of elderly people who have difficultygetting in/out of bed, and sitting up. Its

key feature is that it is incorporated into amattress. This will provide both portability,comfort and will also fit with the style ofthe bedroom. It will enable the user to situp in bed for prolonged periods of time towatch TV or read. The intention is tocreate a product that will cost considerablyless than the current bed raisers on themarket, which the team believes are fartoo expensive for many elderly people toafford. The main target market for easy-rise is the elderly, but there is also apotential opening in the luxury market forthose who want an easy way of sitting upin bed.Team members: Natasha Close, KevinDavies, Kunal Patel and Melia Xiao

The Driftboard: Allowingsnowboarders to practice and improvetheir skills in non-snow conditions

The Driftboard will allow snowboarders,both professional and beginner, toexperience the feeling of carving powderwithout the need for snow. The board willbe suitable for use on slopes with arelatively smooth terrain, such as tarmac.The Driftboard consists of a flexible deck toallow shock absorption attached to ourunique Drift-fx trucks. The trucks allow full360 degree motion to be achieved withthe board by the use of speciallyengineered castors. To enable the ‘carving’effect the castors will be directionallybiased based on the relative angle of theboard. This will recreate the responsivenessshown by snowboards when turning usingthe edge of the board, replicating thevariable bite felt on snow.Team members: Monique Chawia, WillClayton, Chris Paley-Smith and Lisi Pan

Engineering students display their design skills

Manufacturing Engineering students at the Department’s Institute for Manufacturing Design Show,displayed a range of new products that they have developed as part of their course.


Activ-Back: Perform better, feel better,Activ-Back

ActivBack is a unique new way to improvetechnique and reduce the chance of spinalinjury, ideal for sportsmen and womenlooking to gain a competitive edge. Activ-Back offers unparalleled freedom ofmotion to the user, unlike existing productswhich are restrictive and cumbersome. Byusing a novel approach to posturemeasurement, the team believes it couldproduce ActivBack at a much lower costthan products currently available. Team members: Wina Appleton, TomCock, Mark Palmer and Sarah-Rose Rogers

CPE AgentWand: Room dimensioningand plotting device to aid EstateAgents when mapping homes

AgentWand is designed for Estate Agentswho need to produce professional andaccurate floor plans for clients quickly andefficiently. There are two components tothe device; a ‘wand’ carried around to keyfeatures of the room (e.g. corners, doorsetc.) and a ‘base station’ that preciselylocates these features. Usingmultilateration techniques, the base stationlocates the feature co-ordinates fromultrasonic pulses emitted by the wand.Advantages over conventional products

include: rapid plan production, provisionfor complex, non-rectangular rooms andless room for human error. Team members: Alex Drofiak, JasonJoannou, Guy Rumens and Ellie Smith

SocketSaver: An energy saving devicewhich detects standby mode, switchesthe power off, and can be turned backon without effort as soon as theappliance is needed.

A device to be used between the plug ofan electrical appliance and the wall socketin order to minimise energy lost onstandby mode. It is estimated thathousehold electricity bills could be cut byup to 20%, saving the average household£37 per year.Team members: Natasha Fowlie, MichaelGardiner, Nick Tovey and Alana Vogt

SpeedSmart: A novel device that alertsdrivers if they are speeding andimpedes the vehicle

The SpeedSmart system is an intelligentspeed calming system designed to alter thebehaviour of drivers by giving regular visualfeedback and rewarding those drivers whoadhere to the speed limits. The SpeedSmart system uses the latestAutomatic Number Plate Recognitiontechnology to calculate the average speedof the vehicle throughout the system. Thedriver is alerted to whether their speed issafe or not via visual feedback signslocated along the roadside system. Adedicated traffic signal is located at theend of the SpeedSmart system and willturn red and stop speeding vehicles. Theamount of time that the vehicle is stoppedis proportional to the average speed of thespeeding vehicle. A sign located at thetraffic light displays the speeding vehicle’sregistration number, average speed andcounts down the waiting time at the trafficlight.

The innovative SpeedSmart system isdesigned to alter drivers’ behaviour, andaims to lead the non-prosecuting speedcalming market.Team members: Claire Davies, Kat Hedley,Chris Hough and Adam Tun

Buddy Umbrella: An innovativeumbrella that keeps the wet surface ofthe umbrella inside once closed

The Buddy Umbrella is an innovativedesign set to challenge the traditionalmodel of the standard umbrella.Encompassing both the notion of qualityand fashion into a single executiveumbrella, the revolutionary opening-closingmechanism aims to provide the user withample protection in the rain and after use.Team members: Alan Bowe, Wendy Ho,Derek Kwan and Ji Zhuang

Jet Slicer: A versatile and hygienickitchen appliance for slicing fresh meatA novel, hygienic and safe alternative tokitchen knives. This water jet slicingmachine efficiently slices food, includingraw meat, into multiple strips ready forcooking. This product will reduce

preparation time for repetitive slicing jobs,and could provide a new set of possibilitiesfor the creative chef. Team members: Richard Brimfield, AddyHo, Kevin Lleung and James Watson

