IfM News

Dr Michaël De Volder leads the NanoManufacturing group at the IfM. He is a University lecturer in NanoManufacturing and Engineering Design and arrived in September 2013 from the University of Leuven, Belgium.The group’s activities will examine the development of scalable technologies to structure nanoparticles such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene into well-defined superstructures. Worldwide commercial interest in CNTs is reflected in a rapidly increase of production capacity which currently exceeds 5,000 tons a year. Current commercial products using CNTs include battery electrodes, automotive parts such as fuel lines, sporting goods and water filters. There are, however, many more potential applications of these materials in sensors, electronics, catalysis, energy storage, and advanced functional materials.

Particles such as CNTs and graphene can have a diameter or thickness of less than 1nm – this is about 100,000 times smaller than a human hair. Lengthwise, CNTs can exceed half a metre, bridging nanoscale and macroscale dimensions. The latter is a typical example of a one-dimensional (1D) nanoparticle. In contrast, 2D materials such as graphene are essentially only

one atom thick but can extend in two lateral directions, while 0D nanoparticles are more or less spherically-shaped, nanoscale material ‘dots’.Techniques for making materials that combine these different particle geometries efficiently are currently under development. A particularly challenging aspect of these materials is that the excellent properties measured in individual nanoparticles are not retained in assemblies of many nanoparticles which are needed for most engineering applications. The nanomanufacturing group therefore seeks new fabrication methods for organizing nanoparticles more efficiently into well-organized superstructures.CNTs and graphene can form beautiful structures, which under electron microscopes reveal glimpses of a fascinating nanoworld. Images collected over the past few years can be viewed

February 2014No 194

Focus on: NanoManufacturing

Inside information: Around 150 vistors

attended this year’s Inside IfM event

Small world: Top image shows top-down lithographic processing of nanoparticles – lithographic patterning of nanoparticles and electrical integration. Bottom image shows bottom-up self-assembly of nanoparticles – capillary and stress-induced interactions for nanotube self-assembly.

Judith Shawcross is running a marathon and two half-marathons for Cancer Research UK.She says: “I know it is not a traditional way to celebrate being 50 but I wanted to do something a little different to raise money for the excellent and much-needed work of Cancer Research UK. “I’m sure cancer has touched many of your lives. So please dig deep and sponsor me for this challenge which starts with the Cambridge Half Marathon on 9 March, then the Brighton Marathon on 6 April and finally the Wimpole Half Marathon on 5 October. I have my own places at each of these races so every penny given will go to the charity.”Visit https://www.justgiving.com/Judith-Shawcross50 to sponsor Judith.

on the group’s website: http://www.nanomanufacturing.eng.cam.ac.uk/NanoScapes

Nano starts small … but it will start growing soonMichaël was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) starting grant of €1.5 million to pursue the development of new carbon nanoparticles processing technologies. The Hierarchical

Carbon Nanomaterials (HIENA) project started in January 2014 and will run for five years. In April, two research associates, Dr George Chandramohan and Dr Davor Copic, will join Michaël’s research efforts, and a PhD studentship funded by the ERC will start in the Michaelmas Term.

The project will pursue combined top-down microfabrication and bottom-up self-assembly, accompanied with chemical surface modification. It will impact scientific understanding of how nanotubes and nanosheets interact, and will create new hierarchical assembly techniques for nanomaterials.

Lampros Litos, a second year doctoral researcher at CIS, won his middleweight bout in the annual Town v Gown boxing match held at Cambridge’s Guildhall. Some of the University’s best fighters took on representatives of local clubs on February 7. Lampros (in the red gloves) saw off his

opponent from the Royal Engineers. His next big bout will be when he wins a Blue as Cambridge tries to regain the boxing crown in the Varsity match on March 8 at the Town Hall in Oxford.

Phil’s pedalling to ParisPhil Catton, Research Associate at DIAL and the Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC), is in training to pedal from London to Paris. He cycles about 20km most days and does a further 40km at the gym in his lunch hour, with the odd 80km gym session after work.In May he and five other cyclists will pedal a little over 500km in four days in aid of Cancer Research UK and The Alzheimer’s Society. Phil says: “Like me and the rest of the team, many of you will have been affected in some way by Alzheimer’s or cancer. We are aiming to raise at least £5,000 and every single penny donated goes directly to the charities. Any contribution large or small will be very gratefully received and will really make a difference.”

You can sponsor Phil and the team at http://uk.virginmoney giving.com/team/

LondonToParis May2014. And follow their progress during 14-17 May on Twitter (@Team_LifeCycle) – they finish at the Eiffel Tower.

latest sports news... latest sports news... latest sports news...

