Manufacturing Metrology Team end of year message 2021

MMT have had a productive and enjoyable year, despite the obvious effects of the pandemic. A number of students finished their PhDs and we had some new post-docs start. Two of our academics were promoted. The Midlands Centre for Data-Driven Metrology has made a good start, without being able to hold planned face-to-face events, and we have started to work with euspen on a new Digital Manufacturing Metrology conference. Other existing projects are proving fruitful and have resulted in high-impact publications. We published 31 journal papers (5 in 2022 already), 14 conference papers (about the same as 2020, but still far fewer than 2019 for obvious reasons) and delivered at least 16 oral presentations, including 6 keynotes/invited talks. Already for 2021, we have submitted 16 journal papers and 6 conference abstracts.

1. We attended 7 conferences – all were virtual.
2. Sofia Catalucci (now a post-doc in MMT), Amrozia Shaheen (now with DTU/LEGO) and Calos Gomez (now a lecturer at Derby College), were awarded their PhDs.
3. Teguh Santosa handed in his thesis and is awaiting a viva.
4. On the post-doc front: Sofia Catalucci and Helia Hooshmand moved into positions and Isa Mohammed’s, Mojtaba Ahmadiehkhanesar’s and Mingyu Liu’s contracts were renewed.
5. David Branson was promoted to full professor and Samanta Piano to associate professor.
6. We had 5 new PhDs begin: Denis Sexton (optical CMM uncertainty), Adam Haynes (robotic metrology, based at MTC), Ahmet Koca (in-process metrology with machine learning), Ali Ghandour (mult-sensing), Philip Price (point cloud uncertainty, based at DePuy Synthes) and Andrzej Frelek (uncertainty with virtual instruments).
7. Matthew Hutchinson (MMT commercial manager) left MMT and we are interviewing for a replacement in early 2022.
8. We won an Impact Accelerator Award grant on in-process metrology for additive manufacturing.
9. We have a range of bids planned for 2022 (2 under review and 4 for submission in early 2022). 
10. Taraz Metrology secured another funding round and has had several staff changes: Waiel Elmadih (PhD from MMT), Emma Woods (PhD from CfAM) joined. Development work continues and key products will be launched in early 2022.
11. We chaired and organised the euspen/ASPE Advancing Precision in Additive Manufacturing meeting (virtual).
12. We attended a virtual ISO 213 meeting and MMT contributed to surface texture and additive manufacturing standards. We submitted a draft surface texture good practice guide to ASTM Additive Manufacturing.
13. Joe Eastwood was part of a team that won the Student Talent Competition for euspen 2021.
14. We had two finalists in the Faculty of Engineering Manufacturing Showcase – Afaf Remani (Poster) and Matthew Thomas (3 minute thesis).
15. We delivered dimensional metrology training online to more than 40 students from academia and industry.
16. We hosted the first meeting of a new National Metrology Alliance formed of industry experts for metrology training, led by our partners at Coventry University.
17. We received our first international visitor in 2 years, Chunwei Zhang, who will be staying with us for a year to contribute to our flagship demonstrator development.

MMT wish you all a Happy New Year and hope that we can actually meet some of you in 2022!