The goal is a world-leading
technology University
Helen Gavaghan, at the University of Bradford UK, 16th June 2016
In the week after the five-month international public review opened into the names of four new atomic elements, it was reassuring to see posters for the periodic table of the elements on most of the walls in the Analytic Centre at the University of Bradford.
I and other business people (journalism, science writing and editing are business, as well as vocation!) were today touring the Schools and Centres of the University's Faculty of Engineering and Infomatics. The day was the initiative of the business member organization "Your Connected Future".
Case studies took up most of the morning, while in the afternoon we were treated to an impressive amount of high-powered academic time. Perhaps because the University's 10-year strategy (2015-2025) has the stated goal of making Bradford "a world-leading technology University". Its strategic academic themes are: advanced healthcare, innovative engineering, and sustainable societies.
We were introduced to the technology one would expect: NMR (400 and 600 MHz), scanning electron microscopy, scanning tunnelling electron microscopy, mass spectrometry, X-ray crystallography, a highly sophisticated and expensive anechoic chamber, engine test beds, break test-beds, stress tests, concrete mixers, gravimetric tests, geotechnical facilities with ability to test, for example, soil in ambient conditions or under controlled conditions of temperature and humidity.
How can such equipment and expertise help business, be that business an SME, or international in reach? By, for example, developing process and certification to take the creator's Intellectual Property to market. Or helping shape an observed phenomenon, such as analgesia or antimicrobial activity of a substance, into a marketable product. Perhaps the insoluble needs to be made soluble, or the distasteful odour of someone's brainchild needs to be made less offensive.
Among the business people touring the University's extensive engineering facilities were S.M.E.s, national and international companies.
Academics who outlined some of their department's key recent work included: Dr Richard Telford, project scientist at the University Analytic Centre; Y. Fun Hu, professor of wireless communications engineering; and Raed A. Abd-Alhameed, professor of electromagnetics and radio frequency engineering.
In discussing her work Y. Fun Hu described research in aeronautical communication, exploring among other things quality and security issues. Partners have included Inmarsat.
The Analytic Centre provides a facility for departments across the University, as well as for industrial collaboration.
Prospective students might like to know there are discrete and private coffees shops buried in the University. While businesses might wish to contact Dr John Steele, Business Partnerships Centre Manager. He is an MBA and Ph.D chemist, and works for the University's Research and Knowledge Transfer Support.