Iskra Wind Turbine

A redesign of the Iskra Wind Turbine toreduce manufacturing costs and improveease of use. Team members: Sachi Findlater, SerinaKwan and Duncan Morrison


The application for Vittorio’s work is intelecommunications. He explains: “Datatransmission by optical fibers plays a crucialrole in worldwide communications,demanding higher and higher transmissionrates. Efficient and low cost componentslike ultrafast lasers, all-optical switches,noise suppression filters, utilizing materialswith strong optical nonlinearities, are thusof great importance. Carbon nanotubespossess strong optical nonlinearities in thetelecom wavelength region 1300–1550 nmand are expected to replace traditionalmaterials, as they are cheaper and easier tofabricate and integrate in optical fibernetworks. My work at CambridgeUniversity, Department of Engineering,consists of developing carbon nanotube-polymer composites for application inphotonics. The composites can beintegrated in prototype optical circuits eitheras thin film sandwiched in connectors or aswaveguides, for ultra-short light pulsegeneration or noise suppression filters inoptical signal regenerators. If nanotube-based composites are employed, it ispossible to generate optical pulses shorterthan 10–12s from a continuous laser sourceby the mode-locking technique. Withoutup-scaling optimization, in a singleexperiment we are able to potentiallyproduce ~500 composites ready forintegration in real optical networks, withcosts subsequently dropping by severalorders of magnitude, and potential strongimpact on current technology.”

Simone describes the work hesubmitted for the EMRS 2007 GraduateStudent Award as follows: “Modernmicroelectronics is one of the main driving

forces of today’s economy. It is based ontechnology developed in the 1960s, andsince then it has not undergone any majoralterations other than drasticminiaturization. As this technology evolvestowards its ultimate limitations, awidespread search for novel electronicmaterials has spurred research in the field ofnanomaterials. These materials, withfeatures in the nanometer scale, sometimesjust mere atoms thick, enable a range ofnovel physics that plunge into the quantumworld. Materials such as fullerenes, carbonnanotubes, nanowires and graphene havetantalizing potentials for applications inmany fields such as electronics, photonicsand composites, as well as beingoutstanding tools for research. Throughoutmy doctoral studies at the University ofCambridge, Department of Engineering, Ihave worked on some of the challengesrelated to carbon nanotube growth, carbonnanotube electronics and new physics ofgraphene.”

For further information email Vittorioat: [email protected] and Simone at:[email protected]

European Materials ResearchSociety Graduate Student AwardCongratulations go to Vittorio Scardaci and Simone Pisana, PhDstudents in the Electronic Devices and Materials Group (EDM), whohave been awarded the European Materials Research Society (EMRS)Graduate Student Award for their work on nanotube photonics andelectronics presented at the EMRS 2007 in Strasbourg.

Vittorio Scardaci (left) and Simone Pisana

The outstanding research conducted by the Department’s staff has been recognised by fellowshipswith the learned bodies of the UK:16 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering 6 Fellows of the Royal Society 1 Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

In addition, the Department includes holders of the following prestigious research fellowships: 4 from the Royal Society; 2 from the Royal Academy of Engineering; and 2 from EPSRC. There are 47 fellows of major UK institutions such as IET, ICE, and IMechE.

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The team comprises students fromCambridge’s world renowned engineeringand business schools who have cometogether to design, build and race againstother student and industry teams fromacross the globe. Given the pedigree ofengineers from Cambridge, including FrankWhittle and Harry Ricardo, expectations arehigh.

CUER is one of only three UK teamsamongst a field of around 30 aiming to bethe fastest to travel from Darwin toAdelaide. They will be competing againstteams from other top institutionsincluding: MIT, Stanford and University ofMichigan from the USA; TU Delft from theNetherlands; and many others from acrossthe globe.

Work has already started on the designfor the vehicle, and discussions withpotential sponsors are well underway. Theteam aims to have a prototype vehicleready for summer 2008 to undertake a testrun from Land’s End to John O’Groatsgiving a further year to refine the designbefore the race in Australia.

Team Captain, Martin McBrien, a final-year Mechanical Engineer, said “CUER has progressed very quickly in justsix months since it was founded; we haveassembled a team with a broad array oftalents, gained strong support from theDepartment of Engineering, and have hadconsiderable interest from industrysponsors in backing our project. We’relooking forward to getting on with thetask of designing and building our vehicleand demonstrating this technology to thepublic.”

Project Ambassador, Professor PeterGuthrie, Head of the Centre forSustainable Development at theDepartment of Engineering, said, “TheCUER team are building on the past

successes within the Department, and aredoing a great job of highlighting the issueswe all face in providing sustainable formsof transportation for the future. Whilstsolar racing is a lot of fun, there is aserious message underlying it that weshould encourage our brightest engineersto apply their talents to producingsustainable solutions to the world’sproblems.”

