Accelerator

Ayantika Mitra to transform advanced materials manufacturing through digital technologies in flagship UKRI scheme

TISICS engineer awarded £1.2M UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) have announced a £1.2M award to TISICS engineer, Ayantika Mitra, to transform advanced materials manufacturing through digital technologies.

UKRI’s flagship scheme invests in outstanding individuals across the UK and, for the first time, five of the awards will support new research and innovation leaders based directly in businesses. The scheme is designed to develop their careers while tackling ambitious global challenges and seize the vast opportunities in science, innovation, and industries of the future.

Ayantika’s work will focus on developing automation and Industry 4.0 technologies to accelerate the adoption of advanced metal composite materials. The 4-year project ‘RAiSE:  Radical Approaches in new materials Science and Engineering’ will develop tools across TISICS’ multi-stage manufacturing processes to enable rapid certification and qualification of new lightweight products for spacecraft and aircraft.

The project will be carried out in close collaboration with aerospace industrial partners and is supported by advanced materials and processing expertise from the University of Derby, University of Manchester and the Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials.

Ayantika’s application was supported by Prof Phil Withers, Chief Scientist at the Henry Royce Institute who said:

“I am especially proud to be involved in this project because one of the aims of Royce is to provide SMEs with access to the R&D facilities characteristic of a major multinational company. I have had the pleasure of working with TISICS in their efforts to develop these state-of-the-art composites for many years and so I am really excited by this opportunity. This award demonstrates how by combining skilled expertise from industry with access to state-of-the-art processing equipment, we can help to drive research and innovation and accelerate the uptake of Industry 4.0 approaches underpinning the next industrial revolution.”

TISICS are the world’s only integrated ceramic fibre and metal composite manufacturer. Stephen Kyle-Henney, Managing Director, TISICS Limited said:

“This is a fantastic opportunity for TISICS to accelerate digital manufacturing processing at our Farnborough facility. Automation is essential to achieve the reproducibility and economics demanded by our space and aerospace customers for flight-critical systems. Ayantika has brought an amazing skill set to support our world leading lightweight materials technology. She has demonstrated the commitment and competence to enable TISICS investment to co-fund the UKRI fellowship grant and ensure we are production-ready for our next phase of growth. UKRI’s continued support for SMEs like TISICS ensures we can deliver the technology needed for the next generation of fuel-efficient aircraft and high-performance space systems.”

View the official UKRI announcement here.