Judith’s marathon efforts to celebrate hitting 50

Seconds out – Litos aims to help regain Varsity crown

‘Nanobamas’ created to mark the election of US President Barack Obama in 2008. Each face is made of approximately 150 million

carbon nanotubes. Created by John Hart, Michaël De Volder, Sameh Tawfick and Will Walker. Left, Michaël De Volder

Inside IfM gave around 150 representatives from government, industry and academia the opportunity to discover more about the IfM’s latest research and projects and meet the people who make that possible. The wide range of research and projects from ultra-precise innovations to global networks was highlighted at the annual open evening.Mike Gregory said: “This annual event is an opportunity to see at first hand the breadth of IfM’s activities in education, research and industrial practice which these days include service, sustainability and policy as well as production processes, information and automation systems, technology management, international manufacturing, strategy and performance.”There were three talks during the event on Thursday 6 February. Jag Srai spoke about Capturing value from global networks, Bill O’Neill talked about Ultra precision manufacturing innovations and the final presentation, The future of manufacturing: a new era of opportunity and challenge for the UK, was by Steve Evans.For more photos see www.flickr.com/photos/ifmcambridge

Inside IfM: 150 come to see what we do at open evening

institute

This year’s Engineering Department photography competition, open to all staff and students, has been launched. The IfM has a proud record to uphold – Ronan Daly and Alfonso Castrejon-Pita won first prize in 2012 (bottom left image), Ronan and Ioannis Mastoris came second last year (centre) while Phil Catton finished third (right).Images that relate to research or teaching in the Department or engineers out in the field can be

submitted to photo-competition@eng.cam.ac.uk by 14 June.The competition is sponsored by Carl Zeiss Microscopy Ltd. First prize is a Zeiss Cinemizer, second prize is a Zeiss Mono 10x25 Monocular, and third prize is a Zeiss Mini Quick 5x10T Monocular. The Electron Microscopy prize is a Zeiss Terra ED 8x42 Binoculars. There is also a Head of Department cash prize of £300. For full details see www.eng.cam.ac.uk/photocomp

Can IfM finish in the frame again in photo competition?

Clockwise, from top left: David Probert and Simon Ford at the CTM stand; John McManus talks about PrISMS; CIS members and visitors at their stand; Paul Tate (left), editor of the Manufacturing Leadership Journal, talks to CIM’s Tomás Harrington, Jag Srai and Mukesh Kumar; Mike Gregory meets some of the visitors.

New joinersDr Jumyung Um joined DIAL in February as a research associate. He is developing a system architecture that tracks individual items on the shop floor for the concept of Disruption Tolerant Automated Lean

Factories (DisTAL), which is the goal of the project funded by the aerospace industry. He received his PhD in industrial engineering from POSTECH, South Korea, and was a research

associate of EPFL in Switzerland where he worked on EU FP7 projects. He has extensive experience in industrial projects involving Airbus, Jaguar, Fiat, Posco and machine tool builders. He completed research on the development of Eco-Advisor software for manufacturing processes and on the implementation of Smart Factory using RFID, RTLS and sensor networks. Jumyung also participated in writing the ISO standard for the machine tool data model, focusing on general machine tools and additive manufacturing.Dr Ching-Hsien Chen joined the Inkjet Research Centre as a Research Associate in February to work on additive manufacturing and the application of inkjet to novel manufacturing process. The aim of the project is to develop flexible manufacturing methods and build a fundamental understanding of the processes involved. After finishing an MSc (Physics) at National Chiao Tung University and an MSc (Interdisciplinary Mathematics) at the University of Warwick, he completed his PhD in Engineering at the University of Warwick in 2013. His research interests include technology developments for interdisciplinary research, computational and experimental physics, and high-speed flow phenomena such as rapid mixing and cavitation bubble.Tianqi Dong joined CIP as a PhD research

student in January. She is currently investigating the generation of high purity graphene by using ultrafast laser under the supervision of Bill O’Neill. Tianqi obtained a BA from the National University of

Defense and Technology, China, and an MPhil from the University of Bath.

Promotion for NancyIn January Nancy Bocken of CIS was promoted to Senior Research Associate at the Department of Engineering. She will be supervising PhDs and act as a co-investigator on future research projects. Additional supervision capacity will allow the centre to accept more PhD candidates and thus grow the cohort of quality PhD researchers. This also gives the centre more space to attract research funding.Nancy said: “I am very happy with this great opportunity and am looking forward to continuing my development as a researcher. Shortly after receiving this promotion, I was

invited to act as an internal examiner of a Cambridge PhD candidate. News travels fast! I very much look forward to being on the other side of that table for the first time.”

New visitorRoxana Hossu joined DIAL in February as a student visitor for four months working on the DisTAL project. She is currently a masters student at the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers, at the Politehnica University of Bucharest. Her research interests include multi-agent systems, intelligent product and product-driven manufacturing control and holonic manufacturing systems.

