The University of Southampton is launching a Cyber Security Academy to help make government, businesses and consumers more resilient to cyber-attack.

The Southampton Cyber Security Academy (CSA) is a partnership between the University of Southampton and world-leading industry and Government partners to provide a focal point for cyber security research, education and outreach. The first partners of the Academy are the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), Northrop Grumman and Roke Manor Research with further partners across a range of industries joining as the Academy grows into a vibrant community of businesses, centred in the South of England but with global influence.

The CSA was announced at a special signing today (Monday 9 November) during the IA15 event in London, hosted by GCHQ and Department for Culture, Media and Sport and supported by leaders from across Government, industry and academia. The CSA is one of the first examples of the UK Government’s CyberInvest initiative, also announced at IA15.

Professor Vladimiro Sassone of the Agents, Interaction and Complexity research group within Electronics and Computer Science is Director of the Academy. He said: “The increasingly alarming statistics on cyber-attacks and crime on a variety of targets, such as the recent TalkTalk data hack, make the Academy a timely initiative fully aligned with the UK National Cyber Security Strategy.

“The span of problems is huge, including the protection of critical infrastructures, of industrial and economic processes, of government, businesses and users’ data, privacy and interests. There is a pressing demand for cyber security, and in the next 20 years cyber research will have the same kind of momentous social and economic impact as medical research had in the twentieth century.â€?

David Cole, Managing Director of Roke, said: “In order to meet the demands of an increasing cyber security threat, the UK needs a continual flow of high quality engineers and consultants to protect our critical infrastructure and enterprises, and to protect personal data. The Cyber Security Academy partners will work together to drive forward the UK’s cyber capability and talent - attracting and developing world class experts into the cyber security industry, facilitating technology innovation, creating new opportunities and driving UK productivity.â€?

The CSA will provide a stream of cyber security graduates to industry and train existing workforce through an industry-relevant CPD program in Cyber Security. It will also lead innovative research, consultancy and enterprise activities, creating new employment opportunities by attracting companies and talented individuals interested in cyber security and related sectors.

Professor Sassone added: “With society growing ever more cyber-dependent, cyber security poses tremendous challenges and tremendous opportunities for the cyber industry. It also calls for systematic innovation that will have to pass through research and recruitment of fresh cyber talent. In other words, through a closer interaction between industry and academia.â€?

The Cyber Security Academy, based in the Academic Centre of Excellence for Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR) at the University of Southampton, is due to formally launch in early 2016. For more information about the Academy and how to participate, go to: www.southampton.ac.uk/csa

The University of Southampton is one of just 13 Academic Centres of Excellence in Cyber Security Research, leading the national agenda to protect against cyber threats. The University of Southampton was awarded ACE-CSR status in November 2013 by GCHQ with a remit to extend knowledge through original research and provide high-quality graduates in the field of cyber security. ECS' MSc in Cyber Security is one of just 12 in the UK to be awarded Provisional Certification against the GCHQ Certified Master's degree in General Cyber Security standard, subject to a specific set of modules.

Professor Paul Lewin has been elected the 2016 IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS) President. Paul is only the second person from outside of North America to hold this position in the 52 year history of the Society.

He has been a Vice-President of the DEIS since 2012 and was officially elected as President for 2016 on Tuesday 20 October, during the recent Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. “My major objective as President, will be to work with the members of the Society to translate our agreed strategic plan into specific future projects and activities; that ultimately will further increase the value of society membership and ensure that the DEIS continues to be both highly relevant and successful worldwideâ€? said Paul, following confirmation of his appointment.

Paul is Professor of Electrical Power Engineering within Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), where he is also Head of the Tony Davies High Voltage Laboratory and Deputy Head of ECS for Education.

