Mon, 18 November, 2019
Celebrations were the order of the day in October for TWI’s longest standing Innovation Centre, BIC, as it achieved the milestone anniversary of 10 years since its inception. BIC staff were joined at TWI’s Cambridge headquarters by colleagues from founding partners Brunel University London and TWI as well as guests representing academia and industry, and former BIC employees who had been there for part of the Centre’s journey. Tat-Hean, Director of BIC, gave a humorous and inspiring presentation highlighting some of the many success stories over the years.
BIC straddles knowledge base and industry, offering high quality research in an innovative environment, focused on non-destructive testing, condition and structural health monitoring, power ultrasonics and allied technologies including materials, sensors, electronics and software systems.
To date, the Centre has been a consortium partner in a significant number of successful European collaborative projects, developing disruptive technologies for a range of different sectors including aerospace, civil engineering, additive manufacturing, marine and power. Ongoing and recent projects include:
- CITCOM: A complementary inspection technique based on computer tomography and plenoptic camera for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) components
- ASSAI: Development of an unmanned aerial system for advanced contact inspection of civil structures
- EM-REST: Smart residual stresses monitoring for metal additive manufacturing
- DIMOS: Artificial intelligence-based prescriptive maintenance of ships
- IFROG: Amphibious robot for inspection and predictive maintenance of offshore wind assets
Tat-Hean Gan, Director of BIC said “I am proud to have been involved in BIC’s development over the last 10 years. BIC is the founder member of our Innovation Centre network and reaching a decade is a big achievement. I would like to thank all those who have been involved in the Centre through that time and have contributed to its success.”
Jamil Kanfoud, Head of BIC said “I am honoured to be part of the BIC adventure that started 10 years ago. I am also extremely pleased that the centre has proved dynamic and creative, embracing new technologies such as machine learning, virtual and augmented reality, and applying them to its core research areas.”