CIM delivered a week of training in supply chain management and operations to the second cohort of students from the Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) in Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallisation (CMAC). The course was delivered and supported by Jag Srai, Tomás Harrington, Mukesh Kumar and Leila Alinaghian.

The 17 participating students from the Universities of Cambridge, Strathclyde, Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bath and Loughborough took part in interactive sessions which involved lectures and workshops during the week.Topics included supply chain challenges and trends, network design, risk and resilience, and the group had a visit to GSK.

Delivering doctoral supply chain expertise

METs are on the moveGood news – the MET Overseas Research Trip to Singapore and Malaysia is definitely on!The group has raised enough finance to book flights – they depart on 30 June. The students are now doing desk research to understand the opportunities for outsourcing in the region.

But they still need sponsorship to ensure every research opportunity can be taken up – at present funds are tight on transport and accommodation, making it difficult to accept offers to visit some companies. If you can help with sponsorship or local contacts, please contact Katherine Sammes on kes58@cam.ac.uk.

Elliott More, of CTM, recently returned from his travels in China as part of his PhD research with the EC-HVEN programme. The aim was to discover how resource scarcity

influences strategy development in Chinese manufacturing firms to contrast with his interviews in the UK. Elliott was based at Tsinghua University in Beijing, but used the high-speed trains to travel all over China to conduct interviews, run workshops and attend conferences. Conducting interviews provided the opportunity to hear first-hand about the challenge of balancing economic

growth with social and environmental concerns. Elliott found many firms dealing with similar strategic challenges to the UK, with limited concerns about long-term resource scarcity given the more pressing short-term commercial pressures. As labour costs surge, many firms spoke of the urgent need to increase labour productivity by embracing new technologies. Along a similar vein, many spoke of the desire to move up the value chain to become true innovators, making use of the flood of talented young graduates leaving China’s universities as well as those returning from the US and Europe.Elliott also soaked in the atmosphere on the Bund, hiked the Great Wall, ran an ultra marathon in the foothills of the Himalayas and enjoyed the delicious (if sometimes too spicy) food. For more on his research and experiences, catch Elliott at Buns or email him at egm27@cam.ac.uk

Notice boardJoin i-Teams ... quicklyJoin i-Teams for the Easter Term – but you must apply by March 3. You will work for a term with students from across the University and a dedicated industry mentor, investigating the commercial potential of a real Cambridge invention, gaining hands-on skills and experience.Projects run on Monday evenings on 10 and 17 March and then from 28 April with a final presentation session on Thursday 19 June. For more visit www.iteamsonline.org.

Secondment reviewedIs secondment the launchpad for a research career or a sentence to obscurity? A route to better research collaboration or glorified baby-sitting?

Charles Boulton will describe the results from a brief study into practices that work for collaborations with Cambridge. Come along on 18 March to the Hauser Forum to also hear about a new source of funding for secondment activity.

Lunch is at 12-12.30pm, the seminar is at 12.30-1.30pm with a Q&A session

until 2pm. Contact Charles Boulton (cb683@cam.ac.uk) to reserve a place and lunch.

Courses and eventsl Strategic RoadmappingThursday 13 March

l Science Festival @ IfMSaturday 22 March

l How to Implement Open InnovationWednesday 14 May

Top economist delivers Babbage Annual LectureProf Giovanni Dosi delivered the Second Babbage Annual Lecture on February 13. He is Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute of Economics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa and co-director of various economic task forces. The presentation looked at the state of the international economy in its patterns of innovation, the changing balance of sectors, and patterns of growth with an emphasis on the conditions of European economies. The diagnostic was followed by a set of policy proposals advocating an ensemble of innovation and environment-friendly, redistributive expansive measures.

Eco-efficiency workshopCIS PhD researcher Lampros Litos, in collaboration with IEMA, facilitated a workshop on eco-efficiency in production. It was attended by industrial practitioners, consultants and council managers. The group first identified current resource efficiency activities at an individual, process, factory and business leadership level. Then they identified what ‘good’ practice would look like in two or three years’ time for their organisation. The results were then combined to create a current ‘good’ and ‘best’ analysis of everybody’s actions or activities. Each company could then evaluate their current performance

and identify areas to prioritise.PhD researcher Ergun Gungor and centre commercial director Ian Bamford also assisted with the facilitation. Feedback suggests future workshops would be useful and could be focused on specific sectors or groups (i.e. CEO level).

