Professor Jon Elphick BEng CEng DPhil FIET FRSA MINCOSE

Department of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering
Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor of Railway Systems Integration

Contact details

Email: j.elphick@bham.ac.uk

Address: School of Engineering

Jon is a respected and dedicated professional engineer, who has a track record of delivering value in complex and challenging environments. As a Director in WSP’s Rail Advisory group, Jon combines an instinctively holistic worldview, with excellent technical, communication, analytical and emotional intelligence skills, to regularly achieve results that exceed expectations. He has 25 years’ experience in control systems and railways (including heavy rail, metros and trams).

Jon has made significant technical and leadership contributions to railways around the world, in the areas of assurance and integration, digital transformation, command and control systems design and delivery, remote monitoring and asset management systems, cyber security, passenger information systems, and rolling stock. As Head of Solution Integration, Assurance and Safety for East West Rail, Jon led a change in approach, establishing a collaborative and pragmatic approach to integration, assurance and approvals/governance.

As a Senior Director at Hitachi Rail, he was responsible for rolling stock testing worldwide, and he pioneered the use of digital twins to reduce on track testing. Jon played a key role in the cross-industry collaborative team that worked on the concept design and architecture of Network Rail’s proposed national traffic management system, including the development of data specifications that supported interoperability.

Jon has a keen interest in emerging control systems and operational technology (OT), especially focused on realising value from data, connectivity and systems. He specialises in synthesising complex operational requirements into clear design concepts, thereby de-risking digital transformation by creating a shared understanding between operators, engineers and other stakeholders.

Qualifications

DPhil, University of York. Thesis entitled, “The Application of Fault Tolerant Computing to Helicopter Flight Control”, 1995
BEng (Hons) Electrical and Electronic, University of York (First), 1992
Chartered Engineer, 1999

Biography

Professor Elphick is working to embed practical and industrially applicable Systems Thinking across the School of Engineering teaching portfolio, he is accelerating the "left-shift" of railway testing and developing engineering student capabilities in digital-ready assurance, and championing neurodiversity in engineering.

Mark Wild, Ex-CEO of Crossrail, has observed, “a key lesson for me is spotting the difference between collaboration and everyone seeing the whole and truly acting in its service.” Successful Railway Systems Integration needs rigour, process and tools; but it also needs engineers to see the whole and understand that this includes the environment, their colleagues, operational staff and the public. The ICE’s recent Prestige Dugald Clerk Lecture panel agreed that in our increasingly complex and interconnected world, “People” are the most important focus for successful infrastructure delivery. Systems Thinking is at the heart of this; we need engineers to understand how our personal mental models, shaped by our individual experiences, influence how we see the world. Systems Thinking is not enabled by the provision of a quiver of tools and techniques. It requires developing a broader worldview; finding a humble, inquisitive self that can learn from, and with, others.

The second aim addresses the late consideration of Verification and Validation (V&V) in infrastructure projects. Railway (and infrastructure) Systems Integration is traditionally back-end-loaded. Many leaders incorrectly believe that the only true test is a test on the final, in-situ solution. The cost-influence curve (McNulty Rail Value for Money Study) clearly demonstrates the cost to the economy of this view. In the next 10 years, V&V will be transformed by the digital revolution. Digital-ready assurance of infrastructure projects will drive System Integration into the heart of the design process; digital twins will validate designs at a click of a button. Professor Elphick is extending the curriculum in this exciting and contemporary area, preparing students for the world of work they will enter.

As a Neurodiversity Champion, Professor Elphick draws on his personal experience as an engineer, parent, leader and school governor, to promote Diversity and Inclusion in Engineering. Shockingly, only 20% of neurodiverse adults, and a smaller proportion of those deemed to be on the autistic spectrum, are in paid employment. However, organisations are starting to recognise the huge benefits of neurodiversity. For example, GCHQ actively seeks to recruit and develop neurodiverse employees. Neurodiverse people have many super-powers that are key for Systems Integration, and neuroinclusive teaching is good for all learners.