Dr Mark Atherton

Background

• BSc(Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from Aston University, Birmingham.
• MSc/DIC in Industrial Robotics and Manufacturing Automation from Imperial College, London.
• PhD in Mechanical Engineering Design from City University, London.
• Apprenticeship with Rubery Owen, followed by engineering positions with Driver Southall (GEC), Otis Elevator, and Redland Engineering. Plus academic posts at London South Bank University.
• Chartered Engineer, Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
• Many projects for industrial organisations, including: Black & Decker, Canon, Celestion, Countax, Jacobson Chemicals, NXT, Siemens, 3D Scanners and W&H Gmbh.

Industrial Activities

Dr Atherton has conducted many projects with industrial organisations, involving rapid product development, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), product improvement and robust design solutions:

• Dental Drill Noise Reduction was developed using adaptive filtering and active ‘anti-noise’ technologies funded by W&H Gmbh, an Austrian dental drill company. This reduced the unpleasant noise of dental drills and has been developed into an Anti-noise system with potential for further development into vibration control of precision surgical instruments. Enquiries welcome.
• A project for Countax Ltd investigated the behaviour of grass under tractor cutting conditions using CFD and high-speed video technology, which identified design modifications for improved performance.
• Worked with Siemens Hearing Instruments to improve the fit and comfort of an innovative new hearing aid.
• Designed and built a novel webcam housing for Canon UK, which was used to view the construction of London’s Millennium Bridge. Also gained Canon’s sponsorship of a Design Show with the show being viewable by webcam (This was an unusual feature of web pages in 2000!).
• Supervised a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Jacobson Chemicals Ltd to develop a new rapid prototyping technology and conduct research on Design for Recyclability Principles within a Customer-Based Design Method.
• Several projects with Accuride Ltd created new product concepts incorporating ball slides.
• Obtained significant sponsorship from the London Stock Exchange, Lloyds Bank and the Morgan Stanley Group as Co-organiser of an industrial seminar (more than 30 small companies) with Touchstone Renard Ltd on ‘implementing ISO9000’. Subsequently three companies paid for a consultancy package to develop their quality systems. Then engaged by TR as Quality Sponsor on projects with the Home Office, White City development and the Countryside Agency.
• Design optimisation of a piezoelectric bimorph for NXT.
• Developed a portable water purifying device (“WaterBox”) for disaster relief, in collaboration with past students and aid agencies.

Research Interests

Main research interest is robust engineering design, particularly in regard to mechanical/mechatronic devices, natural and complex systems. Robust Engineering Design (RED) seeks to reduce the sensitivity of product or process performance to variability in loading, material properties, tolerances, disturbance and other 'noise' characteristics.

Recent projects include:

• Noise reduction in dental drills using Digital Signal Processing (researcher: Dr Erkan Kaymak)
• Optimising blocked force frequency response of piezoelectric actuators through multiphysics modelling (researcher: Dr Matthew Oldfield)
• Modelling blood flows through vascular stents and reducing the effects of Geometric Risk Factors. (researcher: Dr Marco Cavazutti, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy)
• Palm tree biomimetics (researcher: Andrea Windsor-Collins).
• Robustness of Complex Systems: mobile communications and language acquisition (researcher: Emil Gegov) 

Other projects:

• Thermo-fluid transport phenomena in air-fed pressurised protective suits for the Joint European Torus (PI: Professor Tassos Karayiannis, researcher: Dr Kristof Tesch).
• Powertrain gear dynamics (PI: Dr Giulio Alfano, researcher: Raul Tharmakulasingam).  

