Pioneer 1

PIONEER Autumn 2008

www.epsrc.ac.uk

01

Speed Freak

Can Richard Noble’s team build the fastest car in the world?

9/11SURVIVORS’ STORIES / SLASHING ENERGY DEMAND / PROTECTING BRITAIN’S HERITAGE

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

EPSRC: funding the future The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the main UK government agency for funding research and training in engineering and the physical sciences – from mathematics to materials science and from information technology to structural engineering.

Working with UK universities, it invests around £740m a year in world class research and training to promote future economic development and improved quality of life.

Get involved: EPSRC’s portfolio of research projects includes more than 2,000 partnerships with organisations from the industrial, business and charitable sectors.

Contact us: We have dedicated sector teams working to understand the research and skills needs of their sectors and to help connect businesses with university expertise.

More than 35 per cent of our research funding includes collaborative partners.

Construction, Environment and Water Contact: Claire Tansley, Tel: 01793 444237

EPSRC’s knowledge transfer goals include: •

•

PIONEER is EPSRC’s quarterly magazine.

It highlights how EPSRC-funded research and training is helping to tackle global challenges and the major issues facing individuals, business and the UK economy.

•

Enhancing opportunities for business/university research collaborations to accelerate knowledge transfer.

Aerospace and Defence Contact: Simon Crook, Tel: 01793 444425

Electronics Contact: Matthew Ball, Tel: 01793 444351 Healthcare Contact: Nafeesa Simjee, Tel: 01793 444465 Manufacturing Contact: Kathryn Magnay, Tel: 01793 444068 Power Contact: Stephen Elsby, Tel: 01793 444458

Ensuring postgraduate skills meet the needs of business through increased demand-led and collaborative training.

Process Industries Contact: Nicolas Guernion, Tel: 01793 444343

Strengthening partnerships with business to improve knowledge transfer – including the development of strategic partnerships with research-intensive companies.

Transport Systems Contact: Richard Bailey, Tel: 01793 444423

You can find out more about EPSRC and how you can work with us by visiting our website www.epsrc.ac.uk

Software, Media and Communications Contact: Carol McAnally, Tel: 01793 444582

If you can’t find a sector relevant to you, please email: sectors@epsrc.ac.uk EPSRC Polaris House North Star Avenue Swindon SN2 1ET E-mail: pioneer@epsrc.ac.uk Switchboard: 01793 444000 Helpline: 01793 444100 Website: www.epsrc.ac.uk

The views and statements expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of EPSRC unless explicitly stated. Some of the research highlighted may not yet have been peer-reviewed. © Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Reproduction permitted only if source is acknowledged.

ISSN 1758-7727

PIONEER Editor: Christopher Buratta E-mail: christopher.buratta@epsrc.ac.uk Tel: 01793 444305 Mailing changes: pioneer@epsrc.ac.uk Contributors Maria Burke, Nina Morgan, Tony Newton.

CONTENTS 13

PIONEER 01 Autumn 2008

FEATURES 13 Cover story The science behind the world’s fastest car

19 Default risk Helping banks avoid the mistakes of the credit crunch

21 Talking bacteria David Spring on bacteria’s infectious conversation – and how we can change the message

25 The future’s bright Can affordable LEDs light the low energy pathway?

29 Science and heritage New work to preserve the past

31 Survivors’ stories How those who evacuated the World Trade Center on 9/11 are helping to create a safer high-rise future

33 Drug discovery

31

“The evacuation of the World Trade Center complex after the 9/11 attacks was one of the largest full-scale evacuations of people in modern times”

New training to keep the UK on top of the world

REGULARS 4 Leaders 5 Briefings Self-heal aeroplanes, robots with feelings and bullet-tagging technology

11 Interview EPSRC’s business innovation director Catherine Coates on building stronger links with industry

34 Profile

25

29

2008 Marconi award-winner David Payne on future communication, Harley Davidsons and Heston Blumenthal

Inspiring science

W

elcome to the first edition of PIONEER – EPSRC’s new quarterly magazine. Its aim is to showcase the world-class research and brilliant minds that we fund – the pioneers who are pushing back the boundaries of physical sciences and engineering and ensuring the UK can tackle the challenges of the 21st century.

The UK has a great science and engineering tradition. It has produced countless pioneers who have left their mark on history – Newton, Brunel,

Frances Crick and James Watson, and, of course, Richard Noble.

He has already led two successful attempts on the world land speed record and his team holds the current record with Thrust SSC. Now, working with researchers funded by EPSRC, his Bloodhound SSC team hope to push the boundaries further than ever before and create the world’s first 1,000mph car.

It is ambitious, but through excellent science and engineering and with drive and determination, they have every chance of reaching their goal.

Ultimately, their achievement will not be measured in miles per hour, but in the advanced technologies that follow from their work and in the future achievements of the children they inspire to become engineers.

For the UK to continue and build upon its great tradition we need to inspire the next generation of pioneers and we need to support talented researchers throughout their careers.

To do this great tradition justice we also need

to ensure their brilliance improves lives throughout the UK and across the globe.

Over the coming years, we will be challenging our research community to tackle the very real issues of energy supply and climate change, to develop new ways of using digital technologies and to improve healthcare.

And we will be working closely with organisations and businesses across all industrial sectors to help ensure that UK science makes a difference.

David Delpy EPSRC chief executive

Planning to deliver

D

uring the next three years I will be Chairman of two organisations – EPSRC and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). Between them they will spend about £10bn of public money. The public and politicians will quite rightly want to feel that money is being efficiently and effectively spent.

Both the work of EPSRC and the Olympic and Paralympic Games have the capacity to

PIONEER 01 Autumn 2008

release talent, improve the competitiveness of Britain and create a more sustainable future.

At EPSRC our three-year delivery plan addresses key global challenges, such as energy, and outlines our continued commitment to invest in the next generation of world-class researchers and support more ambitious research.

However, the expectations are higher than ever and like the ODA we will need to maintain a sharp focus on the scope of activity we support across the many and varied disciplines.

The ODA is also working to a fixed completion date something to which the research community is normally less prone.

Our task at the ODA is a very physical one – to build the infrastructure and stadium to host the 2012 Games. We have a fixed time frame, an approximate scope of works and an agreed budget. All are constantly at risk, primarily from scope changes and price fluctuations.

Management of these risks is continuous and comes under scrutiny from many stakeholder organisations. We also have tough environmental, sustainability and diversity targets which we must meet if the London Games are to be a real success in the long term.

Delivery requires the co-ordination of thousands of companies across the UK as well as the organisation of 20,000 workers on the Olympic site and five deliveries of lorry loads of materials every minute. It is an opportunity for the UK engineering and construction industry to show the world just what it can achieve.

In the case of both organisations, focus, team work and a determination to be the best will ensure we succeed.

John Armitt EPSRC chairman

05

briefings

SELF HEALING AIRCRAFT BACTERIA FOR THE FUTURE DIGITAL BOOST FOR AFRICAN FARMERS RUBBER SEA SNAKES FUNDS FOR MEDICAL ENGINEERING ROBOT LOVE BULLET TAGGING BIG CITY FOOTPRINT

‘New skin’ for self heal planes AILING AIRCRAFT could heal themselves during flight thanks to a revolutionary new system.

The technology, that mimics the healing processes found in nature, has been developed by aerospace engineers at Bristol University, with funding from EPSRC, and could be available for commercial use within four years. In addition to improving aviation safety, the technology could also lead to lighter aircraft, cutting both fuel costs and carbon emissions.

If a tiny hole or crack appears in the aircraft – due to fatigue or a stone strike – epoxy resin ‘bleeds’ from embedded vessels near the crack to quickly seal it and restore integrity. The resin and hardener enable the composite material to recover up to 80-90 per cent of its original strength – comfortably allowing a plane to function at its normal operational load.

Dye in the resin would allow engineers to pinpoint damage repair during subsequent ground inspections.

Dr Ian Bond, the man who led the three-year project, said: “This approach can deal with small-scale damage that’s not obvious to the naked eye but which might lead to serious failures in structural integrity if it escapes attention.

“It’s intended to complement rather than replace conventional inspection and maintenance routines, which can readily pick up larger-scale damage, caused by a bird strike, for example.”

The technique can be applied wherever fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are used. These lightweight, highperformance materials are proving increasingly popular not only in aircraft but also in car, wind turbine and even spacecraft manufacture. The new self-repair system could therefore have an impact in all these fields.

“This project represents just the first step,” said Dr Bond. “We’re also developing systems where the healing agent isn’t contained in individual glass fibres but actually moves around as part of a fully integrated vascular network, just like the circulatory systems found in animals and plants. Such a system could have its healing agent refilled or replaced and could repeatedly heal a structure throughout its lifetime. Furthermore, it offers potential for developing other biological-type functions in man-made structures, such as controlling temperature or distributing energy sources.”

The Bristol University research team, in collaboration with researchers at Imperial College, London, have been awarded a further £600,000 from EPSRC to continue the development of these techniques.

Bac for the future BACTERIA could be the fuel of the future – thanks to new research at Sheffield University.

The breakthrough could have significant implications for the environment and the production of sustainable fuels.

Like all living creatures, bacteria sustain themselves through their metabolism, a huge sequence of chemical reactions that transform nutrients into energy and waste.

Using mathematical computer models, the Sheffield team mapped the metabolism of a type of bacteria called Nostoc.

Nostoc fixes nitrogen and, in doing so, releases hydrogen that can then potentially be used as fuel. Fixing nitrogen is an energy intensive process and until now it was not entirely clear exactly how the bacterium produces the energy it needs in order to perform.

But the new computer system has been able to map out the process.

