Throughout March we’re celebrating nC²’s brilliant women engineers, inspired by International Women’s Day 2024. This week, meet Professor Nicola Symonds.

Role: Director
Area of expertise: Failure/accident investigation
Career in a nutshell: Led nC² since its establishment in 2015, after 10 years working on accident investigations in the Ministry of Defence
Best thing about the job: “Leading, working, and having fun with such an excellent and diverse team.”
Most proud of: “Providing my expertise to support the five-year Air Accidents Investigation Branch investigation into the 2018 Leicester City Stadium AW169 helicopter crash, which was published in 2023.”

Find out more about Nicola.

It was great to welcome Jenna Taylor and Emry Eisaman from the National Museum of the Royal Navy. They came to drop off some samples for the HMS Victory project, so we took the opportunity to show them our capabilities – here they are with Dr Ben Cunningham in the Testing and Structures Research Laboratory. Always a pleasure to hear about the exciting conservation work NMRN is doing – we’re so proud to be part of it.

Inspired by International Women’s Day 2024, our month-long celebration of the talented women in the nC² team continues. This time we recognise the skills and expertise of Sam Hambrook.

Role: Senior Engineering Technician
Area of expertise: Sample preparation, imaging, evidence tracking, lab management
Career in a nutshell: Joined nC² in 2019 – previous roles include yacht skipper and police officer!
Best thing about my job: “The variety of projects and having the expertise of others to call on.”

Find out more about Sam.

Our nC² lab keys have been stolen! We need some young sleuths to crack the code set by the dastardly Professor Nogood, so we can continue our vital work. Watch the video for the full story…

We hope you’ll share our plea for help with your little detectives, and join us on Saturday 16 March at Science and Engineering Day for our fun escape-room style challenge.

It’s part of a fantastic free day of activities, workshops, lab tours and live shows, with something for all ages to discover. We’ll be at the University of Southampton’s Boldrewood Campus, Building 176, level 1. Visit the Science and Engineering Day website for more details and free tickets.

To mark 🌟 International Women’s Day 2024 🌟 we’re celebrating the talented women in the nC² team, with a profile each week during March. First up, it’s Dr Ilaria Corni….

Role: Head of Operations and Principal Consultant
Area of expertise: Materials characterisation and electrochemical deposition
Career in a nutshell: Joined nC2 in 2016 after working as a researcher at the University of Southampton
Favourite thing about my job: “I really enjoy helping clients to solve engineering and material related problems. Every day at work is different and it is exciting to be involved in projects spanning from the medical to the aerospace sector.”

Learn more about Ilaria.

We’re proud to report that nC²’s Director, Professor Nicola Symonds, has been made a Fellow of the Women’s Engineering Society. This prestigious award recognises individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the field of engineering and to the sustained encouragement of women in STEM.

As an internationally recognised expert in failure/accident investigation and a staunch advocate for women in engineering, including within the nC² team, Nicola is truly an exemplar for both. Congratulations Nicola!

At nC² everything we do is powered by expertise – and we’ve got a huge pool of specialist knowledge to draw from at the University of Southampton. Take Dr Neil Wells, who manages the University’s Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy Facility and is a member of our network of experts.

We can bring Neil on board when our clients are seeking to understand the composition, 3D structure and other key structural characteristics of a chemical sample at a molecular level – an invaluable technique for quality control and product development. Find out more about Neil.

Our Head of Operations, Dr Ilaria Corni, has been in the laboratory testing whether a client’s sensor would work at cryogenic temperatures. She put the sensors through their paces, thermal cycling them between room temperature and minus 190 C using liquid nitrogen.

And it was good news for the client – all the sensors survived and showed great potential for use in this temperature range. We look forward to seeing them on the market.

Thrilled to share this captivating microstructure image of brass extracted from a valve. The intricate details were revealed through a meticulous process of cross-sectioning, polishing, and etching, offering a glimpse into the hidden world within the metal. It’s amazing how a simple valve holds such mesmerizing complexity beneath the surface.

Kudos to our skilled professional technician Sam Hambrook who brings these microstructural wonders to light!

We help our clients find solutions by tapping into a wealth of specialist expertise across the University of Southampton. For projects involving chemical analysis, we can call on Dr Julie Herniman and Professor John Langley who are leading experts in chromatography and mass spectrometry.

They use state-of-the-art instrumentation to help companies understand chemical profiles, whether for problem solving, quality control or monitoring. Get in touch to find out how our network of expertise could help you.

Who said corrosion can’t be beautiful? Usually we need to use our microscopes to view corrosion within our clients’ metal components, but not in this case. Here you can see a cross-section through a zinc-plated steel fastener from the historic ship HMS Victory. It was installed about 25 years ago and has been removed as part of the current conservation project.

We’re helping the National Museum of the Royal Navy to take an evidence-based approach to materials selection to ensure that the rain is kept out of HMS Victory’s timbers in future, so they are unlikely to ever see rusty fasteners like this again. Read more about our work supporting the conservation of HMS Victory and our corrosion testing capabilities.

Meet Dr Meisam Jalalvand, a recent addition to our network of experts who specialises in the characterisation and analysis of fibre-reinforced composite materials. If your company is seeking to understand how these complex materials perform in service, predict potential failure mechanisms, or gather robust data for design modelling, we can call on Meisam to help. Find out more about Meisam.

Professor Nicola Symonds and Dr Benjamin Cunningham recently went on a client site visit, with a chance to see a northern icon en route! They visited a customer’s assembly plant, where they applied their detective and engineering skills on the factory floor to get a better understanding of an in-service failure issue. They also agreed next steps which include shipping parts to our lab for further failure investigation analysis. It’s a great example of our flexible, tailored problem-solving approach.

Rachel Triggs and Dr JB Bello staffed our stand at last week’s Southampton Business Expo at the Hilton Aegas Bowl.

It was great to meet representatives of so many different industries – we look forward to collaborating with some of you in the future.

Introducing Dr Lindsay-Marie Armstrong, a specialist in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and a recent addition to our network of experts. Lindsay’s specialist knowledge is invaluable for any industry challenge where fluid dynamics are at play, from understanding the behaviour of liquid moving through a pipe to modelling complex chemical processes. It’s a cost-effective way to test different parameters for problem solving, product development, prototype testing or design optimisation. Read Lindsay’s profile to find out more about her expertise.

Sam Hambrook, Dr JB Bello and Dr Spencer Court represented nC² at Wyvern College’s careers fair, where they shared their passion for science and engineering with year 10 and 11 students who are thinking about A level choices. We’re always keen to let young people know about the range of exciting career options in STEM – hopefully we’ve inspired some scientists and engineers of the future.

If you need to find out how materials, paints or coatings perform when they are exposed to the elements or to fluid flows, Dr Spencer Court is your man. He is an expert in corrosion and environmental testing, and can help you gain the insights you need to select the right coating or material for your product. Find out more about our corrosion/electrochemical and paint/coatings testing, or contact Spencer for a free initial consultation.