Fellows - ERA Foundation

The ERA Foundation Fellowship

The ERA Foundation fellowship is designed to encourage profitable innovation and creativity within British Engineering.

The ERA Fellowship supports those working in the electro-technology sector.

The ERA Fellowship supports those working in the electro-technology sector and is awarded to selected, exceptional graduates with the potential to make an outstanding contribution to Industry for a programme of doctoral-level research.

William Addison

William Addison obtained a first class degree in Mathematics at Cambridge University. He graduated in 2002 and became an employee of QinetiQ. He has since worked on Bayesian information processing algorithms for applications such as tracking, pattern recognition and signal processing. His interests also include the development of software to aid the development and application of novel algorithms.

William Addison became the first ERAF Industrial Fellow of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 in 2005. His fellowship project is in the area of blind signal separation, and is a collaboration between QinetiQ and Oxford University Department of Engineering Science. Applications of the research include separating out sources of activity from within the brain from EEG recordings and estimating directions of arrival of incoming signals received by a sensor array.

Professor Gabriel Aeppli

Aeppli is the Quain Professor of Physics and Director of the London Centre for Nanotechnology . Prior to taking up these posts in the autumn of 2002, he was a Senior Research Scientist for NEC (Princeton), a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories, a Research Assistant at MIT, and an industrial co-op student at IBM. He obtained a B.Sc. in Mathematics and PhD, M.Sc. & B.Sc in Electrical Engineering from MIT. Honours include the IOP (Institute of Physics) Mott Prize (2008), APS (American Physical Society) Oliver Buckley Prize (2005), the Majumdar Memorial Award of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (2005), the IUPAP Magnetism Prize/Neel Medal (2003), Riso National Laboratory Fellow (2002), Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2002), Fellow of the American Physical Society (1997), and Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (1996). In addition, he has been a member and chairman of many panels, sponsored by the USDOE, American Physical Society, EPSRC, STFC and National Research Council (US), among others.

Aeppli’s experience and involvement with nanotechnology are both managerial and scientific. He co-founded the interdisciplinary and interuniversity (Imperial and University Colleges) London Centre for Nanotechnology (www.london-nano.com), developed its overall problem-solving strategy, arranged for the procurement of a new laboratory/office facility dedicated to nanotechnology in central London, defined the operating model in collaboration with colleagues at both Colleges, and is now managing operations and future programme development. His personal research is currently focused on the implications of nanotechnology for information processing and health care. He is also a co-founder of Bio-Nano Consulting (BNC), a firm – spun out of the LCN and the IBE (Institute for Bio-Engineering at Imperial College) – which provides a range of services from due diligence to testing and prototyping in the nanotechnology arena.

Dr Matt Alexander

Matt Alexander studied for his PhD at the Corrosion and Protection Centre, University of Manchester. After working at BP Amoco and the University of Bristol he moved to Queen Mary, University of London in 2001, where he is now a lecturer in the School of Engineering and Materials Science.

His main research interests are in microfluidics and electrospray technology and he is co-inventor of a novel electrostatic drop-on-demand technology and founder of the Spin-out company Emdot Limited which was formed to commercially exploit the printing technology.

He is this year’s joint winner of the 2008 ERA Foundation’s Entrepreneurs Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering, which gives a significant boost to the technology and accelerates application and product development in the life science sector.

Dr Luke Bannar-Martin

Luke Bannar-Martin has an MEng in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London, having graduated in 2010. His final year project saw him as Chief Engineer of a team working on the conceptual design of a hydrogen fuel cell powered race car for entry in the 2012 ‘Formula Student’ competition. The project is part of ‘Racing Green’, a flagship student-led organisation at Imperial, which itself has received sponsorship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.

His personal interest in microgeneration, decentralised power and thermodynamics and the quest for an appropriate subject for an industry based PhD led him to AdvEnTech Group; an innovative Research and Technology Development firm, largely operating within the sustainability realm.

His research on the use of natural hybrid heat pumps in distributed TriGeneration with thermal storage for smart multienergy grids has real potential to reduce greenhouse gas emission and is a truly innovative project.

Tim Barry

Tim Barry is an Electronics Engineer working for Calex Electronics Ltd of Leighton Buzzard. He is researching infra-red thermometry; specifically the effects on accuracy of rapidly changing ambient temperatures. His research is being conducted with Oxford Brookes University’s School of Technology, for the award of PhD. He is supported by the ERA Foundation through an Industrial Fellowship with the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.

Tim graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 2007 with first class BEng (Hons) in Electronic Engineering, having studied part-time sponsored by Calex Electronics Ltd. During this time he received awards from the IET and IEEE, as well as the award for Most Outstanding Graduate 2007. During his eight years at Calex, Tim has progressed from Assembler/Tester through four jobs to become Engineering Manager.

Tim is a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, and in his free time he runs with the Ampthill and Flitwick Flyers running club. He is also a keen music fan, and enjoys attending concerts and festivals.

Dr David Batterbee

David Batterbee completed a Masters Degree and PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield. His PhD research focused on the design of semi-active suspension systems utilising magnetorheological dampers. Applications investigated for this technology included aircraft landing gear, vehicle suspensions and general mass isolation systems. To date, David has published fourteen papers in the field of magnetorheological fluids.

Since completing his PhD in 2006, David has worked as a Research Associate at the University of Sheffield and has actively pursued an ambition to apply his research expertise to his main hobby – mountain biking. Through successful achievement of two Proof of Concept Funds (The University of Sheffield’s own fund and The Yorkshire Concept Fund), David has designed and developed prototype devices that have been praised by industry experts.

More recently, David was awarded the 2009 ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs award from the Royal Academy of Engineering. This substantial award will be used to start a business that commercialises this technology.

Susanna Challnger

Susanna Challinger studied Physics at the University of St Andrews, graduating in June 2014 before joining KP Technology where she worked on materials analysis studying the energy levels of materials using the company’s scanning Kelvin probe, ambient pressure photoemission and surface photovoltage techniques. Knowledge of the electrical characteristics of materials including the surface work function is essential for the development of semiconductor devices and novel solar cells. Additionally, building on KP Technology’s considerable research experience in high-resolution work function imaging she looked to recover latent fingerprints from metallic surfaces using electronic imaging.

