Research is undertaken within broad strategic themes within Departments with the overall aim of delivering integrated solutions to major societal challenges. Research is grouped into Strategic Research Themes across the School to help create the impetus, capacity and profile necessary to connect more effectively with major challenges, with the School available for facilitation when this is needed.
Creating sustainable, integrated solutions for the provision of energy, transport and infrastructure recognising that energy transition will occur over a finite time, requiring the improvement and adaptation of existing technology as well as the development of radically-new technology. It is anticipated that this theme will interface effectively with Cambridge Zero, the Maxwell centre, and EnergyTransitions@Cambridge. An important aspect will be decarbonising air transport, led by the Whittle Laboratory.
Professor Abir Al-Tabbaa is Professor of Geotechnical Engineering in the Geotechnical and Environmental Research Group of Civil Engineering. Her research revolves around the development, testing and application of technologies and materials in civil engineering for intelligent, sustainable and low carbon future infrastructure and built environment. She is part of the first EPSRC/NSFC funded collaborative UK/China research projects on Sustainable Materials for Infrastructure.
Professor Gopal S P Madabhushi is Head of the Geotechnical and Environmental research group of Civil Engineering. His research focuses on earthquake risk mitigation of geotechnical and structural systems and has led to a better understanding of the response of these systems under extreme earthquake loading and soil liquefaction. He has participated in many post-earthquake missions to observe and understand the failures of structural and geotechnical systems.
Dr Teng Long is a University Lecturer in Power Electronics in Electrical Engineering and leads the Applied Power Electronics Laboratory (The Long Group) in the Department of Engineering. His research portfolio covers power electronic devices to power converters to drive and power systems, mainly for transport electrification and renewable energy applications.
Building on the substantial expertise in the School on major measurement techniques, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging, photonics, acoustics etc., including the ability to interrogate and understand the vast amounts of data produced by sensing methods. There are particular opportunities to interface with, e.g. medicine, in the development and interpretation of sensing and imaging techniques and diagnostics.
Heterogeneous analytical systems research in the Analytical Biotechnology group , Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology,led by Professor Lisa Hall focuses on molecular sensors for chemical and biological measurement. Her research looks at how biology can be interfaced with electronic, mechanical and optical systems to achieve innovative diagnostic devices directed towards environmental, medical and industrial measurement. She has a special interest in disease diagnostics for low resource countries and the design and engineering of analytical reagents for local in country manufacturing.
The central theme of the research activities of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology Laser Analytics Group, led by Professor Clemens Kaminiski lies in the development and application of modern laser spectroscopic methods to visualise and quantify dynamic chemical processes. They are physicists, biologists, chemists, and engineers, working together to develop and apply modern laser based imaging methods for applications that range from the study of basic chemical processes to molecular mechanisms of disease. The group is a member of several large scale consortia within the University and beyond, such as the Neurodegenerative Disease consortium, the Dementia Research Institute, and the Cambridge Advanced Imaging Centre. It also leads strategic initiatives such as the CamBridgeSens network to unite sensor research across the University of Cambridge, and the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Sensor Technologies for a Healthy and Sustainable Future.
The Magnetic Resonance group led by Dame Professor Lynn Gladden, is concerned with the development of magnetic resonance techniques to study research problems of relevance to chemical engineering. Use of magnetic resonance enhances understanding of multi-component adsorption, diffusion, flow and reaction processes central to designing and optimising processes and products in chemical engineering and biotechnology.
The rational understanding of biological systems, and how they can be manipulated, to support innovation in drug discovery, other medical applications, new manufacturing processes and new products. It is expected that this will further strengthen links with the Schools of Clinical Medicine and Biological Sciences.
The Molecular Engineering Group is led by Professor Jacqueline Cole who carries a joint appointment between the Physics Department (Cavendish Laboratory) and the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. Research focusses on new materials for sustainable energy applications via molecular engineering with product design at the molecular scale to tailor a material to meet a specific need in device technology. Their “design-to-device” approach uses a wide variety of experimental, computational and data science techniques to realize this goal.
