•  Phil Carr, Director: Phil has been the Director of CARRS Welding for over 30 years. In the role of PC, Phil will leverage his +30 years of experience in the welding industry and in managing large and complex collaborative and industrial projects. He holds a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and has run various research projects for Carrs.

• Alistair Houghton, General Manager: Alistair has more than 25 years of welding experience and was the first Laser welder employed by CARRS. He was appointed General Manager in 2016 after working his way up from providing the first commercially Laser welding service in the UK. Alistair will coordinate the activities at CARRS and oversee the experiments, jig modifications and manufacture of the welds. Alistair will also be responsible for overseeing the work carried out by the two project sub-contractors MJ Mould Services, and Sawford Engineering. Sawford Engineering will fabricate the holding fixtures for the project and MJ Mould Services will modify existing fixtures for welding of new test pieces.

• John Silva, Technical Director: John is a Master Mechanical Engineer from the University of Lisbon (Portugal). He is highly experienced in Quality Management and Quality Assurance and has been in charge of Technical/Quality at CARRS Welding for the past 12 years. John will be the technical lead for CARRS. John will confirm the weld preparation sizes, joint preps and material specs. He will oversee the settings /parameters of the trials and coordinate the testing programme with several different joint types and material mixes. John will also specify and organise the fixtures for holding the test pieces, which will require the existing jig to go out to sub-contractors for modification and then to design a new jig to take the battery casings.

Due to the niche nature of this project, CARRS requires very specific technical knowledge in laser welding and with Warwick university, with their track record in laser welding and a highly skilled team, is therefore the ideal research partner to collaborate with the consortium, with Ionetic and PowerPhotonic.

• Stephen Large, Director Highly strategic, accomplished automotive leader with 25 years manufacturing experience in both tier 1 and OEM. Over the last 28 years has been responsible for both the planning and delivery of manufacturing systems for ICE engines, module and Battery pack assembly and test. With a great experience of managing grand funded activities, he will ensure activities and tasks are delivered on time, on cost and at the right level of quality.

• Quality: Highly experience Head of Quality with a vast amount of automotive experience from tier 1 and OEM organisations such as Arrival and Helix. They have a great knowledge of both business systems and design / product requirements and the automotive tool sets use to deliver a quality product.

• Mechanical design lead: With design and development experience from automotive and Formula 1 organisations, they bring a great knowledge of therequirements of battery pack structures and the performance / attributes required to achieve both structural and non-structural battery cases.

• Mechanical design Engineer: Supporting the Mech Design lead with CAD (NX siemens) skills, they bring a good knowledge and knowledge of aluminium extrusions as well as the design requirements of the interface between module and pack.

• Manufacturing; Experienced manufacturing engineer with a vast experience in automotive and battery technology. Joining from WAE, they bring a wealth of multi discipline manufacturing experience for low volume battery system manufacturing.

• Sattar Ghasemi is a research assistant at WMG, The University of Warwick, where he focuses on applying artificial intelligence to process modelling, monitoring, and control within the laser welding industry. He holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Sapienza University of Rome, where he specialised in adaptive controller design and decision-making systems as part of a collaborative project with NextChem SPA. Prior to his master’s studies, Sattar earned his bachelor’s degree from Shahrekord University in 2020.

• Ahmad Reshad Bakhtari is a research assistant at WMG, The University of Warwick. His research focuses on laser–material interaction and processing, emphasising the development of multi-scale and multi-physics models and exploring innovative laser beam shaping applications in laser beam welding. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Kabul University, Afghanistan, and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Sharda University, India. He was a research fellow at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, from 2021 to 2022, and from 2022 to 2024, he worked as a research assistant at the Additive Manufacturing Technologies Application and Research Centre (EKTAM) in Ankara, Türkey.

• Alex Griffiths is a Lead Engineer in the Product Development team at PowerPhotonic. His work concerns on the design, development and manufacture of freeform optical components for laser systems. In particular, his focus is on the application of beam shaping optics in micro-machining, biomedical, and welding contexts. Before joining PowerPhotonic in 2020, Alex completed a PhD in applied physics and worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Strathclyde, working on applications of micro-LEDs and single photon detectors for communications and imaging. Alex has a strong skillset in optical design, optical modelling and design for manufacture, and has a proven record in developing new optical solutions, evidenced by a variety of successful commercial projects, academic publications and patent applications.

• Emma Modrate is currently the Sales Application Engineer at PowerPhotonic Ltd in Dalgety Bay but has a background as an experienced Key Account Manager. She has been with PowerPhotonic since November 2020, prior to this she worked within the healthcare industry as Key Account manager and/or technical sales manager for 14 years previous to this she was a Senior Scientist for 3 years. Emma’s technical background of a PhD in Surface Science from the University of St. Andrews gives her a unique academic background that bridges both Chemistry and Physics which allows her to work over several scientific industries. She has a proven track record in driving growth through collaboration and utilising innovative technical solutions, she uses her technical experience to identify and address customer needs and build strong relationships. She does this with a comprehensive understanding of technical products and services and a passion for providing outstanding customer service. Emma excels in bridging the gap between technical functionality and business objectives, by utilising consultative sales techniques to understand customer pain points and helping PowerPhotonic provide tailored solutions.

• Persephone Poulton is a product development engineer at PowerPhotonic Ltd in Dalgety Bay. Persephone joined PowerPhotonic Ltd in 2021 just prior to completing her PhD, She graduated from the University of St Andrews where she completed a masters in Optical Coherence Tomography using Monte Carlo techniques and went on to successfully complete her PhD on advanced microscopy methods (including SIM and Light-Sheet Microscopy) for applications in histopathology. She successfully completed her PhD in December 2022. Persephone works in the product development team under Alex Griffiths and her work primarily concentrates on the design, development and manufacture of freeform optical components for laser systems, specifically in regards to beam shaping optics for use in micro-machining, welding. With 3 years working in commercial business and experience in working on successful commercial projects individually and as part of a team, Persephone has shown a natural aptitude to research and design of optical solutions and worked specifically on designing single mode ring and ring + core optics that could be used in micro welding or additive manufacturing.