A dialogue with Prof. LIN Jianguo, Professor in the Mechanics of Materials Division at Imperial College London, UK
*The interview was conducted in April 2024. The content of this story reflects the development at the time when the interview was conducted. Prof. Lin was appointed as Chair Professor of Materials Technologies in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering of PolyU, with effect from 2 September 2024.
Monetising technology research: The dual-role dilemma and advice for researcher-entrepreneurs
The transfer of knowledge and technology is an important marker of research excellence. Global universities are pursuing science entrepreneurship and industry collaborations more intensely than ever. How should researchers balance their research and commercialisation responsibilities?
In this issue, PAIR Senior Fellow Prof. LIN Jianguo, Professor in the Mechanics of Materials Division at Imperial College London, United Kingdom, shares with PAIR his views on the challenges faced by researchers. The expert in metal forming, materials and process modelling has led his research group to remarkable success in the transfer of manufacturing technologies to industry. The group has established four research centres and two joint research laboratories fully funded by the industry, as well as three spin-off companies that have resulted from their patented techniques.
Good research is the basis of research commercialisation. However, university knowledge transfer differs from technology consulting. Rather than focusing on the present, university researchers strive to address scientific issues of the future, with original, forward-looking solutions.
Finding common language for technical communication in interdisciplinary research
Interdisciplinary research requires professionals from different disciplines to work together. In advanced manufacturing, what disciplines are involved in addition to engineering? What are the keys to synergistic success?
First and foremost, we need individuals who are keen to do interdisciplinary research and share a common interest. Interdisciplinary research is particularly important for senior staff and chair professors with a clear vision and the scope to do something new that cannot be achieved through a single disciplinary approach.
In manufacturing, mechanical engineers often need to collaborate with material scientists for the characterisation of microstructures during the development and manufacturing of novel materials. In recent years, advanced technologies including automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and big data have become increasingly important. As such, we also collaborate with computer scientists in incorporating AI and machine learning technologies into manufacturing systems, as well as mathematicians and statisticians who work on data and analytics that enable automation and software functions.
Second, having common knowledge and languages among collaborators from different disciplines is important for effective communication. We not only need to close the knowledge gap between disciplines; we must also have a knowledge overlap to enhance communication and understanding. My expertise is in manufacturing, but I do need to possess some knowledge about mathematics, data science, computer programming, etc., so that it is easier for me to communicate and collaborate with peers. Having a common language is important for mutual understanding. People from different disciplines need to have a clear idea of the goals in their research roles and the kinds of resources required to achieve advanced, value-added manufacturing technologies.
Towards high value-added manufacturing and the future of work
High-value added advanced manufacturing is a key focus in the Nation’s Greater Bay Area (GBA) development. The GBA strategy aims to connect and combine the strengths of Mainland China and Hong Kong in manufacturing as well as innovation and technology, and seeks to include neighbouring cities with a view to establishing the Bay Area as an internationally competitive region. How does high value-added manufacturing differ from traditional manufacturing?
Manufacturing has changed significantly in the last 50 years. In the past, manufacturing was about mass production, that is, repeatedly producing the same products. Factories back then had a large number of workers sitting at assembly lines and performing manual labour. Nowadays, in value-added manufacturing, we apply new disciplines and technologies like AI, machine learning and data analytics to automate production processes and produce customised goods. Modern factories only require a small team who can look at computer screens to monitor all production processes. In some cases, we do not even need anyone to do the monitoring work, as the manufacturing systems can even alert us in the case of failures or issues that need to be fixed. Thus, modern manufacturing requires a smaller workforce and is less labour intensive. Automation is becoming more important than ever before, especially as labour costs continue to increase.
How does automation shape the future of work in manufacturing and related fields?
The labour force, in my opinion, will witness a transfer of human capital from areas like factories to certain fields, particularly research and development. We need people who can write software, generate new ideas and develop products, as well as those who can do product testing and marketing. The frontline production does not require as many people as before, but the backend operations need to be supported by highly educated people. I think Hong Kong has a competitive advantage in talent attraction.
This does not mean that all traditionally competitive jobs will be removed and replaced by new technologies. Take healthcare as an example: society still needs physicians and doctors for clinical work, but hospitals will probably need more researchers and developers who can look into the systems used in healthcare, identify functions that can be performed by AI, and conduct relevant research and development.
Global race for research talents in higher education
Global universities, particularly research-intensive ones, are now in a competition for talented scientific researchers. What can be done by universities to better attract and retain these talents?
An inclusive international university ecosystem is important. This is because distinguished, high-level scholars coming from different countries can learn from each other and also attract more talents. Next, universities need to proactively send representatives, preferably influential figures and academics, to visit various places around the world to recruit talented researchers.
In my capacity as the Head of the Mechanics of Materials Division at Imperial College, I put great effort into joining international conferences, meeting peers, building networks and inviting top scholars to join the College. Universities would win top talents more easily if they let academics know whether they could bring their teams to work at the new location and explained how to initiate activities to open up a new research area.
Technologies ready for take-off? Find your market niche.
