Welcome to your 2021 Mechanical Engineering Alumni Newsletter

I am delighted to introduce the latest Mechanical Engineering Alumni Newsletter and my first as Head of Department. I am incredibly proud to be the head of this excellent Department, having forged my career as an academic engineer here both as an undergraduate and postgraduate student before becoming a staff member. I recognised that I have a tough act to follow and thank Professor Duncan Shepherd for his excellent leadership over the past years, who is now taking on new challenges as the Dean for postgraduate studies over in the University’s Graduate School. We wish Duncan all the very best in his new role.

We've had both a challenging and yet very successful year, and I must say I am very excited to lead my Department into a fascinating period. It is a fantastic time for Mechanical Engineering at the University. We continually reinforce our reputation as one of the best institutions to read Mechanical Engineering in the UK. This achievement is due to the time and dedication that our staff and students dedicated to developing a rich and diverse learning environment. I am sure a Mechanical Engineering degree from Birmingham will set you up for life, as many of the stories below and in this newsletter demonstrate.

It has undoubtedly been a tough year with the effects of the pandemic and a rolling cycle of national restrictions disrupting our students, staff and University community. Still, as the stories here demonstrate, we have met these challenges and continue to grow. We have witnessed some fantastic achievements over the past year. Our students have been shortlisted for the Ronjon Nag Entrepreneurship Award; the Space Society that includes many of our students has won the UKSEDS ORBEX National Rocketry Championship 2020-2021; UBRacing have delivered a car ready for the Formula Student Competition; and our long-standing societies have supported their fellow students and continued to enrich our community in the most challenging circumstances.

We've had a hectic year, as you can see! We were delighted to hold our first hybrid graduation ceremony with staff and students both on-campus and virtually, which was a real success. In addition to this, we welcome a new Head of School, Professor Clive Roberts, who takes over the helm as we move into a brand-new building. This building includes a brand new digital manufacturing facility for our students that will democratise innovation.

On the staff front, I'm also delighted to report that several Mechanical Engineering staff have successfully applied for promotion this year, including Drs Lauren Thomas-Seale and Marco Castellani to Senior Lecturer. We will also shortly welcome several new staff to the Department but more of this in my next update. With the introduction of new facilities staff and students, it should be a fascinating year to come.

Our successes are once again the result of the resilience, dedication and tenacity of our students, staff, and mostly of our recent graduates and newest members of our alumni community.

I wish you and your family all the very best for the coming year, and I do hope you enjoyed reading this newsletter.

With very best wishes,

Professor Karl Dearn
Head of the Departments of Mechanical and Civil Engineering

Hello!

I am delighted to introduce myself to you as Head of the School of Engineering, succeeding Mark Sterling. I took up the position on 1 January 2020, but this is the first time I have had the opportunity to formally introduce myself to you.

I’ve worked at Birmingham since September 1997. I started my research career at Birmingham as a Research Assistant working on condition monitoring of railway systems in the then School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, having previously worked as a Software Engineer at Lucas Aerospace. I was promoted to be a Lecturer in 2001, Senior Research Fellow in 2007, Professor in 2009 and I became Head of the School of Engineering in January 2020. I lead our railway activity in the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE), which is the largest group of its kind in Europe with over 180 researchers. I also lead the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network (UKRRIN, https://www.ukrrin.org.uk/), a £92M initiative to help accelerate the take up of research in the rail sector.  I sit on various committees in the UK and internationally, including the UK Rail Industry Technical Leadership Group, the Advisory Board for the National Railway Museum, the Institution of Railway Signalling Engineers’ Council, and the Technical Advisory Panel to the Board of SMRT in Singapore.      

I was delighted to be asked to take on the leadership of the School. It is an exciting time for the School as we move into the new School of Engineering Building, open the UKRRIN Building on campus, as well as the National Buried Infrastructure Facility. The School continues to grow, and in 2021 we will exceed 2,000 students studying in the School.  We are currently recruiting new lecturers and professors within the School to support this growth.

Our core areas of research continue to grow, but we have also seen new areas of activity such as work in space weather, hydrogen propulsion systems for trains and the use of quantum technology for a range of applications from radar to positioning of vehicles.

As well as the successes of our staff and students, I must add a big thank you to the contribution that the School’s alumni have made over the last academic year. Contributions have included providing guest lectures, sitting on advisory boards, supporting final year projects, mentoring students, and especially speaking virtually with our students this past year. Thank you, you've made a real impact here! If you'd like to get involved too, please get in touch with our Alumni Relations Manager, Grace Surman on eps-community@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

With very best wishes,

Clive Roberts
Head of School of Engineering
Professor of Railway Systems

Read the 2021 Mechanical Engineering Alumni Newsletter here.