Press Releases

Student wins engineering research prize – University of Reading

Release Date : 13 July 2004

Ahmet Omer, a University of Reading student from Woodley, has won the Thales Research Prize for 2004. The annual prize is awarded for the best final-year electronic engineering project at the University by Reading-based Thales Research & Technology (UK) Ltd, one of the UK's leading technology research companies. Ahmet won this prize for his work on a hardware Boltzmann Machine... The Boltzmann machine is a type of neural network that can find near optimum solutions to certain types of problem, which are expressed in the form of a graph. Ahmet successfully developed a model of the extremely complicated behaviour of the hardware Boltzmann Machine, and to compare it against the theoretical best solution produced by the even more complex Edmonds Algorithm. Professor Edward Stansfield from Thales Research, who is a visiting professor at the University of Reading, said he was very impressed with the overall standard of the projects. He presented Ahmet Omer with a certificate, cheque and trophy in recognition of his win. Thales Research and Technologies (UK) Ltd is the UK centre of excellence for applied research and advanced development in electronic systems for the Thales group of companies. Along with sister companies in France, The Netherlands, and around the world, it provides close support to Thales Operating Companies, and a wide range of consultancy and development services to governments, agencies and industry. end For further information, please contact: -Naomi Simpson, Human Resources Assistant, Thales Research and Technology (UK) Ltd, Tel: 0118 923 8260 Email: naomi.simpson@thalesgroup.com -Craig Hillsley, Press Officer, The University of Reading, Tel: 0118 378 7388 Email: c.hillsley@reading.ac.uk