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31 Oct 2019, 07:02

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: Using the University’s online bookshop

All Cranfield University staff and students can buy books through our dedicated online bookshop, which has been developed in partnership between the Library Service and independent retailer Wordery.com.

Wordery is one of the fastest growing online bookshops. It is competitively priced against larger retailers such as Amazon and offers free delivery to over 100 countries. It sells over 10 million books for both academic and personal use, including fiction and children’s’ books.

The Library Service receives a small commission on sales, to support us in further improving our services and access to library resources.

Buy one book and get 10% off everything else in your basket by using code CRANFIELD10 at the checkout.

Visit the Cranfield University Online Bookshop

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01 Nov 2019, 04:02

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: Naomi wins poster prize!

On Wednesday
4th September 2019 it was the Thesis Presentation Day which marks the end of
the MSc courses for this year!

Every year a
prize is awarded to the student with the best poster from the Environment
Programme and consequently this is a highly competitive prize and a fantastic,
sort after achievement.

The poster project is beneficial to students as it provides a way
of consolidating their studies over the last few months into one poster, whilst
also building on their understanding and ability to talk and present briefly
the important elements of their research and findings. Students are tasked with
including 300-500 words and diagrams on their poster, which ensures they get
the most important parts of their four months of research translated into
poster form.

Prize winner Naomi Sandford-Dequincey used artefacts to better explain her project and further engage with examiners. After the presentation the examiners have the opportunity to ask the students questions about their projects. You should always let your enthusiasm for the project that you have been working for the last couple of months, shine through. This will mean people are automatically interested in in your project and will want to learn more.

Naomi said “Cranfield
invests a significant amount of time in enhancing our presentations and building
our confidence so I was not too worried on the day. I have spent four months
emerged in this project so I knew it inside out.”

“It was a great day as you
could stand proud in front of your four months of hard work. It was fun telling
new people about my project and watching people be engaged and interested,
particularly as my thesis explored perceptions of the Cranfield campus.”

Naomi had some words of
wisdom for future students, “The best advice I received was to pretend you are
telling a story and the poster is the storyline. Identify the main characters
and the journey they went on. Do not forget to say at the end if the journey
has ended for the character, and if not, where to next?”

Well done Naomi
Sandford-Dequincey on winning the Environmental poster prize and for completing
your MSc in Environmental Management for Business!

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04 Nov 2019, 07:03

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: Renew your books online with Library Search

If you are a new student, you have been studying at Cranfield for over a month now (doesn’t time fly?!). If you borrowed print items from your library at the very start of term, you might start to receive emails from us asking you to return them. Here’s how the process works and what you need to do to renew your items if you want to keep them for a bit longer.

All loans are automatically renewed up to three times unless someone requests the item. If an item is requested by another customer, it must be returned.

After three automatic renewals, we will send you a courtesy email to alert you that the items you have borrowed are nearing their due date. Once we send you an overdue notice, you have seven days to either return or renew your loans.

You can renew your items by replying to the email notice, telephoning us, visiting the Library with your ID card, or online.

This post provides a quick step by step guide of how to renew items online through Library Search. The screenshots relate to the Kings Norton Library profile, but the process is the same whichever Cranfield University library service you use.

Step 1
Go to your Library account. You can either follow the link in the email we send you, or you can click the link at the top right of the Library Search screen.

Step 3
Click the radio buttons to select the items you wish to renew and then click the “Renew” button at the bottom of the tab.

If you wish to renew all your items, you can click on the “Select all” option next to the “Renew” button to save time. As long as no-one else has requested the items, they will be renewed for you.

Please do not ignore our emails about overdue items. As you can see, it is very quick and easy to renew them and doing so prevents the system from suspending your account.

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05 Nov 2019, 17:02

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: My life as an engineer – This Is Engineering Day 2019

After completing her PhD in laser processing at Cranfield, Sonia joined the University as a Research Fellow. Eight years on she is now a Senior Research Fellow and Project Manager and gives us an insight into her life as an engineer.

I was in Portugal finishing my MSc project, and my Professor, an Invited Lecturer at Cranfield, told me that they were looking for candidates to study a PhD in laser processing. Because I was finishing my MSc, I thought it would be a good idea to join Cranfield and carry on working in an academic environment. It’s been an amazing experience – working with students, industry and other academics. The multi-cultural environment means we have people all over the place.

Engineering is super exciting. Manufacturing, the area in which I work, is applied across sectors and this allows me to work in shipbuilding, car manufacturing, development of sensors for process monitoring, all without changing job. Being at Cranfield also allows me to do some teaching and not only share my knowledge but also the excitement of working in engineering.

When I was a kid I thought engineering was about creating and fixing big machines and structures, that it was an extremely hard subject to study, and loads of mathematics were involved. At the same time, I thought that there was something interesting in it – being able to create something new, being the first to discover the solution to a problem, despite all the difficulties.

My role is very broad – I can be doing research one moment and project management the next. I can work with the students, do the research myself or sit down in the office and look at Gantt charts, research plans, talk to other people in the same research project.

Days are very busy! We have started a five-year research project with three other universities – Manchester, Coventry and Strathclyde. I need to make sure all the universities as well as the industrial partners are delivering to this project. It’s so different to what I was doing before. In my previous role, I was doing research, I was in the lab doing laser welds, mechanical testing, and all these things. Now I’m on the other side as well, planning the work, making sure everyone is delivering on time. It’s very interesting.

The challenge is what I find most interesting about working in higher education. Doing something new, something unique, starting with a problem which I find interesting, that no one has found the solution to. Trying to think up different hypothesis, planning the work, trying to apply different procedures, seeing the outcome, the results, and if we can solve the problem, or, at least, suggest a direction to go in. I’m very stubborn. I don’t give up!

I really like the environment, the people, the diversity, the research challenges and seeing our research being applied in industry. I think it’s a unique experience and is why I’m still here. If you have a generic topic given to you by your line manager, but you don’t see the reason why, it’s not very motivating. If you have a new project given to you and you know that the sponsor is waiting for the results because they have this real problem and anything that you find will be helpful for the industry, it makes you feel more excited and motivated to work towards this. When you present your work at a conference and you say that you have a high-profile industrial partner, they pay attention. You feel proud of doing research for this particular partner.

I never feel bored – there’s always something new in the pipeline. My role means I get exposure to different fields. It’s very good when we are asked to propose a new project, look for partners and write funding proposals. We are not restricted to a particular topic, we can work in whatever we want, as long as there is the need from the industry to do research in a particular area. In my previous Cranfield role, I was doing just research, but now it’s something new. Before, I used to help offline with project management and now my duty is to deliver on this aspect as well. I get more experience to help improve my career.

