Bombardier Aerospace and Royal
Academy of Engineering’s jointly funded
Research Chairs (Past and Present):
Professor Srinivasan Raghunathan,
Professor of Aerodynamics at Queen’s
University Belfast
Professor Brian Falzon,
Professor of Aerospace Composites, also at Queen’s
University Belfast
But there is an international
dimension too: two of the engineering
professorships that Bombardier
sponsors in Canadian institutions
also cover the important aerospace
technology of engineering composites.
“We hope to develop an international
network that will clearly benefit us but
also benefit the professors and the
universities”, said Campbell.
The direct impact of the new post will
be felt in three areas. “The first is the
pull-through of new technologies and
the validation of ideas into projects
with clearer industrial application. We
recognise that it can take many years
to develop a product or a process, but
we also recognise the need to keep
the pipeline of ideas topped up with
projects at all stages of maturity,” said
Campbell.
The second is to ensure that key
skills within the company and the
universities are enhanced. “We recruit
very actively from the universities,
both at graduate level and increasingly
at doctorate and post-doctorate levels,”
Campbell said. In tandem with this,
there is an emphasis on the transfer
of skills and knowledge. “There can
be frontline support, maybe some
personal mentoring and certainly
advice on challenging problems from
someone who is a leading expert in
their field.”
Chief Technical Engineer David Riordan
said that this kind of knowledge
transfer had been a feature of the
earlier joint professorship with the
Academy “Professor Raghunathan
brought extremely good links into the
wider university and also into other
industrial companies. We gained both
from his specific knowledge and from
his breadth of knowledge.”
The third specific area that Bombardier
Aerospace has for its involvement with
the Academy is a local one. “We’re
very much a company that tries to live
by its corporate social responsibility,
and we run an educational outreach
programme,” Campbell said. “We see
this as an important part of what
Bombardier as a company puts back
into society locally and nationally.”
There is a strong Northern Ireland
aspect to this. “When we were
developing the proposal with the
Academy we were obviously looking for
academic excellence,” Campbell said.
“But the geography is also important
because it’s not just a matter of writing
a cheque and waiting for the research
to flow; it’s about a relationship that
works across a number of levels, and
the prestige locally of being involved
with the Academy is a very important
part of that too.”
Professor Brian Falzon said he was
looking forward to promoting greater
collaboration between the academic
world and the requirements of
industry. “This is an exciting role
which facilitates the exploration
and exploitation of new ideas and
innovations with one of the world’s
leading aerospace companies and
with the support of the Academy. The
requirement for reduced development
and production timeframes, lower life
cycle costs and increasingly stringent
environmental targets, presents a
number of intellectually challenging
and complex problems. For example,
the further development, utilisation
and integration of computational
tools for ‘h