Paul Michael Newman (born 1973
) is a British engineer and academic, the BP Professor of Information Engineering at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, and a Fellow of
Keble College, Oxford.
He is head of the Oxford Mobile Robotics Group (MRG)
and CTO at
Oxa.
In 2014, he co-founded
Oxa with
Ingmar Posner.
Education
Newman received an MEng in Engineering Science from
Balliol College, Oxford in 1995, followed by a PhD in autonomous navigation from the
Australian Centre for Field Robotics,
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...
, Australia.
Career and research
Newman’s work on autonomous vehicle technology has led him to author 200 papers and garner over 15,000 citations.
He has an
h-index
The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as ...
of 72 according to
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes ...
. In his doctoral dissertation at the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...
, Paul set out the fundamentals of the large-scale navigation problem
SLAM
Slam, SLAM or SLAMS may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional elements
* S.L.A.M. (Strategic Long-Range Artillery Machine), a fictional weapon in the ''G.I. Joe'' universe
* SLAMS (Space-Land-Air Missile Shield), a fictional anti-ball ...
, which would later become one of the most cited papers in the field at over 3,000 citations.
Following his PhD in 1999 under
Hugh F. Durrant-Whyte
Hugh Francis Durrant-Whyte (born 6 February 1961) is a British-Australian engineer and academic. He is known for his pioneering work on probabilistic methods for robotics. The algorithms developed in his group since the early 1990s permit autono ...
,
[ Newman worked as a Navigation Engineer at Sonardyne International, UK, in 1999 and 2000, where he wrote the navigation algorithms which underpinned operation of autonomous sub-sea vehicles dealing with the ]Deepwater Horizon oil spill
The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill (also referred to as the "BP oil spill") was an industrial disaster that began on 20 April 2010 off of the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considere ...
.
In 2003, Newman left industry for MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
, where he was a postdoctorate research scientist, working with Professor John J. Leonard on large-scale field robotics both on land and in the ocean.
He became a Departmental Lecturer in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
in 2003, and set up the Mobile Robotics Group, a sub-division of the Oxford Robotics Institute
The Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI) is an interdisciplinary division within the University of Oxford. It is dedicated to researching robotics, artificial intelligence, systems engineering, and other related fields. The ORI is a subsidiary of the ...
, where he developed partnerships with BAE Systems and Nissan. In 2005, he was appointed to a University Lectureship in Information Engineering and elected a fellow of New College Oxford where he was a Tutorial Fellow until 2012. He became Professor of Engineering Science in 2010 and BP Professor of Information Engineering and Fellow of Keble College in 2012.
In 2010, Newman was awarded an EPSRC
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical sciences, mainly to univers ...
Leadership Fellowship. The flagship output was the “Robotcar”, which in 2013 became the first autonomous vehicle
Vehicular automation involves the use of mechatronics, artificial intelligence, and multi-agent systems to assist the operator of a vehicle (car, aircraft, watercraft, or otherwise).Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Lanzon, A.,Group Coordinated Control o ...
permitted on public roads in the UK.
He founded the Oxford Robotics Institute in 2016 and served as director until 2022.
In 2014, Newman leveraged the newly developed technology and, with the Robotcar team, co-founded Oxa.
Honours, advisory roles and fellowships
Newman was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Fellow of the IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...
in 2014, both with citations for "outstanding contributions to robot navigation".
He served on the UK Government
ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd
, image = HM Government logo.svg
, image_size = 220px
, image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg
, image_size2 = 180px
, caption = Royal Arms
, date_est ...
’s Department for Transport Scientific Advisory Council from 2016 to 2020.
From 2020 Newman has served as a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology.
He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
(CBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours
The 2023 King's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms of King Charles III to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part o ...
for services to technology and engineering.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Paul
Living people
Fellows of Keble College, Oxford
Fellows of New College, Oxford
British electronics engineers
Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
University of Sydney alumni
Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Fellow Members of the IEEE
1973 births
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire