IfM News June 2013No 186

Focus on: IfM Research Capability Development ProgrammeThe UK Researcher Development Framework has been set up to support researchers and their professional development. Endorsed by the UK HE Funding Bodies, Research Councils UK, Universities UK and other national organisations, it provides a ‘snapshot’ of the skills and attributes that researchers may wish to develop.

The IfM’s Programme is based on the ’Researcher Development Statement’, but tailored to the needs of our researchers. Funded by the Engineering Department’s Researcher Development Programme, it aims to develop the skills set out by the Statement through seminars, workshops, peer-learning, e-learning and social events. It is a platform for people from across the IfM wishing to share and develop research methods and approaches.

In particular, the Programme seeks to:• Offer a coherent approach to research capability development tailored to the needs of IfM research domains• Explore and utilise existing IfM expertise and competencies• Increase awareness of what’s offered outside the IfM

Committee and themesThe Committee was formed in September 2012, following a series of lunchtime conversations with doctoral students at different stages of their PhD lamenting the lack of a coherent approach to research capability development across the IfM.

Through a series of highly interactive brainstorming sessions, the Committee identified a series of research capability themes to be addressed through events and activities (see fig.1).

MembersThe Committee includes PhD students, Research Associates and senior members, with representatives from all the different research Centres

within the IfM to ensure that all needs are catered for.

Leila Alinaghian, a doctoral student at the Centre for International Manufacturing, is the Programme leader. She organises monthly group meetings with senior members, brainstorming sessions with the team around research

capabilities themed events, as well as research seminars, peer-learning and social events. She is also in charge

of managing internal and external communications, promoting the events and programme by working with the ECS marketing and communications team, and developing the annual plan. Leila is at the very heart of the Research Capability Development Programme and it is her goal to seek new members and gain support from Centre heads to promote and sponsor events.

Fig.1 - Research Capabilities identified

Research Associate members include Ronan Daly from the Inkjet Research Centre, who is the Transferable Skills Coordinator and in charge of the budget. He also takes care of all external communication with the Engineering Department and is responsible for the Intellectual Property theme. Dr Mukesh Kumar from the Centre for International Manufacturing is in charge of the Literature Review theme, as well as acting as an advisor on research grants. Dr Dai Morgan, RA at the Centre for Industrial Sustainability, deals with Research Methodology and Communication. And Dr Philip Woodall, who works at the Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory, is responsible for Social Events and Career Development.

Senior members of the Research Capability Development Programme are Professors Mike Gregory, Andy Neely and Bill O’Neill, who bring to the group their extensive experience in the field of research and provide support and guidance when needed.

On the support side, Divisional Administrator Janet Lindley helps with updating information and events on the IfM Intranet. She also identifies opportunities to integrate the programme with other IfM research practice-related activities, such as the Research and Communication club, reading clubs or the First Year PhD conference.

Leila is always on the look-out for new members to join the group and enrich the programme by generating and discussing ideas for events and bringing the point of view of their centre or group. She is also keen for people to take the lead in organising

and hosting an event they feel particularly interested in.

The latest members to join the committee are Dr Antonio Andreoni, Dr Tariq Masood and Krste Pangovski.

ActivitiesAbout a dozen events have already been organised as part of the IfM Research Capability Programme.

Recent events include:

• a seminar on Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) hosted by Professor Hans Baumgartner from Smeal College of Business at Pennsylvania State University

• an informal lunch at Churchill College with a brief talk from Sir David Wallace

• a seminar on working with industry by Paul Christodoulou from ECS

• a joint event with the IfM Research and Communication club where Steve Evans, Director of Research at the Centre for Industrial Sustainability, gave a talk on ‘Writing a winning research proposal’.

There are two events planned for July:

Meet the editor – with Professor Lisa Ellram, Co-editor in Chief, Journal of Supply Chain Management, on Monday 1 July, 10.30 am – 12pm

Developing Conceptual Papers – with Prof Martin Kilduff, UCL, on Thursday 18 July, 12 - 2 pm

Throughout the year, a weekly Writing Group is also held for people in need of some quiet time to get their writing done – be it posters, papers, abstracts or theses – in a peer-supportive environment. The Group gets together every Thursday between 1.45-3.15 pm in Seminar room 1.

For more information visitbit.ly/1aK7Ov3

There is also a page dedicated to the Research Capability Development programme on the IfM intranet: bit.ly/12mSTPB

Notice boardAs part of the Research Capability initiative, a notice board has been set up in the common room. Here you can find out more about the IfM programme and the overall Research Capability Statement. The board is constantly updated with information on different themes and upcoming events, so please keep watching this space!

