I wrote a personal statement before starting Highwire, here is most of it:

In my discipline of Computer Science I strive to have a depth of knowledge and understanding whilst maintaining a breadth of learning across other subjects. I have an enthusiastic approach to problem solving seeking the most efficient, elegant and adaptable result. My approach to work is driven through the satisfaction of solving problems, no matter the scale or the scope. My aim is to mediate interaction between those with technological knowledge and those other stakeholders in the system. Prior to Highwire, I completed the undergraduate Computer Science programme at Lancaster, achieving a first. I have studied Economics as a minor and have a continuing interest in business. As for design, I have studied and enjoyed Human Computer Interaction at undergraduate level. I’m interested in web page design with accessibility in mind and the “design of everyday things.”

When working in groups I am confident enough to question received wisdom but I will readily accept shortcomings of any propositions. I’m motivated by the final outcome and the technical challenges to get there. I am better able to prepare and present an idea at the appropriate level for a target audience as, in the second year of my degree, I took part in a three week teacher training scheme in partnership with Cumbria University.

Between the second and third year of my degree I spent the summer with BT Research on an internship scheme. Some servers were provided and we built a prototype system using the open implementations of Google’s MapReduce software and BigTable database. I continue to have a strong interest in these massively scalable distributed systems.

My final year project involved building a map of the locations of small wireless sensor devices using only device to device distance readings. Normally all the distance measurements would be sent back to a central computer for processing. However this could be impractical in certain environments. I did theoretical work to distribute this process over the sensors themselves.

During Highwire I envision my primary area of research to be the smart home, utilising ubiquitous computing to promote energy efficiency, security and cost savings. I intend to study emerging trends in this area then develop devices that are unobtrusive, reliable, require zero configuration and can be used to infer usage patterns. I intend to gain much more user focused research experience during the programme. I’m also interested in developing my knowledge of distributed systems, including distributed computation on embedded platforms. I am well placed to study potential applications of wireless sensor networks having researched this area previously. I am interested in how work will proceed with students from differing disciplines. I look forward to establishing working practices that may be taken into industry.

On completion of the programme I’d like to either start a spin-off company or enter a research job with some management responsibility. A business start-up would be dependent on how research proceeded but a research position working with the latest trends and emerging technologies in computing is an exciting prospect. In such a role user trials could be staged and prototypes installed. Development could then be redirected, guided by the results.