October ISSS PhD/RA seminar

The next informal ISSS PhD/RA seminar will be on Thursday October 22nd and we have an 'afternoon tea' slot with free tea/coffee/cake and nibbles. Please confirm intended attendance to Rolf Baxter (R.H.Baxter@hw.ac.uk) by Wednesday October 21st.

This months we have a Entrepreneurship session with 2 speakers presenting for about 20 minutes each followed by free cake and nibbles.

Our 'bit different' slot this month is being presented by Research Associate Steven Hammer who will be talking about his experiences taking part in the Converge Challenge (http://convergechallenge.com/) this year and last. He has won some prizes along the way and will be sharing some of the hard-won experience he's gained while developing his research idea into a possible commercial product.

On a similar theme - Puneet Chhabra will be rehearsing for the EPSRC ICT Pioneers event in which he has 5 minutes to talk about his PhD to a panel of experts from industry and academia. Please come along to help him practice his 5 minute pitch (a short, more technical discussion will follow his rehearsal).

Talk 1: Dr Steven Hammer - IMPEE RA

Title: Commercialising your research: some notes from my journey so far.

Why should you commercialise your research? What benefit does it have for your career? Will it change the world?
I entered the Converge Challenge this year and last year, won some prizes, and received lots of help, encouragement and training as my business idea has developed. I've been working on a medical device that may improve the diagnosis of prostate cancer, and would like to share some of my hard-won experiences as I've developed a research idea into a possible commercial reality.

Steven has worked for 13 years in the medical R&D field in both academia and the commercial sector. His primary training is in mechanical engineering, but he has also worked in medical imaging, optics and programming. He works in Heriot-Watt University as a research associate in IMPEE. He is also a co-director of Palpation Diagnostics, a medical devices company that aims to make prostate cancer diagnosis faster, cheaper and less painful.

Talk 2: Puneet Chhabra - ISSS PhD

Puneet’s talk will be divided into two parts. The first 5 minutes will be a non-technical presentation, a rehearsal for the EPSRC ICT Pioneers 2015 event where he will be talking about his PhD work. After clearing two stages of the EPSRC competition he has been invited for the stage 3 of this competition, among 12 others, at the Queen Elizabeth Centre, Westminster. More in-depth details will follow in a technical presentation for the next 10-15 minutes of his talk.

Title: Anomaly detection and classification of lidar and sonar signals in clutter.

Information made available using modern sound navigation and ranging (Sonar) or light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors is highly redundant. The data consists of highly correlated and densely sampled version of the physical world, sensed by the sensor. Extraction of relevant information which to an extent defines the underlying process that causes such an observation in the first place is highly beneficial for signal reconstruction or recognition. This work proposes an approach that finds efficient representations for complex signals, e.g., underwater sound signals or Full-waveform LiDAR signals. In particular, the focus is on the design and selection of a compact, optimal and non-linear subspace, a dictionary. The findings are reported when the proposed approach is applied to anomaly detection and classification of lidar and sonar signals.

This is a regular series for ISSS PhDs/RAs to present information about what we do in an informal setting and to hear about something ‘a bit different’. Suggested topics for the 'bit different' talk are always welcome, as are volunteers for the technical talk.

Hoping to see you all there.