Summer School 2013
The 2013 UKESF Summer School was hosted by Imperial College from 8 to 11 July for 60 students all from different schools across the UK.
The course was delivered jointly by:
- UKESF partner universities; and
- Industry sponsors ARM, Broadcom Foundation, CSR, Dialog Semiconductor, Imagination Technologies and Jaguar Land Rover
From the universities
Illuminated trace of the variation in WiFi signals across the room
The students heard from leading academics on their research in areas including:
- Fast-fading in wireless networks with Prof Andy Nix, University of Bristol, demonstrating how to make Wi-Fi visible.
- How modern radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers are made efficient and reliable for today’s demanding communications market from Prof Johannes Benedikt, Cardiff University.
- Biometrics where computer vision and image processing are applied to the automatic identification of individual human gait, from Prof Mark Nixon, University of Southampton.
- Bio-inspire soft robots with sophisticated capabilities, like a quadrupedal robot that can walk to, and squeeze beneath, a gap in an obstacle; from Dr Adam Stokes, University of Edinburgh.
- Mobile robots for 21st century applications, from Prof Jon Timmis.
They also worked on lab projects with university academics, researchers, PhD students and lab technicians to get some hands-on electronics experience in:
- Designing an electronic product – the “Passion Meter” or “Decision Maker” – from initial concept to finished product, with Dr Tom Tate, Imperial College London
- Constructing a microphone pre-amplifier with Dr Simon Henley, University of Surrey
- Measuring and analysing structural vibrations by constructing a circuit on a prototyping board incorporating an accelerometer and voltage regulator, with Dr Danielle George, University of Manchester
Finding our about Electronics in Industry
Over a pizza supper, the students networked with engineers from the sponsoring companies to find out:
- What the companies do and make, even getting to see some demos;
- The roles their electronics engineers undertake; and
- The career opportunities for graduates.
And earlier that day they had presentations and a Q&A session with young engineers from ARM, Dialog Semiconductor and Imagination Technologies presenting on their careers since graduating.
What the participants thought
“I found the week absolutely excellent … talks were informative, plenty of opportunities to ask questions to many different people.”
“Lab sessions were amazing and fun, and it was very nice to be able to take kits home, like our passion meter.”
“The information I acquired is invaluable and all the opportunities presented to me are phenomenal.”
“Very good course overall – very informative, fun and enjoyable…..UKESF partnership was excellent – lots of new info. Great talks from graduates, students and others. Generally a fantastic week of learning and fun!”
“I thoroughly enjoyed the course, and was impressed by the vast range of activities and practicals.”