Engineering alumnus wins Shell Innovation Award

Graham van’t Hoff, Chairman of Shell UK, presents Dr Nithin Thomas with the LiveWIRE 2012 Innovation Award

20 November 2012

Dr Nithin Thomas, a former graduate student in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, has won the prestigious Shell LiveWIRE 2012 Innovation Award.

As a PhD student, Dr Thomas worked on the scalable encryption of video streams under the supervision of Professor Dave Bull. The University’s Research and Enterprise Development provided support in the form of an Enterprise Development Fund award, along with advice and help from the SETSquared Partnership.

After graduating, Dr Thomas started a cyber-security company, SQR Systems Ltd, to develop this scalable encryption technology further and provide secure data distribution for private companies and public institutions.

He was shortlisted from over 800 entries for the Shell LiveWire Awards, which were launched in 1982 as part of a programme to support and encourage entrepreneurship. Although the main prize – the Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur Award – went to another candidate, Dr Thomas’ work was recognised by the judges for the Innovation Award.