Meet the team
The Strathclyde SDR Lab is supported by a team of 10 Academic Staff,
1 Knowledge Exchange Fellow and 9 PhD Students.
Prof Bob Stewart
(Director)
Robert (Bob) Stewart is a Professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Strathclyde. He leads the ‘StrathSDR’ team, focusing on Software Defined Radio (SDR) and next generation radio access networks using shared spectrum with Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA). Bob has led a number of 5G testbed and trials projects, and in recent years, his interests have included the development of solutions for the media and broadcast industry with private 5G SA networks, working alongside a number of international broadcasters. Over a 30 year career so far, Bob has published 4 books and more than 200 papers and has presented many industry short courses, including at UCLA Extension in the USA. Bob is also a director of university start-up company, Neutral Wireless Ltd.
Dr Louise Crockett
(Senior Lecturer)
Louise Crockett has MEng (distinction) and PhD degrees in Electronic & Electrical Engineering, both from the University of Strathclyde. She is currently a Senior Lecturer and senior member of the StrathSDR research team, where she supervises / manages researchers and key sponsored projects. Her core research interests are in the implementation of DSP systems, FPGAs and SoCs, wireless communications, and SDR. Louise has previously co-authored three books on Xilinx/AMD technology. Her teaching focuses on digital systems design targeting FPGAs and SoCs, and builds practical skills to equip graduates for roles in industry.
Dr David Crawford
(5G Principal Knowledge Exchange Fellow)
David is the manager and lead on the our core industry partnership 5G projects, including 5GRuralFirst, 5GRailNext, and 5G NewThinking. David has more than 25 years of industry experience previously with Motorola, and Epson Semicondustors.
Dr Douglas Allan
(Research Associate)
Douglas is a Senior Engineer at Neutral Wireless specialising in the design and implementation of Private 5G networks for the broadcast industry. He was a member of the team which successfully delivered the Private 5G network used in coverage of the opening ceremony, stadium events and sailing competitions at the Paris 2024 Olympic games. He previously completed a PhD in the StrathSDR research group focussing on FPGA implementation of spectrum sensing algorithms for cognitive radio applications.
Dr Kenny Barlee
(Research Associate)
Kenny is mobile network engineer developing innovative new RAN solutions. Currently working on the design and implementation of a new 5G NSA/SA network for the 5G NewThinking project, that will be used for fixed wireless access broadband, neutral host and inbound not spot roaming cellular services.
Dr Dani Anderson
(Research Assistant)
As a Research Assistant in StrathSDR, his focus is on the development and implementation of dynamic and shared spectrum technologies, combined with SDR platforms, to enable private mobile network deployments in challenging operating environments. He is an expert on spectrum policy and regulation. As Programme Manager at Neutral Wireless, he is responsible for delivering commercial and innovation projects for a variety of different customers. He oversaw the design, supply, and deployment of multiple private 5G standalone networks to support production of the 2024 Paris Olympics Games.
Dr Samuel Yoffe
(Research Fellow)
Sam is a Research Fellow in the software-defined radio group (StrathSDR). Sam started working on low latency video encoding and transmission over 5G in early 2021. Since then, he has contributed to many award-winning projects working with international broadcasters and production companies, including the (Emmy-nominated) pop-up standalone non-public network at the Coronation of HM King Charles III. More recently, Sam was part of the team that delivered multiple private 5G networks across Paris 2024 and on drones / ultralight aircraft with the IBC Accelerator Programme. Sam specialises in private 5G networks and systems design to support and improve broadcast and media production workflows.
Malcolm Brew
(Senior Research Fellow)
Malcolm has a responsibility for engineering management and technology integration and design with key industry partners and suppliers of 5G next generation hardware. Malcolm has worked extensively in industry and internationally in communications networks.
Dr Tawachi Nyasulu
(Research Associate)
Tawachi is a Research Associate at the University of Strathclyde’s StrathSDR Lab. She has research expertise in innovative spectrum management/spectrum sharing techniques, RF coexistence management mechanisms and modelling of heterogeneous RF environments for efficient spectrum allocation. She also has experience in managing research projects, having led the Strathclyde research team on multi-stakeholder projects including the £12m TUDOR project. Her current research is on spectrum sharing techniques for 6G mobile networks, focusing on spectrum sharing between terrestrial and non-terrestrial network components.
Dr Ehinomen Atimati
(Research Assistant)
Ehinomen Atimati is a research assistant whose work centers on the integration of artificial intelligence techniques into advanced wireless communication systems. Her research involves designing and implementing automated coordination architectures, particularly for central, distributed and multi-agent communication environments, and developing fully normalized relational database systems to support high-throughput experimental pipelines. She leverages cloud computing and scalable data/ML pipeline orchestration for end-to-end dataset collection and automation. Additionally, she possesses foundational expertise in the design of integrated software applications across heterogeneous platforms. Her academic interests include intelligent radio resource management, AI-enhanced communication network optimization, and the development of resilient, data-driven infrastructures for real-life processes.
Dr Andrew Maclellan
(Research Associate)
Andrew received his MEng degree (distinction) in 2018, and PhD in 2025, both in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. He is currently a Research Associate in StrathSDR, working in flexible radio design using AMD RFSoC devices. His primary research interests include Deep Learning for PHY layer wireless communications, with a specific interest in inference on the AMD RFSoC. Previously, Andrew interned in the Wireless HDL Toolbox team at MathWorks in Glasgow on three separate projects, and in 2020/21 he also interned with the PYNQ development team at AMD.