Susanna is currently continuing this research at KP Technology alongside aiming to advance the instrumentation and techniques used to measure the energy levels of materials including diamond, perovskite solar cells and silicon nanowires. This research forms the basis of an industrial PhD linked to the Organic Semiconductors Group at the University of St Andrews. In 2016, Susanna was awarded an Industrial Fellowship to support this work, funded by the ERA Foundation, from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.

Professor Alan Chalmers

Alan Chalmers is a Professor of Visualisation at the International Digital Laboratory, WMG, University of Warwick, UK. He has an MSc with distinction from Rhodes University, 1985 and a PhD from University of Bristol, 1991. He has published over 200 papers in journals and international conferences on high-fidelity graphics, multi-sensory perception, High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging, virtual archaeology and parallel rendering. He is Honorary President of Afrigraph and a former Vice President of ACM SIGGRAPH.

Together with SpheronVR, a high-precision German camera company, he was instrumental in the development of the world’s first HDR video camera, which was completed in July 2009. He is the Founder and a Director of the spin-out company goHDR Ltd., which aims to be the leader in the software which enables HDR technology.

Chalmers’ research goal is “Real Virtuality”, obtaining physically-based, multi-sensory, high-fidelity virtual environments at interactive rates through a combination of parallel processing and human perception techniques.

Alexander Cooke

Alexander Cooke is Assistant Principal responsible for STEM, and a Specialist Leader of Education in Essex, working to improve the quality of Mathematics and raising the profile of STEM in our partner Schools. Alexander is a trained Civil engineer graduating from Leeds University, and has spent some time in the Royal Corps of Engineers.

Alexander leads a team of outstanding science and engineering practitioners that have transformed how STEM is seen in the School and Local area. Working with some of the poorest and most challenging students, STEM tailors the curriculum and Engineering enrichments to show them what they can achieve and guide them to reach their potential.

Projects have included an underwater ROV which is completed and ready to go on a diving trip this month, Green-power electric cars, high-altitude balloons, raspberry pi programming clubs, robotics, as well as advice guidance and mentoring. STEM also runs a very successful “Girls in Engineering” programme, providing them with mentoring and work experiences with companies like Network Rail and BT.

Dr Margaret Anne Craig

Margaret Anne Craig graduated with a degree in Immunology/Pharmacology from the University of Strathclyde and went on to carry out a MSc and PhD at the University of Glasgow in the field of pathophysiology of cancer. She then took up a position as research associate at the University of Glasgow where she was involved in the development of biological assays and novel discovery platforms as well as cardiovascular physiology research.

Margaret was awarded a BBSRC/RSE enterprise fellowship in 2011 which allowed her to spend one year developing the technologies, exploring the market potential and carrying out business training. During the course of the year, it became apparent that the technology had much commercial potential and she formed the spin-out company Clyde Biosciences. She won the ERA Foundation Young Entrepreneur Prize awarded through the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2012, which raised the profile of the company significantly. Subsequently, Clyde Biosciences has been shortlisted by the Times Higher Education awards for Outstanding Contribution to Technology and Innovation and by Scottish Enterprise as Innovators of the Year 2013.

In her position as Chief Executive Officer, Margaret will play a major role in shaping Clyde Biosciences into a world-leading CRO company.

Dr Michael Crisp

Michael completed a MEng at Downing College, Cambridge University in 2005. His PhD research on radio over fibre systems and distributed antenna systems was carried out at the Centre for Photonics Systems at Cambridge University. Since finishing his PhD in 2009 he has continued to work in the Centre for Photonic Systems as a postdoctoral research associate. His research interests include passive UHF RFID systems, distributed antenna systems and radio over fibre systems. He has over 30 peer reviewed journal and international conference publications and 2 patents pending.

More recently, in 2011 he was jointly awarded the £40,000 ERA Foundation Young Entrepreneurs’ Award for research applying ideas from distributed antenna systems to passive UHF RFID systems during his Phd and Post Doc. The new RFID system developed greatly enhances the probability of detecting very low cost RFID tags. The award has allowed him to co-found, PervasID, a spinout to commercially exploit the research.

Dr Jason Davis

Dr Jason Davis is a University Reader in Chemistry and a Tutorial Fellow and Dr Lee’s Reader in Chemistry at Christ Church, Oxford. He studied Chemistry at Kings College London, where he was awarded The Victor Gold, Ivor John and Robert Wakeford Memorial Prizes in Chemistry and a First Class honours degree in 1993. He then undertook a DPhil in Chemistry at Oxford (1994-1998); he was elected to an Extraordinary Junior Research Fellowship at The Queens College in 1998, a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in 1999 and a Lectureship in Chemistry at Jesus College, Oxford, in 2001. He was made a University Lecturer and Official Student and Tutor in Chemistry at Christ Church in 2003 and promoted to a University Reader in Chemistry (2008) and Dr Lees Readership the same year. He has been he Senior Subject Tutor in Chemistry at Christ Church since 2006.

His research interests are broad and primarily focussed on the design and utilisation of Advanced Functional Interfaces, particularly those associated with Diagnostics, Sensing, Molecular Switches and Imaging. His group have published more than 100 primary peer reviewed publications, including 3 book chapters, one edited volume and numerous invited reviews, spanning molecular imaging, nanotechnology, nanoparticle based molecular imaging,
molecular electronics, supramolecular chemistry, molecular machines and electrochemistry.

In 2012 he won the Royal Society Mercer Feasibility Award funded by the ERA Foundation.

Radu Stefan Dragan

I have begun my studies at the University of Sheffield as an undergraduate in 2009 before starting my Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering. In 2012 I have joined Magnomatics Limited as a student intern. Magnomatics is a company dedicated to the development and manufacture of high efficiency magnetic gear products, including magnetically-geared (PDD®) motors and generators and magnetic powersplit transmissions for hybrid vehicles MAGSPLIT®.

After finishing my Master’s Degree, I have been awarded an Industrial Fellowship by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. The research project will investigate the development of a magnetically-geared PDD® actuator for the aerospace industry. This will bring the inherent torque fuse capability of the magnetic gear to the aerospace sector while introducing several other benefits such as reduced weight, decreased maintenance and high efficiency. The PDD® will provide a robust light weight system for the More Electric Aircraft.

Professor Michael Kelly

Professor Michael Kelly is the Prince Philip Professor of Technology in the University of Cambridge since 2002, and a Professorial Fellow at Trinity Hall. In 2013 he won a Royal Society Mercer award sponsored by ERAF.