For further information contactCambridge University Eco Racing [email protected] or visit the websiteat www.cuer.co.uk

Cambridge University to compete in World SolarChallenge

Australian Outback, World Solar Challenge

A multi-disciplinary group ofCambridge University studentshave formed CambridgeUniversity Eco Racing (CUER)with the aim of competing inthe 2009 World Solar Challengewww.wsc.org.au. The challengeis to design and build a SolarElectric Vehicle to complete agruelling 3000km race acrossthe Australian outbackharnessing only the power ofthe sun.

CUER Founding Team, MIT, March 2007

Nuna 3 - the Team Nuon car.Photo courtesy of Hans-Peter van Velthoven

Preliminary vehicle design


The research team based here at theDepartment, led by Dr Richard McMahon,have developed a new generatortechnology for the wind turbine industry tothe point of commercial exploitation. Thistype of generator can be used in a widespectrum of wind turbines ranging frommulti-megawatt systems for wind farmsdown to micro turbines used for domesticpower generation.

Research in Cambridge on this type ofgenerator was started by ProfessorWilliamson in the 1990s and, since 1999,is now being undertaken by Richard andhis team. The team are collaborating withDurham’s Head of Engineering, ProfessorPeter Tavner. The research has recentlymatured, enabling practical and completedesigns to be made with confidence. WindTechnologies Ltd has recently beenfounded to exploit the technology.

“We are very excited about the newinstallation. This will be the first time BDFGis to be used commercially. The benefits tothe wind power industry are clear: higherreliability, lower maintenance and lower

production costs” recalls co-researcher andManaging Director of Wind Technologies,Dr Ehsan Abdi. “The West Cambridgemedium size turbine should successfullydemonstrate the applicability of the newgenerator, and we hope it will encouragethe developers of other new constructionprojects to consider local wind-poweredelectricity generation to meet theirobligations”, adds Ehsan.

On a larger scale, a 600kW generatorbuilt by Wind Technologies is to be testedon a DeWind turbine in Germany, startingnext spring. Its planned one-year testshould demonstrate the improvedperformance of the BDFG technology tothe key players in this industry. “This willput Wind Technologies in a position ofstrength in pursuant discussions ontechnology trade sale, licensing orpartnering with large generatormanufacturers, which is the strategy ofchoice for tackling this concentratedmarketplace”, says Ehsan.

A contemporary Brushless Doubly-FedMachine (BDFM) is a single frame

induction machine with two 3-phase statorwindings of different pole numbers, and aspecial rotor design. Typically one statorwinding is connected to the mains or grid,and hence has a fixed frequency, and theother is supplied with variable voltage atvariable frequency from a converter.

In the majority (more than 90%) ofnewly-installed wind turbines in the world,generation is from a slip-ring generator.There are drawbacks to the use of slip-ringgenerators, particularly the additional costand bulk of a machine which incorporatesslip-rings and the need to maintain brush-gears including replacement of the brusheson a regular basis. Studies have shownthat problems with brush-gear are asignificant issue in wind turbine operationand reliability, and that the problem will be

New technology improves the reliability ofwind turbines

The world’s first commercial Brushless Doubly-Fed Generator(BDFG) is to be installed on a 20kW turbine at or close to theDepartment’s Electrical Engineering Division Building on the WestCambridge site in 2008. This will help the University meet itsobligations under new legislation, which requires a new building toobtain ten percent of its electricity from renewable sources.

Laboratory prototype BDFG (left) on test rig withtorque transducer and DC load machine (right)

Dr Ehsan Abdi Managing Director of Wind Technologies

Laboratory prototype BDFG


These are the findings of a report by Dr Elizabeth Garnsey of the Department’sInstitute for Manufacturing (IfM) andBrendan Cronin a student in theDepartment on the MPhil in Engineeringfor Sustainable Development. “Noevidence in favour of imposing GreenwichMean Time in winter was found,” says thereport. Putting the clocks back results in“more traffic accidents and higher, morecostly, evening peaks in electricityconsumption than would occur on BritishSummer Time, also known as GMT+1.”This is because people are more active inthe early evening than in the earlymorning, with adverse effects from earlyevening darkness in Scotland as well asEngland and Wales. A significant factor inthe energy surge is that, under GMT,around 35% of the population are asleepwhen the sun rises in winter and so makeno use of the extra daylight. Then, becausethey arrive home from school or work incold and darkness, they use more lightingand heating, causing a surge in demand,especially between 4pm and 6pm.

The report adds a new twist to anargument that has lasted more than acentury.The only unfavourable impact ofending the return to GMT would be onearly morning workers. The report suggeststhat working hours could be altered forparticular groups to counter this.

It has long been said that Britain wouldbenefit economically from synchronisingclocks with its European neighbours andthat people would prefer to have moredaylight in the afternoon and eveningduring the winter. However, such moveshave been stymied by concerns over theimpact on Scotland, where moving the

clocks forward an hour would leavenorthern areas in darkness until about9am.