Blair McTaggart
(PhD Researcher)
Blair is a PhD Candidate specialising in hardware-efficient FPGA algorithm design, with a focus on leveraging the QR Decomposition (QRD) algorithm for beamforming on AMD RFSoC platforms. During his research, he developed a MathWorks toolbox that automates the generation of large-scale Simulink models for QRD-based beamformers. Alongside his academic work, he operates as a consultant FPGA design engineer, leading FPGA and model-based design projects across diverse industries. He holds an MEng (Merit) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Strathclyde, with experience in digital signal processing, fixed-point optimisation, and software-hardware co-design.
Lewis McLaughlin
(PhD Researcher)
Lewis received his MEng (Distinction) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Strathclyde in 2018 and now specialises in FPGA tools, hardware acceleration, and SoC system integration. His work focuses on developing open-source abstraction layers that bridge high-level design environments with backend toolchains, as part of a PhD in FPGA middleware, while consulting for a university spinout. He designs FPGA-based systems that optimise PL–PS interaction within SoCs, enabling efficient data movement and processing for applications in communications, DSP, and adjacent domains including quantum computing control, LEO satellites, and scientific instrumentation.
Marius Šiaučiulis
(PhD Researcher)
Marius Siauciulis Obtained the degree of BEng (Hons) in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde in 2019. Since then, he has pursued PhD research on 5G implementation using SDR with the support of AMD and the CENSIS (Scotland’s national centre for sensing, imaging and IoT). His research interests include embedded software aspects of SDR design, high speed interfacing, and design tool development including PYNQ and GNU Radio. Marius has previously undertaken internships working with the MathWorks Glasgow office in 2019, and more recently with Xilinx in 2021.
Lewis Brown
(PhD Researcher)
Lewis has an MEng (Distinction) degree in Electronic & Electrical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde. He is currently a member of research staff in the StrathSDR group, focusing on embedded systems implementation for wireless communications and instrumentation, while also completing the write-up of his PhD. His experience includes RFSoC design and implementation, Linux systems, 5G New Radio physical layer implementation, and new design methods for increasing the productivity of SDR systems design. He has previously completed two internships at Xilinx, heavily involved in RFSoC board bring-up and underlying RFSoC IP core and driver design. Lewis was also involved in the ON-SIDE project, where 5G New Radio physical layer was demonstrated on an RFSoC.
James Craig
(PhD Researcher)
James received the MEng (Distinction) in Electronic and Electrical Engineering with International Study from the University of Strathclyde in 2021. Since then, he has been working as a PhD researcher with the StrathSDR research group. He has completed four internships at MathWorks Ltd in 2021-2025 with the Wireless HDL and Wireless Testbench teams. His research involves investigating 5G New Radio (NR) standard algorithms and how these can be effectively implemented on FPGAs and SoCs, with a focus on Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) techniques.
Graeme Fitzpatrick
(PhD Researcher)
Graeme is a PhD researcher in the StrathSDR group at the University of Strathclyde, specialising in embedded systems for software-defined radio, with a priority on AMD RFSoC platforms. A core developer of PYNQ.remote, an extension of the PYNQ framework that enables Python-based control of programmable logic from a networked host, and led the development of its high-performance C++ backend API, PYNQ.cpp. Research includes dynamic hardware reconfiguration, IP core integration, low-latency memory-mapped I/O, spectrum mapping overlays, and remote-managed cross-language firmware pipelines to support real-time deployment on edge FPGA-based SoCs.
Ryan Provan
(PhD Researcher)
Ryan’s research explores both theoretical and practical challenges associated with implementing an RFSoC-based solution to beamform wideband radio-frequency signals. His early work focused on using true-time-delay units to rapidly steer signals across a portion of the Nyquist frequency range. More recently, his research has shifted toward efficient sub-banding techniques that decompose wideband signals into multiple narrowband components. This approach greatly simplifies the challenges associated with beamforming and processing wideband signals. Sub-banding is achieved through the use of efficient analysis and synthesis filter banks that enable accurate decomposition and reconstruction of the wideband signal.
Euan Gillan
(PhD Researcher)
Euan is a PhD researcher within the University of Strathclyde’s Software Defined Radio Research Laboratory (StrathSDR), working in collaboration with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). His research focuses on the fibre-optic dissemination of precise time and frequency from terrestrial sources, using techniques such as the Precision Time Protocol and Synchronous Ethernet, to reduce reliance on GNSS and enhance the resilience of Critical National Infrastructure. Euan’s broader interests include the advancement of wireless communications and the development of flexible digital radio architectures to meet future connectivity demands.
Finlay Harris
(PhD Researcher)
Finlay is a PhD researcher working in collaboration with the National Physical Laboratory, exploring high-accuracy timing for future wireless networks. Her work focuses on wireless time and frequency dissemination as a foundation for 5G/6G systems and Dynamic Spectrum Access. She is currently investigating two-way and phase-based synchronisation methods and is working towards developing RFSoC-based prototypes capable of distributing traceable timing references over wireless channels. By pairing precise synchronisation with flexible spectrum access techniques, her research aims to support next-generation network architectures and improve the reliability and capacity of national wireless infrastructure.