Biography
Craig Thomson is an early career academic at Edinburgh Napier University, having recently completed his PhD work at the same establishment. He obtained a First Class BEng(Hons) in Computer Systems and Networks from Edinburgh Napier University in 2016. In doing so, producing an Honours project examining strained interference ranges in RPL sensor networks, which was subsequently published at the ACS/IEEE International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications in Morocco.
From here Craig was awarded a PhD Studentship at Edinburgh Napier University. His PhD research focussed on the area of energy consumption in Wireless Sensor Networks, in particular at the MAC layer. This involved the utilisation of a mobile sink node with predictable mobility patterns to influence the duty cycling of static nodes in the network. Static nodes would implement a threshold of communication with the sink based on it's speed and location, with nodes only awakening when the sink is within this threshold. Thus, reducing energy consumption in static nodes and improving network efficiency overall. This work resulted in five publications including MDPI, Springer and Elsevier journals as well as two conference papers. One of which resulted in the Best Paper Award at the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Smart Internet of Things, in Tianjin, China.
Craig was awarded his PhD in February 2021 and joined Napier on a full-time basis soon after as a Lecturer in the Centre for Distributed Computing, Networking and Security within the School of Computing. His new research interests are in the areas of Machine Learning and how this may be applied to IoT environments, and sensor networks in general, in order to further improve performance and security. This as well as developing new pedagogical approaches to the use of simulation tools.
Next steps will involve PhD supervision and becoming module leader of the Practical Networks 1 module to 1st year students. Allowing Craig to share his passion for networking and security with new students to the university.
Esteem
• Reviewer for Electronics (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics)
• Reviewer for ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijgi)
• Reviewer for International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Intelligent Systems (ICETIS 2021)
• Technical Programme Committee Member for 2021 9th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Cloud Computing, Services, and Engineering (IEEE Mobile Cloud)