iSLI Research Student Wins Prestigious Fellowship For The Second Year

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:31:46 GMT

Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K. -- A prestigious Fellowship has been awarded to one of iSLI's EngD research students, Thomas Perry. The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 has awarded the second year its Industrial Fellowship to support his research developing new computer solutions using ultra high-performance chips called Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) as part of an alliance of high-tech organisations, including Scottish Enterprise.

Part of a multi-million pound project and through FPGA technologies, the project hopes to revolutionise the development of mission-critical applications and help deal with the massive processing requirements needed in areas such as drug design, defence, seismology, medical imaging and mobile telecoms.

The Commission's Fellowship programmes, established in 1891, have greatly benefited recipients of the award in the past, with 12 winners going on to receive Nobel prizes. Only four of these fellowships are awarded annually to students enrolled for EngD degrees. This is the second consecutive year that the Institute has hosted an EngD Industry Fellowship from the Royal Commission. In 2009, Matthew Robbetts, sponsored by Wolfson Microelectronics and supervised by Dr Stephan Weiss of the University of Strathclyde, was also selected for an award for his research into acoustic noise-cancellation techniques for mobile phone applications.

Presenting the Fellowship to Tom Perry, Mr Nigel Williams-Commission Secretary stated: "The 1851 Royal Commission is delighted to work with EngD Centres to identify top students as candidates for its Industrial Fellowship programme, which shares similar aims to support research excellence for the benefit of productive industry."

"I am truly honoured to receive such a prestigious award and be placed alongside the 1851 Commission's previous fellows. The fellowship will present new opportunities in my work including a generous travel allowance that will allow me to travel to Xilinx Research Laboratories company HQ in San Jose, where my research project is likely to depend heavily on the research conducted there and will help me achieve the very best in my EngD at iSLI. I am delighted," said Thomas Perry.

Fellowships and grants from the Royal Commission are only awarded to research students in science and engineering, applied research in industry, industrial design and other projects supporting the development of science and technology. The Commission decided to develop an idea to exclusively support students registered for the EngD degree in the UK. The Institute for System Level Integration is the only UK establishment providing the Engineering Doctorate in System Level Integration and is extremely pleased that Thomas, one of their second year research students and a graduate from the University of Cambridge, is the second consecutive iSLI student to be selected for the Fellowship.

Siân Williams, EngD Centre Manager at iSLI, comments on the Royal Commission Fellowship, "The Institute is thrilled for Thomas and extremely proud that hisresearch with Xilinx Inc and the Scottish Enterprise-backed FHPCA programme is being recognised by this truly historic body. The Royal Commission's legacy of supporting engineering, stretching back to the middle of the 19th century, is remarkable; we are very grateful for the Commission's continued encouragement of UK engineering excellence and its championing of young British engineering talent".

Thomas's Fellowship will begin in September for three years, offering an enhanced stipend to the student, as well as extending benefits to the sponsoring organisation, Scottish Enterprise and the University of Edinburgh, where Thomas's academic supervisors Dr Khaled Benkrid and Dr Mark Parsons are based; including an

iSLI researcher wins Student Engineer of the Year 2009 for third year running

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:38:17 GMT

An iSLI student has achieved outstanding success in the European Electronics Industry Awards, winning the prestigous Student Engineer of the Year prize at a ceremony in London this week.

The award - which celebrates exceptional students in electronics and software - went to Simon Brown, who judges praised for an exceptional research project that demonstrated a combination of both technical knowledge and practical application of skill. Brown's win, which carried the day in a hotly contested category, marks the third year in a row that an iSLI student has won the coveted title.

"I am delighted and honoured to have been presented with this award. Full credit must go to my tutors at iSLI however. The guidance they have given me over the course of my time at the Institute has been invaluable, and in all honesty I don't think I would have enjoyed this level of success without their help and advice," said Brown.

Brown's achievement continues the successful legacy established by previous iSLI EngD students - Carol Marsh and Nazish Aslam - who walked away with the Award in 2008 and 2007. Currently on placement at Teledyne Defence in Shipley, Simon has been working on a radar threat warning receiver seen as a ground-breaking product due to being smaller, lighter and less power hungry than any other system on the market.

iSLI's latest success has been amplified by the winning of the 1851 fellowship, won this year by another EngD student, demonstrating the calibre of research projects iSLI coninues to support and their relevance to industry. Providing the critical link between the academic and commercial engineering worlds, iSLI prides itself on producing highly skilled design engineers and researchers through postgraduate education and research.

"We are extremely pleased for Simon, who has displayed great skill and expertise throughout his time with us. This recognition is well-deserved for such an outstanding mind, while the fact that his success completes a hat trick of Student Engineer of the Year wins for iSLI students serves to underline what a talented group of young engineers we have here," said Siân Williams, EngD Centre Manager at the Institute for System Level Integration (ISLI).

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iSLI Research Student Wins Prestigious Fellowship For The Second Year

iSLI researcher wins Student Engineer of the Year 2009 for third year running