Alumni

Adedayo Adetoye, Graduated 2003, currently a PhD student at The University of Birmingham
Coming to UCL for the MSc DCNDS programme was one of the smartest decisions I have made concerning my career. Naturally, given the excellent reputation of the school and the programme, I had very high expectations. The course more than met my expectations and gave me the very solid technical background I needed to continue towards a PhD degree in Computer Science. Not surprisingly, my current research is on mobile code security, a reflection of the knowledge gained from networking, security and distributed systems taught in the course. The content is a comprehensive mix of topics in computer science and engineering, it takes a holistic view to solving pressing engineering problems: a quality that is in high demand both in the industry and the research community. The teaching staff are excellent, professional and quite friendly too. I am very satisfied that I took the programme and I strongly recommend it to anyone who wishes to make an impact in this field of computing.

Melissa Ho, Graduated 2003, currently an intern at Intel Research Berkeley
The DCNDS programme gave me the foundations and experience I needed in research - while enabling me to discover how much I love it. My final project was to extend and evaluate and epidemic routing algorithm for partially-connected ad hoc networks. This research project gave me the opportunity to innovate and to apply skills learned in our classes - how reason about networking and communications technology. However, the most valuable resource is the encouragement and mentorship given by the teaching staff. It is an intense course, but well worth the effort. Currently I am aiming to continue research by pursuing admission into PhD programmes in the United States.

Clovis Chapman, Graduated 2002, currently a Research Fellow at UCL
Having developed a strong interest in distributed systems during the 3 years of my undergraduate degree course in Computer Science at King’s College, I came to UCL in 2001 to undertake the MsC in DCNDS. While the courses were very interesting and provided me with good ground knowledge, the final group project was a particularly enthralling experience that put me on the path I am following today. Our project was in the area of peer-to-peer and Grid systems, and our group poured a lot of hard work into developing a system from the ground up over several months, whilst applying project management techniques and knowledge gained during the year.
Since then I have remained in UCL and am currently working as a Research Fellow and undertaking a PhD part-time in the area of Grid middleware.

Manish Lad, Graduated 2000, currently a Research Fellow at UCL
As my undergraduate degree in Computer Science at UCL was nearing completion, I realised I had a growing interest in networking and distributed systems. I knew that the highly regarded DCNDS course would provide me with a much better grounding in this area, so I decided to stay on at UCL to complete this course. It was an excellant decision and not only did I benefit from the excellant quality of teaching from experts in the field, but was also able to participate in a very interesting group project for which my group won the Anvil Software prize. By the end of the course, I had already received three job offers. I decided to take the post of Senior Software Engineer at Lucent Technologies Inc. where I spent two years working on the implementation of parts of the IPv6 stack for a core Internet router. I have now returned to work at UCL on even more interesting and challenging research projects in the area of VPN and Overlay technologies.

Meng How Lim, Graduated 2000, currently a PhD student at Cambridge University
I was born and raised in Singapore. After many years of software development, I decided to have a break. So I came to UCL to do a one year MSc in DCNDS. There was lots to learn and time seemed to be pretty short in that year. Anyhow, I completed the course in year 2000 and won the Anvil's Software prize together with rest of my project group. After that, I worked as a research engineer in Centre For Wireless Communications. It is a research centre that runs some projects on 3G, bluetooth, mobile-IP and IPv6. I was working on QoS and DHCP with mobileIPv6 before I decided to take a greater challenge. Currently, I am a second year PhD student in University of Cambridge. My research topic is Wide Area Ad Hoc Routing.

Kazuya Takahata, Graduated 2000, currently a researcher at Hitachi Research Institute
Having worked as a systems engineer for six years at Hitachi Ltd., I embarked on the DCNDS course to enhance my skills and obtain theoretical knowledge in network computing. The course was ideal for me in that it covers wide range of subjects such as network principles, project management and industrial seminars. After graduating from UCL, I joined Hitachi Research Institute where I am currently engaged in the electronic government project. One of the purposes of this project is to promote the utilisation of ICT in the Japanese public sector by the publications of books such as e-Governance. The network technology is a driving force not only for the business but also for the governmental innovation. In this new research area, both technological and administrative viewpoints are required. The DCNDS programme provided me with the sound technical foundations that are indispensable to cope successfully with such complex matters.