The IEEE – the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – is the world’s largest professional association for the advancement of technology and has 39 Technical Societies including the DEIS, which has more than 2,200 members from 82 countries. As a technical society, the DEIS organizes and supports conferences and workshops around the world every year, publishes the IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation (TDEI) and the IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine (EIM) as well as developing and maintaining relevant IEEE standards and presenting awards in recognition of significant technical achievement. Over the last two years, Paul Lewin has had responsibility for overseeing the development of new DEIS conference and workshop activities in Asia. “Both manufacturing and research activity in high voltage plant and electrical insulation has significantly increased in Asia over the last decade and in response to this the DEIS has worked with national societies and universities to further develop its conference programme in Asiaâ€?, said Paul, “as a result new fully sponsored DEIS conferences include the International Conference on High Voltage Engineering to be held in 2016 in Chongqing, China and the International Conference on Electrical Materials and Power Equipment to be held in 2017 in Xi’an, China.â€?

As an active member of the DEIS, Paul has been an Associate Editor of the TDEI since 2008, has been a member of the DEIS Technical Committee on Condition Monitoring since 2011 and in June 2015 was the General Chair of the 33rd IEEE Electrical Insulation Conference (EIC) held in Seattle, Washington, USA, becoming the first chair from outside of North America in the 57 year history of the conference series. “I am confident that my wide experience of the Society’s technical activities and interests will be of great assistance when facing the challenges of leading the Society over the next 12 months,â€? said Professor Lewin.

For the fifth year in succession – and since the competition began – ECS students will feature as finalists for the title ‘United Kingdom Electronic Skills Foundation Scholar of the Year’.

The two ECS students competing for the title this year are Josh Oldfield, final-year student on the MEng Electronic Engineering programme, and Dominic Maskell, who is in his third year of the same programme. The annual competition involves students from all the UK’s leading engineering departments, and the winner will be announced at the National Microelectronics Institute annual dinner in London on Thursday 19 November.

Josh has held a UKESF Scholarship since 2013 with ARM, and this summer completed a placement with the company as part of the programme, working with the Processor Implementation Department in Cambridge.

He is positive about the opportunities created by the UKESF programme. ‘The opportunity has really helped my development as an engineer,’ he said. ‘It gave me a chance to develop and test my skills in the engineering workplace, as well as developing my interpersonal skills, and helping the next generation of students start their engineering careers.’

Dominic spent his summer placement at Selex.

Five previous ECS students have been named as finalists for this prestigious title since it was instituted in 2011. In that year two ECS students were named as finalists, with the title won by Adam Malpass, with Tom Dell runner-up; in 2012 Samuel Hipkin was runner-up, and in 2013 the title was won by Ashley Robinson, who graduated from ECS in 2014. Josh appeared in last year’s final, the only student so far to have reached the finals twice.

‘We are very proud of our students’ achievements in UKESF,’ said Professor Nick Jennings, Head of ECS. ‘They have an excellent record in achieving Scholarships, with 66 applications made this year alone, and to have seven students reach the finals of Scholar of the Year is outstanding recognition of their ability to transfer their skills from the classroom to the industrial context.

‘As a department with close links to the UK electronics industry, we thoroughly support the aspirations of UKESF in highlighting the outstanding career opportunities that are open to electronic engineering graduates. We work closely with the leading companies in the UK and worldwide, and are extremely proud of the contribution that our graduates continue to make to the development of electronics.’

Over the summer of 2015 ECS spent over £5M in upgrading its teaching labs for Electronics and Electrical Engineering and for Computer Science. The new facilities now rank with the best in Europe.

UKESF is a collaboration between industry, universities and the public sector, which promotes the electronics industry and its value to society and the economy, and aims to secure a sustainable supply of quality and industry-prepared graduates. It offers a sector-specific programme for employers in the electronics sector to engage with young people at school and university through to graduate employment.

Jo Johnson MP, the Minister of State for Universities and Science, formally opened new world-leading teaching and computing facilities at the University of Southampton today (23 November).

The Minister officially opened the recently refurbished multi-million pound Teaching and Computing Laboratories for Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), which will ensure current and future students will use the latest technology and state-of-the-art facilities to support their degree programmes and prepare them for industries of the future.

A £4m investment, funded by the University and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), enabled the undergraduate and MSc labs for Computing and for Electrical and Electronic Engineering to significantly increase capacity and enhance capability. This included the creation of a new 300m2 project lab for senior undergraduate and MSc students.

