Fresh from winning the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Innovation, alumnus Dr Tom Carter (PhD 2017), CTO and co-founder of technology firm Ultrahaptics, tells us about touching things that aren’t there.

Imagine if you could reach out with your hand and touch a shape in mid-air – a virtual object that you could feel, but not see. That might sound like science fiction, but it’s real, and it’s happening here in Bristol. Ultrahaptics’ technology, which is based on my PhD, uses ultrasound to create three-dimensional shapes and textures in mid-air.

I’ve always been passionate about interface design, the user experience, and making things better. Human interaction with things should be efficient and easy for the user. I’m sure I’m not the only who gets annoyed by parking machines with impossible instructions, or the way when you need to change radio station in your car you have to flail around for the button while trying to keep your eyes on the road.

That’s what our technology is all about – making the way we interact with machines easier and more intuitive. As our tech develops I’m excited about its possible use in so many areas. For now, though, Ultrahaptics has featured in trials of an interactive movie poster and was also part of an art installation at Tate Britain. We’ve seen our tech rolled out into gaming machines and featured as part of a Halloween show at The Magic Castle in Hollywood.

Founding my own company has always been something I’ve wanted to do. When I was studying Computer Science at BristolI was lucky to be in a department that was so forward thinking. I was able to take modules in things such as entrepreneurship, learning about business plans and how to raise investment capital.

The people I met and worked with at Bristol stretched and encouraged me beyond traditional departmental boundaries. Ultrahaptics also benefited from being part of the University’s SET Squared incubator, currently housed in the Engine Shed hubwhere Brunel used to work.

It’s great to see entrepreneurship become more firmly embedded in the University curriculum, particularly with the new Temple Quarter campus that will have innovation at its heart. I believe you can start a business from any background and it’s so encouraging to see this new way of studying come to life.

Further information

You can listen and download the audio version here (mp3).

Professor Weicheng Cui (PhD 1990) is one of China’s most remarkable scientists and a proud alumnus of the University of Bristol. The world-renowned pioneer of deep sea exploration had the opportunity to congratulate the latest graduates of Bristol when he joined the University as Distinguished Guest at its first ever graduation celebration in Shanghai, on Saturday 14 April.

The University of Bristol’s reputation for nurturing research talent is exemplified by Professor Weicheng Cui’s (PhD 1990) extraordinary career.

He is the Dean of Deep Sea Science and Technology at Shanghai Ocean University and was recently named a ‘science star of China’ by Nature magazine for his record-breaking work on manned deep-sea submersibles, including the Chinese Government funded Jiaolong.

‘I have always been fascinated by the idea of exploration and pushing frontiers. I chose to do my PhD at Bristol because it is a world-class institution which combines a strong research heritage with a pioneering approach to the advancement of human knowledge,’ said Prof Weicheng Cui.

In 2014 he founded Rainbowfish Ocean Technology Co Ltd with two fellow Bristol alumni, with the aim of building the world’s first commercial, deep-sea submersible fleet. Their ambition is to reach the deepest place on Earth — the bottom of the Mariana Trench, 11,000 metres down – by 2020. You can find out more about the project on the BBC website.

In recognition of the high value he and colleagues place on their University of Bristol education, Rainbowfish has maintained links with the institution by providing internships to Bristol students.

‘At Rainbow Fish we are concerned with pushing ourselves to the very edge – or depth – of deep sea exploration. To do this we need interns who share our passion and inventive spirit. I believe the University of Bristol nurtures these values and produces students who are well equipped to help us succeed in our mission,’ said Prof Weicheng Cui.

The company is just three years old so many of their Bristol interns haven’t graduated yet. However, Professor Cui is confident that when they do, there will be exciting opportunities for talented young scientists to follow his lead, pushing the boundaries of human exploration.

‘Since three years ago, both our research center and the Rainbowfish company have become places for Bristol students to do an internship. Now we have the capability to take 30-50 students every year. As an Alumnus of Bristol university, I really appreciate very much for education I received and I will do my best to help other students in need. I sincerely wish my University better and better!’

_______________________________________________

Find out more about Bristol’s alumni networks in China by visiting our webpages.