Working with people from different countries and cultures brings with it many different perspectives and ways of working. You learn that you could approach things differently, improve as a result. I feel proud to be working for a university that is so inclusive and is open to so many different people – during one departmental meeting, there were 13 countries represented by the 20 people in the room. I strongly believe that having a diverse team improves the quality of the work.

Objectivity is the best thing about working in STEM. It means you’re working based on facts. There are rules that should be followed to find the solution to the problem. You only need to learn the rules of the game, know them really well to be the best player and be very patient 

I haven’t faced any challenges as a woman working in this area of engineering. Not at all. I would say even the opposite. I have been very well looked after since I joined the University for the first time as a student. On the first year of the University there were only eight girls in the lecture room with nearly 100 students. The lecturers did not make any distinction between girls and boys, we were all the same. My colleagues were very happy to work with me because I was very organised and methodical which I believe is something that girls are usually better at than boys! On the other hand, I have found that boys can be more pragmatic than girls which made our group projects being very successful. Nowadays in my workplace I feel exactly the same. The working environment is great, our team has 45 staff and PhD students from which nine are female. I strongly believe that having a diverse team improves the quality of the work.

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07 Nov 2019, 10:03

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: My first 6 weeks at Cranfield…

Why did I choose to do a master degree at Cranfield?

I want to improve my knowledge on supply chain to make an impact on a company, and I believe that Cranfield School of Management can prepare me to do so.

First impressions of my MSc journey at Cranfield:

When I started at Cranfield it meant a new environment, new people and
an introduction week. Let me explain the introduction week, as this week is
full of new impressions and fun. It basically allows you to get settled and it
starts of by meeting our course directors, who want to make sure that you will
get the most out of your study at Cranfield. Then, you will get time to
discover the campus and the area. We went on a bus trip to Milton Keynes which
was a great way to do some shopping and get to know your fellow students.

After the introduction week, the lectures started. During the lecture the
teachers like to make it interactive by asking questions to the students and I
found out that they really appreciate your input. Some lectures include a group
discussion as well which makes room for discussion and learn from other
students too.

Before a lecture we usually have to prepare by doing a pre-read about a topic or study a business case. The use of business cases during the lectures make it interesting because then you see the theory we are learning being applied in real business situations. The connection of the business case and theory are a good example to find out how you can make an impact on a company.

Besides going to lectures, there are lots of different activities
allowing us develop ourselves. For example, we have had to prepare a supply
chain poster session. Here specific supply chain topics were divided to student
teams. This created a learning environment by the students, for the students and
it allowed us to learn from each other. Nonetheless, our teachers came by to
discuss our works as well.

Even though study is essential, thinking how to start off your career in
the right way is too. At Cranfield we have the career development department; they
will help you a lot regarding your applications for a job or internship. Really,
they already helped me with writing my CV and cover letter to get to a higher
level.

They also like to organise events such as career fairs which gives you the opportunity to talk to companies. One other highlight they did was to get an American speaker talk about ‘networking like a rock star’ to the students. In my point of view, it was a one of a kind masterclass and it allowed me to improve my networking skills immediately, making me more confident for upcoming career fairs!

2 cool facts about Cranfield University:

Cranfield University is featured in Netflix Series Inside Bill’s Brain, referring to Bill Gates, for inventing a Nano Membrane Toilet which does not require any tubes or water while also not creating waste?

Professional F1 driver Max Verstappen follows the @Cranfieldsimulation account on Instagram which is a car simulation program run by our university, how cool is that!

Being a few weeks here I can say that I got to know a lot of new people, got more passionate about supply chain and I am making steps to start my career. I am looking forward to what is to come!

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08 Nov 2019, 08:02

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: Course Director reflects on the first month of study for Advanced Materials MSc

After one month
of studying the Advanced Materials MSc student cohort have just finished
attending their third of eight taught modules, Failure of Materials and
Structures, and now have a moment to relax.

The Cranfield
Students’ Association (CSA) has organised a firework display, but before this
an early evening session of pizzas and games allows the manufacturing students
to gather and share their experiences of their first month of study at
Cranfield University.

The wet UK
weather does not appear to have dampened spirits. Reflections from some students demonstrate
that there is a strong interaction across many courses – encouraged from the
initial induction week, where all 140 manufacturing students took part in a day
of “team building”, with teams of 12 to 15
undertaking challenges (physical and mental).

Advanced Materials MSc in focus

The first week
at a new place can be a daunting experience. However, our student academic
support (SAS) team were available to
advise students and point them in the right direction; from attending lectures
to completing the various paperwork required for registration, study visa,
registering with doctors and dentists etc.

The first taught
module, Introduction to Materials Engineering, gently introduced Advanced
Materials, Aerospace Materials and Welding Engineering MSc students to study
methods at Cranfield University. Taught modules are delivered at high intensity,
with each module taught over a single week. Laboratory demonstration classes
allow students to experience how theory relates to practice across the taught
modules.

Some modules
are assessed by a written assignment (essay style) where students have time to
reflect and construct an answer in their own time (or during a private study
week), while others are assessed by exams set for December or January. The
Introduction to Materials Engineering module is assessed by examination. In
order to prepare students for the Cranfield examination process, the students
were set a practice exam, where they gathered under exam conditions and sat the
2 hour exam with little time for preparation.

The aim of the
practice exam is to show students the process and practice exam marks are used
only for student feedback and not as part of the MSc assessment. All full-time
students attempted the practice exam and a full face-to-face feedback session
will be scheduled in the next 10 days.

Postgraduate study in rural Bedfordshire

Cranfield
campus is set in a quiet location, making it ideal for study. For those looking
for a livelier atmosphere, less than 10 miles away is the large town of Milton
Keynes, with its bustling bars, theatre, and large shopping centre. . Milton
Keynes also has good rail links to London, Birmingham and beyond for students
wishing to travel further afield.

The Advanced
Materials MSc 2019-20 cohort comprises of a mix of students from UK and
overseas, with different cultures and experiences which adds another dimension
to academic studies. Throughout the year, the students support each other both
within their own MSc and across the MSc courses where modules are shared.

Although our
MSc course is comprised of only a small group of students, there are
opportunities for all students to be part of the larger Cranfield student family.

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22 Nov 2019, 07:38

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: My experience at the European Mars Conference 2019.

My
name is Jesus Lucero, I am a Spanish student currently studying the MSc in
Astronautics and Space Engineering. I am member of a Group Design Project
directed by Dr. David Cullen and Dr. Joan Pau Sánchez Cuartielles and we are
working on designing a sustainable settlement on Mars. Our objective is to model
how a community of humans would have to organize in Mars in order to feed,
communicate with Earth, do science research and live, and also determine what
the best timeline to do so would be.

