Industrial Fellowship helps engineer develop SRAS technology

Jethro Coulson, a PhD student at Nottingham University and Research Engineer at Renishaw plc, was recently awarded an Industrial Fellowship by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. The award is one of only eight Industrial Fellowships awarded each year, providing young scientists and engineers with the means to develop an innovative commercial technology with the potential to secure a patent.

Jethro’s Industrial Fellowship aims to develop and commercialise a laser ultrasonic based materials characterisation technique called Spatially Resolved Acoustic Spectroscopy (SRAS). The project is aimed at fulfilling an increasing need in industry for determining the microstructure of high-performance components, such as gas turbine blades and high pressure power-plant parts to maximise their efficiency.

Jethro studied Physics at the University of Warwick, graduating in 2011 with a First class Honours MPhys degree. Commenting on the Fellowship he said: “I was attracted to the Industrial Fellowship because it allows me to apply my physics background to a practical problem and gives me the funding and time to explore and develop ideas that I wouldn’t otherwise have had.

“It is also a fantastic way of facilitating collaboration between academia and industry and my project is a perfect example of how tools that originated in a university can be made available and marketable within a commercial environment. This wouldn’t have been possible without the Fellowship.”

Bernard Taylor, Chairman of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, said: “The Commission aims to encourage innovation across the whole breadth and depth of British industry in the 21^st century. Jethro’s work is a perfect example of this diversity, which also fulfils the Fellowship’s aim to fund the development of profitable and patented technologies. We congratulate Jethro on his success so far and look forward to following his success in the future."