Role
Rebecca is a Principal Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, and Course Manager for the undergraduate Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering courses. Her specialism is system modelling and control, which she teaches and applies to musical instrument design.
Career overview
Rebecca has an MEng(Hons) Mechanical Engineering from Cardiff University and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bath. Between these, she worked as a Chartered Engineer in the Aerospace and Automotive industries specialising in vehicle dynamics, vibration test and mathematical modelling for control.
Her PhD was on modelling hybrid dynamical systems using bond graphs and was sponsored by Airbus via an EPSRC CASE award. She lectured at the University of Lincoln where she continued this research, applying it to novel flight systems (FP7 projects MAAT and ACHEON) and vehicle control, notably an electric three-wheeled car concept with a local SME. During this time she was a Programme Leader and then Director of Teaching & Learning in the School of Engineering.
On joining NTU Rebecca began applying her experiences of vehicle design to the design of stringed musical instruments. In collaboration with the University of Lincoln and SMEs in the fields of luthiery and guitar customisation, this has generated well-received student projects on violin design and a growing body of research on materials and pickup properties for guitars.
Research areas
Rebecca currently researches the design of stringed musical instruments, using her experiences of test and model-based design in the aerospace sector, and system modelling using bond graph methodology. This is industry-informed research to demystify the many factors contributing to instrument tone, with the goal of producing design guidelines and sustainable alternatives to instrument builders and craftspeople.
She remains active in sustainable mobility and the use of Bond Graphs in general, for which she is an enthusiastic member of the bond graph community.
External activity
Member of the IET Control & Automation professional network executive, and IET representative on the United Kingdom Automatic Control Council (UKACC) executive.
External Examiner for the University of Greenwich.
International Programme Committee member for ICBGM (International Conference on Bond Graph Modeling and Simulation).
Chartered Engineer, and Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). Associate Member of the Audio Engineers Society (AES).
Course(s) I teach on
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|COURSE
Engineering
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/engineering
My UN Sustainable Development Goals
Rebecca's current work is aimed at improving access to the arts by demystifying and facilitating the design of quality instruments. It allows a move away from expensive and rare materials without sacrificing quality or musicality. This makes student-quality instruments - and hence music education and opportunities in the creative arts - more accessible to all. Music also has well-established positive effects on mental wellbeing and community-building, and democratising access to music improves general quality of life.
All of her model-based design work - from aircraft and cars to instruments - facilitates the adoption of efficient, cost-effective designs and sustainable materials: we can analyse what makes a design 'good' and explore new approaches in a safe, virtual environment before committing to development. In vehicles, we can calculate whether a new design is safe, efficient and ergonomic, and simulate how it will perform. In music, we can find ways to replicate instrument sounds with alternative designs and materials. The latter is particularly important in guitars where sourcing desirable tonewoods and vintage components can be problematic.
