My name is Dimitrios Fakis, I am a PhD candidate in the Mechanical Engineering Department of Brunel University and my research is on the excitation and propagation of electromagnetic surface waves on structural composite substrates.
I am currently stationed at the National Structural Integrity Research Centre and my PhD is funded by BP Ltc and TWI Ltd. The YERUN Research and Mobility Program allowed me to arrange a visit at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM) to meet and collaborate with prof. Juan Córcoles Ortega of the RadioFrequency: Circuits, Antennas and Systems (RFCAS) Group. During the two weeks of my visit, I was able to meet professor Corcoles and his research group, including academic staff and PhD candidates, and present my research subject and work to them.
Subsequently, I was allowed to use the facilities of the university and set up an experiment at the anechoic chamber of the antenna laboratory. The results of the measurements conducted there will be an integral part of my PhD and subject to future publications. Meanwhile, collaboration with prof. Corcoles is still ongoing 3 months after the visit and a second visit in the near future is very possible.
Dimitrios was awarded his Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering with specialisation in Electrical Power Engineering by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His diploma thesis included the manufacturing of a specially designed electrical field probe used to investigate the electric field–space charge coupled problems related to corona discharges in High Voltage Direct Current applications. Dimitrios is currently a PhD student with the Mechanical Engineering department of the Brunel University of London (9/2017-present), stationed in the National Structural Integrity Research Centre, in Cambridge, UK. His research is focused on the use of the surfaces of large existing structures (pipelines, aircraft, automobile), constructed with the use of fiber-reinforced composite materials, for the propagation of electromagnetic signals. Potential applications for this technology (wireless communications and power transfer, non destructive testing) are also under investigation.
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