Jason Loveless

Throughout school I always enjoyed STEM subjects and problem solving, so from an early age I discovered that an ideal career for me would be in engineering. After completing various placements at Transport for London and the NHS, I was attracted most to materials. Materials are at the centre of most engineering challenges and a key factor for most companies, as we are constantly striving to make things faster, lighter, cheaper, and more sustainable. To advance in research and industry, it is vital to have the ability to create and improve the performance of materials, presenting a strong need for materials graduates in most countries around the world.

Loughborough hosts some of the best research projects and scientists. Regardless of what you are interested in you are more than likely to find a professor with a high level of understanding in the topic. This gives students confidence to try and think outside the box and challenge concepts with the goal to improve.

I have enjoyed completing lots of projects while at Loughborough, but my favourite is my current MEng master’s project where I will be ‘Understanding dynamic damage of armour ceramic nanocomposites’. Ceramic nanocomposite is promising to become the next generation shielding material of body/vehicle armour. However, further understanding its damaging pattern and underpinned mechanism is necessary for improvement and optimization. I have been able to analyse and compare using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron spectroscopy (TEM) and Cr3+ Fluorescence spectroscopy silicon carbide (SiC) nanocomposites and baseline armour ceramics. This is a hard to come by experience and have really enjoyed drawing conclusions which can have significant real-world application.

I worked at the General Electric Healthcare Cardiff site for my work placement. It consisted of a manufacturing site producing a range of products, including rapid DNA test kits for global police forces, lab filtration products and high purity PTFE membrane filters called PM2.5 for air monitoring. I was exposed to a wide range of technical tasks including:

• Improving quality control on the PM2.5 filter line using a COGNEX vision system; where I spent time understanding the implications of varying backlight and materials on the output of the camera. I made changes or improved aspects of the line and wrote documents to improve operation which all aided overall equipment efficiency (OEE).
• 3D printing prototypes using CAD software; utilising various resins and metals depending on the application.
• Coding universal Robots; which play a big role in automated/semi-automated processes which require high levels of accuracy and repetitive motion. These robots can increase productivity and help solve challenges, such as labour shortages.
• Designing a new manufacturing line segment as part of a cost-out project; bringing a carbon capsule filling process for a type of Whatman™ filter, which was previously outsourced, in house to save cost. This involved organising and running on-site supplier visits, liaising with engineering sales teams, utilising assembly line design principles from Six Sigma and developing in depth knowledge of the product and process.

In most of these areas I had minimal experience, however, I took interest and applied myself enabling me to obtain transferable skills. Having worked in the manufacturing and the research and development department, I gained valuable experience in labs and ‘cleanroom’ environments, teaching me the importance of safe-working and risk management. I have thoroughly enjoyed working on challenging projects while at university and on placement.