Michael Kelly was born in New Zealand and completed a Master’s Degree in Mathematics at Victoria University of Wellington, from which he has an honorary doctorate. He came to Cambridge in 1971, completed his PhD in theoretical physics in 1974, and stayed on as a post-doctoral researcher in semiconductors until leaving to join the General Electric Company in 1981.

During his time there he and his team invented and developed two new families of microwave devices, one now in common use in automobile radar. This work has been recognised by prizes from the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Professor Clive Hahn

Clive Hahn is Professor of Anaesthetic Science in the Nuffield Department of Anaesthetics at the University of Oxford, and has recently retired as a Consultant in Clinical Measurement in the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust. He trained in Manchester, Sheffield and Oxford, and originally took up NHS posts in the Oxford United Hospitals before becoming a University Lecturer in Anaesthetics, and then gaining his Professorial appointment and finally becoming Head of the Oxford Anaesthetics Department in 2002. He was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2000, and was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal College of Anaesthetists in 2001.

His major research interest lies in the field of cardiopulmonary gas exchange in the sick and healthy lung. His interest in molecular sensors grew out of the frustration of not being able to measure gases of clinical interest with any degree of accuracy or precision, especially when anaesthetic gases and vapours are present. He still retains an active research and development interest in gas and anaesthetic agent sensors, and in 2006 was awarded an EPSRC follow-on grant co-funded by ERAF.

He is the author of numerous articles on cardio-respiratory gas exchange, clinical measurement, blood-gas analysis, and respiratory gas/anaesthetic agent sensors.

Professor Yang Hao

Professor Yang Hao received the Ph.D. degree from the Centre for Communications Research (CCR) at the University of Bristol in 1998. From 1998 to 2000, he was a postdoc research fellow at the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Birmingham. In May 2000, he joined the Antenna Engineering Group, Queen Mary College, University of London, London, U.K. first as Lecturer and was promoted to Reader in 2005 and to Professor in 2007.

Professor Hao is active in a number of areas including computational electromagnetics, microwave metamaterials, antennas and propagation for body centric wireless networks, millimetre/submillimetre active antennas and photonic integrated antennas. He is a co-editor of book ‘Antennas and Radio Propagation for Body-Centric Wireless Communications’ (Artech House, 2006). He has published over 200 technical papers (book chapters, Journal papers and conference publications) and served as an invited (ISAP07) and keynote speaker (ANTEM05), a conference organiser and session chair at many international conferences. In 2006 he received an EPSRC follow-on grant, co-funded with ERAF.

Professor Hao is an associate editor for IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, and a guest editor for IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and also a member of Technical Advisory Panel of the IET Antennas and Propagation Professional Network.

Dr Phil Harper

Phil Harper grew up on a farm in Kilkenny, Ireland before going to the University of Sheffield to complete an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Tribology and Ultrasonics.

After leaving the university in 2006 he set up his own company, Tribosonics Ltd (see www.tribosonics.com) to commercially exploit his research at the university. The company start-up was enabled through Phil winning the inaugural £40,000 ERA Foundation award from the Royal Academy of Engineering in June 2006.

Phil has published 10 papers and won the 2006 Tribology Trust Bronze medal from the IMechE and the 2007 Sir Henry Royce Award from the IET.

Dr David Heath

Following his PhD Dr David Heath worked as an engineering researcher in Medical Devices at the University of Strathclyde, working in a multidisciplinary clinical, commercial and engineering team. With this knowledge and experience in medical devices and skin investigation, David identified exciting commercial opportunities in the cosmetics industry.

David has since founded Cutitronics Limited, a spin-out from the University of Strathclyde, bringing a new level of engineering concepts to an industry that has traditionally relied on chemistry and pharmaceuticals. The core technology being developed is an intelligent product applicator that can measure, stimulate then deliver products to the skin in a way that is tailored to the individual providing faster and more effective results.

This unique automated process enables delivery of precise quantities into the skin, past the stratum corneum barrier, to treat the living cells underneath. It achieves this through the application of a specific series of electric fields to stimulate the skin surface for delivery. This skin surface stimulation is adapted in response to measurements of the user’s skin to provide a personalised level of stimulation to meet individual requirements.

Dr Fumiya Iida

Fumiya Iida is a university lecturer at Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. He is also a fellow of Corpus Christi College acting as a director of studies in Engineering. He received his bachelor and master degrees in mechanical engineering at Tokyo University of Science in Japan, and Dr. sc. nat. in Informatics at University of Zurich in Switzerland.
During his PhD project, he was also engaged in biomechanics research of human locomotion at Locomotion Laboratory, University of Jena in Germany.
While he worked as a postdoctoral associate at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in USA, he awarded the Fellowship for Prospective Researchers from the Swiss National Science Foundation, and then, the Swiss National Science Foundation Professorship hosted by ETH Zurich. In 2014 he moved to the University of Cambridge as the director of Bio-Inspired Robotics Laboratory. His research interest includes biologically inspired robotics, embodied artificial intelligence, and soft robotics, where he was involved in a number of research projects related to robot locomotion, manipulation, and human-robot interactions leading to some start-up companies. He was a recipient of the IROS2016 Fukuda Young Professional Award, and Royal Society Translation Award in 2017.

Mario Gabriel Iobbi

Mario Gabriel Iobbi was the winner of the 2007 ERA Foundations Entrepreneurs Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering. While attending Imperial College of London, his postgraduate research led to the development of a novel respiratory therapeutic device for patients.

With support form the award, Mario Iobbi spun out the proprietary Saturation Driven Oxygen Therapy (SDOT) technology into Dynamic Therapeutics Ltd. In his current role as the Director of Technology at Dynamic Therapeutics Ltd he continues to promote SDOT, aiming to deliver a new standard of care for patients on oxygen therapy.

Prior to attending Imperial College London, Mario worked in medical device research and development at Edwards Lifesciences. Edwards Lifesciences is an industry leader in cardiovascular products and bioprosthetic heart valves. He received his BSc in Physics with a minor in biomedical engineering from the University of California Irvine.

Mario Iobbi has published papers on a diversity of medical research topics from modelling cortical neurons, ECG waveform recognition, and feedback control for oxygen therapy.

Ben Janes

Ben Janes graduated with a first-class MEng (Hons) in Electrical Engineering from Plymouth University in 2014, before moving to Cornwall to work as a research and development software engineer for a professional audio company, Allen & Heath. His work has included the development of signal processing algorithms for implementation on FPGA and digital signal processors, embedded processor system design and graphical user interface design.