Consumers are paying much more forelectricity as a result of ending summertime. Delaying the timing of sunset inwinter would give an extra hour of light inthe evening and reduce the surge ofenergy demand, even taking into accountthe later sunrise. The costs and emissionsare amplified because Britain can onlymeet these daily surges by switching onless efficient back-up generating plantssuch as oil-fired power stations. Suchplants can take hours to heat up and cooldown, pushing the costs and emissions ofsuch power even higher.

The report did not look at the impacton demand for gas consumption but theauthors believe it would show similartrends.

The energy-saving benefits of keepingclocks forward an hour were clear towartime politicians. British SummerTime/GMT+1, was created in 1916 to savecoal. During the second world war, Britainused GMT+1 during the winter andGMT+2 in summer, again to reduce fuelconsumption.

Britain might have moved permanentlyto such a regime in 1971 but MPs votedagainst after an emotive debate involvingclaims that putting the clocks forward hadcaused an increase in winter morning roadaccidents to schoolchildren. What theywere not told was that this was more thanoffset by the much greater fall in accidentsin the evenings.

The report calculates that the 1971decision has caused an extra 46 milliontons of CO2 to be released since then.

There are signs that senior politiciansare ready for a rethink. A spokesman forPat McFadden, the employment ministerwho also has responsibility fortimekeeping, said he was reading thereport “with interest”.

Tim Yeo, Tory chairman of theenvironmental audit select committee, whoearlier this year tried to use a privatemember’s bill to bring the clocks forwardby an hour in both winter and summer fora three-year experimental period, said:“The environmental case for action isunanswerable.”

Download a copy of the full report atwww.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/people/ewg/garnsey_gmt_policy_191007.pdf

Set your clock to ‘British green time’

Dr Elizabeth Garnsey

Turning the clocks back each autumn has generated millions of tonnes of carbon emissions as well asincreasing electricity costs during GMT months.

more severe in machines deployed offshorewhere there are stronger winds andaccessibility is impaired.

The project received the ScientificInstrument Makers Award and theCambridge University EntrepreneursBusiness Idea Award in 2004. In 2005, theInstitution of Electrical Engineers, now theInstitution of Engineering and Technology,added its Innovation in Engineering Award.The company has recently received grantsfrom Cambridge University Challenge Fundand East of England Development Agencyto carry out market assessment, filepatents and complete the pre-productionprototype.

Harnessing wind power for electricitygeneration is becoming ever morecommon, both by large-scale wind farms,

and increasingly by small domesticinstallations, with the UK the world’sleading market for micro wind generation.“We hope that our generator, throughoffering high reliability and lowmaintenance, will significantly contributeto the wider adoption of wind powergeneration, particularly in offshoredevelopments. This will lead to significantreductions in CO2 emission and furtherreduce our dependency on fossil fuels”says Ehsan.

For further information the Electronics,Power and Energy Conversion groupweb pages can be found at: www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/epec/ or email:[email protected]

The total number of

visitors at the Department,

staying for one month

or more in the academic

year 2006/7 was 215.

These visits are generally

associated with reciprocal

visits by our academics.

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As well as guidance covering all stages ofthe design process, the toolkit – whichcomprises a book and web resource – hasinteractive features that simulateimpairments and generate graphs to showhow many people would be unable to use aproduct because of its capability demand.

By 2020, more than half the adultpopulation will be over 50 years old. People’scapabilities reduce as age increases – be itthrough medical conditions, or as a result ofdeteriorating eyesight and reduced gripstrength.

These physical limitations may put themoff certain poorly-designed products, eventhough people in older age groupsconversely often have the highest disposableincome, having paid off their mortgages andclimbed the career ladder. They also tend tohave the most free time. As a result there isa business case, as well as a strong moralargument, for designing products that makeappropriate demands on the user.

“We can all cite examples of productsthat are difficult or frustrating to use,”project leader John Clarkson said. “Forexample, the average purchaser of a sportscar is aged 55, but many models put offolder buyers because they are extraordinarilydifficult to get into and out of. By applyinginclusive design principles, involving users inthe design process, and considering theneeds of people with reduced capabilities,products can be made more usable, usefuland desirable.”

The toolkit features numerous examplesof how poorly-designed products becomeespecially difficult to use for those withreduced capability in seven different areas,namely: vision, hearing, thinking,communication, locomotion, reach andstretch, and dexterity.

