7th Postgraduate Research Symposium on Ferrous Metallurgy 2024
By Ajitesh Sharma – PhD candidate in Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), University of Warwick
The 7th Postgraduate Research Symposium on Ferrous Metallurgy 2024 was held at the historical Armourers Hall and was hosted by Materials Processing Institute (MPI), IOM3 (Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining) and Armourers & Braisiers’ Co. The symposium has been running since 2018 and is a great event for postgraduate researchers in the metallurgy field to come together, network and hear about research in the sector, with about 50 researchers attending every year. It also gives young researchers a platform to present their findings in front of peers and industry experts. From posters to presentations, there was a breadth of areas covered ranging from casting technologies and sustainability for future steel making, process development and characterisation to predictive machine learning methods.
The welcome session started with Chris McDonald, Strategic Advisor at the Materials Processing Institute, giving an overview of the day and welcoming delegates to the prestigious Armourers Hall. This flowed well to go into the presentation sessions, starting with process development, in which I also presented my work around the influence of compositions on the cast microstructure for different casting technologies. It was humbling and exciting to see the interest in my research project the audience had, asking technical questions and even after my talk to come and have discussions with me about the way I’ve conducted my experimental procedures. In between presentations, poster intervals were held giving opportunity to ask questions on the latest research on display and to network with everyone in attendance.
The day fittingly ended with keynote speaker Pam Murrell, FICME, Chief Executive Officer, at the UK Cast Metals Federation, where Pam spoke about the current challenges and opportunities for the UK casting industry – and posed a question; Can castings be part of the solution for the transition to net zero?
After this, the highly anticipated prizes were awarded, in which I was very grateful to have won the runners up award for the best presentation. All the poster displays were fantastic, and this was the first year in which the University of Warwick won both the best poster and the runners up for best presentation award. It was a great achievement to not only get commendations but to have quite a few representations from the University of Warwick.
I would like to thank the organisers – Materials Processing Institute, IOM3 (Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining), Armourers & Braisiers’ Co. – for this wonderful event. Further thanks to all the sponsors – TATA Steel, Materials and Design Exchange, UKRI Interdisciplinary Centre for Circular Metals, UK metals and Cast Metals Federation – for making it possible to have this event. Finally, huge gratitude to my supervisors Professor Claire Davis and Dr. Carl Slater, the SUSTAIN – Future Steel Manufacturing Research Hub and WMG, University of Warwick – for all the support and resources.
I believe the symposium is a great event and I have learnt a lot. I would like to highly encourage more of my peers to register for an opportunity to present in future at this symposium!