Countless alumni meet their partners at Bristol. For some, it’s love at first sight and for others it takes a little more convincing (and dancing), but however they started, our alumni are still going strong, even decades later.

Laura Riley (BA 1984) and Martyn Riley (BSc 1985)

My friends and I decided to adopt Martyn. We first met across the breakfast table at Clifton Hill House. During the first week of term, I noticed a handsome young man at the breakfast table. My five friends and I were looking out to be helpful to the new first years in hall and wanting to help them settle in. I think Martyn caught my eye because he was handsome (!) and I was on the lookout for a new boyfriend as over the summer I had broken up with my boyfriend of three years.

We were in the habit of having coffee in our rooms after dinner so we invited him back because we thought he looked like he needed looking after. He spent the next year asking us all out. However most of them turned him down, including me. Two of my friends Lizzie and Penny were already engaged.

It was towards the end of 1983 that we started going out and then we discovered by a chance chat with Penny that her fiancée was Martyn’s second cousin! Penny and Stephen were married in 1983, Martyn and I were married in September 1984 and Lizzie and John were married two weeks after us. We are all still married! Martyn’s late father was also a Bristol graduate and had met his mother in Bristol in the 1950s. Our son Jamie was born in 2001 and in two years he will be embarking on his university life with clear instructions that you go to university to get a degree AND a wife!!

Rahul Ravi (BSc 2012) and Lydia Ravi (née Murphy) (BSc 2012)

In September 2009 I moved to Bristol to begin a new chapter in my life; studying Economics and Maths at the University. Later that same year, at the Economics winter ball, I lent a girl called Lydia Murphy my jacket as we were walking back home. She was studying Economics and Management and so we got chatting; apparently talking extensively about multi-variable calculus isn’t a good pick up line!

Nevertheless, we started dating in 2010 and had a wonderful time in Bristol completing our respective degrees before moving to London. Five years later I proposed to Lydia and in 2016 we got married back where it all began in Bristol! We had our ceremony at the Clifton Pavilion, Bristol Zoo, surrounded by many of our university friends and family.

We have very fond memories of Bristol and often visit. One day we would love to move back to the beautiful city!

Michael Upstone (BSc 1958) and Rosemarie Aston

In February 60 years ago, I was in my final year at Bristol. I needed a partner to take to the Engineers Ball in the Victoria Rooms. A friend, John Bull, also an engineer, offered to find someone for me from the BRI where he had a girlfriend who worked in the X-Ray department. He was successful and arrangements were made.

On the evening of the ball I went to the St Vincent’s Rocks Hotel in Clifton where my blind date was staying the night as she lived in Weston. She came to the lobby and I met Rosemarie, the love of my life! I think we walked from there to the Victoria Rooms as taxis were not an option on my budget!

The Engineers Ball in those days was a big event and we danced the whole evening to the music of Joe Loss and his Orchestra. Probably at the same event, Acker Bilk and his jazz band entertained us. Everything clicked and this dance was followed by more dances and dates in my final year at Bristol. I remember very happy lunches in the restaurant at Lewis’ in Broadmead, generally paid for by Rosemarie! When exams were over we went with a group of friends on the paddle steamer from Clevedon to Ilfracombe for the day.

We were married at St Johns Church in Weston-Super-Mare in April the following year. My best man was Patrick McMillan (BSc 1957). Now almost 60 years later we have a son and daughter and four wonderful grandchildren. We were truly blessed by the need to find a partner for the Engineers Ball and I have always been so grateful for everything that my time at Bristol gave to me.

Angela Dingle (née Berryman) (PGCE 1972) and Robert Dingle (PGCE 1972, MEd 1981)

It was an attraction of opposites. Bob was over six feet tall and a physicist from Cornwall. I was a foot shorter than he was and an historian from County Durham, albeit with Cornish blood. We met on the second day of the PGCE course. A group of us had assembled informally and were discussing our first impressions of Bristol and plans for the weekend.  As it was tea-time, we moved to the Student Union. Through accident or design, Bob and I found ourselves sitting opposite each other eating fish and chips, followed by strawberry yoghurt. Despite the unromantic surroundings, we discovered later that it was love at first sight for both of us! We rounded off the evening at the cinema on Whiteladies Road, watching “The Go-Between”. The film remains special.

