Contact Professor Leon Williams
- Tel: +44 (0) 1234 758531
- Email: l.williams@cranfield.ac.uk
- ORCID
Areas of expertise
- Design, Strategy & Innovation
Background
Academically trained as a goldsmith with a doctorate from the RCA; his work has been showcased internationally from Universidade do Porto, Portugal; to Galerie Ra, Amsterdam; Milan, Korea and Hong Kong.
He has led as Principal Investigator more than 50 research funded projects and supervised many postgraduate researchers to competition from the RCA/Rochester/Cranfield (at MSc by Research/MPhil/PhD level). He is also the course tutor of the internationally acknowledged Innovation and Creativity MDes by Bloomberg Businessweek.
Current activities
Dr Leon B. M. Williams is the Director of Centre for Competitive Creative Design (C4D) at Cranfield University with a specialised area of research in Prestige Design and Creative Innovation.
He has a wide knowledge base in 'technology development' but focuses his attention on the ever-changing disciplines that yield high impact for technological change and creative innovation. For this reason, precision engineering, novel materials, craftsmanship techniques and new technology development take high priority within his current research. However, most of his professional consultancy engagement focuses on problem solving for the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sectors, as his research and development processes are valued for being rapid and pragmatic. He focuses on developing design-led strategic tools, creative insight and working solutions to large and small enterprises, simulating ideas whilst bringing them to reality using proven R&D methodologies combined with new rapid development mechanisms.
He has been a consultant for over ten years providing guidance and support to developing FMCG companies. His key skills include:
- Rapid-innovation toolkits (theory and practice)
- Technology readiness level pipelines
- Open Innovation Management workflows
- Technology-led Innovation
- Design for manufacture innovation management best practice
- Digital technology development (concept-to-creation)
- Reverse engineering systems for rapid manufacture
- Design-led insight mechanisms (empathic data collection)
- Client-driven innovation processes
- Craftsmanship and practitioner knowledge exchange
- Innovation strategy and creative business management mechanism
- Precision engineering and rapid technology development
- Creative systems and product optimisation pathways
- Game changing innovation strategies for business growth
- Smart Materials and Processes Design Thinking Practice Technology
- Prototyping Management of Innovation and Technology.
Clients
- SABMiller Materials Department
- P&G
- IBM
- Housing 21
- BMS
- Links of London HQ
- Benney Watches Ltd - in conjunction with Faberge Design Orchard
- Royal Mint
- Shadow Robotics
- London Tap Water
- Bombay Sapphire
- Theo Fernell
- Marant Jewellery
- Wind Power Ltd (Grimshaw Architects London HQ)
- Hornby
- Rapid-Form
- RCA
- Garrard
- V&A (goldsmiths)
- Jaguar Land Rover.
Publications
Articles In Journals
- Zhang M, Shi H, Williams L, Lighterness P, Li M & Khan AU (2023) An empirical test of the influence of rural leadership on the willingness to participate in public affairs from the perspective of leadership identification, Agriculture, 13 (10) Article No. 1976.
- Jiang Y, Tran TH & Williams L (2023) Machine learning and mixed reality for smart aviation: applications and challenges, Journal of Air Transport Management, 111 (August) Article No. 102437.
- Abu-Bakar H, Williams L & Hallett SH (2023) Contextualising household water consumption patterns in England: A socio-economic and socio-demographic narrative, Cleaner and Responsible Consumption, 8 (March) Article No. 100104.
- Beik F, Williams L, Brown T & Wagland ST (2023) Development and prototype testing of a novel small-scale pyrolysis system for the treatment of sanitary sludge, Energy Conversion and Management, 277 (February) Article No. 116627.
- Jiang Y, Tran TH & Williams L (2022) Advanced visual slam and image segmentation techniques for augmented reality, International Journal of Virtual and Augmented Reality, 6 (1) Article No. 63.
