Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi, Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering (FPSE), has been awarded a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2018 for his services to engineering and industry.

The Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering includes Electronics and Computer Science, Physics and Astronomy, and the Optoelectronics Research Centre.

Professor Al-Hashimi joined the University in 2000 as a Senior Lecturer and was appointed to a Personal Chair in 2004. He became ARM Professor of Computer Engineering in 2008.

“I am honoured to receive this prestigious recognition," said Professor Al-Hashimi.

"It is a testament to the efforts of the great many colleagues I have worked with over the years here at the University and within the School of Electronics and Computer Science, who have always provided me with a stimulating and supportive working environment. The response to this honour from my family and friends has been one of sheer delight.�

Both within the UK and overseas, Bashir is a leading and influential figure in the science and engineering of energy-efficient computing, which remains a key enabling technology to underpin our digital world.

He has been instrumental in building the University of Southampton's reputation as a world-class centre for Electronics and Computer Science education and research and is recognised nationally and internationally in relation to his academic research and leadership, including his election as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2014.

Professor Al-Hashimi works extensively with the electronics design industry and many of the outputs he has developed personally or in conjunction with his research team are used by companies in the UK and abroad. He advises national academies, research councils, professional and governmental bodies on strategies and policies relating to funding and the development of future leaders.

Professor Sir Christopher Snowden, Vice-Chancellor at the University, added: “Professor Al-Hashimi richly derives this recognition for his outstanding contributions to engineering, bridging the gap between technical innovation in universities and application in industry, gaining him international recognition for his innovation and technical leadership.

“He contributes widely to the drive to increase gender and Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) diversity in engineering in the UK as well as in our University and is an inspiring leader as Dean of FPSE and the new Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences.â€?

Computer scientists promoted advances in the design and analysis of safety critical systems at the 6th international ABZ conference in Southampton.

Dozens of experts from academia and industry have gathered at Southampton’s Grand Harbour Hotel to cross-fertilise methods for systems such as cars, trains and planes, where software failures would lead to loss of life or significant damage to businesses.

The event, which was hosted by researchers in Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton, covered six related state-based and machine-based formal methods of software engineering.

The conference continued a tradition of defining an industrial case study that researchers could apply to their methods in order to compare the international approaches. The 2018 case study detailed a new European rail signalling system that aims to increase the volume of trains operating on lines while continuing to mitigate dangers such as collisions.

A joint keynote was delivered by Altran senior software engineers Janet Barnes and Angela Wallenburg, offering insights into the successes and challenges of deploying formal methods into industry.

Professor Michael Butler, Programme Committee Chair from ECS at Southampton, says: “Our society’s increased reliance on software for control in systems such as transport means that methods for ensuring trustworthiness of software is essential. ECS is at the forefront of research and applications in this field and we are proud to have welcomed experts from across the globe to this international conference. The quality of papers and presentations has been very high and it’s been great to see the strong level of engagement between attendees.â€?

Michael’s research at Southampton encompasses applications, tools and methodology for formal methods, in particular one model-based method called Event-B. His key theoretical and methodological contributions have enabled the method to scale to large complex systems.

The six formal methods discussed at the conference included Abstract State Machines (ASM), the B-Method and the Z notation – which form ABZ – along with Alloy, Temporal Logic of Actions (TLA) and the Vienna Development Method (VDM).

The ABZ conference ran from Tuesday 5th to Friday 8th of June.