A clean sweep for TRANSNET at the IEEE Photonics Graduate Awards (2)
This year, three TRANSNET PhD students have been selected as recipients of the IEEE Photonics Society Award - a prestigious scholarship programme established to reward outstanding student members pursuing graduate education within the Photonics Society field of interest.
Callum Deakin was awarded an MSci in Physics from Imperial College London in 2017 and completed his MRes in 2018 after joining the UCL-Cambridge IPES CDT. During his MRes, his research projects focused on the development of perovskite-GaN hybrid materials for photonic applications and a study into the potential of beam steering switches for multicore fibres.
Callum joined the Optical Networks Group at UCL as a PhD student in October 2018, under the supervision of Dr. Zhixin Liu. His main area of expertise includes investigating optical frequency combs-based techniques for high resolution detection of wideband signals, with a focus on telecommunications applications.
Speaking about this rare opportunity, Callum said, “I am honoured to receive this recognition from the IEEE Photonics Society and hope it will help to further my research career. I would like to thank my supervisor Dr Zhixin Liu, along with my colleagues in the Optical Networks Group and the department, for the fantastic support that they have given me throughout my PhD."
Wenting Yi holds a Bachelor’s (BEng) degree in Electronic Information Engineering from Nanjing Forestry University in China. In 2017, she joined UCL pursuing an MSc in Wireless and Optical Communications, under the supervision of Prof. Robert Killey. Her Master’s thesis explored low-complexity heterodyne optical coherent transceivers.
Wenting joined the Optical Networks Group in September 2018 as a PhD student, working under the supervision of Prof. Robert Killey and Prof. Polina Bayvel. Her research interests include digital signal processing algorithms, optical transceivers and remote sensing.
Commenting on being selected as one of the top graduate students in the field of photonics, Wenting said, “I am very honored to receive the IEEE Photonics Society Graduate Student Scholarship. This is an exceptional acknowledgment of my research work. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisors Prof. Robert I. Killey and Prof. Polina Bayvel, and our Optical Networks Group members, Dr. Zhe Li, Dr. Lidia Galdino and Dr. Zhixin Liu, for their great support and guidance for me and my research. I would also like to thank our TRANSNET co-investigator Prof. Sergei K. Turitsyn from Aston University for supporting my application.”
Pedro Freire holds a Bachelor's and a Master's in Electrical Engineering from the Federal University of Pernambuco, with an additional year and a half of study at the State University of New York and the State University of San Francisco. His Master's Thesis in the field of photonics proposed a novel metaheuristic based on evolutionary algorithms to solve the RMLSA problem. Current recipient of the distinguished Marie-Curie (MSCA) doctoral fellowship and Early State Researcher at Aston University and Infinera, his PhD thesis involves the development of new machine learning techniques to mitigate nonlinear impairments in multi-user optical fiber systems. His main areas of expertise include advanced digital signal processing and coding, network monitoring and planning, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and hardware DSP implementation.
Reflecting on his thoughts on receiving this award, Pedro commented, "Quoting the British biologist Marx Perutz, "Upon hearing the news [of the award], a friend who knows me all too well sent me this coded message: "Blood, sweat, and tears are always a good combination." This award is the result of two and a half years of hard work bridging the machine learning and optical communication worlds under the fantastic supervision of Prof. Sergei Turitsyn, Dr. Yaroslav Prylepskiy (Jaroslaw E. Prilepsky), Dr. Antonio Napoli, PhD, and Dr. Bernhard Spinnler, who gave me all the support I needed. Stay tuned for the upcoming new results that will continue to push the boundaries of what is known in this rapidly developing field of machine learning in digital signal processing."
- About the Award
The IEEE Photonics Society established the Graduate Student Scholarship Program to recognise outstanding students members who advance technology in the Society's field of interest. The scholarship is awarded annually to 10 of the best PhD students following a rigorous selection process since it was first set up in 1999. It acknowledges the contributions of the graduate students on a global stage to the photonics community.
A heartfelt congratulations to Callum Deakin, Wenting Yi, and Pedro Freire on this wonderful achievement!