Davide Zilli, a PhD student in Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), has won a silver Engineering prize at the prestigious SET for BRITAIN poster competition and exhibition.

Davide, along with fellow ECS PhD student Mustafa Kutlu, was among 21 University of Southampton PhD students and Early Career Researchers selected to present their research to a range of politicians and a panel of expert judges. Their work had been chosen from a wide range of applicants, to encourage, support and promote Britain's early-stage and early-career research scientists, engineers, technologists and mathematicians who are an essential part of continuing progress in and development of UK research and development.

The researchers, were judged in a gold, silver and bronze prize-giving ceremony, judged by leading academics, with the gold medallist receiving £3,000, while silver and bronze will receive £2,000 and £1,000 respectively. The Engineering category also saw bronze for another Southampton PhD student - Angieszka Dzielendziak from the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment.

Davide Zilli’s research concerns monitoring animals by listening to the sound they make, and to do so through the use of widely available technologies, such as smartphones. He says: “Many animals are difficult to spot, because they are nocturnal, very small or very elusive, and often they make this a strategy for survival. However, the sound they emit can be a very good indicator of their presence. In the last two years I've been looking for a critically endangered insect, call the New Forest Cicada. It was only ever found in the New Forest, the national park west of Southampton, and it's the only species of cicada we have in the UK. There is a great interest in monitoring bats, birds and even elephants and rhinos, which emit lower frequency calls that travel miles and can warn us that an individual animal is in danger.”

Mustafa Kutlu’s research focuses on developing rehabilitation technology that will enable stroke patients to receive effective therapy in their own homes. He explains: “We are extremely proud of the technology we have been developing over the last two years, and are excited that its importance has been recognised in this way. We have been working closely with clinicians and people with stroke to make sure the rehabilitation systems address the needs of the 1.2m stroke survivors in the UK. An event like SET for BRITAIN brings us closer to the goal of getting this technology into people’s homes.”

Andrew Miller MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee said, “This annual competition is an important date in the parliamentary calendar because it gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country’s best young researchers.

“These early career engineers, mathematician and scientists are the architects of our future and SET for BRITAIN is politicians’ best opportunity to meet them and understand their work.”

The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee run the SET for BRITAIN event in collaboration with the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Council for the Mathematical Sciences, the Institute of Physics, The Physiological Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Society of Biology and the Society of Chemical Industry, with financial support from BP, Wiley, Essar, INEOS, the Clay Mathematics Institute, Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), the Bank of England and the Institute of Biomedical Science.

Our 2015 Engineering and Technology Careers Fair was the biggest and most successful so far, with 85 companies in attendance and over 950 student visitors.

The annual Fair, which began in 2008, is a key feature of the year-round careers and employability activities organized by Electronics and Computer Science and the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, enabling students to meet and engage with some of the UK’s leading technology companies, and to find out more about long-term career prospects and internships. Companies also welcome the opportunity to speak to students who are interested in their business, and to highlight their opportunities in a very competitive market for highly skilled students.

"It’s always a very lively day," said Careers Fair Director, Joyce Lewis. "There’s a huge amount of energy and excitement in the room, which you sense as soon as you step through the door.

"Our students have a very good idea of what they are looking for in their careers, so they are always keen to meet the companies and find out more about specific development routes open to them - particularly the kinds of technologies they might be working with. Many of the companies have ECS graduates on their stands, who can offer useful insights into module choices and project work."

Trends this year included a greater representation of energy companies, and a strong demand for graduates focusing on security. The Fair’s ‘Innovation Zone’ included 11 companies from the SetSquared initiative, based at the University Science Park, highlighting the importance of new technologies and start-ups in driving forward technology.

"The Fair continues to demonstrate the huge number of opportunities that are open to our students," said Joyce Lewis. "But while it’s a major part of our careers activities, we also work closely with the companies throughout the year and really value these strong relationships and the support given to our students.

"This year in particular we have welcomed companies most weekends to run challenges and competitions in our labs, and almost every weekday evening in term has seen a company coming to our building to give a presentation. This really helps build the students’ awareness of what the companies offer and what is the best choice for them." Next year’s Fair takes place on Tuesday 9 February ... full information about careers and employability events is available at the Careers Hub.

The Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science, has awarded Professor Hywel Morgan the Wolfson Research Merit Award for his outstanding research work.

Jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the scheme aims to provide universities with additional support to enable them to attract science talent from overseas and retain respected UK scientists of outstanding achievement and potential.

Professor Hywel Morgan, professor of Bioelectronics in Electronics and Computer Science and Deputy Director of the University’s Institute for Life Sciences, received his award for his research into ‘Low cost thin film transistor electronic systems for healthcare and diagnostics’.

Professor Morgan says: “My research focuses on the fusion of low cost electronic devices with microfluidic systems for next generation miniature diagnostic systems. The long term goal is to develop sophisticated yet inexpensive analytical devices that have a wide range of applications, from allowing doctors to make faster and more accurate diagnosis, to answering fundamental research questions about disease.

“I am thrilled and honoured to have received this award from the Royal Society and Wolfson Foundation. It will allow me and my group to push forward our research in this very exciting and fast moving interdisciplinary field.”

Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi, Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering also commented: “I am delighted to see this recognition of Professor Morgan’s outstanding interdisciplinary research which is having a strong impact in this area of medical diagnosis.”

Professor Morgan is one of two University of Southampton professors among the Royal Society’s new Wolfson Research Merit appointments. Professor Tim Minshull, a marine geophysicist within Ocean and Earth Science, has also received the award for his research into ‘The ocean-continent transition at magma-poor rifted margins’.

ECS Electronic Engineering students Dominic Maskell and Nathan Ruttley were invited to take part in the final of the Capgemini Super Techies competition, held in London earlier this month.

Over 200 teams had entered for the competition, with 16 making it through to the final. This is the first year that Capgemini had held the competition in the UK, although it has been a feature of their Indian operation for a number of years. Only 12 universities in the UK were selected to take part. The competition asked teams of two students to review a business case study, and to make innovative recommendations to solve the challenges involved.

The teams were asked to submit a short presentation of three slides, and to outline their solution including both technology and business ideas. Dominic and Nathan successfully took part in nationwide heats before being invited to the UK Final in the company's London offices.

Dominic and Nathan, who are in the second year of their MEng Electronic Engineering degrees at the University, came second in the group stage of the competition and plan to enter again next year. 'I really enjoyed taking part in this event,' said Dominic, 'and would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in combining technology and business.

'Not only did it give Nathan and I a chance to improve our presentation skills and receive detailed feedback, but also to network with Capgemini graduates. Overall, it was great fun and we are proud we got as far as we did.'

'Congratulations to Dominic and Nathan on an excellent achievement,' said Professor Neil White, Head of Electronics and Computer Science. 'We encourage our students to take part in these challenges, and it is especially good to see that Dominic and Nathan excelled not only in the engineering context but also on their business acumen too!'

Professor William Webb, President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and alumnus of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), will be giving an Engineering@Southampton distinguished lecture at the University of Southampton on Wednesday 6 May.

His lecture is entitled: ‘The Internet of Things: why is the promise taking so long to fulfil?’. Professor Webb will consider the fact that the Internet of Things promises much: to make our world work better, improve healthcare, reduce congestion and much more. But despite that fact that 50 billion devices are predicted within a decade, little has happened. William will discuss why this is the case, and explore the lack of wireless connectivity standards in some areas and the plethora in others. He will look at how standards are formed and become widely accepted; the key drivers and motivators of the major players in the industry; and, finally, he will predict how we might resolve the connectivity issue and reach the promised 50 billion.

William, who is the youngest President of the IET for over 100 years, has held a number of senior positions in the IT and telecommunications sectors. He began his engineering career at Southampton in 1986 and after completing his undergraduate degree in Electronic Engineering, he embarked on a PhD with Professor Ray Steele and also worked for his consultancy company part-time. He has held a number of senior positions in the IT and telecommunications sectors. He is currently CEO of the Weightless SIG, the standards body developing a new global M2M technology. He is also a Director at Webb Search, an independent wireless communications consultancy.

