Research in Collaboration with Industry
The School of Engineering undertakes research in a broad range of fundamental and applied engineering topics in Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical & Electronic Engineering. The School maintains close links with both local industry and international companies. Representatives from local industry guide the strategic direction of the School in both undergraduate and postgraduate activities via the Engineering Advisory Board.
Many research projects include partnership from industry or industrial sponsorship to focus or compliment the research goals. Activities with a direct industrial focus include:
- Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
- Direct Industrial Funding for Research
- Commercialisation & Proof of Concept Funding
- Spin-Out Companies
- Consultancy
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
We maintain an excellent track record in technology transfer to Industry and are one of the leading UK University departments in the oil and gas industry for projects supported by the UK Government's Knowledge Technology Partnerships. These projects provide a framework and resources to support collaborations between companies and academ.
Current KTP Projects:
- C D Limited - To develop a laser based solution to the problem of detecting free-spans in subsea pipeline installations, 2008-2010.
- Ziebel UK Limited - To develop a specialised downhole pumping system for the extension of the life of gas wells, 2008-2010.
- Hydrafit Subsea (UK) Limited - To transfer engineering knowledge to develop a new product, 2008-2010.
- Hydrasun Limited - To develop and implement a world class stock control and inventory modelling system which will improve client service delivery, 2008-2010.
- MCS International (UK) Ltd - To develop and integrate a market ready software module for advanced VIV analysis of deepwater offshore risers, 2007 - 2010.
- Dominion Technology Gases Limited- To develop an intelligent maintenance schedule for all gas plant and machinery throughout all sites and integrate it into an existing asset tracking program, 2008 - 2010.
- Plexus Ocean Systems Limited- To develop a methodology and an enhanced industry design standard for the pipe casing hanger for application in the hydrocarbon recovery industry, 2008 - 2011.
- Ziebel UK Limited- To bring specialist engineering skills and expertise in composite materials and structures to enhance its ZipLog compostite product and derivatives, 2010 - 2011.
Completed KTP Projects:
- Target Well Control Ltd - To develop from initial conceptual design and bring to commercial realisation two 'instruments' to supplement the existing fleet of MWD/LWD and Directional Drilling products, 2002 - 2007.
- Circle Offshore Ltd - To analyse current water abrasive jet cutting system and working environment, resulting in the design and build of an optimised system able to operate in extreme deep-water conditions, 2004 - 2007.
- Read Well Services Ltd - To analyse and optimise the in-situ hydraulic expansion of oil well tubulars, and to develop design procedures for Tie Back and Patch repair techniques, 2003 - 2005.
- Hydro Group Ltd - To acquire in house expertise in optoelectronic technology and apply this to the current optical connector range, 2002 - 2004.
- Online Electronics Ltd - To design and construct a non-tethered pipeline plug with a large operational range and through-wall ELF communication system, 2001 - 2006.
- Geolink (UK) Ltd - Research and development on Measurement While Drilling (MWD) transmission methods and systems, 2001 - 2004.
- Transfer Systems International (UK) Ltd - To enable better understanding of bulk drilll cutting transfer performance criteria and their enhancement, improvement and automation, 2001 - 2003.
- CDL - To develop a sub-sea surveying system based on optical scanner (laser) technology, to be deployed on ROVs, aimed at providing measurements for fabrication and installation of pipeline jointing-pieces, 2000 - 2003.
- Shell International Exploration & Production Bv - To theoretically and experimentally study the mechanics of pipe expansion including tribology, "stick-slip" stress in a complex interconnected downhole pipe string and its dynamic response, 2000 - 2003.
- Axeon Ltd - To develop algorithms and demonstrator applications which utilise the unique capabilities of the company's Learning Processor, particularly in the area of text and image content filtering for web-based transactions, 2000 - 2002.
- Online Electronics Ltd - To design and construct a remote pig tracking/signalling system and advanced subsea pipeline pressure transducer with through-water acoustic modem for a custom subsea communication system, 1999 - 2002.
- PSL Holdings Ltd - To study the action of the company's premium product on sediments/solid material on the seabed, leading to an advanced predictive model for material response and providing reliable performance prediction for subsea trenching projects, 1999 - 2001.
- Stenmar-Sonavision - To develop high speed signal processing technology to allow the full exploitation of the company's piezo-composite technology in sonar systems for both offshore survey and military applications, 1998 - 2001.
- PES Ltd - To develop two specific new products for the oil and gas industry, 1996 - 2001.
- Rotech Engineering Ltd - To allow MacDrill use in aggressive conditions and "sour" wells, redesign mechanical elements of the motor to improve flow paths and simplify motor manufacture, enhance quality and reduce costs, 1998 - 2001.
- Ziebel UK Limited - To develop a novel and innovative multiphase flow meter for in line measurement of oil and gas flows, 2007-2009.
- Axon Instruments Ltd - To develop a novel and innovative multiphase flow meter for in line measurement of oil and gas flows, 2007 - 2009.
- Brinker Technology Ltd - To develop and extend Telepath, a new non-invasive approach to locating leaks in subsea umbilicals, 2007 - 2009.
- P.A.C.T. Engineering (Scotland) Ltd - To develop a unique drive train, which utilises fluid flow to generate electrical energy for ' PIGASYS' an autonomous contraflow vehicle designed for deployment inside pipelines, 2007 - 2009
- Plexus Ocean Systems Ltd - To develop an extended hold friction grip system for securing oil and gas pipe casing and tubulars in hostile surface and sub sea conditions, 2007 - 2009
- 4i2i Communications Ltd - To investigate image processing techniques and their implementation as a semiconductor intellectual property core in an embedded CCTV network camera alongside the existing video codec technology, 2005 - 2009.
- Pipeline Technique Ltd - To develop a cost-effective novel orbital welding system and intelligent weld design tools, 2004 - 2007.
