SMART Digital Accelerator | Technology Advisory Team

Richard Morgan

Project Lead and Head of Innovation & Engagement

Richard Morgan is Head of Innovation & Engagement within the Wales Institute of Science & Art, having previously managed degree programmes and industrial liaison projects within the School of Engineering at University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He has previously worked at Thyssen Krupp Automotive and Northcliff Press.

Richard leads a number of Welsh Government funded collaborative partnership projects, working with organisations such as Aston Martin Lagonda, Marelli, Troy Manufacturing Group, Treharne Automotive Engineering and Reeco Automation. He is also an academic supervisor for a WEFO (Welsh European Funding Office) funded SMART Expertise project, which focuses on developing resilient automation interventions with the use of digital simulation and modelling techniques to optimise and validate proposed solutions, prior to physical implementation.

Matthew Booth 

Project Delivery Lead at AMRC Cymru

Matt has over 25 years of experience working within various engineering and manufacturing sectors. Matt started his career as an apprentice toolmaker, manufacturing and maintaining press tools and injection mould tooling. From there Matt took all the skills and knowledge he had learned and worked within the Aerospace sector, working for companies such as Tritech Engineering, Magellan Aerospace and Electroimpact UK where he helped deliver large scale aerospace automation projects. Matt has always been committed to personal improvement and has continued learning throughout his career, in 2019 he gained his Master Craftsperson accreditation.

As Project Delivery Lead at AMRC Cymru, Matt is responsible for the management and delivery of large grant funded R&D projects in the fields of automation and manufacturing intelligence.

Joanne Walker

Project Manager and Smart Partnership and Industry Liaison Officer

Joanne Walker is the Smart Partnership and Industry Liaison Officer at the Wales Institute of Science and Art at UWTSD. She joined the University in June 2021 as a Project Officer and has since worked on a variety of different projects and events, providing finance and administrative support and liaising with internal and external stakeholders.

Joanne's career journey started at the age of 18, working as a Customer Service Advisor at Mercedes Benz. Later, she set up a family-run construction business, and supports this business in a financial and administrative role. She also worked as an Account Manager at a children’s nursery for two years.

Joanne holds an AAT Level 4 qualification and is currently working towards completing her ILM level 4 this month. With her wealth of experience and expertise in finance and administration, Joanne is a valuable asset to the team, helping to drive forward collaborative partnership projects with industry partners.

Louise Parry 

Project Administrator and Industrial Liaison Officer

Louise is an Industrial Liaison Officer at INSPIRE. Prior to working at UWTSD, she worked for organisations in both the private and public sector including Alberto Culver, Shanning Laser Systems, Corus Panels & Profiles, Barchester Healthcare and Post Office Ltd.

She has a BSc (Hons) in Combined Sciences and an MSc in Medical Optoelectronics. She is also certified in PRINCE2, a globally recognised project management method.

Dr John R Thomas

John offers a unique combination of business and academic experience, having worked as a manager, problem-solver and lecturer.

For the first 20 years of his career, he gained operational management experience in small and large companies, working for and with firms such as 3M, Rexam, Nissan and Toyota. For the past 20 years, he has run his own management consultancy, specialising in the development and implementation of world class techniques aimed at creating sustainable step changes in business performance and profitability.

In his role as an Industrial Fellow of Cambridge University, John headed a team on behalf of the Institute for Manufacturing, working with the Welsh Government to develop innovative services to support small and medium-sized companies in Wales.

Gary Evans

Gary set up Robert G Evans and Associates in 1999. He specialises in supporting businesses with quality, health and safety, environment, information security management, project management and process engineering.

Gary’s background is in process control and heat treatment engineering. He spent 25 years at Morgan Crucible Company working with carbon in various forms, mainly for applications in electrical current carrying capacity. Since starting his own business, he has worked with Serco, Northrop Grumman and Litton PRC/USA, while also gaining work with Hampshire Constabulary, London Metropolitan Police and Merseyside Police in the areas of information security management within their command and control teams.

Gary is currently involved with several different companies, providing them with assistance in health and safety, quality, environment, risk management and information security management.

Chris Wyatt

Chris combines his lecturing duties with various business interests, particularly in consultancy, time-based event simulation and industrial training initiatives. Recent consultancy assignments include working with an SME to evaluate a new technology development proposal and business plan in the area of machine vision, and the evaluation of the feasibility of a JIT system for trim kits in the automotive industry.

He has 35 years of experience in industry-related fields, mostly supporting clients in technology-related fields. Clients include significant OEMs and numerous smaller companies. He has also been involved in four start-ups.

Laurence Wood

Laurence is a director of Probe-RTS Ltd, a management consultancy providing process and productivity improvement advice, training and operational support to manufacturers.

His role involves assisting clients with the identification of automation opportunities, including robotics, AMRs, AGVs and special purpose machinery. He’s also worked at LAC Conveyors & Automation, EBS Automation and Staubli UK.

Lynn Davies

Lynn is a director of Probe-RTS Ltd. He is experienced in a wide range of engineering and manufacturing disciplines, including production management and operational excellence (including training delivery). Lynn has spent more than 30 years working at the senior management level in the automotive sector, in charge of multiple departments including production management, production engineers, quality engineers, supervisors, technicians, coders, designers and production operatives.

Probe-RTS work in multiple sectors and have been working with blue chip and SME businesses on the bottom line and productivity performance since forming in 2006.

David Jones

David Jones is a lecturer on UWTSD’s MADE Cymru Upskilling for Industry 4.0 programme. In particular, he supports the Quality Green Belt Six Sigma with Industry 4.0 projects.

David is an experienced engineer and project manager with a solid history of working in the aviation, automotive, oil and gas industries both at operational management and plant supervision level. He brings with him the experience of working on new product introductions, such as the BMW Mini within the automotive sector and titanium fan blades for Rolls Royce.

