Inaugural lectures held at the School of Engineering. These lectures are recorded, with videos and captions made available once produced. Upcoming inaugural lectures No upcoming inaugural lectures. Check back soon! Past inaugural lectures Inaugural Lecture of Professor Vengatesan Venugopal Personal Chair in Ocean Engineering The rapid expansion of offshore renewable energy - particularly wind, wave, and tidal power - requires innovative engineering solutions to efficiently harness ocean resources. Inaugural Lecture of Professor Alasdair McDonald, Chair in Renewable Energy Technologies During this pre-Halloween lecture, we’ll look at wind turbine technology, explore how those turbines work and reflect on some of the challenges faced by modern wind turbine designers. Although some of the modern turbines are monstrously large and the engineering science challenges are fiendish, we don’t need to be spooked. The Elizabeth Georgeson Inaugural Lecture of Dr Desen Kirli, Elizabeth Georgeson Fellow in Data and Digitalisation for Net Zero In this lecture, I will talk about the multidisciplinary challenge of achieving net zero which has energy justice, socio-economic and technical implications in addition to environmental benefits. Together, we will look at some of interesting insights and methodologies that emerged from my research, using some real-life case studies. Inaugural Lecture of Professor Sotirios Tsaftaris, Chair in Machine Learning and Computer Vision In this lecture, I will give a historical overview of representation learning, from principal component analysis to the state-of-the-art of representation learning empowering all modern artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Along this timeline, I will share some of my work on data representations for various societal applications, from restoring paintings of Matisse to enhancing medical imaging diagnosis. Inaugural Lecture of Professor David Ingram, Professor of CFD and Director of Diversity & Inclusion In this lecture, Professor David Ingram will explore how CFD analysts work in partnership with large scale experimental test facilities and field measurements in offshore renewable energy, and ask the question “How green is your simulation?” Inaugural Lecture of Professor Tom Bruce, Chair of Coastal and Maritime Hydromechanics In this lecture, Tom will tell the story of waves breaking violently onto steep and vertical walls, old and new, the resulting forces, the wave overtopping, and what some of this means for safe design. In doing this, he will also have the honour to thank so very many inspirational colleagues – many now dear friends – who have played huge parts in this always-collaborative research. Milne Lecture: Inaugural Lecture of Professor Themis Prodromakis, Regius Chair of Engineering Milne Lecture: Inaugural Lecture of Professor Themis Prodromakis Inaugural Lecture of Professor Aristides Kiprakis, Chair of Agile Energy Systems Join the inaugural lecture of Professor Aristides Kiprakis on 'Agile Energy Systems – Enabling the Transition to a Sustainable Future'. Inaugural Lecture of Prof Pankaj Pankaj, Chair of Computational Biomechanics Computational modelling is being extensively employed to assess the biomechanical properties and response of bone and bone-implant systems. Recent years have seen increasing emphasis on the development of personalised or patient-specific models, to address clinical problems. Routine use of personalised models, which require numerous patient-specific features, remains a challenge. Inaugural Lecture of Prof Robert K Henderson, Chair of Electronic Imaging Imaging Time: Cameras for the Fourth Dimension Inaugural Lecture of Dr Wini Obande The Duality of Sustainability: Exploring Durability & Recoverability in Multi-Functional Composites. Inaugural Lecture of Prof Timothy Drysdale, Chair of Technology Enhanced Science Education Remote laboratories: a Tolkien adventure in digital education Inaugural Lecture of Dr Doug Baney, Honorary Visiting Professor This talk will explore the amazing versatility of lasers when combined with interferometers, special optical devices that can measure tiny changes in light waves. The Inaugural Lecture of Professor Vasileios Koutsos, Personal Chair of Soft Materials and Surfaces Adhesion and friction phenomena are ubiquitous; they affect our everyday life and play a key role in many engineering and biomedical applications. At the same time, they offer an excellent playground/context for basic science at surfaces and interfaces. The Inaugural Lecture of Professor Pete Loftus, Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor of Instrumentation, Applied Metrology & Sensing This lecture will explore some of those opportunities in the development of process, methodology, technology, and the skill base and consider how those efforts can impact and involve us all. Inaugural Lecture of Professor Prashant Valluri, Personal Chair in Fluid Dynamics In this talk, Professor Prashant Valluri, Personal Chair in Fluid Dynamics, will give a glimpse of the fascinating world of multiphase flow instabilities, to "listen" to them and then understand their unique language to engineer a better and inclusive future! Inaugural Lecture of Professor Stephen Finney This lecture will explore the wonderful world of power electronics, its applications and where it may be going next. Inaugural Lecture of Professor Jason Reese, Regius Professor of Engineering In this lecture Professor Jason Reese will describe recent advances in engineering analysis - across some 8 orders of magnitude in space, and 10 orders in time - which mean that ideas and designs for new products and processes can start being tested. This new kind of simulation-driven design promises to be a productive enabler of emerging technologies, propelling the UK to the cutting edge of multi-scale innovation. Inaugural Lecture of Professor Paolo Perona, Chair of Environmental Engineering The noisy environment - How determinism and stochasticity beget resilience and shape sustainability. Inaugural Lecture of Professor Spyros Karamanos, Chair of Structural Engineering The lecture addresses an overview of the main challenges related to structural mechanics and integrity of tubulars from a holistic perspective, in connection with recent technological advancements. Inaugural Lecture of Professor Grunde Jomaas, BRE Chair of Fire Safety Engineering From Phlogiston to Spacecraft Fire Safety - The Chemistry and Physics of Flames Inaugural Lecture of Professor Conchúr Ó Brádaigh, Chair of Engineering Materials Lightweight Composite Materials: How Far and How Fast? Inaugural Lecture of Professor Alistair Borthwick, Chair of Applied Hydrodynamics Water and Sediment: A Cascade across Scales Inaugural Lecture of Professor Mark Linne, Chair of Combustion Engines Clean Combustion - is that really a thing? Inaugural Lecture of Professor Gordon Masterton, OBE, FREng, FRSE Back to the Future - Infrastructure for a Changing World Inaugural Lecture of Professor Stefano Brandani, FIChemE, Professor of Chemical Engineering Energy, Exergy and How We Can Achieve a Low Carbon Economy Inaugural Lecture - Professor Win Rampen The lecture will address this challenge and explore some of the more promising solutions that are being developed across the globe. This article was published on 2025-01-20