Dr Graham Christie leads the Molecular Microbiology group of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, who work to develop a greater understanding of bacterial spore structures of the Bacillus and Clostridium genera, which are the most resilient cells observed in nature. They have also recently built a collaborative project with CEB’s Bionanoscience group and the Department of Veterinary Medicine to introduce a Coronavirus test facility within the department, testing materials with potential anti-virus properties.
Dr Gabi Kaminski-Schierle leads the CEB Molecular Neuroscience group of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, investigating the molecules and mechanisms causing brain cells to die in different neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The group apply cutting-edge tools, from atomic force and superresolution microscopy to microfluidics and multi electrode arrays, to gain insight into cell senescence and fibril formation.
Dr Ljiljana Fruk leads the BioNano Engineering Group in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. Research uses expertise from different research areas such as synthetic chemistry, material science, molecular biology, physics and analytical sciences to design novel class of enzyme inspired catalysts, photocatalysts, nano- theranostic and drug delivery platforms for ageing cells, hard-to-treat cancer and pathogens, and hybrid biomaterials
Understanding the whole process from fundamental molecular design, raw materials through the design of process and artefacts to manufacturing, including service and end-of-life considerations, within a context of sustainability.
The Use Less Group is based in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and is led by Professor Julian Allwood. The group is pursuing world leading research into the sustainable use of materials, energy and resources and are committed to innovating and implementing a reduction in material demand through mapping global flow, influencing policy, and inventing novel technological solutions to reduce industrial carbon emissions.
Professor John Clarkson is Director of the Cambridge Engineering Design Centre in the Department of Engineering and Co-Chair of Cambridge Public Health. His research interests are in engineering design, particularly the development of design methodologies to address specific design issues in Healthcare Design, Change Management, Process Management, Inclusive Design and Automotive Design.
Professor Gehan Amaratunga’s research in Electrical Engineering is in the broad area of materials and technologies for electrical energy and power. It intersects electrical and electronic engineering with chemistry, physics, materials science and information systems. His research spans nanophotonics for enhancing light coupling into solar cells to solar electricity generation and its intelligent connection to the electrical power system to maximise benefit.
Professor Michael Sutcliffe is Head of Mechanics, Materials and Design and is Head of the Biomechanics Group. His research interests include Biomedical engineering, Mechanical behaviour of materials, Biological tissue behaviour (e.g. arteries, brain, Eustachian tube), Joint biomechanics (e.g. human and canine knees) and Composite materials (e.g. textiles, manufacturing, truck lightweighting)
Departments of the School have made huge fundamental contributions to these, with their very wide applicability to all areas of science, engineering, healthcare, business and manufacturing. This theme has high potential to form the basis of a coordinated “Digital Campus” embracing most areas of University research and teaching.
Professor Paula Buttery is Professor of Language and Machine Learning in the Department of Computer Science and Technology and is Director of the Cambridge Institute for Automated Language Teaching and Assessment (ALTA) part of Cambridge University’s interdisciplinary Language Sciences Initiative. ALTA is a virtual institute, which brings together teams from computing, engineering, linguistics and language assessment to investigate new ways of using technology to enhance language learning and to develop cutting-edge approaches to assessment which will benefit learners and teachers worldwide.
Professor Cecilia Mascolo is Professor of Mobile Systems in the Department of Computer Science and Technology and centre co-director for the Centre for Mobile, Wearable Systems and Augmented Intelligence. Her interests are in the study of mobile systems, the learning from their data offline and on device and their applications, especially in terms of mobile health.
Professor Mateja Jamnik is Professor of Artificial Intelligence in the Department of Computer Science and Technology. She is also an associate fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence and recently served as Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence. She is interested in human intuitive reasoning and to make computers think intuitively too, building computational models that capture human informal reasoning to humanise computer thinking. She uses these AI and machine learning techniques to personalise medicine and tutoring systems.