He was one of the founding directors of Neul, a company developing machine-to-machine technologies and networks, which was formed at the start of 2011. Prior to this he was a Director at Ofcom where he managed a team providing technical advice and performing research across all areas of Ofcom’s regulatory remit. He also led some of the major reviews conducted by Ofcom including the Spectrum Framework Review, the development of Spectrum Usage Rights and most recently cognitive or white space (refers to frequencies allocated to a broadcasting service but not used locally) policy. He worked for a range of communications consultancies in the UK in the fields of hardware design, computer simulation, propagation modelling, spectrum management and strategy development, as well as spending three years providing strategic management across Motorola’s entire communications portfolio, based in Chicago.

ECS Entrepreneurs will be hosting a Dragons' Den event on campus on Saturday 2 May and graduates from 2014 are eligible to pitch their business ideas for real investment.

ECS students have a reputation for their commitment to enterprise and to developing new business ideas and technology applications. The ECS Entrepreneurs society has been encouraging student enterprise since it was founded two years ago, and it is now moving to directly help students fund and develop their business ideas through an exciting Dragons' Den event.

All current students in the University as well as graduates from 2014 have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to 'Dragons' who include Southampton graduates Max Toti and Russell Champion.

The event takes place in the Bridge Bar of the Students' Union, Highfield Campus, from 2 pm on Saturday 2 May. To find out more about pitching your business idea or attending the event, see the event webpage: http://www.ecs-entrepreneur.com/dragonsden

Following a successful completion of the 3-year research and development project ‘Development of a Hollow Cathode Thruster’, the Tony Davies High Voltage Laboratory (TDHVL) has recently started an international partnership programme with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

“The hollow cathode is one of the key components for modern propulsion thruster designs, which emits electrons for long-time space applications”, said project leader Professor Steve Gabriel.

The collaboration aims to:

• Establish the scaling laws and physical modelling of hollow cathodes for a variety of current classes
• Develop a 100-A-class hollow cathode design for future high power electric propulsion
• Enable space applications of high power electric propulsion in Japan and the UK based on the cathode technology achieved by this collaboration.

Fundamental to this work is TDHVL’s knowledge and research ability in numerical modelling techniques, as well as its research strength in state-of-the-art space science. The partnership will be the cornerstone for future international R&D collaborations between TDHVL and JAXA.

Southampton research is underpinning a new project that could revolutionise power cable performance.

The University of Southampton will be collaborating with energy companies, a technology innovation company and cable manufacturers to develop a new generation of insulation material for power cables, to improve their performance in onshore applications and for the growing offshore renewable energy industry.

The technology underpinning the project was initiated nearly two decades ago by University academic Professor Alun Vaughan and his team, who showed that by blending together different polymers it was possible to retain the desirable characteristics of each of the components and produce materials with significantly improved overall performance. They initially demonstrated the viability of this using different polyethylenes, before moving on to the much more challenging and novel case of polypropylene.

The attraction of polypropylene is that the resulting materials are able to withstand higher temperatures. In cable applications, this means that greater fluctuations in power flow can be accommodated, leading to improved reliability in future power networks that will include an increasing proportion of intermittent renewable generation. To achieve this, after the material development phase, the next steps will be to adapt the cable manufacturing process and to test the compatibility of the concept with the accessories system of the grid.

Over the past 20 years the concept has been developed and is now being translated to engineering a new generation of power cables with the new three-year SUSCABLE II project. The collaboration sees Southampton working with the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, GnoSys Global Ltd, National Grid, Scottish Power and cable manufacturers.

Alun, Head of the Electronics and Electrical Engineering research group in Electronics and Computer Science, said: “It is very rewarding to see work that we initiated as pure, curiosity-driven research being developed into real-world applications that can help provide solutions to some of the biggest energy transmission challenges facing the world today.

“We hope that the materials expertise that Southampton can bring to this collaboration will be fundamental in developing a medium voltage cable design that will be taken to market. Ultimately, our aim is to be at the forefront of this major change in cable technology and use this project as a springboard to develop high voltage cables using thermoplastics, which will provide better performance in service and can be recycled at the end of life.”

ORE Catapult Innovation Engineering & Programmes Director Chris Hill added: “Innovative technological improvements in the performance of onshore and undersea power cables is an important step in the drive to lengthen the life of connections between offshore wind turbines, and between wind and marine offshore renewable energy power stations and onshore connections, improving their ability to handle increasingly variable peak loads.

“Using innovative materials and testing their robustness and resilience in cable designs could lead to a step change in electrical cable technology, and ultimately drive down whole life network costs.”

