Dr. Carolina Mateo-Segura has supervised Miss Yik Yik Maryann Beh, a Nuffield Student from S6 Broughton High School in Edinburgh, through the Nuffield Research Placement programme for two months during summer 2017. The programme is run by the Nuffield Foundation which funds research, analysis, and student programmes that advance educational opportunity and social well-being across the United Kingdom. The placements provide the opportunities for individual students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to develop their skills and confidence in quantitative and scientific methods. Yik was involved in the development of an FMCW radar system together with a 2nd year student in EECE. During this time, she has gained basic skills of electronics, signal processing, and programming. All these experiences give her already a good taste of what an electrical engineering degree entails. A final event where Yik Yik presented her work was hold at the Royal College of Surgeons celebrated in Edinburgh at the end of the placement.
This year’s Midlothian Science Festival in Edinburgh was led by Dr Carolina Mateo-Segura. The Science Festival took place in September 2017 and shows that Science, Engineering and Technology is a key part of the Midlothian’s cultural identity. It infuses into the natural and historic environment the following key elements:- food and drink; health care and sporting achievements; and,the creative arts. The activities showcased at the Dalkeith Library and Arts Centre by the team were designed to inspire and engage visitors of all ages and background in science, engineering and technology. It was full of mind-blowing experiments to raise the aspirations of local children and cultivate the next generation of scientific/engineer explorers!
Thank you to Mr. Pascual Hilario Re, Mr. Adrian Ayastuy Rodriguez, Mr. Rahil Joshi, Mr. Zhou Zhou and Miss Raquel Buitrago Jimenez who volunteer their time to help in running the event!!
DORADA Fellows, Dr. Carolina Mateo-Segura and Prof. George Goussetis together with several PhD students from the Microwave and Antenna Engineering Group in Heriot-Watt University, participated in this year’s Explorathon 2017; an event held at the WHALE ARTS Agency in Edinburgh during September 2017. This day-long event was part of Explorathon European Researchers’ Night across Scotland. Here, we showcased our recent progress on both near- and –far field wireless power transmission devices based on either electromagnetic coupling or high power antennas together with simple experiments of light and sound. Photos of the event can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/beltanenetwork/
In March 2017 Undergraduates in Electrical Engineering visited Leonardo’s facilities at Crewe Toll in Edinburgh for a private session which aimed to align their employability skills with the company’s recruitment campaign. As well as learning first-hand information about summer/MEng placements, industrial internships and graduate programmes, students in Electrical Engineering enjoyed a private tour around this modern engineering company, learning where and how Leonardo designs, manufactures and tests their radar and laser products.
“It is very important that our students understand what a career in high frequency engineering involves, the required skills and the prospects for career development. Leonardo is a major corporation in Aerospace, Defence and Security, which is just a stone’s throw away from Heriot-Watt and by working together we can support the development of our future engineers.” Dr Carolina Mateo-Segura, Assistant Professor, Heriot- Watt University
The event took place in parallel to the learning and teaching strategies developed by the RF- and Microwave Engineering group, which aims to involve industry in designing the current curriculum and projects. It also took place in parallel to the learning and teaching strategies developed by the RF- and Microwave Engineering group, which aims to involve industry in designing the current curriculum and projects. Neil Raphael, lead Engineer at Leonardo, hopes to make it an annual event in an effort to accelerate their graduate recruitment process through a plan of action and re-setablishing the collaboration between Leonardo and Heriot-Watt University.
Equate Scotland, Women in Science, Engineering and Technology has been in Heriot-Watt presenting a series of thought-provoking activities and discussions, exploring lawful ways of increasing women’s participation and progression in STEM. The workshop highlighted unconscious bias in a STEM context and the actions required to encourage talented women to join and stay in STEM. Women and girls have the skills and aptitudes needed to thrive in science, technology and engineering, yet remain grossly underrepresented. STEM academia needs these skills, along with the new ideas and problem solving that flourish in diverse workforces. Dr. Carolina Mateo-Segura who participated in this programme said “You cannot be what you cannot see; girls need to see the roles of women in engineering careers, the picture that we are projecting does not justify the range of disciplines that engineering embrace. We need to get out there and inspire girls by communicating our own vision with the hope to make a better informed decision and bring diversity to this field.”
