FELLOWS, AWARDEES AND ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS
Space technologies continue to be integrated seamlessly into our lives: high bandwidth global telecommunications, Earth imaging for environmental monitoring and satellite navigation services.
This talk will explore a range of emerging technologies which could enable new space services including; swarms of ‘smart dust’ devices to monitor the space environment; in-orbit fabrication of large space structures; ultra-lightweight orbiting solar reflectors to reflect sunlight onto terrestrial solar power farms to boost their output; near Earth asteroids as a resource to reduce the scale of future space ventures by utilising material already at the top of the Earth’s deep gravity well.
Programme*
| 11.50am | Zoom webinar opens |
| 12.00pm |
Welcome and introduction by the Chair Professor Constantinos Soutis FREng, Chair of Aerospace Engineering and Director of Aerospace Research Institute, University of Manchester |
| 12.05pm |
From 'smart dust' monitoring to energy from space - what are the next innovative advances in space technology? Professor Colin McInnes MBE FREng FRSE, Professor of Engineering Science, University of Glasgow |
| 12.30pm | Q&A session |
| 12.55pm |
Closing remarks by the Chair Professor Constantinos Soutis FREng |
| 1.00pm | Close |
*programme subject to change
Recording notice
Please note this event will be recorded and published on the Royal Academy of Engineering website. Your video will be off and your account will be muted throughout the entire event. Only the speakers and presentations will be visible on your screen.
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Professor Colin McInnes MBE FREng FRSE
Colin is James Watt Chair, Professor Engineering Science at the University of Glasgow where he holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies. He leads a research group working across a broad range of emerging space technologies, from micro-to-macro length-scales. His group’s programme of research is currently supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering, the UK Space Agency and the European Research Council. Aside from his research activities, Colin has served on the Scottish Science Advisory Council and served as Chair of the UK Space Agency’s Space Technology Advisory Committee. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Professor Constantinos Soutis FREng
Constantinos Soutis FREng, is Professor Emeritus of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Manchester and Director and co-Founder of Manchester Robotics Ltd., a spin-out company from the University of Manchester, a solution provider and robotic platform builder, a ‘lab in a robot’, for independent learning in STEM education. Prior to this, he served as Director of the University of Manchester Aerospace Research Institute and has held Professorial appointments at Imperial College London and the University of Sheffield and Visiting Professorial positions in the USA, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of South Carolina, Chosun University in South Korea and ISMANS, Le Mans, France. In 2018 Professor Soutis was appointed an Honorary Professor of Xi’an JiaoTong University in China, a C9 League university and in November 2023, Distinguished Guest Professor of Nanjing University, one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher learning in China. Prof Soutis is Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, elected in August 2014 and a leading authority in mechanics and failure of advanced composite materials, with significant contributions on modelling damage and structural health monitoring using low frequency Lamb waves techniques. He is the author or co-author of over 400 archived articles and some 40 PhD students have qualified under his supervision and guidance.