Ben is the 2017 ERA Foundation Industrial Fellow for the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. His project aims to develop a digital audio mixing system that uses artificial intelligence to support sound engineers during live performances, such as music concerts or festivals. He is using machine learning algorithms to map musical structure and patterns and detect audio problems associated with live performance such as feedback. These algorithms will then be incorporated into mixing systems, freeing sound engineers to work on the more creative aspects of the
live performance, assisting them in time constrained and repetitive tasks, and even providing an automated mixer where there is no resident sound engineer.

Dr Stuart Kennedy

Stuart Kennedy studied Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow, graduating with First Class Honours in 2010. During his undergraduate studies, Stuart completed a summer placement with defence electronics company, Selex ES and, after graduating, returned to the company to begin an Engineering Doctorate in collaboration with The University of Edinburgh.

Stuart’s current research in Radar Signal Processing looks to develop practical methods for identifying moving objects in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. SAR is a technique that allows airborne radar systems to capture detailed images of the ground from distant ranges both at night and through dense cloud. Moving objects have always presented a huge challenge in the development of SAR but the advent of multi-channel systems presents an exciting opportunity to improve this capability. Applications of this include the monitoring of moving vehicles, people and animals for military and civilian surveillance and protection.

Stuart was awarded an Industrial Fellowship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 funded by the ERA Foundation.

Daniela Ledwoch

Daniela Ledwoch graduated as a diploma physicist from the Carl-von-Ossietzky University Oldenburg (Germany) in 2011. Her diploma thesis was based on electrode characterisation and aging on commercial LiFePO4 cathodes and was done in cooperation with the independent research centre NEXT ENERGY (Oldenburg, Germany). From 2011 to 2013 she was working as a research scientist at NEXT ENERGY being responsible for student projects, money founding and also head of two laboratories. In 2014 she started working at Sharp Laboratories of Europe Ltd in Oxford (UK). Her work is based on electrode formulation for sodium ion batteries.

Daniela is the 2015 ERAF Industrial Fellow of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. Her project aims to understand the fundamental physical and chemical processes within composite electrodes for sodium ion batteries and transfer this knowledge into engineering new kind of electrodes. This enables battery development with optimised processing using more suitable materials, material combinations and hence electrode designs for an optimum electrode performance without a time-consuming trial-and-error method.

Professor David Lidzey

David Lidzey studied for both his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in The School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Birmingham. After working for 2 years at Kodak Ltd. (Harrow) he returned to Birmingham University to study for a PhD (awarded in 1994). In 1995 he moved to the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield to undertake postdoctoral research. He was later awarded the Lloyds of London Tercentenary Research Fellowship in 1997 and an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship in 1999 to study the optical and electronic properties of organic nanostructures. He was promoted to a personal chair in 2007, and heads the Sheffield Electronic and Photonic Molecular Materials group (EPMM) in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He has a strong interest in scanning near field optical microscopy and spectroscopy of organic thin films.

A continuing theme of his research has been the development of photonic structures and devices containing fluorescent organic materials. Here, he has made notable breakthroughs including the first observation of the strong-coupling regime in an organic microcavity. He has also worked on many aspects of the physics, technology and applications of polymer light emitting diodes and organic electronics. In 2007 he was awarded a Royal Society Mercer Feasibility Award, funded by ERAF.

Dr James MacFarlane

James is a researcher at the University of Bristol and has developed a new drone-based system that could dramatically improve the safety of managing nuclear hazards.

Hazardous nuclear events have the potential to cause huge levels of widespread damage, and getting close enough to these incidents to accurately assess the problem can be extremely dangerous. James and his team have developed an innovative flying drone-based system to safely and remotely assess these hazards, providing real-time information on the source, intensity and location of radiation. This could significantly improve the safety and effectiveness of hazard response operations, including rapid response monitoring of nuclear events and routine monitoring at nuclear sites, mining operations and oil and gas facilities.

James is joint-winner of the 2014 ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs Award. At the Enterprise Hub, James will be mentored by Professor Eric Yeatman and Professor Richard Brook , whose experience in developing micro engineering projects into fully fledged businesses will support James make the transition from academic researcher to entrepreneur.

Adam McKenzie

Adam McKenzie graduated from the University of Glasgow with an MSci in Chemical Physics in 2018, before going on to undertake a PhD in the University’s Photonic Devices and Systems group. His main interests centre on condensed matter physics and materials chemistry, particularly in their application to photonics and nanoscience.

Adam is the 2018 ERA Foundation Fellow having been awarded an Industrial Fellowship by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, allowing him to conduct his PhD research in a collaboration between the University of Glasgow and CST Global Ltd. The basis of this work is the use of metal-organic chemical vapour deposition techniques in the growth of III-V compound semiconductors for applications in photonic devices, silicon photonics, and non-linear optics

Gareth Moore

Gareth is an Electrical Engineer at Rolls-Royce Plc working within the Electrical Systems Group. He is currently pursuing a research PhD in the field of Electro-Mechanical Interactions supported by the ERA Foundation through an Industrial Fellowship with the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. The research is supervised by The Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre for Transmissions at The University of Nottingham. Gareth graduated from The University of Nottingham in September 2005 with a first class masters degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.On finishing university Gareth joined the Rolls-Royce Graduate Training Scheme. As part of the scheme he has worked in Derby, Bristol and Berlin on gas turbine control systems, vibration testing, electro-mechanical simulation, project risk assessment, and gearbox heat generation.

Gareth is a member of the Institution for Engineering and Technology and is currently working towards chartered engineer status. Pre-university he was supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering through their Year In Industry Scheme. When not at work Gareth enjoys outdoor sports including cycling, climbing and hill walking.

Dr James Palles-Dimmock

James Palles-Dimmock studied for a Masters of Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, specialising in theoretical physics and graduating with first class honours in 2008. Since graduating he has worked at Sharp laboratories of Europe Ltd in the field of next generation solar cells. James has worked in solar cell factories both in the UK and Japan, providing theoretical and simulation assistance to improve cell yields and efficiencies.

James is the 2013 ERAF Industrial Fellow of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. His project aims to develop a hot carrier solar cell, which is capable of approaching the thermodynamic efficiency limit, of 85%, for converting sunlight into electricity.

