51Âþ»­

Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development

 

 

 

 

DTI/EPSRC Knowledge Based System for Gravure Process Control 1999-2001.  (RF). This project produced IP for three industrial partners, with an estimated scrap / wastage reduction of around 5%.  Close cooperation with Shelton Vision Systems Ltd, who produced 'Webspector', now sold worldwide.

DEFRA AFM14 -> AFM114 (RF) Laser sealing project 2001-2005 for food and medical packaging. This project was the main follow-on to AFM14 in 1998, and produced IP for seven industrial partners. Patents produced. 

CaRB - EPSRC Grant Reference: GR/S94377/01, 2005-2008 (SRF) Large consortium project aimed at producing a public domain, socio-technical model of energy use in buildings applicable at national, regional, city and community level. 

 KAP - Knowledge Awareness prediction (EU FP-7 2009-on) (Co-I) Puts energy as a manufacturing process variable.  Production performance indicator definitions, including aspects of sustainability and energy-efficiency.  Partners included Intel, SAP, Infineon, Volvo, Nissan. http://www.kap-project.eu/

STEEEP. EU Project Energy Efficiency in industry. (2014-17) (Co-I) €100k 51Âþ»­, €2.2M full project .

Energy Data Innovation Network (Edi-Net)  (2016-18) (Co-I)

Measuring energy poverty and its health impacts on selected indigenous communities in the State of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, while developing public policy to promote renewable energy (Co-I) (2021-22)

Innovative Financing Mechanisms To Develop Last-mile Distribution And Increase Adoption Of Energy Efficient Electric Devices And Unlock The Cooking Supply Chain. MECS. (PI) (2023)

Improving environmental performance of solid fuel heating system. SBRI (DEFRA) Phase 1. (2023) (Co-I)

Improving environmental performance of solid fuel heating system. SBRI (DEFRA) Phase 2.  (2024) (Co-I)

Energy efficiency, renewable energy, appropriate technology, electromechanical design, instrumentation; data design and processing

Sustainability, energy efficiency, instrumentation, data analysis, history of energy use, energy modelling, power generation, energy analysis techniques, building plant, heating and cooling, renewables: solar PV, wind power, biofuels.

Loughborough University 

PhD, Modeling and simulation of machining process and electrohydraulic servomechanisms

1995 – 1998

"Modification of the Rotary machining Process to Improve Surface Form". Matlab / Simulink based simulation of mixed technology systems for high speed machining (also Mast/Saber) electrical, mechanical, electronic. Simulation of cutting geometry, test rig construction, image processing, neural network prediction of surface geometry.

University of Leicester

MSc, Modern methods for Electromechanical Design

1994 – 1995

Control theory (robust, multivariable), instrumentation, microprocessors, data processing, composites, analogue signal processing, digital signal processing, software engineering, CFD.

Leicester Polytechnic

BEng (Hons), Engineering Technology (majoring in Mechanical Design)

1988 – 1991

Mechanical and electrical Engineering, electronics, mechanical science, thermodynamics, Engineering Design (draughting, FE, reliability assessment, QA, materials, structures, manufacturing etc)

Postgraduate and Undergraduate engineering, sustainability, and energy engineering:

Data Analytics for Sustainable Energy Systems [energy efficiency], Biomass and Biofuels, Wave, Tide and Hydropower, Measurement and Instrumentation. Risk Management and Health and Safety.   Supervisions in electromechanical design, appropriate technology, energy efficiency, pollution and climate change.  

2007 Institute of Measurement and Control - MinstMC

2007 Chartered Engineer, Engineering Council - CEng

Brown, N., Wright, A.J. Non-Invasive and Cost Effective Monitoring of Energy Consumption Patterns for Electrical Equipment. . in Fourth International Conference Improving Energy Efficiency in Commercial Building (IEECB'08) 2008.

Wright, A.J., Brown, N. The Analysis and interpretation of half hourly utility data in UK buildings. in Fourth International Conference Improving Energy Efficiency in Commercial Building. 2008. Frankfurt.

Painter, B., Brown, N., and Cook, M., Evaluation of sensors for post-occupancy building monitoring. IEECB 2010, 2010.

Brown, N., Image Processing for Overnight Lighting Quantification in Buildings. IEECB 2010, 2010.

Brown N, Some Aspects of a Framework for Energy Data, Improving Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings, Frankfurt, 2012. Abstract accepted.

Invited Plenary lecture at Advanced Meter Data Management Conference,
Plaza Hotel, London, Research and Data Analysis Regarding Large Scale Half-hourly Metering, 2009.

Keynote Speaker at Conference on 2010 E&P Information and Data Management, London, November 2010, aspects of lossy data compression and application of video processing techniques for energy data analysis.

Speaker at 2010 Information Day on the three research Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) : "Factories of the Future", "Energy-Efficient Buildings", and "Green Cars" , European Commission, Brussels. 850 Attendees. 

A Design Model for Building Occupancy Detection Using Sensor Fusion
T Ekwevugbe, N Brown, D Fan
IEEE-DEST-2012 Conference on Digital Ecosystems, Campione d'Italia 2012

Precursors to using Energy Data as a Manufacturing Process Variable
N Brown, R Greenough, K Vikhorev
IEEE-DEST-2012 Conference on Digital Ecosystems, Campione d'Italia

Watford Hospital electrical feed analysis - Department of Health electrical feed analysis at ward level (provided advice on instrumentation strategies)

Halfords Ltd - Analysis and recommendation of energy efficient lighting systems

John Rowlatt - 'Engaging the Owner-Occupier towards a Net Zero future - attitudes, motivations, barriers and misconceptions of energy efficiency retrofit'

Yashy Ragoo - [at University of Mauritius] - `Investigating the effects of plant fibres on the thermal and mechanical characteristics of concrete blocks`.

KAP  Energy-aware prediction. (Co-Investigator) Knowledge, Awareness and Prediction of Man, Machine, Material and Method in Manufacturing,  EU - KAP Large-scale Integrating Project (IP) ICT call 5 FP7-2010-NMP-ICT-FoF. Project partners include Nissan, Volvo and Intel. 

DUALL Deliberative User Approach in a Living Lab (Contributed to the proposal, involved in the project) - Development of an ICT tool to analyse energy consumption patterns of IT equipment to facilitate a zero carbon building.  

United States Patent Application No. 11/721663 2008, Method and Apparatus for Verigying Seal Integrity, Brown, Kerr, Parkin, Jackson, Shi

• Referee for:
  ImechE, part B (Journal of Engineering manufacture)
  ImechE, part I (Journal of Systems and Control Engineering)
  Mechatronics
  Energy and Buildings (five per year)
  IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics (around three per year).

• Reviewer for IEECB conference bi-annually in Frankfurt.  

• Frequent Referee for EPSRC, Less Frequent referee for ESRC

• Reviewer for Earthscan Publications

• Leicester City Council - Advice on instrumentation and monitoring, energy efficiency.

 

• Visiting lecturer at UAUIM  universitatea de arhitectura si urbanism "ion mincu", Bucharest,
• Visiting Lecturer in cyber physical energy systems at Furtwangen University, Germany.