Summer School
Since 2023 we have hosted student projects and a summer school for international researchers and professionals.
2024 Summer School on Fire Fundamentals for Performance-Based Fire Safety Design
Over 50 international researchers and professionals attended the Summer School on Fire Fundamentals for Performance-Based Fire Safety Design organised by ITB and Frissbe on 1-6th September with lectures by Prof Jose Torero, Prof Bart Merci, Dr Michael Woodrow, Dr Michael Spearpoint, Dr Andrea Lucherini, Dr Ruben Van Coile, and Dr Martina Manes. As part of the Summer School, the participants visited the ITB and Baltic Fire Laboratory. PhD Student Yam (Hongxin) Zhuang presented his research in the poster session. Thank you also to the participants for creating a community of professionals and researchers in fire safety engaged in discussion on several topics, challenges and possible solutions.
Summer Projects
2025 EPSRC Vacation Bursary
John Hussey (MEng student in Civil Engineering), under the supervision of Dr Martina Manes, worked on the EPSRC Vacation Bursary in the Summer of 2025 on research focused on a “Gap analysis on existing UK building regulations for wildfires” in collaboration Dr Emma McIntyre and Ms Greta Gall of ARUP.
2025 OFR Summer Placement
MEng Student Ali Saaed completed an internship with OFR Consultants. Over the 10 weeks, he had the opportunity to work alongside talented fire engineers on a wide range of tasks, from capacity assessments and damper reviews to preparing a site visit report, as well as contributing to graduate-level tasks that gave him a real insight into the profession. A special thank you to Jamie Clark, Yifan Li, Richard Rankin and all the engineers and staff in the Manchester office for the continuous support and advice during his time at OFR.
2024 EPSRC Vacation Bursary
Rachel Foster (MEng student in Civil Engineering) under the supervision of Dr Martina Manes worked on the EPSRC Vacation Bursary in the Summer of 2024 on research focused on “Learnings from DBI fire investigation reports to identify common trends and propose fire mitigation strategies in buildings” in collaboration with DBI.
2023 NFPA Student Project Initiative on Cooking Practices and Fires
Jack Salem and Alex Smith (MEng students in Civil Engineering) under the supervision of Dr Martina Manes worked on the NFPA Student Project Initiative in the Summer of 2023 on research focused on “Cooking Practices and Fires in the USA”. As part of this initiative, students were accepted for the presentation and poster session at the 2024 NFPA Conference & Expo (Orlando, Florida, USA) and the final report of the project was published on the NFPA website.