Dr Guido Sanguinetti, from the university’s Department of Dr Guido Sanguinetti Computer Science, who led the study, said: “The research uncovered a previously unknown link between the energy machinery of the Nostoc bacterium and its core nitrogen metabolism. Further investigation of this pathway might lead to understanding and improvement of the hydrogen production mechanism of these bacteria. It will certainly be some time before a pool of bacteria powers your car, but this research is yet another small step towards sustainable fuels.”

He added: “The next step for us will be further investigation into hydrogen production, as well as constructing more mathematical models capable of integrating various sources of biological data.”

The Sheffield research, part-funded by EPSRC, is the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration of computer scientists and chemical engineers in a new discipline called synthetic biology. A major goal of synthetic biology is to understand which pathways of the bacterial metabolism are responsible for important functions, and then genetically engineer organisms that can perform the desired function more effectively.

This research is yet another small step towards sustainable fuels.

The research was published in the journal Bioinformatics.

briefings

Digital boost for African farmers A DEVICE to help some of the most impoverished farmers in Africa maximise crop yields is being tested at London’s Kew Gardens.

Developed by engineers at the University of Leeds, the sensor device gathers data on air temperature, humidity, air pressure, light, soil moisture and temperature – information crucial to making key agricultural decisions about planting, fertilisation, irrigation, pest and disease control and harvesting.

The Leeds team has been working with two Kenyan villages to develop the technology as part of EPSRC’s Village E-Science for Life (VESEL) project, a collaboration of key research groups in the UK and Kenya.

The project aims to apply advanced digital technology to improve quality of life, both through its use in education and to optimise agricultural practices.

Professor Jaafar Elmirghani, from the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, said: “In some areas of Kenya, localised variations in growing conditions can cause severe fluctuations in crop yields. Our part of the VESEL project is Professor Jaafar Elmirghani about providing the right information at the right time to farmers.

This means they can use available water more efficiently, minimising wastage and helping to optimise their harvests to feed their families.”

The devices feed back information via a wireless network to a central hub, or server, which will be located at the village school, and it is then sent to agriculture experts who will provide advice to assist farmers’ decisions. The ongoing data gathered will also feed into agricultural teaching at Kenyan schools, which forms a central part of the education system.

The tests at Kew are expected to be complete by Autumn 2008, after which time the devices are initially to be trialled in the two Kenyan villages. “We hope that, during 2009 and beyond, the technology will be rolled out to other communities,” said Professor Elmirghani.

Part of the project is about providing the right information at the right time to farmers.

PIONEER 01 Autumn 2008

Cheap power from sea snakes TWO HUNDRED metre ‘rubber sea snakes’ could hold the key to affordable wave power.

Invented in the UK, the ‘Anaconda’ is an innovative wave energy concept and its ultra-simple lightweight design means it would be cheap to manufacture and maintain.

This would allow it to produce clean electricity at a lower cost than other types of wave energy converter. The device is still at an early stage of development and its concept has only been proven at very small laboratory-scale. But plans for larger-scale testing, funded by EPSRC, are underway.

Snakes on a chain: computer simulation of anaconda device

Named after the snake of the same name because of its long thin shape, the Anaconda is closed at both ends and filled completely with water. It is designed to be anchored just below the sea’s surface, with one end facing the oncoming waves.

When a wave hits the anaconda it causes a ‘bulge wave’ to form inside the tube. This turns a turbine fitted at the far end of the device and the power produced is fed to shore via a cable.

Engineers at the University of Southampton, in collaboration with the Anaconda’s inventors and its developer, Checkmate SeaEnergy, are now embarking on a programme of larger-scale laboratory experiments.

Professor John Chaplin, who is leading the EPSRC-funded project said: “The Anaconda could make a valuable contribution to environmental protection by encouraging the use of wave power.

“A one-third scale model of the Anaconda could be built next year for sea testing and we could see the first full-size device deployed off the UK coast in around five years’ time.”

When built, each full-scale Anaconda device would be 200 metres long and seven metres in diameter, and deployed in water depths of between 40 and 100 metres. Initial assessments indicate that the Anaconda would have a power output of 1MW (roughly the electricity consumption of 2000 houses) and might be able to generate power at a cost of 6p per kWh or less.

07

Could you ever love a robot?

CASH INJECTION FOR MEDICAL ENGINEERING

A LOVEABLE robot with a heart of its own is helping the public build a new relationship with robotics.

EPSRC and the Wellcome Trust have launched a £45m initiative to boost medical engineering in the UK.

Heart Robot is a puppet with robotic features which appears to react in an emotional way with people.

It responds to loud noises and agitation by appearing to become more anxious as it tenses up and its heart beats faster, and relaxes and calms down as its environment becomes less worrying.

Project coordinator David McGoran, who combines experience as a street performer with an academic interest in robotics, said: “We have built Heart Robot to respond to the way it is treated by people.

We are hoping that people will feel an emotion in response to the robot and that this will inspire them to find out more about robotics.

“It has large deep soulful eyes, delicate ears, hands and feet and is warm to touch. A soft flexible skin made of Egyptian cotton encases the frame. Heart Robot has autonomous reflexes and will appear to breathe, blink, flinch and clench its hands in response to human encounters.”

The initiative will provide increased funding for applied research in healthcare. It will also improve the integration of expertise in the public and private sectors to help ensure innovations are harnessed effectively by the healthcare industry and aided through the process of regulation, commercialisation and distribution.

A number of multidisciplinary centres of excellence will be established within the UK, bringing together experts in the fields of the physical and engineering sciences with those in the clinical and life sciences. Over the past 12 months, both the Wellcome Trust and EPSRC have announced a number of new medical devices developed with their funding. These include the i-Snake for use in keyhole surgery, funded by the Wellcome Trust, and biological cements to repair ‘burst fractures’ of the spine, funded by EPSRC. Through this joint initiative, the two organisations hope to stimulate further discovery and boost the development of such innovations.

David Delpy, EPSRC chief executive EPSRC chief executive David Delpy said: “The UK has significant strengths in the areas of engineering, physical, clinical and life sciences. This partnership with the Wellcome Trust opens up exciting new possibilities in exploratory research in healthcare that will cross these disciplines. It offers tremendous potential for significant advances to address currently unmet clinical needs.”

Dr Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, added: “Major advances in medical diagnosis and treatment, such as CT scanning, magnetic resonance scanning and fibre-optic surgical techniques have come from interdisciplinary collaborations between engineering, physical and medical sciences.

“This scheme will provide major new funding for interdisciplinary collaborations to develop new technologies that will advance healthcare in the future.”

“...and what about my feelings?”

The project has brought together researchers from the Bristol Robotics Laboratory at the University of the West of England (UWE), circus performers, artists, model makers, puppeteers and experts in animatronics. Most of the work of designing and building Heart Robot has been done by UWE Robotics BSc degree students.

Dr Matthew Studley, project leader and a robotics expert from UWE said: “To help us produce our Heart Robot we have joined forces with world-leading puppeteer William Todd-Jones, Bristol’s Circomedia maestro Bim Mason, leading animatronics expert Matt Denton (who built some of the animated creatures for the Harry Potter films) and Peter Walters who is an expert in the expressiveness of materials.”

The research is funded by EPSRC through a Partnership for Public Engagement award.

To find out more visit www.heartrobot.org.uk

This partnership opens up exciting new possibilities in exploratory research in healthcare

• EPSRC recently formed a Strategic Alliance with GlaxoSmithKline to boost research in drug discovery and development.

Total investment will be £10m over the next five years and will bring together academic and industrial expertise and resources to fund projects of mutual interest.

briefings

EPSRC goes global

Connecting research on the world stage.

The evolving challenges of the 21st century are global – and tackling them is a global responsibility.

To meet these challenges, EPSRC is working to ensure the best UK research teams can collaborate with the best partners around the world.

EPSRC currently invests more than £400m in supporting research with international links including developing energy partnerships with China, working on rural infrastructure in India and ground-breaking materials science with research teams in the USA. This ability to learn, collaborate and lead on the global stage will ensure UK research remains world-leading and fulfils its responsibility in tackling the major challenges of our time.

Canada

£14.4m European Union

£201.1m

USA

A sum greater than its parts EPSRC is a partner in a number of European networks aimed at strengthening research across the EU.

£112.3m Material world Researchers from the UK and the US are collaborating on a range of issues – including work to answer fundamental questions about the electronic properties of materials.

The networks allow teams to tackle challenges collectively through the sharing of facilities, international exchanges and pan-European public dialogue.

Supported by a joint EPSRC and National Science Foundation (USA) funding scheme, teams are discovering and understanding new states of matter that have the potential to be employed in tomorrow’s technologies such as ‘spintronics’ applications.

One EPSRC-led network, ComplexityNET, brings together 11 countries to stimulate complexity research and innovation through a coordinated approach to funding and collaboration.

South America

£3.3m

PIONEER 01 Autumn 2008

09

EPSRC International Research Funding

China

Total: £415.1m

Power to the people

Non-EU Europe

£16.8m

£8.8m Leading UK energy research teams, supported by EPSRC, are working with Chinese counterparts to exchange ideas and strengthen links between the UK and chinese energy industries.

UK and Chinese researchers are also sharing ideas and techniques with engineering firm Arup who are planning a new eco-city near Shanghai. Research areas include spatial master planning, sustainable economic development and sustainable urban systems in energy, water and transport.

Japan Rest of World

£24.9m

£11.1m

Shining lights Collaborations include a ten-year link between scientists from Southampton and Kyoto Universities in the field of optoelectronics.

The work, supported by EPSRC, has resulted in a number of discoveries in laser direct writing in materials and could have applications in ‘lab-on-achip’ technologies and in high-density re-writable memory for optical computing.

India

£6.7m Making the connection There are around 800 million people living in rural parts of India who do not have access to clean water, sustainable electricity or modern communication technologies.

