Constance Gnanasagaran

Contact

Constance Gnanasagaran
About
Teaching and learning
Research
Business, knowledge transfer and international
Professional practice, knowledge exchange and impact
Leadership and management

About

Hello there,

I am a Chartered Engineer and Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering in the School of Engineering and the Environment at Roehampton Vale. I joined Kingston University in September 2021. Prior to that I was teaching in Guildford College UK for 5 years. Before moving into UK in 2015, I spent over 7 years in various universities in Malaysia (Inti International University, Nilai University and Tenaga Nasional University) teaching Mechanical Engineering, primarily for undergraduates. 

My area of expertise are Materials, Mechanics, Manufacturing, Structures and Project Management. Currently at Kingston University I teach modules involving these areas at all levels of study from Level 3 up to MSc. 

I am very passionate about my research and ongoing work in the area of Tissue Engineering (Biomaterials). I have few ongoing projects and research on generation of tissue engineering scaffolds, calcination & study of animal bones and rapid prototyping (3D printing) of implantable materials particularly for Orthopaedic applications. I also have some collaborative work experience with the Tissue Engineering Centre in Malaysian National University Medical Centre (UKMMC).  During my consultancy period with UKMMC, I had the opportunity to work with cell culture procedures, surgical implantation of artificial bone graft into sheep femur and biocompatibility & mechanical strength evaluation of these. One of my eureka moment in research is when I got the chance to participate in animal surgeries involving bone grafts and have developed a profound passion in this scope of study since. 

I am also a member and mentor in the Women in Engineering Society, UK.

Academic responsibilities

Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering

Qualifications

  • MSc Mechanical Engineering (Uniten, Malaysia)
  • Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (Hons.) (Uniten, Malaysia)
  • FHEA
  • CEng MIMechE
  • DTTLS

Teaching and learning

I teach Mechanics of Materials, Engineering Materials, Selection and Application of Materials, Project Management, Mechanical Design Processes, Sustainability and Entrepreneurship.

Qualifications and expertise

  • Materials Engineering
  • Biomaterials
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Additive Manufacturing
  • Project Management
  • Statics and Dynamics
  • Quality Management and Control
  • Sustainability in Engineering and Design
  • Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Undergraduate courses taught

Postgraduate courses taught

Research

My research area revolves around Bone Tissue Engineering. This involves creating implantable bone and dental substitutes for critical skeletal defects that cannot heal on their own. Currently, my team and I are working on several projects which are mainly dental related, where we are using one of the niche technologies in additive manufacturing and biomedical engineering which is 3D printing as the main medium of fabrication. Several samples of biomaterial that is biocompatible and proved to have similar properties of real tooth are being manufactured, studied and evaluated by examining its microstructures, mechanical properties and many more. Our future aspiration is to fabricate bone scaffolds to conduct osteoconduction studies.

We have many partners working alongside us in these projects mainly from Malaysia and universities in the UK.

So far, I have secured 3 grants which are the Kickstarter grant  - £9.9k, Research Capital Fund (RCF) worth £39k and Women in Science and Health fund worth £7700, all focusing on Tissue Engineering related research. 

Qualifications and expertise

  • MSc Mechanical Engineering (Engineering Ceramics)
  • Material Science and Engineering

Areas of specialism

  • Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing)
  • Rapid Prototyping
  • Biomaterials and Bioengineering
  • Implantable Materials (Bone and Dental Grafts)
  • Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Scholarly affiliations

  • Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kingston University London
  • Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (The National University of Malaysia)
  • Teesside University

Publications

Jump to: Article | Conference or Workshop Item
Number of items: 9.

Article

Ramachandran, Karthikeyan, Gnanasagaran, Constance L, Pazhani, Ashwath, Kumar, Vishaal Harikrishna, Xavior, M. Anthony, Subramani, R Ram and Arunkumar, T. (2023) Impact behaviour of MWCNTs reinforced YSZ and Al₂O₃ ceramic-nanocomposites prepared via vacuum hot-pressing technique. Journal of Materials Research and Technology, 24, pp. 6595-6603. ISSN (print) 2238-7854

Ramachandran, Karthikeyan, Gnanasagaran, Constance L, Subramani, R Ram, Boopalan, Vignesh and T, Arunkumar (2023) Influence of ceramic nanoparticles on fatigue life of Al 6061 prepared via ultrasonic aided rheo-squeeze casting process. Advances in Materials and Processing Technologies, ISSN (print) 2374-068X (Epub Ahead of Print)

