Sam Bemment Email & Phone Number

London, Gb

London, Gb

I founded SkyBlue Engineering in December 2015 after receiving repeated requests to provide assistance with engineering design/development activities beyond the remit of my role at Loughborough.I have successfully delivered feasibility studies, concept designs and physical prototypes for numerous clients throughout the UK. These range from small assignments from start-ups to agreements with blue-chip organisations. As I do this mainly for 'fun' outside my day-job, there is no advertising or website - all work has, thus-far, come through word of mouth from satisfied clients. A good portion of my work has been for the Rail industry or associated bodies, including specification, signalling, operations, maintenance and critical review. I originally specialised in rapid-iteration electrical, electronic, mechanical and controller design, build and programming for prototypes and pre-production items. However, more recently I have found additional success in assisting with technical project planning, R,D+I grant applications and feasibility studies. As the company is small - myself and occasionally some key associates to fill my skills gaps - I am also able to remain flexible to the particular demands of the client. This includes all-nighters to meet tight deadlines, where necessary! Examples of past work are available on request and with permission of the clients.

Loughborough, Leicestershire, Gb

At the close of my employment with Loughborough University, I was invited to continue my association with the Wolfson School's Control Systems Research Group in the role of Visiting Researcher. I'm delighted to say that in this role I am not directly responsible for anything, apart from lending whatever help, advice, support and expertise I can to any research, development and innovation projects which are within my field of expertise. A wonderful role to have!

Loughborough, Leicestershire, Gb

In March 2016 I moved into the Senior Research and Development Engineer role, as technical lead and project manager upon Repoint Phase 3. The team consisted of 3 R+D engineers, 3 academics, a PhD student, a range of external contractors and an ever growing number of stakeholders. I had direct line management responsibility for 3 engineers, including recruitment, selection and ongoing task co-ordination and performance review. Alongside the team management responsibilities, I held overall project management responsibility (~£1.9m, 3 year) and performed the technical lead role. My responsibilities included advertising for, and selection of, a contractor consortium - my first exposure to the use of the OJEU process. However, this also led to the largest challenge, as the main contractor pulled out during the initiation phase, meaning significant re-planning to bring work in-house and redistribute work packages to the remaining subcontractors. The project was successful despite these significant challenges.Towards the end of the project I successfully applied for an international technology commercialisation grant, then moved partially into a technology commercialisation role, opening dialogue with infrastructure owners and manufacturers to ensure the concept would be taken forward after successful full-scale demonstration. In performing this role I helped Repoint gain a reputation amongst railway signalling engineers worldwide - essentially 'soft sales' ready for the next phase of productionisation and commercialisation. I left employment at Loughborough with the successful delivery of the demonstrator.During this period, my team were awarded the IET Transport Innovation award, beating competition from Cambridge University and Heathrow Airport, and also featured in the '100 innovations that changed the world' exhibition at Savoy Place. I was awarded the IMechE W A Agnew/C N Goodall Award for a meritorious paper on the subject of railway engineering.

Loughborough, Leicestershire, Gb

Following success in my previous role, I was granted an 8-month fellowship by Loughborough University. I used this time for three main purposes:1. To 'top-up' on CPD by attending training courses, notably in enterprise activities and advanced reliability engineering, staff recruitment, retention and performance review. 2. To develop, plan, and apply for funding for, the Repoint phase 3 project.3. To pursue several other, smaller and lower TRL research projects in Rail and Aerospace, some for industry on a consultancy basis, some which led to bids being developed and funded by colleagues in future, and some because I just found them interesting (the benefit of having a fellowship!)During this period I was honoured to receive the 'Best Young Rail Researcher 2015' award for my work to date. Repoint - and the whole team - was also awarded the 'Most Interesting Innovation' at the 2015 Rail Engineer awards. I also obtained permission to found my own consultancy, Skyblue Engineering Ltd, covered separately.

