Rafael Ruiz Iglesias, a PhD student in Bristol Composites Institute supervised by Professors Janice Barton and Ole Thomsen, and Dr Geir Olafsson has received the British Society for Strain Measurement (BSSM), Young Stress Analyst prize. The competition, which is sponsored by Airbus, involves writing a 1000 word summary of the applicants project. The project summaries are ranked by a panel of experts in Experimental Mechanics and the top four applicants are invited to present their work at the BSSM Annual Conference which took place in Oxford at St Anne’s college. The competition is open internationally and the other three finalists came from Netherlands, Portugal and UK Industry.
Rafa’s presentation entitled “Subsurface Damage Assessment in Composite Laminates Using a Novel Full Field Imaging Technique” which is part CerTest, a 5 year multidisciplinary project, is aligned to the EPSRC funded Programme Grant Certification for Design . Each finalist was allowed 15 minutes for their presentation followed by five minutes of intense questioning; there were over 100 delegates in the audience. Rafa’s presentation was extremely visual and engaging, which the judges appreciated and placed his work first.
The outcome of the competition was announced at the conference gala dinner, which provided a very nice end to the evening with Rafa receiving first prize.
Congratulations to Rafa!