Nicolette Formosa – a student reading for a PhD in the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering – showcased her work at the gala event held at The Royal Society in London on 24 May.
She was one of 10 PhD students chosen from more than 400 entries to present a poster of her research at the Awards – which support outstanding female PhD students in STEM subjects – and her research was selected as one of the top two winning poster presentations.
Nicolette’s poster – titled ‘Robots Taking Over the Wheel’ – detailed the focus of her research, namely developing a collision avoidance system (CAS) algorithm to assist motorists by detecting obstacles in order to avoid an imminent collision, thus enhancing driver safety.
Commenting on her win, Nicolette said: “To receive this award from such an organisation was incredibly rewarding. It was a great opportunity for personal growth, networking and to promote the great research being carried out at Loughborough University.”
Nicolette is studying at the University under the supervision of Professor Mohammed Quddus and Professor Stephen Ison.
Professor Ison said of Nicolette’s success: “It is a very exciting award recognising the significance of what is an important area of research aimed at reducing collisions on road transport networks and as such the number of motorist fatalities.”
Professor Quddus added: “Loughborough University has been conducting world-class research on connected and autonomous vehicles and Nicolette’s award is an excellent appreciation of her cutting-edge research in this emerging area of research.”
For more information on the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Awards, click here.