To tackle these issues, EPSRC-supported research collaborations include a consortium of British and Indian universities, institutes and companies that plans to establish the first India-UK Advanced Technology Centre of Excellence.

The centre will develop wireless internet access for rural communities and wireless grid networks for remote management of utilities, water quality detection and flood monitoring.

Australasia

£15.1m

briefings

Pollen ‘nanotags’ to combat gun crime BULLET TAGGING technology developed in the UK could help tackle gun crime.

The ‘nanotags’, made from pollen, would allow investigators to trace who has handled bullets used in a crime.

Invisible to the naked eye, the tiny tags could be coated onto gun cartridges and would then attach themselves to the hands or gloves of anyone who handled them. Some of the ‘nanotag’ would also remain on the cartridge after it has been fired, making it possible to establish a robust forensic link between cartridges fired during a crime and whoever handled them. To date it has been extremely hard to establish such a link because of the difficulty in retrieving fingerprints or significant amounts of DNA from the shiny, smooth cartridge surfaces.

The technology could be available for use within a year and could also be used to combat knife crime. The nanotags, which are quite unlike anything previously used in the fight against gun crime, could therefore lead to a significant increase in successful convictions.

This breakthrough has been achieved by a team of chemists, engineers, management scientists, sociologists and nanotechnologists from Brighton, Brunel, Cranfield, Surrey and York Universities, with EPSRC funding.

Project partners are the Forensic Science Service, BAE Systems and coatings manufacturer Andura. Professor Paul Sermon from the University of Surrey, who has led the research, said: “The tags primarily consist of naturally-occurring pollen, a substance that

evolution has provided with extraordinary adhesive properties.

“It has been given a unique chemical signature by coating it with titanium oxide, zirconia, silica or a mixture of other oxides. The precise composition of this coating can be varied subtly from one batch of cartridges to another, enabling The pollen ‘bullet tags’ a firm connection to be made between a particular fired cartridge and its user.”

In addition to this breakthrough, the team has also developed a method of trapping forensically-useful amounts of DNA on gun cartridges. It involves increasing the abrasive character of the cartridge case with micro-patterned pyramid textures, or adding an abrasive grit, held in place by a thin layer of resin, to the cartridge base.

Professor Sermon added: “We’re currently focusing on understanding the precise requirements of the police and cartridge manufacturers.

“But our work clearly could make a valuable contribution not only to solving gun crime but also to deterring criminals from resorting to the use of firearms in the first place.”

How big is a city’s carbon footprint?

AN AMBITIOUS £2.6m scheme aims to be the first to map – and cut – the carbon footprint of an entire city.

The study of Leicester’s carbon footprint is being undertaken by De Montfort University, funded by EPSRC. Researchers will investigate how much carbon the city produces – and look at ways it can be cut. They will calculate the emissions from traffic and energy use in the home and the effect of green spaces – known as ‘carbon sinks’ – on ‘soaking up’ CO2.

The 4M project – which stands for Measurement, Modelling, Mapping and Management – is believed to be the first of its kind and will be conducted by the University’s Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development (IESD).

The team will also investigate how controversial Individual Carbon Trading Schemes (ICTs) – where households are given an annual carbon allowance – would work.

IESD director, Professor Kevin Lomas said: “We are also looking at the Individual Carbon Trading allowances as it has been proposed as one of the ways forward in reducing emissions.

We will be examining how it would impact on different lifestyles. For example, it might not make any difference to a well-off family. It might create difficulties for some sectors of society, for others it could be advantageous.”

The project also involves Leeds, Newcastle and Sheffield Universities and Leicester City Council.

PIONEER 01 Autumn 2008

TALKING COMPUTERS SCIENTISTS will use a powerful supercomputer to understand the brain damage caused by strokes.

The £940,000 study, dubbed Chatter Box, hopes to explore the effects by recreating the brain function that controls speech.

Psychologists at the University of Manchester have teamed up with colleagues in the School of Computer Science to develop the speech and language model using a computer system that will be up to 1,000 times more powerful than a standard PC. Dr Stephen Welbourne, from the School of Psychological Sciences said: “Our goal is to understand how the brain supports language function, how this breaks down after brain damage and the mechanisms that support recovery and rehabilitation.”

The Chatter Box study has been funded by EPSRC, the Medical Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

interview 11

Catherine Coates Business Innovation director

Harnessing the potential of research EPSRC’s innovation directorate aims to strengthen links between academic researchers and industry – and make the ‘innovation chain’ as strong and as short as possible.

he eureka moment, the culmination of a lifetime’s dedication, sacrifice and commitment, is only the start of the journey – the potential and possibilities have to be harnessed.

The process of using a fundamental breakthrough to develop new technologies, drugs or materials includes ongoing testing and refinement through to industrial scale-up, viability and commercial development – each stage harbours pitfalls and potential failure.

But at the end of that road lies the ultimate prize – the discovery that has realised its potential, the drug that is saving lives, the technology that is cutting carbon emissions.

An important part of EPSRC’s objective is to ensure the world-class research it supports makes this transition as fast as possible. In April 2008, EPSRC launched a new directorate – Business Innovation – to do just that.

“The main aim of the directorate is to focus on business-driven research and business-driven postgraduate training,” says Catherine Coates, who is heading up the new team.

“It builds on the past. EPSRC has always funded collaborative research. Some happens naturally through the researchers themselves making the link with companies. We have also developed a number of partnerships with companies and see partnership as a key strategy for shortening the innovation chain.

“But the new focus leads us to think, where can we improve from here. How can we ensure the business voice is heard in terms of which research areas are most promising and what the long-term training needs are. We want to understand what business is looking for and to work smartly with other public sector partners such as the Technology Strategy Board, sister Research Councils and Regional Development Agencies.”

T

Mrs Coates says the future will offer increasing opportunities for companies to interact, shape and benefit from UK research excellence. “We will look for new ways for small and medium companies to access research, as well as large companies,” she adds.

“The primary function of EPSRC is to fund excellent research. What business can do is to show us where the main challenges are and the difficult problems facing business that need fundamental research.

“We can reflect those back to the research community and ask for innovative, challenging research projects in these areas.”

But Mrs Coates adds that EPSRC’s role is not to focus on short-term research for today’s market but, working with industry, to identify the long-term underpinning issues that will affect entire sectors in the future. She adds: “Co-funding this long-term research allows the financial risk to be shared between the company, for which the research maybe too long-term for full funding, and ourselves. This would be precompetitive research, benefiting the whole sector, that we would expect to be published.” Two of EPSRC’s most recent schemes with industrial involvement are new Doctoral Training Centres and the creation of Knowledge Transfer Accounts.

EPSRC is in the process of establishing more than 40 new Doctoral Training Centres, including around 15 Industrial Doctorate Centres, with total funding of £250m.

“The concept of a doctoral training centre is to have a cohort of students working together on a large problem. That gives a better quality of training to the students, as they are aware of a wider range of issues,” says Mrs Coates.

“With the industrial centres we take that further. We would expect a group of companies to associate around a theme at a university,

The main aim of the directorate is to focus on businessdriven research and postgraduate training.

Catherine Coates

which they have helped to scope, and the students would spend most of their time working on their parts of the problem in those companies.”

Knowledge Transfer Accounts will award a minimum of £2m to successful universities to allow them to further exploit innovative ideas and develop knowledge transfer routes.

“A key objective of Business Innovation is to pull as much value as possible from our portfolio and to make it available to business. Universities are innovative in this respect. It is going to be a challenge but there is scope for this to be really exciting in giving universities more wherewithal to build their knowledge transfer expertise.”

Mrs Coates adds: “We want to keep businesses informed of the opportunities available and we want to speak to companies of all sizes, across all sectors about possible areas where we can work together.”

For more information or to discuss involvement opportunities contact the relevant EPSRC sector team, contacts can be found on page 2, or visit the EPSRC website: www.epsrc.ac.uk

A very British adventure Can the Bloodhound project break the land speed record and inspire a new wave of scientists and engineers?

Words: Chris Buratta

B

y October 2011 Richard Noble and the Bloodhound team hope to have completed an epic and iconic journey. And if all goes to plan they will have inspired a generation of British engineers capable of tackling the global challenges of the 21st century.

The plan is simple – design and build a car capable of 1,000mph then, at a remote desert location, make an assault on the World Land Speed Record.

The assault, in Richard Noble’s own words, will go something like this: “We will accelerate from zero to 300mph by mile four, so really gentle acceleration. Then we bring in the afterburner and the rocket, accelerate at over 3G, that’s acceleration at over 70mph per second, up through the measured mile at 1,000mph – taking about 3.6 seconds. We then have aerodynamic drag that slows us down, parachutes and finally wheel brakes. We then turn it around, refuel it and send it back to get through the measured mile again before one hour is up.”

The four year Bloodhound project aims to push the World Land Speed Record past the 1,000mph barrier.

It was born after the present Science Minister Lord Drayson, then at the Ministry of Defence, decided an iconic engineering feat was needed to inspire future generations. The man he turned to was Richard Noble, who led the current World Land Speed Record holding team Thrust SSC – the first to break the sound barrier.

EPSRC, a founder sponsor of the project, is funding the vital aerodynamic research being carried out at Swansea University.

“Lord Drayson realised that in the last century, when Britain had immense engineering projects like Spitfire, the Vulcan Bomber and the Lightning fighter and, of course, Concorde, during this period there was no shortage of engineers, says Noble. “Why, because the kids at school were very fired up by these tremendous projects.

“Now, when we look forward, everything has to change, our houses have to change, transport has to change, our aircraft, cars and railways. We have to move into a low carbon world and it will need engineers to do it.