From November 4th to November 6th the European Mars Conference 2019 was held at the Institute of Physics in London, this is the most relevant event about Mars of the year in Europe. It was organised by the Mars Society UK, a community which is part of the International Mars Society, the world’s largest and most influential space advocacy organisation dedicated to the human exploration and settlement of the planet Mars. It was founded Dr. Robert Zubrin and others in 1998, they organise public outreach, promote broad international support for government-funded Mars research and exploration.

The three-day science event theme was “Arrive, Survive and Thrive”, and leaders of industry, engineers and academia presented their work, as well as their proposed paths to the planet Mars. It was very well organised and the attention given by the organisers was wonderful, we had the possibility to meet so many experts and learn so much about subjects like radiation, interplanetary travel and colonies. All this knowledge is going to be very useful for our research project.

Lucinda Offer, Vice-president of the Mars
Society UK, Alan Field, Chapter Coordinator, and all the volunteers were key on
the synergic atmosphere that it was created. Young students from Slovakia,
Albania, Mongolia, UK, Italy, Austria and Spain being able to interact with
experts in so many different fields, from telecommunications to astrobiology,
analog astronauts, who people that receive an astronaut-like training on Earth,
was all a really enriching experience we will never forget.

The first day we listened to Anastasia Stepanova, a Russian analog astronaut, who talked about her experience on the SIRIUS isolation project where she stayed with a team of five people in a Mars-bunker-like house for eight months. We then listened to Dr. Jorge Pla-García, a Spanish meteorologist who talked about Methane in the surface of Mars and about the crucial Spanish participation on the project. After that we participated in the AMADEE graduation of analog astronauts from the Austrian Space Forum. Throughout the day we had more talks from companies like Airbus, RAL Space and a final talk of Dr. Robert Zubrin, one of the most important Mars experts of the world.

The second day, two more students from the Cranfield research project joined me at the event, Iu Tena Acebo and Gary Siu, the reason was because we had very relevant talks related to our project on the second day. It began with Richard Heidmann, from Switzerland, explaining an outline of what a colony would be like in Mars, giving magnitude orders which were really illustrative. Then Professor David Cullen from Cranfield University, one of our Group Design Project supervisors, explained his participation in payload project designs for tools that would look for life in Mars. We finished the day with a talk from a Polish student team who had won the Mars Rovers Challenge for two consecutive years. What an inspiration! After the event we had the chance to go on the roof of a hotel and look at the fireworks on Guy Fawkes Night, a tradition quite unknown in Spain. We also saw the Tower of London and the Shard in the background.

David Cullen

On the third and final day Lockheed and Martin began with a presentation on a ESA-NASA collaboration mission they are working in, we then listened to a new UK based start-up called UKAM will try to organize analog astronaut training in the UK. Later Magadalena Pfaffl from Sweden talked about different communities and psychology, followed by Dr. Anna Horleston a JPL associate who is an expert on Marsquakes and the Insight mission. We finished the day with the singing of the Mars Anthem “Rise to Mars” and a visit to the “Moving to Mars” exhibition at the Design Museum Tour, which will be available until February.

I deeply thank Cranfield University and its teachers for giving me the possibility of going to this event as it will help on the development of our research. I now have to share the knowledge and network I have acquired during this week with my colleagues, so we all have the access to the same information.

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22 Nov 2019, 07:38

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: New Beginnings!

And here I am,
in Cranfield University. To be honest, I felt really happy when I was accepted.
Since I heard about this option to study
in Cranfield, I have been wishing to enter.

There are many
reasons why I was planning to study at Cranfield. Firstly, I wanted to broaden
my knowledge since I did a master in my hometown related to the course that I
am doing here, which is Food Systems and Management. Besides, I think this
programme could offer me a different and interesting point of view of the food
industry and everything that involves. Secondly, I love to meet new people,
exploring new places and learn about their traditions.

So, I strongly
believe that this experience would provide me with both things. And so far, I
would say that it is happening. We have already done the two first modules of
the course. However, before classes, we had a welcome week and an induction
week. These two first weeks were opportune and fascinating. We did some
activities to meet each other, and it was then when I met my classmates and
also students from the agrifood programme, who do another MSc. I am very glad
to meet all of them because they are very kind and I think that we are a nice
group. We went all together for a trip, that I really enjoyed it since I had
never been before either in a celery field nor a mushrooms plantation. It was
amazing! Another reason that explains why I found these weeks useful, it was
because the first days I got lost in the campus (due to the many buildings and
facilities there are), and these days helped me to orientated in it.

Returning to the
classes, I reaffirm my first opinion about the course. So far, I find it very
interactive and practical. It is true that the “assignments” (which I would say
that it will be the word of the year, at least, of this period of modules),
take you a long time to do it. But if you organise yourself, you have plenty of
time to do social activities, sports or the simple fact to know better each
other with other people.

In my opinion, I
like the fact that we are few in class. It facilitates a more personal relationship
with professors, a fact that I value.

To sum up, I feel comfortable with the
classmates, I enjoy the village and surroundings (you will see in the images
that I like to take photos of everything),
and even though it is a real challenge for me, I also know that it will
be a great experience, not only for my career but for my personal development.

Some of the different landscapes about Cranfield Village, University, surroundings and activities carried on campus

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26 Nov 2019, 09:02

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: What is the shelfmark and how do I use it to find a book in the library?

We use a system called UDC to classify and store our books. Students are often confused by it when they try to find the items they need on our shelves. We are always happy to help you, but we have written this post for those of you who don’t like to ask us, or are looking for a book outside staff working hours.

The number, or shelfmark, on the spine of a book indicates a subject, so there could be a large number of books at any one shelfmark. Small numbers denote broad subjects, and longer numbers denote more specific ones. ‘Whole’ numbers, like the examples below, become more specific to a level of three numbers, before they are broken down by a decimal point to further subdivisions, for example:

6 = science and technology (broadest level)

65 = management science

656 = transport management

656.7 = air transport management

Some shelfmarks also incorporate punctuation, making them more difficult to find (sorry!). Punctuation indicates a relationship of one subject to another, but it also indicates where on the shelf you will find the book, in relation to the next whole number. All you need to understand is the order in which the most common punctuation marks are shelved, which is:

Slash (e.g. 66/77) – A book with this in the shelfmark would be shelved before books classified as the whole number of 66

Dash (e.g. 621-52) – A book with a dash in the shelfmark would be shelved after books classified as the whole number, 621, and before any classified with a colon

Colon (e.g. 656.7:3) – A book with a colon in the shelfmark would be shelved after books classified as 656.7- and before books classified with brackets

Brackets (e.g. 656.7(4)) – A book with brackets in the shelfmark would be shelved after one with a colon, and before any decimal points or next whole numbers

Decimal point (e.g. 656.7.08) – Decimal points indicate a sub-category of the previous whole number

What information do I need from the catalogue to find a book on the shelf?
The shelfmark is more than just a number, so you need to check Library Search (our catalogue) first before you start looking for a specific book. Once you are viewing the record for the item you want to find, look at the ‘Cranfield shelfmark’ field. Take a note of the full shelfmark, which includes the number plus the three letters (e.g. 656.7.08 KEY) that will appear on the spine of the book. All books classified at the same number are ordered on the shelf alphabetically according to those final three letters, so the combination should help you find the item you need quickly.