Pursuit of these interests has involved collaborating with colleagues from other institutions, including:

• Prof. D.F. Cutler of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew has provided botanical input on an investigation into the biomimetics of palm trees. (2003-present)
• Dr B.J. Millar of the Dental Institute of King’s, Guy’s, St Thomas’, and Mr K.R.G. Rotter of the Department of Engineering Systems, London South Bank University, investigating the use of digital filtering and anti-noise techniques to reduce the unpleasant noise of dental drills. (2000-present)
• Prof. H.P. Wynn and Dr M.A. Perry of the Department of Statistics, London School of Economics, and Dr R.A. Bates of Rolls Royce, Derby, on Robust Engineering Design methods applied to piezoelectric actuators. (1995-present)

Teaching

• Engineering design
• Product innovation and development

External Profile

International Programme Committees

• Physiological Fluid Mechanics 2009, Brunel University, UK
• 2^nd Micro and Nano Flows Conference 2009, Brunel University
• Bioengineering 2009, Oxford University
• Design and Nature 2008, Portugal
• Design and Nature 2006, The New Forest, UK
• International Conference on Mechatronics 2003, Loughborough University, UK
• Design and Nature 2002, Udine, Italy
• Mechatronics 2002, University of Twente, Netherlands
• Computer-Based Design EDC 2002, King’s College London
• Design for Excellence EDC 2000, Brunel University, London. 

Invited seminars

• University of Modena, Italy, Department of Mechanical Engineering, November 2007, April 2010.
• Bridging The Gap, IoP Conference, Brunel University, UK, May 2007
• Chalmers University, Sweden, Department of Engineering, March 2004
• Modelling in Biomedical Engineering, University of Warwick, September 1999
• Politecnico di Milano, Italy, Department of Bioengineering, June 1999

Reviewer

• Journal of Engineering Optimization (2011-2012)
• Journal of Medical Engineering and Physics (2010)
• International Journal of Design and Nature (Editor) (2005-present)
• Journal of Biomechanics (2010)
• Journal of Medical Engineering and Physics (2010)
• Journal of Sound and Vibration (2010)
• Journal of Bioinspiration and Biomimetics (2009)
• Journal of Engineering Optimization (2008)
• IMechE part H: Journal of Engineering in Medicine (2007)
• Journal of Medical Engineering and Physics (2005-2006)
• IMechE Journal of Control and Systems Engineering (2000)
• Biorheology (2000) 

Visiting Research Fellow

• Wessex Institute of Technology (2005-present)
• London School of Economics and Political Science (2004-2009)
• University of Warwick (2001)

Publications

Journal Papers

(2011) Tesch, K., Collins, MW., Karayiannis, TG., Atherton, MA. and Edwards, P., Modelling of two-component turbulent mass and heat transfer in air-fed pressurised suits, Flow, Turbulence and Combustion 87 (1) : 55- 77

(2011) Halliday, I., Atherton, M., Care, CM., Collins, MW., Evans, D., Evans, PC., Hose, DR., Khir, AW., König, CS., Krams, R., Lawford, PV., Lishchuk, SV., Pontrelli, G., Ridger, V., Spencer, TJ., Ventikos, Y., Walker, DC. and Watton, PN., Multi-scale interaction of particulate flow and the artery wall, Medical Engineering and Physics 33 (7) : 840- 848

(2011) Cavazzuti, M., Atherton, MA., Collins, MW. and Barozzi, GS., Non-Newtonian and flow pulsatility effects in simulation models of a stented intracranial aneurysm, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part H: Journal of Engineering in Medicine 225 (6) : 597- 609

(2010) Oldfield, MJ., Atherton, MA., Bates, RA., Perry, MA. and Wynn, HP., Modal validation of a cantilever-plate bimorph actuator illustrating sensitivity to 3D characterisation, Journal of Electroceramics 25 (1) : 45- 55 Download publication

(2010) Cavazzuti, M., Atherton, M., Collins, M. and Barozzi, G., Beyond the Virtual Intracranial Stenting Challenge 2007: Non-Newtonian and flow pulsatility effects, Journal of Biomechanics 43 (13) : 2645- 2647 Download publication

(2009) Tesch, K., Atherton, MA., Karayiannis, TG., Collins, MW. and Edwards, P., Determining heat transfer coefficients using evolutionary algorithms, Journal of Engineering Optimisation 41 (9) : 855- 870 Download publication

(2009) Edwards, P., Tesch, K., Karayiannis, TG., Collins, MW., Atherton, MA., Young, P., Large, M. and Brade, R., Design optimisation of air-fed full pressurised suits, Fusion Engineering and Design vol 84 (n. 2-6) : 716- 721 Download publication