- Mead MI, Bevilacqua M, Loiseaux C, Hallett SH, Jude S, Emmanouilidis C, Harris J, Leinster P, Mutnuri S, Tran TH & Williams L (2022) Generalised network architectures for environmental sensing: case studies for a digitally enabled environment, Array, 14 (July) Article No. 100168.
- Jiang Y, Yang R, Zang C, Wei Z, Thompson J, Tran TH, Encinas-Oropesa A & Williams L (2022) Toward baggage-free airport terminals: a case study of London City Airport, Sustainability, 14 (1) Article No. 212.
- Abu-Bakar H, Williams L, Hallett & SH (2021) Quantifying the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on household water consumption patterns in England, npj Clean Water, 4 (1) Article No. 13.
- Abu-Bakar H, Williams L & Hallett SH (2021) An empirical water consumer segmentation and the characterisation of consumption patterns underpinning demand peaks, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 174 (November) Article No. 105792.
- Beik F, Williams L, Brown T & Wagland ST (2021) Managing non-sewered human waste using thermochemical waste treatment technologies: a review, Energies, 14 (22) Article No. 7689.
- Hennigs J, Ravndal KT, Parker A, Collins M, Jiang Y, Kolios AJ, McAdam E, Williams L & Tyrrel S (2021) Faeces - Urine separation via settling and displacement: Prototype tests for a novel non-sewered sanitation system, Science of the Total Environment, 753 (January) Article No. 141881.
- Abu-Bakar H, Williams L & Hallett SH (2021) A review of household water demand management and consumption measurement, Journal of Cleaner Production, 292 (April) Article No. 125872.
- Zhu B, Williams L, Lighterness P & Gao P (2021) Impact of crowdsourcee’s vertical fairness concern on the crowdsourcing knowledge sharing behavior and its incentive mechanism, Journal of Systems Science and Complexity, 34 (3) 1102-1120.
- Kamranvand F, Davey CJ, Williams L, Parker A, Jiang Y, Tyrrel S & McAdam EJ (2021) Membrane distillation of concentrated blackwater: effect of temperature, solids concentration and membrane pore size, Water Environment Research, 93 (6) 875-886. Dataset/s: 10.17862/cranfield.rd.13073219
- Budge S, Parker A, Hutchings P, Garbutt C, Rosenbaum J, Tulu T, Woldemedhin F, Jemal M, Engineer B & Williams L (2021) Multi-sectoral participatory design of a babyWASH playspace for rural Ethiopian households, American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 104 (3) 884-897.
- Davey CJ, Liu P, Kamranvand F, Williams L, Jiang Y, Parker A, Tyrrel S & McAdam EJ (2021) Membrane distillation for concentrated blackwater: influence of configuration (air gap, direct contact, vacuum) on selectivity and water productivity, Separation and Purification Technology, 263 (May) Article No. 118390. Dataset/s: 10.17862/cranfield.rd.13072937
- Kamranvand F, Davey CJ, Williams L, Parker A, Jiang Y, Tyrrel S & McAdam EJ (2020) Ultrafiltration pretreatment enhances membrane distillation flux, resilience and permeate quality during water recovery from concentrated blackwater (urine/faeces), Separation and Purification Technology, 253 (December) Article No. 117547. Dataset/s: 10.17862/cranfield.rd.12752930
- Hulme AM, Davey CJ, Parker A, Williams L, Tyrrel S, Jiang Y, Pidou M & McAdam EJ (2020) Managing power dissipation in closed-loop reverse electrodialysis to maximise energy recovery during thermal-to-electric conversion, Desalination, 496 (December) Article No. 114711. Dataset/s: 10.17862/cranfield.rd.12645842
- Xie J, Unnikrishnan D, Williams L, Encinas-Oropesa A, Mutnuri S, Sharma N, Jeffrey P, Zhu B & Lighterness P (2020) Influence of domain experience on icon recognition and preferences, Behaviour and Information Technology, Available online 31 July 2020 (1).
- Somorin T, Parker A, McAdam E, Williams L, Tyrrel S, Kolios A & Jiang Y. (2020) Pyrolysis characteristics and kinetics of human faeces, simulant faeces and wood biomass by thermogravimetry–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry methods, Energy Reports, 6 (November) 3230-3239.