The inclusive design toolkit is nowavailable to buy as a book providing toolsand guidance so that organisations anddesigners can produce better products thatare accessible to the widest possible rangeof people. The guidance ranges fromcorporate level strategy to project leveladvice, and the tools include graphs thatestimate the number of people who wouldbe unable to use a product, because of itscapability demand. The book contains 350pages with 280 full colour images, costs £30 + postage, and can be purchasedthrough the inclusive design toolkit website:www-edc.eng.cam.ac.uk/books

The same content is freely available atwww.inclusivedesigntoolkit.com the websitealso includes interactive resources such asvisual impairment simulators and anexclusion calculator. Users can sample how anormal public address system, replayedthrough the hearing loss simulator, suddenlybecomes muffled to the point where it canbarely be heard at all. The visual simulatorshows how common impairments likecataracts, colour blindness or glaucoma canmake everyday activities like buying a trainticket or using a toaster near to impossible.It also demonstrates how simpleimprovements to the layout and contrast ofthese devices could make them easier to usefor all.

The inclusive design toolkit wascommissioned by BT, and constructed by theDepartment’s Engineering Design Centre(EDC), together with contributions fromSagentia and the Royal College of Art, HelenHamlyn Centre. The guidance and resourcescontained within the toolkit reflect theoutcome from i~design projects, an on-going collaborative research programme oninclusive design, of which the EDC is a

research partner. i~design is funded by theEngineering and Physical Sciences ResearchCouncil.

Inclusive Design Toolkit

To coincide with World Usability Day 2007 researchers in the Department’s Engineering Design Centre(EDC) announced the “Inclusive Design Toolkit”. This is a new guide which aims to show companieshow their products could be improved to appeal to the widest possible range of people.

A toaster viewed with full vision capability, compared to the same toaster viewed by someone with reduced contrast sensitivity. A suggested redesignimproves the contrast of areas so users with reduced contrast sensitivity can still identify the controls.

The sections within the inclusive design websitetranslate into colour co-ordinated chapters for

the book


A pressure washer that has a high physical demand, compared to a redesigned product that reducesthe physical strain required to use it. Images copyright Helen Hamlyn and B&Q

Thirty school pupils came to theDepartment’s Nanoscience Centre at WestCambridge for a four-day residential courseorganised by The Smallpeice Trust, anindependent charity which promotesengineering as a career.

Cutting across many scientificdisciplines, nanotechnology explores themanipulation of atoms and molecules toproduce innovative products like cars thatnever need polishing or self-adjustingsunscreen.

Through a combination of compellinglectures, challenging workshops,stimulating, hands-on projects and sitevisits, experts in the field introducedstudents to the extraordinary concepts andpractical applications of this rapidlyexpanding technology.

Students explored the nano-worldusing powerful electron microscopes,creating macro-scale molecular models andconducting surface science experiments.

The teenagers were also able to visitTWI, a world centre for joiningtechnologies where they were able to seenanotechnology in practice and observethe way other industries have benefitedfrom a range of joining techniques.

Cambridge is widely seen as a leader innanotechnology research with successesacross the University in nanoelectronics,

novel materials and coatings, biologicallyinspired nanostructures and advancedcharacterization tools.

Spokesperson for The Smallpeice Trust,Gemma Murphy commented, “It is a realprivilige to be working with thisinternational research centre and beingable to give students an insight into howthis has the potential to revolutionise ourlives.”

Mark Welland, Professor ofNanotechnology and Director of theInterdisciplinary Research Collaboration inNanotechnology, reflected, “TheSmallpeice residential course is animportant element of our nanotechnology

outreach programme that engages withschools in the UK as part of FRONTIERS, an EU funded Network of Excellence”.

The Nanotechnology course is run byThe Smallpeice Trust as part of an ongoingprogramme of residential courses designedto help young people aged 13–18 learnand develop skills in engineering, designand management. Through these coursesand Science, Technology, Engineering andMaths (STEM) enrichment sessions, TheTrust has reached out to more than 8,000students across the UK in the past year – a 20-fold increase over a 6 year period.

The Department’s Nanoscience Centre

Teenagers from across the UKwere offered a rare insight intothe exciting and dynamic fieldof Nanotechnology.

School pupils come face to face withNanotechnology

Please see www-edc.eng.cam.ac.uk/books/for details of other inclusive design booksavailable through the Engineering DesignCentre.

Further development of the toolkitover the coming year will focus oncustomising the toolkit so that itintegrates seamlessly with anundergraduate degree project on inclusivedesign, and developing pro-formas toassist the use of the inclusive designprocess within industry.

For further information please contactSam Waller [email protected]


The IPCC is a UN “Think Tank” consistingof the world’s leading experts on climatechange. It was created by the WorldMetorological Organisation (WMO) andUnited Nations Environment Programme(UNEP) over 20 years ago. ProfessorMunasinghe has contributed to all four ofthe authoritative assessments on climatechange produced by the IPCC in 1990,1995, 2001 and 2007.

In its recently released report, the IPCCstates that global warming is unequivocaland very likely caused by human activitiesthat have steadily increased atmosphericconcentrations of greenhouse gases(especially carbon dioxide) since theindustrial revolution. Among the alarmingoutcomes are increased global averagetemperatures (around 3°C by 2100), sealevel rise (about 0.4 metres by 2100), moresevere droughts and floods, and increasesin extreme weather events like cyclonesand storms. Ironically, while greenhousegas emissions from rich countries havecontributed most to global warming, thepoor countries will be hardest hit, andpoor groups will be the most vulnerable.Thus, climate change will significantlyworsen existing problems like poverty,hunger and disease. More generally,unchecked climate changes will alter andthreaten the living conditions of the over 6 billion inhabitants of the planet, who areall stakeholders.

