Dr Catherine Jones – Scottish Crucible 2017

Researcher, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

 Institute for Energy and Environment, Strathclyde University

https://www.strath.ac.uk/staff/jonescatherinedr/

Tel: +44 (0)141 444 7262 catherine.e.jones@strath.ac.uk

I applied for the Scottish Crucible in early 2017, as a post-doctoral researcher working within the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre for Electrical Power Systems, within the Department for Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde.  Crucible provided me with an excellent opportunity not only to share research ideas and ultimately collaborate with academics outside the engineering research community, but also has positively influenced my research, teaching and collaborative activities on both a national and international scale.

Crucible directly inspired a 5th year MEng group project that I proposed and am currently running, to build an historical fitness machine.  This will provide the platform for future collaborative research planned with Historian Dr Lucas Richert (2017 Cruciblist), with research funding proposals planned to explore these machines and their influence on society further. This interdisciplinary collaboration has also provided inspiration for outreach work with schools, planned for later in 2018.

Away from collaborative projects with History, my core research interests lie in electrical power systems, often applied to aerospace applications, such as proposed future aircraft where propulsion is provided either all or in part by electrically driven propulsive fans.  Participation in Crucible provided me with the confidence and ambition to continue to build my interdisciplinary activity in this area (e.g. combining electrical power systems with materials science) and to successfully apply for travel funding to identify and develop collaborative opportunities with NASA. 

Ultimately, Crucible has encouraged me to see the wider picture beyond Ohm’s Law and to investigate the areas of electrical power engineering that are strongly influenced by external factors.