Kevin Warwick
Kevin Warwick is Professor of Cybernetics and carries out research in artificial intelligence, control, robotics and biomedical engineering. He is also Director of the University Knowledge Transfer Centre, which links the University with Small to Medium Enterprises. The Centre which Kevin formed in 1994 is now (in size) the most successful in the UK. At 22 he took his first degree at Aston University, followed by a PhD and a research post at Imperial College, London. He subsequently held positions at Oxford, Newcastle and Warwick universities before being offered the Chair at Reading, at the age of 33.
Kevin carried out a series of pioneering experiments involving the neuro-surgical implantation of a device into the median nerves of his left arm in order to link his nervous system directly to a computer to assess the latest technology for use with the disabled. He was successful with the first extra-sensory (ultrasonic) input for a human and with the first purely electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans. His research has been discussed by the US Presidential Council on BioEthics, The European Commission Group on Ethics in Science & Technology and has led to him being widely referenced and featured in academic circles as well as appearing as cover stories in several. His work is now used as material in advanced Level Physics courses in the UK and in many University courses including Harvard, Stanford, MIT & Tokyo. His implants are on permanent display in the Science Museums in London and Naples. In 2005, Kevin gave a total of 22 Invited Plenary/International Keynote addresses.
Kevin’s research involves robotics and he is responsible for Cybot, a robot exported around the world as part of a magazine “Real Robots”. Robots designed and constructed by Kevin’s group are on permanent interactive display in the Science Museums in London, Birmingham and Linz.
His presentations include The 1998 Robert Boyle Memorial Lecture at Oxford University, The 2000 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, The 2001 Higginson Lecture at Durham University, The 2003 Royal Academy of Engineering/Royal Society of Edinburgh Joint lecture in Edinburgh, The 2003 IEEE (UK) Annual Lecture in London, The 2004 Woolmer Lecture at York University, the Robert Hooke Lecture (Westminster) in 2005, the 2005 Einstein Lecture in Potsdam, Germany and the 2006 IMechE Mechatronics Prestige Lecture in London.
Kevin has produced almost 500 publications on his research including more than 95 refereed journal articles and 25 books. Kevin received the EPSRC Millenium Award (2000) for his schools robot league project and is the youngest ever person to have been made a Fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute. Kevin’s research is frequently referred to by other authors. His research has also been selected by National Geographic International for a 1 hour documentary, entitled “I,Human” to be screened in summer 2006 – this will be broadcast in 143 countries and translated into 23 different languages.
Kevin is regularly invited to sit on international conference programme committees and for 10 years acted as Honorary Editor of the IEE Proceedings on Control Theory and Applications. He is presently Visiting Professor at the Czech Technical University, Charles Square, Prague and in 2004 was Senior Beckman Fellow at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
