2019 BEAR PGR Conference
On Friday 12th April over 50 researchers gathered in the Alan Walters building for the 9th PGR conference for a packed day of presentations and posters.
The conference was opened by Dr Hassan Hemida who explained how computational fluid dynamics is used to model and analyse the effect of tunnel pressure, drag, wind, slipstreams etc. on trains, particularly with the introduction of high speed trains to the UK.
Another keynote speaker, Eliot Dixon from Tata Motors gave a fascinating insight into the development of autonomous vehicles, the complex technology being used to make this happen and the compute power required to process the data generated. Simulations are used as it would take 8 billion km of driving to prove a car is as safe as a human!
The final keynote was by Zoe Osorio from IBM who explored AI and ethics. The importance of trust and transparency in systems was explored, and showing what type of algorithm is being developed and deployed. There was a particular focus on healthcare and how machine learning could be used to make a diagnosis quicker than people can.
The 9 speakers covered a wide range of topics including air pollution in China, manufacturing of catalysts for the automotive industry, the design of a sensor for remote health monitoring, and the analysis of investor behaviour in lending in the financial sector. From tornadoes to stars and tackling cancer, there is some fascinating research happening at the university and it is great to see how BEAR services are used to support that research.
The winner of the best presentation was George Parish, who praised the “awesome resources” of BEAR for his computational models in brain oscillations, and how much it speeds up his research!
The winner of the poster competition was Abdullah Al-Qathani for best poster “Numerical modelling of Hot Isostatic Pressing”. We hope you enjoy your prizes!
The organising committee consisted of a group of PGR students and they did a great job in running the event. Thanks to OCF for their sponsorship. We look forward to an exciting 10th anniversary conference next year!