After meeting Prof. Ieropoulos at one of his regular surgeries, Jack accepted his invite to visit the Bristol Robotics Laboratory at the UWE Bristol Frenchay Campus to see the work that his team are doing.
Bristol Robotics Laboratory is a joint collaboration between UWE and the University of Bristol that brings together over 200 academics, researchers and industry practitioners to work at the cutting edge of robotics, intelligent autonomous systems and bio-engineering.
During his visit, Jack observed teams working on the latest technology for driverless cars, the use of robots in medicine and rehabilitation, and bioenergy. One of their main projects is currently funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as it offers solutions to the third world energy crisis by aiming to process human urine and generate electricity. Amazingly this technology is currently being trialled in a remote African school using kit built in our area. Jack was particularly interested in learning that this technology could be developed to help power military equipment behind enemy lines in the most remote locations.
As well as bringing together some of the world’s brightest minds, Bristol Robotics Laboratory also is helping to train the next generation of scientists and engineers offering a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses as well as internships. Jack believes that it is essential for our future economy that we encourage our most capable students to pursue study in these new exciting disciplines as the potential breakthroughs are endless