Dr. Carolina Mateo-Segura attended the clinic “Use of Big Data to Bring About Transformation of the Production Environment” at Leonardo, UK organised by the Centre for Engineering Education & Development. The clinic looked at how Leonardo Airborne and Space Systems Division is currently piloting the exploitation of big data within their manufacturing environment and how this could lead to the transformation of their production environment. Dominic Philpott Head of Industrial Engineering addressed the strategic aims and technology road map to implement Leonardo’s vision for large data management in the future. The event gathered together a community of businesses and academics with expertise, experience and resource in the pursuit of operational excellence. Dr. Carolina Mateo-Segura attended the clinic “Use of Big Data to Bring About Transformation of the Production Environment” at Leonardo, UK organised by the Centre for Engineering Education & Development. The clinic looked at how Leonardo Airborne and Space Systems Division is currently piloting the exploitation of big data within their manufacturing environment and how this could lead to the transformation of their production environment. Dominic Philpott Head of Industrial Engineering addressed the strategic aims and technology road map to implement Leonardo’s vision for large data management in the future. The event gathered together a community of businesses and academics with expertise, experience and resource in the pursuit of operational excellence. Dr. Carolina Mateo-Segura attended the clinic “Use of Big Data to Bring About Transformation of the Production Environment” at Leonardo, UK organised by the Centre for Engineering Education & Development. The clinic looked at how Leonardo Airborne and Space Systems Division is currently piloting the exploitation of big data within their manufacturing environment and how this could lead to the transformation of their production environment. Dominic Philpott Head of Industrial Engineering addressed the strategic aims and technology road map to implement Leonardo’s vision for large data management in the future. The event gathered together a community of businesses and academics with expertise, experience and resource in the pursuit of operational excellence.
Dr. Carolina Mateo-Segura, Assistant Professor in the RF- and Microwave Group and Ms. Maria Kelly, Lead RF- Safety Specialist at Leonardo, have organised a private tour session for Heriot Watt’s Electrical Engineering students in 2nd and 3rd year to visit Leonardo’s facilities at Crewe Toll in Edinburgh. The students will learn first-hand information about summer/MEng placements, industrial internships and graduate programmes, as well as how Leonardo designs, manufactures and tests their radar and laser products. Dr. Mateo-Segura says, “This initiative aims to provide a nurturing environment where our students can understand what a career in high frequency engineering involves, the required skills and the career options available for them” The visits are scheduled for the 8th and 22nd of March at 13.00 and the school will provide a free bus service. If you are interested to join contact Dr. Carolina Mateo-Segura
Dr. Carolina Mateo-Segura has recently attended the “National Student Space Conference” organised by UKSEDS. The conference is a two-day weekend event bringing together industrial and academic experts in the space sector. Delegates are primarily undergraduate and recent graduate engineers and scientists, which makes this event unique. World leading industries from Thales Alenia Space, Airbus, Eumetsat or ESA participated and sponsor the event, all keen to raise awareness of their activities and career opportunities. “The UK space industry is growing by leaps and bounds and the breath of opportunities available is astonishing. You can be working building and operating a spacecraft or developing new technology for use in the next-generation of ground-station systems or upcoming satellite missions”, said Dr. Mateo-Segura. She has come back with a bunch of information for students at Heriot-Watt, therefore if you are interested in pursuing a career in the space industry contact Dr. Mateo-Segura
DORADA had a strong presence at Edinburgh’s Explorathon 2016 with a staffed stand at the City of Edinburgh Methodist Church. We shared our work on wireless technologies with the general public demonstrating a wireless power miniature car and contactless musical instrument enabled by radio technologies – Theremin. It was great fun for us, the kids and of course, the mums and dads! http://www.explorathon.co.uk/edinburgh
Undergraduate outreach event to encourage engineering careers
On Thursday 29 September Dr. Symon Podilchak, the DORADA fellow seconded from Heriot-Watt University to Space Engineering, delivered a motivational talk to undergraduate students at La Sapienza Univeristy in Latina, a suburb of Rome. The focus of the talk was applied electromagnetic engineering for microwave and millimetre-wave frequency devices with applications to wireless systems, radar, and satellite communications. The basic motivation of the talk was to show 2nd and 3rd year students, who are just being introduced to the physics and mathematics of electromagnetic principles, the practical and applied side of electromagnetic engineering. Basically such that students can appreciate that the basic concepts that they are learning now, can be actually very useful in a multitude of common engineering situations.DORADA fellow from Scotland reaches out to La Sapienza:
On Wednesday 21 September Dr. Symon Podilchak, the DORADA fellow seconded from Heriot-Watt Unviersity to Space Engineering, delivered a research seminar in La Sapienza Univeristy in Rome. The seminar, titled “Recent Developments of Planar Leaky-Wave Antennas Using Surface Waves” highlighted key findings undertaken as part of his involvement in DORADA including his 6-month secondment to Space Engineering. The seminar was well attended by faculty and reseach staff of La Sapienza and initiated collaborative opportunities and was coupled to the 2016 Nanoinnovation event.
