Leading supplier of masonry support systems, IG Masonry Support, was victorious at this year’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Best of the Best Awards, taking home the prestigious Engineering Excellence accolade. IG Masonry Support’s KTP Associate and Queen’s University Belfast graduate, Emanuele Scarabino won the award for a design that will drive product quality and productivity in the construction industry; a calculation suite model for masonry support systems which eliminates human error and impressively delivers the output of 9000 man hours in just 60 seconds.
Hosted by the Knowledge Transfer Network – a not-for-profit organisation that drives innovation across UK industries – the Best of the Best Awards acknowledge and celebrate achievements of KTP Associates, impactful innovation and industry partnerships throughout the UK. Supported by a partnership between a business and higher education institution, a KTP Associate is an elective graduate who leads a KTP project, with the aim to create a solution that changes the landscape of innovation and knowledge in the UK.
Judges praised the programme’s incredible accuracy, which pushed the project beyond any expectations set out in the original plan. The ability to predict physical behaviour with such precision will transform product design with material savings and enable remarkable improvements in efficiency for the design of masonry support systems.
Paul Graham, General Manager at Ireland of IG Masonry Support, said: “The KTP has been a revolutionary programme for IG Masonry Support, and we are so thankful for Emanuele’s talents, our partnership with Queen’s University Belfast and funders, Invest NI. This entire process has enabled the business to completely standardise the design process with the added luxury of achieving significant accuracy at a high speed. The bespoke mathematical model designed by Emanuele Scarabino can indeed condensate thousands of man-hours of calculations in less than a minute, while eliminating human error and opening the door to data analysis.”
Ken Frame, Knowledge Transfer Advisor for this project, said: “This is a fantastic example of KTP collaboration. At KTN, through our network of Knowledge Transfer Advisers, we support over 800 KTP projects. This one is an outstanding success, demonstrating how KTPs can deliver significant impact through open innovation.”
Funded by Innovate UK – part of UK Research and Innovation – with the support of funders: the Scottish Funding Council, Welsh Government, Invest Northern Ireland, Defra and BEIS, the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme helps businesses in the UK to innovate and grow. A KTP Associate enables a business to bring in new skills and the latest academic thinking to deliver a specific, strategic innovation project through a knowledge-based partnership. Innovate UK manages the KTP programme and facilitates its delivery through a range of partners including the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), Knowledge Bases and Businesses. Each partner plays a specific role in the support and delivery of the programme.
