Geoffrey Howell

Background

About Geoffrey Howell

I work for Frazer-Nash Consultancy Ltd. as a Consultant in the Trials and Condition Monitoring Group. This role lets me work with a wide variety of clients across all sectors of engineering in the UK. At the moment I am delivering work in the Rail & Rolling Stock sector, as well as helping clients plug gaps in their supply chain knowledge for manufacture of product critical components and systems. My background in materials science, experimental design, CAD/FEA, manufacturing, and combining data from real world sources, laboratory tests, and electronic simulations allows me to help our clients and my colleagues solve difficult client challenges. My PhD at University of Southampton was an experimental based research project working with 4 industrial partners as well as a research team at the university. Building strong, professional working relationships with a number of different colleagues was integral to the successful delivery of the project aims. We managed to develop a novel stress analysis technique centred on IR technology allowing a non-contact, non-destructive, full-field measurement of a large area (e.g. a 100 degree arc of a weld join in pipes) in much shorter time-frames than current, commercially used techniques can manage. When compared to other non-destuctive techniques (i.e. ultrasonic measurements) the time from initial set up to processed results is an order of magnitude quicker (0.5-1 day for 4 sites each with multiple welds compared to a whole week for a single weld at a single site). After my PhD I moved into a single laboratory without the same in-field development of techniques (something I've since regained in my current role). However, this role allowed me to develop many important skills for working within a professional environment. These included project and team leading, liaising with different departments within the University, working around time-critical research without hindering deadlines, and scheduling outside contractors to complete renovations. I also developed a strong knowledge of health and safety, and in particular COSHH and Fire Safety.