The Materials and Engineering Research Institute's 8th Annual Symposium was held on 22nd and 23rd May 2018 at Sheffield Hallam University. Students and staff from MERI and the Department of Engineering and Mathematics had the opportunity to get together and discuss current research projects and innovation.

More than 100 delegates attended a varied programme of talks over the course of the two days. The event was opened by Professor Alan Smith, Director of MERI, who hailed the event as an excellent showcase for the broad range and high quality of research which takes place across the Institute.

The highlight of the first day was a professorial lecture on 'Medical Engineering: Non-Invasive Solutions to Aid Diagnosis, Monitoring and Assessment' by Professor Reza Saatchi. Reza’s talk outlined examples of medical engineering innovations he has been involved with throughout his career including: noncontact respiration rate monitoring, bone density assessment, vertebral fracture detection, limp diagnosis, vestibular dysfunction diagnosis, arthritis diagnosis, apnoea diagnosis, discrimination between healthy subjects and schizophrenics and determining probability of survival in injuries.

As part of the Symposium, prizes were awarded to students who gave presentations and presented posters at the event. Congratulations go to

Presentations

Talks

1st Prize

Josh Barras – Induction assisted laser metal deposition of crack sensitive alloys

Runner-up – 2nd place

Emma Puckrin – Stationary shoulder friction stir welding as a potential repair technique for military helicopters

Posters

PhD 1st Prize – Judges Vote

Joint 1 prize & Rebecca Chadwick The effect of clay nanofillers on polyurethane films/Shruti Mandhani High performance polymers: towards intrinsically auxetic polymers

PhD - Public Vote

Gloria Wie-Addo – Reducing energy demand and CO2 emissions from industrial ceramic manufacture through the use of novel raw materials and additives