Dr Adrian Cole

Background

Adrian has extensive business development, management and technical expertise across the transportation and manufacturing sectors gained through a career encompassing industry and academia at both managerial and professorial levels.

Adrian's current position is the Programme manager for the Digital Aviation Research & Technology Centre (DARTeC) at Cranfield University. DARTeC is currently the university's largest co-funded capital project (£67m) that includes an industry consortium consisting of amongst others; Boeing, Saab, Thales and Inmarsat. Adrian was the lead business developer responsible for the securing the capital funding and was subsequently asked to lead the project's implementation. The DARTeC facility opens during Q2 2021.

Adrian initially gained his technical engineering expertise within automotive powertrain, with a Phd at Bath University (diesel engine thermal insulation) post doctoral research at Imperial College (turbocharger transient performance) and then in industry working for a number of automotive consultancies (ERA Ltd - Technical Director, MIRA - Powertrain Manager) including a secondment at General Motors, Detroit. Adrian moved into academia to initially hold a professorial post at Birmingham City University before joining Cranfield.

In addition to his technical and business development accomplishments, Adrian has coached over 150 engineers and managers from across the globe in the use of tools and methods for innovation and creativity. Adrian's expertise and experience extends to leading innovation concepts such as; Lean Innovation, Lean Startup, Customer Informed Innovation (e.g. Jobs to be Done), TRIZ, Disruptive Innovation and Innovation Management.

Adrian is a past Director of the Society of Automotive Engineering, a Fellow of both the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Aeronautical Society plus the author of multiple technical papers.

Current activities

Adrian is currently launching the Cranfield Digital Aviation Research and Technology Centre (DARTeC)

Publications

• Conference papers