Automotive Engineering
At the time of RAE 2001, engineering research activity was conducted within a 'general engineering' environment. Immediately following this, the main objective was to focus largely on our traditional mechanical and electrical engineering research activities. At that time stated aims were (i) improving support for research activity, (ii) pursuing TCS projects, (iii) increasing collaboration with industry and (iv) further developing research networking. It will be seen that all of these aims have been addressed in the ensuing period, though the focus of research activity has changed.
Soon after RAE 2001, an academic restructuring exercise was undertaken within the university which saw the amalgamation of the engineering and computing schools to form the School of Computing & Technology. Although this restructuring exercise involved a considerable number of staff changes, the main research strengths have been retained and built upon through continued support and development of the research active staff.
As a result of restructuring, research objectives were refined such that the main objective was to focus on automotive and manufacturing areas, and build upon particular engineering research strengths in control & intelligent systems, manufacturing systems, human factors, maintenance and materials. The current position is that automotive and manufacturing engineering research is being pursued around five main themes:
