2007-02-28 - ABB is sponsoring a five-year research program at Imperial College in London that will look for new ways to enhance productivity and efficiency in the process and power generation industries.
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It’s the first research chair sponsored by ABB under the Royal Academy of Engineering research chairs scheme, a program designed to spread the benefits of research to universities, industrial sponsors and researchers.
In the ABB-RAE research program, researchers will look for ways to improve efficiency in installed process and power generating equipment. This is achieved by improving the operation of process equipment by using various techniques, which include predicting, detecting, diagnosing and eliminating the root causes of process inefficiencies.
Professor Nina Thornhill has been appointed to the research chair. “A key aim of the research is to ensure that technical solutions for specific case studies evolve into best practices in automation to reduce energy consumption, boost productivity and reduce waste,” she said.
Source of technology leadership
Peter Terwiesch, ABB’s Chief Technology Officer adds: “Research and development is a vital source of ABB’s technology leadership. Together with our nine research centres, more than 6,000 scientists and technology developers and more than 70 university collaborations across the world, sponsoring this research chair will play a vital role in developing unique technologies that will make our customers more competitive, while minimizing environmental impact.”
The RAE and industrial sponsors like ABB provide funding for full-time appointments at U.K. universities to develop research programs in any engineering-related subject, in order to strengthen links between industrial and academia.
Professor Dame Julia Higgins, Principal of the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial College says: “ABB is the perfect partner for this research programme. Imperial College has a long-standing relationship with ABB and the research chair will extend and consolidate this collaboration.”
Strengthening links
The research will be done by university researchers, industrial research engineers on secondment and PhD students sharing their time between Imperial and industrial placements with collaborating companies.
Rob Barrett, Manager, Research Support, at The Royal Academy of Engineering, adds: “We are delighted to appoint Nina Thornhill who is the second female Research Chair funded by the Academy. This exemplifies our drive to support women in science and engineering and Nina brings a wealth of experience in industry to this academic appointment.”