While the construction and fit-out work to the new facility are progressing, a newly appointed leadership team is overseeing the smooth development and delivery of the new facility and the research portfolio that underpins it.
Professor Chris Brace, IAAPS Academic Director, Professor Rob Oliver, IAAPS Engineering Director and Gavin Edwards, IAAPS Operations and IT Director are currently expanding their teams as IAAPS gears up to the opening of the new facility and the expansion of the IAAPS R&I portfolio. Recent appointments to the academic team have included Dr Nic Zhang, Lecturer in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and Dr Aaron Costall, Reader in Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems. Dr Daniel Coren has also joined as a Senior Lecturer and is currently developing a suite of new Automotive Engineering masters courses.
Dr Andrew Lewis has joined the Engineering Team as Principal Engineer – Powertrain and Mitchell Hiscock recently joined as Technical Specialist – Rig Designer. In the IAAPS Operations Team, Jay Galligan has joined as IT Infrastructure Manager, Steve Deakin has joined as Building Facilities Manager and Kristina Burke has taken on the role of Project Manager. Meanwhile, Dr Omar Hadded and Tony Reid have been appointed as Business Development Managers, and Isabella Griffiths has taken up the role as Marketing & Communications Manager. The recruitment drive into all three teams at IAAPS will ramp up over the coming months as we seek out the best talent to join the specialist teams within IAAPS at this exciting phase in our development.
The team continue to strengthen connections with existing IAAPS networks whilst also reaching out to potential new partners who may wish to collaborate on the transformational research, development and testing that the new building will enable. Designed with collaboration and knowledge sharing at its heart, the new state-of-the-art facility will ensure IAAPS continues to support the automotive industry with the development of sustainable clean-vehicle technologies, new development tools and simulation techniques.
Professor Gary Hawley, Executive Director for IAAPS comments:
“Our new automotive propulsion research facility as part of the Institute of Automotive Propulsion Systems (IAAPS) is now within sight of its operational opening. It has been 6 long years in the making and during this time the automotive industries have been subject to transformational change. The research and educational models that underpin IAAPS have changed as well to be fully synchronous with advancing propulsion into the future. We are excited by the future and the challenges and opportunities that this brings and we remain committed to supporting the needs of the automotive industries.”
09 February 2021