The signs at the end of each shelf give you an indication of which numbers are in which aisle.

But we know it’s complicated, so if you can’t find the book you’re looking for, please come and ask us for help!

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27 Nov 2019, 03:01

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: First joint research paper Cranfield – TNO

The collaboration between the Dutch research organisation TNO and Cranfield’s National Flying Laboratory Centre (NFLC) has resulted in a seminal joint scientific paper in Applied Ergonomics. The paper describes a study showing that spatial disorientation can induce false interpretation of the attitude indicator (ADI). The research was performed in NFLC’s Bulldog aircraft, skilfully flown by test pilot Simon Davies.

Forty
non-pilot volunteers participated in the study, and were instructed to level
the aircraft based on the ADI in three conditions. Each time the pilot put the
aircraft in a roll attitude while the participants were blindfolded, before the
participant was allowed to look at the ADI and take control. In one condition
the maneuver was flown in a normal way so that the participant’s sensation matched
the roll angle shown on the ADI. In two other conditions, the maneuver induced
a false sensation of roll (the “Leans”) which did not match the angle shown on
the ADI. In these two conditions, participants made 60% of erroneous control
inputs, compared to 20% errors in the control condition.

The study
was part of the PhD thesis of Dr. Annemarie Landman, entitled “Managing Startle
and Surprise in the Cockpit”. Recently Annemarie graduated “cum laude” at the Delft
University of technology. I am her Supervisor and Professor on behalf of
Cranfield University, together with Dr. Rene van Paassen of Delft.

I am grateful to Prof. Nick Lawson and Simon Davies for this successful collaboration.

Link to the
article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 701930136X.

See also: https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/case-studie ... xpectation

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27 Nov 2019, 08:02

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: Manufacturing 2075

Switching to sustainable alternatives
is an imperative – but needs to be done in a clear-headed way, informed by a
full knowledge of implications. This is nowhere more important than in
manufacturing, the global machinery for transmuting natural resources into what’s
useful, what’s needed.

Our work at the Natural History Museum
on the transition to electric vehicles has illustrated the bare bones of the
kinds of problems the world faces.

Meeting the new UK electric car
targets for 2050, we’d need to use almost double the world’s entire annual
cobalt production; nearly all the world’s production of neodymium; three
quarters of lithium, and at least half of the copper. Then there’s the
electricity involved to provide the charge for each of the 252.5 billion miles
driven by UK cars every year, meaning a 20% increase in UK-generated
electricity.

This is why Manufacturing 2075 (4 December 2019) is focused on the practical, operational issues around sustainable manufacturing. We’ve gone past the point of good principles and intentions, we need to have a stronger grasp of the balance of issues, and to start implementing what works.

Most important for the sector will be
future ways of working with the providers of commodities. There needs to be
more collaboration and connection over the forms of commodities, what’s needed
as technologies develop. Traditionally, for example, a material like zinc would
be taken out of the ground and sent straight to a blast furnace to be turned
into a metal. But maybe what a new product under development might need is zinc
as a carbonate or a sulphate. There’s a disconnect in the market.

The problems we face now – and for the
future – are often not around running out of a raw material, but that the
particular commodity is not available in the forms actually needed. So there is
a squeeze in the market, short-term shortages and price hikes. What’s needed is
more of a Just-in-Time process involving raw materials to prevent sudden
squeezes on supply, and that will mean manufacturers looking to improve the
diversity of forms of material and their supplies. With a resource like cobalt,
political instability in Central Africa would lead to an instant cut in around
70% of supply.

Every part of the chain, from design
to the mining and metals industries, need to be talking to each other to make
the cycle genuinely sustainable. And ultimately that means manufacturers
looking at the end-of-life stage of products, re-shaping their relationships
with suppliers to be part of the circular economy, reducing the reliance on
what can be dug from the ground, and what can be re-used and re-purposed, not
lost into the waste stream.

Professor Richard Herrington, Head of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, www.nhm.ac.uk

Industry and thinkers come together for Manufacturing 2075 at Cranfield University on 4 December 2019 – a full list of speakers is here: www.cranfield.ac.uk/events/manufacturing-2075-landing

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: My Life in Cranfield

I am MSc Environmental Engineering student from China.

I applied for Cranfield University about two years ago but due to my work I had to delay my enrolment. The first time I heard about Cranfield University was through my flying school, ‘a university has their own airport’ that sounds really cool to me. The second time the name came across was when I visited Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, I saw the Nano-Membrane Toilet displayed there and I saw it was designed by Cranfield University. Again my interests were drawn to the university.

This is my eighth year studying in the UK. The university I went to before was an ordinary university, not as specific as Cranfield. After I graduated in 2016 and went to work, I found there are so much to learn in a real world and there were very few links with what I had learnt from university. After a few years working, I decide to recharge myself and continue my studies but I wanted to choose somewhere special, specific, with links to industry and learn about real experiences. Cranfield has a good reputation for all my needs, so I decided to apply to Cranfield.

First impression:

I arrived on 27th September 2019, the campus was
very quiet, and it’s a campus solely on its own, with plenty of green lands.

Few days after when university starts:

Life: University life is very busy as we have many lectures, the campus is very good for study as it is isolated from the city, therefore less distraction.

Airfield: This could be the best place for anyone who wants to study flying while doing their degrees, as the airfield is right in the campus which is a very cool idea!

Social life: CSA is the Cranfield Student Association, where most social activities happen. Cranfield students are very diverse and from different cultures and backgrounds. You can make friends very easy by simply popping into the CSA.

Sports: The University has different sport activities throughout the week in the sports hall, it’s also a good way to make friends.

Religion: the campus has a Chapel and a Mosque for religious students which is very religious friendly, not every university has these facilities.

I haven’t experience everything Cranfield has to offer yet, but so far so good. I am looking forward to more fun activities and events here and to make more friends from different backgrounds to maximise the value of being here. For people who like a simple university lifestyle and concentrate purely on study and sports, Cranfield is definitely the place for you.

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: Performance Reporting Measures vs Performance Management Measures

You may have read my blog from last week about A&E Wait Times. We indicated that the way these kinds of figures are reported, out of context, is hopeless in actually understanding what is going on.