We had different interests too. Bob is a railway enthusiast, very musical, and a keen radio amateur. I prefer being in the garden, painting and going to theatres, galleries and exhibitions. Our relationship could have been a disaster. But we got to know each other really well and despite our differences, we shared the same values. We married in 1974 and are still together, over forty years later. We raised our son and daughter, studied for part-time doctorates in education in the hope that we would have a night out together each week and see something of each other! We will always remember our time in Bristol with great affection. Our experiences there provided the foundations of our marriage and family life, as well as of our careers.

Valentine Gardener (née van Wonterghem) (MSci 2008) and Henry Gardener (MSci 2008)

 

We met in the Chemistry laboratory at the end of my first year in 2005. Henry offered to help me with my experiment! I can’t remember what the experiment was just that I was glad Henry offered his help as it meant I was out of the lab early that Friday!

Our first date was a picnic at Ashton Court on a lovely crisp winter day. Henry took me in his Morris Minor (which really impressed me!!) and we got an amazing picnic from Chandos the deli on Whiteladies: bread, cheese, olives, meats and a bottle of wine. And the rest is history! We are now married with a 9 months old baby, Sophia.

—————————

Further information

Thank you to everyone who sent us their stories! Sorry we couldn’t feature them all.

Did you find love at Bristol? Let us know: we’d love to hear from you for next year.

Today (11 November) we’re celebrating the fifth birthday of the University of Bristol’s Cabot Institute, whose researchers are helping us better understand how our planet is changing – and how plants, animals and humans are responding to those changes. Here, we look back over the last five years and list some of their research highlights.

 

1. Flying to the rescue: In 2014, engineers created new and much-needed drones to safely and accurately assess dangerous nuclear accident sites. Cabot Institute geochemists are also now using drones to collect much-needed data to monitor radiation levels, like those at Fukushima, after a tsunami triggered a nuclear disaster in 2011.
2. Saving our oceans: In 2014, Professor Schmidt assessed the consequences of CO₂ emissions on the ocean and summarised the most urgent and important findings in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which helps policymakers all over the world take decisive action to tackle climate change.
3. Rising from the ashes: Following the ash crisis caused by the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, world-leading volcanologists advised the government and improved upon predictive ash dispersal models, increasing industry understanding of risk in future eruptions. Today, alongside mathematicians, our volcanologists are researching the potential impact that volcanic ash might have on nuclear sites.
4. Bee-ing good to our pollinators: In 2015, the Urban Pollinators Project, led by Cabot Institute biologists, was named one of ten ground-breaking research projects in the UK by The Telegraph. Insect pollinators play a crucial role in our food system, so it’s more important than ever that projects like these help tackle their decline.
5. Modelling floods: In 2010, hydrologists improved 2D flood modelling so that simulated scenarios are faster, use less power and provide detail on a five-metre scale (rather than a 50-metre scale). The model has become a blueprint for the multi-million pound flood risk management industry that impacts tens of millions of people each year. Now, water and environmental engineers are leading the CREDIBLE project, which aims to better assess the uncertainty and risk of natural hazards to improve societal security.

These five stories represent just a few of the pioneering projects researchers and engineers in Bristol’s Cabot Institute are working on in response to some of the most pressing environmental challenges we face. From discovering a mega canyon hidden beneath an ice sheet in Greenland to launching a network of Global Farm Platforms to improve food security and sustainability, this research is instrumental in helping us understand how we, as humans, depend on, live with and affect our planet.

Locally, the Institute also played a central role in Bristol’s bid for European Green Capital 2015, an initiative which could create up to 10,000 new jobs and save nearly £1 million a day in energy bills across the city, and is supporting the Bristol is Open partnership to explore how smart city technology can help the city become more sustainable and resilient.

___________________________

About the Cabot Institute

The Cabot Institute drives world-leading research on how we depend on, live with and affect our planet. It stimulates new thinking and strives for new innovations to meet our social and environmental challenges. Researchers within the Institute focus on six crucial areas: global environmental change, food, water, low carbon energy, natural hazards and future cities and communities. Each research area is driven by outstanding academics alongside government, industry and society partners from around the globe – working together, they seek radical and integrated solutions to 21st-century challenges.