Manufacturing Engineering Centre

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Manufacturing Engineering Centre (MEC) is an international R&D Centre of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing and Information Technology. The MEC was founded in 1996 under the directorship of Professor Duc Pham, OBE, FREng, FSME, BE, PhD, DEng, CEng, FIET, FIMechE. The Centre forms part of Cardiff University, which dates back to 1883 and is one of Britain's major civic universities.

The MEC's mission is to conduct world-class research and development in all major areas of advanced manufacturing technology and use the output to promote the introduction of knowledge based manufacturing to industry in Wales and in the rest of the United Kingdom.

The MEC conducts basic, strategic and applied research as well as technology transfer with partners from 22 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The research spans a broad spectrum of subjects, from Robotics and Microsystems, Sensor Systems, High-speed Automation and Intelligent Control, Rapid manufacturing, MicroManufacturing, Nanotechnology, Quality Engineering, Multimedia, Virtual Reality and Enterprise Information Management. The Centre offers MPhil and PhD degrees at postgraduate level.

Within the past ten years, the Centre has received over £40 million in grants and contracts and has attracted hundreds of industrial partners. In 2004, the MEC won two EC 6th Framework Networks of Excellence contracts totalling 15M Euros in value. The two Networks of Excellence led by the MEC, I*PROMS and 4M, involve some 50 centres of excellence in the field of Advanced Manufacturing across the EU.

As a Centre of Excellence for Technology and Industrial Collaboration (CETIC) sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the MEC has contributed significantly to the Welsh economy, having completed thousands of projects with local companies and helped to generate and safeguard thousands of jobs in the region.

The MEC was awarded the DTI University/Industry First Prize by the Secretary of State for Trade & Industry for its success in building research partnerships with industry (March 1999), and the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in recognition of its contribution made to the economy (February 2001).

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• Manufacturing Engineering Centre (MEC), Cardiff University
• I*PROMS Virtual International Conference 2nd-13th July 2007
• Multi-Material Micro Manufacture Conference 3rd-5th October 2007

Some of the MEC 'Bees' at the competition organised by the Graduate School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Cardiff University, on 15th October 2006, where they won the first prize for their 'Bees' Algorithm poster.

Sir Brian Smith, then Vice Chancellor of Cardiff University, and Professor Duc Pham, Director of the MEC, receiving the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Educationfrom HM the Queen.

The opening of a new £7.5 million MicroBridge facility at the MEC in October 2006. From left to right: Professor Pham (Director of MEC), Dr David Grant (Vice Chancellor of Cardiff University), Mr Andrew Davies (Welsh Assembly Minister for Enterprise, Innovation and Networks), and Dr Roger Carline (Department of Trade and Industry).

Two holes drilled by experts at the MEC - approximately 22µm in diameter (top hole) and 28µm in diameter (bottom hole). The holes are narrower than a human hair and believed to be the world's smallest hole(Guinness Book of World Records 2007, p 151).