Autumn 2002 PW 5 - Cranfield University

www. cranfield.ac.uk/alumni
Big guns
turn out for CCoA
Sir Colin
Chandler
An advisory council to guide the
development of Cranfield College
of Aeronautics has been established
under the chairmanship of Sir Colin
Chandler, the university Pro-Chancellor.
The council includes high-profile
names such as Sir Malcolm Field, former
Chairman of the Civil Aviation
Authority and now a government advisor
on transport issues; Sir Michael
Knight, Air Chief Marshal retired and
the current Chairman of Cranfield
Aerospace, and Professor David Hyde,
former Director of Safety, Security and
Environment for British Airways,
Head of CCoA Professor Ian Poll said:
“It’s a measure of the college’s reputation
and our commitment to it that so
many aerospace leaders have been willing
to give up their time to help us shape
its work for the 21st century.”
Sir Colin, who also chairs the university
Council said: “No one on our list
needed persuading to join this advisory
council. We all believe Cranfield College
of Aeronautics has a most significant
role to play shaping future flight programmes
and developing those who
will work in the aerospace industry.”
Currently Chairman of Vickers plc, Sir
Colin is also shortly to take on the chairmanship
of leading low-cost airline
easyJet in a wholesale change to the
company’s board structure.
He has been appointed Deputy
Chairman with immediate effect, and
will take over as Chairman when Stelios
Haji-Ioannou resigns at the 2003 AGM.
The telegenesis of an
exciting joint venture
An exciting joint project has begun
between Cranfield University,
Loughborough University and the
University of Salford, with industrial
collaborators BAE SYSTEMS, Arup,
Atkins and The Technology Partnership.
Developing new designs for complex
products requires extensive team-
CRANFIELD NEWS
work, often involving co-operation
between remote groups. This 18-month
project – named ‘Telegenesis’ from the
Greek ‘tele’ - at a distance, and ‘genesis’
- giving birth or creating – will
examine the design process across the
industry sectors of aerospace, construction
and general product design.
Led by Professor Peter Deasley and
assisted by research fellow Mike
Gregory, this is one of the first EPSRCsponsored
projects to be run under the
new Innovative Manufacture Research
Centres.
A STRATEGIC PROJECT
Thanks to a joint project between
Cranfield and Oxfam, a team of
four European engineers are delivering
a refresher training course for women
civil engineers in war-torn Afghanistan.
The four-strong all-female training
team prepared the course, scheduled
for a seven-week period during the
summer in Kabul, at the Silsoe campus
under the guidance of Dr Richard
Carter.
Cranfield’s role was to provide
resources, advice, support, ‘guinea-pigging’,
and supervision, ensuring that
the engineers had both a viable course
and the confidence to deliver it.
The team are teaching the Afghan
women a wide range of skills, from
civil and water engineering and
project management, to public
health, sanitation and community
participation.
Richard, who is hoping to visit
Afghanistan in the autumn, said:
“This is an important and strategic
project, which could be highly
effective in empowering female
professional engineers within
Afghanistan.
“The country badly needs professionals
of many disciplines to
contribute to its reconstruction over
the coming decades, and this pilot project
aims to put a significant number of
such people back into the service of
© Picture courtesy of Richard McGuire
their country.”
3