Thomas Parnell

Originally from southwest London, Tom Parnell completed his BSc in Mathematics at the University of Warwick in 2006 and is currently working toward a PhD in the same field.With the help of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 and the ERA Foundation, Tom has been able to work within both the academic and industrial domains.

Tom began his career with Arithmatica (a small company based in Warwick offering intellectual property and services to the semiconductor industry) in 2005.Having worked extensively on FPGA design and Arithmatica’s EDA (electronic design automation) tool, Tom moved to Arithmatica’s read channel group in Autumn 2006.Within this group, Tom designed and simulated advanced detection algorithms and coding schemes for magnetic storage devices. Alongside the magnetic storage research, Tom has worked within the FP6 ProTem consortium (www.protem-fp6.org), collaborating with IBM Zurich and others, to develop read channel technology for probe storage devices.At the end of 2007, Arithmatica’s read channel group was acquired by Siglead Ltd. (a Japanese start-up intending to produce read channel commercially).

Tom is currently Chief Technical Officer of Siglead Europe (a UK-based subsidiary of Siglead Ltd) and is still pursuing his research in both magnetic and probe storage read channel.

Dr Oliver Payton

Oliver completed his Masters in Physics at the University of Bristol in 2008 before undertaking a PhD in the school of Engineering at the same university in the Engineering Maths department. Oliver’s PhD focussed on understanding and developing a new form of microscopy called High-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM). By developing new experimental and theoretical understanding of how the micro-mechanical sensor interacts with the sample surface Oliver and co-workers were able to redesign the microscope and it is now being used to image samples from chunks of nuclear reactor to individual strands of DNA.

After his PhD Oliver spent a year working with the Interface Analysis Centre at Bristol developing a radiation mapping unmanned air vehicle capable remotely mapping out radioactive sources using a solid state gamma ray spectrometer and custom software. This technology formed the basis of Imitec Ltd, a spin-out from the University of Bristol, of which Oliver is a founding director. In 2014 Oliver was co-awarded the ERA foundation Entrepreneurs award for his role in the development of the radiation mapping system.

In late 2013 Oliver was awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship which he holds at the University of Bristol. The subject of the fellowship is the further development of the HS-AFM for use in industry. This involves the incorporation of simultaneous measurements of sample properties as well as topography. Through ongoing industry and academic collaborations the HS-AFM is gathering momentum as one of the fastest and most versatile nano imaging devices in the world, capable of imaging millimetre sized areas with nanometre resolution.

Jack Pearson

Jack completed an MEng in Engineering Design at the University of Bristol, graduating with First Class Honours in 2016. During his undergraduate studies he won several awards, including the Wertheimer Memorial Prize for his work setting up BUILD; a society tasked with improving the practical skills of engineering students. Jack undertook a two-year masters project with 4 other students, investigating innovative methods for improving additive manufacturing technologies. The team developed the first adaptable, hybrid FDM manufacturing process. The project was sponsored by the Manufacturing Technology Centre which deemed it to have industrial significance and encouraged Jack and 3 of his teammates to commercialise the technology.

After graduating the team won funding from JISC and the Universities’ Research Enterprise Development group, allowing them to develop 2 iterations of prototype. With their money running short, the team went to Shenzhen, China to undertake a rapid development sprint. While on this trip they were able to secure investment from Hax, the world’s top hardware accelerator. The team spent 6 months in Shenzhen, developing their product into a “factory in a box” – combining additive manufacturing with assembly and electronics onto a single platform.

For this work, Jack was the joint winner of the 2018 ERA Enterprise Fellowship and Young Entrepreneur Prize awarded through the Royal Academy of Engineering, which in part funds the ongoing development work. Jack and the team are now based in the UK and are gearing up for pilots to help companies create customised product ranges through automation.

Dr Alexandre Pechev

Alexandre began his career in 1993 as an assistant control engineer working in the Petrochemical and the Oil and Gas industries. In 1995 he co-founded Fundamental Control Engineering Ltd., a small company specialising in the design of industrial control hardware and software.From 1995 to 1997 he successfully ran this company as a Director. In 1997, after a successful sell out, Alexandre moved to the UK to work as a control consultant and to start a part-time PhD research on the problem of control.

In 2001, Alexandre joined Philips Semiconductors, Southampton, as a control-systems architect. He spent four years at Philips where he was responsible for developing new control technologies for laser tracking for the optical storage business line. During this period he developed several novel algorithms and this has led to several international patents.

In 2005, Alexandre joined the Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey. In 2007, Alexandre started developing a new game animation software, IKinema, based on some of his personal research on spacecraft control and an the IP generated as a part of this research.

In 2009, IKinema was developed as a product and potential customers were identified.

In 2010, Alexandre won the Royal Academy of Engineering ERAF Entrepreneur Award for 2010 for his work on IKinema. He also won the Royal Society of Edinburgh / STFC Enterprise Fellowship for 2010.

Sorin Popa

Sorin Popa is the CEO and Founder of Stent Tek Ltd, a UK medical device start-up that is developing an electric field-based guidance system for endovascular procedures. Its first product is a novel catheter-based system that provides a better way for patients to receive haemodialysis for kidney failure.

He was the 2016 winner of the ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering and a finalist in the 2015 Launchpad Competition. The ERA award has helped fund the purchase of key pieces of equipment to bring manufacturing capabilities in house as well as the development and testing of preclinical prototypes. In addition to this, the training and mentorship from the RAEng have helped Stent Tek expand its development team and raise further funding in preparation for clinical trials in 2018.

Sorin is actively engaged in the Medtech entrepreneurship network in London and holds a position as a Visiting Researcher in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London, where he has lectured to and mentored Bioengineering students looking to spin out medical device startups. Sorin has an Electrical Engineering degree with distinction from the University Western Ontario in Canada during which time he was involved in the research and development of implantable medical devices, publishing papers on finite element analysis and calibration techniques for blood volume sensors. In 2013 he moved to London and completed a Research Masters degree with distinction in Medical Device Design and Entrepreneurship from Imperial College.

Dr Julien Reboud

Julien Reboud graduated as an engineer from the ‘Ecole Centrale Paris’, in France, in 2012. In parallel, he also obtained an MSc in Biophysics from the ‘Universite Pierre et Marie Curie’ in Paris, France. He then went on to do a PhD at the interface with biology, on the development of a high content platform for drug screening, at the CEA (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, Grenoble, France), in partnership with the ‘Universite Joseph Fourier’, in 2006.

