Thales technology award for Pakistani student

[BATMAN]

THALES ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF SCOTTISH INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY COMPETITION

26 October 2010

Thales UK announces the winners of the 2010 ‘Thales Scottish Technology Prize’ for product engineering. The competition, now in its third year, was launched in April
and was open to all students and staff attending Scottish universities. The competition has generated a number of extremely high-quality and innovative proposals, underlining Scot land’s global and historical reputation as a centre of excellence for engineering.

The winner of the £20,000 first prize went to the Institute of Photonics at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, for a proposal from Dr David Burns and Dr John-Mark Hopkins relating to ‘improvements to eye-safe nanosecond pulse rangefinders’. Dr Burns and Mr Hopkins also won the £2,500 personal prize associated with the winning entry.

Faiz Rahman from the University of Glasgow claimed the runner-up spot, worth £2000, with an entry on the subject of a ‘hyperspectral imaging array’. Third place, worth £1,000, was won by Dr Vasili Savitski of Strathclyde University in Glasgow.

Thales UK supports science and technology projects across the country. With a high propor tion of its 8,500 staff involved in science, technology and engineering Thales believes that activities such as the Thales Scottish Technology Prize are crucial in raising the profile of engineering in the minds of young people as an exciting career for their future.

Victor Chavez, Thales UK’s Deputy CEO, says: “We are extremely proud to continue to foster the spirit of innovation within the Scottish engineering community. The scope of the competition and its prize fund are truly unique in the history of engineering in Scotland and the results have generated ideas that have an encouraging future. The themes of technology and education are at the heart of what we do as a company, which is why we are so enthusiastic about continuing the Thales Scottish Technology Prize.”

Since the first competition was run in 2008, Thales has engaged in discussions with the winning entrants aimed at allocating funding to projects that will bring their ideas into reality.

Some 730 of Thales UK’s 8,500 workforce are based in Glasgow and the company is an important source of high-tech, high-skill employment in the region. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is the main customer for Thales’s activities in Glasgow, with the local site being a world leader in night vision technology, delivering equipment and services to the MoD since 1888 when the company was formerly known as Barr & Stroud.

 

[unicorn]

The research is based on the improvement of a "laser tape measure" for measuring distance which includes a transmitter such as a laser diode which transmits a sequence of electromagnetic pulses in response to a transmit timing signal.A bright spot projected on to the target clearly indicates the point that is being measured, and the user can read the range to that point with precision of better than 0.1%.

 

[PakSher]

Another addition of Pakistani Talent examples in the Western World. Long Live Pakistan and its hard working and talented people.

 

[BATMAN]

The research is based on the improvement of a "laser tape measure" for measuring distance which includes a transmitter such as a laser diode which transmits a sequence of electromagnetic pulses in response to a transmit timing signal.A bright spot projected on to the target clearly indicates the point that is being measured, and the user can read the range to that point with precision of better than 0.1%.

Can you post your source?

 

[unicorn]

Can you post your source?

Further Elaborating

This integrated technology will enable Forward Air Controllers (FACs) to see the target area and simultaneously see the laser energy from pointers, designator/markers, and rangefinders with one integrated device.

Currently, imaging laser pointers and designator/markers is accomplished with multiple devices which together weigh over 14 lbs, a significant load on a FAC whose full load of equipment is 166 lbs.

There is no currently fielded device which can see the laser spot from eye-safe laser range finders. The weight and set up time (boresighting) of these devices is substantial.

Further, the available InGaAs(indium galilium arsenide) technology that is available is too expensive and not operationally viable. Similarly, available silicon devices are not practical for field use.

The Integrated Multi-Spectral Sensor must be a visible light day imager capable of simultaneously detecting and tracking the laser energy on a target from the following three sources simultaneously and displaying them in context with the surrounding scene: - 1540-1560 nanometer (nm), laser class 1 from an eye safe laser range finder (either single pulse or correlation of multiple pulses, each as low as 1 microjoule) , at a range of up to 5km - 1064nm, laser class 4 from a laser designator (30-90 millijoule per pulse, 20 nanosecond pulse width, 10-20Hz pulse rate) at a range of up to 5km - 860nm, class 4, 1 Watt continuous IR laser pointer, at a range of up to 5km. The laser energy will be no larger than a 3.5m circle at a range of 5km and linearly reduce at closer ranges. The sensor shall be of a size, weight, and cost commensurate with a military handheld laser range finder. The addition of IR imaging in the form of SWIR, MWIR, or LWIR would be of considerable benefit but does not eliminate the need to image with visible light.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is the main customer for Thales’s activities in Glasgow,I think the research or technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services.

I did not find the research paper but i find similar research papers.The links are given below which help me

Light beam range finder - Patent 5767953

http://www.npphotonics.com/files/wht_papers/Fiber_Laser_Applications.pdf

SBIR/STTR Interactive Topic Information System (SITIS)

NASA - Remote Sensing and Lasers (very elaborative)


http://www.skaczmarek.ps.pl/Miniature.pdf (why eyesafe?)

Laser rangefinder - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia