Railfuture links up with University for awards evening

Photo caption: From left to right: Professor Graham Parkhurst, Director of UWE’s Centre for Transport and Society; Christian Wolmar, Honorary President of Railfuture; Wendy Thorne, Railfuture Membership Director; John Parkin CEng FICE FCIHT FCILT, Professor of Transport Engineering and Deputy Director, Centre for Transport and Society University of the West of England

Railfuture was delighted to sponsor a very interesting and successful 2019 Transport Masters Prize Award Presentation awards evening event at the University of the West Of England (UWE) with Railfuture’s Honorary President, Christian Wolmar, proving to be the ‘top entertainment’.

The audience included UWE academics, academics from other West Country academic institutions, members of transport organisations and some students. Railfuture hopes to set up similar events at other universities with major Transport faculties.

The two prize winners gave presentations of their research and exploration into new technologies.

From left to right: Wayne Johnson from CILT; Prize winner Onyeka Okeke; Prize winner Alexandra Istrati

Onyeke Okeke looked at the impact that autonomous vehicles could have on parking provision at UWE’s Frenchay Campus and in a mesmerising presentation showed parking spaces could be slashed freeing up enough space for the two other UWE campuses potentially to relocate to the Frenchay campus.

Alexandra Istrati looked at the feasibility of using drones for the ‘last mile delivery’ of packages to retailers in Bristol. She recognised the major obstacles that would need to be overcome and she fully recognised the huge (possibly insurmountable) legal and insurance issues too – but thought provoking nonetheless.

Christian Wolmar then spoke about the prospects for autonomous vehicles, saying that one reason there was so much, in his view extra-ordinary, hype about them was the amount of government and private funding being made available for research into the topic.  He then turned to the railways, stating they were at a key moment in their history with the Rail Review currently underway and the promise of a white paper to shape government policy.

To read a full version of this article go to:

https://www.railfuture.org.uk/article1821-University-challenge

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