General Background
I am a research associate working on biologically inspired power management strategies for autonomous systems at the Computer Science Department. I am also in the process of finishing a PhD on a related topic. This webpage is really out of date and I will try and get round to updating it a bit when i've finished my PhD.
Computing
I have had an interest in computing since my dad got a 286 PC back in 1991. Since then i've owned numerous machines and developed particular interests in networking, multimedia, embedded and portable systems and robotics.
Computer Programming
Before coming to University I had taught myself to program in GW-BASIC,QBasic,C,(sort of)C++ and x86 Assembler. I then learnt Java during the first years of my degree and went onto learn shell scripting and some Perl during my industrial year. More recently i've begun learning PHP both to develop this pages and for my work in the Careers Department.
Robotics
I've always had a fascination with robotics, but until the 4th year of my degree I never managed to actually get any hands on experience in the field. During the 5th year of my degree I was required to undertake a major project which was to occupy 50% of my time for the year and one idea which crossed my mind was that of a sailing robot. I'd first had the idea of a sailing robot while working as a sailing instructor in Cornwall, controlling a sailing boat is goverend by a few simple rules and I didn't see why a computer couldn't be made to carry out these rules instead of a human. It turned out when I started looking on the internet to see if anyone else had thought of this that a member of staff at Aberyswyth was doing exactly this and was in the process of building a prototype boat. This meant I didn't have to build any hardware and was able to concentrate my efforts on software (which was good as my degree title was Software Engineering). The results of this work can be found on my Sailing Robotics page.
Travel
I have lived a large amount of my life abroad. I spent 3 years in the USA, almost a year in Italy and last year (actually 15 months total) in Ireland. I have a great interest in travelling (perhaps as a result of this) and don't seem to be able to remain in any given country for more than a few months :)
Sailing