Overview
Peter Childs is Head of the School of Design Engineering, and Professorial Lead in Engineering Design. His general interests include: creativity; the application and development of creative tools; design; robotics; sustainable energy, heat transfert and rotating flow.
He was formerly the director of InQbate, the HEFCE funded Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning in Creativity, director of the Rolls-Royce supported University Technology Centre for Aero-Thermal Systems and a professor at the University of Sussex.
He has contributed to over 200 refereed papers since completion of his doctorate in 1991, and a number of books including research monographs on rotating flow and temperature measurement, and the Handbook of Mechanical Engineering Design (Butterworth Heinemann, 2018).
His research on creativity and creativity tools, has focused especially their application in industry. Interests in rotating flow include the flows associated with rotating discs,, fluid seals, annular flows, as as geophysicial oceanic and atmospheric circulations.
He has been involved in research and development contracts for Airbus, Alstom, DaimlerChrysler, Fiat, Ford, Industriales Turbinas Propulsores, Johnson Matthey, MTU, Ricardo Consulting Engineers, Rolls-Royce plc, Snecma, Siemens, Volvo, the EPSRC and the EU as well as a number of SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and has been principal or co-investigator on contracts totalling over £80 million. He is a former winner of the ASME IGTI J P Davies award for exceptional contributions to the literature on gas turbine engine technology as well as ASME and IMechE best paper awards and a DESIGN2014 Outstanding paper award and the Design Society 2019 Distinguished Paper Award..
Guest Lectures
Current and emerging technologies for wind turbine inspection, Wind Turbine User Group 2023, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1 Birdcage Walk, London, 2023
Enterprise by Design: Innovation in Robotics and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods, Institution Of Mechanical Engineers, 1 Birdcage WalkWestminsterLondon SW1H 9JJ, 2020
National Symposium: The Need for System Integration Capability. City University, 8th January 2020. The Way Forward - New Teaching and Initial Training Proposals: Engineering and Design: Interplay, City University of London, London, 2020
Creativity, Facebook, London, 2019
How design engineering can overcome global challenges to create a more sustainable future, Cleantech Futures 2019, Cambridge, 2019
Opportunity, necessity and creativity, Linnean Society, London, 2019
Enterprise by Design, UCAN2019, Hangzhou, China, 2019
Design engineering, ICTD2019, Hangzhou, China, 2019
Revisiting the Robot Employment Paradigm, IEEE Information and Automation for Sustainability (ICIAfS) 2018, Columbo, Sri Lanka, 2018
Upskilling with Robots, Robotics and Automation 2018, Milton Keynes, 2018
Interplay of humanism, behaviourism and constructivism, International STEM conference, Singapore, 2018
Robot Applied Floor Insulation, European Conference on Renewable Systems, Istanbul, 2018
Enterprise by design, UK China AI Innovation and Development Forum, 2018
Precision engineering for functional elements in product design, Ultra-Precision Engineering Conference, Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, 2018
Gas turbine engine internal and secondary flow system., Chinese International Turbomachinery Conference 2018, Chong Qing, China, 2018
Light-weighting in Aerospace Component and System Design, The 6th International Symposium on Jet Propulsion and Power Engineering, Beihang University, China, 2017
Enterprise by Design, EdCrunch 2017, World Trade Centre, Moscow, 2017
Jet Engine Internal Air Systems, Aircraft Cabin Air Conference 2017, London, 2017
The robot that’s helping to improve energy efficiency in homes and create employment, Science Museum, London, 2017
Forging the Innovation Pipeline, Chief Innovation Officer Summit London, St Paul's, 200 Aldersgate, London, 2017
Enterprise by Design - Atlantic Green Expo, University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), Charlottetown, Canada, 2017
Harnessing complexity with artificial intelligence, CE100, Berlin, 2016
Modular Thermal Energy Storage, Thermal Energy Storage 2016, London, 2016
Visions for creative product development, ProduktudviklingsDAGEN2009, IPU, Denmark, 2009
On Creativity, Creativity in the Sciences, HEA Centre for Biosciences, University of Glasgow, 2009
Creativity in Turbomachinery, IGT Conference 08, Brussels, 2008
Gas turbine engine internal air systems, Invited Keynote. 1st International Symposium on Jet Propulsion and Power Engineering, Kunming, China, 2006
General Morphological Analysis, ISJPPE 2014, Beijing