(2008) Windsor-Collins, AG., Atherton, MA., Collins, MW. and Cutler, DF., Section properties of palm petioles. Part 2: the relationship of petiole histology with the torsional rigidity of the palm, trachycarpus fortunei, International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics 3 (3) : 190- 202 Download publication

(2008) Atherton, M., Khir, AW., Cavazzuti, M., Barozzi, G. and Collins, M., Vascular device interaction with the endothelium (Abstract), Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy 62 (8) : 504- 505

(2008) Perry, M., Bates, RA., Wynn, HP. and Atherton, MA., A finite element based formulation for sensitivity studies of piezoelectric systems, Smart Materials and Structures 17 (1) : 015015 Download publication

(2008) Perry, MA., Atherton, MA., Bates, RA. and Wynn, HP., Bond graph based sensitivity and uncertainty analysis modelling for micro-scale multiphysics robust engineering design, Journal of the Franklin Institute 345 (3) : 282- 292 Download publication

(2008) Lawford, PV., Ventikos, Y., Khir, AW., Atherton, M., Evans, D., Hose, DR., Care, CM., Watton, PN., Halliday, I., Walker, DC., Hollis, AP. and Collins, MW., Modelling the interaction of haemodynamics and the artery wall: current status and future prospects, Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy 62 (8) : 530- 535 Download publication

(2008) Millar, BJ., Kaymak, E., Rotter, KRG. and Atherton, MA., Reducing the noise from dental handpieces with adaptive filtering (Abstract), Journal of Dental Research 87 (Special Issue C) : 0093

(2007) Windsor-Collins, AG., Atherton, MA., Collins, MW. and Cutler, DF., Section properties of palm petioles. Part 1: the influence of section shape on the flexural And torsional properties of selected palm petioles, International Journal of Design and Nature 2 (4) : 328- 347 Download publication

(2006) Kinnear, D., Atherton, M., Collins, M., Dokhan, J. and Karayiannis, T., Colour in visualisation for computational fluid dynamics, Optics and Laser Technology 38 (4-6) : 286- 291 Download publication

(2005) Kaymak, E., Rotter, KRG., Atherton, MA. and Millar, BJ., Reducing the noise from dental drills with adaptive filtering (Abstract), Journal of Dental Research 84 (Special Issue B) : 0143

(2004) Atherton, MA., Collins, MW. and Dodds, SR., Atherogenesis, wall shear stress and the haemodynamics of spiral arteries (Abstract), Biomedecine and Pharmacotherapy 58 (8) : 462- 463

(2004) Atherton, MA. and Bates, RA., Robust optimization of cardiovascular stents: a comparison of methods, Engineering Optimization 36 (2) : 207- 217

(2003) Montagano, V., Morosi, S., Dayar, M., Gomma, A., Atherton, MA., Collins, M. and Redaelli, A., The link between restenosis and cardiovascular stent design: a study combining computational fluid dynamics with computer aided design, Internal Medicine 11 14- 23

(2002) Morosi, S., Montagano, V., Dayar, M., Gomma, A., Atherton, M., Collins, M. and Redaelli, A., A combined clinical-computational study of the problem of restenosis with cardiovascular stents (Abstract), Biomedecine and Pharmacotherapy 56 (7) : 345- 349

(2002) Atherton, MA., Tesch, K. and Collins, MW., Effects of stents under asymmetric inflow conditions, Biorheology 39 (3-4) : 501- 506

(2000) Atherton, MA., Doorly, DJ. and Collins, MW., A new approach to planning in vitro and in vivo experiments for cardiovascular stents. (1) Fundamentals of design procedures, Internal Medicine : Clinical and Laboratory 8 (2) : 25- 30

(2000) Atherton, MA., Doorly, DJ., Collins, MW. and Sigwart, U., A new approach to planning in vitro and in vivo experiments for cardiovascular stents. (2) Planning of experiments, Internal Medicine : Clinical and Laboratory 8 (2) : 31- 35

(2000) Atherton, MA. and Bates, RA., Bond graph analysis in robust engineering design, Quality and Reliability Engineering International 16 (4) : 325- 335

(2000) Jussel, R. and Atherton, MA., Improve product development using QFD, Quality World 26 (6) : 32- 37

