Royal Academy of Engineering Centre of Excellence

Loughborough University is one of just four Royal Academy of Engineering Centres of Excellence in Sustainable Building Design, leading the exchange of best practice in teaching and research.

Sustainability is an important element of all our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Within civil engineering, construction and building services, sustainable building design is a core theme; and our transport programmes place great emphasis on sustainability in policy and modes of travel.

One of our ambitions as a Royal Academy of Engineering Centre of Excellence (RAEng CoE) is to enhance the practical training of our students.

For RAEng CoE status, our new curriculum developments are interdisciplinary in nature, focused around problem-solving approaches, and include the following key areas of innovation:

  • Sustainable architectural design – implementing Building Information Modelling to reduce wastage during the construction cycle
  • Domestic buildings – Modelling energy performance and occupant behaviour to develop more efficient energy systems
  • Non-domestic buildings – Improving component and system performance to reduce energy consumption.

We welcome the opportunity to develop novel and effective means of sharing knowledge and practices in collaboration with other Centres of Excellence. 

In addition to subject-specific peer-based academic and industry networks within which staff are already active, we have a few specific mechanisms to collaborate externally:

  • Loughborough hosts CEDE, the Centre for Engineering and Design Education which has a national leadership role in sharing best practice in teaching and learning across engineering and design disciplines. 
  • We strongly encourage students and staff to become members of professional institutions and participate in regional and national events (e.g. CIBSE, ICE, RICS and CIOB) several of which are hosted in the School every year - excellent networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities.
  • An annual academic colloquium allows us to showcase Sustainable Building Design research and teaching innovations in the School and other Centres of Excellence. An open colloquium, teachers of Sustainable Building Design from other institutions are invited to participate and exchange best practice. 

If you would like to know more or collaborate with us, please get in touch.

Key staff leading our RAEng CoE activities are:

Dr David Allinson
Reader in Building Physics and Building Energy Research Group (BERG) Lead

Professor Malcolm Cook
Professor of Building Performance Analysis and Dean of the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering

Professor Kevin Lomas
Professor of Building Simulation and Director of Loughborough Centre for Doctoral Training in Energy Resilience and Built Environment

Professor Dennis Loveday
Professor of Building Physics

Professor Jonathan Wright
Professor of Building Optimization

Professor Mohamed Osmani
Professor of Sustainable Design and Construction