Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering
Admissions tutor (Mechanical Engineering and Marine Technology)

Dr Keri Collins is trying to make the world a better place, one academic year at a time. Her research has taken her down the path of physical modelling for experimentation, particularly with marine renewable energy devices, and she enjoys the engineering challenges of creating scale models for research applications. 

• Chris Pass - currrent student - acting DoS
• Oscar Best - current student - second supervisor
• Gunay Gazaloglu - current student - second supervisor
• Qi Ye, Structural analysis and design of semi-submersible platform for floating offshore wind turbines. 2023, PhD, member of supervisory team
• Daming Wang, Use of complex environmental data for realistic wave tank testing of Wave Energy Converters, 2022, PhD - member of supervisory team
• Ben Howey, A Physical and Numerical Study of an Interconnected Wave Energy Array, 2020, PhD - member of supervisory team

From 2020 (revised programmes)

ENGR107 - Engineering Design (Lecturer and Module Leader)

ENGR108 - Engineering Practice and Experimental Techniques (Lecturer)

MECH237 - Thermo-fluids (laboratory leader)

MAR526 - Introduction to marine renewable energy (guest lecturer, tbc)

MECH549 - Medical Engineering and Biomechanics (guest lecturer)

PRME310 - Engineering Honours project (project supervisor)

2018/2019 & 2019/2020

MECH121 - Team Engineering (Lecturer and module leader)
MARN339 - Marine Engineering (Lecturer and module leader)
MARN526 - Introduction to marine renewable energy (Interim lecturer)

Supervision of project students for MEng Civil and Coastal Engineering and BEng and BSc Mechanical Engineering (and associated pathways)
(PRCE308/PRCE310/PRCE507/PRME304/PRME307/PRME306)

Previous years

Lecturing on:
MECH230 - Engineering science 2

Laboratory sessions and coursework marking:
MAR528(MAR504) - Mechanics of MRE structures
MARN203(MARN201) - Stability and hydrodynamics

Tutoring/supervising and marking DSGN313 - Engineering Design and computational methods

Available for MATLAB tutoring

Research interests:

Keywords: Physical modelling, Experimental design, hydrodynamics, underwater propulsion/movement, bio-inspired design

My research has taken me down the path of physical modelling for experimentation, particularly with marine renewable energy devices, and I enjoy the engineering aspects of creating scale models for research applications. Recently, I have started looking into how choices made during model creation of scaled mooring lines can have an effect on experimental results and I am keen to supervise student projects in this area.

I recently led a BEIS-funded project with London Marine Consultants Ltd looking at motions and loads of interconnected physical models under wave action.

I am currently involved in the AEON project. I have previously done work for the PORTOS project and the Marine-i project.

Other research:
From 2015 to 2018, I was principally involved in the WETFEET project. This was a Horizon 2020-funded project to accelerate wave energy by considering four key "breakthroughs". The Plymouth part of the work was the creation and subsequent testing of two arrays of oscillating water columns. My involvement spanned model design and build, experimentation, data analysis and programming, daily budget management, wider project management, co-supervision of a PhD student and reporting.

I have reviewed journal articles and conference papers for Energies, Energy, EWTEC, Intl J Green Energy, ISOPE and JMarSci.

Conferences organised:
Helped to organise EWTEC2021 hosted in Plymouth September 2021.

Member of the organising committee for Women in STEM - A celebration of research excellence, March 2015 https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/whats-on/women-in-stem

Other academic activities:
Founder member and project manager for the human-powered submarine project: PULSE (Plymouth University Leg-powered Submarine Engineering).
At the eISR 2014, our submarine, Mayflower, came 3rd overall and became the fastest human-powered submarine built by any UK team. We also won the prize for Reliability. In 2015, we went to the USA to compete but sadly we couldn't repeat our success.

https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/news/plymouth-university-dive-deep-to-break-human-powered-submarine-record

I have been lucky enough to give science-based talks to the general public at festivals around the UK:
2017, Port Eliot Festival, Cornwall: Invited talk on wave energy and the WETFEET project
2012, Secret Garden Party, Cambs: As part of Guerilla Science gave a talk about biomimetics, fish swimming research and human-powered submarines
2011, Bestival, IoW: As part of Guerilla Science gave a talk about biomimetics, fish swimming research and human-powered submarines

Former Member of the RINA/IMarEST young members' group for Devon and Cornwall
STEM ambassador
SECAM Fire Marshal
SECAM Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committee member
SECAM Marketing and Recruitment comittee member

Faculty Strategy group member
Personal tutor

Placement tutor

Admissions tutor