Rae Harbird, Graduated 1997, currently a PhD student at UCL
I embarked on the MSc DCNDS with the objective of enjoying a period of directed, in-depth study in an area I was interested in. At that point I had 10 years work experience and I believed that a further qualification would broaden my career opportunities. That year was the hardest thing I have ever done (my children were 6 and 9 at the time) but I have never looked back. Since graduating I have held a range of senior posts in industry with Reuters, Nortel and Jacobs Rimell. In 2002 I decided that I wanted to go back to an academic environment and I am now studying for a PhD at UCL. To sum up life after DCNDS, I have been able to do anything I wanted and felt confident that I could achieve it.

Paulo Pinto, Graduated 1996, currently a Senior Architect at JacobsRimell
I finished my undergraduate degree in Computer Science at Kings College London (KCL) wanting to know more about networking and communications. I saw the DCNDS syllabus and thought, this is the one. Completing the DCNDS course gave me a thorough understanding of the principles and practices required to begin a career in this area. Graduates with a DCNDS are highly sought after, so much so in fact that I already had a firm job offer with Reuters before I left UCL. I spent two years at Reuters as a Network Specialist, and am now a Senior Architect with JacobsRimell, a company focused on network and provisioning solutions for broadband, digital television, IP telephony and service provider markets. The MSc has proved to be invaluable in all the areas I have worked in, and what I learned during the MSc is still useful seven years on!

Isidor Kouvelas, Graduated 1992, currently a Technical Leader at Cisco Systems Inc.
Having completed a decade of taught courses and research I left UCL in 1998 with many good memories. I started my studies with the UCL Computer Science BSc course that provided me with a broad range of options. At a time when the Internet and the world wide web were becoming increasingly more popular I chose to continue my studies with the DCNDS course. The course combines excellent theoretical knowledge with substantial practical experience preparing a student for industry or research. Graduating from DCNDS enabled me to register for a PhD in Computer Science at UCL with a focus on multicast multimedia conferencing systems. The knowledge and skills obtained from my MSc were essential in the success of my research. After completing my PhD I joined Cisco Systems in 1999 where I am currently working as a Technical Leader in the IP routing protocols group.

Saleem Bhatti, Graduated 1991, currently Professor of Computer Science at the University of St. Andrews.
After completing an undergraduate degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering, I wanted to learn in more depth about networked systems. The DCNDS programme gave me a thorough grounding in the principles of networking and distributed systems, but I also learned a lot of very practical skills. Consulting and talking to industry (especially), I find that this fundamental knowledge still stands me in good stead today! Also, the MSc provided me with an excellent background on which to further my own research, helping greatly with the development of my career, especially at the early stages. This is a great MSc programme - always very challenging - and it was my privilege to be its Director whilst I was at UCL.

Laurie Keller, Graduated 1987, currently a Senior Lecturer at The Open University.
Having graduated with a non-technical/non-science degree in 1967 I entered the world of computing via the "back door" -- practical, on-the-job learning in industry. I went from being a technical writer to a systems programmer, then a manager. By 1982 I was a lecturer in computing at the Open University. My area was computer architectures and operating systems, but I often had to contend with questions about how I hold such a post with the degree I had. I approached UCL and was accepted on the DCNDS MSc programme and used a sabbatical year to study. The programme of study was, despite my own background expertise, very challenging (I knew next to nothing of networking). The study and degree helped me in a number of ways, amongst them gaining promotion to senior lecturer (a post I now hold), gaining CEng status and being able to work far more closely and effectively with colleagues in our Technology Faculty's Telematics Department.

Updated 05 February 2004 by Mark Handley