The Minister also opened the new experimental fluid dynamics building on the University’s £140m Boldrewood Innovation Campus. The building hosts world-class research infrastructure including an anechoic wind chamber, advanced fluid dynamics experimental facilities and a 138-metre towing tank, which will be used across a range of disciplines including aerospace, civil engineering, infrastructure and maritime engineering.

Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson said: “It was a pleasure opening the new Fluid Dynamics lab and the impressive Teaching and Computing Laboratories at the University of Southampton.

“It is a great example of how many Universities are focusing on high quality teaching and the student experience and integrating this with their research and industry engagement.â€?

During the opening of the Teaching and Computing Laboratories labs, ARM, the world’s leading semiconductor IP company, announced its continuing commitment to a partnership with the University with a further three years of funding to the ARM-ECS Research Centre.

The Centre, founded in 2008 following successful research collaboration over a number of years focuses on leading-edge research on advanced design methods, architectures and their practical applications for energy-efficient and dependable processor systems.

The partnership between ARM and the University of Southampton was recognised last week (19 November) with the University Research Group of the Year Award at the NMI Awards in London, UK. As the UK and Ireland’s Electronic Systems Industry association, NMI annually award and showcase excellence within the industry rewarding the innovation, expertise and ambition of businesses.

Dr Stephen Pattison, vice president of public affairs at ARM, said: “ARM values the collaboration with Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton as it is helping to push leading edge technology innovation. The new teaching laboratory facility opening today will provide a valuable boost to the department’s work with its modern facilities and equipment. It will help the university to develop the talent of the engineering graduates and researchers they are nurturing.â€?

Professor Sir Christopher Snowden, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton, said: “These new facilities will enable us to build on the world-leading research and education which takes place here in Southampton. They are great examples of how the University collaborates with business to generate unique projects and initiatives, benefiting our students, our research and the companies themselves.â€?

Staff and students from the University of Southampton won two prestigious awards at the National Microelectronics Institute annual dinner and prizegiving event, held last week (19 November) in London.

Final-year Electronic Engineering student Josh Oldfield was named ‘Scholar of the Year’, the third time this title has been won by a student from Southampton’s Department of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at Southampton over the last five years.

The annual competition involves students from all the UK’s leading engineering departments and is sponsored by the UK Electronics Skills Foundation. Josh’s award recognized his commitment to the UK’s electronic industry and his achievements – both as a student in Electronics and Computer Science and as an intern at his sponsoring company, ARM. he runner-up for the title ‘Scholar of the Year’ was also a student in ECS – Dominic Maskell is in the third-year of his degree in Electronic Engineering, and is sponsored by Selex ES.

Five previous ECS students have been named as finalists for this prestigious title since it was instituted in 2011. In that year two ECS students were named as finalists, with the title won by Adam Malpass, with Tom Dell runner-up; in 2012 Samuel Hipkin was runner-up, and in 2013 the title was won by Ashley Robinson, who graduated from ECS in 2014. Josh appeared in last year’s final, the only student so far to have reached the finals twice.

ECS, in partnership with ARM, also won the title ‘University Research Group of the Year’ – sponsored by Thales for excellent liaison and partnership in electronic systems with industry. The ARM-ECS Research Centre was founded in 2008 following successful research collaboration over previous years between Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi's research group and ARM. Centre researchers work at ARM or at ECS with internships at ARM. It is co-directed by Professor Al-Hashimi and Dr David Flynn (ARM Fellow, Visiting Professor at ECS). The Centre focuses on leading-edge research on advanced design methods, architectures and their practical validations for energy-efficient and dependable single-core and multi-core processor systems.

The citation read: ‘This year’s winner has demonstrated a very strong portfolio in electronics design built on world-class research partnerships with companies. The Centre has proved to be an exemplar of a cross-industry electronics research centre, which has delivered important collaborative ventures, such as the £5.6M PRiME project.’

"It is a great honour to have received two awards from the UK’s microelectronics industry at this prestigious event," said Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi, Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the University of Southampton. "We place a very high value on our links with industry, and our collaboration with ARM has been particularly successful, enabling research at the highest level, as well as the transfer of knowledge and practical applications. It has also led directly to the development of significant research projects, such as the PRiME programme."

