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Loughborough University

Loughborough University
Leicestershire, UK
LE11 3TU
+44 (0)1509 263171

The View - Spring / Summer 2008

Research lab with man in car and woman holding clipboard

The View round up

Royal recognition for Loughborough University Research

Loughborough University’s world-leading research into road traffic accident investigation and driver sleepiness has been recognised with one of the country’s most prestigious educational awards.

Her Majesty The Queen presented Loughborough with the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in February at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. It is the sixth time the award has been bestowed on Loughborough – an achievement unbeaten by any other university.

The Queen's Anniversary Prizes 2007 logoThe University’s Vehicle Safety Research Centre is the largest crash investigation research group in the world. Using realworld crash research it examines the causes of accidents and injuries and has made major contributions to European road and vehicle safety. The Driver Sleepiness Research Group was the first UK research organisation to recognise the real problem of driver sleepiness and bring it to public attention. Its research and application of sleep science has led to widely adopted guidelines for the identification of sleeprelated road crashes and to practical countermeasures, including the ‘Tiredness can kill – Take a break’ signs on motorways, changes to the Highway Code, and the setting of legal precedents concerning driver liability.

Professor Shirley Pearce, Loughborough University’s Vice Chancellor, said: “We are delighted to be receiving this prestigious honour, which recognises Loughborough’s world-leading role in road traffic death reduction.”

Loughborough chosen to host £1 billion national energy institute

The headquarters for a new £1 billion hi-tech institute to help the UK reduce its carbon footprint will be based at the Loughborough campus.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is being established to speed up the deployment of new low-carbon energy technologies, including the efficient production and use of energy, in support of the UK’s energy and climate change goals. It will also increase funding and provide a national strategic focus for research and development in this area and promote international technology collaboration.

Professor Neil Halliwell and Science and Innovation Minister, Ian PearsonJointly funded by Government and industry, the ETI brings together some of the world’s biggest companies – BP, Caterpillar, EDF Energy, E.ON UK, Rolls-Royce and Shell.

Loughborough’s bid for the ETI was in partnership with the Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham as part of the Midlands Consortium. Generous financial support was also provided by the East Midlands Development Agency (emda) and Advantage West Midlands. The bid beat off strong competition from across the country to secure the ETI for the Midlands. It followed a nine-month evaluation exercise where bids were assessed on energy research capability, reputation and culture, site facilities and commitment to ETI.

The ETI headquarters will be based at Holywell Park, at the heart of the University’s Science and Enterprise Park, and is expected to be fully operational later this year.

Professor Shirley Pearce, Loughborough’s Vice Chancellor, said the headquarters are ideally situated at the campus. “We already have a concentration of low-carbon and energy research and development activities based at the University’s Science and Enterprise Park,” she added. “Locating the hub on this site allows the Midlands Consortium to maximise the effective working of the ETI.”

Following the announcement that the ETI would be coming to Loughborough Science and Innovation Minister, Ian Pearson, visited the University to meet some of the staff that will be involved in the ETI and tour the campus.

During his visit Mr Pearson said: “I am delighted that Loughborough is to be the home of the Energy Technologies Institute. It will be the hub for this critical research, development and deployment programme, which will develop secure, reliable and affordable low carbon energy technologies. The ETI will help to establish the UK as one of the leaders in global clean energy development and deployment.”

Ground breaking passenger detection technology wins global award for innovation

A new infrared imaging system developed at Loughborough University that automatically counts the number of people in moving road vehicles has won a prestigious innovation award from The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), one of the world’s leading professional societies for the engineering and technology community.

The vehicle monitoring system, dtect, can be used in all weathers, day or night, to instantly detect human skin behind all types of automotive glass at a range of 10 to 100 metres. Its inventor Dr John Tyrer, a Loughborough University optical engineer, designed it as a means of enforcing car sharing priority lanes to ease congestion, but the technology is also used in road tolling and to monitor vehicles entering high security areas.

dtect is part of a portfolio of innovations in non-contact testing developed by John Tyrer who formed his first spin-out company Laser Optical Engineering in 1997. Seven years later, he formed his second, Vehicle Occupancy Ltd, specifically to boost dtect’s commercial prospects.

John Tyrer was presented with the Transport category award at the IET’s 2007 annual Innovation in Engineering Awards ceremony, held to celebrate excellence in engineering innovation across a range of industry sectors and engineering disciplines. Winners were selected from hundreds of entries from around the world by a distinguished panel of judges.

Double success for Loughborough in national education awards

The University has won two prestigious 2007 Times Higher Awards – for the Best Student Experience, and Outstanding Support for Overseas Students. It is the second successive year that Loughborough has picked up the hotly contested Best Student Experience title. The awards presented to the University were the only two to be voted for by students.