Ramachandran, Karthikeyan, Gnanasagaran, Constance L and Vekariya, Ashish (2023) Life cycle assessment of carbon fiber and bio-fiber composites prepared via vacuum bagging technique. Journal of Manufacturing Processes, 89, pp. 124-131. ISSN (print) 1526-6125

Sabri, Ban Ali, Satgunam, Meenaloshini, Manap, A., Gnanasagaran, Constance L. and Ramachandran, Karthikeyan (2023) Physical and chemical investigation of TiO₂ nanotubes treated with isopropyl triisostearoyl titanate (KR-TTS). Journal of Nanomaterials, 2023, p. 7961857. ISSN (print) 1687-4110

Gnanasagaran, Constance Linda, Ramachandran, Karthikeyan, Ramesh, S., Ubenthiran, Sutharsini and Jamadon, Nashrah Hani (2022) Effect of co-doping manganese oxide and titania on sintering behaviour and mechanical properties of alumina. Ceramics International, ISSN (print) 0272-8842 (Epub Ahead of Print)

Linda, C., Meenaloshini, S., Zaimah, H. and Noor Zaimah, M. (2014) An analysis on the implementation of industrial training for mechanical engineering students in Uniten. International Journal of Asian Social Science, 4(5), pp. 664-669. ISSN (print) 2226-5139

Conference or Workshop Item

Gnanasagaran, C., Ramesh, S., Ibrahim, Zunaidi and Sutharsini, U. (2021) Sintering behaviour of alumina doped with small amounts of manganese and titania. In: 8th Brunei International Conference on Engineering and Technology 2021 (BICET 2021); 08-10 Nov 2021, Brunei Darussalam (held online).

Linda, Constance, Long, Chua Yaw, Tiong, Tay Tee and Yan, Koh Yit (2016) Overview of peer review assessment for mechanical design process project in Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia. In: SEAAIR 2016 16th Annual Conference; 21-23 September 2016, Suan Dusit University, Thailand.. (Submitted)

Constance, L., Ramesh, S., Ting, C.H. and Tan, C.Y (2009) Effect of sintering additives on the properties of alumina ceramic. In: National Postgraduate Conference on Engineering, Science & Technology NPC2009; 25-26 March 2009, Perak, Malaysia.. (Unpublished)

This list was generated on Fri Jun 9 06:49:55 2023 BST.

Business, knowledge transfer and international

One of the most powerful models of learning in my opinion is the Bloom's Taxonomy. This is particularly useful as my teaching styles involves a lot of problem based approach. I deliver this through group discussions, projects, research works and debates to name a few. I usually collect work samples from the workshops, especially the faulty ones as a teaching resource. Using the Bloom's Taxonomy as a reference, I always start the teaching process with a basic question, which may relate to the recent topics that I would have covered in a lesson. From there, I will try and scaffold the learners to a more deeper learning, covering each stage of the taxonomy. This allows all my learners to engage in the lesson more effectively as active discussions are always something that learners can anticipate in my classroom. This encourages surface learners to dig a little deeper into a topic, and the higher level learners to challenge themselves even more. Bloom's Taxonomy have proved time and time again that it encourages creative thinking to encourage innovation amongst the learners, especially those who are about to graduate. It hinders learners from being in complacency with what they already know and helps them to keep weaving through the knowledge to a stage of continuous learning and improvement. This attitude is extremely important for engineering graduates and it is one of the most valued attribute by the industry as well.

Qualifications and PROFESSIONAL expertise

  • Level 5 C&G Diploma in Education and Training
  • FHEA
  • CEng MIMechE

Areas of interest

  • Research
  • Teaching & Learning

Industry links

  • UKM Malaysia
  • UM Malaysia
  • Centre for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, PPUKM, Malaysia

Professional practice, knowledge exchange and impact

Qualifications and expertise

  • FHEA
  • Diploma in Education and Training - DTLLS (C&G)

Professional and scholarly affiliations

  • Member of the Biomedical Research Division IMechE
  • Member of Women in Engineering Society UK

Leadership and management

Qualifications and expertise

  • Chartered Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineer (CEng)
  • FHEA

University responsibilities

  • Module Leader - EG5014 Engineering Project Management
  • Module Leader - ME7745 Quality Management
  • Research Lead - Tissue Engineering

Public and CIVIC roles

  • Mentor - Women in the Engineering Society