This project brings together internationally leading expertise in multiphase flows with key stakeholders working to develop evidence to underpin new protocols for safe delivery of UK dental care in the light of covid-19. Aerosol Generating Procedures (AGPs) are ubiquitous in dentistry due to mixed streams of air and water used as coolants during instrumentation. This coupled with evidence that oral fluids contain high levels of viral particles rapidly led to dental AGPs being identified as a critical transmission risk during the current pandemic and all routine UK dental care stopped. In this project, we will first characterise aerosols formed during the most common dental AGPs, (high-speed and low speed cutting of tooth substrate and ultrasonic dental scalers used for dental cleaning). High speed photography combined with appropriate illumination will be used for aerosol characterisation. The illumination angle and strength and image recording speed will be optimised for quantification of aerosol concentration and aerosol dispersion speed and distance from the source where the aerosol cloud can disperse. Then, measurements will be conducted in clinically relevant environments using training mannequins with ambient air exchange, enclosure size and operatory furniture reflective of different care settings. Following establishment of base-line aerosol behaviour for current care practices, mitigation steps, including modifications in air/water supplies to instrumentation, reduction in cutting speeds, high volume aspiration parameters and ambient air flow, will be explored. The direct involvement of clinical experts, virologists, public health policy researchers and instrument manufacturers will ensure that findings are rapidly considered.

This research proposal concerns optical sensors for distance measurement at ultra high resolution and over an extended range of up to 100 m. The accurate measurement of distance, or range to a target is of fundamental importance and has applications across many areas of science and engineering. Optical methods for length measurement are particularly attractive as light is non-intrusive, i.e. it does not affect the properties of the system being measured, and furthermore recent advances in optical frequency measurement mean that the wavelength, or colour, of light can be defined with levels of uncertainty of 1 part in a quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000). The basis of the research stems from the ability to form longer synthetic wavelengths, up to 100 m, from combinations of optical wavelengths that are of the order of a thousandth of a millimetre. This requires the reliable identification of 100,000,000 optical wavelengths and represents a significant advance over current capabilities. To prove this technology requires the combination of multi-wavelength interferometers with ultrafast lasers that emit pulses of the order of 1/100,000,000,000,000 seconds in length with an exact regularly spaced 'comb' of frequencies. This represents a new challenge for distance metrology.During the course of the project I will apply the newly developed methodologies to a number of applications in metrology The ultra short pulse length of femtosecond lasers will be exploited in combination with fibre Bragg gratings to measure surface position millions of times per second to measure dynamic surfaces moving at velocities up to 500 m/s. The dynamic evolution of three dimensional shapes either as objects such as automotive airbags in crash tests or as bubbles in liquid heat exchangers will be studied using multi-wavelength techniques with the data providing new understanding of these processes and hence leading to improved designs. Applications of long range, 100 m distance metrology are found in astronomy to enable very long baseline interferometers to be constructed where the increased baseline corresponds to an increase in angular sensitivity that may be used to measure the size of distant stars.

The overarching aim is to develop a facility for the testing and evaluating of large structures, called Structure 2025. To construct such a facility it is necessary to purchase specialist equipment, which comprises imaging, loading and control systems. Structures 2025 will provide a novel integrated imaging and loading system that is flexible, and can be used for the testing and assessment of a wide range of structures across industry sectors. The unique feature of Structures 2025 is that it will, for the first time, enable data-rich studies of the behaviour of large components and structures subjected to realistic loading scenarios mimicking the behaviour of a structure in service. It will be possible to model the loads felt by aircraft in flight, railway structures, bridges and cars and understand better how the structure supports the load experienced in service. Structures 2025 will enable the introduction of new lightweight materials into transport systems allowing energy savings and a more sustainable approach to design. The uniqueness of Structures 2025 is predicated on imaging, where large amounts of data can be collected to provide information about the structural response. The imaging will be based on both visible light and infra-red camera systems which capture data from the loaded structure and used to evaluate strains and deformations. Traditional sensors take only point readings, whereas images provide data over a wide field of view, since each sensor in the imaging device provides a measurement, the terminology 'data-rich' is applied. A complete system integration will be developed and implemented, that combines the load application using a multi-actuator loading system with the imaging systems. The combination of techniques into a single integrated system will be unique internationally, and will enable the accurate assessment of the interactions between material failure mechanisms/modes and structural stiffness/strength driven failure modes on a hitherto unattainable level of physical realism. Structures 2025 will provide what can be termed high-fidelity data-rich testing of structural components, to integrate with multi-scale computational modelling to provide better predicitive models of structural failure and create safer and more efficient structures. Structures 2025 will be developed in close collaboration with 16 industry partners, representing the rail infrastructure, civil engineering, experimental technique development, energy systems, marine and offshore, and aerospace sectors, as well as several university partners.

