Where:

Queen Mary University of London Campus, Mile End Road, E1 4NS, London

Law Building, room 100 (to find the Law Building, click on QMUL's map here. The Law Building is number 36 in the map )

Closest Tube Stations: Mile End Station and Stepney Green Station, both at short walking distance from QMUL

When: Thursday 14 September 2017

Financial support: The SIG is able to support reasonable travel expenses incurred by SIG members and for those travelling a long distance we expect to be able to cover reasonable accomodation expenses . Upon request and subject to availability of funds, 1 accompanying person (PhD student, postdoc, etc.) can join the supervisor. In the event that the total funds requested exceed the budget for the first 2017 meeting, refunds for expenses will be allocated based on the distance of the attendee's academic institution from London.

Who can attend: Attendance is open to anyone interested. Refunds will be given to SIG members and accompanying persons only.

Registration: To register, click on the Evenbrite link here. Registration is mandatory, as it enables us to ensure that the meeting room and catering services are appropriate for the size of the audience, and that decision regarding the organisation of the event can be made prior to the meeting.

Flash presentations: all attendees will have the opportunity to promote their research through a short presentation. To give the opportunity to everyone to speak, each presentation should not last for more than 5 minutes, and be limited to 5 slides. Each flash presentation will be followed by a 2 minutes questions section.

Bring your presentation in a USB memory stick (file format: recent Powerpoint format; if you are not sure about compatibility, save your presentation in pdf format). The presentations will be load on a single laptop during the coffee break. To avoid technical problems and a smooth transition between the presentations, please do not use movie clips. If you want to use movies, please send your slides to Lorenzo Botto at least by Wednesday afternoon or arrive at the meeting well before 10am.

For further information, please contact Dr. Lorenzo Botto at l.botto@qmul.ac.uk

Meeting Schedule (tentative)

Speakers

Dr Michael De Volder performed his PhD research on MEMS actuators at the University of Leuven in Belgium and in part at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan. He then joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, and Harvard University as a postdoc researcher in the field of nanotechnology. He also worked for several years at imec - an industry funded microelectronics research institute - before joining the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He is a recipient of an ERC starting grant, and holder of several industrial and academic awards including the Iwan Akerman Award, the Barco High-Tech Award and the Robert M Caddell award. He is a Laureate of the Belgian Royal Academy, vice president of LIAM - a North Carolina based nanotech company - and a fellow of St John's College.

 

Prof. Dominic Vella is Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute in the University of Oxford, as well as a tutorial fellow at Lincoln College. Within the Mathematical Institute, he is affiliated to both OCCAM and OCIAM. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and did post-docs in Paris (supported by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851) and in Cambridge. His research is concerned with various aspects of solid and fluid mechanics in general but with particular focus on the wrinkling of thin elastic objects and surface tension effects. Among notable recognitions, for his research Dominic was awarded a Whitehead Prize and an ERC grant.

 

Prof. Alvaro Mata was born in San José, Costa Rica and holds a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Kansas, USA, a Master's Degree from the University of Strathclyde, UK, and a Doctor of Engineering Degree from Cleveland State University, USA. During his doctorate he worked at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation under the direction of Prof. Shuvo Roy. From 2005-2008 he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. Samuel I. Stupp at Northwestern University in Chicago, developing self-assembling materials for regenerative medicine. From 2008-2013 he was Head of the Nanotechnology Platform at Parc Científic Barcelona in Spain and is currently Professor in Biomedical Engineering and Biomaterials. In 2015 he was named Director of the Institute of Bioengineering at QMUL and Co-Lead of the Bioengineering Domain of the Life Sciences Initiative at QMUL. His work has been published in journals like Science, Nature Materials, and Nature Chemistry and awards such as the 2005 Clodomiro Picado Twight Technology Award, the 2006 Baxter Early Career Award in Bioengineering, a Ramón y Cajal Award from the Government of Spain in 2009, and an ERC Starting Grant in 2012.

 

Dr. Emiliano Bilotti graduated cum laude in Materials Engineering from "Federico II", University of Naples. In 2004 EB joined QMUL for his PhD study on polymer/clay nanocomposites and new environment friendly flame retardant materials, within the frame of the European STRP project Nanofire. EB was successively employed as a Post Doctoral Research Assistant at QMUL on Inteltex, an FP6 project on intelligent multi-reactive textile fibres containing conductive nano-fillers. In 2010 EB moved to Nanoforce - a QMUL spin out company - as Research Manager. EB currently holds a Senior Lectureship position in SEMS. His research focuses on materials processing techniques for the production of Polymer Nanocomposites, Nanoclays, Carbon Nanotubes, Organic Thermoelectrics, Pyro-resistive Polymer Composites, Piezo-electric Polymers, and High Performance Fibres.

Resources for attendees:

The Future of Manufacturing: A new era of opportunity and challenge for the UK : UK Government foresight review underlying the importance of materials in the manufacturing sector and detailing emerging challenges in materials research

Manufacturing Advanced Functional Materials: EPSRC document related to a past funding call describing key challenges of developing new-generation materials. Many of these challenges have implications for fluid mechanics research. Examples:

  • Inclusion of multi-functionality into materials design or fabrication through modified or novel manufacturing processes (for a purpose or particular transformational application);

  • Scaling-up of laboratory-scale processes leading to the development of prototype functional devices;

  • New manufacturing ideas for accelerating the development and production of functional materials;

  • Use of novel manufacturing approaches to add functionality into “classical” materials (e.g., ceramics, metals, textiles, paper, building and construction, etc.) that add significant value;

  • New manufacturing approaches to metamaterials (i.e. materials with properties not found in nature) that offer the potential for manufacturing scalability and/or improved performance;

  • Using innovative surface chemistry or surface engineering principles to enhance novel functionality;

  • Functional materials that can be used in additive manufacturing (‘printable’ functional materials), especially materials and manufacturing approaches to make hierarchical or composite structures;

  • Modelling or behaviour-prediction techniques that specifically enhance manufacturing of advanced functional materials;