If you would like to suggest new ideas or participate in organising and discussing Research Capability themed events, please contact Leila Alinaghian lsa27@cam.ac.uk

March NewsStudents showcase innovative product ideas at 2013 Design Show

On Wednesday 5 June, the MET IIA students showcased their projects at the annual Design Show. The students are asked to design an innovative product that may have business potential, which is then displayed at an event attended by industrialists, designers, venture capitalists and academics, as well as friends and relatives.

In the past, some of the products on display have been taken up by the industrial partners involved during the development stages, and two or three projects are deemed to have the same potential this year. Products presented at the 2013 Design Show can be seen here bit.ly/14V7JCi

If you want to find out more, please contact Jim Platts mjp1001@cam.ac.uk.

Andy Neely is the new President of EurOMAAndy Neely, who heads the Cambridge Service Alliance, was

elected as the new president of the European Operations Management Association (EurOMA) at the 2013 conference. His

three-year term as President starts immediately. At the conference, the Board of EurOMA also announced that there would be no joining fee for PhD students from 2014 onwards,

so if you are doing a PhD and want to join Europe’s leading association for operations management, now is a great time to register. You can do so on the EurOMA website www.euroma.org

Steve Hoath awarded Fellowship of the Institute of PhysicsDr Steve Hoath can now add FInstP to his name after being awarded a Fellowship at the Institute of Physics. This achievement represents an assessment of his career contributions to academic and industrial activities.

Anyone wishing to know more about the IOP, membership or just physics, is free to contact him at sdh35@cam.ac.uk.

Two new doctors at the IfMImoh Ilevbare and Berhnard Dusch recently passed their PhD vivas. Imoh’s PhD thesis focused on the treatment of uncertainty and risk in roadmapping. Berhard’s thesis was titled ‘From Eco-to Sustainable Design - Supporting this Transformation in the context of Product Design’ and aims to contribute to a better integration of sustainable design approaches in design practice, which includes the development of a toolkit to support early-stage activities.

Senior academic promotionsThis year’s promotion round includes two IfM colleagues: Dr Tim Minshall, who has been promoted to Reader, and Dr Ajith Parlikad, who has been made a Senior Lecturer. Both promotions take effect from 1

October 2013. Congratulations to Tim and Ajith!

ideaSpace City now openideaSpace is pleased to announce that their second site has now opened. Located in Mill Lane, ideaSpace City has started recruiting new members and is already home to Audio Analytic and Cambridge Intelligence, who were previously based at The Hauser Forum on the West Cambridge Site. ideaSpace West currently hosts around 70 companies and ideaSpace City will surely follow suit! If anyone would like to have a look around ideaSpace, please contact Belinda Brown for ideaSpace City belinda.brown@ideaspace.cam.ac.uk or Alyson Lee for ideaSpace West alyson.lee@ideaspace.cam.ac.uk.

IfM paper published in an All-Party Parliamentary Group book on rebalancing the British economyA paper by Dr Elizabeth Garnsey was published in a book titled ‘Rebalancing the British Economy’. This is a collection of papers originating from panel discussions

held by the House of Commons All-Party Parliamentary Group on Rebalancing the British Economy.

Elizabeth’s paper, Reconstructing the Economy through New Forms of Manufacturing-Service Innovation: The Cambridge Technology Cluster Example, was published in Section Three, which looks at the greater role for Britain’s manufacturing sector in a rebalanced economy. The volume, edited by Tristram Hunt MP, can be found here: www.civitas.org.uk/pdf/RebalancingtheEconomyAPPG.pdf

Recent events

Notice board

University Sports Centre - opening soonOpening later this summer, the University Sports Centre will provide new facilities on the West Cambridge site. Over the coming months they will keep us up-to-date with information about opening dates, times and memberships for staff and students.

If you want to monitor progress, you can follow CamUniSport on Facebook or Twitter @CamUniSport.

The OI Forum Pitching Event returnsMonday 14 October

In March, the Open Innovation Forum held a Pitching Event, where 18 innovators and technology developers from small commercial

and university-based organisations presented their innovative ideas to an audience of senior professionals and innovation ‘scouts’. The event, organised by ECS, was so successful that a second one will be held on Monday 14 October at Colworth Science Park.

