UCL EEE PhD students awarded the prestigious IEEE Photonics Graduate Scholarship

Callum Deakin and Wenting Yi, both PhD students at the Optical Networks Group and members of the TRANSNET group, have been announced as the recipients of the IEEE Photonics Society Graduate Student Scholarship Award.

The IEEE Photonics Society established the Graduate Student Scholarship Program to recognise outstanding student members who advance technology in the Society’s field of interest. 

Callum Deakin
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
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.”

Please join us in congratulating both Callum and Wenting once again for this wonderful achievement!

Links

• 2022 IEEE Photonics Society Award Recipients Announced 
• Callum Deakins's profile
• Wenting Yi's profile
• TRANSNET