Successful start to the year for ECS

What a year it has been so far.  The first half of 2013 has been a huge success for Electronics and Computer Science with national and international recognition for our academics and our research.

Honorary degrees, Queen’s birthday honours, Academy awards and substantial funding allocations show that across the board we are leading the field in Electronics and Computer Science.

Among the notable achievements of 2013 so far are:

Recognition for Professor Dame Wendy Hall

Dean of Physical Sciences and Engineering Professor Dame Wendy Hall has been recognised for her contribution to computing and information technology in a number of ways.

She has received an honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Sussex for her work in multimedia and hypermedia and the influence of her work on the development of the Semantic web.

She has also been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from City University London for helping to transform the boundaries and capabilities of the Internet and the World Wide Web.

Back in February Dame Wendy was named on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour Power List that celebrates the achievements of British women across public life. She was selected by a judging panel as one of the women who have the biggest impact in society and also have the ability to inspire change as a role model or thinker.

Knighthood for Professor Nigel Shadbolt

ECS colleague Professor Nigel Shadbolt, one of the world’s leading experts in Web Science and the pioneering co-founder of the Open Data Institute (ODI), was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to science and engineering.

Nigel is Head of the Web and Internet Science Group at the University of Southampton and ODI Chairman, and one of the co-creators of the interdisciplinary field of Web Science.

Associate Dean Research elected Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering

Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi, Associate Dean Research in Physical Sciences and Engineering, was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering for his contribution to low-power design and testing of mobile computing systems. Fellows of the Academy comprise the country’s most eminent and distinguished engineers and are recognised for their excellence in the science, art and practice of engineering.

Honoured for inventing the World Wide Web

Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a leading academic in Web and Internet Science, was one of five joint winners of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering earlier this year.

The prize, given by The Royal Academy of Engineering, honours Sir Tim for inventing the World Wide Web and is awarded in recognition of outstanding advances in engineering that have changed the world and benefited humanity.

World-first electricity monitoring clamp wins Academy award

The world’s first electricity monitoring clamp designed by ECS engineers was named as joint winner of this year’s Royal Academy of Engineering ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs Award.

The device was developed by Dr Reuben Wilcock, Senior Enterprise Fellow and PhD student Robert Rudolf and could enable us to find out which parts of our homes are the most energy-hungry without installing plug-in power monitors on each individual appliance.

The award, that identifies entrepreneurial researchers in UK universities working in electro-technology and at an early stage of their careers, means the pair now have the opportunity to take their multi-core current clamp to market.

Outstanding results for ECS in national league table

ECS recorded outstanding results in one of the UK’s leading university league tables.

In the Guardian University Guide 2014, published in June, the University of Southampton led the table for Electronics and Electrical Engineering, and was ranked in the top five for Computer Science and IT.

Rare professorship from the Queen

At the start of the year the University of Southampton was awarded a rare professorship, bestowed by The Queen, to mark its excellence in the field of Computer Science.

Southampton is one of a handful of universities to receive the prestigious title Regius Professor which reflects the institution’s exceptionally high quality of teaching and research.

National award recognises ECS for supporting women in science

ECS has been recognised for its work tackling the problem of gender inequality in science with an Athena SWAN Bronze Award.

The Athena SWAN Charter was set up in 2005 and acknowledges the commitment of the higher education sector to address gender inequalities, tackle the unequal representation of women in science and to improve career progression for female academics.

ECS joins other University departments including Chemistry, Medicine and Ocean and Earth Science to receive the bronze award this year. The University of Southampton has received the Athena SWAN Bronze Award since 2006.

ECS part of multi million pound award for the high tech future of healthcare

ECS researchers are part of an interdisciplinary research collaboration that has been awarded a £12m grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to develop a 24/7 digital home health assistant.

The University of Southampton joins the University of Reading, Bristol City Council, IBM, Toshiba and Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC), in the Sensor Platform for Healthcare in a Residential Environment (SPHERE) project that will be led by the University of Bristol.

As part of this five-year project the ECS team from the Electronics and Electrical Engineering Group will be exploring ways in which energy can be supplied to body worn devices without the need for batteries.

Key role in future of computing

ECS will play a key role in a national collaboration of electronic engineers and computer scientists aiming to develop the next generation of energy-efficient computing systems.

Associate Dean Research Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi is Director of PRiME: Power-efficient, Reliable, Many-core Embedded systems, that brings together four world-leading research groups from the Universities of Southampton, Imperial College, Manchester and Newcastle. The five-year £5.6m Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded project will undertake creative research into the design and implementation of energy-efficient and dependable embedded systems with many-core processors.

For all the latest ECS news visit www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/news