Expedited the development of the NCC's Immersive Composites Workbench. This then gave the business more opportunities to bid on further work and development contracts. My role was to leverage my experience in immersive tech in the composites space to spearhead the development of a projector-based, interactive, augmented reality workbench. This included:• Writing scripts in C# for the Unity game engine• Creating and reading JSON files for instruction sets• User interface creation• Integrating TCP comms with external sensors• Tracking sensors and objects in the workspace• Integrating and using a REST API for a vision sensor• Displaying results from external sensors overlaid onto the physical workpiece

Short-term development projects to enhance the modelling methods and techniques developed under the LayupRITE brand. Carried out various further work activities including starting the process of making a spin-out company from the University of Bristol.

Following from the success of the previous LayupRITE project additional funds from the Ufi Charitable Trust were bid for and acquired. These funds were to be used to leverage the lessons learned from the previous project and integrate them into an established training programme delivered by the NCC. In collaboration with an education consultant, a course was developed comprising of both e-learning content and practical, hands-on workshop events. My responsibilities were to develop the simulation and digital workshop content. This enabled the trainers to give more hands-on guidance to the trainees, rather than relying on demonstration. Additionally, we were able to identify the key learning accelerators for composite layup, which enabled the instructors to focus content toward the most important skills. The key learning point for the team was that simulation for education requires the ability to fail, rather than pure mathematical precision.

Lead developer on the Augmented Learning for High Dexterity Manufacture project.This project built on the successful feasibility study carried out at the University of Bristol into using commercial-off-the-shelf technologies to guide the composite lamination process. This project, funded by the Ufi Charitable Trust (https://www.ufi.co.uk/), aims to apply the lessons learned to a vocational learning setting. This work leveraged learning design theory and carried out a “horizon scan” of available theory and practice in composite manufacture and augmented reality (AR).This project created a successful prototype AR training system which was shortlisted for an award at CAMX 2018. The system was trialled at two colleges, internally within the NCC and a local business as well as a variety of live demos for NCC members and other companies. These trials demonstrated that the system can reduce layup times by 10% and reduce the scatter in layup times by 37% all while ensuring the process is followed consistently.Keywords: Augmented Reality, Skills and Training, Learning Design, Composites Layup

Research Associate with the Advanced Composites Centre for Innovation in Science (ACCIS). Worked on several short projects including productivity for automated fibre placement, human factors in composites manufacture and design rules and requirements. During this time an Impact Acceleration Account was awarded for a feasibility study into using commercial-off-the-shelf technologies for process control of composites manufacture.

Thesis Title: Towards a System for In-Process Inspection for Advanced Composites Manufacture.EngD in Systems research project sponsored by Renishaw plc. This project was intended to investigate possible methods for in-process inspection of the manual layup process. The layup process is a critical step in the manufacture of composite parts. This process is carried out and inspected by people with limited guidance from designers and engineers.The research led to a review of acceptance criteria, a study into laminator motivation and investigation of a combination laser-line scanner and camera system to inspect for bridging and wrinkling, two key defects in composite layup. This multi-disciplinary approach led to this thesis being awarded an engineering Faculty Commendation.Keywords: Composites manufacture, In-process Inspection, Computer Vision (OpenCV), Motivation, Process control