Research

Research in the School is aligned to three interconnected research areas: engineering resilience, green living and healthy living.

We operate four research centres alongside a number of strategic cross-cutting interdisciplinary research clusters.

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Research excellence

In the latest UK Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021), we ranked 15th in the UK for ‘*research power’ in engineering.

Overall, Surrey has risen 12 places in the rankings since 2014 to 33rd in the UK for our research quality.

* Research power is the overall quality of submissions, calculated by grade point average and multiplied by the full-time equivalent number of staff submitted.

Research themes

The research interests in our School sit at the intersections between engineering resilience, green living and healthy living, addressing key future engineering challenges including affordable energy, autonomous vehicles, assisted ageing, environmental monitoring, and sustainable design and manufacture.

Examples of topics which are key to these challenges include:

Aerodynamics
Biomedical engineering
Ceramics and metals
Electric and hybrid vehicles
Engineering materials
Fluid dynamics
Functional materials
Nanotechnology

Neural interfacing
Polymers
Robotics
Sensors and fluid measurement
Structural integrity
Surface and interfaces reactions
Vehicle dynamics
Virtual reality.

Research centres

Centre for Aerodynamics and Environmental Flow

Conducting world-class research in experimental and computational fluids dynamics, with world-leading output in specialist areas.

Centre for Automotive Engineering

Aiming to provide world class technical research for vehicle analysis in all areas of automotive engineering.

Centre for Biomedical Engineering

Using the applications of engineering and technology to solve problems in medicine and biology.

Centre for Engineering Materials

Using engineering materials to bridge the gap between the physical sciences.

Research groups

Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Lab

Contributing to research in the areas of connected autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems.

Functional Nanomaterials

Focusing on micro-scale processing, materials integration and manufacture to allow the creation of unique 3D micro- and nano-scale structures.

Firefighters extinguishing an industrial fire

Fire and Explosion Modelling Group

Specialising in the development and validation of consequence modelling tools to address cross cutting safety issues related to energy, transport and environment.