Electronics lecturer and entrepreneur Dr Mahmoud Wagih has won one of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s top awards for his work developing wireless power and sensing technologies that could pave the way to maintenance-free smart devices.
Dr Wagih, who is Lecturer in Implantable Electronics at the University of Glasgow, will receive the Sir George Macfarlane Medal for exceptional achievement in an early stage of his career, to be presented at the Academy’s annual Awards Dinner in London on 8th July.
He will also receive a £3,000 cash prize as one of the RAEng Engineers Trust Young Engineers of the Year, a prize for early-career UK engineers, supported by the Worshipful Company of Engineers.
During a degree in electrical and electronic engineering at the University of Southampton, Mahmoud completed a research internship in radio frequency engineering. He then studied for a PhD incorporating antennas into clothing to make wirelessly charging wearable devices.
Mahmoud worked in industry at chip designer Arm and then moved to the University of Glasgow, where he now runs a large, interdisciplinary team that makes up the Green Electronics Lab. Their current projects include biodegradable circuits and a trial of over 1,000 prototype battery-free smart socks for at-home healthcare monitoring. He has also founded a startup called RX Watt to make chips for sustainable long-range wireless device charging.
Mahmoud says: “My undergraduate project included designing Bluetooth antennas and circuits for insoles, allowing continuous tracking for step counting. My favourite engineering moment continues to be receiving a device that I, or a team member, designed for the first time. It’s always a long-anticipated moment that gets me instantly into the lab.”
Supporting Dr Wagih for the award, Professor William Whittow, Professor in Radiofrequency Materials at Loughborough University, says: “Mahmoud is an all-round outstanding researcher and academic; this relates to all aspects of his work including experiments, developing analytical theory, developing innovative techniques to solve problems, networking with industry, outreach, and having a vision for long term opportunities. He is driven by his passion to solve problems and make a difference to society.”
