Dr. Mahmoud Wagih, a Research Fellow in the Arm-ECS Research Centre and the University of Southampton’s Smart Electronic Materials and Systems Research Group, has been selected as one of nine engineering researchers awarded grants to advance national security, through a £200k UK Intelligence Community (IC) Research Fellowship.

The Government Office for Science offers UK Intelligence Community (IC) Postdoctoral Research Fellowships to outstanding early career researchers. The UKIC Postdoctoral Research Fellowships, administered by the Royal Academy of Engineering, provide a vital link between academia and the intelligence community.

Alex van Someren, Chief Scientific Adviser for National Security to HM Government, said: “I am delighted with the variety of technologies and the quality of the 2021 awardees of the UK Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowships programme that the Royal Academy of Engineering manages on my behalf. […] using electromagnetism as an energy source to power batteries, is of central importance to designing devices for future threat detection. I am looking forward with great anticipation to the outcomes of this cutting-edge research.”

The research aims to combine energy harvesting using well-established technologies such as photovoltaics and vibrational generators with efficient, robust, and safe RF power transmission and harvesting. This project builds upon existing world-leading research on wearable and low-cost RF energy harvesting, which has been published in over 30 journal and conference articles, received at least three best paper/presentation awards at major conferences, and was recognised by the University of Southampton’s Best in Faculty Doctoral College Research Award.