But the problem doesn’t stop there. There is a fundamental problem with performance reporting, and the measures you see being utilised there, versus performance management and the measures being utilised here!

Let me explain.

Performance management requires you to understand the behaviour of business processes and make interventions to improve them. This implies that you use a small set of specific measures that we’ve blogged about before – see previous bloghttps://blogs.cranfield.ac.uk/leadership-management/cbp/the-future-of-operational-performance-management-part-3

For example, these performance management measures would include number of items coming into a process, number leaving a process, throughput time and so on.

Performance reporting is littered with measures that may appear to carry meaning for some people, but in our observations, have been misleading and impenetrable to many. And certainly don’t help understanding nor how to improve!

Here are some examples of reporting measures:

% items completed: % implies a ratio – with a numerator and denominator. E.g. % Repairs Completed defined by (Number of Repairs Completed / Total Number of Repair Calls) * 100
% completed within some timeframe: E.g. From last week’s A&E Figures, we saw % A&E attendants seen in 4 hours or under.
Complicated Measure Combinations: E.g. % Forecast Accuracy in Supply-chain
Applying sophisticated statistical treatment to raw performance measures that only stats specialists can read: E.g. Exponentially weighted moving averages
Statistical representation of a population of people or things: E.g. Electric Car Use by Country

In today’s blog, we’ll look at why %’s are a problem (the argument is exactly the same for ratios) in trying to understand what is going on?

% Repairs Completed: Let’s assume more is good and less is bad. Here’s how complicated we have made it to understand what is going on (see yellow box):
% Repairs Completed has gone up (since it was last reported on). There are five different combinations of Number of Repairs Completed vs Total Number of Repair Calls:

[/list]

i.      Number of Repairs Completed has increased; Total Number of Repair Calls stays the same

ii.      Number of Repairs Completed has increased; Total Number of Repair Calls increases, but at a slower rate

iii.      Number of Repairs Completed has increased; Total Number of Repair Calls has decreased

iv.      Number of Repairs Completed stays the same; Total Number of Repair Calls has decreased

v.      Number of Repairs Completed has decreased; Total Number of Repair Calls decreases, but at a faster rate

% Repairs Completed remains the same (since it was last reported on). There are three combinations of Number of Repairs Completed vs Total Number of Repair Calls:

i.      Number of Repairs Completed has increased; Total Number of Repair Calls also increases at the same rate

ii.      Number of Repairs Competed stays the same; Total Number of Repair Calls also stays the same

iii.      Number of Repairs Completed has decreased; Total Number of Repair Calls also decreases at the same rate

% Repairs Completed has gone down (since it was last reported on). There are five different combinations of Number of Repairs Completed vs Total Number of Repair Calls:

i.      Number of Repairs Completed has decreased; Total Number of Repair Calls stays the same

ii.      Number of Repairs Completed has decreased; Total Number of Repair Calls decreases, but at a slower rate

iii.      Number of Repairs Completed has decreased; Total Number of Repair Calls has increased

iv.      Number of Repairs Completed stays the same; Total Number of Repair Calls has increased

v.      Number of Repairs Completed has increased; Total Number of Repair Calls increases, but at a faster rate

So, when we are performance managing, each of our two performance management measures can move one of 3 ways – go up, stay the same or go down. Simples!

But, when we are performance reporting, our one % reporting measure can move through any one of the 13 different combinations above! And I think Dilbert would have something to say about that!

And where %’s do come into their own is when drilling down using tools such as Pareto Charts to find root-causes of signals or drivers of patterns – more on this in our future blogs.

Why is the second example above – A&E attendances seen within 4 hours – a problem in trying to understand what is going on? For that you’ll need to read our next blog…

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: A quick guide to finding company financials

Financial sources can be extremely useful to any company research, giving anything from straight figures to an insight into company structure, ownership and strategy. Try the following resources:

Fame

Use for financial data and ownership information on UK companies, both public and private. No full-text analysis is provided. Fame will give you up to 10 years of financials – including balance sheets, profit and loss accounts and key financial ratios. Fame also gives details of company SIC codes (standard industrial classification) which can then be used to identify other firms in the same sector. Access financials via the Table of Contents on the right.

Thomson One

Includes financials for thousands of listed companies worldwide plus brokers’ and analysts’ reports on both companies and industries. Enter your company name or ticker in the top search-box and click ‘Go’.

The ‘Company Overview’ gives a summary snapshot. Click through to the ‘Full Summary’ for more in-depth information. The ‘Fundamentals’ menu option provides access to various financial reports and an international peer group comparison. To access commentaries on company performance from firms such as Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley, select the ‘Research’ option.

Factiva

Key financials are available for listed companies in the Company Snapshot section. Click on the link to ‘Financial Results’ in the snapshot page for 5 years of financials – including key ratios. Select from various statement types via the dropdown menu. Data can be downloaded into a spreadsheet.

If you have any questions about sourcing company financials, please contact MIRC.

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: A sit down with Chris Sansom

How long have you
been at Cranfield?

I started life at Cranfield 12 years ago in the Precision
Engineering Institute just as a new MSc was being set up. I spent most of my
working life in research labs, but always in industry. I did some academic work
during that time – working as a tutor for nearly 30 years on and off, including
some guest lectures at Cranfield. With Cranfield’s close links to industry, the
contacts I had made when lecturing and it’s purely postgraduate environment it
was quite a seamless transition for me.

How did you become
involved in concentrating solar power?

My background in industry was always heat and light. So I
guess I was always going to somehow end up in at least one of those areas. I became
involved in renewable energy when I was working with machine tools in precision
engineering. I got interested in harvesting waste heat – about 20% of the
energy goes into the cutting, grinding or milling process and the other 80% is
lost as heat. So I thought we could perhaps do something with that waste heat.
Waste heat harvesting took me very quickly into thermal energy, and then concentrating
solar energy.

Has interest in
renewable energy changed in the time you have been involved in it?

I think anyone working in science and engineering today is interested
in renewables. It’s kind of everywhere – it’s in the news a lot, and even
school kids are talking about it, which is fantastic. Smart houses, smart
grids, local heat networks, electric cars, even electric aircraft – all part of
a big picture, and that picture is climate change. I think I’m very lucky and
very fortunate to be here at this time working in renewable energy, when the
world is going through this transitional phase away from fossil fuels. We have
a wonderful opportunity in the next 40 years to influence change. People often
say “I became a scientist to change the world”, well you really can at this
time, the opportunity has never been greater.

What do you like most
about working at Cranfield?

