On 26 March 2024, doctoral students from the BCI, including 34 students from the EPSRC CDT in Composites Science, Engineering and Manufacturing (CoSEM CDT), shared their innovative composites research through an array of posters and presentations.
Delegates were welcomed to the Symposium, held in the Bill Brown Design Suite, Queen’s Building, by the BCI and CoSEM Directors. The morning then continued with 17 presentations covering all three research themes of the BCI. Each presenter showed real knowledge and passion about their research, and comfortably fielded audience questions. Copies of all presentation slides can be found on the Symposium webpage; recordings will be added to the BCI YouTube Channel later in the year.
When presentations weren’t taking place, delegates were invited to view student posters. There was lots of exciting conversation, with authors and delegates discussing the research on display. The Symposium always offers a great opportunity for networking, with this year’s event being no different. Posters have been collated into an electronic BCI-PGR-Symposium-poster-booklet-2024 (PDF, 8,729kB), which delegates could download via a QR code provided in their delegate packs.
Also provided in the packs were voting slips for the poster competitions. Congratulations to the winners:
- Delegate vote: Axel Wowogno. (Runners up: Sutharsanan Navaratnarajah and James Griffith)
- Student vote: Jan Uszko. (Runners up: Stefania Akromah and John Worth)
Documenting the morning’s events was local artist, Helen Frost. Her graphic visualisation of the Symposium captures the highlights of the events and gives an insight into the key themes of the day.
After the Symposium, students attended an industry-led discussion panel, comprising experts from Airbus, Imerys, National Composites Centre, Oxford Space Systems, Syensqo, and the UK Space Agency. CoSEM CDT student Jan Uszko remarked that “The symposium and ILDP are a pinnacle of what the CDT is all about, celebrating and promoting science not in a single area, but at the interface of engineering and chemistry. The ILDP featured experts from multiple backgrounds sharing their unique perspectives.”
To round off the day, staff and students from the BCI met for the Symposium dinner at Bristol’s M Shed; a Bristol Museum and venue on Bristol’s harbourside. The dinner is always a great celebration to mark another year of the work achieved within the BCI.
BCI Co-Director, Prof. Stephen Hallett, said: "I enjoyed welcoming collaborators and visitors old and new to the symposium to hear about the impressive achievements of our students. The event showcased the enormous talent and potential of our researchers, who will no doubt go on to have a real impact in the workplace after their studies."
CDT Director, Prof. Eichhorn, said: “It was incredible to see the breadth and depth of the research going on in the CDT and BCI, and the confidence in presenting the work demonstrated by our diverse group of students. I feel very proud that we built this group of talented individuals and look forward to seeing them achieve great things. I’d like to thank them all, and the industrial and other academic colleagues for attending and engaging in the day”.
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