The development of new materials and new devices / products based upon these materials is absolutely critical to the economic development of our society. One critical aspect of the development of new materials is the ability to analyse the materials and thus determine their properties. Indeed at the very heart of the philosophy of the materials discipline is the relationship between the microstructure and the properties of the materials. The core idea is that through processing one can control the microstructure and thus the properties. Materials characterisation tells us how succesful we have been at changing the microstructure and so is essential in process development. It also tells us what has gone wrong when materials or devices based upon them fail, i.e. it is used in troubleshooting. There are a vast array of advanced materials characterisation techniques available these days and it is very challenging to know the best technique or combination of techniques to use to answer specific research problems. There is a need, therefore, to train research scientists who are expert in the use of certain techniques but also have a broader in-depth understanding of the plethora of techniques that potentially could be used. At the moment there is a skills gap in this area and we will plug that gap with this CDT in advanced characterisation of materials that brings together experts in advanced materials characterisation from two of the worlds top universities. The students will also spend some time (at least 12 weeks) in industry or at an overseas univeristy receiving context specific training. The unique vision brought by this research training programme, therefore, is that our students will have a knowledge of materials characterisation that goes beyond narrow expertise in one or two experimental techniques, or a general overview of many, and instead cuts to the heart of what it means to be a leading experimentalist; with an inherent understanding of the nature of a scientific problem, the fundamental principles and intellectual tools required to address the problem, the technical knowledge and craft to apply the most appropriate experimental technique to obtain the necessary information and the critical and analytical skill to extract the solution from the data. The vision will be realised by exploiting the unique experimental infrastructure provided by UCL and ICL. The first year will be an MRes structure with the entire cohort receiving laboratory based practical training in techniques ubiquitous to modern day materials characterisation such as vacuum technology, scanning probe microscopy, optical characterisation techniques and clean-room processing. Key analytical skills will be taught such as data handling, manipulation and interpretation, practiced on real data, exploiting facilities such as Imperials ToF-SIMS analysis suite and UCL chemistry's material modelling user interface. We will engage with industry to generate genuine problem-based characterisation case studies so that elements of the course will be founded on problem based learning. Visiting professors such as Mark Dowsett (Warwick University) and Hidde Brongersma(Calipso BV) will contribute to the training experience and some external courses will be used for specialist training, for example at ISIS. Traditional lectures will be limited in number with every sub-topic leading into an interactive problem class run by one of our extensive number of industry partners. In our CDT ACM the thrill of solving class problems together and of competing in team-based experimental challenges will produce a highly engaged, critically minded, close-knit team of students.

The EPSRC Collaborative Doctoral Training Centre in Science and Engineering in Arts, Heritage and Archaeology (CDT SEAHA) will create a sustainable world-leading training hub producing leaders in the cutting-edge domains of measurement and sensing, materials characterisation, interaction technologies, digital technologies and new ventures. The graduates from the programs will not only create new scientific and engineering knowledge and fill skills gaps in these domains but have a deep understanding of the ethical, practical, economic and social imperatives of the deployment of this knowledge in the arts, Heritage and Archaeological sectors. University College London, University of Oxford and University of Brighton will work as a team bringing together highly complementary supervisory capacities in order to fill the skills gap in the cycle of data creation, data to knowledge and knowledge to enterprise by pushing the state-of-the-art in metrology, sensing, spectroscopy, materials characterisation, modelling, big data mining, crowd engagement, new interaction technologies, digital technology and business skills. Partnering with globally renowned (national and international) heritage organisations representing a world class, broad range of forms of heritage and the arts, the student cohorts will be trained and developed in fully engaged cross-disciplinary environments, challenged by research questions addressing complex materials and environments. The most advanced scientific tools and approaches, some to be developed in collaboration with the Diamond Light Source and the National Physical Laboratory, will be deployed to answer questions on its origin, date, creation, conservation and composition of objects and materials. In addition to the fundamental physical science approach, the students will, in an innovative cohort approach to training and development, explore ways of engaging with presentation and visualisation methods, using pervasive mobile, digital and creative technologies, and with qualitative and participatory methods. This approach will engage the sensors and instrumentation industrial domain, as well as creative industries, both high added value industries and major contributors to the UK economy. The CDT will have a transformative effect on public institutions concerned with heritage interpretation, conservation and management, generating substantial tourism income. Without the CDT, some of the most dynamic UK sectors will lose their competitive edge in the global arts and heritage market. The CDT was created with the close involvement of a number of stakeholders crucially contributing to the development of the training programme based on the cohort teaching approach. The added value of this approach is in that creativity is unleashed through the promotion of excellence in a series of cohort activities, in which the Partner institutions intensively collaborate in teaching, placements, supervision, networking and organisation of public engagement events. The particular added value of this CDT is the high potential for engagement of the general public with science and engineering, while promoting responsible innovation conscious of ethical and social dimensions of arts, heritage and archaeology. The CDT SEAHA builds on the highly successful AHRC/EPSRC Science and Heritage Programme at UCL which mobilised the UK heritage science sector and repositioned it at the forefront of global development. The CDT will represent a step-change in capacity building; it will propel a young generation of cross-disciplinary scientists and engineers into highly challenging but hugely interesting and rewarding careers in the heritage sector, in SMEs, and public institutions and equip them with translational and transferrable skills that will enable them to thrive in the most complex research and entrepreneurial environments.