Helen Thomas, a PhD Student at Loughborough has come through the ENSURE program.

Helen was studying a Manufacturing Engineering degree and was awarded funding to participate in the ENSURE scheme. Dr Neil Hopkinson from the Rapid Manufacturing research group was her supervisor and the ten week project involved investigating the effect of temperature upon the flow of polyurethane flexible foam. Her experiences during that summer period led her to remain with Dr Hopkinson and opened up an exciting opportunity to carry out her BEng final year project on a new layer manufacturing process called High Speed Sintering (HSS). The work won Helen the award for Best Manufacturing Final Year Project and during this time she was offered a PhD position within the IMCRC funded HSS project.

Helen said: "The project I worked on was an extremely worthwhile and enjoyable experience, giving me a good insight to life as a PhD student and valuable tools for producing my final year project. I had not considered doing a PhD before applying for the ENSURE scheme and when offered a PhD studentship it was an easy decision to make."

Kevin Cliff, a First Class Honours graduate (Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering), experienced the ENSURE research programme in the summer of 2006.

Kevin joined Loughborough University in 2002 and graduated in 2007. At the end of his penultimate year, Kevin applied to the ENSURE scheme and after an initial discussion followed by an interview with Dr Memis Acar (ENSURE Director), he was accepted onto the programme. 

Kevin comments: “the ENSURE scheme enabled me to continue working on a research project that I had been involved in as part of the Chemical Engineering degree programme. The scheme provided a significant resource to extend the project, which granted additional tests, sufficient to form the basis of a technical paper.”

During Kevin’s final year he was offered a PhD studentship at Loughborough by Dr Steve Tarleton (Senior Lecturer, Chemical Engineering) and after graduating in June 2007 he began his PhD.

Kevin said: “In my final year I definitely considered working in industry and applied for a number of positions. However, even after an attractive proposition was available, I felt, given the exposure to research, a PhD would offer me the ability to be creative and experimental whilst determining novel methods and applications.”

Jasmin Kee, one of the very first ENSURE students (participated in the 2002 pilot scheme), returned to Loughborough University in 2006 to work in the Healthcare Engineering research group and begin a PhD entitled ‘The effects of mechanical stimulation on artificial skin’.

After completing her 5 year Mechanical Engineering Masters Degree in 2003 and achieving First Class Honours, Jasmin took the opportunity to travel extensively. On her return to the UK and as a talented graduate, Jasmin secured a position with the ICI Group as a process engineer. Whilst visiting Loughborough, Jasmin learned of a PhD opportunity in the Healthcare Engineering research group. The PhD would provide Jasmin with the opportunity to do high quality, rigorous research with an industrial application and be part of a group working to impact on the next generation of healthcare delivery.

Jasmin comments: “The ENSURE scheme enabled me to continue working on a research project that I really wanted to complete and allowed me to dedicate 100% of my working time to the project. Not only is the scheme a great summer job, but it shows you can carry out research whilst working towards an end application. Working in industry is exciting and rewarding, but before returning to research at Loughborough I wanted to make sure the PhD was in a field of personal interest and had a genuine industrial application and it has fulfilled both criteria.”