Civil and Computational Engineering Centre

About Us

Centres of Excellence for Technology and Industrial Collaboration (CETIC) is a programme set up to help local, national and international companies benefit from relevant knowledge, expertise and facilities in Welsh Universities.

One of the seventeen accredited centres is the C2EC at Swansea, which is based on the expertise and facilities in the University's School of Engineering.

How The Centre Works

We are able to provide access to around 40 academic staff and post-doctoral research engineers, together with state-of-the-art laboratories. Projects can be arranged in a variety of formats, with durations from a few days to long term research programmes lasting a number of years. Enquiries from prospective industrial clients are always welcome, dedicated staff are available to answer your calls.

C2EC : A Strategic Partner to Industry

Computational Simulation (CS) is an essential tool in modern engineering analysis and design. Application of this technology can minimise, and in some cases eliminate altogether, prototype testing and certification; significantly cut development costs and further reduce product “time-to-market”. The power of computational simulation to increase the speed, efficiency and accuracy of the design/design optimisation cycle whilst in parallel reducing costs can truly transform a company’s performance. Equipping companies with such power is arguably crucial to ensuring the creation, survival and future expansion of a high value-added industrial base - the only way forward for the UK if it is not to be “sidelined” in today’s globally competitive market-places.

Significantly the potential for application of computational simulation to the design, analysis and optimisation cycle for products/processes is dynamic and growing: a novel technology constantly finding novel applications. Originally applied in mainstream engineering sectors such as aerospace, automotive, construction and manufacturing, today sees the technology making inroads into much broader based sectors such as the environment, bio-medicine, agriculture, and even into the leisure industry. Such diversity of application again adds strategically important strength to the UK economy which has, for several decades, and possibly never more so than now, been under pressure to diversify.

CS technology has not only a direct and positive impact on the “bottom-line” but also the power to transform how organisations run their operations, making them “fit for purpose” for the 21st century.

Benefits of exploiting CS technology:

	A comprehensive understanding of the product/process behaviour
	Rapid evaluation of design alternatives and optimisation
	Reduction in (or elimination of) the physical testing costs
	Reduction in (or elimination of) failure risks
	Reduction of time-to-market
	Reduction of incremental development risks
	Improved product quality
	Better return on investment from the entire design process.

The synergy within C2EC has created a concentration of expertise in CS unrivalled anywhere else worldwide; making it arguably the most influential supplier of CS services both at the level of solutions provider and educator – stimulating standards nationally and internationally.

C2EC: Demonstrably a Centre of Excellence

	Internationally renowned for excellence in the development and use of CS technology.
	Long-standing collaboration with Industry resulting in lasting and rewarding relationships with SMEs (small-to-medium-sized enterprises) and multi-national corporations.
	Attraction and retention of personnel who together represent one of the highest quality groups focused on CS anywhere in the world. A panel of expert individuals in the shape of 20 academic staff, over 20 Research Assistants and over 60 Research Students. Individually and together as project teams they are capable of applying expert computational simulation knowledge to a vast spectrum of engineering issues of practical and often crucial importance to industry. Such combined expertise in computational modelling is unparalleled anywhere in Europe, if not the World.
	Preferred Academic Partner to BAE Systems in CS, specifically Computational Electromagnetics (CEM).
	Achievement of the highest possible rating in ALL Research Assessment Exercises (RAEs) since their inception in the 1960s.
	Access to leading edge facilities that are unparalleled in any other European Academic Centre.
	Work conducted within the Centre has had a major impact in many industrial areas. A notable example of success is the role played by the Centre in the design of the AIRBUS A380.
	Income to the Centre to support research and commercial activity exceeds £2m per annum.