In the last week ARM, the world’s leading semiconductor IP company, has also announced its continuing commitment to a partnership with the University with a further three years of funding to the ARM-ECS Research Centre.

The University of Southampton is to lead one of two £10 million research centres that will transform the UK’s manufacturing industries through the use of photonics, the science and technology of light.

Photonics manufactures the critical components inside our mobile phones and enables the internet and the optical storage technologies that underpin the digital world. It helps manufacture cars, navigates airliners probes individual human cells and helps defend the nation.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) National Hub in High Value Photonic Manufacturing was announced by Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson. The second Hub in Future Liquid Metal Engineering is based at Brunel University in London.

Dr Martin Charlton of Electronics and Computer Science is a co-investigator on the the Future Photonics Hub which brings together the expertise of Zepler Institute researchers in the Nanoelectronics and Nanotechnology Research Group and Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), alongside the ESPRC National III-V Centre at the University of Sheffield. This new Hub will provide national leadership in manufacturing for the next-generation of photonics technologies. With more than 40 companies providing guidance and resources, the Hub is solidly focused on improving UK manufacturing efficiency.

The Future Photonics Hub, which is funded for seven years, will accelerate growth of the UK’s £10 billion photonics industry and support the £600 billion of UK manufacturing output that depends on photonics. It will be the go-to place for the UK photonics industry by:

• improving existing manufacturing processes for production of photonics components;
• supplying prototypes and sub-systems to their designs;
• being a one-stop-shop for trialling user ideas and developing new manufacturing processes.

Hub lead Professor Sir David Payne, Director of the Zepler Institute and ORC, said: “The ORC has been at the forefront of photonics for over 40 years. We know from experience the astonishing range of innovative ideas that emerge when scientists and engineers think about manufacturing. The key is to work with industry to understand the opportunity not only to improve existing manufacturing methods but to develop entirely new ways of making things.â€?

The primary economic impact of the Hub will be to aid rapid commercialisation of emerging technologies. This will result in new products and services in both the photonics industry and in the industries enabled by photonics. Supporting companies across the UK have so far promised a total of £12.5 million in markets that include defence and security, communications, space, semiconductor manufacturing and healthcare.

The investment in the Future Photonics Hub by EPSRC will be further enhanced by £3 million from the two universities.

Jo Johnson, Minister of State for Universities and Science, said: “From cars to smartphones our world-leading research drives innovation and growth in the UK’s manufacturing industries. With this investment, these new manufacturing hubs will develop the next generation of high tech products in communications and healthcare, as well as tackle industry challenges such as rising materials costs."

Over five decades, the University of Southampton has maintained a position at the forefront of photonics research. Its long and well established track record in the fields of optical fibre, lasers, waveguides, devices and optoelectronic materials has fostered innovation, enterprise, cross-boundary and multi-disciplinary activities.

Through the ORC, the University has built strong links with industry, research institutions and universities around the world, from informal collaborations to large-scale funding. In 2014, it launched The Photonics Institute with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. Ten spin-out companies, including Fibercore, Fianium, SENSA, SPI Lasers and Stratophase have commercialised ORC research, while its extensive outreach programme has brought lasers and optical fibres into schools across the country.

Southampton was one of five universities selected to participate in the first Open Data Mashup Day, themed on 'Enhancing the Student Journey', and held in London last week.

The event, organised by Universities UK in partnership with the Open Data Institute (ODI) and JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee), challenged developers in universities and digital industries to produce a demo of a mobile app that used open data to help university students through their learning journey.

Southampton was represented by Llorenç Vaquer (PhD student) and Dr Luis-Daniel Ibañez (Research Fellow) of the Web and Internet Science (WAIS) group in Electronics and Computer Science. Their app - 'Find my Uni Match’ - focused on one of the most fundamental aspects of the university experience: choosing your course.

The app provided users with information on universities that best fulfilled their preferences from a range of both academic and non-academic variables. “Events like this, with ideas pushed forward by university students and staff, help to make the case for opening universities’ data," said Dr Ibañez.

