CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH FOR REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS

Loughborough is research intensive, with a well-earned reputation for relevance, resourcefulness and results. Much of our research is directed towards assisting the needs of UK business and industry; they expect ‘value for money’ in investing with us, and we are number one at providing it.

Meeting Industry’s Needs
Loughborough University offers the best value for money research in the country, according to this year’s Performance Indicators for higher education institutions published by HEFCE. The research indicator measures the outputs of universities in relation to their inputs, such as staff costs and funding council grants. Loughborough leapt six places in the latest table to become the UK’s leading institution when all of the measures are taken into account. The University was also ranked top for the number of PhDs awarded relative to staff costs.

Major Boost for Research
Loughborough was this year allocated a £10.5 million share in a national investment in scientific excellence, providing a major investment of cash for research. The funding, under the Science Research Investment Fund (SRIF), is the largest-ever Government investment in science research infrastructure and aims to ensure that UK science remains at the cutting edge. Loughborough’s new grants and contracts awards in 2002-03 totalled £25.5 million.

Encouraging Career Development
As concerns continue that the science, engineering and technology disciplines are failing to attract, retain and promote women workers, a new web site dedicated to helping women scientists in the race for research funding was launched by the Loughborough University-based East Midlands LAWN (Local Academic Women’s Network). LAWNs are regionally based networks of women working in science, engineering and technology within the higher education sector, research establishments or in industry. They provide support in the development and submission of successful research grant proposals – a vital factor in career progression in higher education.

In a bid to persuade outstanding students to enter into the research field, the University launched a new Research Scholarship Scheme, which aims to encourage businesses to provide financial support for PhD students throughout their studies. In excess of 30 scholarships have been externally sponsored since the scheme’s launch.

Loughborough’s landmark nationwide initiative to strengthen the UK’s engineering research base completed the first year of its pilot scheme with resounding success.

Recognising that involvement in real-life research is one of the most effective ways of encouraging students to take up research careers, the EPSRC-funded ENSURE (Engineering Student Undergraduate Research Experience) scheme provides promising young engineers from any UK university with the opportunity to undertake PhD style research over the summer prior to their final year. Eight students took part in the inaugural ten-week project.

Helping to improve the performance and lifespan of artificial joints

Student Sarah Bowden was awarded the Inter-University Engineering Masters Degree Prize

The EPSRC-funded solar simulator

Gymnastics research in the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences

Health Matters
Loughborough has long been renowned for its cutting-edge research into physical activity, sleep and child health, and this year saw the formation of a ‘virtual’ research centre, bringing together the University’s many health-related areas in a truly interdisciplinary collaboration. Involving staff from all three faculties, the ‘Centre’ is comprised of six disciplines: health promotion, social care, science, technology, design and informatics. Sections involved in the new initiative are: the British Heart Foundation National Centre for Physical Activity and Health, the Centre for Child and Family Research, the Centre for Research In Social Policy (CRSP), the Human Thermal Environments Laboratory, Loughborough Sleep Research Centre, Ergonomics and Safety Research Institute (ESRI), the Emedic project consortium, the Health Informatics Group, the Sports Technology Research Group, the Photonics Engineering and Health Technology Research Group, and Clinical Engineering at Loughborough and Leicester (CELL). The EPSRC has also funded a Chair in Healthcare Engineering at Loughborough to spearhead this initiative.

Lasers Improve Lifespan of Artificial Joints
A non-contact strain measurement system developed by Loughborough researchers is helping to improve the performance and lifespan of artificial joints for millions of patients worldwide. Using shearography, a laser based technique, to visualise for the first time the strain distribution over bones and tendons, researchers in the Optical Engineering Group of the Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and Loughborough spin-out company Laser Optical Engineering have investigated the hip and finger joints, both of which are prone to becoming dysfunctional through age, disease or injury. The research will enable the development of new designs for longer lasting, superior performance prostheses.

Hands-Free Blood Monitor Developed
The first ever method of monitoring blood flow in human body tissue without actually touching the skin has been developed in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. The research team adapted an existing optoelectronic monitoring technique called photoplethysmography (PPG), which involves illuminating the section of the body that is in contact with the detector and working out how much of the light is absorbed, to develop a remote PPG system for the first time. The innovative hands-free technique could one day be used for remote heart monitoring and for the assessment of patients, either during surgery or while wounds or burns heal. Trials of the new system are now underway, in partnership with Stuert Medical Devices, at Stirling Royal Infirmary.