At PAIR, the Research Institute for Advanced Manufacturing (RIAM) has successfully created a strong, ductile and sustainable titanium alloy (α–β Ti-O-Fe alloy) using a 3D printing method that recycles off-grade sponge titanium. The study was published in Nature. What are your views on how RIAM can bring this success to the next level?
First and foremost, we need to ensure that there is a market for the new alloy; that is, we must have a business plan identifying the potential applications and possible competitive materials that could be used as replacements. Each metal has its own advantages and disadvantages. Titanium is lightweight, but its production cost is usually high.
In my opinion, given the strength and ductility of the RIAM-developed alloy, the team might consider cold stamping (i.e., shaping metal at room temperature) for the material, and this would become a huge aerospace application with a big market. Currently, the use of near-isothermal hot stamping techniques for titanium alloy faces many issues and is very expensive.
Another potential application for this piece of RIAM work is to produce preforms using 3D printing for this alloy, and then forge them into components such as gas turbine blades. These blades are normally difficult to manufacture due to the complex shapes of their preforms. If the team is able to use 3D printing to optimise the shape of preforms easily and at lower cost, then hot forging could minimise the defects of 3D printing. Furthermore, modifying the microstructure to improve the mechanical properties of forged components would make the final products really competitive.
Choosing the right industry collaboration for scientific endeavours
University researchers may be approached by industries seeking technical solutions. What are some considerations including intellectual property (IP) right concerns that researchers should take in determining whether to take up these university-industry collaboration opportunities or to commercialise the technologies by themselves?
The central role of a university researcher is to conduct scientific studies. Personally, I would prefer undertaking industry collaborations that bear scientific value, i.e., those that address not only industrial problems but also scientific challenges for the longer term.
However, this is not easy because industry and academia differ by nature. University research groups are not like consulting companies. We focus on scientific issues, not business problems. In deciding which collaborations to take on, researchers should really think very carefully about the kind of work we would like to do. Industries tend to focus on problems in the short term, and they cannot wait a long time for the technology output from universities. By contrast, academia focuses on problems in the medium and longer term, although larger companies may also think for the future. The support that researchers receive from businesses depends on the size of those companies. Small companies cannot afford to provide large amounts of funding for universities to carry out original, fundamental research that takes years of development. Industries tend not to support very original university work due to potential failure.
Very often, the research projects which we undertake for fundamental research and for industry are of different technology readiness levels (TRL). Technology readiness refers to the maturity of technology at different stages of research and development. There are nine levels in total, with 1 being original, basic research and 9 being technologies that are already in full commercial application. Our projects supported by government funding (for example, from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in the UK) mainly focus on original ideas (e.g., TRL 1). The research council supports projects on new ideas that may fail. On the other hand, our collaborative projects with the companies normally start from TRL 3–4, and then we push further to TRL 5–7, since the industries expect fairly good results and cannot accommodate failures to the same extent.
Innovations taking off: Collaborative input from research, management and marketing professionals
Academics focus on scientific research and do not have much time, resources or experience for industrial activities. How can universities better support their industry engagement and research commercialisation?
As a professor, I have expertise in scientific research on technical difficulties, not in marketing nor in running a company. Therefore, we need to recruit the appropriate individuals to create start-up business plans. Hence, it would be very helpful if universities had designated organisations or offices that could evaluate these opportunities, provide a bit of funding support, recruit professionals with business, commercial and marketing backgrounds to formulate a business proposal in about three to nine months, and form a committee to assess the feasibility of the business plan. This would help researchers better understand the competitiveness of their innovations, the lead time for technology launch, and the size of the investment needed for pushing these technologies into the market. If an innovation does not have a huge market, entails a high cost, or requires a large investment, then the plan may not be viable, and sometimes researchers have to give it up or take a step back and continue to improve the technology.
Quality research comes first
Can you give some advice to researchers who also have roles in spin-off companies, and young researchers aspiring for success in knowledge transfer?
My strong advice to academics is to always balance their time. They can probably spend 20%, but no more than 50%, of their time on commercialisation, in my opinion. Spending too much time on it could eventually affect their scientific work. As academics, our main duties are to teach and research.
In regard to young researchers, they need time to concentrate on a research area, accumulate knowledge about it, develop certain attitudes, and generate ideas until they reach the point where they are fully equipped to pursue research commercialisation. If they are aiming primarily for research commercialisation, then the business sector would probably be more suitable to them, rather than a university.
The international reputation of academics in research and teaching is the cornerstone of university success. Universities often receive money from governments, student fees, research funding and other sources, and therefore institutions should not rely too heavily on university spin-offs for generating income. This is because most spin-off companies in their initial phases are usually short of cash.
In regard to researchers who are exploring start-up opportunities, they should be attentive to the dynamics of research investment. This is because researchers may have less control over their own technology start-ups after receiving venture capital. The investors may draw the researchers away if the researchers’ academic engagements and publication activities interfere with the commercialisation and business profit. Thus, there are both good and bad sides of commercialisation.
In addition, researchers should assess the level of university support available to them and examine the feasibility of founding start-ups. One consideration is sabbatical leave arrangements. There are some researchers who spend too much time working on their companies and have no time for research and publications, and as a result they have to leave their university jobs. In most cases, however, researchers take a year out to help launch the company at the critical stage, and then return to their academic positions.