Throughout his career, he has pro-actively sought to transfer the technology he developed towards commercialisation, as evidenced through being awarded the PhD prize in the French national start-up competition (2004). During his post-doctoral employment in the Institute of Singapore, following his PhD, he led a number of collaborations with industry, primarily aimed at integrating microfluidic systems for diagnostics and drug discovery.

He is a founder of SAW Dx Ltd (2013), which is aimed at commercialising a technology developed during his post-doctoral work at the University of Glasgow. The company develops point-of-care diagnostic devices, using sound as the driving force. Julien was the joint winner of the 2013 ERA Foundation Young Entrepreneur Prize awarded through the Royal Academy of Engineering for this project.

Julien continues to be closely involved in the commercialisation process, along with his academic position at Glasgow, as a Lord Kelvin and Adam Smith Research Fellow.

Professor Derryck Telford Reid

Professor Derryck Telford Reid is a Professor of Physics at Heriot-Watt University where he is Head of the Ultrafast Optics Group, within the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences.He received a B.A. from the University of Cambridge in 1991 and a Ph.D. from the University of St Andrews in 1994. After winning an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship in 1997 he was made a lecturer at the University of St Andrews. He moved to Heriot-Watt University in 2001, and became a Professor of Physics in 2005.

His research covers diverse aspects of ultrafast lasers and optical parametric oscillators, together with their applications in frequency combs, gas-sensing, waveguide inscription and nonlinear microscopy.

He has co-chaired the SPIE Time and Frequency Metrology conference, is a member of the Ultrafast Optics subcommittee of CLEO-Europe and has co-organised 3 international lasers summer schools.

He is co-editor of the book Ultrafast Photonics as well as a contributor to the Handbook of Laser Technology and Applications, and to the Encyclopedia of Modern Optics.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics.

Professor Jonathan Rossiter

Jonathan Rossiter is Professor of Robotics at the Department of Engineering Mathematics and Bristol Robotics Laboratory at the University of Bristol. He heads the Soft Robotics research group in smart materials, artificial muscles and soft robotics. Previously Royal Society fellow, he was awarded an EPSRC fellowship in 2015 and a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies in 2018. Following undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in electronic engineering, computer science and engineering mathematics, Jonathan spent three years in the Japanese Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken), before returning to the UK to set up the Bristol Soft Robotics group.

His research covers the spectrum of soft robotics and soft-smart systems from smart materials development, including electroactive polymers and artificial muscles, to complete robots and medical devices. Major projects include wearable soft robotics to keep people mobile and independent as they age, implantable medical devices to restore body function, and biodegradable robots for environmental protection. He is committed to science communication, has delivered a TED talk with over 1.25 million views, and has appeared on many multimedia platforms including 2017-18 BBC television series Six Robots and US.

Dr Robert Rudolf

Robert Rudolf studied Electronic Engineering at the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, graduating with First Class Honours in 2010. During his undergraduate studies he won several awards, including the EE Zepler Prize for outstanding academic achievements and the NATS Prize for his final year project. He then continued to work on his PhD, where he developed methods to address the increasing variability in analogue and mixed signal nano-scale CMOS integrated circuits. While doing his PhD, Robert was involved in a number of industrial product development and consulting projects through the university.

Since 2013 Robert has been working as Enterprise Fellow at the University of Southampton, developing the world’s first current clamp that is capable of measuring current flowing in multi-core mains cables.

Once commercialised, this technology will enable non-invasive power measurements at the appliance level, allowing for a more detailed assessment of energy consumption in homes and industry. For this work, Robert was the joint winner of the 2013 ERA Foundation Young Entrepreneur Prize awarded through the Royal Academy of Engineering, which in part funds the ongoing development work.

Dr Sithamparanathan Sabesan

Sithamparanathan Sabesan was born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in 1984. Dr. Sabesan moved to the UK in 2004 to study BEng (Hons) Electronic Engineering at Sheffield University, where he scored highest marks in his year and awarded the Sir William Siemens Medal for being the country’s top 18 science and technology students. He was previously with the Cambridge University spin off company ARM, as a student IP Electronic Engineer. He moved to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University in 2007 to study for his Masters degree (MPhil) in Electronic Engineering before beginning his PhD in 2008 on the subject of ‘Passive RFID real time sensing system for intelligent infrastructure’. He received funding from the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, Corpus Christi College Scholarship and EPSRC (TINA and Boeing) Studentship to pursue MPhil and PhD at Cambridge University.

He has received a number of awards, has had his work published in various journals and currently has two patents pending for his work into RFID. A keen cricketer, Dr. Sabesan has captained the Corpus Christi College MCR team and is also an elected president of University of Cambridge Graduate Cricket League and chairman of Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Cambridge Younger Professionals Committee.

He has just been elected to a Junior Research Fellowship at Girton College, Cambridge University. Dr. Sabesan has recently been selected as the winner of The UK EPSRC ICT Pioneers Connected World Award, as well as the The Royal Academy of Engineering ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs Award 2011.

Wendy Sadler

Wendy Sadler is the founding Director of the award-winning science communication company; ‘science made simple’, and the Chair of WISE in Wales. Science made simple offers science shows to schools and families across the UK and overseas and delivers training courses for scientists, engineers and museum staff. Their mission is to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers and to place these subjects within the wider spectrum of popular culture. Since the company began in 2002 it has reached over 120,000 people and has taken to science alternative events including the Green Man folk festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where their science theatre production was short-listed for an award.

In 2007 the company launched a new project called Engineering Explained with support from the ERA Foundation, EPSRC and the IET. The project aims to develop entertaining and interactive engineering presentations for large numbers of students at primary and secondary school level and to develop the skills of engineers as communicators.

Wendy was awarded the EU Descartes Prize for science communication in 2007 and also presents the Cutting Edge science programme for BBC Radio Wales.

Dr Ruth Sanderson

After obtaining a degree in Mathematics at Warwick University, Ruth Sanderson joined TWI in Cambridge as a Project Leader in July 1998. Since then she has developed expertise in finite element modelling and is now a Principal Project Leader in the Numerical Modelling and Optimisation Section. Since Ruth started at TWI, she has published 15 papers and won the ABAQUS Young Engineers’ prize for modelling ultrasound in 2002. In recent years, she has concentrated on using a mixture of modelling and experimentation to understand the behaviour of low frequency ultrasound in pipes. This is now the topic of her Industrial Fellowship PhD which she started in October 2009 thanks to a funding award from the ERA Foundation, through the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.

