Electronics and Electrical Engineering

Cristian Sestito is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Electronics Frontiers, University of Edinburgh, UK. Specifically, Cristian is part of the AI Hub for Productive Research and Innovation in eLectronics (APRIL). He earned his BSc (2016) and MSc (2019) in Electronic Engineering, followed by a PhD in Information and Communication Technologies (2023), from the University of Calabria, Italy. His PhD focused on the design and FPGA implementation of convolutional neural networks, with particular emphasis on dilated and transposed convolutions. During 2021–2022, he was a Visiting Scholar at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK where he worked on neural network compression techniques. His current research interests include digital AI accelerator design, software simulators for neuromorphic AI, and AI-assisted electronic design automation frameworks.

• PhD in Information and Communication Technologies, University of Calabria, Italy.
• MSc In Electronic Engineering, University of Calabria, Italy.
• BSc in Electronic Engineering, University of Calabria, Italy.

• IEEE Member.

• Hardware acceleration of Convolutional Neural Networks.
• Hardware acceleration of systolic arrays.
• AI-assisted electronic design automation.
• Software modelling of neuromorphic AI accelerators.

• FPGA design.
• Hardware/software co-design methodologies.
• Digital ASIC design.
• LLM-assisted electronic design automation frameworks.

• During his time in the APRIL AI Hub, Cristian is leading R&D activities within Pillar 3: Circuits and Systems Design Automation. His current focus is LaMDA (Language Model-Assisted Electronic Design Automation Framework).

An Electrical and Mechanical Engineer by training, Camilla now teaches about sustainable energy and researches the environmental impacts of energy. Currently this mostly involves developing better tools and techniques to analyse the climate change impact or carbon footprint of changes to the electricity system: whether new renewable energy developments, new transmission lines or even new market operations.

Camilla is a Co-Investigator in the EnergyREV project, leading the work package on developing a Multi-Criteria Assessment tool for Smart Local Energy Systems. She is also the Deputy Co-ordinator on the NEWEST-CCUS project, and is leading a multi-disciplinary international team on the specific task of robustly quantifying the atmospheric-carbon-reduction-potential of waste-to-energy plants with carbon capture and storage.

Camilla is also a keen advocate for diversity in Engineering. She is the founding chair of the School's Molly Fergusson Initiative, and was named one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering - Sustainability in 2020.

Her pronouns are she/her.

• PhD Carbon and Energy Payback of Variable Renewable Generation, University of Edinburgh, 2014
• MEng(Hons) Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, University of Edinburgh, 2004

• Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, MIET
• Winner Top 50 Women in Engineering 2020 - Sustainability

• MSc Sustainable Energy Systems - Dissertation supervision
• Technologies for Sustainable Energy - Course-organiser and lecturer

• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and carbon footprinting
• Marginal carbon analysis
• Renewable resource assessment
• Daylighting analysis

David holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from ESPOL Polytechnic University, Ecuador, and a Master’s degree in Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland. From 2016 to 2022, he served as a full-time lecturer and researcher at ESPOL Polytechnic University. He is currently pursuing a PhD at the Advanced Care Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.David has extensive experience in the design of electronic systems for health monitoring systems. He has contributed to projects focused on gait analysis in Parkinson's disease, impedance spectroscopy for pulmonary oedema detection, and transcutaneous tibial nerve stimulation for the treatment of overactive bladder. His research interests include biomedical engineering applications and the adoption of technology, with a particular emphasis on older adults.

• B.Sc. in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering (ESPOL Polytechnic University, Ecuador)
• M.Sc. in Engineering (SUPSI, Switzerland)

• IEEE

Tutor and Demostrator :

• Analogue Electronics (Project) 4 /Analogue VLSI Lab
• Sensors and Instrumentation
• Software and Embedded Systems Laboratory 2
• Applications of Sensor and Imaging Systems
• Social and Ethical Aspects of Medicine

• Biomedical engineering
• Advanced care for older adults

• Mixed-signal electronics
• Wearable devices

https://smcdonagh.github.io/