UNIVERSITIES AND SCIENCE MINISTER TO ADDRESS AENGD CONFERENCE
(24 October 2012) - The Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister for Universities and Science at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will be addressing the launch conference of the Association of Engineering Doctorates on Thursday 1 November 2012, at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London.
The AEngD is the umbrella group for UK university research centres offering the EngD postgraduate qualification.
The event also features a keynote address from Dr Paul Golby, chairman of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and of Engineering UK, and presentations from industry organisations who sponsor and have benefited from EngD research.
The event will bring together representatives from almost all 28 Industrial Doctorate Centres, along with key stakeholders from EPSRC, industry sponsors and other organisations, and will highlight the positive impacts to the UK economy of investing in industry-specific engineering research.
Registration for this invitation-only event will open at 3pm, with refreshments and a poster exhibition by UK Industrial Doctorate Centres. The conference starts at 4pm. After the conference, from 6pm, the AEngD will host a drinks reception.
Programme (Conference flyer)
The event will be chaired by Prof Patrick Godfrey (chairman of the AEngD steering group). In addition to Mr Willetts and Dr Golby, other speakers will include:
- Prof James Powell, University of Salford - Happy 20th birthday, EngD!
- Prof Kees van Hee, 3TU, Netherlands - The EngD in the Netherlands
- Prof Nick Weston, Renishaw plc - The commercial impacts of EngD research
- EngD alumni and research engineers - How EngD research helped our careers
Ends
For further information, contact: Paul Wilkinson (PR consultant to AEngD) – tel 020 8858 1104, mob 07788 445920, email paul.wilkinson@pwcom.co.uk
Notes for editors
The Association of Engineering Doctorates established its steering group in 2010 and has grown to encompass almost all of the 28 EPSRC-designated industrial doctorate centres at UK universities. A community engaged in research in engineering and related disciplines, it aims to:
- promote acceptance and recognition of Engineering Doctorate (EngD) degrees within host institutions and industry
- promote excellence and maintain the quality of EngD degrees
- develop wider and more strategic industrial research collaboration
- identify and promote the benefits and impacts from EngD research
- recruit sufficient and suitable top quality research projects
- attract and recruit high calibre Research Engineers (REs)
- develop and promote taught programmes tailored to REs and industry needs
- encourage strong academic engagement and feed back into the host institutions' research base
The Engineering Doctorate (EngD) scheme was established by the EPSRC in 1992 (following recommendations of the 1990 Engineering Doctorate Report, produced by a working group chaired by Professor Parnaby).The first EngD programmes began in 1992, and 28 schemes are now offered by UK universities - either singly or as multi-institution academic partnerships.
Research interests embrace all major areas of engineering, manufacturing and related disciplines including:
- Biopharmaceuticals
- Bioprocess engineering
- Digital entertainment
- Construction, the built environment, transport, and sustainability
- Materials science (including metal coatings, micro- and nano-materials, and composites)
- Energy Technologies
- Formulation engineering
- Systems engineering
- Information technologies
- Machining Science
- Non-descructive evaluation
- Optics and photonics
- Water engineering
- Virtual environments and visualisation
