The Professorial Inaugural Lecture Series: Professor T X Mei November 23, 2010

The next lecture in the Professorial Inaugural lectures series will be given by Professor T X Mei, Chair in Control and Mechatronics.

Professor Mei is a leading expert internationally in rail vehicle control. He has given many invited seminars and state-of-art reviews at the international level and has published widely in top academic journals and leading international conferences. He joined the University of Salford in 2009 as Chair in Control and Mechatronics and is now Director of Engineering 2050 Research Centre at the School of Computing, Science and Engineering. He is also a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and Chartered Engineer. He was previously an academic at the University of Leeds (Lecturer 2001, Senior Lecturer 2003, and Reader 2008) and, prior to that, he had spent a number of years in industry and worked on a variety of industrial R&D projects. Professor Mei's educational background includes B.Sc. (Shanghai Tiedao University, 1982) and M.Sc. (Shanghai Tiedao University, 1985), M.Sc. by Research (Manchester University, 1991) and Ph.D. (Loughborough University, 1994).

Professor Mei's lecture, entitled 200 Years Old, Live and Kicking, will examine the following ideas:

The first public railways opened in early 19th century, e.g. the horse drawn "Surrey Iron Railway" in 1803, the first steam locomotive railway "Penydarren" in 1804 and the first fare-paying passenger railway service "The Mumbles Train" in 1807. More than 200 years later, rail transport still plays a vital role in today's society, providing one of the safest and the most efficient forms of transport, and it is becoming increasingly popular with the public and policy makers alike. The number of rail passengers has increased by 62% in the past 13 years in the UK alone and the capacity is expected to double by 2030 according to a UK government white paper published in 2007.

Persistent research and innovation has been the driving force behind this remarkable success, but many new challenges lie ahead. In this lecture, I will present an overview of the latest research in rail transport, and in particular examine the role of Control and Mechatronics in the development of future rail vehicles and provide more detailed examples of my own research in this field.

This lecture will be held on Tuesday 23 November 2010 in Lady Hale Lecture Theatre commencing at 17.30.

We recommend that you pre-register to reserve your place no later than Friday 20 November as tickets are limited. On completion of the registration process your e-ticket will be sent to the email you have provided. Please bring your e-ticket to the event.

Official Website: http://www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1354