Regius Professor Nick Jennings has been selected to advance the world-leading teaching and research of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton.

Professor Jennings, a Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government, will assume the high-profile post as head of the ECS in August.

He replaces Professor Neil White, who completes an accomplished term of four and a half years which maintained the academic unit’s reputation as one of the best places in the world to study electronics, electrical engineering, computer science, web science and IT.

“I’m delighted and honoured to be the next head of ECS,” Professor Jennings said. “It’s a fantastic department with great staff and students.

“I look forward to seeing us continue to lead nationally and internationally in our research, education and enterprise endeavours and to making the most of the fact that we combine computer science and electronics in the same department.”

Professor Jennings’ expertise in the areas of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and agent-based computing led to an appointment last year as the UK’s inaugural Regius Professor of Computer Science.

Across a distinguished career, he has generated more than £23 million in research grants, published more than 550 articles and graduated more than 40 PhD students.

Professor Bashir M Al-Hashimi, Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, said: “Nick has been doing some excellent work and I’m looking forward to working with him as Head of ECS and as a member of our Faculty Executive Group.

“This outstanding academic unit has a rich history in innovative research and enterprise combined with world-leading education, and I am confident that Nick is the best person to take it forward to even greater success.”

The University of Southampton is rated first in the UK for the volume and quality of research in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and 100 per cent of Computer Science research impact was recognised as world-leading or internationally excellent in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework.

The institution is in the UK top 3 for Electronics and Electrical Engineering and the UK top 10 for Computer Science and IT, according to the Guardian University Guide and Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2015.

ECS Electronics students have achieved outstanding results in this year’s competition for scholarships offered by the United Kingdom Electronic Skills Foundation (UKESF), gaining 18 places on the Scholarship Programme and consolidating the department’s reputation for consistent success at the top of the UKESF ‘league table’.

The UKESF Scholarship Programme has been running for five years. It was established by the National Microelectronics Institute (NMI) to help attract, prepare and retain talent for the UK electronics industry, and to ensure and enhance its global leadership position. Partners include some of the UK’s leading companies as well as partner universities noted for their excellence in electronics research and education.

The ECS students receiving Scholarships this year will gain a financial award of £1655 for each year of their studies, as well as the opportunity to undertake paid summer placements with some of the UK’s leading companies. ECS students will this year be joining: ARM, SCR, Plextek Consulting, Imagination Technologies, Swindon Silicon Systems, Selex ES, AWE, STFC, Nvidia, Atmel Technologies, Dialog Semiconductor, Fujitsu, and Cirrus Logic. Students also gain industrial mentoring and professional development training at UKESF Summer Workshops.

“This is another fantastic result for Southampton, with 18 ECS students being awarded new scholarships,” said Dr Geoff Merrett, Associate Professor in ECS. “It is a testament to the quality and enthusiasm of our students, and to the high regard that industry has for them.” The ECS achievement this year extends not only to the award of the largest number of scholarships (over 25 per cent of the total awarded), but to the success rate in terms of the ratio of applications to awards, which is higher than any other university department in the programme. Since the Scholarships were inaugurated, ECS has also gained more awards (51) than any other department.

Many ECS students have benefited from the Scholarship programme over recent years, as well as from the summer placements and summer school. “The UKESF programme has really helped my development as an engineer,” said Josh Oldfield, who is in the third year of his MEng degree in Electronic Engineering and has undertaken placements with ARM. “It has given 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 embark on their engineering careers.”

In 2014 Josh was nominated for the title of UKESF Scholar of the Year, one of two finalists for this annual title awarded by the NMI. Over the course of the Programme ECS has had two winners for the title Scholar of the Year (Adam Malpass in 2011 and Ashley Robinson in 2013), as well as three runners-up: Josh Oldfield, Sam Hipkin and Tom Dell).

“We fully support the aims of the UK Electronics Skills Foundation and value highly the opportunities created for students,” says Professor Neil White, Head of Electronics and Computer Science. “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.

“This year we are also extremely pleased that one-third of our 18 Scholarships have been awarded to female students, underlining the considerable efforts the department is making through our outreach programme and our Athena Swan initiative to improve diversity in our subject at university and in industry more widely.”

------- 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.