University of Glasgow Student Shortlisted as Rising Star of the Year 2023 at the Institution of Engineering and Technology

Published: 14 September 2023

Mr. Daniel Mitchell is a PhD Student where his research focusses on the design and development of symbiotic multi-robot fleets, digital twins and non-destructive sensing for inspection and maintenance.

The Autonomous Systems and Connectivity Division and Smart Systems Group are delighted to announce that their PhD Student Researcher, Mr. Daniel Mitchell has been shortlisted as a finalist for this year's IET Excellence and Innovation Awards in the Rising Star of the Year Category. This years ceremony will take place on the 15th of November 2023 at the Glasgow Science Festival which is located on the banks of River Clyde. 

Daniel has been shortlisted amongst candidates at the BT Group, FHP Engineering Services Solutions, Inclutech, Protium, and the University of Oxford.

Daniel's innovation includes the design and development of a disruptive new thinking in the space of symbiotic autonomy where the interdisciplinary research explores how people can create productive and enabling partnerships with autonomous systems where robots leverage their capabilities within a Symbiotic Multi-Robot Fleet to overcome challenges in resilience and reliability. This work has been published in international conferences and presented as an invited speaker. He was a vital member of the Offshore Robotics for the Certification of Assets (ORCA) Hub which led to early publication during his PhD where he presented a live multi-robot team mission to around ten stakeholders such as EDF Renewables, Chevron and the University of Edinburgh.

Symbiotic Multi-Robot Fleet of the future

Daniel also leads projects using a novel microwave sensing machinsim for Non-Destructive Evaluation for Asset Integrity Inspection and Foresight Monitoring for robotic platforms. The sensor has the ability to detect surface and subsurface features of different dielectric materials which positions it with the potential to discover new operation and maintenance procedures for wind turbine blade inspectioncivil infrastructure monitoring and salt detection and disperal

Recently, Daniel established an international partnership with California Institute of Technology (Caltech) where he has been enrolled to conduct a project in Los Angeles, California, for a duration of 3 months. In pursuit of this project, he successfully won funding to support the proposal from the University of Glasgow Mobility Award, MacTaggart Scott Awards and the Scottish International Education Trust to support the project.

Daniel has made a significant positive impact by fostering collaboration among world-changing engineers to solve real-world challenges, breaking down barriers, and encouraging students and researchers to work together in teams.

Daniel has demonstrated himself as an exceptional research talent with a passion for driving new learning and solutions towards grand challenges where he is an excellent ambassador for the new generation of Scottish Talent. He founded the @Robot_Myths TikTok which has racked up 51 videos and +25,000 views with the aim to showcase a range of robots from different institutions and inspire the future generation to consider roles in robotics and autonomous systems. In addition to supporting several Masters Students in their final year projects which can be viewed on the Smart Systems Group Website- Student Projects.

https://youtu.be/KMeGWbJmx7Q?si=8UHzMynTyLuYmhdI

Additional Awards:

Winner of the Postgraduate 1st Year Research Prize 2021 from the Institute of Sensors, Signals and Systems at Heriot-Watt University

Peoples Choice Award at the University of Glasgow Visualise your Thesis Award in 2022.

https://youtu.be/zZHkdLAg5Bw?si=OSKowW3zxFjfUwWP


First published: 14 September 2023