Christopher Couldrick

Biography

Chris has been a lecturer at Shrivenham since 2002, spanning the detail of mechanical engineering for the military and breadth of systems engineering for defence acquisition. He has worked on projects covering land, sea and air platforms. He has been a visiting academic at the UniSA (producing their Systems Design and Integration course); PhD supervisor on soldier systems; and consultant on vehicle technology. Chris spent six years working directly with the MOD to research and develop personal armour. In particular, he has contributed to two Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) suits for his engineering doctorate (EngD). Prior to starting at Cranfield University in 1998, Chris was a research assistant at the University of Western Australia under Professor James Trevelyan. His work focussed on designing humanitarian de-mining equipment for use and construction in developing countries. Dr Chris Couldrick has developed and delivers a triple module on Capability Integration that combines military technology with systems engineering. It is the largest taught component of the Defence Academy’s flagship Battlespace Technology MSc course. This enables the top tier of newly promoted Army majors to contribute effectively to the delivery of defence capability. He teaches an MSc module and short courses in mechanical engineering. These cover topics such as analytical and experimental stress analysis, materials properties and analysis of engineering failure. This provides technical students, who have backgrounds other than engineering, with knowledge and skills for investigating failure and engineering safety. It is a component of our Forensic MSc Programme. In addition Chris is responsible for delivering one of the modules on the Vehicles and Weapons Programme. Chris delivers lectures, consultancy and research in topics specific to defence and security. For example, his expertise in personal armour and fragmenting munitions has resulted in a recently published book chapter entitled Body Armour Design Parameters: Vulnerability and Survivability. He is a chartered engineer (CEng), an active member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering (IMechE) and part of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE).

Research Interest

Dr. Chis's work focuses on designing humanitarian de-mining equipment for use and construction in developing countries.