The aim of her PhD research is to develop quantitative inspection techniques for the detection of corrosion in pipe networks. Inspection plays a key role in extending life, planning system outages and preventing failures. Ruth will research long-range ultrasonic methods for estimating the extent of corrosion and will also address the signal distortion caused by pipe bends. These advances will make rapid fitness-for-service assessments of pipe networks possible. The PhD project is a collaboration between Warwick University and TWI.

In her spare time Ruth is a keen rock climber and usually climbs at grade ‘V0’ but is proud of recently making it up a ‘V2’.

Dr Luke Seed

Luke Seed is a Senior Lecturer in the Vision and Information Engineering group in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Sheffield from which department he graduated with a Bachelor degree (1983) and Ph.D (1989).

His research activities began with image processing, arising from his doctoral work, and have passed through digital/VLSI design to his current research activities, which relate to packaging technologies and holographic lithography, in particular. He is a member of the EPSRC College, a Chartered Engineer and a Member of the IET and IEEE. In 2006 he was awarded an EPSRC follow-on grant, co-funded by ERAF.

He has authored 62 papers in journals and conferences.

Professor Alwyn Seeds

Alwyn Seeds received the Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees from the University of London. In 1980 he was appointed a Staff Member at Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked on GaAs monolithic millimetre-wave integrated circuits for use in phased-array radar.

He returned to England in 1983 to take up a lectureship at Queen Mary College, University of London, moving to University College London in 1986, where he is now Professor of Opto-electronics and Head of the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering.

He has published over 300 papers on microwave and opto-electronic devices and their systems applications.

His current research interests include III-V semiconductor devices, optical frequency synthesis, broadband wireless over fibre access systems, coherent networks, THz photonics and non-linear optical devices.

Professor Seeds has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK) and an IEEE Fellow (USA). He is a Member of the Board of Governors and Vice-President for Technical Affairs of the IEEE Photonics Society (USA). He has served on the programme committees for many international conferences. He is a co-founder of Zinwave, a manufacturer of wireless over fibre systems and founder of PhronTera, a manufacturer of ultra-fast photonic devices and systems.

Professor Ashwin A Seshia

Ashwin A. Seshia received his B.Tech. in Engineering Physics in 1996 from IIT Bombay, and M.S. and Ph.D degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley in 1999 and 2002 respectively where he was affiliated with the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center.

He joined the faculty of the Engineering at the University of Cambridge in October 2002 where he is currently a Lecturer in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems group and a Fellow of Queens’ College. His research interests include the design and fabrication of micro and nano-scale sensory systems with applications to the monitoring and study of the natural and synthetic world.

He has contributed to the development of micromechanical inertial sensors, micromechanical resonator oscillators for timing references, capillary electrophoresis chips and MEMS-based biosensing, and has led a number of research projects in these areas over the years.

He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). In 2007 he received an EPSRC Follow-on Fund grant (co-funded by the ERA Foundation).

Dr Katharine Smith

Katharine Smith graduated with a BEng in Aerospace Engineering from Queen Mary University of London in 2000. She then went on complete her PhD research on the “Characterisation of electrospray properties in high vacuum” at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories, which she received from the University of London in 2005. She has since worked as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Electrospray research group at Queen Mary University of London.

Working within the electrospray group at Queen Mary Katharine has been fundamental in the development of a new micro-fluidic technology for the high resolution patterning of surfaces with functional materials. This work has resulted in two patent applications on which Katharine is named as joint inventor. Katharine is also a founding member of Queen Mary’s newest spin-out company EMdot Ltd, which was formed to commercially exploit this printing technology. She is joint winner of the 2008 ERA Foundation’s Entrepreneurs Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Katharine’s principle research interests are directed towards the understanding of the basic physical processes involved in electrospray and the development of novel technologies using electrospray.

Professor Aimin Song

Professor Aimin Song obtained his PhD from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1995, and then held research fellowships from the Royal Society, Humboldt foundation, and Swedish Research Council.

His research is to explore new physical effects that arise on the nanometer scale, and to develop new types of nanoelectronic devices based on these effects. The device concepts have been applied to two main areas: ultra-high-speed (up to a few THz) nanoelectronics based on compound semiconductors and printable organic electronics.

He has presented about 50 invited conference talks/seminars. His research team won the House of Commons Rolls-Royce Prize, Best Conference Paper at three International Conferences, and a Royal Society Brain Mercer Feasibility award. He moved to the University of Manchester as a Lecturer in 2002 and became Professor of Nanoelectronics in 2006. He founded a university spin-out company Nano ePrint, Ltd. In 2006 he was awarded an EPSRC follow-on grant, fully funded by ERAF. Most recently, he was awarded a Distinguished Achievement Medal for Researcher of the Year 2007 of the University of Manchester.

Professor Eleanor Stride

Eleanor Stride obtained her BEng and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from University College London. Her final-year project on non-destructive testing using ultrasound and a serendipitous meeting with a radiologist led her to studying the use of microbubble agents in medical ultrasound imaging and ultimately to designing and engineering new types of agent for both imaging and therapy.

Following the completion of her PhD in the UCL Ultrasonics Group, she was appointed to a lectureship and a Royal Academy of Engineering and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Research Fellowship during which she started working in the complementary area of micro-encapsulation, developing new methods for fabricating bubbles, capsules and other nano and microscale layered structures for a range of biomedical and other applications.

In 2011 she was appointed to a University Lectureship and Non-Tutorial Fellowship at St Catherine’s College Oxford and joined the Biomedical Ultrasonics, Biotherapy and Biopharmaceutical Laboratory (BUBBL) in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering; where she continues her research in encapsulation and ultrasonics in particular, combining these themes for the development of systems which integrate medical imaging and therapy.

She has published over 100 refereed journal papers, 4 book chapters and presented over 100 conference papers. Her work has also led to the development of new patented technologies for the preparation of microbubble suspensions for ultrasound imaging and drug delivery and she has set up a spin-out company in this area. Her work has been recognized through the award of a Philip Leverhulme prize, the EPSRC & Journal of the Royal Society Interface Award, the Engineering Medal at the Parliamentary Science, Engineering & Technology for Britain awards and the Bruce Lindsay Award from the Acoustical Society of America. She is an associate editor of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology and a member of the Institute of Physics, Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the Acoustical Society of America.

