Celebrating 10 Years of the Centre The Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation

Celebrating 10 Years of the Centre The Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation is celebrating 10 years of research on Systems Engineering and Innovation, and celebrating the people that have contributed to its success. We hosted a forward looking, online celebration event on 7 July 2020, with an opening session with Ray O'Rourke, CEO of Laing O'Rourke and the Minister for Construction.

The Minister, Nadhim Zahawi, said: "The importance of having Imperial, one of the very best universities in the world, focusing on driving systems engineering forward cannot be underestimated." And "The Centre is I think an example of what Imperial College does best. A combination of deep understanding, of relevant technology, but a wider appreciation of its role and function within society and how it can best be used."

See our pages on the 10 Year celebration and the video of the event. We will launch a report in October.

The Centre was created through a partnership between Laing O’Rourke and Imperial College London in 2010, with Professor David Fisk becoming the Director of the newly founded Centre. In 2011, the new Centre launched a Masters in Systems Engineering and Innovation with the first Masters students joining Imperial College London. Successes in the first five years included research collaborations with Laing O'Rourke, for example the work of Dr Robert Vollum on construction joints, and Professor Washington Ochieng and Dr Panagiotis Angeloudis on scheduling from the factory to the construction site for nuclear power, as well as hosting a Technical Symposium on Building Systems and Services in the 21st Century, and evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Energy and Climate Change.

In the last five years Professor Jennifer Whyte joined the Centre, starting a partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering and Laing O’Rourke on Systems Integration. As we became more research focused Laing O’Rourke, Mott Macdonald, Bentley Systems and the Project Production Institute joined as members of the Centre.  We have run an annual industry showcase event, with keynotes from major infrastructure clients Heathrow Airport and Network Rail and from Dame Judith Hackitt (on post-Grenfell Building Safely review of Construction), and David Hancock (Infrastructure and Projects Authority, Treasury). We have had seminars, best paper and poster awards, and seed funded research, with our events attended by members and infrastructure clients TfL, EDF Energy, Tideway, Network Rail, Heathrow. Collaborating with the with UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC), University of Bristol and University of Twente, we also run short Systems Engineering Leadership course.

We are shaping the agenda for systems engineering and innovation research and practice for the next decade and beyond. Please join our mailing list to find out more about our forthcoming activities.