Over 120 industrialists have signed up to attend the event, which will include an industrial advisory meeting, a research showcase, a series of talks and a networking event to be launched by Professor Eric Thomas, Vice-Chancellor and Professor Nishan Canagarajah, Dean of Engineering.

The Faculty has, for a long time, engaged productively with industry.  In the 1930s, engineering academics established the equation for the wing design on the Spitfire and in the late 1970s they invented the technology that led to the first mobile phone.

Today, the Faculty’s world-leading research continues, from the development of wallpaper that will protect buildings from earthquake damage and developing power efficient technologies that will reduce carbon emissions from mobile phone base stations, to reducing the environmental impact of communications systems and ice-pigging technology, which will provide a new green, chemical-free method to clean pipes and that could have a huge impact on major industries.

Professor Nishan Canagarajah, Dean of Engineering, said: “We wanted to host an event that would bring together existing industry collaborators and those who wanted to engage in the future.

“I'm delighted that so many industrialists - from all sizes of company and across all sectors - have signed up.  Industrial engagement is a key part of the Faculty strategy and the event will provide an opportunity to strengthen our partnership with old and new.”

At the industrial advisory meeting, to which senior industrialists representing companies with whom the Faculty has long-standing ties are invited, the Dean will present his vision of how the Faculty will engage with industry, and will be seeking feedback and advice on this strategy from these key collaborators.

The research showcase and presentations that will follow will provide an opportunity for individual researchers and industrialists to get together to make plans for collaborative work.

Professor Paul Weaver, Faculty Research Director, said: “Industry is, and always has been, at the heart of this Faculty’s research.  I am looking forward to talking to our industry contacts to make plans for the coming years of collaboration.

“Academics in the Faculty are involved in some innovative research and I will be asking industrialists where they want to see research go in the future.  Work with industry is best when the benefit and knowledge transfer is genuinely two-way.”

There are still a number of places available to attend the event.   If you represent an engineering or technology company and would like to attend please email emma.wood@bristol.ac.uk