Imperial researchers chosen as Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellows

Three Imperial researchers and a recent alumnus of the College have been named as Fellows for the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Enterprise Hub.

The Enterprise Fellowship is a 12-month programme for creative and entrepreneurial engineers to help with the acceleration of innovative ideas that are at an early stage of development.

It offers equity-free funding, an extended programme of mentorship and coaching, and access to a community of engineering mentors and alumni.

Since its launch in 2013, the Royal Academy of Engineering says that the Enterprise Hub has supported nearly 300 researchers, recent graduates and leaders of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to start and scale up businesses.

This year’s Fellows from Imperial are:

Improving partial knee replacements

Maxwell Munford, Research Assistant in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has created the technology OSSTEC, which aims to improve partial knee replacement – a treatment designed to help younger patients where only the diseased part of a knee joint needs to be replaced.

His team has created 3D printed titanium structures which mimic how bone naturally grows and heals itself, which can be used to improve implants being fitted.

OSSTEC aims to produce the world’s first partial knee replacement that, by mimicking the bone’s properties, maintains the patient’s bone health – allowing the joint to behave in a natural way and improving patients' quality of life.

Imaging system for tumours

GLOW Surgical, developed by Maria Leiloglou, Research Assistant in the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery, and her team, is an imaging system that can visualise a tumour and its boundaries accurately in real-time in an operating theatre.

The system uses a near infrared fluorescence and white light camera system, with accompanying software for control and image processing, to provide augmented images of the surgical scene with diagnostic information.

The benefits of GLOW are that it is non-invasive, fits within the current surgical workflow, and has been tested in over 50 surgeries.

Tracking weather data from manholes

Will Dubin is a recent graduate from Imperial’s Civil Engineering MEng course and the founder of ManholeMetrics – a low-cost technology designed to prevent wastewater flooding.

The technology uses ultra-low-cost, long-life sensors mounted in manholes to collect data from sewers and drains, giving real-time flood warnings and allowing for insights into the correlation between weather data and water levels to predict flooding and identify blockages.

The ManholeMetrics team is formed of Imperial students and recent graduates from departments in the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences. The technology has received support from Yorkshire Water, Thames Water and National Highways, and will shortly be launching field trials with their partners.

Affordable battery models 

About:Energy is a company that was co-founded by Gavin White, a PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, to produce affordable battery models that are tailored to the specific requirements of customers. It aims to dramatically reduce the reliance on experimental research and development processes by centralising the development of battery models across a wide spectrum of applications.

To achieve this goal, the team uses decades of experience in battery model development and patented processes. About:Energy will also create ‘The Voltt,’, a database of battery models to mimic the operation of 100s of commercially available batteries, so subscribers can select a battery model to fit their needs.

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If you are looking for entrepreneurial support for an idea or project that you are working on, please head to the entrepreneurship webpage: www.imperial.ac.uk/entrepreneurship.