(2000) Jussel, R. and Atherton, MA., Using QFD improves product development across sites, Measuring Business Excellence 4 (1) : 28- 33

Conference Papers

(2011) Gegov, EA., Gegov, AE., Atherton, MA. and Gobet, FR., Evolution-based modelling of complex airport networks, Special International Conference on Complex Systems: Synergy of Control, Communications and Computing

(2011) Gegov, E., Gobet, F., Atherton, M., Freudenthal, D. and Pine, J., Modelling language acquisition in children using network theory, European Perspectives on Cognitive Sciences, Proceedings of the European Conference on Cognitive Science

(2009) Collins, MW., Koenig, CS. and Atherton, MA., Wall shear stress and arterial performance: two approaches based on engineering, BioEngineering09

(2009) Gegov, E., Atherton, M. and Al-Raweshidy, H., Robustness of complex networks to node and cluster damage, European Conference on Complex Systems 09

(2009) Halliday, I., Lishchuk, SV., Atherton, M., Care, CM., Collins, MW., Evans, D., Evans, PC., Hose, DR., Khir, AW., Krams, R., Lawford, PV., Ridger, V., Ventikos, Y., Walker, DC. and Watton, PN., Multi-scale interaction of flow and the artery wall, 2nd Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2009) Download publication

(2008) Edwards, P., Tesch, K., Karayiannis, TG., Collins, MW., Atherton, MA., Young, P. and Armstrong, G., Design optimisation of air-fed full pressurised suits, 25th Symposium on Fusion Technology

(2008) Tharmakulasingam, R., Alfano, G. and Atherton, M., Reduction of gear pair transmission error with tooth profile modification, International Conference on Noise and Vibration Engineering (ISMA 2008) Download publication

(2008) Tesch, K., Atherton, MA., Karayiannis, TG., Collins, MW. and Edwards, P., A thermo-fluid model for protective suiting used in fusion reactor shutdown operations, 26th UIT Congress

(2008) Rotter, KRGR., Atherton, MA., Kaymak, E. and Millar, BJ., Noise reduction of dental drill noise, Mechatronics 2008

(2008) Tesch, K., Atherton, MA., Karayiannis, TG., Collins, MW. and Edwards, P., Heat transfer coefficient calibrations by means of evolutionary algorithms, 8th International Conference on Adaptive Computing in Design and Manufacture Download publication

(2007) Kaymack, E., Atherton, MA., Rotter, K. and Millar, B., Dental drill noise reduction using a combination of active noise control, passive noise control and adaptive filtering, Inter-noise 2007

(2007) Atherton, MA., Bates, R., Perry, M., Oldfield, M. and Wynn, H., Sensitivity analysis modelling for microscale multiphysics robust engineering design, International Conference on Engineering Design Download publication

(2007) Kaymak, E., Atherton, MA., Rotter, K. and Millar, B., Active noise control on high frequency narrow band dental drill noise: Preliminary results, 14th International Congress on Sound & Vibration Download publication

(2007) Rotter, KRG., Kaymak, E., Atherton, MA. and Millar, BJ., Testing medical drills for noise emissions, 8th REM Conference

(2006) Perry, MA., Bates, RA., Atherton, MA. and Oldfield, M., Analytical sensitivity analysis using COMSOL: Model development, validation and results, COMSOL UK Users Conference

(2006) Kaymak, E., Atherton, MA., Rotter, KRG. and Millar, B., Active noise control for high frequencies, 13th International Congress on Sound & Vibration Download publication

(2006) Kaymak, E., Atherton, MA., Rotter, KRG. and Millar, B., Real-time adaptive filtering of dental drill noise using a digital signal processor, 7th International Workshop on Research and Education in Mechatronics Download publication

(2006) Windsor-Collins, AG., Atherton, MA., Collins MW. and Cutler, DF., Structural and torsional properties of the Trachycarpus fortunei palm petiole, 3rd International Conference on Design and Nature

(2005) Shen, Y., Perry, MA., Kaymak, E., Atherton, MA., Bates, RA. and Wynn, HP., Experimental and bond graph based sensitivity calculations for micro-scale robust engineering design, 7th REM Conference

