ECS - Researcher Profiles

Lecturer in Electronic Systems and Devices Group

Dr Geoff Merrett was appointed to his lectureship in electronic engineering from 1 December 2008, just four years after he was awarded a first class honours degree in the subject.

'I am very proud to have become a lecturer at this stage in my career,' said Geoff. 'It's great to be awarded such a position so early on.'

One of his course tutors, Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi, clearly picked up on Geoff’s enthusiasm and commitment and persuaded him in the third year of his degree course to switch to do a PhD, a decision which has had a major influence on the direction his career has taken.

'I never intended to do a PhD. Throughout my time at university, I always had a goal to work for a large commercial electronics company such as Sony or Microsoft,' he said. ‘But after the research I did in my third-year project, the idea of becoming a research student was very appealing and has now led me into this very exciting career.’

From an early age growing up in Poole, Geoff had a fascination for technology and managed to annoy his parents by pushing every button in sight including fire alarms.

'I was always keen to know what would happen if I pushed the button,' he said.

His interest in electronics led him to study electronics and computer science at A-level.

He knew that whatever he decided to study at university that it would have to be science based so in 2001, he opted for a BEng in Electronic Engineering at the University of Southampton.

'When I was choosing universities, I went through the league tables and visited a number of them, finally narrowing my choice down between the University of Surrey and the University of Southampton,' he said. 'I chose Southampton because of the state-of-the-art facilities and I was impressed by the staff who showed me around, and felt that they cared more than at other universities and that I would get a lot for my tuition fees.'

After his degree, Geoff chose to do his PhD on wireless sensor networks. He looked at the sensor networks which controlled facilities such as lights and temperatures in big office blocks and devices such as water pumps, and considered the possibilities of making these small devices last longer by devising algorithms to ensure that they used less energy.

'The idea is that if we incorporate energy harvesting by using these algorithms, the network can manage the information dissemination so that the best use is made of it and the system never runs out of energy,' he said.

Geoff is now keen to develop wireless sensors for healthcare and medical applications and is particularly interested in sensors which can be worn by users.

Personal experiences of back pain led him to consider wearable sensors to monitor his movements.

'When treating these problems, my physiotherapist asked me to tell him how I sit and move and it struck me that if I wore sensors, they could monitor these movements for me.'

Geoff believes that he could develop miniature, wearable sensors which last longer and is keen to focus on the biomedical field.

Now that he has his lectureship, he can take his research in this direction. He has already developed an interest forum for people involved in wireless sensor networks in ECS so that expertise and information can be pooled.

When asked what he would do if time and money were no object for him, he said he would probably travel for a while and pursue his passion for photography.

'I couldn't see myself being stimulated by that for long though,' he said. 'I would still be looking to put something back. Even if I was rich, I'd want to develop real applications that make a real difference. I work in the best place in the world, so I would continue to do what I'm doing.'