Dr Jianming Tang

Dr Jianming Tang received his Ph.D. degree in Optoelectronics from the University of Wales, Bangor, U.K. in 1999. Immediately after obtaining the PhD degree, he joined the University of Wales, Bangor as a postdoctoral researcher working on picosecond optical switching and ultrafast nonlinearities of semiconductor optical devices.

His four years of research in Bangor (1996-2000) have generated 73 papers published in refereed professional journals and national and international conferences. From 2000 to 2004, he joined Nortel Networks, Harlow, UK as a Research Engineer conducting research on next generation high capacity optical communication systems.His research activities have covered a broad range of areas including, for example, advanced transmission system design for Ethernet, metro and long-haul transmission links and development of various optical amplifiers and optical transceivers using optical and electrical signal processing.

In 2005 he joined the University of Wales, Bangor, as a Lecturer, and he was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2007. His current research interests include high speed communications systems, all-optical networking and semiconductor optical devices. He received a Royal Society Mercer Feasibility Award funded by the ERA Foundation.

Dr Stephen Taylor

Graduating from Imperial College of Science and Technology, Stephen Taylor spent a period in industry as a design engineer. He obtained the M.Eng and Ph.D degrees in 1983 and 1988 and then took up a lectureship in the University of Liverpool, becoming a Reader in 2000. He is currently Course Director for the MSc in Micro and Nanotechnology.

His research interests include microelectronics and mass spectrometry including novel applications in the environmental and healthcare domains for gas analysis as an aid to patient diagnosis. He has received a total of 35 research grants and contracts and has supervised over 28 PhD or PDRA’s.

He is the author or co-author of over 180 publications in the open scientific literature and a guest editor for the ASMS journal. A former member of the programme committee for the IEEE Semiconductor Interface Specialist Conference (SISC) he became a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical Engineers in 2005.

In 1995 he co-invented and developed the (then) world’s smallest mass spectrometer and the first to be microengineered in silicon. He has presented invited talks at international conferences in Europe and in the USA. In 2007 he was awarded an EPSRC Follow on Grant in this area (co-funded by the ERA Foundation).

Professor Ian White

Professor Ian White is currently Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Bath. Previously he was Master of Jesus College, Deputy-Vice-Chancellor, van Eck Professor of Engineering, and Head of the Centre for Photonic Systems in the Department of Engineering, at the University of Cambridge. After gaining his BA and PhD degrees from Cambridge, he was appointed a Research Fellow and Assistant Lecturer at the University of Cambridge before becoming Professor of Physics at the University of Bath in 1990. In 1996 he moved to the University of Bristol and became Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1998, before returning to the University of Cambridge in October 2001.

Ian White has contributed to a variety of research activities in photonics, ranging from short-pulse laser diodes, optoelectronic components for signal processing and routing, high-speed components for data communications, to techniques for transmitting digital and radio frequency signals over long distances of multimode optical fibre. Several advances within these activities have already made a commercial impact, the offset launch technique for enhancing the transmission capabilities and hence bandwidth of optical fibre links having been adopted within the Gigabit Ethernet standard.

Ian is a Deputy Lieutenant of Somerset and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Electrical Engineers and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is heavily involved in policy development and administration of research and sits on a number of International Conference Committees. From 2008 to 2010, he was a Member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Photonics Society and he is currently Editor-in-Chief of Electronics Letters. He has published in excess of 1000 journal and conference papers.

Dr Reuben Wilcock

Reuben Wilcock completed a BEng Electronics degree from the University of Southampton in 2001, during which he was recipient of nine awards and prizes for his achievements including the Sir William Siemens Medal, Phillips Semiconductor Prize and Texas instruments Prize. He went on to study for a PhD in the area of switched-current filter and phase locked loop IC design, which he completed in 2004. During his PhD, Reuben started a company, Custom Idea Ltd, to design niche market consumer products, which was the beginning of a challenging journey working simultaneously in academia and industry. Academically, he has over 50 publications, more recently in the areas of configurable analogue circuit design for yield improvement and genetic optimisation of MEMs sensor interface circuits.

For his company he developed products including the first direct connect geotagging device for Nikon cameras, the GeoPic II, and Tiger high performance mountain biking lights, judged best in their class in 2009 by the UK’s leading mountain biking magazine.

In 2012 Reuben merged his experiences of academia and industry by founding a new initiative at the University of Southampton to take innovative ideas generated by academics and researchers through to successful, commercial products. He sourced funding for this initiative himself and it has since resulted in two extremely promising technologies. The first, a multi-core current clamp capable of measuring the power consumed by mains connected equipment, led to him being joint recipient of the ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs Award awarded through RAEng in 2013. The second, a USB device and web analysis platform that gives homeowners personalised feedback on how to save money on their heating bills, won first place at the 2013 British Gas Connecting Homes competition. Reuben is currently working to replicate his entrepreneurial product design initiative at other universities, driven by the goal of creating a better bridge between academia and industry.

Nominations and Applications

Our fellowship programme is directed in partnership with The Royal Commission of the Exhibition of 1851, The Royal Academy of Engineering and The Royal Society.

The Royal Society ERA Foundation Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EiR) scheme is part of the Science, Industry and Translation programme and aims to increase awareness and knowledge with academia of the cutting edge industrial science, research and innovation.

The scheme provides opportunities for industrial scientists and entrepreneurs to spend one day a week at a university developing a bespoke project. Exposing university staff and students to research and development while providing support, advice and growing confidence in business and entrepreneurship.

The ERA Foundation Industrial Fellowship for the electro-technology sector is awarded through The Royal Commission of the Exhibition of 1851. The award is designed to encourage profitable innovation and creativity in British Industry – to the mutual benefit of the Fellow and his or her sponsoring company. Projects in any science or engineering discipline will be considered.

Applications for the Fellowship will open every October.

The Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship is designed to support innovative, creative, entrepreneurial exceptional engineers who want to develop further.

The programme is built around equipping the awardees with the skills, confidence and experience to develop their innovative ideas.

The deadline for applications is March each year.

The ERA Foundation Fellowship The ERA Foundation Fellowship

The ERA Foundation fellowship is designed to encourage profitable innovation and creativity within British Engineering. The ERA Foundation fellowship is designed to encourage profitable innovation and creativity within British Engineering.