
The School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast is pleased to announce that three second year MEng Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering students have been awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Leadership Advanced Award at the recent selection event in March 2012.
Mechanical Engineering undergraduates Julie Coulter, Vincent McKenna and Sam Marsden have been named as three of the 2012 recipients of an Engineering Leadership Advanced Award from The Royal Academy of Engineering. These awards are highly prestigious and only around 30 awards are made annually across all engineering disciplines in all UK universities.
The objective of these Awards is to allow ambitious, inspiring engineering undergraduates, those who want to become leadership role models for the next generation of engineers, to undertake an accelerated personal development programme. They will get the opportunity to acquire the skills needed to fulfill their potential, moving into an engineering leadership position soon after graduation.
The Academy in its selection process is identifying high calibre individuals with the desire and abilities to be the leaders in top engineering and manufacturing businesses of the future.
The Award comprises £5000 to help the recipients act on their individual Personal Development Plans over the coming 3 years, the assistance of The Royal Academy of Engineering in developing their plans and the allocation of a Sainsbury Management Fellow as mentor who will offer advice on personal development and career options.
http://www.raeng.org.uk/education/undergrad/ela/default.htm
http://www.engineeringleadershipawards.org.uk/
The PPRC played host to some international visitors in early April as former Director and current Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waikato, New Zealand, Prof Roy Crawford, showed University of Waikato Chancellor, Mr Jim Bolger, around the polymer research facilities on offer at Queen's. Mr Jim Bolger was the Prime Minister of New Zealand for 8 years and New Zealand Ambassador to USA for 4 years.


The FUSION project between Prof John Orr from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and X-Bolt Orthopaedics from Malahide in Dublin won the award for the best North/South collaboration project at the annual Irish Times InterTrade Ireland Innovation Awards in Dublin last night. The project was to develop their expanding bolt device for hip fracture repairs.
Alice Sykes, a third year postgraduate research student in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering was awarded a Bronze Medal from the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland – Section of Bioengineering at the annual Bioengineering in Ireland Conference on 27th and 28th January at the Hilton Hotel, Templepatrick. Alice gained this prestigious award for her paper ‘Aiding Accuracy of Component Placement During Total Hip Arthroplasty’ for which her presentation was judged to be the best overall at the Conference.
Alice is supervised by Professor John Orr in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering with co-supervision by Professor David Beverland and Dr Janet Hill from Musgrave Park Hospital. Janet is a graduate of the School through which David Beverland gained an Honorary Chair in 2011. Alice’s research project addresses the accuracy of placement of the acetabular component of total hip replacements with respect to position and angular orientation, including the development of instruments to ensure accurate reconstruction of the hip. The research is in collaboration with Dr Richie Gill, BOTNAR Research Centre, University of Oxford.

Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster and UK Business Secretary Vince Cable officially opened The Northern Ireland Advanced Composites & Engineering Centre (NIACE) on Airport Road, Belfast — please click here for more details.
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