Contact Dr Adriana Encinas-Oropesa

Areas of expertise

  • Design, Strategy & Innovation
  • Product and Service Design
  • Structures and Materials

Background

Dr. Adriana Encinas-Oropesa is a Lecturer in Design and Materials at the Centre of Design Engineering.

Adriana's research area has been triggered by her passion to underpin design and materials systems with a sustainability agenda. She combines her Industrial Design background, with her Materials Science expertise to investigate processes and products to increase resource efficiency and develop new knowledge, methods, and systems. This research is based on understanding the effect of various operating environments on materials' product life and their interconnection as a part of peoples’ everyday life. 

Adriana holds an Industrial Design BSc from the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, Mexico; an MSc in Industrial and Product Design from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain and a Ph.D. in Advanced Materials from Cranfield University.

Working closely with Industry, Adriana has over 15 years of experience evaluating the performance and degradation of materials at Cranfield. She has over 40 technical publications and has also contributed to the development of new British Standards for materials testing.

Fellowship from the UK Higher Education Academy (HEA) and Fellow of The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) Adriana is also a member of the Mexican National System for Researchers CONACyT (SNI).

Research opportunities

I am keen to supervise students investigating materials and product design, methods, and processes involving design-led research, innovation, and enterprise, from conceptualization to proof-of-concept evaluation. Topics of interest include; human-centered materials development,  sustainable materials and technologies, circular economy, circular-driven materials, and waste/ resource efficiency for materials and products. 

Current activities

Adriana is MSc. Programme Director for the Jiangsu University Cranfield Tech Futures Graduate Institute (JSU CU), a strategic collaboration between Jiangsu University (China) and Cranfield. This role involves the leadership and management of the Joint Institute academic programs including Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Engineering Management, as well as developing new courses, encouraging innovation in teaching and assessment along with mentoring colleagues.  

Adriana is the module leader of the User-centred Design module that is part of the Design Thinking course in the Centre for Design Engineering. 

Clients

  • Unilever UK
  • Rolls-Royce plc (UK, Germany, and Canada)
  • MTU Engines (Germany)
  • Cool Milk ltd (UK)
  • National Council of Science and Technology CONACyT (Mexico)
  • Autonomous University of State of Mexico (UAEM)
  • Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
  • Innovate UK
  • EU Framework Programmes (EU)
  • European Coal and Steel Community (EU)
  • Siemens Energy Inc (USA, Germany)
  • Alstom Power (UK)
  • Porvair Filtration (UK)

Publications

Articles In Journals

Conference Papers

  • Haines-Gadd M, Charnley F & Encinas-Oropesa A (2019) Self-healing materials in a circular economy. In: PLATE 2019: Product Lifetime and the Environment, Berlin, 18-20 September 2019.
  • Wastling T, Sebastiampillai S, Liemberger M, Dubreuil X, Escamilla Greenham P, Mrzilek J, Okpala E, Xue J, Villa R, Simms N & Encinas-Oropesa A (2019) Women centred empowerment: developing solutions to improve living conditions in rural Mexico. In: International Conference on Energising the Sustainable Development Goals through Appropriate Technology and Governance, Leicester, 4-5 July 2019.
  • Sumner J, Encinas-Oropesa A, Seraffon M, Simms NJ & Nicholls JR (2012) Lifetime prediction for gas turbine materials in power generation. In: International Conference on Sustainable Power Generation and Supply, Hangzhou, 8-9 September 2013.
  • Encinas-Oropesa A, Simms NJ, Nicholls JR, Drew GL & Leggett J (2008) Evaluation of oxidation related damage caused to a gas turbine disc alloy between 700 and 800oC. In: Microscopy of Oxidation 7, 2008, Chester, 15-17 September 2008.
  • Encinas-Oropesa A, Drew GL, Hardy MC, Leggett AJ, Nicholls JR & Simms NJ (2008) Effects of oxidation and hot corrosion in a nickel disc alloy. In: Superalloys 2008, Champion, PA, 14-18 September 2008.
  • Simms NJ, Encinas-Oropesa A, Kilgallon PJ & Oakey JE (2005) Performance of gas turbine materials in 'dirty fuel' environments. In: Materials for Advanced Power Engineering 2002, Liege, Belgium, 1 October 2005.
  • Simms NJ, Encinas-Oropesa A & Nicholls JR (2004) Hot corrosion of coated single crystal superalloys. In: EUROCORR 2004 - European Corrosion Conference: Long Term Prediction and Modelling of Corrosion, Nice, 12-16 September 2004.
  • Simms NJ, Smith PJ, Encinas-Oropesa A, Ryder S, Nicholls JR & Oakey JE (2001) Development of type II hot corrosion in solid fuel fired gas turbines.
  • Simms NJ, Norton JF, Encinas-Oropesa A, Oakey JE, Wilshaw D & McColvin G (2001) Degradation of Fe- and Ni-based Cr, Al-containing foils in a combustion gas atmosphere. In: John Stringer Symposium on High Temperature Corrosion: proceedings from Materials Solutions Conference, 2001, Indianapolis, IN, 5-8 November 2001.

Books