Loughborough, Leicestershire, Gb

I joined Loughborough University in March 2011 to work on the 2-year RSSB, Network Rail and EPSRC funded Repoint project. I was tasked with investigating the possibility of engineering fault tolerance into railway track switching (points) in order to improve RAMS performance. The role involved requirements capture and reporting to an industry-wide stakeholder panel, alongside extensive modelling to establish possible reliability and capacity benefits of any revised design. I filed 4 patents during this period, two with myself as sole inventor and two on behalf of the project team.In 2013, I led and won an application for matched follow-on funding (total ~£450k, 2 year) from RSSB's Future Railway initiative for the construction of a scale, laboratory-based demonstrator. I was responsible for project planning and delivery, managing a small team of research engineers, alongside personally carrying out the engineering design development of all mechanical elements. The demonstrator rig was delivered on-time and within budget, and continues to be used for development of condition monitoring algorithms by PhD students. I was lucky (spoilt?) in this role to have been given the opportunity to travel the world, to relevant conferences and to meet rail infrastructure and rolling stock operators, maintainers, manufacturers and suppliers. I believe this has given me an appreciation of the breadth of challenges the industry faces.

Milton Keynes, Bucks, Gb

My first role after graduation was the highly regarded Network Rail Graduate Engineering scheme. The first phase provided technical training and 'on the tools' experience across most functions of a rail infrastructure owner/operator - track, signalling, electrification and power, civils and investment projects. I still look back on this 6-month period as a fantastic introduction to the rail industry. I managed to see projects, signal some trains, assist maintenance, fault-find, perform emergency response and more, from Kent to the Lake District.After completing my burn-in period I joined the fixed assets technology team as a technology engineer in a development and approvals role. I contributed to NR's multi-million pound 'Intelligent Infrastructure' programme. My role involved technical support to the rollout of condition monitoring dataloggers - including sign off against signalling specifications. I provided both on-site support to suppliers testing their loggers, and independent observation and verification of those tests within the formal approvals reporting structure. This was my first exposure to approval of safety-critical signalling equipment. I also spent time developing and testing more advanced condition monitoring algorithms using MATLAB, C++ and Wonderware. I then moved into a project engineer role, working on the upgrade and re-signalling NR's High Marnham test track, later renamed RIDC Tuxford. I was responsible for specifying and designing track and signalling elements in order that the test track could be split to allow concurrent testing, with one half resignalled for testing at 75mph. I was responsible for the project management of these elements, alongside internal/external stakeholder management. I'm still amazed that a design for back-to-back trap points with Annett's key that I originally sketched on the back of an envelope is now in service!

I joined the business (a mid-sized chain nightclub owner/operator) as a junior content editor. I progressed through web design, to managing and developing technical aspects of our web presence, including deploying a custom content management system (PHP, Javascript, HTML) across ~20 formerly individually coded client sites). I was instrumental in the launch of the group-wide online ticketing service in 2007/08. I was technical lead for the integration, testing and deployment of the UK nightclub sector's first mobile-phone based ticketing service, which scanned on-screen barcodes issued to customers via MMS (Remember MMS!?). The mobile ticketing initiative alone saw a 30-35% increase in top line across all client sites. I provided on-site technical support for the e-ticketing launch events - including every date of the Venga Boys UK tour 2008/09. I suspect this is probably the closest to being a pop star I will ever get. I found the entertainment industry was very fast-paced, hugely competitive, and tended towards 'deploy now, worry later' rather than the conservative nature of many of my other work experiences. However, I found I thrived in this role, and as such I enjoyed considerable autonomy due to the value I was providing to the company.

London, England, Gb

Pre-university Year in Industry scheme placement working in fuels research and development at Shell's Thornton Research Centre. • Main role was in the fuels testing laboratory, following strict procedure in performing tests to examine the key characteristics of retail, research and racing fuel blends against specification. • Planned, executed and reported an investigation into trace element leaching from new-to-market fuel containers. I demonstrated that there was no statistically significant difference between the performance of novel and existing containers, enabling product acceptance and significantly reducing OPEX costs. • Planned and implemented a complete refreshment of the ongoing risk assessment portfolio for every fuel test (150+), to simplify the ongoing maintenance and review process.

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Part time crew member during college. Was promoted to staff trainer, and then to floor manager in relatively quick succession. Sometimes it was exhausting, and high-pressure, but often it was great fun. I made some friends for life and still have some burn scars!

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Railway Systems Engineering

Beng, Aeronautical Engineering

Education record