Celebrating EEE's world-leading work at the Festival of Research

The EEE Festival of Research is an opportunity to both showcase and develop the collaborations EEE has across our broad network of partners. There are many ways in which you can engage with the department across our portfolio of Education, Research and Innovation, you can explore these in more detail on our collaboration webpages. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/electronic-electrical-engineering/collaborate 

This is awarded by the EEE department to the student who submitted the best PhD thesis. A number of criteria is taken into account by the awarding committee such as publications record, previously received awards for research excellence, as well as the examiner reports on the thesis and the oral examination. The Lombardi Prize money has been generously donated by Professor Fabrizio Lombardi, a distinguished alumnus of the department who received both his MSc and PhD from UCL in the field of Microwave Engineering.

Awarded for the best student poster, in memory of Professor Alexander Cullen, former head of department and Faraday Medal recipient.

Professor Dame Helen Atkinson is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the highest honour for an engineer in the UK, and joined Cranfield University as Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing in September 2017.  She was previously at the University of Leicester where she was Head of the Department of Engineering and then served as Graduate Dean with oversight of PhD students across the whole university. Professor Atkinson was the first woman President of the Engineering Professors’ Council (the body which represents Engineering in universities throughout the UK) in its fifty-year history and has also served as a Vice President and Trustee of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2010 she won a national award as a Woman of Outstanding Achievement in Science, Engineering and Technology for ‘Leadership and Inspiration to Others’.  

Dame Helen is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (as a President’s nomination), a Fellow of the Institution of Materials, Minerals and Mining and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.  She has served on the Skills Panel of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (one of the world’s largest Engineering institutions), the Engineering Leaders Panel of the National Council for Universities and Business, and for five years was Chair of the Education and Skills Committee at the Royal Academy of Engineering. She has served as a government appointment on a major safety committee and chairs ‘This is Engineering’ for the Royal Academy of Engineering, a campaign which aims to encourage more young people to consider Engineering as a career and which has had more than sixty million video views by the target age group. She co-chaired the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) ‘Tomorrow’s Engineering Research Challenges’ major consultation, which launched its report in 2022.  

Helen was made a Dame in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2021 for services to Engineering and Education. 

The EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) Engineering theme initiated a major consultation in late 2021 to identify ‘Tomorrow’s Engineering Research Challenges’.  This initiative was arguably one of the largest engagement exercises performed with the engineering research community in recent years in the UK. It involved listening hard to a whole range of groups including: PhD students; early career researchers; EDI groups; Chief Technology Officers; professional engineering institutions; Royal Academy of Engineering; and Government Chief Scientific Advisors. The listening process highlighted significant opportunities for UK engineering research to play an even more major role in addressing the critical challenges facing the UK and the world. Engineering research needs to be more open, inclusive and integrated across the engineering disciplines and into the socio-technological realm.  

All images were photographed by James Tye. Click for access. 

EEE’s research community showcased over 110 research posters spanning innovative topics across electronic engineering. For a comprehensive poster list and associated abstract.