The Engineering Excellence Award at the 2021 KTP Awards celebrates the advanced application of engineering skills to recognise the continuing evolution of this field.

These KTP finalists were chosen by our judges because they pushed the boundaries of engineering in their projects, taking their academic skills to the next level helping the companies advance.

Read on to see who made it to become finalists at this year’s awards.

Biocatalysts Limited / University College London / David Rowan

About Biocatalysts Limited

Biocatalysts Ltd is a global biotechnology company producing speciality enzymes at commercial scales for a variety of industries, such as food, pharmaceuticals, life sciences, fine chemicals and many more.

The KTP

This project aimed to use novel Ultra Scale-Down methods to speed the creation and scale-up of processes for fermentation-based enzyme manufacture. Increasing efficiency and productivity. The KTP award allowed the merger of the company’s skills and the University’s process discovery skills to evolve a new strategy for optimisation, which has been applied to several industrial biotechnology solutions including the supply of new vaccines.

JFD (Formerly Fathom Systems) / University of Strathclyde / Fraser Stewart

About JFD (Formerly Fathom Systems)

JFD is a global leader in the provision of underwater capability, serving commercial and defence markets with innovative diving, submarine and hyperbaric rescue, technical solutions and services.

The KTP

This KTP project was to embed Sensor and Artificial Intelligence expertise to monitor the health status of commercial divers. The new systems extend their commercial advantage and will save lives. The partnership also reacted to the pandemic by developing a new ventilator that incorporated monitoring oxygen-need and regulating the flow accordingly, reducing overall oxygen consumption significantly.

Novosound / University of the West of Scotland / Mhairi Rogan 

About Novosound

Novosound, founded in 2018, is a spin-out from the University of the West of Scotland, focused on the development and sale of novel ultrasonic sensing and imaging products.

The company is primarily concentrating on producing and selling transducers suitable for the non-destructive testing sector, where the unique characteristics of their sensor material, an acoustic thin film, gives them a unique offering over existing solutions.

The KTP

This partnership embedded thin-film design and optimisation capability in support of a new generation of advanced ultrasonic sensors. This resulted in the development of an in-house, commercial-grade, coating capability and went on to deliver the world’s first commercial piezoelectric thin film ultrasound sensor with comparable acoustic output to traditional piezoceramic materials. They have accelerated their commercialisation trajectory and increased the company valuation.

The Awards 

Join these finalists and others at the KTP Awards show taking place on September 23rd between 16:00 – 18:00 online. 

The ceremony will include keynote speeches from 

• Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) 
• Indro Mukerjee, Chief Executive of Innovate UK, 
• Dr Alicia Greated, Chief Executive of KTN 
• Richard Lamb, KTP Programme Manager at Innovate UK

Join us by registering here.