“Our objective is to create a national surge in the popularity of science and engineering. That is our primary objective. We will have failed if we get 1,000mph and don’t get the national surge in science and engineering.

“The second is to create an iconic project that requires excellent research and technology while providing the means for students to join in the adventure. That’s what it is, an adventure. We don’t know where this thing’s going to go. We have got a reasonable chance of getting there we think, but it’s 30 per cent faster than anything that’s been done before.”

PIONEER 01 Autumn 2008

speed freaks 13

Bloodhound project director Richard Noble

Noble knows from experience that the land speed record generates huge global interest and intensely loyal followers.

He also knows the world speed record’s capability to inspire: “I was a kid of six-years-old, not really knowing where my life and future lay.

My father was in the Army and we were stationed in Inverness. One day we went for a drive around the north shore of Loch Ness in the family car and we saw John Cobb’s jet boat Crusader. He was going for the World Water Speed Record. I saw this fantastic silver and red thing and I thought ‘wow’, and that was it. Something happened and I couldn’t get rid of the bug. And it lives up to it. It’s probably the best thing you can do on God’s earth that’s legal I guess.”

Noble first broke the record in 1983 behind the wheel of Thrust II. In 1997, the Thrust SSC team, headed by Noble and driver Andy Green, pushed that record through the sound barrier to 763mph.

But Bloodhound is a new dawn and a new car. Unlike Thrust SSC it will be powered by a combination of a single jet and a rocket and it will need to generate upwards of 47,000lbs thrust if it is to achieve 1,000mph.

The body is part monocoque carbon fibre, part aluminium space frame. The wheels are solid titanium with twin titanium ‘keels’ for traction, no tyres.

One part of the car does bear a closer resemblance to your everyday motor though. Tucked behind the driver is an 800bhp V12 race engine – but on Bloodhound it just powers the fuel pump.

“This is an iconic project and an iconic vehicle the likes of which we have never seen before,” says Noble. “It requires very, very advanced technologies, there are very few aircraft that can go this fast.”

But he admits that although the design has taken shape – the journey has only just begun. The team aims to build the car by September 2009 before attempting 800mph. A 900mph attempt will follow a year later, followed, if all goes to plan, by the magic 1,000mph in 2011.

The science of speed EPSRC aerodynamics research will help Bloodhound cut a dash.

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EPSRC, a founder sponsor of the project, is funding the vital aerodynamic research being carried out at Swansea University.

The challenge at the heart of Bloodhound is to create a car capable of 1,000mph – a car 30 per cent faster than any car that has gone before.

In research terms it is a journey into the unknown, and the aerodynamics team at Swansea University – funded by EPSRC – is playing a vital role.

Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), the team has spent the last year creating the predictive airflow data that has shaped the car.

In time, the research could lead to better vehicle or aircraft design, improved fuel efficiencies and even new medical techniques.

“From the nose to the tail, anything that has any kind of aerodynamic influence we are modelling,” says research assistant and Bloodhound team member Ben Evans – who as a school boy watched the Thrust SSC record on TV. “It’s the kind of thing aerospace engineers would have traditionally done in a wind tunnel, but we’re doing it on a computer, a big multi-processor super computer. Wind tunnels have massive limitations. Bloodhound is a car, so it’s rolling on the ground and there are no wind tunnels in existence where you can simulate a rolling ground with a car travelling faster than mach one, faster than the speed of sound.”

This ‘mach factor’ is the major difference between Bloodhound and its predecessor Thrust SSC. Thrust SSC was a supersonic car in that it crossed the sound barrier and was supersonic for a matter of seconds.

speed freaks 15

Bloodhound will be powered by a rocket and jet engine

Aerodynamic engineer Ben Evans

But with Bloodhound the target speed is 1,000mph – mach 1.4. It will be going supersonic way beyond mach one, and for a much longer time period, which means the supersonic shockwaves it creates will be far stronger than Thrust SSC and they will interact with the car and the desert floor for much longer.

“Once you start approaching, and go beyond the speed of sound, you can no longer send a pressure wave forward to tell the air ahead of you

you’re coming,” explains Dr Evans. “What happens is a big pressure wall builds up in front of you. Rather than air slowly and smoothly getting out of the way, at supersonic speeds these changes happen very suddenly in a shockwave.”

Supersonic aircraft create these shockwaves and they dissipate in the surrounding atmosphere but still reach the ground as a ‘sonic boom’.

Dr Evans adds: “What we’re trying to understand is what happens when this shockwave interacts with a solid surface which is a matter of centimetres away.”

What the team do know is this ‘interaction’ creates a phenomenon known as ‘spray drag’ – a term first coined by Bloodhound team member and aerodynamicist Ron Ayers during the Thrust SSC attempts.

Spray drag is an additional drag component not accounted for in aerodynamic or rolling resistance theory.

“As the car interacts with the desert, and the shockwaves interact with the desert, they actually eat up the desert floor,” says Dr Evans.

“That introduces sand particles into the aerodynamic flow around the car and this interaction is not accounted for in standard CFD work.

We plan to look at this spray drag phenomenon, what happens and when, and how the sand particles impinge on the car.”

The Swansea team are also looking at key systems in isolation. Work has already changed the car from twin to single air intake for stability.

This is an iconic project and an iconic vehicle the likes of which we have never seen before.

Richard Noble

Design team at work: from left Brian Coombes, Ben Evans and Mark Chapman

The car will also sport solid titanium wheels with twin ‘keels’: “That was fundamentally an aerodynamic design decision,” says Dr Evans. “We studied different design options, a single keel running down the centre of the wheel, a design with three keels and finally the one we went for with two keels. It was chosen as a compromise between lift and drag patterns and minimising the pressure disturbance around the wheel on the desert surface.

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“Another thing we have been looking at closely is the exact nose shape.

We want a nose that constantly generates a small down force on the front to help keep the car on the ground. But we’re also constantly looking at how we can minimise spray drag and if we can constantly achieve a positive pressure on the desert surface leading up to the front wheels then hopefully the surface will remain intact until the front wheels roll over it.”

But Dr Evans and the team also remain focussed on the wider aims of the project and the application of their research in other areas.

“The whole point of doing this is not just to create a fast car. We live in a carbon economy and lots of the issues we face will require engineers and scientists to solve them – part of this project is to inspire young people.”

And sat at his desk in Swansea he has a constant reminder of the potential of CFD. “Some of my university colleagues are working on blood flow monitoring through the arterial system and trying to predict when aneurysms will explode through pressure loadings.

“On one side of the office we have pictures of Bloodhound and on the other we have pictures of blood flow through the heart.

“There are the obvious applications in aerospace, but any application you can think of that involves fluid flow can be modelled using CFD. Biomechanical systems seems to be one of the areas CFD is being applied to now.”

speed freaks 17

Noble adds: “All the research that has gone on in the last year is predictive figures, for instance all the work at Swansea University. That’s an enormous amount of work and commitment from the team. They’re creating predictive data and we design to that aerodynamic data which is crucial.

“We have to get to 800mph, then we can compare the predictive data with the real data from the car, which itself is a travelling laboratory. Some of it will match up really well, some of it won’t, and we will make all sorts of changes and the car will come out again in 2010.”

Noble knows from his own experience that the Land Speed Record’s appeal is enduring, but why?

“It’s a man challenge. This is something special. There’s huge interest from car drivers with everyone saying ‘I could drive fast in a straight line given the chance’ and there’s a tremendous range of technologies involved.

“You really are pushing things to the absolute limit and of course everyone loves power, speed, cars and engineering. There is a great love of that.

“It’s open technology access, a real challenge and real drama because you’re doing something that has never been done before.” Then he adds: “It’s also perceived as being very dangerous and so generates huge global interest.”

Pushing the boundaries In 1898, Frenchman Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat reached the speed of 39mph in his electricpowered Jeantaud – it was the first official land speed record and the race was on.

Intense competition over subsequent years saw the record pushed further and further until on July 21, 1904, Louis Rigolly became the first man to break the magic 100mph barrier.

To keep up to date with the Bloodhound SSC project visit: www.bloodhoundssc.com In 1924, British speed legend Malcolm Campbell broke the record for the first time in Blue Bird – a feat he would repeat a further eight times between 1925 and 1935.

To listen to the Bloodhound team talk about the challenges ahead visit: www.epsrc.ac.uk/bloodhound

By the 1930s, French roads, Welsh beaches and purpose built race tracks such as Brooklands had given way to Daytona Beach and Bonneville’s salt flats as the locations of choice.

They might have been running in America but the competition was dominated by the British, who held the record continuously for 34 years until 1963.

How fast is Bloodhound SSC? Family saloon car

130mph

During that time Campbell passed the 300mph mark and in 1947 John Cobb became the first to pass 400mph – a record that would stand for more than 15 years.

Formula One car

200mph

Throughout the 60s and 70s the jet-powered Americans fought back.

The legendary Craig Breedlove pushed through the 500mph barrier in 1964 and fellow American Gary Gabelich’s 1970 record, of 630mph, stood for 13 years.

Boeing 747

608mph

On October 4, 1983, Richard Noble seized the record back for Britain taking Thrust2 to 633mph.

Bloodhound SSC

1000mph?

Concorde

1350mph

Fourteen years later, the Thrust SSC team returned to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert – this time with RAF pilot Andy Green behind the wheel – and went supersonic. That record, 763mph, is the fastest any car has travelled to date.

Danger: risk of default

Failed risk analysis and the sub-prime crisis have sent economic shockwaves around the globe. New EPSRC-funded research is helping the financial world avoid repeat mistakes.

Words: Tony Newton

I

t’s over a year now since the words ‘credit crunch’ were first uttered – signalling a recognition that consumer debt could have as much impact on the global economy as its corporate counterpart.