Group Challenges Current Thinking
Researchers from Loughborough’s Young Carers Research Group (YCRG) and Rethink – the UK’s largest severe mental illness charity – have challenged claims that children are damaged by growing up in families where a parent has a severe mental illness. The findings of the two-year study, involving 120 children, parents and professionals, showed that while professionals see the caring experience as negative and parents believe their children to be more at risk of developing a mental health problem themselves, children conversely feel that caring for their parents can improve family relationships and help them worry less about their parent.

Halting the Decline of Dolphins and Porpoises
Revolutionary warning devices developed by Loughborough’s Underwater Acoustic Research Group, in cooperation with Aquatec Subsea Ltd, are helping to halt the decline in the world’s population of dolphins and porpoises. They are known to respond to ultrasound, using high frequency sounds to communicate and to hunt their prey, but dangers such as static fishing nets are virtually undetectable to their sonar sense, and often have fatal consequences. The newly-developed AQUAmark pingers transmit a series of pre-programmed acoustic signals, which act as a warning, repelling the mammals from fishing nets. The device has been used to great effect in Denmark, where, so far, no porpoises have been killed in nets equipped with AQUAmark devices, and the Loughborough team and Aquatec have subsequently been commissioned by the Irish Sea Fisheries Board.

Warning devices developed at Loughborough will help to halt the decline in dolphin and porpoise numbers

Helping to Cut Electricity Bills
Pioneering materials research being undertaken by IPTME could ensure that consumers’ electricity bills stay as low as possible in the future. Funded by EPSRC and the power industry, the work is contributing to the development of steels that enable power to be generated with maximum efficiency – a key factor in minimising the cost of the electricity produced. To be efficient, steam temperatures in modern power stations need to be as high as possible for as long as possible, but since the steels currently used have only been in service for up to 20 years, it is difficult to predict what will happen to them longer term. To address this problem, the Loughborough team devised mathematical models that show how power station steels behave at the nanoparticle level. The small changes that take place at this scale determine the strength of the steel, and so the models provide the only way in which designers of electricity generating plants can forecast the behaviour of different steels on this timescale.

The Effects of Medication on Safety at Work
Anxiety, depression, and the medication prescribed by doctors to treat these conditions can affect people’s performance and safety at work, according to research undertaken by Loughborough’s Health and Safety Ergonomics Unit together with researchers from Brunel University. Commissioned by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the study involved employees and employers from the health care, education, engineering and retail sectors among others. It also showed that workers with responsibilities for others, such as teachers and doctors, presented a particular risk to safety in the workplace, and that mental health problems are not well understood by employers and managers, with little support provided in the workplace for sufferers of anxiety or depression.

Making Rail Travel More Appealing
A new centre for railway systems research, involving a consortium of seven universities including Loughborough, could help to create a world-class rail system for the UK. Established by the EPSRC, the centre will bring together researchers, representatives from industry and policymakers to concentrate on issues such as making rail travel more attractive for passengers and improving the safety, reliability and capacity of the network.

Evaluation Contributes to National Policy
An evaluation of Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) pilot schemes, led by Loughborough’s Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP), has provided crucial background information in the decision to turn the Government pilot scheme into national policy. Under the pilot scheme, young people were eligible for EMA support if they lived within one of the 56 pilot areas, their household income was less than £30,000 per year, they were aged between 16 and 18 and in full time education. Those eligible received a maximum weekly allowance of up to £30 in most areas and gain bonuses based on attendance and achievement criteria. The evaluation revealed a number of successful features, such as a 5.9% rise in participation among eligible young people. The Education Maintenance Allowance is set to become national policy in September 2004.

The Home of the Future
Two Loughborough research teams have joined forces with other leading university and industry experts from across the country to turn the home of the future into reality. TAHI (The Application Home Initiative), which is supported by the DTI’s New Wave Technologies and Markets Programme and provides Loughborough with funding of £785,000, aims to harness the rapidly increasing number of new technological developments for the benefit of home-based users. As part of the national project, Loughborough’s Human Focused Design Centre, which aims to ensure that all citizens are able to benefit from new products and services, will review the suitability of the latest high-tech developments for the ageing and disability sectors; the Centre for the Integrated Home Environment will help to ensure the technical feasibility of the new appliance