MEng University of Oxford (89-93) Engineering Science
SM (93-95) MIT Dept of Electical Engineering and Computer Science "Series Elastic Actuators" - Design and build of a novel robotic actuator that gives good quality force control from a cheap motor with a gearbox (which is generally quite hard!)
PhD (95-99) MIT EE+CS, "Robot Arm Control Exploiting Natural Dynamics" - Design and build of a variety of robot arms using the actuators designed in the masters, on various planetary rover robots and the humanoid robot Cog. Implemented a distributed control system that allowed the arms to perform complex rhythmic tasks (crank turning, pumping bicycle pumps, hitting, throwing, drumming) in a very simple way, by using controllers to guide the natural dynamics of the arm so that they were appropriate for the task.
Research Engineer, HP Labs Bristol (99- present). Initially worked
on digital media and digital rights, now part of the BICAS
(Biologically Inspired Complex Adaptive Systems) group. This group
looks at applying biologically-inspired algorithms to current
engineering problems, as well as more fundamental work in the area. I
am specifically involved in looking at biologically-inspired
approaches to computer security.