Participants will again have the chance to pitch their ideas to major companies involved in some aspect of the Food and FMCG sectors, such as Mars, Unilever, General Mills, Tate & Lyle, Bacardi and Crown Packaging. The deadline for entries is 31 August.

Find more details online: www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/events/oipitching/

Upcoming eventsLord Sainsbury gives talk as part of Babbage Seminar SeriesOn Thursday 20 June, the IfM hosted a talk by Lord Sainsbury of Turville, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, on Linking science, engineering and economics – a progressive capitalism approach.

About 90 Cambridge academics attended the event, which was part of a seminar series run by the Babbage Industrial Policy Network.

www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/brg/

Mexican hats and burritos at the IfM Garden party

On Saturday 15 June the IfM held its annual Garden Party. This year the event had a Mexican theme. Members of staff and their families and friends enjoyed burritos, ice-cream and margaritas and danced to salsa music, some of them sporting characteristic Mexican outfits and hats.

10th UK Manufacturing Professors’ Forum and Dinner On Monday 24 June, manufacturing professors were joined by senior policymakers and industrialists for the annual UK Manufacturing Professors’ Forum and Dinner. Speakers included the Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts, as well as the manufacturing heads of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), EPSRC and Technology Strategy Board (TSB).

This year’s theme was The Future of Manufacturing. Talks were followed by a workshop session and then dinner, where participants had the chance to continue the lively discussions with an invited selection of industrialists.

The event was held at the National Liberal Club in London and was sponsored by BIS, EPSRC and TSB.

CSTI hosts high-level international meetingOn Friday 7 June, the Centre for Science, Technology & Innovation Policy (CSTI) hosted a workshop as part of the Tripartite meeting, focused on the involvement of

public researchers in standardisation activities and how to facilitate this involvement. Participants were senior officials responsible for standardisation policy in the British, French and German Government, directors of the National Standards Body and National Accreditation Body of the three countries and representatives from DG Enterprise in the EU Commission.

CSTI was deemed the ideal host for this year’s meeting thanks to their research agenda, closely linked to the theme, and on-going collaboration with the UK Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS). Together with BIS, Eoin O’Sullivan and Laure Dodin assisted in designing the workshop agenda and facilitating the session. For more information contact Laure ld308@cam.ac.uk.

Inkjet researcher holds ‘tech talk’ at conference in Barcelona

Steve Hoath gave a ‘tech talk’ on 5 June at the IMI Europe Inkjet 2013 Technology Showcase held in Barcelona, entitled

Advances in Understanding Inkjet Fluids and Jetting, to an audience of 150+ industrial inkjet personnel. This commercial event has been supported in the past years with other inkjet ‘tech talks’ by Graham Martin, as part of a wider public dissemination of research findings by group members from the Inkjet Research Centre.

CSTI researcher presents paper at Standardisation conferenceLaure Dodin, research associate at the Centre for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy, presented a paper

at a conference held by the European Academy for Standardisation (EURAS), which promotes research, education and publication in the field of standardisation. The 17th EURAS Annual Standardisation Conference was held in Brussels on 24-26 June.

Laure presented Standards development in support of the Europe 2020 “smart growth” objective – Evidence from Germany and the US, co-authored with Eoin O’ Sullivan. The paper explores programmes and effective practices adopted by Germany and the USA to foster an enabling standardisation environment in support of several technological domains (additive manufacturing, tissue engineering, smart grid and synthetic biology) in the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy’s objective of ‘smart growth’.

For more information contact Laure ld308@cam.ac.uk.

Lunch at Churchill CollegeAs part of the IfM Research Capability programme and the group’s campaign to ‘get to know our neighbours better’, an informal lunch was held on 17 June at Churchill College. 16 people from a variety of research groups within the IfM attended and enjoyed networking with one another in the College setting.

After lunch, participants had the chance to meet David Wallace, the Master, and Ken Siddle, who kindly introduced the College and talked about opportunities for Postdocs.

Recent publications

Mike Gregory also gave a brief tour of the College including the Møller Centre.

In the future, the plan is to have informal lunches at the college once per month. Further details will be sent by the IfM Research Capability Programme team.

IfM supervisors participate in Wolfson & Newnham Engineers BBQOn 12 June, Wolfson College hosted the annual Wolfson & Newnham Engineers BBQ on the sundial garden lawn, despite the blustery and cold weather. 31 undergraduate engineers and their topic supervisors and directors of studies took part in the event. IfM supervisors met their counterparts in both Colleges and all enjoyed drinks and food cooked by the students.