I’ve worked for big multinational companies and small companies
alike, and even worked for Amazon as operations manager for two years, running the
night shift where I learnt very fast to make quick decisions! Of all the jobs
though, Cranfield is the best job I’ve ever had – I love it, truthfully. If you
have a great idea, you can set your own research theme that, provided you can
bring in funding to support it, and you’re providing education and benefitting
industry then you are fully supported. It was much more constrained when I
worked in industry. Job freedom and the excitement of exploring new ideas is a
wonderful thing – Cranfield gives me the chance to do something exciting every
day.

What does a typical day at Cranfield look like for you?

I don’t deal very well with humdrum 9 to 5. At Cranfield I
get the opportunity to travel a lot, which I enjoy – meeting new people and
visiting interesting locations, talking with companies about projects,
challenges or opportunities for our students. On another day I will maybe write
an academic paper for two hours, or deliver a lecture – so there’s a great deal
of variability in my job.

So what’s the most exciting thing you’re working on at the moment?

Well, it is on the solar energy front and the water-energy
nexus – desalination in particular. In places like the Middle East – we’re
working in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and in India where there are huge drinking
water problems, and provision of water for agriculture. So we’re involved with
two UK companies in trying to desalinate seawater in the most cost-effective
way using thermal energy, and in smaller scale plants than the traditional
huge, costly plants – that’s very exciting. It’s exciting because the
technology is new, it’s different and you do feel like you are making a
difference to people’s lives. For example we made a small, mobile desalination
unit using plastic lenses for deployment in Jordan and Palestine designed to
keep someone alive in a disaster zone refugee camp. Imagine that, using science
to save someone’s life, isn’t that wonderful?

What’s the main difference between the two solar energy technologies – Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) and Photovoltaic (PV)?

PV panels have become really cheap to manufacture, and
generating electricity from PV panels has become more cost effective than
fossil fuels thanks to economies of scale. However, although creating
electricity using PV is really simple, storing that electricity is less
straightforward. Storing heat generated from CSP on the other hand is much
easier. It is about a quarter of the cost to store the same amount of heat as
it is to store the same amount of electricity. Electricity storage means
batteries – to store something like half a gigawatt Kwh which equates to one of
my CSP plants, would require filling something like Wembley Stadium with
batteries. Storing the same amount of heat would require something like a
petrochemical drum (20-30m diameter), so much, much smaller. In addition, PV
panels stop working when it gets dark, whereas a CSP plant can run for 24 hours
a day, such as La Africana CSP plant we’re working on as part of the SOLWARIS/WASCOP
project.

Does the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems work in other areas of renewable energy?

We have a long history of working with offshore wind, which
is an area we continue to play a large and active role in research and
development, looking at durability, fatigue and failure modes of offshore steel
structures. Exploring maintenance and servicing methods,
and how you might improve what, can be
an expensive business. If something goes wrong with an offshore wind turbine it
can cost somewhere in the region of a million pounds to sort that out. It’s not
something you do unless you need to, and you do a few at a time to try and
reduce costs. That’s why when you look at offshore wind farms and you sometimes
see a number of the turbines not working, it’s because they are maybe faulty,
so switched off to minimise further damage. Equally, some of the turbines are
switched off when they are not required. As mentioned earlier, generating
electricity is straightforward and relatively cheap, but storing that energy is
less straightforward. If a wind farm is producing more energy than needed, then
turbines are switched off. So one of our main activities with offshore wind
revolves around how to monitor, maintain predict failure in these structures in
the most efficient and cost-effective way.

We also work with wave and tidal – which lags behind wind
and solar power in terms of maturity, and has had less in terms of investment,
which is a shame as they also have their place in provision of energy and
power. The UK for example, is a small island, surrounded by waves and tides, so
provides a great opportunity for developing more efficient and effective
turbine technology. At Cranfield we have great facilities and extensive
expertise in turbine modelling and testing, which leads into things like
mainstream hydro electricity generated by things such as dams – a great,
predictable and controllable source of energy, and one used very successfully
in places like Africa for example. It’s essentially stored potential energy, so
a great resource for maybe cup final day or when you know something is going to
happen to cause a spike in demand.

What would you
consider the main challenge for renewables?

I think in the past, fossil fuels have provided a stable
base load when facilities would just run all the time. Energy provision is a
lot more complex now, and renewables in their various forms provide strengths
in certain areas, but all are somewhat intermittent, perhaps with the exception
of biomass and tidal. So the key challenge is to provide stable, dependable and
consistent energy provision by utilising all the strengths from each of the
renewable energy technologies in a cost-effective, sustainable way that makes
as little impact on the climate as possible. All power generation has some kind
of impact on the planet, our job at Cranfield is to work with students,
academia and industry to develop the technologies that minimise that impact,
which is a hugely exciting prospect.

Professor Chris Sansom is a Fellow of the Higher Education
Academy (FHEA); a Member of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES), and
the sole UK representative on the EERA (European Energy Research Alliance)
Joint Programme on CSP (Concentrating Solar Power). Chris is also a Six Sigma
Black Belt practitioner and continues to lead on several CSP projects around
the world, looking at reducing water consumption.

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: Finding brokers’ and analysts’ reports in MIRC

If you are researching a company’s performance over time or analysing the impact of a corporate transaction, valuable information can be sourced from analysts’ reports.

What are analysts’ reports and why might I need them?

Also known as brokers’ reports or research reports, these kinds of documents from financial institutions such as RBS, Crédit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, etc. provide expert analysis on company and industry performance.

MIRC’s most comprehensive source for analysts’ reports is Thomson One. In addition to providing comprehensive company financials for listed companies and a growing number of private firms, it also allows you to search across thousands of reports from a wide range of banks and brokerage houses.

Sourcing analysts’ reports in Thomson One

From the Thomson One homepage, type the company name into the main search box and select from the options presented.
When the Company Overview is displayed, scroll down until you see the heading ‘Latest 5 Research Reports’ (generally at the bottom of the left-hand column). Click on any title to view table of contents and through to full-text.
If you want to look at older reports, click on ‘Complete List’ at the top right hand side of this section.

To open (and download) any report as a pdf, click on its title. When you reach the Table of Contents page, see below, either click to ‘Select all Reports’ or select from the individual sections before you click on ‘View.’

To export multiple reports to one pdf from your results screen, use the checkboxes on the left to make your selections before clicking on ‘View.’

More Selecting multiple reports to export

More advanced searching

The Advanced Search function allows you to run a more targeted search by adding criteria, or to search for industry reports amongst other things.

To access the advanced search page, select ‘Screening and Analysis’ from the Thomson One navigation menu, then ‘Research’ then ‘Research Search’.

Use the search options to build your search.
Bear in mind that Thomson One defaults to a date range of the last 90 days so remember to amend this to suit your requirements.

The Advanced Research screen

When you have entered all of your criteria, click ‘Search’ at the bottom.

If you have questions on any aspect of company or industry research, please pop in and see us or contact MIRC.

