The Midlands Industrial Ceramics Group (MICG) has celebrated the next generation of advanced ceramics innovation after announcing the winners of its third Alan McLelland Poster Competition.
The annual competition, held at this year’s Advanced Ceramics Show, attracted entries from academia and industry, reinforcing the contest’s position as a key showcase for emerging research and innovation.
Demonstrating the latest developments with the potential to shape future manufacturing, posters featured details of groundbreaking research in areas including ceramic matrix composites, nanocomposite armour and integrated materials processing.
Posters were judged on technical excellence, clarity of communication and awareness of industrial application.
The 2026 winners were: –
Product Innovation
1st Prize – Daorong Ye, School of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham, for 3D Printing of Continuous Carbon Fibre Reinforced Silicon Carbide Ceramic Matrix Composites
2nd Prize – Ethan Ellis, Lucideon, for Nanocomposite Ceramic Armour: From Processing to Performance
Process Innovation
1st Prize – M Boosiri, AMRICC, for Integrated Materials Processing and Computational Techniques
2nd prize – Oluwafemi Oladosu, Materials Department, Imperial College London, for Low-temperature sintering of WB for neutron shielding
Dr Gilda Gasparini, of the Midlands Industrial Ceramics Group, said: “The Alan McLelland Poster Competition continues to demonstrate the strength of innovation taking place across the UK’s advanced ceramics community.
“This year’s entries showcased research that has genuine industrial relevance, from novel manufacturing techniques and advanced materials to process improvements that have the potential to support the future competitiveness of UK manufacturing.
“The competition creates opportunities for researchers, manufacturers and technology organisations to exchange ideas, build relationships and develop future collaborations.
“That interaction between academia and industry is central to what MICG is working to achieve.
“The standard this year was exceptionally high, and congratulations go to all of our winners and entrants.”
Representatives from MICG member organisations judged the competition and sponsored prizes for the winning projects, with the awards presented during the Advanced Ceramics Show at the NEC Birmingham.
MICG is made up of blue-chip companies including Rolls-Royce, Morgan Advanced Materials and Foseco, as well as SMEs including Lucideon, Precision Ceramics and PCL – together with the universities of Birmingham, Leicester and Loughborough.
MICG secured £18.27 million in government funding, provided through UK Research and Innovation’s flagship Strength in Places Fund (SIPF), in October 2022.
The poster activity is part of the SIPF’s programme activities under its workstream covering education, skills and diversity.