Other apps from the five universities represented - Coventry, Sheffield Hallam, Leeds, Lancaster and Southampton - helped users find somewhere to live, identify books needed for their course, manage their timetable, and find job opportunities. During the challenge each team developed an elevator pitch for their idea with the help of members of the audience.

The full-day workshop also featured keynote addresses from Sir Nigel Shadbolt (University of Oxford), Chris Gutteridge (Southampton), Tony Hirst (Open University), and Jonathan Waller (Higher Education Statistics Agency), as well as hands-on sessions with experts from the Open Data Institute. The workshop concluded with a panel on Open Data in universities led by Sir Ian Diamond (Aberdeen University) and Paul Feldman of JISC.

The prize of £5000 of development support was won by the ‘Bookmarket’ app from the University of Lancaster.

Dr Elena Simperl, Director of ODINE, the Open Data Incubator for Europe, and associate professor in the Web and Internet Science group in ECS, commented: “Southampton has always been an open data pioneer. Our own data.southampton.ac.uk portal was one of the first to open up some of our administrative data to the public and it's great to see that something we've been advocating for a long time is gaining momentum.

“The challenge offers our team, as well as other researchers in the UK, the opportunity to demonstrate that opening up data can have tremendous advantages in terms of transparency and efficiency. “

The University of Southampton is part of the new European Data Portal, launched last week to help realize the potential of Europe’s Open Data.

Addressing the whole Data Value Chain from data publishing to data re-use, the new Portal (launched last week in beta) references 240,000 data sets, and includes 34 European countries. It offers seamless access to public data across Europe, with over 13 content categories, ranging from health and education to transport, science and justice.

The full data collection can be accessed, searched and re-used by all European citizens. The data available covers such wide-ranging topics as crime records in Helsinki, labor mobility in the Netherlands, forestry maps in France, and the impact of digitization in Poland.

The deployment of the European Data Portal is led by Capgemini Consulting in association with the Open Data Institute (ODI), Intrasoft International, Time.lex, Sogeti, the University of Southampton, con terra and Fraunhofer Fokus, on behalf of the European Commission.

During last week’s launch event, two reports published by Capgemini for the European Commission demonstrated the huge potential of open data. For the period 2016-20, the direct market size for Open Data is estimated at €325 billion for Europe. Open Data can create economic value in multiple ways including increased market transactions, job creation from producing services and products based on Open Data, as well as cost savings and efficiency gains. The accumulated cost savings for public administrations making use of Open Data across the EU28+ in 2020 are predicted to equal €1.7 bn.

However, further studies show that the EU28+ have completed just 44 per cent of the journey towards achieving full Open Data Maturity and that there are large discrepancies across countries. One-third of European countries (32 per cent) are leading the way with solid policies, licensing norms, good portal traffic and many local initiatives and events to promote Open Data and its reuse.

Dr Elena Simperl, Associate Professor at the University of Southampton’s Department of Electronics and Computer Science and Director of ODINE, the Open Data Incubator for Europe, commented: “The launch of the European Open Data Portal is a very significant step in ensuring that Europea takes advantage of the huge quantities of open data being produced and used across the Continent. At Southampton we are working together with Capgemini and the rest of the consortium to strengthen the European open data ecosystem by producing white papers, studying the impact of open data, and developing a database of European stakeholders.

“On the technology side, we bring in expertise and open source software that was used to create the first EU-wide dashboard of open data publishing, which monitors more than 200 open data repositories all over Europe.

“In collaboration with the Open Data Incubator for Europe (ODINE), we are offering support to digital innovators interested in exploring the commercial potential of the wealth of data to which the portal provides access.â€?

For more information and to view the Capgemini reports visit:

• www.europeandataportal.eu/en/content/creating-value-through-open-data • www.europeandataportal.eu/en/content/open-data-maturity-europe

The Software Sustainability Institute – a team committed to cultivating world-class research through software – has received £3.5m funding to continue its valuable support for the UK's research software community. The Institute was founded in 2010, comprising academics and software engineers from Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton, and from the Universities of Edinburgh, Manchester and Oxford.

Two new funders, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), have joined forces with the Institute’s original funder, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to continue to invest in research that is underpinned by software until at least 2019.

