The University of Sheffield
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Professor Stephen B M Beck

BSc, PhD, CEng, FIMechE

Dr S Beck

Professor

Director of Learning and Teaching Development - Faculty of Engineering

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Sir Frederick Mappin Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
UK

Telephone: +44(0)114 2227730
Fax: +44(0)114 2227890

email : s.beck@sheffield.ac.uk

Profile

Professor Stephen Beck is a graduate of Bath University where he studied Mechanical Engineering. After graduation he was offered a post at Fermilab in Chicago where he developed software to control anti-protons.

He was awarded his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sheffield. The topic was the stability of ventilation systems in nuclear power stations which involved fluid mechanics, waves in pipes and power fluidics.

After several postdoctoral jobs (on fluidics, modelling waves in oil drillstrings and high temperature heat exchangers) he was offered a lectureship in thermodynamics at the department. He became a senior lecturer in 2002. In 2012 he was promoted to a personal chair.

Professor Beck has been working on flow measurement, leak detection, leaks from pipes, leaky gaskets (spot the theme), heat transfer from radiators and renewable energy. His interest in energy and teaching have combined to make him one of the main investigators on the (£9.3M) Doctoral Training Centre on energy and the environment.

He is interested in quality enhancement of teaching and has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies and the Director of Learning and Teaching Development for the Faculty of Engineering. He is currently Faculty Director of Learning and Teaching, coordinating learning throughout the Engineering Faculty.

For reasons unknown to even himself, he is also interested in various forms of committee work both within the University and for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, where he is on the Academic Assessment Committee and the Academic Standards Committee, accrediting other Mechanical Engineering departments.

Other professional achievements:

Areas of Research

Professor Beck's main research interests are in fluid mechanics, notably flow measurement, pipe networks, and leaks in pipes, and his work uses fluidic devices and numerous flow measurement techniques. Professor Beck also has interests in renewable energy, energy use, power production, refrigeration and heat exchange processes. His work is predominantly experimental, but uses CFD and analytical techniques.

He is also researching into waves in fluid pipeline systems. The original work which Professor Beck undertook as part of his PhD and post-doctoral work on the modelling of pressure waves in pipes is being expanded to cover the control and real time analysis of fluid pipeline networks. The signal analysis has led to a novel method of leak detection that works even in branched pipeline systems. Part of Professor Beck's main research interests is that of fluid flow measurement. He has worked on various fluidic flow devices and is now engaged in projects to improve the accuracy and robustness of orifice plate flowmeters and to examine flow through and after fractal devices.

Professor Beck's teaching of thermodynamics and renewable energy has led to variety of energy based projects and publications on heat transfer, notably from radiators, and energy use in industry.

Research projects

Prof Beck is currently lead supervisor for five postgraduate students:

Fourteen of his students have submitted or completed their PhDs. Recent graduates are:

Current Research Grants

Teaching

Since 2008 Professor Beck has been Faculty Director of Learning and Teaching for Engineering, and is thus in charge of Learning, Teaching, Assessment and Quality assurance and Enhancement for the Faculty. He currently sits on the University Learning and Teaching Committee and is Chair of the Engineering Faculty Learning and Teaching Committee.

He believes that lectures should be to entertain, signpost and inform in that order. As well as giving enthusiastic lectures, he is interested in novel ways of teaching, assessment and providing feedback. He has published papers on his use of podcasts to aid student induction, and (among other things) how he got students to write Haiku summaries of technical papers. He particularly enjoys teaching thermodynamics to first year students because he feels that the first and second laws hold the key to understanding the world and he wants every else to feel the same way.

In 2008 he was awarded the title of Senate Award Fellow for Sustained Excellence in Learning and Teaching.

Professor Beck Beck also teaches on the following courses:

Recent Publications