Understanding how materials perform – and why things sometimes go wrong – is crucial for everyone’s safety. That’s why our Director, Professor Nicola Symonds, is always keen to share her forensic engineering expertise with up-and-coming engineers. Having investigated numerous rail, air and marine accidents, she’s well placed to bring the subject to life with examples from her own career.

This week she gave a guest lecture to students on the Failure of Materials and Components module, which brings together budding mechanical, aerospace, maritime and civil engineers from across the University of Southampton’s MSc and MEng engineering degrees. The module focuses on the performance of different structural materials in a range of applications, the assessment of failure problems, and the associated micromechanical failure modes.

Module lead Professor Ian Sinclair says: “We include lots of real-world examples, like the ones Nicola presents, to keep the relevance and applicability clear. Nicola’s lecture goes down really well with the cohort every year.”

Find out more about our expert failure and accident investigation services.