Industry Lecture: "An Introduction to Beko R&D and how Sensors are Integral to the Smart Home"

Title: An Introduction to Beko R&D and how Sensors are Integral to the Smart Home

Speaker: Natasha Conway and Graham Anderson from Beko R&D 

Venue: Lecture Theatre 2, Institute for Manufacturing, 17 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge CB3 0FS

Description: The lecture will start with an introduction by Dr Ronan Daly (IfM).  The talk will then be split into three parts: 

1. Dr Conway will introduce the Beko R&D Centre and its parent company Arçelik.  This will include their current research interests and how they aim to engage with universities and the opportunities that can arise from this.
2. Dr Anderson will describe his career path from university to industry with an aim of showing the exciting possibilities for cutting edge research away from academia.
3. Finally the speakers will present some of the research at Beko R&D into novel sensors and how they offer many diverse advantages and opportunities for the smart home.  Beko R&D is aiming to be at the forefront of this by collaborating with companies and universities to research areas that can enhance user comfort and safety in the home.  This can be from low cost sensors with built-in energy harvesting, to HMI sensors allowing new ways of user interaction.

Speaker Bios: Dr Natasha Conway is the R&D Manager at Beko’s R&D Centre in Cambridge, part of parent company, Arçelik’s global R&D structure. Beko R&D’s aim is collaborate with companies and universities, to identify and develop pioneering technologies for next generation of products. Natasha received a BEng degree in Engineering and Physics at Glasgow University before completing her PhD at Cambridge University Engineering Department. She has a strong track record in research and development with over 23 years’ experience. 

Graham Anderson is Senior Specialist at Beko R&D, with research interests focused around novel sensors, data analytics, and energy storage/harvesting. Previously he worked as a Senior Scientist at Cambridge Display Technology working on the development of ink jet printed OLED displays and organic thermoelectric generators. Graham has a PhD from Leeds University in spintronics.