Videos of the presentations from Making Science Work are available on the Science South West YouTube channel. Click here to visit the site.
Scientists, researchers and innovators from all over the South West gathered in Bristol in November to share their ideas on how to shape the future.
The South West Science and Industry Council (SWSIC) brought together more than 100 innovators including university vice chancellors, commercial research scientists and entrepreneurs at its annual Making Science Work conference at HP Labs for the launch of its consultation on a strategy for Science and Innovation in the South West.
Colin Green, Chair of the SWSIC said: "It is important that research and innovation is supported in this time of economic change. We are requesting the input of all the stakeholders in the region so that we can develop a strategy that will drive the South West economy and showcase the world leading creativity that the South West has to offer".
The event also included a Technology Tour, during which Geoff Pegman from Bristol Robotics Lab - which recently made the international news for developing a robotic face which can show emotions - talked about the cutting edge research being done in the city. Ros Conkie of Filton-based OC Robotics talked about how Airbus has found a way to cut the costs of aeroplane wing construction by using the "snake arm" robots the firm originally developed for maintaining nuclear reactors.
Technologies that will shape the way we live in the future and have been developed in the region, many with the support of the South West RDA Grant for R&D, were also showcased at the event.
They included:
- The iLimb, a thought-controlled bionic hand developed by Plymouth based firm ACR
- A pollution-free hydrogen fuel cell power system for trucks developed by Bristol-based firm Auriga Energy
- Emergency lighting cables developed by Wiltshire firm LGI which can be used to cordon off accident scenes or mark out safe routes underwater for divers
- "Self healing" carbon nanofibre materials - which could eventually be used to build aeroplanes which are able to recover from minor damage without the need for extensive repairs - developed by Bristol University researchers
You can download the Science and Innovation strategy Consultation document (including questions) from this website. It will be available for comment and response until midnight on January 23rd.
PRESENTATIONS
Videos of the presentations from Making Science Work are available on the Science South West YouTube channel. Click here to visit the site.
Welcome
Colin Green, Chair, South West Science and Industry Council
Setting the scene
Vivienne Parry, Science Journalist and Presenter
Keynote
Open Innovation - John Manley, Director of the Automated Infrastructure Lab, Hewlett Packard
Technology Tour
- The Growing Robotics Market - Geoff Pegman, R U Robots and Bristol Robotics Lab; Snake-arm robots - reaching the unreachable - Ros Conkie, OC Robotics
- Self Healing Composites: the meeting between Science, Engineering and Innovation -Richard Trask, Research Fellow, University of Bristol
- Enhancing the production of biogas from Anaerobic Digestion - Ian Toll, Chief Executive Officer of AeroThermal
- Dime Sized Detection - Billy Boyle, Co-Founder, Owlstone Ltd
Keynote
A knowledge and enterprise hub not an ivory tower! - Wendy Purcell, Vice Chancellor, University of Plymouth
Presentations and photographs from the day are available on the Publications section of this site.
