Key elements: New centre funding + dedicated research team

Jaguar Land Rover has committed to funding the Imperial Centre of Excellence for Spark-Ignition Enginer Combustion Research for a period of 5 years, starting in January 2017, following the arrival of Professor Aleiferis' appointment as Chair in Thermofluids in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

The expertise of Imperial's research ecosystem will help us fulfil our mission of developing sustainable vehicles that meet the needs of our customers now and in the future"

Tony Harper

Head of Engineering Research, Jaguar Land Rover

Professor Aleiferis' research expertise in the fundamentals of fuel systems and internal combustion engines for low-carbon vehicles has been utilised by a number of automotive companies in the past, including Honda, where he originally completed postdoctoral research into optical techniques applied to internal combustion engines.

The JLR Research Centre, will continue to form an integral component of the company's commitment to producing fuel-efficient powertrain technologies and the findings will help considerably to deliver the company's ambitious goal of a 25% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020 to comply with both governmental policy and broader consumer demand.

Professor Aleiferis commented on the formation of the centre that "one of the main advantages of having a University Centre is that it can respond to questions and needs that are of direct benefit to on-going product development, as well as conducting longer term basic research and training PhD students.  This strengthens our scientific understanding for academic excellence but also has direct industrial impact via expert knowledge transfer, as well as great societal benefits via improved quality of life in a greener future environment.

You can read the full news article here.

Dept of Mechanical Engineering

Above, one of the labs in the newly refurbished Department of Mechanical Engineering