Departmental News
Read about the work the Department is undertaking, about its achievements and the valuable contributions students and staff are making to society …
Success for the Department at this year’s SET Awards
One winner and two finalists from the University of Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science were announced at the 2011 Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) awards ceremony, which took place last month at the Millennium Hotel, in Grosvenor Square, London. The SET Awards are Europe’s most important Science, Engineering and Technology awards for undergraduates. Congratulations to finalists Kirsty McNaught and Scott McLaughlan, and to Mark Baker who was winner of ‘The Airbus Award for the Best Aeronautical Engineering Student’.
Technology for Smarter Transport
Last December, the Department of Engineering Science announced the handing over of the multi-million pound ‘Wildcat,’ a driverless vehicle, from BAE Systems to the Department’s research team led by Professor Paul Newman. This week Professor Newman’s team showcased the ‘Wildcat’ car with spatial awareness and the ability to navigate and drive itself.
Mattias Heinrich receives prestigious MICCAI Young Scientist Award
The Department’s Biomedical Engineering DPhil student, Mattias Heinrich (St Hilda’s College), has just won one of the prestigious Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Young Scientist Awards at the 2011 MICCAI Conference in Toronto for his paper titled: “Non-local shape descriptor: a new similarity metric for deformable multi-modal registration”. The MICCAI Conference is the most important conference in the field of medical image analysis.
Breast cancer patients and clinicians benefit from technological developments
The Cognitive Science and Systems Group (COSSAC), comprising a team from the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford and London’s Royal Free Hospital, has developed a number of software technologies to help clinicians decide how to treat their breast cancer patients based on techniques from mathematical logic. One of these has reached the point at which applications are being made available within the NHS, and in the not too distant future, individual patients will also be able to access the software to get personalised healthcare advice.
Industry sponsored graduate wins national prize for thesis
Charles Bibby, (Lady Margaret Hall 2004, Engineering Science; Worcester College 2010, DPhil in Engineering Science) was recently awarded the Sullivan Prize for ‘the best doctoral thesis submitted to a UK University, in the field of computer or natural vision’. The competition was organised by the British Machine Vision Association (BMVA). Charles, whose DPhil was sponsored by Servowatch Systems UK, received a certificate and £500.
Mobile phones offer heart lifeline
Technology that turns low-cost mobile phones into sophisticated stethoscopes could save thousands of lives in poor countries.
Daniel Mulvihill wins Young Stress Analyst Competition
Daniel Mulvihill, a D.Phil. student in the Department of Engineering Science and Hertford College, has won first prize in the Young Stress Analyst Competition for 2011. The prize is awarded annually to young researchers by the British Society for Strain Measurement (BSSM).
Prestigious John Bush Award won by Dr Ingo Jahn
Dr Ingo Jahn was recently awarded the John Bush Award for his contributions to advanced seals. The John Bush Award recognises and encourages engineers in the early part of their careers who have made an outstanding technical contribution of value to Rolls-Royce.
Blood Pressure Project Wins Top Engineering World Health Award
Congratulations to the Department’s Engineering World Health Oxford Team, at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, which has won first prize in the annual Engineering World Health Design Competition for its Blood Pressure project. The competition, launched in 2009, is unique in being directed at the needs of developing country health care.
Sixth formers get a taste for Engineering Science
Since 1997, Oxford University’s Department of Engineering Science has been staging its Headstart course, a residential programme of engineering science activities aimed at sixth formers from all over the UK. For the first time this year, with sponsorship from international construction company, Laing O’Rourke, the Department was able to enhance its Headstart course literature, include visits to construction sites in Oxford and hold a gala dinner at Hertford College.
Ray O’Rourke is honoured for services to construction
Following the announcement in January of the Laing O’Rourke Centre for Construction Engineering at the University of Oxford, we are delighted to report that two honours have been bestowed on Ray O’Rourke, Chairman and Chief Executive of Laing O’Rourke.
Engineering Science Graduate receives International Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship
Sana Fathima, a second year DPhil student at the Department of Engineering Science (based at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering) and Hertford College, was recently awarded a 2011 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The award of approximately £6,300 will support Sana’s travelling expenses to international conferences.
New Research Studentship in Nanoparticle Drug Delivery
The Department of Engineering Science has appointed Dr Phillip Alexander to the new position of DPhil Student in nanoparticle drug delivery at the Department’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME). This has been made possible with generous support from Mr Nigel Jones and Mrs Françoise Valat-Jones.
The 2011 Oxford Medtronic Lecture - Thursday, 9th June
Professor James Duncan from Yale University, USA, gave the fourth Oxford Medtronic Lecture, on Thursday, 9th June to over 100 academics, students and representatives from industry and government in Headington. His lecture titled, "Model-Based Strategies for Biomedical Image Analysis," focused on problem areas and visual examples of the brain structure and heart function.
World-beating computer science engineers win UK's top engineering award
This year’s winner of the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award, the most prestigious award in British engineering, is the Microsoft Research Cambridge team that developed the software for the Kinect for Xbox 360. Leading the team was Professor Andrew Blake, who is a visiting Professor in Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science and a former member of staff at the Department. The development of this software also owes a lot to research undertaken here at the Department some years ago - amongst key contributors were Professor Sir Michael Brady and Professor Andrew Zisserman.
Institution of Chemical Engineers Award for Department's Professor of Chemical Engineering
Congratulations to Professor Zhanfeng Cui, the Department of Engineering Science's Donald Pollock Professor of Chemical Engineering, on recently being awarded the 2010 Basil Brennan Medal by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE).
Sloane Robinson Scholarships go from strength to strength
Since 2006 the Sloane Robinson Foundation has awarded ten scholarships to graduates undertaking the Department of Engineering Science's MSc course in Biomedical Engineering. The Department is delighted to announce that trustees of the Foundation, Mr George Robinson and Mr Hugh Sloane, will be continuing to support these scholarships in 2012.