Dr Rob Deaves, a Principal Engineer at Dyson was awarded a Visiting Professorship of System Architecture for Robotics at the Department of Computing.

The Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor awardees for 2017/2018 were announced in September. This is an industry-into-academia initiative that aims to utilize the experience of industrialists to enhance student learning of UK engineering undergraduates.

Rob has over 30 years engineering experience gained in the defence, microelectronic and consumer industries. This has provided a broad knowledge base covering robotics, advanced tracking and navigation algorithms, processing architectures and system engineering.

Over the past 4 years a close working relationship has been established with Professor Andrew Davison FREng and other members of the Dyson Robotics Laboratory through discussion and reviews of robotics research. The award will allow further collaboration through undergraduate teaching.

This term Rob has been contributing to the Robotics Course (course code 333) provided for 3rd year undergraduates and MSc students. He attended and supported the laboratory practical sessions providing the students with industrial insights into robotics. In addition, his inaugural Imperial College lecture enhanced the theoretical and research material provide by Professor Davison by linking the areas covered to the Dyson 360 Eye robotic vacuum cleaner.