David Gerty, Professor Shirley Pearce and Paul Ramsden from the Higher Education AcademyOrganised by The Times Higher Education Supplement magazine, the awards aim to raise awareness of and reward the huge contribution British universities make to the economic and cultural health of the country.

Commenting on Loughborough’s success, Professor Shirley Pearce, the University’s Vice Chancellor, said: “These awards are testimony to the hard work and enthusiasm of all our staff at Loughborough and the excellent working relationship we enjoy with the Students’ Union.”

The Best Student Experience award recognises universities’ outstanding contributions to the learning experience. Loughborough was rated highly by its students for the community atmosphere, extracurricular activities and societies, and the good environment on campus and around the University.

Loughborough Students’ Union President David Gerty said: “It is an honour and privilege to have received such prestigious awards. They are particularly special because they were voted for by students, and it is a reflection of the well-rounded academic and social experience enjoyed by all of us at Loughborough.”

The Outstanding Support for Overseas Students award is presented to the university that helps international students to gain the maximum benefit from their study. International students were asked, via an independent survey, to rate various aspects of their university experience. The careers service, students’ union and visa advice were among the services that international students rated highly at Loughborough.

Tony Westaway, Director of the University’s International Office, commented: “It is really fantastic that Loughborough’s international students clearly believe that the support offered by staff and the Union is the best in the UK. This will continue to enhance Loughborough University's growing worldwide reputation.”

‘Santander Universities’ signs three-year funding agreement with Loughborough

Loughborough University and Abbey National plc, Banco Santander’s UK subsidiary, have signed an agreement that will set up support for students and researchers and enable Loughborough to develop a variety of projects within the ‘Santander Universities’ scheme.

Abbey National Chairman Lord Burns, Antonio Horta-Osorio, Professor Shirley Pearce and Professor Neil HalliwellThrough its ‘Santander Universities’ Global Division, Banco Santander gives more support to the university community than any other bank in the world. Since 1996, ‘Santander Universities’ has channelled almost half a billion euros into academia through co-operative agreements with 625 universities in Spain, America, Portugal, Russia, the United States and the UK.

Under the partnership, five Masters scholarships and four sports scholarships will be established for postgraduate students originating from the eleven Iberoamerican countries in Santander’s network (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela). Awards will also be made available to enable staff and students to develop partnerships with these countries.

Funding will be given to support the activities of Loughborough Students’ Union’s International Students Association, and the University’s Postgraduate Orientation programme will be developed to ensure greater inclusion of students from all countries and subject disciplines.

The University’s student sports programme will also be supported, with the hockey programme benefiting from sponsorship in the first year of the partnership agreement.

Loughborough University’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Shirley Pearce, said: “We are delighted to announce this partnership with Abbey and are grateful to them for their very generous support. Our students will benefit enormously from the funding that has been pledged and the agreement will help to strengthen further the University’s already extensive international links.”

António Horta-Osório, Abbey’s CEO, said: “We are very happy to welcome Loughborough University into the ‘Santander Universities’ network. Institutions like Loughborough play a critical role in today’s knowledge-based societies, acting as beacons on the path to ever-increasing innovation, and exemplars in the transfer of knowledge between academia and industry.”

Award proves all that glitters isn’t gold

A stunning water jug design, created by Loughborough University student Musa Butt, has won the prestigious Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths Young Designer Silversmith Award for 2008.

Water jugMusa (22), who originates from Nairobi, Kenya, said: “I feel very honoured to have received this award. My design was inspired by the movement of water, especially water falls and fast flowing streams, and I’m looking forward to seeing the completed piece, which will be made from sterling silver.”

The Young Designer Silversmith Award is an annual design competition open to full-time UK-based students under the age of 30 who are on an approved undergraduate or postgraduate course.

Each year the winning student is invited to transform their design into reality under the guidance of a master-craftsman. Musa will create his water jug in the London workshop of leading British silversmith Clive Burr.

The finished piece is then presented by the Goldsmiths’ Company to the appropriate major museum nearest the student’s college or university for its collection of contemporary arts. On completion in October, Musa’s piece will be presented to the Castle Museum in Nottingham, with Loughborough University School of Art and Design (LUSAD) receiving a silver plaque in celebration of the success.

Musa, who is in the final year of his Silversmithing and Jewellery course, was awarded £500 as a personal prize, with £4,000 also allocated to enable him to develop his work in silver.

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The View highlights the important and original research that takes place at Loughborough University – research that matters.

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Editor: Judy Wing
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E: J.L.Wing@lboro.ac.uk