Engineering the Future through Manufacturing Research

By Professor Chris Cook
Engineering Manufacturing

Wednesday 16th April, 12:30-1:30pm in BLDG 20.2

Abstract
We cannot live in the modern world without manufacturing. Just about every material thing we use every day has its characteristics determined by engineers who design and manufacture. Clean healthy water cannot be prepared, pumped and delivered to households, electricity cannot be generated, transmitted or used except by means of manufactured items. Components for cars, houses, roads, bridges, trains and aeroplanes are all built in factories where their reliability, safety and functionality are all determined by manufacturing processes. Items as diverse as furniture, clothes, cups, submarines, solar cells and space stations exist because they are manufactured. So we all have a stake in ensuring that somewhere in Australia, people are beavering away to ensure manufacturing excellence. One of these places is the University of Wollongong, and this talk is about the activities of its Engineering Manufacturing Research Strength.

The research challenges for engineers in manufacturing include finding new ways of making things which use less energy, which last longer while costing less, which provide users with greater safety, productivity and efficiency. This includes finding ways of using new materials, new ways of joining components together to make finished products, new ways to automate assembly, and new ways to design ‘intelligent’ machine tools.

This talk will cover current ‘hot’ manufacturing topics at Wollongong, many of them receiving substantial funding from our industry partners.
Research at Wollongong includes finding new ways to manufacture submarines and surface ships, civilian and military aeroplanes, manufacturing and protecting armoured vehicles, and new ways to use state-of-the-art materials, such as titanium (for aircraft components, surgical tools and prosthetics). The inherently multidisciplinary nature of manufacturing, which brings together physicists, and electrical, computer, mechanical and materials engineers, will be illustrated through examples of current research underway in welding, robotics, superconductors, electricity supply and generation, and new automation techniques for major industries as diverse as underground coal mining, fresh food processors and medical suppliers and surgeons. If variety is the spice of life, then manufacturing research is a rich addition to life, and this presentation will illustrate this with many real life examples drawn from existing research projects at Wollongong.

Professor Chris Cook during his lecture

Short Biography
Chris worked for Marconi Avionics in the UK as a project engineer designing aerospace computing systems after graduating with BE, BSc from Adelaide University and receiving his PhD from UNSW in 1976. He later worked with GEC Australia as the Technical Manager of their Automation and Control Division, where he set up a group which designed and installed robot controlled automation systems for manufacturing applications. He was then for 8 years the founding Managing Director of the Automation and Engineering Applications Centre Ltd., a non-profit company of the University of Wollongong, which built and installed automation and robotic systems for manufacturing companies around Australia. He became Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Wollongong in 1989 and was Head of School for 12 years before taking up his current position as Dean of Engineering. His research activities are in robotics, industrial automation and power engineering; he has initiated many different research projects in automation and manufacturing technologies funded from Industry, ARC, and CRC research grants, and with the assistance of many talented PhD students.

Prof. John Norrish was unable to present this Research Strength Showcase Series due to another committment. Prof Chris Cook (Dean of Engeering) kindly offered to fill in for John.

Last reviewed: 17 April, 2008