(2003) Atherton, MA., Collins, MW. and Dodds, SR., A design approach to spiral artery haemodynamics: Distribution of wall shear and relevance to atherogenesis, BioFluids Symposium

(2002) Morosi, S., Montagano, V., Dayer, M., Gomma, A., Atherton, MA., Collins, MW. and Redaelli, A., A combined clinical-computational study of the problem of restenosis with cardiovascular stents, 4th Int. Congress on Progress in Bioengineering and the Vascular Endothelium

(2002) Atherton, MA., Bates, RA. and Jensen, F., Evaluating hearing device robustness using bond graph models, Mechatronics 2002, Mechatronics 2002 591- 597

(2002) Tesch, K., Atherton, MA. and Collins, MW., Genetic algorithms search for stent design improvements, ACD&M 2002, Adaptive Computing in Design and Manufacture V 99- 107

(2000) Atherton, MA., Collins, MW., Piva, S. and Barozzi, GS., Enhanced visualisation of complex thermofluid data: Vertical and horizontal combined convection and microscale heat transfer cases, 18th National Conference on Heat Transfer

(2000) Edney, RC., Atheron, MA., Comincini, S. and Cattini, A., Using correlation chains to link customer requirements and physical laws, Engineering Design Conference

(1999) Atherton, MA., Bleakley, GJ., Doorly, DJ. and Colins, MW., Stents and their fluid dynamics: A comprehensive study involving design procedures and experimental work, 17th National Conference on Heat Transfer

(1996) Rotter, KRG., Atherton, MA. and Millar, BJ., Measurement of tooth wear using laser scanning, International Conference on Mechatronics

(1994) Kennedy, IM., Thomson, E., Atherton, MA. and Rotter, KRG., The use of 3D scanning and surface matching to locate patients undergoing radiotheraphy planning and treatment, IEE Colloquium on 3D Imaging and Analysis of Depth/Range Images

(1994) Atherton, MA., Kennedy, IM. and Rotter, KRG., Registration of product surfaces using 3D laser scanning, IMechE/IEE International Conference on Mechatronics

(1994) Atherton, MA., Giovagnoli, A. and Wynn, HP., Using the physics to help design experiments, IMS Spring Research Conference, IMS Spring Research Conference

(1991) Atherton, MA. and Wynn, HP., Multiple quality objectives in robust engineering design, 1st International Conference on Quality and its Applications

(2002) Atherton, MA. and Tesch, K., Partial CFD models of cardiovascular stents, Engineering Design Conference 2002

(1999) Atherton, MA., Doorly, DJ. and Collins, MW., Applying design procedures to CFD models for improved stent designs, Cardiovasculer Fluid Dynamics

Book Chapters

(2006) Atherton, MA. and Bates, RA., Searching for improvement. In: Bryant, JA., Atherton, MA. and Collins, MW. eds. Design and Information in Biology: From Molecules to Systems. 345- 379 Download publication

(2006) Windsor-Collins, A., Cutler, DF., Atherton, MA. and Collins, MW., The palm - a model for success?. In: Bryant, JA., Atherton, MA. and Collins, MW. eds. Design and Information in Biology: From Molecules to Systems. 303- 306

(2004) Atherton, M. and Bates, R., Robustness and complexity. In: Collins, MW., Hunt, DG. and Atherton, MA. eds. Optimisation Mechanics in Nature. 60- 83

(2002) Tesch, K., Atherton, MA. and Collins, MW., Genetic algorithm search for stent design improvements. In: Parmee, IC. ed. The Adaptive Computing in Design and Manufacture V. 99- 108

Books

(2008) Atherton, MA., Collins, MW. and Dayer, MJ., Repair and redesign of physiological systems. WIT Press

(2006) Bryant, JA., Atherton, MA. and Collins, MW., Design and information in biology: from molecules to systems. WIT Press

(2005) Collins, MW., Atherton, MA. and Bryant, JA., Nature and design. WIT Press

(2004) Collins, MW., Hunt, DG. and Atherton, MA., Optimisation mechanics in nature. WIT Press

(2004) Collins, MW., Pontrelli, G. and Atherton, MA., Wall-fluid interactions in physiological flows. WIT Press