The fact is the amount owed by consumers exceeds that owed by companies by more than 50 per cent, having overtaken it in the mid-80s both in the UK and the US. “As we’ve discovered with the so-called ‘credit crunch’, banks get into a lot of trouble when people default on their mortgages,” says Southampton University’s Professor Lyn Thomas, “and the problem is that the way that banks have modelled the default risk for a group of mortgage borrowers with similar risk characteristics leaves much to be desired.”

Concerns about consumer debt make it increasingly important to develop effective models for understanding, predicting, and managing consumer financial risk, at both personal and corporate levels.

This need led to the creation of an EPSRC-funded Quantitative Financial Risk Management Centre comprising groups from three universities: the Mathematical Sciences Institute at Imperial College London, the Credit Research Centre at Edinburgh University, and the Management School at Southampton University.

One strand of this research is being undertaken by Professor Thomas.

It aims to develop improved risk assessment and management tools for the consumer financial services sector, in response to the rapid regulatory, competitive, and technological changes.

Financial models for consumer lending have existed for some time.

Credit scoring has been around since 1956, but that deals with the individual’s risk of defaulting and does nothing to model risk for portfolios of loans.

“An individual consumer’s ability to pay back a particular type of

PIONEER 01 Autumn 2008

mortgage gets lost in the noise when that loan gets bundled up with others in a process called securitisation, which allows the bank to sell a bundle of debts and immediately realise the value of the loans. The price they can get for that bundle should reflect the actual risk of default of all the individual loans within that bundle, but the credit crunch suggests existing models didn’t work.”

This top down approach to pricing mortgage-based securities clearly hasn’t worked, so what Professor Thomas proposes is modelling the process from the bottom up, starting with the risk of each individual loan as the basis for assessing overall risk.

In the past, banks had to put aside 8 per cent of their lending (4 per cent in the case of mortgage lending), against the possibility of default.

“Now the rules state that provided a bank has good models of the risks of default then the outcome of these models can be used when determining how much needs to be set aside,” explains Professor Thomas. “If the banks can create better models of consumer behaviour to assess risk, then they can use those probabilities instead, which means a more efficient use of funds.”

What Professor Thomas and his colleagues want to establish is how a particular group’s risk of defaulting is likely to change over an entire economic cycle – the time from when an economy grows, through when it stalls or contracts to when it grows again – rather than simply using historical data. One tool the team is considering is that of ‘survival analysis’, a statistical technique that was first used to predict biological mortality (answering questions such as what percentage of a population will have died by a specific time) and later adapted to predicting mechanical failure and assessing the outcome of medical procedures and therapeutic drug use.

financial risk 19

Some of the large UK banks and building societies are now using survival analysis techniques that allow them to produce new estimates on the risks involved in consumer lending.

Professor Lyn Thomas

Its use in consumer risk management is relatively new, and Professor Thomas anticipates that it will be useful in predicting when a specific event such as mortgage default will happen in a well-defined group.

But given the huge amount of corporate finance research undertaken worldwide, are there not models that can simply be ported to consumer financial research. “We can take some nice ideas from those models, but we can’t take the models,” says Professor Thomas. “One reason that corporate models don’t transfer is that in the corporate world, a company goes under if its loans exceed its assets. But consumers generally don’t know the total value of their assets and probably couldn’t realise them anyway.”

And where does the data for such modelling come from?

“Things differ from country to country. In the US, the credit bureaux know every line of credit held by an individual. In the UK, they know about most but not all the credit lines while in Germany, concern for privacy means there’s even less information available.”

“For research purposes though the most useful source of data is the behavioural scores for each individual borrower, which are recalculated by

the banks every month at an individual level. Anonymised samples of such data allow researchers to build alternative models. Some of our data is from Hong Kong which is particularly useful in modelling the complete economic cycle because they had two recessions between 2001 and 2005 when the UK economy was benign during this period.”

But what will the financial community actually do with the models that Professor Thomas creates? “We write papers, present at conferences and run workshops about our work that are very well attended by the banks.

As a result some of the large UK banks and building societies are now using survival analysis techniques that allow them to produce new estimates on the risks involved in consumer lending. Indeed, one of them has built a profitability model on top of survival analysis to create a tool to help decide whether to launch new products aimed at specific groups.”

For more information about the Quantitative Financial Risk Management Centre visit: www3.imperial.ac.uk/mathsinstitute/ programmes/research/bankfin/qfrmc

Dr David Spring Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge

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talking bacteria 21

It’s good to talk

Can we talk our way out of infection by learning the language of bacteria?

Words: Maria Burke

orty years ago, researchers thought that bacteria were single cell organisms living in isolation. Now it has become clear that most bacteria live in communities, making them more able to withstand attack by immune systems and drugs. Researchers discovered in the 1990s that bacteria are able to gang up in this way by ‘talking’ to each other. So if researchers could hack into these conversations and prevent bacteria banding together, then antibiotics would have a much better chance of destroying the bugs.

So why are bacteria talking to each other? The reason is bacteria can coordinate their behaviour if they communicate. This may be to respond to a change in environment or nutrients, or to defend themselves against attack. By working together they are better able to survive. It also means they are more likely to successfully infect a host and avoid the host’s immune system. David Spring, an EPSRC advanced fellow in the Department of Chemistry at Cambridge University, explains: “If a single cell were to release its toxin, then it becomes vulnerable to attack by the host’s defences.

But if the bacteria wait until there are enough of them, they can launch their toxins en masse and stand a better chance of overwhelming the immune system.”

Bacteria communicate with each other by producing signalling molecules. “Different species use different molecules,” explains Dr Spring. “There are several different classes of signalling molecule, and within each class, there are also minor variations.”

F

If the bacteria wait until there are enough of them, they can launch their toxins en masse and stand a better chance of overwhelming the immune system.

Dr David Spring

In some cases a single bacterial species can use more than one signal molecule. The bacterium may respond to each molecule in a different way. “In this sense, the signal molecules can be thought of as words within a language, each having a different meaning,” continues Dr Spring, a synthetic organic chemist with particular interest in biological applications.

Each bacterium produces a small signalling molecule and each bacterium can detect when the number of these molecules reaches a certain level. This tells them that there are enough other bacteria present to make a particular response. The effect was first detected in the

marine bacterium, Vibrio fischeri, which lives in the light-producing organ of certain fish and squid. Each cell within the bacteria population produces a small amount of a signalling molecule. Although the amount produced by individual cells is low, en masse high concentrations accumulate. When the concentration reaches a certain level, it activates the proteins in the fish that produce light. The behaviour is called ‘quorum sensing’ because the population must reach a ‘quorum’ before a response is triggered.

In the natural environment, there are many different bacteria living together. Although they employ different ‘languages’ there is evidence that some species can communicate with each other, says Dr Spring. This ‘crosstalk’, which can be thought of as a ‘microbial Esperanto’, has implications in many areas of microbiology as in nature bacteria almost always exist in mixed species populations, like biofilms.

Around 80 per cent of bacteria live in colonies or biofilms; examples are plaque on teeth, or the scum on the bottom of a washing-up bowl. Bacteria in these biofilms are particularly resistant to attack because the film is covered with a protective sugar (polysaccharide). A good example is Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a widespread bug associated with multi-drug resistant infections of patients, particularly those suffering from AIDS, severe burn wounds or cystic fibrosis. The lungs of cystic fibrosis patients are full of mucous, an ideal environment for P. aeruginosa, and patients often get infected early in life. The bacteria form a biofilm which is particularly resistant to antibiotics and over time the lung deteriorates.

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Researchers like Dr Spring and his team are looking at how to hijack bacteria communications and change the message.

talking bacteria 23

Right: The bacteria Serratia marsescens (red), Chromobacterium violaceum (blue/purple) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (light green) produce pigments that are under quorum sensing control

Bacteria group themselves into biofilms when their cross-talk tells them there are enough of them around. But researchers like Dr Spring and his team are looking at how to hijack bacteria communications and change the message. “If we could interfere with their signalling mechanism, then we could prevent them joining a biofilm or stop them producing toxins. If not in a biofilm, the bacteria would revert to a freefloating single cell state where we would stand a better chance of dealing with them.”

There are several approaches to disrupting bacterial talk.

Dr Spring’s team is developing the idea of quorum quenching, which involves destroying the signal molecule. “When in the body, the lactone ring of the signal

If we could interfere with their signalling mechanism we could prevent them joining a biofilm or stop them producing toxins.

Dr David Spring

molecule is hydrolysed and has a half-life of one to two days. This means it is degrading all the time. What we are trying to do is to develop an enzyme that will catalyse this degradation so destroying the signalling mechanism much faster.”

Dr Spring’s group is also developing and screening synthetic alternatives to the signalling molecules. These alternatives would change the ‘message’ by blocking the action of the real signalling molecules and so preventing a particular response. “Such molecules should have fewer side effects and be less likely to promote drug resistance than current antibiotics,” he says.

Other groups are investigating natural alternatives, such as algae and garlic, which may inhibit cell to cell signalling.

Dr Spring is optimistic about the potential of this work for conditions such as cystic fibrosis, but he stresses that it’s very early days yet. But, while medical applications may be many years in the future, he is convinced that this approach could find other uses. A molecule that prevented bacteria forming biofilms could be used eventually in antibacterial toothpaste or antifouling paints for the hulls of ships, for example.

For more information about EPSRC’s physical sciences programme and opportunities for involvement contact: Andrew Bourne, andrew.bourne@epsrc.ac.uk For more information about the Spring Group visit: www-spring.ch.cam.ac.uk

N

ot since the emergence of silicon has a semiconductor material created such excitement.

