Dr Yikun Wang receives Dean's Award for exceptional contribution to strengthening the relationship between the University and LR
Dr Yikun Wang, Senior Research Fellow within SMMI and the Maritime Engineering Group, has been awarded the Dean’s Award 2020 in the recent FEPS Faculty Forum, “in recognition of her considerable contribution to strengthening the relationship between the University and Lloyd’s Register through her Impact Acceleration Account, resulting in significant output and leading towards long-term benefits to the University”.
The awards for Early Career Researchers, Professional Services and Technical and Experimental staff were announced at the recent virtual Faculty Forum. Winners were selected from a record-breaking total of nominations this summer, reflecting the breadth of colleagues’ efforts to uphold the Faculty’s high standards in challenging circumstances.
Yikun's research and industrial fellowship in LR over the last year has resulted in an Impact Acceleration Account (as PI) funding with LR’s in-cash contribution (a total of £110,000). This project aims to strengthen the relationship between the University of Southampton, LR, the Alan Turing Institute and Shell Shipping and Maritime by building on the University’s unique ability to combine domain knowledge of marine corrosion with AI to create a corrosion module for LR’s Structural Management System. As part of this there is funding for a national workshop to roadmap Artificial Intelligence in the Marine sector, with key note speeches from Simon Reeve, VP Technology and Innovation and Director of Commercial Engagement at Lloyd’s Register Foundation and a team from the Shell Shipping and Maritime Innovation team. She has complimented this with a £20,000 SMMI project (as PI) on “Is hydrogen the ultimate solution for future ship propulsion?” working across Infrastructure, Maritime Engineering and Maritime Law, to partner with LR to provide key knowledge and database for rule development of future hydrogen powered ships. Over the past three years, Dr Wang has initiated 11 UoS-LR UG/PGT student projects and three internships with students greatly benefitting from the industrial mentoring and working experience.