Reach for the stars that became a patent success

Mechanical Engineering: Imperial College, London, 1992 rating: 5, 1996 rating: 5*

HEADS would have rolled at the mechanical engineering department of Imperial College, London, if its researchers had not secured a 5-star rating in the RAE.

The department already has a 5 rating but with the new upper five classification, it is no longer enough. In the week before the results came out, Paul Isherwood, assistant director at the department was blunt: "If we don't get it, it will be an absolute disaster."

There has been little change in the department's research strategy since the last assessment exercise. The emphasis remains on a high degree of experimental work and the recruitment and nourishing of top-quality researchers.

Financial and publications performance indicators are supplied in confidence for the researchers each year. Academic staff at the department total 45, including 12 professors and 19 lecturers. There are 78 research assistants and a virtually 1:1 ratio of academic staff to technicians. On the student front, there are 460 undergraduates; 50 postgraduates on taught courses and 135 research students.

The department is organised into six sections including computer-aided design; strengths of materials; thermofluids; tribology and computational mechanics. Total research income for 1995/96 was Pounds 5.8 million, a 37 per cent increase on 1992/93.

Plans are well advanced for the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School to join Imperial College to form a new school of medicine.

The mechanical engineering department's biomechanics group is well placed to engage in collaborations with the new school.