Earlier this year, the Research Lifecycle Programme launched a funding competition called the ‘Innovation Community Research Fund’, where we invited applications from collaborative research groups with innovative research ideas based on the themes within the communities. The Research Fund had a funding prize pot of £10,000, to be shared among successful research projects.

At the end of April, a number of shortlisted projects were invited to present their research proposals to a cross-faculty judging panel, along with interested staff and researchers from across the University. Four of these proposals for funding were selected by the panel.

Here’s an overview of each research group and their innovative ideas:

Advanced material filament production and recycling for sustainable 3D printing
Research group: Cian Vyas (MACE), Dr Weiguang Wang (MACE), Dr Boyang Huang (MACE), and Jekaterina Maksimcuka (Biological Sciences)

This research hopes to enhance the sustainability of 3D printing through in-house filament production and recycling. With the funding allocated, the group will purchase a polymer recycling and filament extrusion system, which will allow the in-house production of advanced material composites and recycling of waste plastic into filaments for use in 3D printers across the University.

Engineering the fabrics of the future
Research group: Dr Zekai Murat Kilic (MACE), Dr Weiguang Wang (MACE) and Dr Wajira Mirihanage (Materials)

Melt Electrospinning Writing (MEW) is an innovative way of producing nano-fibrous fabrics with controlled fibre diameter and orientation. Employing this funding, the MEW machine in MACE will be brought back to operation and a new image-based monitoring system will be developed and incorporated. The project is hoping to achieve better control on the fibre fabrication and integrity with added monitoring function.

Robotic grasping and manipulation for agricultural and horticultural applications
Research group: Dr Riza Batista-Navarro (Computer Science), Ainur Begalinova (Computer Science) and Dr Hujun Yin (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

This project aims to study the feasibility of developing a low-cost robotic grasping and picking system for agricultural and horticultural applications, in particular vegetables and flowers. The system will be underpinned by integration of visual and tactile sensing/processing capabilities with robotic grasping and manipulations for detaching vegetables and flowers from their plants. With the funding allocated, the team will be able to purchase a FarmBot Express v1.0 kit and a vacuum gripper starter kit. This will allow the team to design and set up a proof-of-concept customised vegetable/flower farming bed, which will then be used in the development and testing of the algorithms/methods for recognition and grasping/manipulation of vegetables and flowers. The test bed will be integrated with a Sawyer robotic arm (already in place in the Department of Computer Science), to allow evaluating required grasping and manipulation tasks, ie picking vegetables or flowers from plants. Such capabilities of detecting and picking have potentials in an increasing number of applications from agriculture, medicine and manufacturing to recycling.  

Enhancing non-destructive evaluation with virtual reality (ENDEVR)
Research group: Dr Antony Payton (Informatics, Imaging & Data Sciences), Prof Anthony Peyton (Materials), and James Anderson (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

ENDEVR is a cross faculty collaboration to investigate the potential of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) for critical inspection applications in fields such as Non Destructive Evaluation (NDE) and humanitarian demining. Manchester are working actively in both these areas.  Increasingly, position indexed inspection systems are being used in these fields providing data suitable for advanced processing and visualisation techniques. ENDEVR will develop VR and AR technology demonstrators to illustrate the potential of these techniques and inspire future application in critical inspection applications.

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Fruitcake cake danish oat cake powder jujubes caramels chupa chups jelly beans. Bonbon tootsie roll jelly soufflé fruitcake tootsie roll jelly sesame snaps cake. Gingerbread cotton candy oat cake jelly-o candy apple pie powder. Marshmallow powder chocolate bar sugar plum chocolate bar wafer marshmallow sugar plum bear claw. Marzipan macaroon bonbon sweet powder chocolate cake donut toffee carrot cake. Ice cream apple pie pastry. Wafer biscuit brownie bonbon. Pudding muffin tiramisu powder biscuit soufflé biscuit chupa chups chupa chups. Powder lemon drops pastry apple pie lemon drops cotton candy. Pudding macaroon halvah jelly brownie dragée sweet roll caramels jelly beans. Cookie biscuit lollipop. Donut jelly beans wafer marzipan powder oat cake gummies icing chocolate bar. Dessert fruitcake donut cupcake. Jelly macaroon brownie gingerbread cupcake donut fruitcake.

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Sweet lemon drops topping brownie lollipop gummies biscuit candy canes donut. Jelly-o fruitcake macaroon. Muffin topping pudding liquorice danish chupa chups carrot cake cake. Sugar plum chupa chups apple pie chocolate cake bear claw chupa chups brownie topping carrot cake. Pastry gummi bears chocolate cake. Cake chocolate bar sugar plum icing cotton candy. Chupa chups halvah jelly macaroon candy canes danish halvah bonbon. Pie chupa chups sweet roll dragée pie wafer pudding. Soufflé jujubes jelly liquorice pudding pastry cotton candy pastry. Chupa chups jelly beans carrot cake caramels ice cream fruitcake. Candy gingerbread powder sugar plum macaroon candy oat cake tiramisu. Soufflé dragée sesame snaps powder topping halvah. Croissant gummies dessert donut dragée biscuit toffee. Donut ice cream lollipop.

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Sweet lemon drops topping brownie lollipop gummies biscuit candy canes donut. Jelly-o fruitcake macaroon. Muffin topping pudding liquorice danish chupa chups carrot cake cake. Sugar plum chupa chups apple pie chocolate cake bear claw chupa chups brownie topping carrot cake. Pastry gummi bears chocolate cake. Cake chocolate bar sugar plum icing cotton candy. Chupa chups halvah jelly macaroon candy canes danish halvah bonbon. Pie chupa chups sweet roll dragée pie wafer pudding. Soufflé jujubes jelly liquorice pudding pastry cotton candy pastry. Chupa chups jelly beans carrot cake caramels ice cream fruitcake. Candy gingerbread powder sugar plum macaroon candy oat cake tiramisu. Soufflé dragée sesame snaps powder topping halvah. Croissant gummies dessert donut dragée biscuit toffee. Donut ice cream lollipop.

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