The Northern Ireland Advanced Composites and Engineering Centre (NIACE)
recently hosted a prestigious engineering and innovation conference. Organised by
the Institute of Materials in N. Ireland, (IOM) in collaboration with the N. Ireland
Science Park (NISP), and entitled ‘Innovation and the Future of Advanced Engineering,
several guest speakers from industry and academia gave their perspectives on
innovation and engineering.
Dr. Shirley Davey, Chair of IOM began the conference, attended by 40 delegates from
multi sectors across N. Ireland an electrifying insight into how Universities and Industry
in N. Ireland are harnessing the power of innovation coupled with advanced
engineering to have real global impact.
In her presentation Dr Davey, highlighted how innovation distinguishes between a leader
and a follower, and that N. Ireland is fortunate to have not only excellent engineering
centres and research facilities, but also great innovation leaders.
Also speaking at the conference was Professor Norman Apsley OBE, CEO of NISP,
whose presentation demonstrated that research does not equal innovation. Innovation
is the process by which an idea or invention is translated into goods or services for
which people will pay. To be called an innovation, an idea must satisfy a specific need
and be replicable at a cost the market can afford.
The delegates then heard from Professor James McLaughlin OBE, Director of NIBEC
and the Engineering Research Institute at the University of Ulster. Engineering
research at Ulster has gone from strength; with over £50M in investments and grants
since 2001. Professor McLaughlin talked about successes in the Engineering and
Composites Research Centre (ECRE) and the Advanced Metal Forming (Amfor) group.
He inspired the audience by talking about new directions in innovation to benefit human
health such as the Connected Health Innovation Centre (CHIC).
Professor Mark Price, Director of research for Integrated Aircraft Technologies and Head
of the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Queen’s University talked
about the strength of advanced engineering at Queens University and the quality of their
research team for enabling innovation. He said that ‘N. Ireland is at the cusp of great
things and innovation will emerge from capability.’
The concluding talk of the evening was by Keith Campbell, from Bombardier who
highlighted how valuable innovative engineering solutions were to achieve industry
success and compete in a global marketplace.
Dr. Scott King, General Manager and Competence Centre Manager at NIACE then gave
the guests a tour of the centre, which is a technology hub for the research and development
of advanced engineering and advanced materials technologies across a range of industrial
sectors. Scott commented that “NIACE welcomed the opportunity to support the IOM and to
continue enabling business and academe to form new networks and find out about new
developments which could benefit their business”. He also stated that “going forward into the
2013 NIACE will continue to be a focal point for knowledge dissemination through hosting a
range of seminars and workshops which would be made available to participants in NIACE
but also other companies within N. Ireland”
