It’s a problem we’ve all come across – losing signal when we’re travelling by train or car; in fact it was a problem I faced on my way up to Birmingham last week. Luckily the event I was going to was focussed on solving this very issue – Antennas, Propagation & RF Technology for Transport and Autonomous Platforms.
Around 50 delegates met at the IET’s Midlands venue, Austin in Birmingham to hear from a variety of speakers on the topic, including 4 keynotes:
-Our first speaker was Dr Anil Shulka from QinetiQ, UK. He highlighted the importance of the networks, pointing out that trains were now a workspace for people, so connectivity is of the upmost importance
-Our second keynote presentation was a double act from Dr Marta Martínez Vázquez and Dr Daniel Martini from IMST GmbH. They tag-teamed to discuss the challenges of design in automotive environments and led a lively Q&A
-After lunch we heard from the University of Birmingham’s, Dr Marina Gashinova, whose work is looking at the future of radar sensors
-Our last keynote was Dr Alan Stocker from the University of Leicester, whose interesting presentation on road networks, sparked a Q&A about infrastructure and obstacles in road networks
We were also lucky to have a number of other speakers on the day in addition to our keynotes including, Emma Kowalczuk who explained why we lose signal in cars/trains and what Jaguar/Land Rover is doing to counteract and Chris Hargreaves who presented about maritime e-navigation.
We hope that everyone who attended enjoyed themselves, a word of thanks to CST, our exhibitors, all our speakers, the volunteers who pulled this together (Rob Lewis, Costas Constantinou, morning chair and Mike Warrington, afternoon chair), Rob and Poppy for their hard work on this event and Austin Court for hosting us (it was my first time at the venue and I was so impressed by the staff, the venue and the food! I would definitely recommend them for your next Midlands event!)
The photos of the event will be up later this week and the Twitter story is already available to view
