Jesper Christensen

Jesper Christensen started his “mechanical engineering” activities as an engine fitter apprentice working on large marine propulsion systems; a three year degree. After completion he enrolled at University studying “Industrial Engineering”; and was awarded a BSc in 2007. Following this he completed his MSc in “Design of Mechanical Systems” in 2010.

During his studies he undertook several industrial based projects focused on optimisation; e.g. the development of an antivibration mount to improve fatigue life for a 250kg sewage pump in collaboration with Grundfoss. Before completing his MSc he also undertook a four month placement at Jaguar Land Rover focusing on FE correlation of foam material models for automotive seating.

Since joining Coventry University Jesper’s work has primarily focused on the development and implementation of optimisation algorithms for lightweighting applications, and has led to several invited presentations; for example to the German Association for Computational Mechanics, Dresden, 2012 and at the House of Commons at the ‘Set For Britain’ event in 2013. He was awarded his PhD on the topic of “Topology Optimisation of Structures Exposed to Large (non-linear) Deformations” in September 2015; which also lead to the publication of a book on the topic. Jesper is a Fellow of the ImechE and the Higher Education Academy, a STEM ambassador and a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College.