DORADA’s test campaign has officially started!
DORADA have calibrated our Q-band receive terminal for the Aldo Paraboni propagation experiment and are now collecting and registering data.
Public engagement and outreach activities
DORADA for outreach in the UK: Between 30th September and 1st October we plan to participate with a stand in Explorathon, Scotland’s contribution to EU researchers Night. We will showcase our theremin which is sure to be a big success with visitors as we demonstrate how electromagnetic waves are used to play music remotely (yes, a bit like back to the future!). More information and photos from the day will be added soon!
DORADA for outreach in the Italy: Dr. Symon Podilchak, the DORADA fellow seconded from Heriot-Watt Unviersity to Space Engineering, will participate in a series of exciting Outreach activities in Italy. More information to follow!
16 December 2015 EM Group Seminars: The DORADA group has been taking part in a seminar programme which encourages members of thje group to take part and presnt their research to interested colleagues and visitors. On the 16 December Pascual D. Hilario Re hosted a seminar entitled 'Design Basics on Power Amplifiers' and Maria Jesus Canavate Sanchez's talk 'PA Intertmodulation Distortion Measurements Using the PNA' also attracted much interest. Please do view the presentations below:
25 November 2015 Equal Opportunties Network Afternoon Tea: Members of the DORADA research group met with other women within ISSS (Institute of Signals, Sensors & Systems) to discuss and reflect upon the positive changes that have been made to the induction process. Peer mentoring has helped to promote a strong, supportive culture in our School by providing an enhanced, student/staff led, induction process.The event was attended by colleagues new and old and was an opportunity for women within ISSS to meet and swap ideas as well as introduce new research topics/areas that may be of interest to their colleagues.
Electromagnetic Compatibility of Integrated Circuits Conference, Edinburgh: In order to provide a pertinent path for disseminating the activities of DORADA, Prof. George Goussetis and Dr. Carolina Mateo-Segura have joined the steering committee of the 10th International Workshop on the Electromagnetic Compatibility of Integrated Circuits, better known as EMC Compo 2015. This conference took place in Edinburgh between the 10th and 13th of November 2015, and hosted researchers and engineers from both industry (Cirrus Logic, Cadence, CST) and academia. Over 80 academic and industrial participants actively participate in this event.
16 November 2015 Mm-wave Satellite communication Workshop: “Mm-wave propagation and instrumentation": On the 16th of November 2015, DORADA hosted at Heriot Watt University the Mm-wave Satellite communication Workshop. The event brought together academics experts from the Polytechnic University of Milano, Prof. Carlo Riva, and industrial experts from NASA's Glenn Research Centre, Dr. James Nessel, in a day full of plenary talks and networking activities. This workshop served as a catapult to discuss the installation of a Q-band receiver for TDP5 at Heriot-Watt University. On this basis we are in the process of establishing this terminal as a joint co-funded activity, with NASA estimating to invest about US$50K in in-kind contribution with the aim of having the terminal operational in early 2016. The full Programme is available.
12-13 November 2015 Successful Mid-Term Review Meeting: Heriot- Watt University hosted the Dorada mid-term review meeting on the 12th-13th of November 2015. The meeting has been a success with very positive technical and personal comments from REA and the visiting technical expert.
28 October 2015 Extra-curricular RF- event for Electrical Electronic and Computer Engineering students: On the 28 October 2015, Prof. George Goussetis and Dr. Carolina Mateo-Segura together with the team in the Microwave and Antenna Engineering Group organised an extra-curricular event for Electrical Electronic and Computer Engineering students in Heriot-Watt University designed to illustrate the practice and research related to RF, microwave and antenna engineering. The event was orientated to students from 1st to 4th year and brought together an industrial expert on RF and antenna from SELEX ES (HWU graduate) and academics within the group on an informal social event with networking opportunities. A fun prize-winning student challenge competition was organised co-sponsored by a start-up company Omeveria .
5 September 2015 European Researchers' Night (Explorathon 2015): In our initiative to engage the public with our research, we showcased some of our research activity at the Grand Gallery Hall of the National Museum of Scotland on the 25th September 2015. The drop-in demo theme was 'Wireless Power transfer' where we explained how we are adapting traditional electromagnetic concepts to wirelessly transmit power to recharge electronic devices avoiding the need of cables, finding wall plugs and the massive use of environmentally unfriendly batteries. The event was part of the European Researchers' Night in Scotland and the event brought together academics, school pupils, and the public on the night across Europe to celebrate and present the best innovation and development taking place across the EU.