Electric vehicle reportA case study report on a pioneering electric vehicle rental service for holidaymakers in Japan found low usage led to a loss for the car rental companies. In the CSA report Electric Vehicle Rental Services: Project in Okinawa, Japan, Clare Weiller and Andy Neely suggested adopting an ecosystems approach, starting from the end-user service experience and working back through the value chain. The partners involved

– Nissan, the travel agent and the charging company – needed to share their information to better serve the customer.In a podcast interview Clare said: “It is very conceivable this type of rental service with electric vehicles will be offered by more and more countries, including in the UK where there are plans to develop the charging network to 70,000 stations by 2020.” Download the report at www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/resources/service

Strategies for scarcity

- but with some spicy

food

Recent publicationsBocken, N, Farracho, M, Bosworth, R, and Kemp, R (2014): The front-end of eco-innovation for eco-innovative small and medium sized companies, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 31, pp 43-57. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0923474813000647

Bocken, N M P, Short, S W, Rana, P, and Evans, S (2014): A literature and practice review to identify Sustainable Business Model Element Archetypes, Journal of Cleaner Production, 65, pp42-56. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652613008032

Hoath, S, Hsiao, W-K, Martin, G D, Jung, S, Butler, S A, Morrison, N F, Harlen, O G, Yang, L S, Bain, C D, and Hutchings, I M (2014): Aqueous PEDOT:PSS fluid droplet oscillations and properties of complex fluids in DoD inkjet printing, submitted to the Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics.

Woodall, P, Oberhofer, M and Borek, A (2014): A Classification of Data Quality Assessment and Improvement Methods, International Journal of Information Quality, in press.

Yang, L, Kazmierski, B, Hoath, S, Jung, S, Hsiao, W-K, Berson, A, Kapur, N, Harlen, O, and Bain, C (2014): Determination of dynamic surface tension and viscosity of Non-Newtonian fluids from drop oscillations, submitted to Physics of Fluids.

Here is a selection of our latest media coverage:Finding out what goes on inside manufacturingReport on the annual Inside IfM event.Cambridge NewsPrint and online at http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Business/Business-News/Inside-IfM-offers-insight-into-Cambridge-Universitys-Institute-of-Manufacturing-20140218160020.htm

Cambridge helps European start-ups scale globallyideaSpace is supporting a new initiative to boost the growth and sustainability of European start-ups.Business Weeklyhttp://www.businessweekly.co.uk/news/startups/16497- cambridge-helps-european-startups-scale-globally

Environmental performance variation at manufacturing sitesBlog by Nancy Bocken on the gap in environmental performance between the best and worst performing factories.EEF websitehttp://www.eef.org.uk/environmentblog/post/Environmental- performance-variation-at-manufacturing-sites.aspx

Printing eyesEye cell printing research by the Inkjet Research Centre was

the MRC Biomedical Picture of the Day on 16 February. MRC Clinical Sciences Centre website

http://bpod.mrc.ac.uk/archive/2014/2/16

IfM comments on the Government’s latest economic figuresDerek Ford offers a manufacturing perspective on UK economic growth figures released by the government.Sky News, 1pm news bulletin on 28 January

Cambridge News | cambridge-news.co.uk | February 18, 2014 | 21

Finding out what goes on inside manufacturingInsIde IfM gave around 150 representatives from govern-ment, industry and academia the opportunity to discover more about the Institute for Manufacturing’s latest re-search and projects and meet the experts who make that possible.

The IfM, part of Cambridge University’s department of engineering, brings together expertise in management, technology and policy to ad-dress the full spectrum of in-dustrial issues.

Prof sir Mike Gregory said: “We are always keen to wel-come visitors to IfM but usu-ally they can only see a small fraction of what goes on.

“This annual event is an opportunity to see at first hand the breadth of IfM’s ac-tivities in education, research and industrial practice which these days include service, sustainability and policy as

well as production processes, information and automation systems, technology manage-ment, international manufac-turing, strategy and perfor-mance.”

Prof Bill O’neill, talking on ‘Ultra precision manufactur-ing innovations’, said research and development technolo-gies were essential if the UK manufacturing base is to es-tablish a competitive global position in the production of next generation products.

Prof steve evans said that the UK, and Cambridge’s, tra-ditional strengths in innova-tion and technology are going to be increasingly important to manufacturing as factories get smaller, cleaner and closer.

“Manufacturing will even be appearing in a shop close to you where you will be able to buy your custom-made product there and then,” he said.

ideaSpace is supporting a new initiative to boost the growth and sustainability of european start-ups by helping them compete and raise funds from around the world.

cambridge University is one of the founding members of the Startup europe partnership, the first pan-european open platform dedicated to helping start-ups to progress to matu-rity.

ideaSpace, which supports people in cambridge starting high-impact new ventures, is the university’s representa-tive for the project. it will play a guiding role as a member of the steering committee as well as supporting five start-ups through the initiative.

The work programme will be promoted by the european commission. Neelie Kroes, eu-ropean commission Vice-pres-ident responsible for digital agenda, said: “europe needs thriving start-ups and global internet companies to become a global growth centre again. politicians don’t create jobs, entrepreneurs do.”

It’s a good idea to push start-ups

The ifM: First-hand

experience

Read all about it: IfM in the news