Success For First Faculty of Science & Technology Industrial Showcase

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Success For First Faculty of Science & Technology Industrial Showcase

L-R Keynote Speaker Graham Worsley-Technology Strategy Board, Prof. Bahram Honary- Faculty of Science & Technology Director for Enterprise & Industry Relations with Keynote Speaker Harry Thomason from Crownbio Ltd

Over 100 people attended the first Faculty of Science and Technology at Lancaster University Industrial Showcase event for businesses at Lancaster House Hotel on 6th July 2010.

The Faculty of Science and Technology has a strong tradition of research and teaching and an active collaborative approach to working across disciplines to address important issues. With six departments, two business centres, approximately 2,500 students, 340 PhD students and over 600 staff, the Faculty has a considerable research capacity, generating 69% of the University's research income with 94% of research categorised as international quality in the RAE 2008.

The aim of the event was to develop links between academics and commercial partners who had an interest in collaborative innovation and commercialisation.

The one day event showcased research areas with technologies that are near to market from the Faculty's Departments of Computing, Communication Systems, Physics, Engineering and the Lancaster Environment Centre.

The format of the day included presentations and demonstrations across a variety of areas including Automated Anonymous Customer Information Systems, Delivering Broadband to Rural Communities via Wireless Mesh, Wire Integrity Testing Using Intermodulation Products Processing, Touch-Display Keyboards, Delivering High Quality Personalised Television Content to the Web Browser, On-Board Smart Sensory and Broadband Networks for Aviation Security and Safety, the Endotheliometer, Magnetic Nanoparticles and GAIA, an improved Wave Energy Converter.

The event also included a welcome from Faculty Dean Prof. Mary Smyth, keynote speakers from industry and funding experts. Harry Thomason from Crownbio Ltd spoke about "Activation of the interface between academia and industry" and Graham Worsley from the Technology Strategy Board gave a presentation on a potential area for technology development, the case of the Assisted Living Innovation Platform.

Specialist staff from the University's Intellectual Property Office, Strategic Partnerships Team and InfoLab21's Knowledge Business Centre were on hand throughout the day to facilitate collaboration between the researchers and event attendees which included specially selected representatives from industry, such as the BBC's Future and Media Technology Group, key Faculty staff and representatives from partner organisations and funding bodies.

The organiser of the event, Prof. Bahram Honary, Faculty of Science and Technology Director for Enterprise and Industry Relations stated, "This was the first event of its kind at the University to bring industry and academics from across the whole Faculty together. The high level and novel technical ideas given to attendees with different backgrounds in well described easy to follow presentations and demonstrations. The feedback was very positive and people would like to see the event regularly in the future."

Feedback included comments like "excellent opportunity to understand the breadth and depth of innovation at Lancaster", "a chance to meet early-stage researchers in search of an exploitation route" and "excellent cross section of topics".

Julia Weller, KTP Co-ordinator commented, "We found it very useful and discussed KTPs with several key delegates. The event also provided an excellent opportunity to show to our two regional KTP Advisers what the Faculty has to offer."

The event was facilitated and supported by InfoLab21's Knowledge Business Centre (KBC) as one of a series of Northwest technology events as part of the InfoLab21 Strategic Technology Exploitation Programme (ISTEP), a Solutions for Business product which provides a range knowledge exchange activities to indentify & support collaboration between Northwest Digital & Creative companies and the 270+ strong research community at InfoLab21.

Steve Riches, Director of the KBC said "The event was very well attended and we had a lot of interest on the day from the private sector with some potential collaborations in the pipeline. All attendees were very impressed with the range, content and quality of the academic presentations and would like to see more events like this."

Summaries of each project and presentations for the event are available on the links below. For more information about any of the technology mentioned please contact Prof. Honary b.honary@lancaster.ac.uk Tel: 01524 5103897.

Presentation slides from the event are now available: