2000

→ Now

Alenia Marconi Systems / AMS / BAE Systems Insyte

Eastwood House, Glebe Road, Chelmsford, Essex

Wind farms technical authority

The issue of wind farm impact on radar performance has emerged as the major obstacle to development of the UK's wind energy. Civil and military radar stakeholders typically object to wind farm developments.

• I have taken the lead on the majority of BAE Systems wind farm work for both wind farm and radar stakeholders including the UK MoD, DTI and British Wind Energy Association.

• In close collaboration with the UK MoD and RAF, I have provided guidance for trials activities and co-ordinated the collection of a large set of radar / wind farm data during major air defence radar trials.

• I have undertaken detailed system analysis, radio propagation modelling and trials data analysis in order to understand and predict radar / wind farm interactions.

• I have successfully identified the causes and synthesised practical mitigation options in a number of definitive studies.

• I have influenced radar and wind farm stakeholders at a high level, in particular the UK MOD where I had an impact on policy making.

• I have become the recognised company and UK/NATO authority on the subject and published a number of reports and papers (see publications).

Radar spectrum management technical authority

The communications industry desire to make use of the L and S radio spectral bands. In these bands ~30% of the spectrum is currently allocated to radar systems and is currently unavailable. I have been involved in or lead a number of externally funded spectrum studies. These large studies have investigated radar vulnerabilities, the possible impact of communications systems interference and the potential impact of radar transmissions on communications systems:

• Spectrally Efficient Radar Systems: A 5-way collaborative civil study with a value of circa. £370K, involving teams from industry and academia, for Ofcom, where I successfully won the contract, negotiated work share with all the partners, project managed and technically lead the teams and was responsible for the successful delivery of the study.

• SPECTROC: A 3-nation European collaborative defence study with a value of circa. £300K, for the Western European Armaments Group (WEAG). I project managed and technically lead the UK team's contribution and was responsible for the successful delivery of the 3^rd and final work package.

• I have become the company's technical authority in this area, making recommendations for technology development both within the company and to stakeholders such as Ofcom.

Future technology engineering

The Engineering Capability and Technology group identifies and develops future technologies and techniques and is mainly funded through private venture (PV) capital. Working on a number of large and small PV and external projects in this group has been invaluable experience for developing the skills required to build and maintain my technical authority roles outlined above.

Systems engineering and modelling

All of the technical work I have undertaken has required a good understanding of both system engineering design and systems engineering principles:

• I have been able to exploit and extend my systems and performance modelling skills, which require a high level of competence in mathematical modelling.

• Modelling ballistic missile trajectories and tracking performance assessments, in close collaboration with Italian colleagues both in the UK and Rome, in support of a successful long range fixed air defence radar bid to NATO with a value in excess of €30M.

• Successfully developed large models, used to validate system performance on the S1850M major naval radar contract.

• My current role is the Modelling Validation Authority on SWMLU; one of Insyte's major defence contracts with a value of circa. £400Million.

1992

→ 1995

Sonardyne International Ltd, Blackbushe Business Park, Yately, Hampshire

Electronic Test Engineer

Sonardyne designs and manufactures underwater acoustic positioning equipment. I worked during each University summer holiday until my full time postgraduate education commenced.

1996

→ 2003

Ph.D. Radio Communications (3.5yrs full time and 3.5yrs part time)

Radio Systems Laboratory, Department of Engineering, University of Leicester

Superresolution direction finding algorithms were used to analyse signals propagated over disturbed high latitude ionospheric communications paths. Significant observed directional trends in both delay and Doppler were found to be caused by scattering from irregularities embedded in turbulent bulk convection flows. Spatial filtering, using 2 or 3 element arrays, was shown to improve the potential performance of HF modems under such disturbed conditions. A paper based on this work was awarded the IEE Maxwell Premium award for the best paper published in IEE Proceedings on Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation for the year 2000 – 2001.

Thesis title: Combined Channel Sounding and Direction Finding Studies of HF Radio Propagation Effects Observed Over High Latitude Communications Paths.

1995

→ 1996

MSc. Aerodynamics (Full time taught and research)

Department of Aerospace Science, College of Aeronautics, Cranfield University

Taught: 10 modules incl. High & low speed aerodynamic theory, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Flight Control theory, Missile aerodynamics and several module projects.

Research: The effect on drag of discontinuities along the trailing edge of a wing was tested using a 3D model in a low speed wind tunnel and compared with predictions based on computational models and a proposed theory of induced drag.

Thesis title: Investigation of the Effect of Spanwise Camber and Chord Discontinuities on the Induced Drag of a Wing.

1992

→ 1995

BSc. Hons. Physics (2.2)

Department of Physics, University of York

Main subject: Experimental Physics (F300)

Final Year Project: Investigation of the Hall Effect in a Low Density Plasma.

1990

→ 1992

Farnham College, Farnham, Surrey

4 A Levels: Physics (A), Chemistry (B), Biology (B), Mathematics (B)

1986

→ 1990

Heath End School, Farnham, Surrey

10 GCSEs grade A-C, incl. 3 separate sciences, Mathematics and Latin