People

Project Investigators

Professor Chris Rogers
Chris is the Principal Investigator of Mapping the Underworld, and is a Professor of Geotechnical Engineering based at the University of Birmingham. He leads the research theme of Sustainability and Resilience, as well as being Deputy Head of the School of Civil Engineering. He is the Honorary Editor of Engineering Sustainability, the Editor with responsibility for trenchless technology of Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology and a member of three US Transportation Research Board Technical Committees. He leads the Urban Futures EPSRC consortium researching sustainability in urban environments. His research interests encompass buried pipes, trenchless technology, the more sustainable use of underground space, chemical soil stabilisation, road foundations and collapsing soils.

Mr. Phil Atkins
Phil is a Co-Investigator of Mapping the Underworld, leading Work Package Five, Low Frequency Electromagnetic Field Technologies. Phil is an electronics engineer with interests in sonar system design, electronics, signal processing and navigation systems. Phil is based at the University of Birmingham in the School of Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering. He lectures in such diverse fields as digital systems, microprocessors, sonar systems and advanced signal processing.

Professor Mike Brennan
Mike is a Co-Investigator of Mapping the Underworld, leading Work Package Four, Acoustic Technologies. Based at the University of Southampton in the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, Mike is a Professor of Engineering Dynamics. Michael Brennan has a wide-range of interests in acoustics and vibration including the vibrations of rotating machinery, non-linear vibrations, vibroacoustics, active and passive control of sound and vibration, energy harvesting and biomimetics. Additionally he has been a consultant for several companies in the UK and overseas, advising on vibration and acoustic testing methods, control measures and design.

Dr David Chapman
David is a Co-Investigator of Mapping the Underworld, leading Work Package Seven, Tuning the Device to the Ground and Targets. David is a reader in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, with research interests that include Geotechnical aspects of tunnelling, trenchless technology, soil/structure interaction and pipelines (including understanding the development of leaks from pipelines, their detection/location and making pipelines ‘smarter’ using micro-sensors).

Professor Anthony Cohn
Tony is a Co-Investigator of Mapping the Underworld, leading Work Package Two, Fusion of Sensor Data with Buried Asset Records. Tony is a Professor of Automated Reasoning at the University of Leeds, and is currently the Director of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Biological Systems. His research interests range from theoretical work on spatial calculi and spatial ontologies, to cognitive vision, modelling spatial information in the hippocampus, and integrating utility data recording the location of underground assets.

Dr Paul Lewin
Paul is a Co-Investigator of Mapping the Underworld, leading Work Package Six, Magnetic Field Technologies. Paul the Reader in Electrical Power Engineering in the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, where he is also the manager of the Tony Davies High Voltage Laboratory. His research interests are within the generic areas of applied signal processing and control. Within the high voltage engineering this includes condition monitoring of HV cables and plant, surface charge measurement, HV insulation/dielectric materials and applied signal processing.  In the area of automation he is particularly interested in the practical application of repetitive control and iterative learning control algorithms.

Dr Nicole Metje
Nicole is a Co-Investigator of Mapping the Underworld, leading Work Package Eight, Proving Trials and Specification of a National Mapping the Underworld Test Facility. Nicole is a Birmingham Research Fellow in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Birmingham . Her interests are in the development of instrumentation for the natural and man-made environment with focus on coastal engineering, tunnel monitoring and location of underground infrastructure. She also enjoys teaching mathematics at all levels and researching why some students have an anxiety for the subject and how to overcome this anxiety.

Dr Steve Pennock
Steve is a Co-Investigator of Mapping the Underworld, leading Work Package One, Creation of a Multi-Sensor Array, Deployment Strategies and Signal Processing. Steve is based at the University of Bath and is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. Current research interests include signal propagation at microwave and millimetre wave frequencies within buildings and near human bodies, along with the assessment of diversity techniques.

Dr Miles Redfern
Miles is a Co-Investigator of Mapping the Underworld, leading Work Package Three, GPR Advancement. Based in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Bath, Miles is Senior Lecturer with the Power and Energy Systems Group. His research interests include the Protection and Control of Electrical Power Systems, including embedded generation into networks and the location of Buried Utilities using Ground Penetrating Radar.

