科研落地！宁波诺丁汉大学理工学院交出了一份“范文”

Please scroll down for the English version - UNNC transfers research outcomes to innovative product.

最近，一笔笔桌面五轴机床订单“飞来”，为宁波诺丁汉大学先进制造中心迎来了“开门红”。据悉，这是该中心第一个正式被批准的商业化项目，其背后的历程凸显了宁波诺丁汉大学对“科研落地、教研相长”的重视和决心。

01

一个“偷懒”想法萌生的设计图

文中开头提到的“五轴机床”是精密度高且专门用于加工复杂曲面的机床，对国家的航空、航天、军工、精密器械、高端模具、高精医疗设备等行业发展有着举足轻重的作用。

宁诺先进智能制造研究团队的学科带头人李灏楠博士带领团队自主研发的“桌面五轴机床”是一款创新型产品，它一改传统机床往日的笨重、不易移动且费用昂贵等缺点，外型轻巧、可便携，体积较之前减少了40倍，受到国内众多高校科研院所的青睐。

有着如此创新魅力的产品是如何“诞生”的呢？李灏楠笑着打趣道：“为了偷懒！”原来，从事科研团队的学生们那会儿做实验在二楼，实际操作传统机床放置在一楼，所以每次做科研就看着他们上上下下爬楼梯，可体型如此大的机床挪不到二楼，于是萌生了设计轻便式机床的想法。而且，这与学校曾提议的制造中心需设计个性化设备的想法不谋而合，于是，李灏楠带领整个团队花费了一年多的时间，在不停地试错中，验证了桌面五轴机床的可行性，使得第一代桌面机床成功“出世”。

此后，团队不断地根据市场反馈对功能进行添加和删减，并考虑到批量生产的需求，对设备进行迭代升级。如今桌面机床到今年年底将产生第三代产品。中心已经接到了不少预订订单。

02

以研促教的探索性教学

目前，有着国际学术背景的先进制造中心，是宁诺在制造工艺基础研究、高端装备研发应用、高层次专业技术人才培养、国际学术合作交流的重要基地之一。中心已培养博士/硕士研究生47名，与国内哈尔滨工业大学、上海交通大学、华中科技大学等多家高校有着紧密的科研合作，国际上也拥有一定的知名度。

而对于李灏楠而言，他作为一名老师，更让他欣慰的是，这几年科研教研相辅相成的成果。

他说，以前跟学生们讲课即便借用很多视频和图片来解析理论上的知识点，但总是很难具体理解，而如今借用科研教学，学生们就会用已学的知识去探索，实际操作之后，发现问题，再带着目的性的求知去学习，这或许才是科研带给教学最大的内驱力。

航空系大三学生杨皓中在这个暑假就有深刻的领悟，他说，平常在上课时理解抽象的理论知识是一堂课的关键，如果单凭想象其实是远远不够的，而科研实践给予了很多沉浸式的体验，大大提升了自己的能力。

当然，李灏楠坦言，高校科研项目落地产业化，科研教研相融合教学，这些问题都需要更长的时间去探索，希望能让更多的高校科研工作者增加科技成果转化的信心以及获得教学实践的有力支点。

UNNC transfers research outcomes to innovative product

The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) recently received a large number of orders of the five-axis machine tools that are being designed in its Advanced Manufacturing Centre (AMC). It is the first commercial project of the Centre officially approved.

The five-axis machine tool is one of the innovative products designed by AMC which is led by Dr Haonan Li, Associate Professor in Advanced and Intelligent Manufacturing. The new product has changed the clunky appearance of the former model, creating a lightweight, portable model that is 40 times smaller than the original. Dr Li’s design has so far received favourable attention from various domestic universities and research institutions.

So how did such a state-of-the-art innovative product come to fruition? Dr Li smiled and jokingly said, "because we were lazy!" It turned out that the students working in the research team were doing experiments on the second floor, and the machine tools were on the first floor and too heavy to be moved. Every time they had to do experiments, they would have to alternate between the two floors. Thus, the idea of designing lightweight machine tools came into being.

This idea also coincided with the University’s proposal that encourages the manufacturing center to develop its own personalised equipment. As a result, Dr Li led his team for more than a year in bringing the first generation of the machine tools into being. The iteration of the scientific equipment has been remarkably fast. The team continuously adjust the functions of the tools according to market feedback and sales have been gradually rising. The third generation of machine tools will begin production at the end of the year.

At present, the AMC with international academic background is one of the most important bases for UNNC’s research into the manufacturing process, as well as high-end equipment research and development application, high-level professional and technical personnel training, and international academic cooperation and exchange. The Centre has cultivated 47 PhD and Master students, and has cooperated closely with renowned domestic universities such as Harbin University of Technology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology. The Centre is also increasingly recognised on the international stage.

As a teacher, Dr Li takes pride in seeing the mutual development of scientific research and teaching in recent years and how they have benefited each other. He said that lectures would previously rely on a lot of video and image content to explain theoretical knowledge, but it would still be difficult for students to understand the specific details. Nowadays, with the help of research backed teaching practices, students are able to use knowledge they’ve learned to reassess questions and explore problems from a different perspective. This is perhaps the biggest driving force to teaching practices that scientific research has brought about.

Mr Haozhong Yang, a year three student, came to a profound realisation on this over the summer vacation, and commented that the scientific research practices help to fuel student’s imagination by creating an immersive experience which will in turn improve their abilities.

Dr Li admitted that surrounding the industrialisation of scientific research projects in universities and the development of scientific research backed teaching, there are much more to be explored. He hopes that university researchers will become increasingly confident in the transformation of technological achievements and develop a strongpoint in teaching practices.

文字来源 | Lily Su, Liam

图片来源 | 李灏楠

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