05 August 2015 Promotional Material for DORADA: Working together with the film and animation company Heehaw, we recorded a promotional video for DORADA. This video is at the centre of our website homepage and aims to give the general and specialist online audience an immediate overview of who we are, what the project is about, the final objective and how we aim to deliver this whilst keeping viewers entertained and engaged at the same time. For this initiative DORADA was awarded an 'Outreach' Oscar from HWU in an even focussing on Outreach.
July 2015: Virtual Lab Tour: With the view of providing to the general public an accessible opportunity to interactively explore the facilities within a microwave and engineering lab DORADA worked with the creative digital agency revolution viewing to record a 360 virtual tour of the HWU Microwave and Antenna Lab. To find out more information about the equipment in the room and the experiments see:http://www.revolutionviewing.co.uk/echo/heriot-watt-university/2015/07-july-vod-overhaul/360/pool/v-1a/index.html?360=1
Our promotional leaflet, 'Finding Solutions in antenna engineering and radio electronics' is available online.
July 2015 Brightest Watts Summer Week: The Brightest Watts Summer Week is a relaxed and informal way for new S5 pupils to learn more about university life. During the week they had the opportunity to experience a number of exciting science, technology, engineering, mathematics and business workshops. The Dorada a team helped the pupils to explore our Edinburgh campus and find out more about the reality of student life – the atmosphere was both friendly and supportive with the emphasis is on meeting new people, trying something new, learning new skills and boosting your confidence.
01 April 2015 Equal Opportunities Network: The Women in EECE/ISSS Networking Lunch took place on 1st April 2015 to celebrate both International Women's Day (IWD) and the launch of Women in EECE/ISSS Network. DORADA team members are involved in the Athena SWAN (Scientific Women's Academic Network) scheme. The aim of this is to increase the number of female researchers and academics in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects. A SWAN committee has been set up in the School to address ways to encourage more females to progress within the School, right from undergraduate through to research and academic level. As part of this, ISSS are planning to arrange formal and informal peer mentoring for all interested women in the institute. Peer mentoring will help to promote a strong, supportive culture in our School. The major aim of this mentoring will be to provide an enhanced, student/staff led, induction process.
February 2015: Glasgow Science Centre application for permanent stand:As part of our proactive activity in public engagement events, in February 2015 we submitted an application for a permanent stand and under demand a workshop for schools at the Glasgow Science Centre (GSC). This application aimed the Powering the Future initiative within the GSC which aims to raise awareness of how we will harness, store and use power in the future. The proposal is under discussion with Fiona Davies, Science Education Manager, who is managing this project.
August 2014 Explorathon: DORADA participated in the Explorathlon 2014 through the PhD in an hour program. In this event Jose-Antonio Garcia-Perez, first year PhD student from the Electrical and Physical Sciences School of Heriot-Watt University, who is working with high frequency and mm-wave power amplifiers shared his findings and ground-breaking ideas with other PhD students. He hosted the PhD in an hour session titled “Power combining techniques applied to power amplifiers for new communication systems”
August 2014 DORADA and the BBC: Kenneth McDonald, BBC Scotland Science Correspondent, interviewed Professor George Goussetis about DORADA. In this discussion, Prof. George Goussetis addressed the current issues to deliver high-speed broadband communications from orbit while on the move and the role of Heriot-Watt University and Space Engineering to deliver high communication data rates and improved quality of service to users on mobile platforms by means of exploiting the next generation of satellite signals. More details can be found in the BBC article 'Planes, trains and mobiles: Broadband from space while we're on the move' and ElectronicWeekly.com: http://www.electronicsweekly.com/university-electronics/heriot-watt-university/broadband-satellite-comms-planes-trains-mvsat-2014-06/Students and staff based in the UK and attending a place of Higher Education can also view the clip that aired on BBC Reporting Scotland. (please note that a UK HE log-in is required to view the clip)
June 2014: HWU Newsletter Press Release: DORADA activities were covered under the University press office and released in the weekly news and events information website:http://www.hw.ac.uk/news/satellite-project-fit-the-fast-track-17151.htm
June 2014: Jean-Marc Villevielle, Chief Operating Officer of Space Engineering, visited Heriot-Watt on 10 June 2014. Jean-Marc met with Professor George Goussetis and Professor Stephen McLaughlin, Head of School of Engineering and Physical Sciences. He also had an opportunity to engage in technical meetings with the DORADA research team and see the technology that has been developed under the project in action. The visit Heriot-Watt was covered in Electronics Weekly.
© ESA/Planck Collaboration. Acknowledgment: M.-A. Miville-Deschênes, CNRS – Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, Université Paris-XI, Orsay, France.© Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK EH14 4AS, Tel: +44 (0) 131 449 5111
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Marie-Curie Actions - Industry- Academia Partnerships and Pathways
