Latest - Area of Interest: Science and engineering

Gavin Robinson

Gavin’s IT career started at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington as an Assistant Scientific Officer, calibrating viscometers. He later relocated to the Road Research Laboratory working on computer models simulating car behaviour and road congestion, and assisted the developers of the software. He joined DEC, working on prestigious projects including with client British Gas providing software and hardware to digitise large paper maps of gas pipelines across the UK.

Professor Phil Blythe

Phil Blythe is Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems at Newcastle University. He focuses on policy and technology in areas such as connected and autonomous vehicles, electro-mobility, decarbonising transport, age-friendly and accessible transport and smart cities. Phil leads Newcastle University’s Future Mobility Group and directs its Centre for Research Excellence for Mobility and Transport. Here he talks about the future of transport in the UK and the transformational role of IT.

Professor Sir Iain Gray

Professor Sir Iain Gray was appointed Director of Aerospace at Cranfield University in 2015. In this role he draws on his 30 years in the aerospace manufacturing and engineering sector, ultimately leading Airbus in the UK.

Sir Iain also spent seven years as Chief Executive of UK Innovate, previously known as the Technology Strategy Board. The post included responsibility for an annual budget of £500m and interacting with some 5,000 large and small businesses across all sectors.

Dr Gopi Katragadda

Born in Bangalore in 1968, Dr Gopichand Katragadda comes from a long line of engineers on his father’s side, while his mother’s family background is in the arts. This combination has helped him bring a high level of creativity and breadth of vision to engineering achievements, he believes.
Gopi attended Iowa State University and did his doctoral research at NASA. In 2000, he returned to India as Chairman and Managing Director of GE India Technology Centre — the group’s largest R&D facility, which he helped become a world leader in intellectual property generation.

In 2014, he joined Tata Sons as Group Chief Technology Officer and Innovation Head, where he promoted collaboration with corporations such as Airbus and forward-thinking in the group’s subsidiaries and university partners. In 2019, Gopi set up Myelin Foundry, an AI company aimed at transforming human experiences and industry outcomes.