There are substantial initiatives in healthcare engineering (e.g. improvements to per-operative care), biomedical engineering (e.g. devices and sensors, cartilage imaging and characterisation, arthritis surgery), biological engineering (e.g. organ-on-chip and tissue regeneration, drug targeting), computer science (bioinformatics, mobile and wearable, machine learning and AI for healthcare data) and healthcare leadership (e.g. CJBS CUH Senior Leadership Programme). This builds on the very strong links between Departments in the School of Technology and those in the Schools of Clinical Medicine and Biological Sciences and with clinicians.
Dr Yan Yan Shery Huang, University Lecturer in Bioengineering' leads the Bioengineering, Materials Engineering & Biointerface Group in Mechanics, Materials and Design, which is driven by translational bioengineering research, focusing on 3D bioprinting/ biomicrofabrication, and developing biomimetic organ-on-chips for high throughput drug testing, Soft tissue engineering and Biofabrication for cell patterning, tissue scaffolds and bioelectronics for the tailoring of artificial implants.
Structured Materials group, part of the Microstructure Engineering Cluster within Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology, is headed by Prof Geoff Moggridge with many projects reflecting his long standing interest in chemical product design for the production or utilisation of microstructures for particular applications. Current projects include the development of an improved prosthetic heart valve utilising the anisotropic mechanical properties of oriented block copolymers.
Professor George Malliaras leads the Departmental Bioengineering Research Theme. His group’s research themes in the Bioelectronics Laboratory include the design and validation of implantable and cutaneous devices to interface with the brain, with the aim of understanding and treating neurological disorders and brain cancer. They also include the realisation of electronic devices and circuits that mimic some of the computational features of the brain.
Professor Róisín Owens leads CEB’s Bioelectronic Systems Technology group, which works to develop iterative improvements on biological models and electronic devices in parallel, marrying organic electronic materials with biological systems along two main themes: organ on chip and membrane on chip. Their process is designed to synergistically generate improved systems that can be predictive of real biological systems, with applications for drug discovery and therapeutics.
This recognises that technologies are applied only if organisations (including commercial, NGOs and government agencies) change in terms of their performance measures, their practices, and their risk stance (for example, when introducing new things).
Professor Michael Barrett is Professor of Information Systems & Innovation Studies in the Cambridge Judge Business School. He is Academic Director of Cambridge Digital Innovation and part of the Organisational Theory & Information Systems group and Digital Built Britain project, drawing primarily on practice-based theories for understanding digital innovation and transformation and IT diffusion. He researches Service Innovation and Knowledge Exchange in healthcare in the Health and Leadership Enterprise Group and has worked extensively with the World Health Organisation and the NHS as well as conducting research and contributing to healthcare innovation in several countries.
Professor Feryal Erhun is Professor of Operations & Technology Management the Cambridge Judge Business School. Her research interests include strategic interactions between stakeholders in supply chains and socially responsible operations as part of the Operations & Technology Management group. She is Co-Director of the Centre of Health Leadership & Enterprise and applies her expertise to characterise, quantify, and eliminate system-wide inefficiencies in health care delivery. During the COVID-19 emergency, together with colleagues from the Cambridge Judge Business School, she took part in a research collaboration with Addenbrookes Hospital and the East of England Region to support the local NHS response to the pandemic.
Dr Khaled Soufani is part of the Cambridge Judge Business School Faculty (Professor level) in Management Practice. He is Director of the Circular Economy Centre (CEC). His research includes work on economic growth and innovation relating to the circular economy and fast-growing markets and economies. Through his latest project, he is developing an innovative framework of interplay between the circular economy and the Internet of Things with European academic institutions and practitioners. At the same time, he is collaborating in a consortium at the University of Cambridge, CirPLas, to respond to challenges posed by plastic waste; leading a research stream analysing models for understanding plastic flows through the UK economy to improve the recovery of plastics.