An employee of Huddersfield company Associated Utility Supplies (AUS) has won a Future Innovator award for his work delivering exceptional NPD in rail electrification.
Harvey Kangley beat off stiff competition from 17 other finalists at the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships KTP Best of the Best Awards, held online earlier this month. The prestigious awards celebrate original thinking and new ways of solving challenges to help innovation thrive. The award recognises both Harvey’s achievements and the hard work and dedication that the KTP team committed to the project.
After graduating from the University of Huddersfield in 2017 with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering, Harvey was selected by the University and AUS to take on the role of KTP Associate at the company as part of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme, funded through Innovate UK. Facilitating collaboration between academia, graduates and companies, KTP is one of the UK’s most successful and well-established knowledge exchange programmes.
At AUS, Harvey was tasked with formalising the process for product development and. A new traceable in-house process was created, incorporating computational design analysis and optimisation into the process of product design. This means that sketches and technical drawings made by AUS staff no longer need to be contracted out for development.
Since 2017, more than 70 new and existing products have been developed or improved upon for customers in the rail and electrical supply industries. The KTP’s financial target was exceeded by a factor of four, including securing two major grants in May 2020 for the development of an innovative new rail footbridge and a new clamp assembly for maintaining overhead electric wires. In June 2020, when the three-year partnership came to an end, Harvey was offered a permanent position at AUS.
Managing Director of AUS, Simon Gibson said: “Harvey’s work at AUS has been exceptional and this is a well-deserved award. He has transformed our approach to product development and we’re delighted he has remained with the company as a staff member following his placement.”
Harvey Kangley said: “The KTP was a great opportunity and I’m really proud to have been involved in the programme. The opportunity was not only for all of us involved, but also for the wider industries we were focused on; our ambition was to have a positive impact on the rail and electrical supply industries. We were able to provide solutions to challenges that had existed for decades. The team at AUS, the University and the KTN provided me with fantastic support and mentoring throughout the project. I think that this is the aspect of the KTP programme that has allowed it to run successfully for so many years.”