The common thread running through the work of the Systems Engineering Research Group (SERG) is the expertise of its members in electronic and electrical systems, and an enormous diversity of research has stemmed from this.

Flow measurement, communications systems and clean energy generation are just three of the areas in which members of the SERG are applying their expertise and making breakthroughs that attract high levels of funding, partnerships with major industrial companies and collaborations with other universities.

Important and novel work is being carried out on flow measurement for the oil and gas industries. This could be of great significance to the future of energy supplies by maximising the productivity of oil wells.

There are about one million oil wells in the world and a great many of them produce multiple fluids - water and gas as well as oil could flow from the well. Professor Gary Lucas and his colleagues are developing systems to measure accurately all the different fluids that come from each well.

The technology that is being developed for use at the wellhead could have a very different, equally important application in the field of medical science. Currently, the Systems Engineering Research Group is laying the groundwork for collaborative research into new techniques of blood flow monitoring with the development of a low-cost device that could be used non-invasively to measure blood flow rates in limbs and other parts of the body.