First developed more than three decades ago, gallium nitride (GaN) can emit brilliant light using very small amounts of electricity. Over the last couple of years, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) incorporating GaN have begun appearing in applications such as camera flashes, bicycle lights, mobile phones and interior lighting for buses, trains and planes. Even the façade of Buckingham Palace is now illuminated using GaN LEDs – with running costs less than those of an electric kettle. And it is UK scientists who are playing a key role in unlocking the environmentprotecting, health-improving, money-saving potential of this extraordinary man-made material.

For GaN, home and office lighting is the real Holy Grail.

Such lighting currently accounts for around 20 per cent of UK electricity consumption. GaN could reduce this to 5 per cent. Switching to GaN lighting could therefore deliver major cuts in carbon dioxide emissions from power stations and preserve fossil fuel reserves.

GaN LEDs are incredibly long-lasting.

Professor Colin Humphreys

“GaN LEDs have huge potential,” says Professor Colin Humphreys, who heads the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride, supported by EPSRC. “In particular, they are incredibly longlasting. A GaN LED can burn for 100,000 hours. In practical terms, that means it only needs replacing after 60 years of typical household use. Also, unlike the energy-saving compact fluorescent lights now in use, GaN LEDs don’t contain mercury. Disposal therefore isn’t such an environmental headache.”

PIONEER 01 Autumn 2008

Professor Colin Humphreys Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride, University of Cambridge

gallium nitride 25

The light at the end of the tunnel?

It could slash UK electricity consumption, kill MRSA and purify water‌ even the Queen is a fan – so is gallium nitride too good to be true?

Words: Barry Hague

But if the full potential is to become reality, important barriers need to be tackled. At the moment, GaN LEDs are too expensive to manufacture for wide-scale deployment in homes and workplaces. The harsh quality of GaN-produced light is another key limiting factor.

UK materials scientists are at the forefront of global efforts to resolve these problems. In particular, the Cambridge centre has established itself as a world-leading authority at the cutting edge of GaN research. Set up in 2000 and underpinned by EPSRC funding ever since, it has recently developed a detailed new theory that explains the mystery of exactly why GaN emits light so strongly. Such understanding is absolutely vital to improving GaN lighting’s quality and efficiency.

“GaN lighting should start making its mark in homes and offices within about five years,” says Professor Humphreys. “That won’t just be good news for the environment. It will also benefit consumers, in terms of convenience, electricity bills and quality of life.”

The centre is also working on an innovative technique for growing GaN on silicon wafers, rather than the sapphire wafers used to date. This could deliver a tenfold reduction in manufacturing costs and so help GaN lighting penetrate new markets. Another project is investigating how GaN lighting could be made to mimic sunlight, which could have important benefits for sufferers of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

A crucial aspect of the centre’s work is collaboration with other universities, such as Manchester, Oxford and Sheffield Hallam, and a range of industrial partners.

GaN lighting should start making its mark in homes and offices within about five years, that won’t just be good news for the environment.

It will also benefit consumers, in terms of convenience, electricity bills and quality of life.

Professor Colin Humphreys

PIONEER 01 Autumn 2008

The centre is working on an innovative technique for growing GaN on silicon wafers, rather than the sapphire wafers used to date. This could deliver a tenfold reduction in manufacturing costs and help GaN lighting penetrate new markets.

gallium nitride 27

Right: Packaged green LEDs based on InGaN multiple quantum well devices grown in the Thomas Swan MOCVD reactor at the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride.

The Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride

Far right: Professor Colin Humphries working with one of the centre’s state-of-theart transmission electron microscopes

Established in 2000, its research work is underpinned by EPSRC funding. The current grant amounts to around £1.6 million over three years. The Technology Strategy Board and the EU are also key sources of funding.

The centre’s industrial partners include Aixtron, Forge Europa, QinetiQ, Sharp Europe, Philips, Semelab and RFMD.

Bulb lifetime Conventional: up to 1,000 hours

Compact fluorescent lights (CFLs): up to 15,000 hours

Shine on Gallium nitride has a bright future that stretches far beyond the lighting market

GaN LED: up to 100,000 hours

Potential to cut UK electricity consumption by

15% Looking ahead, the possibilities for GaN lighting appear limitless.

Currently, GaN LEDs are phosphor-coated to transform the light from blue into white. But there could be scope to remove the coating and incorporate mini-LEDs, each producing a different colour, in the overall ‘lightbulb’. Together the mini-LEDs would produce white light, but homeowners or office-workers could alter the precise balance (e.g. to a bluish light) to suit their mood.

GaN could even transform healthcare and revolutionise drinking water provision in developing countries.

“Some of these applications might be achievable in 10 years,” says Professor Humphries. “But we could see the technology break into the domestic and workplace lighting market in half that time.”

One thing seems absolutely certain – this extraordinary lighting technology is set for an incredibly bright future.

For more information about EPSRC’s materials programme and opportunities for involvement contact: Susie Douglas, susie.douglas@epsrc.ac.uk For more information contact: Professor Colin Humphreys, Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride, University of Cambridge, Tel: 01223 334458, e-mail: colin.humphreys@msm.cam.ac.uk

Surgery It is very hard to detect exactly where a tumour ends and patients undergoing cancer surgery have to be kept under anaesthetic while cells are taken away for tests. This may happen several times during an operation. In the future patients could be given harmless drugs that attach themselves to cancer cells, which can then be distinguished when a blue GaN LED is shone on them, revealing the tumour’s edge, quickly and unmistakably.

Healthcare Deep ultra-violet GaN light will kill all viruses and bacteria so fitting such a GaN LED inside a water pipe will instantly eradicate diseases, as well as mosquito larvae and other contaminants. A similar approach could prove effective against hospital ‘superbugs’ such as MRSA and C.difficile. Simply shining a GaN torch at a hospital wall or trolley could kill any infections.

A centre project is exploring how GaN light could be made to mimic sunlight. Ultimately, this could have health benefits for the UK’s estimated three million sufferers from the depressive condition Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Communications Transistors made from GaN can operate at a higher temperature, higher power and higher frequency than silicon or gallium arsenide transistors. If used as amplifiers in mobile phone base stations, for example, the base stations could be placed ten times as far apart as is currently the case.

Computing GaN optical devices could be used in the optical computers of tomorrow, which will operate 10,000 times faster than today’s electronic computers. GaN quantum dots could also be used as single photon sources in quantum computers.

B

Building a future for the past

ritain’s cultural heritage is under attack. Centuries old stonework could crumble, collections documenting long forgotten eras could disappear and the fabric of our rich history could crack and rot. But the threat is not from marauding philistines hell bent on destruction but from more subtle, often silent, menaces.

Climate change is having a major impact on our historic buildings and changes in indoor temperature and humidity could cause huge damage to art collections, books and other artefacts.

But the threats are not just environmental, some inks used in colour photography could simply fade and disappear before our eyes.

Earlier this year, two of the UK’s research councils, EPSRC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), initiated the joint £8m Science and Heritage programme to explore these issues. The programme will combine skills from a diverse range of science, engineering and arts and humanities backgrounds to build expertise and develop new techniques to combat these 21st century threats. The first ten projects, launched this summer, will fund new PhD studentships to work in collaboration with heritage professionals.

In York, x-ray techniques, including x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, will be used for the first time to analyse restoration work carried out to York Minster over the centuries. The limestone cathedral was completed in 1472 and restoration of the exterior stonework has been part of life ever since. Scaffolding moves PIONEER 01 Autumn 2008

New investment will bring heritage conservation up to date.

Words: Chris Buratta

science heritage 29

continuously around the building in a 100-year cycle as the Minster’s team of stonemasons and carvers restore decayed and weathered limestone.

The Minster spends £500,000 per year on restoration and York Minster Revealed – a five-year programme to restore the East Front and half of the Great East Window – will cost £12m. The new research, at the University of York, hopes to bring the repair process into sharp scientific focus.

“Most of the work we’re doing is concerned with how magnesian limestone and mortars used for repairs of magnesian limestone-based architecture decay and weather,” says Karen Wilson, who will be leading the project with colleagues Adam Lee and Kate Giles. “We will look at previous building materials used in restoration and the different compositions to understand why they have decayed or survived. We will then try to advise teams on the best materials to use.”

Dr Wilson says over the past 400 years some restoration work had, inadvertently, caused damage to the historic stonework. She adds that one of the major threats to magnesian limestone were sulphates, common in many cements and mortars. But other factors, including the position and exposure of brickwork and the interaction with new pollutants, was also a factor in the weathering process. “We are trying to put a more scientific handle on why certain materials are the right choice. We are using techniques that have not been used traditionally to look at these materials and get additional information.”

The programme will allow academics and heritage managers to work together to better understand and protect the UK’s cultural heritage.

Science and Heritage director May Cassar

Louise Hampson, York Minster Revealed’s project director, says in addition to usual weathering factors, the Minster’s imposing scale created its own problems. “There are huge climactic issues because of the height and size of the building. It has its own microclimate and the wind speeds can be massive. With large flat planes we have tremendous air current issues.”

She adds the overall aim is to strike a balance between the restoration of damage and ensuring York Minster remains a shining example of mediaeval architecture for generations to come.

But it is not just built heritage that is under threat. Changes in climate could affect the indoor environment of historic buildings, buildings that often house priceless art collections and irreplaceable libraries. Work at the University of East Anglia, led by Professor Peter Brimblecombe, will model climate implications for these interior environments and explore the possible effects on heritage collections. Climate models for the next 100 years predict rising temperatures, leading to drier summers and warmer, wetter winters.

“What you see is it will get drier in late summer and suddenly this rapid shift to high humidity as we move into winter. That occurs in autumns that are much warmer,” says Professor Brimblecombe. “If you’re a fungal spore, on a book binding or painting, you think ‘hey, it’s damp, hey, it’s warm...

I can grow’.”

