Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Best Paper Win at the International Symposium on Advanced Materials Conference
The International Symposium on Advanced Materials Application is a prestigious international conference to promote current groundbreaking research findings in the field of materials science and engineering.
The conference brings together leaders from industry and academia to exchange and share their experiences, present research results, explore collaborations and to spark new ideas, with the aim of developing new projects and exploiting new technology in this field and this year, was held in Seoul, South Korea. I presented the research findings of a collaborative project between Leeds Beckett University, an Indonesian academic partner and the UK Highways industry, funded by the Newton Fund. The projects investigated the development of low carbon high performance concrete based on agricultural waste products for utilisation in highways engineering. This is particularly important as the entire civil engineering / construction materials sector is a major contributor to anthropogenic CO2 emissions, which is postulated to be a major cause of climate change. The utilisation of waste materials with a low embodied CO2 in infrastructure materials can therefore have a significantly positive environmental impact. The findings of the project have been very positive with the development of high strength and robust concrete which, at the time of writing, has successfully been trialled on the UK highways network.
The paper (which is also part of Fraser Hyndman’s PhD project) was very well received by the delegates. In fact the paper won the best paper award. This was a surprising achievement, especially given the high standard of research papers presented by fellow distinguished delegates from academia and industry. However, the feedback from the panel was that they were impressed by the practical application and impact of the research.
In addition the conference presented a tremendous networking opportunity with promising leads with potential partners in the Far East for future reference. In conclusion it was a very productive conference - the papers were very well received by the delegates and new research ideas were developed which will be the basis of future research bids and collaboration.
Dr Ash Ahmed
Leading several undergraduate and postgraduate modules in the field of civil engineering materials science to primarily civil engineering students and also to construction, surveyors and architects.