Aberdeen University hosts the North of Scotland KTP-LINK Centre. This is the first point-of-contact for new KTP proposals.
Direct Industrial Funding for Research
Research collaboration ranges from consultancy by individual staff, through jointly funded applied research projects, to significant research projects funded by industry. Industrial collaboration features in many Government-funded, EC-funded and other international projects Many applied research projects are wholly funded by Industry, often directly focussed on industry needs. Examples of such projects include.
- AMEC Civil Engineering Ltd – Geotechnical work has focused on non-destructive testing of ground anchorage systems.
- Elforlight – Development of subsea holographic cameras with DTI Link funding.
- Inmarsat – This project specified an adaptation of multicast routing protocols for mobile satellite communications, to be realised in the next generation of the Inmarsat BGAN System, 2004 - 2006.
- QinetiQ – Design of a new architecture and techniques for reconfigurable military satellite modems, 1998 - 2003.
- Shell - Research into fatigue and fracture of super duplex steel in HPHT environments.
- Thales-Alenia Space - Analysis of performance of a new protocol architecture for next generation satellite DVB-RCS systems.
- Vesuvius UK – Materials research on the pressing of continuous casting refractories 1997–2004.
- EADS Astrium– Analysis of performance of a new protocol architecture for next generation satellite DVB-RCS systems, 2002. Analysis of performance of small terminal satellite systems, 2008 - 2011.
The first point of contact for new projects is the leader of the corresponding Research Group.
Commercialisation & Proof of Concept Funding
With support from the University's Research and Commercialisation Committee, research commercialisation continues to be a priority.
Research has lead to a succession of Projected funded by Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept awards to develop research technology into products that can be realised and commercialised.
Examples of projects supported by PoC funding:
- Planar Gunn Diode - To develop a semi-conductor device that produces very high frequency radiation in an affordable way, which can be used to detect skin cancers and could also be applied in a wide range of commercial sectors.
- Enhancing management of pipeline infrastructure - This Proof of Concept project with Brinker Technology has developed smart technology for detecting and sealing leaks in oil and gas pipelines.
- Automated data mining using artificial intelligence techniques - Developing technology to allow a data set to be interogated to automaticaly determine parameters can describe the conditions or states of the data set.
- Environment-friendly bonding systems for wood particle composites - The project considers a new binder, for wood particles and chips, tailored to specific board products to optimise performance and ease manufacturing.
- Increasing the fluid-carrying capacity of ducts, culverts and small streams - The project investigates arrangements of lateral bars added to the bottom and or sides of a channel or conduit to increase the flow capacity of the channel.
- Prototype development for High Gain DC transformer - The project researches a new method for direct current (DC) power conversion which could be used for subsea power transmission.
Examples of other government funding:
- POROPTIC - To commercialise an optical device for measuring porosity in rocks with funding from DTI LINK/OSDA (HRH Ltd, Shell, University of Aberdeen).
- eHoloCam - To produce a second second-generation underwater holographic camera with funding from DTI LINK/OSDA (CDL, University of Aberdeen).
- Nanotechnology for Sustainable Water Purification - To produce working prototype of a water purification system and demonstrate commercial viability with funding from DTI (Scotoil, Yorkshire Water and OpTIC Technium, University of Aberdeen).
- Resonance Enhanced Drilling (RED) - a four-year project to develop and commercialise a new drilling system from Scottish Enterprise’s ITI Energy.
- UK Energetics Consortium - The School's contribution will lead energetics-related research in materials, with funding from MoD (QinetiQ, Cranfield, Imperial College and Cambridge).
The first point of contact for new projects is the leader of the corresponding Research Group.
Spin-Out Companies
Our research has established a series of spin-out companies to commercialise the research originating within the School:
Axeon Technologies Ltd. Axeon was founded in 1998 as a joint venture between the University and Axeon Ltd. This created a novel symbiotic relationship in which the Univeristy provides a pool of intellectual and product concepts in the fields of information technology and associated electronics while Axeon provides the product development, management, marketing skills and finance necessary to turn ideas into real products. Axeon has focussed on bringing its leading-edge, high-performance, low cost Vindax technology to as wide an audience as possible. 
BlueFlow Ltd uses technology developed in the School of Engineering. It holds the exclusive license to patent pending technology for automated data mining, developed with PoC funding from the Scottish Executive. A software product has been developed for concurrent analysis of large amounts of financial data to identify correlations that lead to consistent profitable predictions for the financial investment field. New Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technologies may improve the speed of analysis and allow more exhaustive analysis of the data. 
Brinker Technology is a multi-award winning British company. It offers a unique combination of innovative technical solutions for pipeline integrity management to industry worldwide. The technology employs Platelets® to repair pipelines by using the fluid flow inside a pipeline to deliver specially designed Platelets® to a leak site, resembling the platets in the blood stream that seal cuts and wounds in the human body. The first commercial implementation of Platelet Technology® was in September 2004 on a subsea water injection pipeline in BP's Foinaven field, resulting in immediate impact on reservoir production. 
Environmental Buidling Partnerships Ltd. The Environmental Building Partnership Ltd (EBP) is a new building engineering consultancy specialising in low energy and modular building design and construction. This uses technology developed in the School of Engineering, including low-energy buildings, breathable buidlings and modular housing.
Consultancy
The provision of expert advice to external clients by the University’s staff provides a path by which knowledge with practical application can be disseminated. The School of Engineering provides a range of consultancy services to both industry and governmental organisations. The University of Aberdeen provides legal, contractural and management support to consultancy projects. The first point of contact for new projects is the individual member of staff with expertise in the required topic or the leader of the corresponding Research Group.
Further Information
Further information on these and other research activities is provided by each of the four Research Institute: