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Professor Steven Freear

Professor Steven Freear

Profile

Steven Freear (IEEE S’95–M’97–SM’11) earned his doctorate in 1997 and subsequently worked in the medical industry for seven years as an electronic system designer. He was appointed Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and then Professor with the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Leeds, Leeds, UK., in 2006, 2008 and 2016 respectively, where he is currently Director of Research and Innovation. In 2008, he formed the Ultrasound and Embedded Systems Group, specializing in both industrial and biomedical research. His main research interest is concerned with the implementation of advanced analog and digital signal processing and efficient embedded systems design. He teaches digital signal processing, VLSI and embedded systems design, and hardware description languages at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He is Vice President for Publications for the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control Society (UFFC) having previous served as Editor-in-Chief of the Transactions on UFFC (2013-2018). He was Visiting Professor at Georgia Tech from 2014-2018 where he led development of the imaging engine for an MRI compatible CMUT intravascular catheter funded by NIH/Siemens. His research group has developed the Ultrasound Array Research Platform (UARP); its associated intellectual property (IP) is widely used on several biomedical and industrial research projects, both internally and throughout the UK. Relevant EPSRC supported research includes: EP/V04799X/1, EP/W033151/1, EP/N026942/1, EP/I000623/1 and EP/P023266/1 which make use of the UARP for imaging and the targeted acoustic delivery of chemotherapy agents (the UARP is currently under trial with project partner Medical Discoveries Catapult). Grants EP/N034813/1 EP/K029835/1 reflect novel transducer development making use of metamaterials. We have extensive industrial experience and recently gained an R&D contract to deploy the UARP at nuclear decommissioning company, Sellafield, as part of their live decommissioning programme. The group’s embedded systems magnetometry work was developed and commercialized with Speir Hunter. Our patented technology (WO2013/128212, WO/2013/128210, WO2018046947A) is now exploited globally by National Grid (UK), Shell (USA & Canada), Enbridge (Canada), Total (France), Gasunie (Netherlands & Germany), Sinopec (China & Malaysia), GRTgaz (France) and Petrochina (China), inter-alia. We have completed 4 highly successful Industrial Knowledge Transfer Partnership projects with Pace, RTK Instruments, BCA leisure, Ardent and currently have embarked on two further projects with Oil and Gas Measurements and LBBC Group. The group has a research portfolio in excess of £6.85m (as PI), 9 patents and over 200 publications. 

The Ultrasound Group has it's own website please click here.
Details of the Ultrasound Array Research Platform (UARP) can be found on the following link https://www.uarp.co.uk . The system is available at cost for collaborators, please contact me for details.

Responsibilities

  • Director of Research and Innovation
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://eps.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Research groups and institutes

  • Robotics
  • Institute of Robotics, Autonomous Systems and Sensing

Current postgraduate researchers

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>