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: Performance Reporting Measures vs Performance Management Measures – Part 2

Another Problem with % Measures

You may have read my blog from last week comparing Performance Reporting Measures vs Performance Management Measures.

Performance reporting is littered with measures that may appear to carry meaning for some people, but in our observations, have been misleading and impenetrable to many. And certainly don’t help understanding nor how to improve!

Here are some examples of reporting measures that we introduced previously:

% items completed: % implies a ratio – with a numerator and denominator. E.g. % Repairs Completed defined by (Number of Repairs Completed / Total Number of Repair Calls) * 100
% completed within some timeframe: E.g. From a previous blog’s A&E Figures, we saw % A&E attendants seen in 4 hours or under.
Complicated Measure Combinations: E.g. % Forecast Accuracy in Supply-chain
Applying sophisticated statistical treatment to raw performance measures that only stats specialists can read: E.g. Exponentially weighted moving averages
Statistical representation of a population of people or things: E.g. Electric Car Use by Country

There’s one more critical problem with % measures I didn’t mention last time. And this one is particularly mind-bending, even to some of those who have studied Maths!

You start to stumble across the problem when you start drilling down into sub-sets of the data to “better understand what is going on”. So, for example, regarding A&E data, you may want to drill down by hospital and by age-group. You do this at your peril!

But, to keep this light, we’ll select an alternative example from Wikipedia that you can all go take a look at – batting percentages over two years for two baseball players. We could have picked a cricketing example, but who knows what’s happening in the Test in New Zealand right now – well I said I wanted to keep this light!

So here are the baseball figures – the figures are (number of hits) / (number of “at bats”):

So looking at the individual year’s batting % in each of 1995 and 1996, you’d want to bet on David Justice. BUT! When you look at their combined % for the 2 years, you’d want to go with Derek Jeter. Confused?

I won’t explain this paradox here, since Wiki does a very good job of it – but it is well-known (to some mathematicians and stats guys) as Simpson’s Paradox. It happens because both the numerator and denominator can vary independently.

The ONLY way to resolve this is to have a clear PURPOSE for the business process (Wiki refers to STORY), which will guide the reader on whether to use the aggregated % or the component %s, OR to use an alternative measure altogether.

And I’m pretty sure Dilbert would encourage you to look at the underlying raw data – i.e. number of “at bats” and the “hits” separately (instead of, or, worst case, as well as %’s) if you really want to understand what’s happening!

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: Our research support webinars will be back in 2020!

Our monthly webinar series has been so popular this year that we will be repeating it in 2020!

The sessions will cover a range of topics to help support your research and will all run over lunchtime, [b]1-2pm. [/b]Each of the webinars will take the form of a short presentation, followed by time for you to ask any questions you may have on the topic.

They will be open to any Cranfield staff member or student interested in research. You will be able to access them both on and off campus, but you will need to book a place through the [url=https://intranet.cranfield.ac.uk/it/Pages/DATESBookings.aspx]DATES[/url] system if you would like to attend so we can send you the webinar link.

When your booking has been accepted, look out for an email containing
the Webex link which will be sent to you shortly before the event.

[b]The webinars[/b]

[b]Wednesday 15 January: Journal impact factors: navigating the Journal Citation Reports (JCR)[/b]
Presenters: Emma Turner and Clare Humphries, Information Specialists at Kings Norton Library
Come with us on a gentle walk through some of the metrics features in the Journal Citation Reports.
[b][url=https://dates.cranfield.ac.uk/Application/?moduleId=1299]Book now[/url][/b]

[b]Wednesday 19 February: Predatory publishing – what is it and how can you avoid it? [/b]
Presenter: Mandy Smith, Information Specialist and Research Support Coordinator at Barrington Library
Have you ever been approached to submit an article to a journal you are unsure of? Or submit your thesis to a publisher you have never heard of? Or even been invited to join an editorial board? Join us for a brief guide to Predatory Publishing, why you need to know, and how to avoid being caught out by it…
[b][url=https://dates.cranfield.ac.uk/Application/?moduleId=1298]Book now[/url][/b]

[b]Thursday 19 March: REF update[/b]
Presenter: Andrew Kirchner, REF Delivery Manager
Your opportunity to speak to our REF manager Andrew Kirchner to check you are in good condition for REF2021.
[b][url=https://dates.cranfield.ac.uk/Application/?moduleId=1297]Book now[/url][/b]

[b]Wednesday 22 April: Study skills: saving time with Mendeley[/b]
Presenters: Mandy Smith, Information Specialist and Research Support Coordinator at Barrington Library and Jessica Goff, Information Specialist at Barrington Library
As Mendeley advisors and users, we’ll introduce you to Mendeley, some time-saving tips to better organise your literature and how to produce reference lists in official Cranfield or journal specific citation styles.
[b][url=https://dates.cranfield.ac.uk/Application/?moduleId=1301]Book now[/url][/b]

[b]Wednesday 20 May: Making your work Open Access[/b]
Presenters: Sharon Hinton, Senior Open Access Information Advisor at Kings Norton Library, and Mary Betts-Gray, Business Information Specialist at MIRC
What’s the point of Open Access? What are the common issues of making work accessible to everyone? What is AAM and what it look like? Here’s your chance to learn from our library experts on the most effective hassle-free way to make your research open access.
[b][url=https://dates.cranfield.ac.uk/Application/?moduleId=1300]Book now[/url][/b]

[b]Thursday 18 June[/b]: [b]What you can do with CORD[/b]
Presenter: Greg Simpson, Research Data Manager for Cranfield University Library Service
Have a quick live tour of different ways you can use CORD: what outputs you can publish and how its features can benefit you. Grill our research data manager on anything CORD – or data-related…
[b][url=https://dates.cranfield.ac.uk/Application/?moduleId=1453]Book now[/url][/b]

[b]Tuesday 30 June: ORCID[/b]
Presenter: Mandy Smith, Information Specialist and Research Support Coordinator at Barrington Library
Have you ever located papers that have been attributed to the wrong author or wish you could have an online page of your research outputs that you manage? This session will introduce you to the benefits of having an ORCID, how to register for an account and how to link your ID to the CRIS and indexes such as Scopus.
[b][url=https://dates.cranfield.ac.uk/Application/?moduleId=1454]Book now[/url][/b]

Photo by [url=https://unsplash.com/@ellaolsson?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText]Ella Olsson[/url] on [url=https://unsplash.com/s/photos/laptop-lunch?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText]Unsplash[/url]

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: Sourcing company Betas in Datastream

Datastream provides current Betas and pre-formatted expressions to calculate historical betas for quoted companies around the world. In order for Datastream to display Beta calculations, at least 2½ years of data are required. Data is not held historically although it is possible to use formulae to calculate historic Betas.