As the Wolfson DoS for Engineering, Steve Hoath is always interested to hear from those wishing to supervise undergraduates. If you want to know more, please contact him as soon as possible and register for training at the main CUED teaching office sdh35@cam.ac.uk.

Harri Lorentz (D.Sc.) is a visitor at the Centre for International Manufacturing. He is acting professor of purchasing and supply management in the Operations & Supply Chain Management

programme of Turku School of Economics at the University of Turku, Finland. His research interests are concentrated on international

sourcing and SCM, sourcing and SCM capabilities, system dynamics, as well as emerging markets. He has business experience in food exports, and has also contributed to World Bank-led trade and transport facilitation projects in the CIS countries.

Belinda Brown has recently joined ideaSpace as Office Manager for the newly opened City Centre location in

Millers Yard. She is also PA to ideaSpace Director, Stewart McTavish. Belinda has spent the last ten years

working in the voluntary sector as an Office Manager and PA. She has experience of starting up several offices from scratch and is looking forward to the development of the new office space in the city centre. Previously Belinda lived in Canada where she was a photographic journalist for a daily newspaper.

Nitish Gupta is a final year MBA student from Birla Institute of

Technology & Science (BITS-Pilani), Pilani campus, India. He will be working on the technology leadership module of the

STIM consortium until July under the supervision of David Probert and Dr Rob Phaal. Nitish has a Bachelor of Technology degree in computer science engineering from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and has worked as a researcher at Tata Consultancy Services Limited in India for a year.

Dee Dee Frawley recently joined the EPSRC Centre for Industrial Sustainability as the Networking and Marketing Coordinator. The purpose of her role is to ensure that the EPSRC Centre has an effective

presence in its members’ organisations, and also in the wider business and policymaking community. Dee Dee began

her career as a geotechnical engineer working on seismic and water resource projects in the US. After relocating to the UK, she has worked as a project manager and a network coordinator.

New people & roles

Amer Dheedan and Ajith ParlikadI had a paper accepted for publication and presentation at the 4th IFAC Workshop on Dependable Control of Discrete Systems (DCDS 2013), to be held at the University of York between 4-6 September.The paper is titled: Integrated Monitoring Tasks for the Safety of Critical Systems.

A journal paper on Information visualization to support management decisions, authored by Jasser Al-Kassab, Mohammed-Zied Ouertani, Giovanni Schiuma and Andy Neely has been accepted for publication by the International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM). The paper illustrates how, for a major European apparel retailer, the visualization of performance information plays a critical role in improving business decisions and in extracting insights from RFID-based performance measures.

Masood, T., Weston, R. and Rahimifard, A. (2013) A model-driven approach to enabling change capability in SMEs, International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, Article in press, May 2013. link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00170-013-4853-9

IfM in the news

Probert, D.R., Ford, S.J., Routley, M.J., O’Sullivan, E. and Phaal, R. (2013), Understanding and navigating industrial emergence, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B, Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 227 (6), pp. 781-793.

Probert, D., Dissel, M., Farrukh, C., Mortara, L., Thorn, V. and Phaal, R. (2013), The process of making the business case for technology: a sales and marketing perspective for technologists, Technology Forecasting & Social Change, 80(6), pp. 1129-1139.

Kerr, C., Farrukh, C., Phaal, R. and Probert, D. (2013), Key principles for developing industrially relevant strategic technology management toolkits, Technology Forecasting & Social Change, 80(6), pp. 1050-1070.

Routley, M., Phaal, R. and Probert, D. (2013), Exploring industry dynamics and interactions, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 80(6), pp. 1147-1161.

Routley, M. Phaal, R. Athanassopoulou, N. and Probert D. (2013), Mapping experience in organizations: a learning process for strategic technology planning, Engineering Management Journal, 25 (1), pp.35-47.

Ilevbare, I.M., Probert, D. and Phaal, R. (2013), A review of TRIZ, and its benefits and challenges in practice, Technovation, 33 (2-3), pp. 30-37.

Here is a selection of our most recent media coverage:

How can industrial designers contribute to the work of scientists? Product Design and Innovation www.pdesigni.com/features/show/5327

Overhype and under appreciation The Manufacturer Print

Engineering the Future Cambridge University website www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/engineering-the-future

MASTERCLASSES AT CAMBRIDGE TECH EXPO Business Weekly www.businessweekly.co.uk/hi-tech/15523-masterclasses-at-cambridge-tech-expo

Enterprise Strategy Financial Management www.fm-magazine.com/pdfs/FM24JUNE2013.pdf