By Chris Smith

The 2014 Royal Aeronautical Society Biennial Applied Aerodynamics Research Conference took place in Bristol, UK, from 22nd to 24th July. This three day conference is a forum for the presentation and discussion of all aspects of advanced aerodynamic concepts, design and operations, covering both research and application.

The Conference is targeted at aerodynamics researchers and programme managers from academia, industry and research establishments worldwide, so is attended by many different people from within the aerodynamics industry. I presented a paper that applied the surrogates algorithm I have developed to high-lift systems and was one of the 75 papers presented in three parallel sessions. The conference was held at the University of Bristol, in the Clifton area of the city and incorporated the “Lanchester Named Lecture” on the first night.

This conference may no be suitable to the majority of those in the NICE group, but because my research is a collaboration between the departments of computing and mechanical engineering science, it offered me a great opportunity to present my research to a different audience and get their feedback. Although the work I was presenting was different to the majority of the papers presented, I feel that my work was well received and I was able to get this additional feedback, as well as more information and insight into the application area of my research. I would therefore encourage others within the NICE group, whose research has a specific application, to attend a non-computer science based conference to get different feedback, as it has given me new thoughts and ideas that I think will help me to improve my research.