Through the scientific reports it hasissued over the past two decades, thededicated scientists in the IPCC havecreated an ever-broader informedconsensus about the connection betweenhuman activities and global warming.Whereas in the 1980s global warmingseemed to be merely an interestinghypothesis, the 1990s produced firmerevidence in its support. In the last fewyears, the connections have become even

clearer and the dire consequences stillmore apparent.

Professor Munasinghe has been in theforefront of the IPCC efforts recognized bythe Nobel Prize award, to integrate climatechange policies into development strategy,and thereby make development moresustainable. He proposed the SustainomicFramework at the 1992 Earth Summit inRio de Janeiro, to practically achieve thisgoal, based on the sustainabledevelopment triangle (with social,economic and environmental dimensions).The methodology has been appliedworldwide jointly to address climatechange and sustainable development, thetwo pre-eminent issues of the 21st century.

Professor Munasinghe is also Chairmanof the Munasinghe Institute forDevelopment (MIND), which hascontributed to the work of the IPCC. MINDis a non-profit body which providesscholarships to Sri Lankan students andconducts research and training workworldwide on climate change andsustainable development.

By awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for2007 to the IPCC Team and Al Gore, theNobel Prize Committee is seeking tocontribute to a sharper focus on theprocesses and decisions that appear to benecessary to protect the world’s futureclimate, and thereby to reduce the threatto the security of humankind. Promptaction by world leaders and all concernedstakeholders is necessary now, beforeclimate change moves beyond humancontrol.

Alumnus shares Nobel Peace Prize for 2007As Vice Chairman of theIntergovernmental Panel onClimate Change (IPCC),Professor Mohan Munasinghe,an alumnus from theDepartment, shared the 2007Nobel Peace Prize with otherIPCC colleagues and Al Gore,for their efforts to build upand disseminate greaterknowledge about climatechange, and to lay thefoundations for the measuresthat are needed to counteractsuch change.

Professor Mohan Munasinghe

Professor Munasinghe is thefirst Sri Lankan to receive

this coveted award and herepresented the IPCC as ashared winner of the Prize

at the award ceremony in Stockholm in December 2007.

FACT BOX


Using landfill alone is no longer asustainable option. But the remediationand re-use of contaminated andbrownfield sites allows this land to be usedfor essential housing, commercial orenvironmental development whilst alsohelping to protect valuable greenfield sites.

Cambridge University has recentlylaunched the largest Technology StrategyBoard funded project on ContaminatedLand Remediation Technologies. ProjectSMiRT (Soil Mix Remediation Technology) isa £1.24M project led by the contractorBachy Soletanche. Cambridge is the onlyacademic institution involved and is amajor partner in this project. The projectalso includes three engineeringconsultancies (Arcadis Geraghty & Miller,Arup and Merebrook Science &Environment), three trade associations(British Urban Regeneration Association,British Cement Association and UK QualityAsh Association) and four materialssuppliers (Amcol Minerals Europe, RichardBaker Harrison, Kentish Minerals and Civil& Marine Holdings).

Project SMiRT aims to achievesignificant technical advancement andcost-savings by developing an innovativesingle Soil Mix Technology (SMT) systemfor integrated remediation and groundimprovement, with simultaneous deliveryof wet and dry additives, and withadvanced quality assurance system.Soil Mix Technology involves the use of arange of different mixing tools andadditives to construct permeable reactivein-ground barriers, low-permeabilitycontainment walls, “hot-spot” soiltreatment by stabilisation/solidification andfor the improvement of soft soils

The project involves extensivelaboratory treatability studies in which awide range of conventional and novelbinders and additives will be testedtogether with a range of soils andcontaminants. The novel equipment will bedesigned and manufactured in parallel.Extensive field trials will then follow,scheduled for the first half of 2009. In-situtesting, sampling and groundwater

monitoring will then be carried outtogether with laboratory testing of the sitesamples and assessment of the fieldmeasurements.

As a major step towards increasedunderstanding and uptake of SMT in theUK, the project will also involveconsultation meetings with a wide rangeof stakeholders and a major disseminationprogramme through the organisationCL:AIRE (Contaminated Land: Applicationsin Real Environments).

For further information contact Dr Abir Al-Tabbaa, e-mail: [email protected].

Cambridge launches project SMiRT

Trenchmix System

The Environment Agency hasestimated that 300,000 hectaresof land at over 325,000 sites inEngland and Wales arecontaminated with a variety ofpollutants. On average 250new sites have been classifiedas contaminated each yearsince 2000.