He has spent considerable time working with third party suppliers to improve their manufacturing capabilities, using continuous improvement tools within industries that are reluctant and resistant to change.

Matt Sims

Matt is the director of Sigma QMS Ltd. He’s a highly experienced trainer and consultant with specific expertise in quality, environmental, health and safety management systems, lean manufacturing and supply chain management.

He has a proven and sustained track record in the delivery of value added results across a variety of market sectors including automotive, aerospace, general manufacturing, electronics, construction and food packaging.

Prior to establishing a consultancy business, Matt worked as a corporate quality, environment, safety and health manager at Sekisui Alveo AG (Luzern, Switzerland) with responsibility for three manufacturing sites and seven sales offices across Europe.

Jordan Jenkins (artificial intelligence, SMART automation)

Jordan is a lecturer and research associate within the School of Engineering at UWTSD. His academic interests include automation, robotics, and practical applications of artificial intelligence, including big data analytics and machine vision using machine and deep learning methods. 

Jordan is a member of a research team conducting an EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) funded feasibility study into low cost AI-enabled augmented reality systems for SMEs.

During the summer of 2020, he completed a joint internship between the School of Engineering and Treharne Automotive. The internship involved conducting research to determine the feasibility of automating the disassembly and recycling processes for lithium-ion battery modules used in electric vehicles.

Raoul Chappell (discrete event simulation and digital twins) 

Raoul Chappell is a Research Associate based at the Wales Institute for Science and Art (WISA) at UWTSD. He is part of the SMART Digital Accelerator team and has gained professional experience in optimising and validating manufacturing processes through the use of digital simulation modelling.

Since joining the University, Raoul's research has focused heavily on utilising process simulation and optimisation tools within SMEs in Wales and assessing how their effective application could disrupt the industry. He has liaised with several industrial partners to develop discrete event simulation models for the manufacturing, shipping and logistics, and creative industries. Raoul is currently undertaking a PhD alongside his professional commitments, with a focus on improving manufacturing processes through the use of digital twins.

Simon Thomas (networking and internet of things)

Simon Thomas received a first class honours bachelor's degree in computer networks and cybersecurity and was the recipient of the university’s certificate of excellence for the best experimental project. Simon took a great interest in the industry, attending the Cisco Live conference in Barcelona.

Simon continued his education with UWTSD, achieving a master’s degree in computer networks while contributing towards collaborative projects in the areas of enterprise networking, cybersecurity and internet of things (IoT). This included a project to design and develop a wireless sensor network powered by IoT to monitor a given environment within a structure. After taking a short break to work in the IT industry, Simon returned to UWTSD as a research associate for the Wales Institute of Science and Art.

Andrew Killen (computational modelling)

Andrew Killen is a senior research fellow at UWTSD, specialising in gas turbine engines, material science, and computational modelling within the aerospace industry. Further to this Andrew has a deep interest in AI generative design and mass optimisation of complex mechanical systems which complements his engineering design background. Andrew spent 5 years as a key member of an industry-funded project in partnership with Rolls-Royce Plc, where he conducted pioneering research on high cycle fatigue and the impact of surface defects on aerospace alloys.

Prior to his industrial doctorate program, Andrew completed a Masters in Motorcycle Engineering at UWTSD, where he focused on internal combustion engine design and thermodynamic modelling. Throughout his academic career, Andrew has worked on a wide variety of challenging projects and relishes working on complex engineering problems.

Ashley Pullen (project management, NDT&E)

As a Senior Research Fellow working within Innovation & Engagement Ashley is currently engaged on a multitude of projects including the SMART Digital Accelerator program, Ashley brings a wealth of expertise and experience to the team. Before joining UWTSD, Ashley spent 2.5 years as a Project Leader in the field of Non-Destructive Testing, managing a diverse range of projects both commercial and collaborative research initiatives. He has a proven track record of leading and overseeing on-site inspection work, ensuring all guidelines are followed and work is delivered to the highest quality.

Since joining UWTSD Ashley has utilised his project management and engineering expertise to successfully deliver on a number of projects within the university. Ashley holds a BSc in Automotive Engineering and an MSc in Non-Destructive Testing and Evaluation (NDT&E), both from UWTSD, and has a broad range of technical knowledge to drive forward and deliver a wide variety of projects.

Luca Pagano (R&D)

Luca Pagano is a highly skilled Senior Research Project Engineer who is responsible for managing and delivering R&D projects at UWTSD. He has a proven track record of success in multiple sectors from defence to automotive. With almost 10 years of combined experience in R&D, Luca can consult comfortably in Finite Element Analysis, Composite Materials, Fracture Mechanics, Failure Analysis, NDT&E (Non Destructive Testing & Evaluation), and Advanced Manufacturing Technologies. Luca is passionate about tackling seemingly impossible tasks and thrives on taking engineering projects from initial concepts to successful completion.

He was also part of the team who won the 2022 Innovation, Science & Technology Award at the St David Awards. The team developed a 3D-printed jet respiratory support system to help the NHS in the fight against Covid 19.

Glyn Jenkins (augmented reality)

Glyn Jenkins is an instructional designer at the MADE Cymru project based at UWTSD. He is an experienced motion graphic and visual effects designer with a film and TV industry background, transferring his creative knowledge base to the education sector to facilitate the creation of engaging learning content.

Prior to joining the university, Glyn worked for Cardiff-based Bait Studio as a visual effects artist, working on two series of Channel 4’s Time Team to create graphics and effects for more than 25 episodes. Glyn also assisted with the design and development of animated graphics on The Machine, a feature film by Welsh production company Red & Black. Additional work includes graphics for clients such as Sky, Disney Junior, BBC Radio Cymru and Honeywell.