The Future Powertrain Conference (FPC2018) is a two day UK event created to bring together industry and academic experts within the powertrain development field. It opens up presentations and discussions on the solutions to the challenges faced by the engineering industry in the UK and internationally over the next ten years.

With multiple pressures pushing the industry to meet ever tighter emission regulations, the need to develop and implement new technology is increasing all the time and the inherent risks can only be mitigated by a better understanding of the technology.

To help strengthen the UK engineering community and to meet this challenge FPC2018 is being launched to bring together and help bridge the gap between scientists and engineers from the UK’s leading academic institutions and the best of the UK’s industry.

400 delegates attended the conference; amongst these were Dr Dezong Zhao, Lecturer in Intelligent Systems and Mr Wen Gu, PhD Student from the Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering.

The Loughborough delegates entered posters into the event:

The poster ‘Vehicle energy recovery through an intelligent turbo assist system’ features an electrical turbocharger assist to downsize a heavy-duty engine. This is a state-of-the-art electrical boosting system which was successfully demonstrated in Loughborough University in February 2014. This is also the first case of this kind of device in the world. (First Prize Winner – Dr Dezong Zhao)

The poster ‘Model learning based engine dynamic optimisation’ features an innovative approach to develop low carbon engines. The critical machine learning techniques are used to model the engine behaviour precisely. The engine can then be operated in the optimal way to achieve minimum fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. (Third Prize Winner – Mr Wen Gu)

Dr Zhao had this say in response to winning first prize in the poster competition:

“Our department has a strong research profile in engines, vehicles and energy systems. Closely working with industrial partners, we have built world class testing facilities and demonstrated many critical devices and methods. We always devote ourselves to discover fundamental principles and general methodologies from experiments.  I believe that we are in a pioneering position to shape our future transportation systems to be both green and smart. These prizes well recognised our achievements.”

The School of Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering would like to offer congratulations to Dr Zhao and Mr Gu in regard to winning their awards and we look forward to hearing about their future achievements in this interesting area of research.

For further information on this event, please follow this link: https://futurepowertrains.co.uk/