Webinar: Panel Session: Driving innovation through academic / industry collaboration by MA Business

Panel Session: Driving innovation through academic / industry collaboration

About

This session will explore the importance of industry / academia - a key strength for the UK – and examine the way in which the relationship between engineering organisations and the UK’s academic research base is helping to drive innovation and translate research into real world solutions.
The session, which is supported by Babcock International Group, will bring together a mix of leading academic researchers and industrialists to explore the value of this relationship and share practical examples of how industry and academia can work together.

Key discussion areas / agenda

• Benefits and challenges of industry / academia collaboration
• Best practice examples of industry / academia collaboration
• Setting a framework for effective collaboration
• Driving academia’s responsiveness to industrial requirements
• Enabling knowledge transfer between industry and academia
• Driving collaboration with digitalization
• Using collaboration to grow and enrich the engineering skills base

Presenters

Dr Jon Hall

Chief Innovation & Technology Officer Babcock International Group

Jon Hall is Chief Innovation & Technology Officer at Babcock International Group. He joined the company in 2008 where he has led and overseen the successful financial growth and expansion in capability of Babcock’s technology businesses, with a focus on driving innovation, international growth and its technology outlook.
He was appointed to his current role in November 2020, is responsible for the Innovation & Technology strategy, and is a member of the Group executive committee. He is also Chair of Team Defence Information, which is responsible for uniting the UK’s defence industry to collaborate, develop and share best practice, support research into innovation and technology, and support the UK Government and MOD

Professsor Stephen McArthur

Associate Principal and Executive Dean of Engineering University of Strathclyde

Stephen McArthur is Associate Principal and Executive Dean of Engineering at the University of Strathclyde. His main area of expertise is applying artificial intelligence in power, energy and wider industrial systems. His AI-driven decision support research has automated complex energy tasks, and has been deployed to enhance the monitoring, operation and lifetime extension of power systems and nuclear engineering systems. Solutions developed by his team have been deployed for a range of national and international companies. He won the 2021 IEEE Richard Harold Kaufmann Award for outstanding contributions in industrial systems engineering, “for innovative contributions to the advancement of intelligent systems for power engineering applications”.

He is the Academic Director for Strathclyde’s Advanced Nuclear Research Centre and leads the University’s Industrial Informatics Cluster. He also leads the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Power Networks and Smart Grids, an EPSRC Prosperity Partnership on nuclear plant lifetime management and the UKRI EnergyREV consortium focusing on smart local energy systems. He is also the co-founder and CTO of Bellrock Technology, which has developed an AI driven product for rapidly deploying analytics.

Jim Sibson

Group Head of Research and Partnerships Babcock International Group plc

Jim Sibson is a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Project Professional with Babcock International Group, responsible for developing research and business collaborations to grow technology solutions.

Jim’s career started with in manufacturing systems engineering with Lucas Industries. He moved to Hamilton Sundstrand, Claverham where after a number of roles he became Programme Manager for the projects to design, validate and manufacture a suite of innovative valves and actuators for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. He joined Babcock as Project Leader for the Spanish S-80 Submarine Programme; was then appointed Head of Product Support before being seconded to a central Marine Sector team to lead the development of capability, helping shape and implement the Group Technology Strategy.

Alec Anderson,

Managing Director Koolmill Systems

Co-founder of Koolmill and inventor of a multi-award winning disruptive, low power and gentle cereal (rice) milling process. A pioneering, visionary engineer transforming an antiquated and wasteful global industry that feeds half the world daily, moving it to a data driven sustainable future. A first career as marine engineer before completing a degree in Mechanical Engineering as a mature student. A summer vacation job became a final year project, which turned into employment, and culminated in a nominal MBO.
A Goldman Sachs 10KSB graduate, recognised by the Chinese Government as a National Expert, Senior Visiting Industrial Fellow, and occasional guest lecturer at Aston Business School, IMechE Food & Drink Committee Member, Mentor, and STEM Ambassador.

Laura Mackie

Business Development Professional, University of Edinburgh

Laura Mackie is a business development professional at Edinburgh Innovations, the University of Edinburgh’s commercialisation service. She is partnership manager for the University’s relationship with Babcock and is a key member of the delivery team developing the new Arrol Gibb Innovation Campus for large-scale manufacturing at Babcock’s facility in Rosyth, Fife. She supports the College of Science & Engineering with industry engagement, with a particular focus on engineering.

Professor Sam Turner

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult

Professor Sam Turner is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult. He joined the HVM Catapult team from his role as CTO of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing, where he worked on a range of projects and capabilities including the flagship digital facility Factory 2050, machining, casting and composites technology. As a founding member of the AMRC, Sam developed the AMRC’s Machining Group to a level of 85 staff and £5M turnover, with successes in delivering impact to UK industry, before moving into the CTO role. In addition to his industrial work, Sam has secured Innovate UK, EPSRC and EU funding for over £20M for manufacturing R&D in machining and automation. He has written more than 40 publications, including 16 journal papers in the area of machining. Sam is active in machining, automation and digital manufacturing.

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