I am currently an EPSRC postdoctoral research fellow, working in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford. I obtained my PhD (2008) and BSc (1st Class Hons. 2004) from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. I work in the Sensor Networks Group, led by Dr Niki Trigoni.
My current research revolves around low power sensing, localization and signal processing in wireless sensor networks. I am driven by solving real world problems. In particular, I am working on developing magneto-induction (MI) as a key technology for communication and localization in areas where wireless and GPS fail, such as underground or indoors. We have recently demonstrated that MI is a viable technique for multi-hop communication in underground mining networks, using triaxial magnetic fields, published in IPSN 2012. This has been trialled in underground caves, achieving a communication range of over 75m through solid rock.
I originally developed MI localization to tackle the real problem of monitoring where burrowing animals are when they are underground. Key to this was the development of a novel tracking system (essentially underground GPS) that can localize badgers in 3-D with a precision of 30cm. This was published in SenSys 2010, winning the best presentation award, and a more recent version in the IEEE Sensors Journal. The UnderTracker project, running from 2012 to 2015, extends this, aiming to completely characterize the behaviours and locations of animals, both above and below ground.
Prior to this, I worked as a postdoc on the WildSensing project, which monitored 70 badgers and their environment over the period of a year using a hybrid RFID/Sensor Network approach. During this time, I also developed a technique for automatically evolving sensor network control systems to achieve a particular task (such as target tracking). This was inspired by the way cells act as a distributed control system through protein signalling and gene regulation.