Over 2,561 journal papers,2,337 conference papers, 82 books, 832 chapters in

books and 133 patents havebeen published since 2000

by the Department.

FACT BOX

The scientists in question are not using thecards to appreciate the detail in PC games.Instead they are using them as cheapsources of supercomputer-class processingpower, reports Mark Ward, TechnologyCorrespondent on the BBC News website.The way that graphics cards are builtmakes them very good at the repetitivecomputational tasks many scientists use totest theories, models and predictions. Withthe latest graphics processors having morethan 100 processing cores that can add upto a lot of number crunching.

By harnessing that processing power,many scientists are getting results fromsimulations far faster than before.

Designing turbine blades

Dr. Graham Pullan, and research studentTobias Brandvik, from the WhittleLaboratory here at the Department ofEngineering have sped up the simulationof flow around turbine blades by up to 40times using a single graphics card. “Peoplewill have noticed that their PCs now have2 or 4 cores. GPUs are way ahead withover 100 cores,” says Graham. “It isgetting easier to programme them as well.We no longer have to re-write our codeentirely in graphics commands - there arenow several general purpose programmingmethods available.”

With such a dramatic reduction in run-times, Graham and Tobias hope theirprogrammes will lead to improvedefficiencies for jet engines and for powergeneration turbines. “We could either runsimulations at current resolutions muchfaster, and hence make the design processmore interactive. Or we could take thesame time as we do now, and get muchmore detailed simulations which are moreaccurate,” says Tobias.

But there are still problems to beovercome. A typical cluster of networkedPCs used in jet engine design would havea total memory of at least 100GB - 100times greater than a typical graphics card.“We need to have multiple cards in eachPC and we need to network several PCstogether,” says Graham. “It is not easy todo this and retain the overall performance,but we, and the graphics cardmanufacturers, are working on it.”

If you are interested in this new field,you may wish to attend the “Multi-Coreand Reconfigurable Super-Computing”conference in Belfast in Aprilwww.mrsc2008.org

For further information, email Dr.Graham Pullan at [email protected] visit his web pages at:www.eng.cam.ac.uk/~gp10006

Ray-tracing and real-timeprocessing of video signalsfrom a camera

The Department’s Dr Rich Wareham is alsousing graphics cards in his work to performray-tracing, a technique used in computergraphics to create realistic images bycalculating the paths taken by rays of lightentering the observer’s eye at differentangles. The sample image shown isgenerated in real time from his applicationand shows a special sort of mathematicalobject known as an ‘escape time fractal’.

Rich says “Fractals like the one shownhave long been used as a test bed for newcomputer graphics systems. With recentadvances in graphics processing unit (GPU)technology, the amount of computingpower available to scientific researchershas grown to hitherto unimagined levels.

The computing power of a consumer-grade GPU now present on mid-rangegraphics cards is truly staggering. Withcards you can buy off the shelf for ahundred pounds theoretically capable ofperforming 340 billion calculations persecond it is worth investing in the timerequired to learn how to leverage thecomputing power of these processors inapplications beyond computer graphics.”

In addition to his work on ray-tracing,he is working on new techniques forreducing the storage requirements forthree dimensional objects by convertingthem to a ‘depth map’ on a sphere, muchlike the surface of the Earth is representedvia a topological map on a piece of paper.The system was originally developed forprocessing and compressing the largespherical images of the sky generated frommodern astronomical observatories.

He is collaborating on a project to useGPUs for real-time processing of videosignals from a camera. He says “Thesystem is designed to record theperformance of an athlete in real time andgive track-side performance data to thecoach. Our cameras are very high-speed


Graphics chips rev up research resultsEvery serious PC gamer knows what a difference a good graphics card can make to the fun theyhave. But it is not just hardcore gamers who have recognised the worth of a PC graphics card;increasing numbers of research scientists have woken up to their potential too.

Flow in a turbine calculated on the GPU:contoursof pressure

Graphics processing unit (GPU)

A three dimensional ‘slice’ through a fourdimensional fractal as generated by Rich’s ray

tracer.

Rolls Royce Trent jet engine, PA. Improvements inefficiency have big rewards in turbine engines.


but the raw data that we get out of themis unsuitable for traditional imageprocessing. We use GPUs to perform theinitial conversion and processing becausethey are able to handle the sort of framerates (>100 frames/second) that werequire for accurate analysis.”

Rich has recently given a talk coveringthe modern graphics processing pipelineproviding tips and techniques on how itmay be ‘tricked’ into performing usefulcomputation. The talk covered the actualcode required to implement a simpleimage processing example capable ofdealing with full HD resolution videostreams in real-time.

For further information email: Dr RichWareham [email protected] or visit hisweb pages at: www-sigproc.eng.cam.ac.uk/ga/index.php?title=Rich_Wareham

Real time projection of a head model onto asphere and the resulting reconstruction.