- Hennigs J, Parker A, Collins M, Jiang Y, Kolios A, McAdam E, Williams L & Tyrrel S (2019) Planning and communicating prototype tests for the Nano Membrane Toilet: A critical review and proposed strategy, Gates Open Research, 3 Article No. 1532.
- Wang J, Wang L, Sun N, Tierney R, Li H, Corsetti M, Williams L, Wong PK & Wong TS (2019) Viscoelastic solid-repellent coatings for extreme water saving and global sanitation, Nature Sustainability, 2 (12) 1097-1105.
- Mercer E, Davey CJ, Campo-Moreno P, Fowler D, Williams L, Kolios A, Parker AH, Tyrrel S, Walton C, Cartmell E, Pidou M & McAdam EJ (2019) Quantification of liquid phase faecal odourants to evaluate membrane technology for wastewater reuse from decentralised sanitation facilities, Environmental Science: Water Research and Technology, 5 (1) 161-171.
- Somorin T, Fidalgo B, Hassan S, Sowale A, Kolios A, Parker A, Williams L, Collins M, McAdam EJ & Tyrrel S (2019) Non-isothermal drying kinetics of human feces, Drying Technology, Available online 01 October (14).
- Mercer E, Davey CJ, Azzini D, Eusebi AL, Tierney R, Williams L, Jiang Y, Parker A, Tyrrel S, Cartmell E, Pidou M & McAdam EJ (2019) Hybrid membrane distillation reverse electrodialysis configuration for water and energy recovery from human urine: an opportunity for off-grid decentralised sanitation, Journal of Membrane Science, 584 (August) 343-352. Dataset/s: 10.17862/cranfield.rd.8131562.v1
- Hennigs J, Ravndal KT, Blose T, Toolaram A, Sindall RC, Barrington D, Collins M, Engineer B, Kolios AJ, McAdam E, Parker A, Williams L & Tyrrel S (2019) Field testing of a prototype mechanical dry toilet flush, Science of the Total Environment, 668 (June) 419-431.
- Fidalgo B, Chilmeran M, Somorin T, Sowale A, Kolios A, Parker A, Williams L, Collins M, McAdam EJ & Tyrrel S (2019) Non-isothermal thermogravimetric kinetic analysis of the thermochemical conversion of human faeces, Renewable Energy, 132 (March) 1177-1184.
- Jurado N, Somorin T, Kolios AJ, Wagland S, Patchigolla K, Fidalgo B, Parker A, McAdam E, Williams L & Tyrrel S (2018) Design and commissioning of a multi-mode prototype for thermochemical conversion of human faeces, Energy Conversion and Management, 163 507-524.
- Kolios A, Jiang Y, Somorin T, Sowale A, Anastasopoulou A, Anthony B, Fidalgo Fernandez B, Parker A, McAdam E, Williams L, Collins M & Tyrrel S (2018) Probabilistic performance assessment of complex energy process systems – The case of a self-sustained sanitation system, Energy Conversion and Management, 163 (May) 74-85.
- Jones PM, Lonne Q, Talaia P, Leighton GJT, Botte GG, Mutnuri S & Williams L (2018) A straightforward route to sensor selection for IoT systems, Research-Technology Management, 61 (5) 41-50.
- Rehman S, Tiwari A, Turner C & Williams L (2018) A framework for innovation outsourcing, International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 16 (1) 79-111.
- Kamranvand F, Davey CJ, Sakar H, Autin O, Mercer E, Collins M, Williams L, Kolios A, Parker A, Tyrrel S, Cartmell E & McAdam EJ (2018) Impact of fouling, cleaning and faecal contamination on the separation of water from urine using thermally driven membrane separation, Separation Science and Technology, 53 (9) 1372-1382.
- Zhu B, Ma Z, Wu N & Williams L (2018) Influence of original manufacturer's patent protection on technological innovation strategy of remanufacturing supply chain, Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems, 24 (9) 2329-2340.
