News in brief, 19 August 2019
Published: 16 August 2019
A roundup of news across the University
Shine on Dr Johanna Green!
UofG’s Dr Johanna Green – was the VIP starter at the Cancer Research UK Scotland Shine Walk Glasgow 2019 on Saturday night. Just a year ago Johanna was diagnosed with Stage 4 bowel cancer just before her 35th birthday but thankfully she is now in remission. Congratulations to everyone who took part, including Johanna’s UofG colleagues from across the College of Arts who did the 10k walk around Glasgow in support of Johanna and in aid of cancer research. The team, "UofG Semi-Colons", have raised over £4,000 and looked great in their #TeamUofG socks! 
Postgraduate student takes her prizewinning play to the Edinburgh Fringe
Postgraduate student Georgia Nelson has won the Edinburgh Little Theatre and The National newspaper's playwriting competition for her play "Soft Boy".
This play was developed as a piece of coursework on our MLitt Playwriting and Dramaturgy programme.
You can read about the prize here: https://www.thenational.scot/news/17840627.powerful-plays-women-win-performance-fringe/
This means the play will be performed at Hill Street Theatre (venue 41) at the Edinburgh Fringe next week. https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/edinburgh-little-theatre
School of Interdisciplinary Studies has welcomed distinguished Chinese academics
The School of Interdisciplinary Studies welcomed a delegation of distinguished academics from two of China’s most prestigious environmental research institutions to Dumfries on Wednesday, 31 July 2019.
Academics from the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SAAS) and the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CREAS) in Beijing came to the School to discuss current research, other interests in common and the potential for future collaborations.
Dr John Shi, Senior Lecturer in Hydrology, explained how important this visit was: “The work to address current environmental issues in China being undertaken by SAAS and CRAES is incredibly important and reflective of many of the environmental issues covered in our MA Environmental Science and Sustainability programme.
“There is real potential for a strategic international partnership between SoIS, SAAS and CREAS that would be of benefit to all three institutions: their students, academics and the countries involved.”
eVTOL project with Rolls-Royce
The University’s Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) laboratory is working with Rolls-Royce to simulate the flow and acoustic fields around a novel rotorcraft configuration.
This new vehicle is taking advantage of an electric, distributed propulsion system, and is unconventional since it tilts its main wing for vertical take-off. Electric propulsion and vertical take-off are seen as key enablers in a new dimension in aerospace research concerning light, personal flying machines, suitable for air-taxi operations working together with existing urban transportation systems. eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) is seen as a major multi-disciplinary area of research in aerospace and the way forward in intelligent, personalised urban transportation systems.
The University of Glasgow CFD Lab was selected for this project by Rolls-Royce due to their expertise in rotorcfaft, CFD and aeroacoustics, as well as their record in working with propeller propulsion. The project takes advantage of in-house software written over many years by CFD lab members, offering a unique ability in analysing not only the aerodynamic forces acting on this new aircraft but also its acoustic field that is important if operations are to take place within inhabited areas.
Ross Higgins who is member of the CFD lab of Glasgow and already researching in propellers and CFD will be working with Professor George Barakos and Dr Rene Steijl of the James Watt School of Engineering to deliver this research. The project is seen as a first step towards more integrated efforts in electric, personal flight.
http://evtol.news/aircraft/rolls-royce-evtol/
https://transportup.com/rolls-royce-evtol/
First published: 16 August 2019