Jan Maciejowski’s book “Predictive Control with Constraints”

Jan Maciejowski’s bookreceives the 2007 besttextbook awardThe Japanese edition of Jan Maciejowski’s book “Predictive Controlwith Constraints” has been awarded the 2007 Best Textbook awardby SICE, the Japanese Society of Instrument and Control Engineers.

The award is shared with the translators,Prof. Shuichi Adachi and Dr MasaakiKanno, and was presented at the SICEAnnual Conference in Takamatsu, Japan,in September. The original English editionof the book was published by Prentice-Hall in 2001. TheJapanese editionwas published byTokyo DenkiUniversity Press in2005.

After an international search to find the firstincumbent for the new post, Dr Garth Wellshas been appointed as the first HibbittLecturer in Solid Mechanics at theDepartment. He has joined a group which ispushing the boundaries of research in solidmechanics and communicating itsimportance to the next generation ofengineers through undergraduate teaching.

Garth originates from Australia wherehe graduated from The University ofWestern Australia. He went on to do a PhDat Delft University of Technology in theNetherlands. Garth moved to the USA as aPost-doctoral researcher at StanfordUniversity, then took the post of AssistantProfessor at the Faculty of Civil Engineeringand Geosciences at Delft University ofTechnology. He was a visiting researcher atthe Institute for Computational Engineeringand Sciences at the University of Texas, thentook the post of Associate Professor at theFaculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciencesat Delft University of Technology before

joining the Department. He is a fellow atJesus College.

Garth says “My research interests arebroad, with an emphasis on computationfor mechanics. My background is in solidmechanics, but I’m active currently incomputational aspects of solid mechanics,fluid mechanics, multi-physics problems andscientific computing. An example of somenew work is the computer modelling of tarsands and heavy oil. There are enormousreserves in Canada, and the modelling isimportant and very challenging. I have aresearch group in the Netherlands workingon various aspects of computationalmechanics that I’m hoping to host regularlyhere in Cambridge.”

A symposium ‘Future Directions in SolidMechanics’ was held at Robinson Collegeon 26 October. Guests from academia,industry and funding agencies attended.The symposium also marked the launch ofthe Hibbitt Lectureship and the AshbyStudentship, which is now very close to

being fully funded. The audience waswelcomed by the Head of Department,Professor Keith Glover, and the University’sVice Chancellor also spoke. A number ofspeakers from the UK and overseas gavepresentations, including David Hibbitt andMike Ashby.

For further details please visit theMechanics, Materials and DesignDivision webpageswww.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/div-c/divhomeC.shtml

First Hibbitt Lecturer, Dr Garth Wells is appointedCambridge engineering graduate David Hibbitt founded the engineering software company ABAQUS,Inc. David and his wife Susan have donated more than £2million to endow a post in solid mechanics.

Dr Garth Wells theHibbitt Lecturer inSolid Mechanics

Department of Engineering

George Stephenson Gold Medal

The title of the paper is: “Wideningengineering horizons: addressing thecomplexity of sustainable development”and it is intended to help practising civilengineers answer the question “Am Ibeing sustainable?” during differentphases of project delivery. This isachieved through a set ofquestions based around an8 point framework(shown in thediagram) which canbe applied duringthe design,constructionand operationof anengineeringproject. Thevalue of thequestions istestedagainst acase historyof awastewatertreatmentproject and their

use leads to the consideration of a widerproblem boundary than that traditionallyadopted by civil engineers.

The George Stephenson Medal wasinstituted by the council of the ICE in 1881and is one of the Institution’s most

prestigious awards for bestpapers published in

the Proceedings.The full

referencefor the

paperis:

Fenner R.A., Ainger C.A., Cruickshank H.J.,Guthrie P. (2006) Widening horizons forengineers: addressing the complexity ofSustainable Development. Proceedings ofthe Institution of Civil Engineers,Engineering Sustainability Journal , Volume 159 ES4 pp 145-154.


Dr Dick Fenner, Dr HeatherCruickshank, Professor PeterGuthrie from the Department’sCentre for SustainableDevelopment and formerVisiting Professor CharlesAinger (Head of SustainableDevelopment for MWH(Europe)) were recentlypresented with the GeorgeStephenson Gold Medal by thePresident of the Institution ofCivil Engineers (ICE), QuentinLeiper, at the ICE Awardsceremony in London. Themedal was awarded for thesecond best paper overall inthe Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil Engineersfor 2006.

Professor Charles Ainger, Dr HeatherCruickshank, President of ICE, Quentin Leiper,

Dr Dick Fenner, Professor Peter Guthrie

Editor, Jacqueline SaggersDepartment of EngineeringUniversity of CambridgeTrumpington StreetCambridge CB2 1PZTelephone: +44 (0)1223 748228Email: [email protected]: www.eng.cam.ac.uk

Designed by Cambridge Design Studiowww.cambridgedesignstudio.org

Published by Archant Dialoguewww.archantdialogue.co.uk

© 2008 Department of Engineering,University of Cambridge and contributorsas identified. All rights reserved.A sustainable framework for engineers

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