A graduate from the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) who worked on the Bloodhound Supersonic Car project while studying at the University has secured a job as Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Associate with Viper Innovations. Kim Mahoney, who graduated top of her year in 2017 with a first class degree in Marketing Communications, will help the engineering company to take its technology to new markets.

Viper Innovations was named West of England Business of the Year 2017 (for a business with a turnover of less than £30m) at a ceremony organised by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in September.

The engineering firm develops fault detection systems that can monitor structural defects in cables and their insulation. Historically, it has worked with the oil and gas industries, but saw opportunities to transfer the highly sought-after technology to other sectors. To pave the way for this diversification, in 2016 it underwent a re-branding, changing its name from Viper Subsea to Viper Innovations.

Part-funded by Innovate UK (the UK’s innovation agency), a KTP is a three-way partnership between a business, an academic institution and a high-calibre graduate (called an ‘Associate’) with technical expertise.

Although UWE Bristol is one of the partners on the KTP with Viper Innovations, the job was advertised nationwide and Kim Mahoney was selected from 30 candidates, following a series of interviews.

Viper Innovations, based in Portishead, has already started working with Network Rail and its supply chain partners to develop and apply its technology to the rail signalling power systems. Kim will support the engineering company identify, screen and evaluate additional new markets where its technology can be applied, before ranking them in order of best rate of return.

While studying for her degree, Kim directly applied her learning and honed the skills gained on the course by working as a Sponsorship Manager on the Bloodhound project. Her work supported the team working on the car, who are aiming for a land speed record of 800mph.

Kim said the KTP is providing her with invaluable experience, “This KTP presents not only a high-tech marketing opportunity, but also the experience to work with different cultures and practices, and truly shape my global marketing skills.”

Tracy Hunt-Fraisse is UWE Bristol’s academic supervisor on the project and is overseeing Kim’s work. Tracy has previously worked as Global Head of Marketing for Speedo and as Planning Director at Levi’s Europe. She said, “We will bring business development expertise and apply tried and tested marketing methods to help Viper with their client in the rail industry to help them learn how best to approach other new markets. We will then look at markets where power outage or downtime is potentially very expensive, like hospitals or airports, for instance.”

“It’s not very often you have a marketing communications student who is interested in engineering. Kim’s background with Bloodhound has placed her in a strong position and she has a passion for finding out how things work.”

Peter Alexander, Marketing and Business Acquisition Manager at Viper Innovations, said the company aims to enter two new markets by the end of the KTP, “The University’s knowledge and experience of entering new markets with new products in different parts of the world will lead us to having a toolkit to verify and validate our ideas, and make us think differently.” We now have the essential ingredients: the right associate and a team in place to achieve what is a challenging target.”

For more information about Knowledge Transfer Partnerships at UWE Bristol, please visit: www.uwe.ac.uk/business.