2015-2016
Diagnosing anaemia at point-of-care
Contact: Dr. Tanya Hutter, Chemistry Mentor: Dr. Dora Pereira, Pathology Anaemia is a wide-spread condition that results in loss of energy and increased susceptibility to other diseases. It is associated with poor diets, in particular vegetarian diets, and is widespread in many parts of the developing world. Certain populations are also prone to the hereditary…
Investigating the impact of blood transfusion services in the developing
Contact: Dr Krishnaa Mahbubani, Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology Mentor: Lara Allen, Centre for Global Equality Dr Mahbubani is working on techniques that enable blood to be dried to a powder and then reconstituted for transfusion. The advantages of this method would be to remove the need for refrigeration and to increase the shelf-live of the…
Identifying the best markets for a new form of graphene-like
Contact: Dr. Simon Thomas & Dr. Ivor Guiney, Materials Science & Metallurgy Despite the excitement that surrounded the initial discovery of graphene, its potential has not yet been converted into actual products. There are many reasons for this, including the lack of a technique that can produce uncontaminated graphene in large enough pieces, and…
From Antarctica to the Arctic and everything in between –
Contact: Dr.Beatrix Schlarb-Ridley, British Antarctic Survey Mentor: Dr. Julian White The British Antarctic Survey is a community of highly talented scientists, technologists, and engineers working across a wide variety of disciplines; from space physics through to glaciers and the deep ocean. It is a holistic approach to polar science. Their unifying focus is to understand…
Understanding the market for the home-monitoring of edema in heart
Contacts: Dr. Shamus Husheer & Dr. Oriane Chausiaux, Heartfelt Technologies Ltd. Mentor: Dr. Marc Bax Emergency hospitalization for heart failure is exceedingly common and costly –50% of heart failure patients will be re-admitted within 6 months, often due to non-compliance with either drug or diet regimes. Half of these re-admissions are primarily due to poor…
Commercialising an Internet of Things management platform
Contact: Dr. Jat Singh, Computer Lab Mentor: Simon Pulman-Jones Dr. Singh’s research has focused on making distributed systems work simply, flexibly and securely. He is currently leading a project on developing a control platform for the Internet of Things (IoT). The platform can be used to send information to and coordinate the data exchanges…
Monitoring the phase behaviour of complex systems – in food,
Contact: Dr. Juraj Sibik, Chemical Engineering Complex mixtures are widespread in many industries, ranging from food production (for example chocolate spread), to cosmetics to laundry products to heavy petroleum oils which often form as waxes. In many of these it is important to be able to predict reliably the shelf-life of the products, to…
Commercialising a process to biodegrade polyethylene
Contact: Dr. Paolo Bombelli, Biochemistry & Dr. Federica Bertocchini, Baky Ltd. Mentor: Dr. Mark Priest Polyethylene (PE) is one of the most common plastics used. The annual global production is approximately 80 million tonnes. A large fraction of these 80 million tonnes is then destined to be discarded into landfills and dispersed into the environment…
Finding the best market for low cost, efficient disruption of
Contact: Dr David lea Smith and Prof Chris Howe, Biochemistry Mentor: Adrian Swinburne The research team led by Prof Chris Howe has developed a solution to the high cost and energy requirement of processing algal biomass. While microalgae are used widely in a range of applications in industrial biotechnology, from production of bioactives such…