Sir Patrick goes on a small mission

THE man who captained the Starship Enterprise across vast distances of space found out about measurement on a miniscule scale during a visit to the University of Huddersfield.

Mirfield-born actor Sir Patrick Stewart, who played Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation on TV and film, saw how technological research is shaping the future at the university’s £30m Future Metrology Hub research centre.

Sir Patrick, who is Emeritus Chancellor at the University, heard how the centre is helping transform UK industry by developing sensors embedded in machinery, leading to huge increases in accuracy during the advanced manufacturing process.

The Hub, backed by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, is based at the university’s Centre for Precision Technologies, home to a team of worldrenowned researchers in precision engineering and metrology.

Sir Patrick met Hub director Prof Xiangqian Jiang and senior lecturer Dr Haydn Martin, plus its multidisciplinary, multi-national team of researchers harnessing new developments in metrology – the study of measurement – and miniaturisation.

Prof Liam Blunt showed Sir Patrick how metrology and X-ray analysis were helping to develop new medical devices and for purposes such as investigating and verifying artefacts including antique weaponry.

The Hub is being funded by a large team of industrial partners with more than £30m pledged so far.