Neil Chue Hong (pictured), the Institute’s Director and Principal Investigator, said: “The Institute is delighted with this development, which shows that the importance of software – and the goals of software sustainability - are reaching an ever-broader audience.â€?

Professor Phillip Nelson, EPSRC’s Chief Executive, said: "We hope that the Institute will build on its internationally leading work to support researchers from across the disciplines and help them accelerate their research through the use of reliable, reusable and reproducible software."

The Institute was founded in 2010 and over the last five years it has helped thousands of UK researchers, from all disciplines – from nuclear fusion to climate change – benefit from better software. It has:

• built a network of 61 Fellows from across research disciplines;
• championed software and careers for Research Software Engineers;
• worked with over 50 research projects to directly improve their codes;
• written over 80 guides read by over 50,000 people;
• and trained over 1,000 researchers in basic software engineering.

The funding will provide four more staff members to expand the range of activities and build on earlier successes. “The Institute’s remit is broad: we work with researchers from across all domains. Our new funding will allow us to concentrate more effort into areas where we’ve seen incredible interest from the research community,â€? said Simon Hettrick, Deputy Director.

The Institute is well served by four Co-Investigators: Les Carr from ECS at Southampton, David De Roure at Oxford, Carole Goble at Manchester and Mark Parsons at Edinburgh.

“The enhancement and maturation of existing research software, and the development of the skills needed to produce it, is a priority for the BBSRCâ€?, said Goble; “modern biology is increasingly dependent on the exploitation of advanced computing technologies and approaches.â€? This is also paramount for the ESRC community, as De Roure observes: “Social science methods are harnessing new forms of data and real-time analytics, underpinned by developing and applying software tools and techniques, as we research new ways of living and working in a digital age.â€?

The further funding will allow the Institute to build on work with established partners. “Although EPSRC has been integral to the Institute from the start, this doesn’t mean software sustainability is solved for this Research Council", said Parsons. "For example, the steady stream of new PhD students funded through EPSRC's Centres for Doctoral Training bring us new researchers to work with every day." Indeed, a focus on students and the new skills they will need to conduct research in this software-reliant age will be a priority during the Institute’s second phase. As Les Carr says, “Students are the vanguard of new research that depends on novel forms of data, innovative digital methodologies and cutting-edge analytical techniques. The Institute-promoted software competencies is a cornerstone for a range of transformational training programmes that are developing a new generation of world leading research expertise for the UK.â€?

Neil Chue Hong concludes: “The last five years have seen many significant changes in the way that software is viewed by researchers - some of these changes can be attributed to the Institute’s work. Everyone at the Institute is excited to play an important role in this revolution, and are keen to start on the next challenges. We will continue to support UK researchers and developers and launch new initiatives to help drive UK research, because better software means better research.â€?

Dr Jonathan Mayo-Maldonado, alumnus of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), has received this year’s Control and Automation Doctoral Dissertation Prize from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) for the best UK PhD thesis in the subject.

Jonathan graduated with a PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2015. He carried out the research for his thesis – Switched Linear Differential Systems – under the supervision of Dr Paolo Rapisarda of the Vision, Learning, and Control research group.

The prize was presented to Jonathan at the IET’s prestigious Tustin Lecture in London in November. He was told that his thesis was selected “for its depth and breadth of theoretical contributions made, together with the practical application of new concepts in the modelling and analysis of real-life systems, such as power converters.â€? The committee was impressed with the “quality of publications generated thus far and the number of times these have been cited in other scholarly articles,â€? and “believed the concepts presented in the thesis will advance and stimulate further research in this emerging area of work.â€?

Now working as an Associate Professor at Tecnologico de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico, Jonathan’s research interests currently include switched systems, behavioural systems theory and power electronics. Reflecting on his PhD studies, Jonathan said: “I was lucky to work with Paolo Rapisarda as supervisor – he interacted closely with me and challenged me constantly to get out of my comfort zone. I also greatly benefited from the research environment that he and his research associates have created.â€?

He went on to say: “Receiving the IET Doctoral Dissertation Award is a stimulating experience that represents a lifelong reminder that an open mind and hard work are crucial components to achieve the highest standards in a scientific career.â€?