SOCS student wins IET award
An innovative new radar system that can locate and produce 3D images of landmines has won an Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Innovation Award.
At this year's award ceremony, Dr Anand Sengodan and the University of Glasgow picked up the Emerging Technology Design Award for their SIMCA algorithm.
Pauls Cockshott and Siebert were the PhD supervisors of Dr Anand Sengodan whilst he was at the University of Glasgow. He was an unusual case: a computing student who was highly motivated by humanitarian concerns. He was passionate about the loss of life and injuries that were occurring due to landmines left over from past conflicts.
He resolved to use advanced image processing techniques to extract clear images of these mines from the normally very confusing traces that one gets on a ground penetrating radar trace. Normally such pictures are very hard to interpret looking like a complex interference pattern of diagonal lines.
By dint of his hard work over 3 years it became possible to reconstruct uncluttered 3 dimensional images of mines below ground without the distracting clutter that normally covers the image.
The images were so clear that one could readily distinguish even the type of mine that lay below the soil.
As a result of the advances he brought about, he was awarded a PhD from Glasgow University.
He was an excellent example of a highly motivated student applying his knowledge to a socially important task.