Peter Childs FREng is the professorial Lead in engineering design and founding head of the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London. His general interests include creativity tools and innovation, design processes, fluid flow and heat transfer, particularly rotating flow applications, sustainable energy and robotics. Prior to his current post at Imperial he was director of the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre for Aero-Thermal Systems, director of InQbate and professor at the University of Sussex.

He has contributed to over 200 refereed journal and conference papers, and several books including monographs on rotating flow, labyrinth seals and temperature measurement, a text book on mechanical design, and the Handbook on Mechanical Design Engineering (Elsevier, 2013, 2019) as well as co-authoring books on rural urban migration, inclusive sports and sports technology. He is editor of the Journal of Power and Energy.

He has been involved in research and development contracts for Rolls-Royce plc, Alstom, Snecma, DaimlerChrysler, MTU, Volvo, Johnson Matthey, Siemens, Industriales Turbinas Propulsores, Fiat Avio, Airbus, Ricardo Consulting Engineers, Ford, Rio Tinto, the EPSRC, TSB. Innovate UK and the EU as well as a number of SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and has been principal or co-investigator on contracts totalling over £80 million. He has produced over 2000 designs ranging from turbines, compressors and turbochargers to aircraft, ventilators and automotive interiors. Recent designs include garments, gear pumps, robotic components and conceptual work for new passenger aircraft.

He was the Chairman of the South Eastern Region of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers for three years. He was the winner of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers – International Gas Turbine Institute John P. Davis award for exceptional contribution to the literature of gas turbine technology and in 2004 won an Institution of Mechanical Engineers best paper award, an ASME best paper award in 2010 and Design 2014 Outstanding Paper award, innovation awards from the IEEE in 2017 and CIBSE in 2018 with QBot Ltd, and the Design Society Distinguished Paper Award in 2019. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2019 and is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineering. He has been appointed by the Peoples Republic of China, under the Programme 111 technology development initiative for the period 2007-2012 and was a keynote speaker at the International Symposium on Jet Propulsion and Power Engineering in 2006 on rotating flow systems, 2008 on rotating flow, 2010 on chemical looping and 2012 on future aircraft design and morphological analysis in 2014. He has also given keynotes for the 4th and 5th International Gas Turbine Conferences in 2008 and 2010, on commerce and creativity for the E&PDE Conference in 2011, on modular thermal energy storage at the Thermal Energy Storage 2016 conference, and on robot applied floor insulation at the European Conference on Renewable Energy Systems in 2018. In the period 2017-19 he gave 9 keynotes at international conferences.

His roles at Imperial have included being the joint course director for the Innovation Design Engineering and Global Innovation Design double masters run jointly with the Royal College of Art, and Design lead for the Manufacturing Futures Lab. He is a founder director at QBot Ltd. He is passionate about responsible business and is a Christian.

→ Founding Head of School, Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London.

→ Joint course director for the Industrial Design Engineering double masters (MA and MSc at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art).

→ Founder Director and Chair, QBot Ltd.

→ Director and Chair, BladeBUG Ltd.

→ Co-Director Energy Futures Lab – Imperial College London.

→ Professorial Lead in Engineering Design in the Faculty of Engineering, Imperial College London.

→ Professor of Excellence, MD-H, Berlin.

→ Advisor Professor, Guangdong University of Technology.

→ Editor Journal of Power and Energy, Part A, Proc. IMechE.

→ Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department, Imperial College London.

→ Module lead: Design and Manufacture, Design Led Innovation and New Venture Creation, Gizmo.

→ Director of the Design Engineering Research Group, Imperial College London.

→ Director of the Design Teaching Subject Group, in Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London.

→ Founding Director of InQbate, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) funded Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) in Creativity, University of Sussex.

→ Director of the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre (UTC) for Aero-Thermal Systems

→ Professor of Engineering Design, University of Sussex.

→ Line manager for over 50 personnel at the University of Sussex in InQbate, the Rolls-Royce UTC and in Product Design.

→ Budget holder for InQbate (>£4Million), Rolls-Royce UTC (ca. £400k/annum).

→ Supervision of interdisciplinary, collaborative projects, across engineering, design, the humanities and business. Supervision of over thirty PhDs.

→ Managing director Llama Linda Ltd, director at SEED.

→ Prior to attending Sussex undertook an apprenticeship as a locksmith, Universal Locks.

→ Over 200 refereed papers.

→ Mechanical Design Engineering Handbook, now in its 2nd edition (Elsevier 2013, 2019); Text book on Mechanical Design (Butterworth Heinemann/Elsevier), 2nd edition and reprinted 11 times.

→ Six research monographs on temperature measurement and rotating flow.

→ Four edited proceedings on vehicle technology and design.

→ Winner of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers – International Gas Turbine Institute John P. Davis award for exceptional contribution to the literature of gas turbine technology;

→ IMechE 2004, ASME 2010, Design 2014, ICED 2017, Design 2018 best paper awards.

→ IEEE innovation award 2015, CIBSE innovation award 2018, Ashden Award 2018.

→ Elected as Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, ASME and IMechE.

→ Appointed by the Peoples Republic of China, under the Programme 111 technology development initiative with the role of developing autonomous design capability.

→ 2022 International Conference on Global Cultural and Creative Industries. AC/DC-Augmented Creativity/Directed Creativity–the Creativity Diamond Framework. 3rd – 4th December 2022.

→ 2022 Leadership Forum on Design Education. Enterprise by design. 25th July 2022.

→ CHI 2022. Creativity diamond framework. 5th November 2022.

→ Next2021. Creativity and design. 16th December 2021.

→ China Design Research Forum. Interplays between constructivism, cognitivism, humanism and behaviourism in the development of a contemporary design curriculum. 10th December 2021.

→ ICMECE2021. Enabling Technology for Wind Turbine Inspection and Maintenance. 27th November 2021.

→ International Conference on Technology and Design, ICTD 2021. Creativity and Design. 4th September 2021.

→ Chinese International Turbomachinery Conference. Responsible aviation options, 10th November 2020.

→ How design engineering can overcome global challenges to create a more sustainable future. Cleantech Futures 2019, Cambridge, July 2019.

→ Enterprise by design, UCAN 2019, Hangzhou, China, 27th April 2019.

→ Design Engineering ICTD2019 Hangzhou.

→ Robotics and Automation 2018, IEEE Information and Automation for Sustainability (ICIAfS) 2018.

→ European Conference on Renewable Systems 2018.

→ International Symposium on Jet Propulsion and Power Engineering in 2006, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2017.

→ International Chinese Turbomachinery Conference 2018, 4th and 5th Int. Gas Turbine Conferences 2008, 2010; UCAN 2019.

→ Engineering and Product Design Education Conference in 2011; and EDE12; EdCrunch 2017.

→ Thermal Energy Storage 2016; CE100 2016; International Aircraft Cabin Air Conference 2017.

→ Research and development contracts for Alstom, Ford, Rolls-Royce plc, Snecma, EME, Bosch, DaimlerChrysler, MTU, Volvo, Johnson Matthey, Siemens, ITP, Fiat, Airbus, Rover, BMW, Ricardo Consulting Engineers, Naked Energy, Rio-Tinto, EPSRC, TSB and the EU as well as SMEs.

→ Principal or co-investigator on contracts totalling over £80 million with extensive management experience.

→ Founder Director, QBot Ltd, a spin out company (2012-present); Creative Director ICeni Labs (2013-2016), Director Descreco (2013-present).

→ International Advisory Committee for Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Aero Engine, China.

→ Institute for Gas Turbine, China, International Advisor.

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