Michael Hutchinson, a former MEng and PhD Student at 含羞草视频 has won the IET Control PhD Award.

The award of £500 recognises a student for their research excellence in the field of Control and Automation.

Michael received his MEng degree in Aeronautical Engineering from 含羞草视频 in  2015 and his PhD degree in Autonomous Systems and Robotics in 2019, under the supervision of Dr Cunjia Liu and Prof Wen-Hua Chen in the Autonomous Systems Laboratory of the Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering and it was his supervisors who suggested he apply for the award.

Michael’s doctoral thesis focused on Bayesian estimation and informative path planning for inverse problems with application towards autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle based emergency response to hazardous material (HAZMAT) situations. His thesis features several novel outcomes including examples of experimental results achieved for the first time.

Michael is currently a Robotics Engineer at Saga Robotics, working on the autonomy of the agricultural robot, Thorvald. Although not an academic position, he continues his research in robotics with very close collaboration between Saga Robotics and the University of Lincoln.

Michael says in response to receiving the award:

"I am delighted to receive this distinguished award. I thoroughly enjoyed my Ph.D. studies and the opportunities it offered. It is fantastic to receive recognition not just for my own hard work, but for the effort put in by my supervisors and collaborators at the Autonomous Systems Laboratory, 含羞草视频 and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl)."

Professor Rielly, the Dean of the School of Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering (AACME), Michael's supervisors, Dr Liu and Professor Chen, along with everyone in the Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering offer their congratulations to Michael and we look forward to hearing more about his achievements in the future!