But the possibility of increased mould and fungal damage is not the only climate change threat to historic artefacts. “Organic material, leather bindings, wood, anything like that can decay more rapidly if the climate is

Awaiting restoration: A carving of St Peter and an area of tracery on the East Front at York Minster.

Science and Heritage EPSRC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council have jointly committed £8m to the Science and Heritage programme.

It will bring together the skills and expertise of the two research councils’ communities to gain a deeper understanding of both the physical make-up and the historic context of heritage.

This will help identify and overcome the cultural and environmental challenges the heritage sector faces in the 21st century.

It will also address concerns raised by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee. An inquiry, in 2006, concluded that a decline in the heritage science discipline – scientific activity that can benefit the heritage sector – was threatening the UK’s cultural legacy.

more humid. They are also exposed to more stresses by rapid changes in humidity and this can create cracks. Particularly, if the surface is damp, and is trying to expand, but the centre remains dry.”

Professor Brimblecombe says dust could even harden into a cemented crust in more humid environments. Working with English Heritage and others, the team will try to gain an increased understanding of these threats and work with heritage conservation staff to help minimise damage. On the plus side, Professor Brimblecombe says once implications were understood, mitigation measures could often be very simple and inexpensive – from using dust covers earlier in the year to managing the numbers of visitors or the way exhibitions are displayed.

Speaking at the launch earlier this year, the programme’s director, Professor May Cassar said: “This substantial investment of research funds will begin to make right the chronic shortage of investment in research and capacity building in cultural heritage which in so many forms – museums, galleries, archives, libraries and historic buildings – contributes so much to the education, leisure and wellbeing of communities and visitors alike.

The programme will allow UK academics and heritage managers to work together to better understand and protect the vast array of artefacts, buildings and places that make up the UK’s cultural heritage.”

For a full list of funded projects and further information: www.heritagescience.ac.uk

On September 11, 2001, more than 2,750 people were killed in the World Trade Center attacks. A further 14,000 evacuated New York’s twin towers to safety. Now those survivors’ stories are helping to build a safer future.

Words: Nina Morgan

Survivors’ stories he 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center not only changed attitudes towards security forever, they also encouraged many people to look at safety in a new way. “The attacks on the World Trade Center towers brought home to the world the importance of providing an adequate and robust means of evacuation in high rise buildings,” explains Ed Galea, professor of mathematical modelling and director of the Fire Safety Engineering Group at the University of Greenwich. “The evacuation of the World Trade Center complex after the 9/11 attacks was one of the largest full-scale evacuations of people in modern times. This provides a useful vehicle for understanding human behaviour under extreme conditions. Over 14,000 people escaped from the buildings, and their experiences can provide a key to understanding how to design a safer built environment.”

To make the most of this unique pool of information Professor Galea is leading a group of psychologists and experts in fire safety engineering drawn from the Universities of Greenwich, Liverpool and Ulster in an EPSRC-funded research project – High-rise Evacuation Evaluation Database (HEED). A major aim of the project, which ended in April 2008, was to collect and analyse first-hand accounts from 9/11 survivors.

“The concept behind HEED was to go to the World Trade Center with a team of trained research psychologists and interview survivors ourselves,” explains Professor Galea. “In that way we hoped to extract as much relevant information as possible from those who had actually lived through the experience.”

Collecting data by means of personal interviews was difficult to arrange. Getting in touch with survivors and gaining ethics approvals from a wide variety of agencies were just some of the huge practical challenges the team faced.

In the end, a team of six psychologists carried out four different interviewing campaigns in New York. As well as developing suitable

T

PIONEER 01 Autumn 2008

Over 14,000 people escaped from the buildings, and their experiences can provide a key to understanding how to design a safer built environment.

Professor Ed Galea

interview protocols to ensure the maximum amount of information could be collected from survivors in a sensitive way, the team also had to find ways to make it possible for interviewees to recall the sequences and timing of events. In addition, the psychologists had to be carefully trained to ensure they had the fire engineering knowledge to ask the right questions.

Information was collected about timing of actions and events, and physical characteristics, such as fitness and body mass index. The group also wanted to determine other factors such as the survivors’ perception of risk, the attributes – such as fear of injury or loss of life – that were driving the risk and the effect of changes in risk perception on behaviour during the evacuation.

Each interview could last for up to three hours. “We didn’t believe that people would want to talk to us for as long as they did,” says Professor Galea.

safety engineering 31

Left: Evacuation simulation of the World Trade Center north tower Right: Professor Ed Galea (left) and Professor Jim Shields at the World Trade Center site in New York.

In all, the group interviewed 271 survivors and collected over 6,000 pages of transcripts.

The Fire Safety Engineering Group The 30 strong Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) based at the University of Greenwich, is made up of mathematicians, behavioural psychologists, fire safety engineers and computer scientists.

The group, which was established in 1986, carries out research into fire dynamics and human behaviour associated with fire.

As part of their research they have developed a number of software packages, including SMARTFIRE fire simulation software, and the EXODUS suite of evacuation models which are being used in 30 countries around the world.

Recipients of a number of prestigious national and international awards, including the Queen’s Anniversary Prize 2002 and the European IST Award 2004, the group’s airEXODUS software has been used in projects for the aviation industry, including design analysis of the new Airbus A380 aircraft.

In addition, they are participating in the European Research and Technology project, NACRE (New Aircraft Concepts Research), and hosted the second NACRE conference held in Greenwich in July. They have also recently presented details of how the futuristic ‘Flying Wing’ aircraft design, which could carry over 1000 passengers, could be evacuated safely.

“The readiness of people to provide information was one of the surprises in this study.” In all, the group interviewed 271 survivors and collected over 6,000 pages of transcripts. This, notes, Professor Galea, “is a hugely important body of data in itself. We will be making it available to bone fide researchers all over the world, so that it can become a valuable international resource for others to use.”

To help interviewees recall and visualise the events and to help them estimate the crowd densities the group used buildingEXODUS, an evacuation simulation software package developed previously by Professor Galea and his colleagues in the Fire Safety Engineering Group.

The information about response times, density of people on stairways, speed of movement and the effects of fatigue emerging from this vast database are already providing new insights into evacuation behaviour which could lead to the development of safer evacuation procedures and contribute to improved building regulations around the world.

For example, their analysis has revealed that people travel more slowly down stairs than engineers had previously estimated and that the speed of travel is not related to growing levels of obesity in the community, as some evacuation specialists had suggested. Instead, the slower speeds can be explained by the high crowd density on the stairs. The modelling also showed that the floor population – or number of people on each floor – effectively limits the height of a building that can be evacuated by stairs alone. This, in turn, suggests that for buildings above a critical height, it would be better to design lifts that can be used in emergencies, rather than relying solely on stairs for evacuations.

The analysis of response times also indicates that providing people with good information about what is happening and advice about what to do can significantly reduce response times and lead to a safer evacuation.

“Quantifying the behaviour of people in emergency situations will lead to an improved set of evacuation modelling tools,” says Professor Galea.

“This, in turn, will lead to better, safer and more efficient buildings.”

For more information about EPSRC-funded projects related to the built environment, construction or fire safety engineering and opportunities for involvement contact: Matthew Davis, matthew.davis@epsrc.ac.uk or Gareth Buchanan, gareth.buchanan@epsrc.ac.uk For more information about The Fire Safety Engineering Group visit: http://fseg.gre.ac.uk

Keeping UK drug discovery on top of the world As R&D goes global, EPSRC is working with three pharmaceutical giants to ensure the UK continues to be a world leader Words: Chris Buratta

I

n 2004, three of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies put competitive rivalries to one side and joined with EPSRC to begin an unprecedented project. The companies were AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. The aim was to ensure UK drug discoverers – synthetic organic chemists – remained on top of the world in an increasingly global market.

It was the first time the companies had worked together on an initiative of this kind. Working with EPSRC, the result has been the design and pilot of new PhD studentships aimed at keeping the UK’s pharmaceutical base one step ahead of global competition.

The extended four-year training model includes increased exposure to industry, problem solving and strategic thinking. Graduates will gain experience of presenting and justifying ideas to a knowledgeable audience – as required in the commercial sector – and these skills will be incorporated into the training.

In addition, the model will create well-connected networks between universities to ensure successful practices at one can be easily transferred to another – allowing the studentship programme to evolve under its own steam.

Synthetic organic chemistry is the life blood of the pharmaceutical industry as David Hollinshead, of AstraZeneca, spells out: “Synthetic Organic Chemistry works through the whole spectrum of drug discovery, development and supply chain. It is the bread and butter of what we do.”

Dave Alker, former head of recruitment and academic liaison at Pfizer, was also involved from the outset. He adds: “Traditionally, large pharma has spent a lot of time and effort supporting undergraduates and PhDs to generate the next generation of drug discoverers. You cannot discover drugs

PIONEER 01 Autumn 2008

without top quality synthetic organic chemists.”

But, he adds, despite its vital importance, the big players were not working together on this shared goal.

That all changed in 2004. Against a backdrop of growing investment in emerging economies such as China and India, and prompted by an international review of UK chemistry – the Whitesides report – that stated it would become increasing difficult for UK chemistry to remain internationally competitive, the companies came together.

A year earlier, the government-commissioned Lambert review, an independent review of business-university collaboration, highlighted that R&D had gone global and that businesses were locating activity in countries with outstanding research centres, not necessarily their home countries.

The report, that singled out pharmaceutical and defence sectors as the UK’s major sources of R&D investment, concluded that increased collaboration between business and university research departments would bring significant economic benefits.

GSK, AstraZeneca and Pfizer are global organisations, and the UK divisions knew that if UK skills slipped behind, relocation of activity was a possibility.

