Two DoC academics become "Royal Academy of Engineering Fellows".

Two Professors from the Department of Computing have been recognised for their exceptional contribution to engineering.

The Royal Academy of Engineering announced 53 new Fellows, celebrating the diversity and pervasiveness of 21st Century engineering in the UK. Two of the Fellows come from the Department of Computing: Professor Stephen Muggleton and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang.

Professor Stephen Muggleton has been elected a Fellow for his contribution to the field of Inductive Logic Programming (ILP), which is based on research carried out by Professor Muggleton in 1991. The programming technique has since been applied widely in biology and medicine. Since then, Professor Muggleton has worked widely with industry, recently establishing a £1.7 million innovation centre at the College with the agricultural company Syngenta Ltd. The new Centre aims to develop new techniques in crop and insecticide modelling.

Professor Stephen Muggleton says: “I feel very privileged to have been elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering and am delighted by the news. It provides recognition of the importance of fundamental computer science, including my own area of machine learning, within engineering. I am proud that we have such a strong and world-leading tradition of engineers within the UK.”

Developing imaging, sensing and robots to improve surgery

Professor Guang-Zhong Yang, who is director of the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery, is elected for his pioneering work in imaging, sensing and robotics for healthcare. Among his many achievements, Professor Yang and his colleagues are credited with developing a new surgical device called the i-Snake, which is a flexible surgical tool that can be used by surgeons to carry out minimally invasive surgery. The i-Snake improves safety and enhances the precision and dexterity of surgeons during procedures, enabling them to operate on parts of the body that are inaccessible using conventional techniques.

Professor Guang-Zhong Yang says: "It is a great honour to be elected a new Fellow. I’d also like to thank my hard working team. Together, we are working on developing a range of new medical te chnologies that will directly benefit patients in the future.”

Written by: rsi