Professor Richard Stobart, Technical Director Caterpillar Innovation & Research Centre at Loughborough University will deliver an invited seminar on
“Engines and Data: How strategies for data can change the design, development and operation of an established concept”.
 
Abstract
The heat engine is a very long established concept – and for most of its existence the solutions to efficient and reliable operation lay in the domain of mechanical engineering.   Recently, increasing pressure on air quality and fuel efficiency, has led to the introduction of electronic management schemes for engines that replaced complex mechanical components.  Electronic schemes were able to offer automation of data collection and enable diagnosis and prognosis, particularly in equipment where an engine failure posed a safety risk or would result in significant financial loss.
Data taken from the fundamental processes of the engine has always been important in understanding and diagnosing development issues and during operation, incipient faults.   Sensing methods are allowing even those high speed data streams to be analysed and their features incorporated into schemes that include other observations from the engine.   Today’s very substantial flows of data from the engine offer potential to accelerate the development process and to begin to change the nature of engine components and their operation.
This presentation will briefly reflect on the history of the heat engine and the early uses of data, before reviewing the current use of data in control and diagnosis.  We will consider new techniques that are emerging from current research and assess their potential impact on not just heat engines but the wider use of capital intensive equipment.
 
Biography
Richard Stobart is Professor of Powertrain Systems at Loughborough University. Loughborough was the UK’s first technological University and is ranked as world class in Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering.
He is responsible for the development of research and education in the field of vehicle engineering, with a particular focus on propulsion and power generation systems.
He was Professor of Automotive Engineering at the University of Sussex (Brighton, UK) from 2001 to 2007 where he was also Head of Engineering and Design from 2003 to 2006.
Professor Stobart was a member of the team who, in 1997 received Arthur D Little’s Ketteringham prize for their work in developing fuel cell technology. The prize was offered annually for the most significant contribution to the company’s products and capabilities. He is a graduate of the University of Cambridge with a first class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering. He was elected a Fellow of the UK Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 2000 and Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers in 2015.