Latest news from Loughborough University
17 Dec 2015
PhD student awarded prestigious IMechE Research Scholarship
PhD student, Rebecca Grant, has been awarded the prestigious Institution of Mechanical Engineers Research Scholarship at the IMechE Vision Awards.
The IMechE Vision Awards recognises young people making an impact on the engineering industry and inspiring the next generation of students and engineers.
Rebecca graduated with a 1st Class Honours MEng degree in Product Design Engineering from the Wolfson School in July 2015, and was also the recipient of the University Sir Robert Martin Prize for outstanding achievement.
Rebecca entered the 2015 IMechE competition on the basis of her aspirations to further develop her STEM and outreach activities and, her proposed PhD research topic: The application of manufacturing metrology strategies for the control of large scale bio-manufacturing of stem cell therapies.
The IMechE awards offer one Postgraduate Research Scholarship nationally per year for exceptional graduate students from an IMechE accredited engineering degree programme.
Rebecca was shortlisted from a large national entry and was subsequently selected as the overall winner of the national scholarship competition.
Valued at £19,500, the scholarship is presented to an individual who wishes to undertake further research in a related engineering discipline, leading to a doctorate degree. It allows the winning student to better manage their research activities and provide opportunities which exceed the possibilities based on their existing research funding.
As part of the University based EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Regenerative Medicine, Rebecca is now translating her manufacturing and metrology knowledge into one of the most challenging engineering disciplines that a UK university can offer, within a unique bio-engineering facility in European research context.
She is fully immersed in the CDT development stage of her PhD, encompassing bio-sciences, bio-engineering, manufacturing technologies and metrology. She is also involved with developing collaborative links with research sponsors such as GlaxoSmithKline, and the Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC).
Rebecca hopes that the IMechE Research Scholarship Award will underpin her aspirations to spend some of her PhD on study secondment overseas at specialist stem cell manufacturing facilities, as well as furthering her STEM and Outreach activities.
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Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines.
It has been awarded five stars in the independent QS Stars university rating scheme, putting it among the best universities in the world, and was named University of the Year in the What Uni Student Choice Awards 2015.Loughborough is consistently ranked in the top twenty of UK universities in the Times Higher Education’s ‘table of tables’ and is in the top 10 in England for research intensity. It was 2nd in the 2015 THE Student Experience Survey and was named Sports University of the Year 2013-14 by The Times and Sunday Times. In recognition of its contribution to the sector, Loughborough has been awarded seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes.
In September 2015 the University opened an additional academic campus in London’s new innovation quarter. Loughborough University London, based on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, offers postgraduate and executive-level education, as well as research and enterprise opportunities.