Current Betas

From the menu options choose ‘Static Request’. A search form will appear.
Click on the orange ‘Find Series’ button beside the top search box. This will take you into the Navigator where you can search for the company you want. Type the name of the company in the search box, e.g. BP, and select the correct company from the options displayed.
Next click on the ‘Datatypes’ button. Ensure ‘Equities’ is displaying in the drop down box to the left of search box and type in “Beta”
Click on ‘Search’ and from the options displayed select ‘Beta (WS) – WC09802’.
Leave the date box empty.
Click on Submit and the latest beta value will be displayed.
Results can be transferred to Excel.

Current Beta in Datastream

Historical Betas

This time, select ‘Time Series Request’.
Click on the orange ‘Find Series’ button and follow the steps above to find the company you need.
Then click on the ‘Expression Builder’ icon – below the orange Datatypes button. You will be taken to the Expressions page.

Expression Builder and Expression Picker

Make sure that Expression Picker tab in the top left hand corner is selected.
In the Search For boxes choose ‘Any’ and then enter beta. Click on Search and a list of relevant expressions will be displayed.
Select BETA, MONTHLY, 5 YEARS by clicking on the code ‘458E’
Enter your time period, e.g. -2Y, and frequency e.g. Quarterly.
Click on ‘Submit’ and your values will be displayed.
Results can be transferred to Excel.

Beta in Datastream

Datastream is accessible on-campus in the School of Management via the VMWare application. Please ask if you need any assistance.

If all of this sounds a little complicated and scary, why not have a read of our Beginner’s guide to sourcing a company Beta too.

If you have any questions on Datastream or on sourcing financial data, please contact MIRC staff for more information.

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FROM Cranfield SOM Blogs: Are we eating ourselves out of water?

Have you ever stopped to wonder how much water it takes to supply you with enough food to eat? Everything that we eat requires water for its production – from growing the plants we eat and the plants that we feed to animals, to providing drinking water for the animals. All plants need water to grow, and the volumes required to produce our food can be quite surprising.

For example, it takes 95 litres of water to grow just 1kg of potatoes in Eastern England. In Spain, growing 1kg of strawberries takes 110 litres. Some of this water is supplied naturally by rainfall – this is known as ‘green water’. We can argue that the use of green water for food production has a low impact, as the water cannot be used for purposes other than growing plants. We could use the land for ‘natural’ vegetation instead of growing potatoes, but ultimately the water consumption would be similar. The issue is water that is withdrawn from rivers, reservoirs and the groundwater – known as ‘blue water’ – which is used to irrigate crops and to provide drinking water for animals. Unlike green water, this blue water could be used for purposes other than food production such as supplying people, businesses and industry, or sustaining the aquatic environment. So the question is, are we eating ourselves out of water?

Water consumption depends on dietary choices

The amount of blue water that it takes to feed us depends on what we eat. We have estimated that a typical British diet consumes approximately 160 litres of blue water from freshwater resources per person, per day[1]. The foods in our diet that use up the greatest amount of water are:

Milk and dairy products, partly because we consume vast quantities of them.
Fruit and rice, due to the frequent use of irrigation when they are grown.
Meat, because it takes a large amount of feed and drinking water to rear the animals.

Globally, around 80% of the world’s population suffer serious threats to their water security. Aquatic ecosystems have been severely degraded due to over-exploitation of water resources or climate change. There is a growing water scarcity crisis and more than 70% of all water withdrawals are for agriculture. Not only is this a large amount of water but, more importantly, water used in agriculture is ‘consumed’ rather than being returned to the hydrological system as wastewater.

Dietary changes to save water are possible, but complicated

The global demand for water to be used in agriculture is increasing due to factors including population growth, higher consumption, changing dietary preferences and increasing aridity. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has estimated that blue water withdrawals for agriculture will need to increase by 65% if we continue producing and consuming food as we are today. It is clear that what we eat has a big impact on how much water is consumed. It takes up to 20 times as much water (green and blue water) to produce 1 kcal from beef, compared to the same energy from tomatoes. Studies have shown that a vegetarian diet consumes only 50-65% of the total water (green and blue) of a ‘typical’ reference diet.

Changing your diet to save water is possible, but it is very complicated. To do so effectively, you would need to know how much water it takes to grow your food, where it was grown, how much of the water consumed was blue water, and how sensitive that location is to water scarcity. For example, it takes ~2 litres of blue water to produce a portion of British potatoes or Italian pasta, but 180 litres to produce just one portion of Basmati rice[2] – perhaps opt for chips with your curry instead of rice next time! Furthermore, it may not be as simple as just reducing the amount of meat you eat, if you, therefore, increase your consumption of fruit and vegetables. 76% of the freshwater used to grow fruit and vegetables for the UK is withdrawn overseas and most of this is from water-scarce countries such as Spain, Egypt, South Africa, Chile, Morocco, Israel and Peru[3]. An extreme example is almond drink – a dairy substitute. We estimate that it takes over 100 litres of blue water to grow the almonds to make just one litre of almond drink[4], compared to 7.5 litres for a litre of dairy milk[5]. Not only does it take more water to produce almond drink – 80% of the world’s almonds are grown in drought-stricken California, whereas most milk consumed in the UK is produced in the wetter parts of UK and Ireland. Clearly, almond milk has the potential to contribute more to water scarcity than cow’s milk.

So what can we do to reduce the amount of water consumed for food production?

It’s important that we also look at how we can reduce the impact of water withdrawal at the point of production. This means working with the value chain to improve the sustainability of food production. If we use water more efficiently, store it in times of excess and withdraw from less sensitive sources, we can avoid eating ourselves out of water.

For consumers – the best place to start is to waste less. In the UK, approximately 30% of our food and drink is wasted, meaning that we are wasting 30% of the water that has been used to produce it. Eat, drink, save water.

[1] Hess, T.M., Andersson, U., Mena, C. and Williams, A. (2015) The impact of healthier dietary scenarios on the global blue water scarcity footprint of food consumption in the UK. Food Policy, 50: 1-10. doi: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2014.10.013

[2] Hess, T.M., Chatterton, J., Daccache, A. and Williams, A. (2016) The impact of changing food choices on the blue water scarcity footprint and greenhouse gas emissions of the British diet: The example of potato, pasta and rice. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112(5) 4558-4568. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.08.098

[3] Hess, T.M. and Sutcliffe, C. (2018) The exposure of a fresh fruit and vegetable supply chain to global water-related risks. Water International, 43(6): 746-761. doi: 10.1080/02508060.2018.1515569

[4] https://www.almonds.com/sites/default/f ... onds_0.pdf

[5] https://dairy.ahdb.org.uk/non_umbraco/d ... edia=16704