Dr Lauren E. J. Thomas-Seale MEng, PhD, AMIMechE

Dr Lauren Thomas-Seale

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Senior Lecturer

Contact details

Address
Department of Mechanical Engineering
School of Engineering
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Dr Lauren Thomas-Seale is a senior lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering. 

Lauren has highly interdisciplinary interest’s focussed on but not exclusive to design, additive manufacture and elastography. Within the School of Engineering Lauren’s research is aligned with the Biomedical Engineering Research Group and the Manufacturing Research Group. She collaborates with academics across the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences and College of Medical and Dental Sciences.

Lauren, as Principal Investigator, has received prestigious grants from academic, research and industrial institutions: Innovation Initiative Grant (The University of Edinburgh), Minor Research Award (Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland), Developing Leaders Award (University of Birmingham), Foundation Scholarship (Manufacturing Technology Centre), Research Grant (Royal Society) and New Investigator Award (EPSRC). 

Lauren represents the university on the EPSRC Engineering Early Career Forum. Lauren is also the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead for the School of Engineering.

Qualifications

Lecturer in Design Engineering

  • Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, Distinction, University of Birmingham, 2019
  • PhD in Bioengineering, University of Edinburgh, 2015
  • 1st Class MEng (Hons) in Aeronautical Engineering, University of Bristol, 2007

Biography

International Women in Engineering Day 2019: Dr Lauren Thomas-Seale

Dr Lauren E. J. Thomas-Seale qualified with a First Class MEng in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Bristol in 2007. Lauren’s undergraduate research specialism was aerodynamics. Upon graduating, Lauren worked as a design engineer in the consultancy Goshawk Aerospace. Lauren graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2015 with a PhD in Bioengineering. Her doctoral thesis research entitled “The Application of Magnetic Resonance Elastography to Atherosclerosis” was conducted across the Centre for Cardiovascular Science, School of Engineering and Clinical Research Imaging Centre. 

In 2015 Lauren joined the Biomedical Engineering Group at the University of Birmingham as a research fellow in design for additive manufacture. Lauren won a Developing Leaders Award in 2016 to undertake a secondment at the Manufacturing Technology Centre. 

Lauren was appointed as a Lecturer in Design Engineering in the School of Engineering, University of Birmingham in 2017. She teaches on the second year module, Mechanical Design A. 

Lauren’s research interests are highly interdisciplinary, encompassing cardiovascular science, developmental biology, imaging, elastography, bioengineering, design and additive manufacture.

Teaching

Mechanical Engineering

  • Mechanical Design A

Postgraduate supervision

Lauren Thomas-Seale supervises PhDs in the following areas:

  • Biomedical Engineering 
  • Additive Manufacture 
  • Design
  • Elastography  

Research

Lauren’s research into design for additive manufacture encompasses the broad spectrum design; from conceptual through to detailed. Thus her interests span design in the context of innovation, materials, software, optimisation and manufacture. She is particularly interested in integrating concepts drawn from developmental biology into design and additive manufacture to mirror the advanced efficiency and capabilities seen in nature. Lauren uses traditional and innovative design and additive manufacturing techniques to solve clinical and industrial problems.

Lauren also conducts research in the field of elastography, which facilitates the characterisation of tissue elasticity in-vivo. She is interested in developing elastography techniques that can be applied to the cardiovascular applications, underpinned by computational and experimental validation.

Other activities

Dr Thomas-Seale is an advocate of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). She is the EDI lead for the School of Engineering, and represents the School on the College of  Engineering and Physical Sciences EDI committee.

Publications

Selected Publications

Miramini, S., Fegan, K., Green, N., Espino, D. M., Zhang, L. and Thomas-Seale L. E. J. (2020) The status and challenges of replicating the mechanical properties of connective tissues using additive manufacturing, Journal of the Mechanical Behaviour of Biomedical Materials, 103: 103544

Saliba, S., Kirkman-Brown, J. C. and Thomas-Seale, L.E.J. (2020) Temporal Design for Additive Manufacturing, International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 106: 3849–3857

Thomas-Seale, L.E.J., Kirkman-Brown, J. C., Kanagalingam, S., Attallah, M. M., Espino, D. M. and Shepherd, D. E. T. (2019) The analogies between human development and additive manufacture: Expanding the definition of design, Cogent Engineering, 6: 1662631 (2019 Best Paper in Mechanical Engineering)

Thomas-Seale, L.E.J, Kirkman-Brown, J. C., Attallah, M. M.,  Espino, D. M. and Shepherd, D. E. T. (2017) The barriers to the progression of additive manufacture: an industrial perspective, International Journal of Production Economics, 198: 104-118

Thomas-Seale, L. E. J., Hollis, L., Klatt, D., Sack, I., Roberts, N., Pankaj, P. and Hoskins, P. R. (2016) The simulation of magnetic resonance elastography through atherosclerosis, Journal of Biomechanics, 49: 781-1788

View all publications in research portal