Science in Complex Real Worlds

Robots build cars. Robots assemble electronics. Robots paint planes. But robots don't farm at scale yet.
Why? Because the challenges are fundamentally different. A factory is controlled, predictable, and repeatable. A farm is chaotic, plants vary and grow, weather changes, soil shifts. Robots released "into the wild" must adapt and learn continuously, far from their development labs.
Yet agriculture desperately needs automation. Manual labour, from picking soft fruit to monitoring crop health, is exhausting, costly, and increasingly scarce.
In this talk, we'll unpack the real barriers holding robotics back in agriculture, in Lincolnshire and beyond, and showcase breakthrough research addressing the critical challenges like harvesting, logistics, crop care, and crop phenotyping (understanding plant genetics at scale).
Through collaborative projects with spinouts and industry partners, we're discovering that the messiness of farming isn't a bug, it's teaching us to build smarter, more resilient robots.

From polluted air and contaminated water to the hidden risks of chemical warfare agents, many of the substances around us are either dangerous or simply going to waste. In this talk, Jose will introduce a new class of smart materials designed to tackle these problems head-on. These materials can capture toxic compounds before they spread, pull valuable elements out of waste streams, and form protective barriers against hazardous chemicals.
Rather than relying on complex or energy-intensive processes, these materials work at the molecular level, selectively trapping the right molecules while leaving others behind. This opens up possibilities for cleaner industries, safer environments, and better protection for people working in high-risk conditions, including soldiers and emergency responders.
The talk will focus on the basic ideas behind these materials, how they work, and why they matter in everyday life, without requiring any specialist background. It is a story about turning chemistry into practical solutions: cleaning up what harms us and saving what is worth keeping.