“We benefit, and have historically benefited, in the UK from a greater concentration of pharma-industry for its size than anywhere else. A good economic cost base, good quality skills in academia, good quality people and very good education and training practices – there has been a disproportionate investment in UK pharma for these reasons. We wanted to help the UK retain its competitiveness. We wanted to make it even more competitive in this global economy,” says Hollinshead.

Alker adds: “We represented the biggest research sites in the UK and we

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We believe what we have done is unique, not only in the UK but globally, that big companies are helping to create an environment where we can continue to be successful.

David Hollinshead, AstraZeneca

started talking about recruitment, did we have difficulties hiring and what were the gaps. We said ‘this is crazy, every time we talk, we talk about the same things’. These were generic issues we all wanted to solve.”

All three companies shared the same vision. They believed UK PhDs were internationally competitive but, in an increasingly global market they wanted the UK to raise the bar.

GSK, AstraZeneca and Pfizer had all built a good relationship with EPSRC throughout the 1990s, capitalising on training schemes and initiatives. Now EPSRC would provide the link with academia and strategy, with the companies providing the industry knowledge, that would shape the new training opportunities in the UK. “EPSRC, through its activities, has a very well developed understanding of which areas need to move forward, it linked us to strategy and understanding of the academic base and it had an agenda very well aligned to our own,” says Tony Wood, head of chemistry at Pfizer.

Malcolm Skingle, GSK’s director of external science and technology, says EPSRC was able to look at the task in hand before offering a solution.

He adds: “EPSRC are the ‘blank sheet of paper’ research council.

Rather than trying to force every situation into one of their schemes, they first ask ‘what is the problem?’ and ‘how can we help address it?’.

Sometimes this involves a bespoke mechanism, sitting outside their normal schemes, to address the issue.

“One of the unique selling points of the UK is you can pick up the phone to the research council to articulate industry needs and very quickly do great things together to address the issue.”

All three companies are clear that the initiative was about supporting and sustaining a pool of talent in the UK. “At the moment large pharma is under pressure from budget cuts, reorganisations and redundancies. This is about the whole sector, and the pharma sector is made up of a myriad of companies, small start-ups and SMEs that provide the technology to major pharma players,” says Alker.

“There will be a better quality product for the whole sector, not just these three companies. This is going to be successful, a measure of how successful will be around the problem solving and creativity gap. That is the bit that students didn’t get exposure to before, it’s not that they couldn’t do it.”

The scheme, although in its infancy, represents a major step forward in industrial-academic collaboration, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector.

Made in the UK To make tomorrow’s medicines, the UK’s pharmaceutical companies need to recruit people of the highest quality and intellectual capability in the world. A key need is for doctorallevel synthetic organic chemists who have the appropriate breadth and depth of skills.

EPSRC, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer have developed a shared vision to work together to boost the training of such highly skilled and talented people. High-quality doctorallevel research training in organic synthetic chemistry has been established with students undertaking an extended four-year doctorate, which includes exposure to an industrial environment.

A community of expertise involving some of the very best UK academic organic chemists, students and industrial partners is being established to share best practice and tackle problems.

“The programme takes some of the very best experience and training developed around the UK and builds on it, shares it, and incorporates the very real needs of world leading industry,” said EPSRC’s John Baird, head of knowledge transfer, who helped establish this activity.

“We hope it will send a powerful signal that EPSRC is taking a key leadership role in helping to connect the very best UK academic researchers with UK industry to deliver a win-win position. It will not only raise the impact of EPSRC’s funding for research and training but should also help the academic community to share and generate new knowledge and strengthen links with industry. It’s vitally important for the UK to attract talented people to study science and engineering, make them aware of some of the intellectually challenging problems that exist and equip them with the skills to tackle them.”

And those involved, keenly monitoring the progress of the first student intake, have high hopes for the future.

“We want an internationally competitive UK research environment and to develop that we need the best trained people. This could be the distinguishing feature for the UK. We believe what we have done is unique, not only in the UK but globally, that big companies are helping to create an environment where we can continue to be successful at a time when we face increasing pressure and some businesses are relocating activities to other parts of the world,” says Hollinshead.

“Colleagues in the US say ‘we don’t have anything like this, we don’t have the same collaborative co-operation’. They have to work far harder to make it work. Here the infrastructure they see is very positive.”

Wood sees more opportunities for the future: “From my point of view this is the beginning of a range of areas we will be looking to work together on to help support the pipeline of chemistry talent in the UK.” But having pulled together and identified the gaps in a changing economic landscape, Alker warns against resting on laurels: “The challenge now is for companies to get together with EPSRC and say ‘what will we need in 2020’.”

For further information: www.epsrc.ac.uk

profile 34

EPSRC Pioneer

David Payne Professor David Payne’s seminal breakthroughs in optical fibre technologies have revolutionised worldwide telecommunication and fuelled the explosion in internet growth.

He is one of the world’s leading photonics researchers and director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at Southampton University.

He is the winner of the 2008 Marconi Prize – joining a list of winners that includes World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Among his many achievements, his team developed the Erbium-Doped Optical Amplifier in 1987 – a key device for internet expansion through its ability to transmit and amplify vast amounts of data.

As a leading university entrepreneur, Professor Payne’s activities have led to a photonics cluster of ten companies surrounding the ORC. In 2000, he founded SPI Lasers plc, a leading supplier of high power fibre lasers. In 2005, the company successfully floated on the Alternative Investment Market and is now being acquired by Trumpf GmbH, the world’s largest manufacturer of industrial lasers.

He was born in England but brought up in Africa. He returned to the UK in 1964 to study electrical engineering at Southampton University – where he has spent his career to date. He was made a CBE in 2004 and is a Fellow of both the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering.

Professor Payne has been supported by EPSRC funding throughout his career.

Optical telecommunications was in its infancy when you began your research career – what attracted you to this emerging field? (laughs) Serendipity! I was incredibly fortunate in being one of the world’s first PhD students in this burgeoning field. I always wanted to do engineering at the more innovative end. Growing up in Africa I had an engineering background because we had to build things ourselves. You couldn’t go to the store and buy a model aircraft.

Although, my plan was to go into industry,

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I realised I could make a huge difference to the world by riding a wave, this great British innovation of optical telecommunications.

And I could get my industrial kicks by forming companies.

Is it still as exciting as when you started?

It’s just as exciting now, if not more so. We are rapidly using up the bandwidth of this wonderful fibre medium and in the UK we are falling behind in new applications because many nations are already providing fibre all the way to the home. Today’s YouTube usage alone exceeds the entire traffic of the internet in year 2000.

The challenge is what comes next and how do we solve the forthcoming bandwidth bottlenecks.

The challenge is what comes next and how do we solve the forthcoming bandwidth bottlenecks.

Professor David Payne

What do you consider your greatest achievement…and why?

In optical telecommunications we created a magnificent machine, a world-wide network of fibres spanning the oceans, over mountains and across the continents. That has been the communications dream since Greek times, when they lit fires to relay messages. We have finally found the solution – huge bandwidth over unlimited distances using optical fibres.

That fibre network is what’s behind the internet – it couldn’t be done based on copper.

It’s a huge source of pride to me that you can go into villages in Africa and South East Asia and see they can communicate with the world, that they have the internet.

What are the most important questions facing science?

I would paraphrase it as ‘how we learn to live with the limited resources available to us and

how we manage them without conflict’.

The planet we live on looks increasingly limited in terms of energy, minerals, water and even in growing enough food for our burgeoning population. How are we going to live with that?

It’s not going to be financiers and politicians solving this, it will be scientists and engineers.

What frustrates you?

The short-termism that one sees in the funding of science frustrates me. My team and I have been hugely fortunate and had strong backing from EPSRC for 40-odd years. I know how hard that is when the technology cycle can be as long as 50 years, while the political cycle only lasts five years.

A frustrating phenomenon that’s emerged in recent years is the increasing use of hype in science. While I strongly believe we technologists need to tell our story better to the public who pay our salaries, we must strike a balance and maintain our credibility.

Who do you most admire?

It’s not one individual or group of individuals, it’s innovation and excellence wherever we find it. I have huge admiration for excellence and I don’t care if it’s someone who can plaster a wall immaculately or someone who can come up with a unified theory of everything.

Who or what has been your greatest influence?

Great scientists and engineers of the past who combined their work with wealth creation, people like Benjamin Franklin, Marconi and Bell.

It’s not an easy thing to do because the two fields have very different cultures, as I have found out.

These great people combined rigorous science with the creation of real products that made a difference to the world.

What are your main interests outside science?

I love to travel. The place that fascinates me most is the Far East. It’s full of fantastic cultural differences – people, architecture and cuisine.

I also love cooking because of the combination of the artistic with technology.

It’s all about heat control!

And I’m a petrol head. I love motorcycles and fast cars. I rebuild Harleys and things like that.

In another life what would you be?

An entrepreneurial chef. I love the creativity and artistry combined with the application of science and engineering. The foremost practitioner of that is Heston Blumenthal and he is my hero.

He’s creative and innovative but grounded in solid engineering.

09 Pioneers Connecting business with pioneering research

“Be inspired by passionate people and developments in different sectors.”

Dr Chris Luebkeman, Director for Global Foresight and Innovation, Arup

4 March 2009 Olympia Conference Centre London From healthcare to the next generation of the internet, access some of the best university research in the world through talks, debates and a major exhibition.

Explore the latest research • Discover a future of intelligent transport, smart homes and fusion power • Meet researchers face-to-face • Find out about areas of emerging technology Find funding • Talk to us about funding opportunities • Meet other major funders of research and development • Hear about working with universities from a business perspective Build partnerships • Find the best researchers and students to work with you • Join networking sessions

Register now at http://pioneers.epsrc.ac.uk It’s free to attend but spaces are limited Event partner:

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www.epsrc.ac.uk