Imperial.Tech.Pitch: Industry-applicable research capabilities and innovations

Four Enterprise-led events over the course of the last year have highlighted innovations and expertise in internationally-important industry areas.

The Imperial.Tech.Pitch series brought together enterprising researchers and inventors from the Faculty of Engineering whose work addresses four of the key areas of focus for various industries, which are aligned with the College’s Academic Strategy:

• The transition to zero pollution – under our Sustainable Society theme
• Affordable technologies for an ageing society – Healthy Society
• Infrastructure resilience – Resilient Society
• The integration of AI, machine learning and data science across engineering – Smart Society

At Imperial, our mission is not just to understand the world, but to have an impact on it and to change it for the better Dr Rebeca Santamaria-Fernandez Director, Industry Partnerships and Commercialisation - Engineering

The events have collectively seen around 800 people register to find out more about how leading experts at Imperial are applying their research and inventions to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our generation.

Many of the technologies and inventions featured are available for license on the Imperial.Tech website.

The event series was produced by Imperial’s Industry Partnerships and Commercialisation team for the Faculty of Engineering and powered by Imperial Business Partners.

Zero pollution and sustainability 

Starting last November to coincide with the launch of the major College Transition to Zero Pollution initiative, its lead, Professor Mary Ryan – now interim Vice Provost for Research and Enterprise at Imperial – chaired a panel whose insights ranged from the role of gas in the energy sector’s transition through to permeable pavements and bio-based cleaning products.  

In the summer of 2021, Professor Washington Ochieng, Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, chaired the discussion between materials, systems design and security experts at Imperial working towards solving infrastructure challenges.

The event came in the wake of significant infrastructure issues, such as the hacking attacks on the Colonial Pipeline in the USA and extreme weather events in north America and western Europe.   The discussion ranged from ensuring that the cyber systems were as secure as the physical ones, as well as being future-proofed in the face of evolving threats from climate change and hostile states or groups.

A healthier society

Professor Jonathan Jeffers brought together experts in biomechanics, neural implants and neurorehabilitation, medical imaging and medicines manufacturing    to identify affordable healthcare and manufacturing technologies to enable a better quality of life for an ageing population in May 2021.

They explored at ways in which the latest research can be translated into new technologies that can address the huge shortfall expected in national income to support an ageing population, as there is likely to be a 25% reduction of people of working age for every pensioner in the UK by 2040.

Innovations in engineering with AI and Machine learning

We’ve opened the doors to our labs and given real life case studies of how expertise and innovation from the College is being leveraged by companies Julia Zanghieri Associate Director - Engagement Services

The series wrapped up with a look at how AI and ML technologies can solve engineering challenges, ranging from wireless video transmission, decision-making in complex environments and new and emerging requirements in the energy and pharmaceuticals sectors.

The event was chaired by the Head of the Department of Computing, Professor Michael Huth, and combined Imperial’s academic insights with the industry perspective, featuring Nick Blake, Chief Innovation Strategist at Hitachi Europe, and Professor Costas Pantelides, Managing Director at Siemens’ Process Systems Engineering. They shared the practical applications that their firms and other companies already deploying and are investigating in the quest to improve their operations and outcomes.

As seen at Imperial.Tech.Pitch

Among the innovations and technologies that have been pitched during the series are Seratech and Evotrack, who have both recently joined the second cohort of The Greenhouse incubator, and EcoSaf,  whose surfactant innovation won the UK and European regional heats Climate Launchpad events, before pitching at the final in October.

Permeable pavement inventor, Dr Alalea Kia from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, whose Kiacrete® pavement is being field-tested at Imperial’s White City Campus, was recently awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship to explore ways to improve airport resilience to cope with extreme weather.

Working with industry for real-world impact 

“Our team is passionate about developing and commercialising Imperial’s academic discoveries and impact is really at the heart of what we do. At Imperial, our mission is not just to understand the world, but to have an impact on it and to change it for the better and these events are helping us putting our research and inventions out there; bringing existing and new partners in to tackle these four important challenges”, said Dr Rebeca Santamaria-Fernandez, Director of Industry Partnerships and Commercialisation – Engineering, in the Enterprise Division. 

“The pandemic meant that we weren’t able to bring these ideas directly to people at conferences or trade fairs, so we went online and built out our offering with “short and sweet” pitches to make it easier for people to find out how Imperial can help solve their business requirements.  

“We are particularly keen to highlight the different ways in which our expertise can be applied to businesses, from long-term collaborative research partnerships through to engaging in technology licensing opportunities, many of which were showcased throughout the series.” 

Julia Zanghieri, Associate Director – Engagement Services, and Imperial Business Partners programme manager added, “We speak with our members and people across a range of industry sectors on a daily basis to find out about their biggest challenges and how they can be addressed through innovation and foresight.  

“Throughout this series, we’ve opened the doors to our labs and gave real life case studies of how expertise and innovation from across the College is being leveraged by other companies to navigate through the pandemic and into the future for a more sustainable business.”