Jun 19

Fibre-optic sensor workshop for wind tunnel applications

In June, Engineering Photonics hosted a one-day workshop demonstrating fibre-optic sensors for wind tunnel applications. The workshop was provided for members of the National Wind Tunnel Facility (NWTF), a network of strategically important wind tunnels distributed across 12 UK Universities. The workshop featured presentations from Ralph Tatam, Steve James, Kieran Wiseman, and James Barrington and provided hands-on demonstrations and case studies, giving attendees a practical insight into the technology.

DWTF workshop attendees and organisers at Cranfield University

 

Jun 19

HTCC Showcase at Imperial College

Jane Hodgkinson and Dan Francis travelled to London to attend the HTCC (Healthcare Technologies Capability Connector) Showcase at Imperial College. The HTCC is supported by Research England to bring together expertise from Imperial, Cranfield University and the University of Hertfordshire to deliver sustainable impact in healthcare technology. The Showcase featured a panel discussion and presentations from spin-out companies from the three Universities and the opportunity to meet the innovators from research and industry.

Jane and Dan with slides and poster at the HTCC Showcase at Imperial.

The HTCC had been funding the SENTRI (Surveillance of Exhaled Nitric oxide for Tracking Risk of Infection) project which aims to use laser spectroscopy to monitor biomarkers of infection in the exhaled breath of ventilator patients. The recent funding had facilitated a healthy volunteer study of 100 participants from Cranfield and Bedford Hospital and a ventilator trial in Bedford’s intensive care unit.

Jun 11

Optical Fibre Sensors 29

The 29th International conference on Optical Fibre Sensors was held in May at the Super Bock Arena in the Jardins do Palácio de Cristal in Porto, Portugal. Kieran Wiseman and James Barrington were in attendance to present their recent work on fibre segment interferometry. This technique had been used to make distributed humidity measurements and strain measurements within a superconducting magnet.
 

As well as attending the conference, they also had the opportunity to explore the beautiful Portuguese city and visit the Sandeman wine cave.

Kieran and James presenting their posters at OFS29.

EP Papers

Distributed humidity measurements using fibre-segment interferometry
K B Wiseman, S W James, and R P Tatam
Proc. SPIE 13639, 29th International Conference on Optical Fiber Sensors, 136392M (2025);

Deployment of fibre segment interferometry in a high temperature superconducting magnet
J H Barrington, B Bryant*, D Warren*, S W James, S E Staines, A Twin*, and R P Tatam
Proc. SPIE 13639, 29th International Conference on Optical Fiber Sensors, 136392P (2025)
*Oxford Instruments Nanoscience, Abingdon, UK 

 

Oct 01

FLAIR 2024

The 2024 edition of the FLAIR conference (Field Laser Applications in Industry and Research) was held in Santa Maria degli Angeli – Assisi, Italy at the Domus Pacis hotel, as in 2018. Nick Davis, Dan Francis, and Jane Hodgkinson were in attendance to present three posters on their work.

View of the Cathedral of San Rufino in Assisi.

Nick presented recent developments in distributed gas sensing using range resolved with hollow fibre, and Dan presented recent healthy volunteer breath measurements using tunable laser spectroscopy.

Nick, Dan, and Jane in Spoleto before the rains arrived.

Nick with one of his two posters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EP papers

Simultaneous real-time measurements of methane using S-RRI
N M Davis, J Bremner, J Hodgkinson,  T O H Charrett, S Staines, S W James, and R P Tatam

Multi-segment gas detection with nested anti-resonant nodeless fibre (NANF)
N M Davis, T Kelly+, J Hodgkinson, T O H Charrett, S W James, H Sakr+, T Kissinger, S Staines, F Poletti+, R Slavik+, N Wheeler+, and R P Tatam
+ORC University of Southampton;

Multi-species gas measurement in exhaled breath using QCL spectroscopy with a hollow waveguide gas cell
D Francis, J Hodgkinson, B Livingstone+, Paul Black+, C Walton, J Sizer*, and R P Tatam
+Emerson, Cumbernauld; *Bedford Hospital NHS Trust;

Jun 18

PhD Viva Success!

Congratulations to Nina Binaei who successfully defended her thesis on  oxygen measurement in wire and arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) using laser emission spectroscopy.

Nina presenting her work.

Nina (centre) with her supervisory and examination teams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oxygen monitoring in wire and arc additive manufacturing of Ti-6AI-4V
N Binaei

Aug 05

Optica Sensing Congress

In August, Jane Hodgkinson and Dan Francis travelled to Munich to attend the Optica Sensing congress. Dan presented work on the development of an external-cavity quantum cascade laser spectrometer and Jane chaired a session on gas sensing. The conference, held in the Munich Hilton Park hotel in Tivoli, featured a good mix of spectroscopy talks combined with other areas of optical sensing.

Munich Marienplatz from Peterskirche

Jane and Dan at the Optica Sensing congress

EP paper

A pulsed laser spectrometer for volatile organic compound measurement
D Francis,  J Hodgkinson, and R P Tatam

Jul 01

Jane Hodgkinson in Top 100 Women in Engineering

Congratulations to Jane Hodgkinson who was a highly commended finalist, finishing in the top 100 of the prestigious 2023 Top 50 Women in Engineering awards. Jane was selected as a  finalist for her work developing new sensors that are focused on saving or improving lives.