- Sowale A, Kolios A, Fidalgo B, Somorin T, Parker A, Williams L, Collins M, McAdam E & Tyrrel S (2018) Thermodynamic analysis of a gamma type Stirling engine in an energy recovery system, Energy Conversion and Management, 165 528-540.
- Anastasopoulou A, Kolios A, Somorin T, Sowale A, Jiang Y, Fidalgo B, Parker A, Williams L, Collins M, McAdam E & Tyrrel S (2018) Conceptual environmental impact assessment of a novel self-sustained sanitation system incorporating a Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment approach, Science of the Total Environment, 639 (October) 657-672.
- Somorin T, Kolios A, Parker A, McAdam E, Williams L & Tyrrel S (2017) Faecal-wood biomass co-combustion and ash composition analysis, Fuel, 203 (September) 781-791.
- Wang CY, Mercer E, Kamranvand F, Williams L, Kolios A, Parker A, Tyrrel S, Cartmell E & McAdam EJ (2017) Tube-side mass transfer for hollow fibre membrane contactors operated in the low Graetz range, Journal of Membrane Science, 523 235-246.
- Onabanjo T, Kolios A, Patchigolla K, Wagland ST, Fidalgo B, Jurado N, Hanak DP, Manovic V, Parker A, McAdam E, Williams L, Tyrrel S & Cartmell E (2016) An experimental investigation of the combustion performance of human faeces, Fuel, 184 (November) 780-791.
- Onabanjo T, Patchigolla K, Wagland S, Fidalgo B, Kolios A, McAdam E, Parker A, Williams L, Tyrrel S & Cartmell E (2016) Energy recovery from human faeces via gasification: A thermodynamic equilibrium modelling approach, Energy Conversion and Management, 118 364-376.
- Mercer E, Parker A, Cartmell E, McAdam E, Tyrrel S, Pidou M, Kolios A, Williams L & Cruddas P (2016) Selection of screw characteristics and operational boundary conditions to facilitate post-flush urine and faeces separation within single household sanitation systems, Environmental Science: Water Research and Technology, 2 (6) 953-964.
- Hanak DP, Kolios A, Onabanjo T, Wagland ST, Patchigolla K, Fidalgo B, Manovic V, McAdam E, Parker A, Williams L, Tyrrel S & Cartmell E (2016) Conceptual energy and water recovery system for self-sustained nano membrane toilet, Energy Conversion and Management, 126 352-361.
- Haines-Gadd M, Hasegawa A, Hooper R, Huck Q, Pabian M, Portillo C, Zheng L, Williams L & McBride A (2015) Cut the crap; Design brief to pre-production in eight weeks: Rapid development of an urban emergency low-tech toilet for Oxfam, Design Studies, 40 (September) 246-268.
- Collins M & Williams L (2014) A three-stage filter for effective technology selection, Research-Technology Management, 57 (3) 36-42.
Conference Papers
- Quqandi S, Lighterness P & Williams L (2022) Design for sentiment-ancy: conceptual framework to improve user’s well-being through fostering emotional attachment in the user experience with their assistive devices. In: 24th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2022), London, 8-9 September 2022.
- Adams RJ, Barrington D, Collins M, Hutchings P, Ihasz O, Kolios A, McAdam E, Moreno M, Parker A, Tyrrel S, Vyakarnam, S & Williams L. (2018) A scoping review of business model configurations for diffusing high-tech innovations at the bottom of the pyramid. In: British Academy of Management (BAM) Annual Conference 2018, University of the West of England, 4-6 September 2018.
- Anastasopoulou A, Kolios A, Somorin T, Sowale A, Jiang Y, Fidalgo B, Parker A, Williams L, Collins M, McAdam EJ & Tyrrel S (2018) Probabilistic life cycle assessment of the nano membrane toilet. In: ICWERS 2018: 20th International Conference on Waste-to-Energy Technologies and Sustainability, Rome, 5-6 March 2018.
