WORLD-LEADING RESEARCH WITH IMPACT

Through Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI) one can establish communication with those severely lacking the ability to move or talk. These Artificial Intelligence based algorithms, developed in the Brain and Behaviour Lab of Professor Christopher James, Director of the Biomedical Engineering Institute, are being researched as part of a larger activity in the neural engineering field.

Dr Duncan Billson and his team designed patented ultra-thin electrostatic modules which can be use in the thinnest and lightest of speakers. Most recently, this technology was incorporated into the design of the Sonoma Model One headphones, maximising quality in a number of key areas such as frequency balance and response, exact reproduction, and audio clarity. This technology is being incorporated into the most innovative and streamlined in-car audio systems.

Professor Jennifer Wen leads Warwick FIRE, a multi-disciplinary research laboratory for fundamental and applied research in fire, explosions, and other safety-related reactive and non-reactive flows. Hydrogen is a zero-emissions fuel that is seen as a viable alternative to fossil fuels and will play a key role in national and international policies on greenhouse gas reduction. However, it has a wider flammability range, potentially causing damage to infrastructure, injury and death.

Professor Wen has devised models that address physical effects and consequence analysis for a range of accidental release scenarios, which are critical to the safe design and operation of facilities involving flammable gases/liquids. The team’s work is critical in the move to a more cleaner and safer environment.

Dr Jonathan Pearson and Dr Soroush Abolfathi are part of the Warwick Water Lab within the Civil and Environmental Stream. In the context of climate change, it’s known that the intensity and duration of extreme climatic events will rise in the future. This can lead to catastrophic floods in coastal regions, which usually host dense urban population and major infrastructures.

Warwick Water’s research provides important information on the spatial distribution of overtopping hazards behind coastal defences, and how retrofitting of existing infrastructures can enhance their climate resilience and reduce the extent of the hazard zone behind the seawalls.