Working with industry

We work closely with a range of partners to ensure that our research and teaching meet the needs of industry.

Dr Payam Soulatiantork with the FESTO cyberphysical lab
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Our long-standing and excellent reputation allows us to develop strong links with industry and create partnerships for research collaboration.

You can get involved by becoming a research partner, joining the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB), or volunteering at one of our events.

Industrial Advisory Board

The Industrial Advisory Board advises the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering to ensure students are graduating with the latest knowledge and skills needed by employers and advise on where it can help develop research to be used in industry. 

External members 

Name  Company
Ian Gardner (IAB Chair) IBM
David Harra Airbus
Cansu Kandemir  AMRC
James Moore AMRC
Grace Lim AMRC
Denzil Lawrence  Boeing
Stephen Bird  Caterpillar
Mark Haigh  Inspec Solutions
Iain Wallace  ITP Aero
Will Stuart Jaguar Land Rover
Coorous Mohtadi MathWorks
Martina Sciola MathWorks 
Mike Croucher MathWorks
Alex Roberts  Mclaren
Nick Warrington PA Consulting
Matthew Moton  QinetiQ
Paul Karam Quanser
Andrew Atkins Ricardo plc
Derek Wall Rolls-Royce
David Moss  Siemens 
Ian Donald Siemens 
Tarun Singhal Sopra Steria
Paul Wheway Thales UK
Alejandra Matamoros The MTC
Adam Heenan ZF Conekt
Industrial Advisory Board members (Internal)
Dr Jonathan Aitken Senior University Teacher in Robotics
Dr Tara Baldacchino Senior University Teacher
Christina Wilson  Departmental Administration Manager
Professor George Panoutsos Head of Department
Rebecca Fieldsend PA to Head of Department 
Dr Roderich Gross Director of Learning and Teaching
Professor Keith Jackson Professor in Enterprise & Entrepreneurship
Dr Payam Soulataintork Senior University Teacher in Industrial Automation

Valuable research contracts

In the last five years we have secured 131 researched grants worth over £19m, which our academic staff, research staff and PhD students have worked with industrial and academic partners to accomplish.

Research knowledge and transfer

We have extensive experience of working with companies of all sizes from micro-SMEs through to large multinationals. In all cases we harness our state-of-the-art expertise, technology, and insight to help you gain the competitive edge. We aim to establish long-term strategic partnerships allowing us to benefit all parts of your business from research and design and manufacturing through to talent acquisition.

We have extensive experience of attracting funding from a broad range of sources including Research Councils UK (RCUK), the European Commission, Innovate UK, and national charities. Alternatively, collaborations can be partly-or wholly-funded by industry.

Student projects and placements

The department runs a year in industry option on all of our undergraduate courses in which students normally spend their penultimate year putting their skills into practice within an industrial context.

We also offer industry placements to our MSc Advanced Control and Systems Engineering students, which means they receive all of the academic advantages of our one-year standard MSc with the added benefit of an industry placement.

These both provide excellent opportunities to access a pool of highly talented and enthusiastic undergraduate and MSc students.

You also have the opportunity to part or fully-fund a PhD student to work on longer-term, innovation challenges based on your company’s needs.

Flagship institutes

The University’s four flagship institutes bring together our key strengths to tackle global issues, turning interdisciplinary and translational research into real-world solutions.