Professor Adrian Saul
Adrian is a Co-Investigator of Mapping the Underworld, involved with Work Package Eight, Proving Trials and Specification of a National Mapping the Underworld Test Facility. Adrian is Professor of Water Engineering in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering at the University of Sheffield. His research interests are concerned with all quantitative and qualitative aspects of Urban Drainage, for which he has an established international reputation. He is particularly interested in the performance of sewer ancillary structures, the prediction of sewer flow quality and in aspects of whole life costs in sewerage.

Professor Steve Swingler
Steve is a Co-Investigator of Mapping the Underworld, leading Work Package Six, Magnetic Field Technologies. Steve is based at the University of Southampton in the School of Electronics and Computer Science.

Research Team

Dr. Huanhuan Chen
Huanhuan is a Research Fellow on Mapping the Underworld, working on Work Package Two, Fusion of Sensor Data with Buried Asset Records. Huanhuan is based at the University of Leeds, working in the School of Computing.  Before Joining University of Leeds, he worked as a research fellow, sponsored by BBSRC and  Value in People (VIP) awards from the Wellcome Trust, in School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, where he obtaind the Ph.D degree. His PhD thesis has received 2009 CPHC/British Computer Society (BCS) Distinguished Dissertations Award as the runner up. His research interests include statistical machine learning, data fusion, neural network ensembles, Bioinformatics, Bayesian inference and evolutionary computation.

Mr. Giulio Curioni
Giulio is a Research Student on Mapping the Underworld, working on Work Package Seven, Intelligent Tuning of the Device to the Ground and Targets. Giulio is completing a PhD in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Birmingham, aimed at facilitating geophysical surveys thorough field and lab testing. Giulio has an Environmental Science background, his main interests are soil science, geostatistics and environmental monitoring.

Dr Andrew Foo
Andrew is a Research Fellow on Mapping the Underworld, working on Work Package Five, Low Frequency Electromagnetic Field Technologies. Andrew is based at the University of Birmingham, in the School of Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Mr. Russell Hayes
Russell is a Research Student looking at methods to assess utility street works through a sustainability framework. Before starting a PhD Russell worked as a full time Highway Engineer, and is now based at the University of Birmingham.

Dr Jen Muggleton
Jen is a Research Fellow on Mapping the Underworld, working on Work Package Four, Acoustic Technologies. She is based at the University of Southampton in the Institute for Sound and Vibration Research.
 
Dr. Adham Naji
Adham is a Research Officer on Mapping the Underworld, working on Work Package One, Creation of a Multi-Sensor Array, Deployment Strategies and Signal Processing. Adham is based at the University of Bath, in the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering.  His work in Mapping the Underworld covers the design of the microwave hardware of the Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) heads. Adham has a PhD background in electromagnetic resonators, reconfigurable microwave filter design, and reconfigurable microwave antenna design. He also have an MSc in digital communications and a Bachelor's degree in electronic engineering. His general research interests include electromagnetic theory, complex analysis, wave theory, and microwave radio system design.

Dr Alexander Royal
Alexander is a Research Fellow responsible for coordination across the Work Packages, along with working on Work Package Seven, Intelligent Tuning of the Device to the Ground and Targets. Work Package Eight, Proving Trials and Specification of a National Mapping the Underworld Test Facility Alexander is based at the University of Birmingham in the School of Civil Engineering.

Dr Ping Wang
Ping is a Research Fellow on Mapping the Underworld, working on Work Package Six, Magnetic Field Technologies, at the University of Southampton in the School of Electronics and Computer Science. Ping Wang received a PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Southampton in 2008. His research interests include cryogenic dielectrics for superconducting apparatus and heat transfer characteristics of cryogenic liquids under electric fields.

Dr Qiwei Zhang
Qiwei is a Research Fellow on Mapping the Underworld, working on Work Package Two, Fusion of Sensor Data with Buried Asset Records. Qiwei is based at the University of Bath in the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. His research interests include signal processing and wireless communication.

Coordination

Ms Jo Parker
Jo is the Industrial Liaison Manager for Mapping the Underworld, funded by UKWIR. She is helping the academic team to forge links with industry and keep up to date with developments in the business world. Jo is a chartered civil engineer and has worked in the water industry for 33 years and has held a variety of roles including Head of Network Asset Management for Veolia Water Partnership and Operations Director with North Surrey Water. She was awarded the MBE for services to the water industry in 1996.  Jo currently works as an independent consultant specialising in infrastructure asset management.

Ms Rosie Phenix-Walker
Rosie is the Project Coordinator for the Mapping the Underworld project, and the first point of contact for all queries and general interest. Feel free to contact her for more information about the project.