Nigel Steele

Emeritus Professor of Mathematics
Coventry University

About Me
Research and Related Interests
Favourite Places
Interests
The Mathematics Group
Other Useful Links
Address

About Me

Born 9/9/1945 in Oxford, UK. Educated at King Henry VIII School Coventry, and Southampton University. I was employed as a lecturer at Coventry University and its predecessor Institutions from 1968, becoming Head of Mathematics in 1995, and Professor of Mathematics in March 2000. I retired in September, 2004 and am currently Professor Emeritus of Mathematics. I am a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications , a Chartered Mathematician and a member of Council and the Executive Board. I currently serve as an Honorary Secretary, and have responsibility for educational matters. I am also a Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Research and Related Interests

I am a member of the Computational Intelligence Group and my main current research interest is in Artificial Neural Networks and their applications, particularly in the implementation of Fuzzy-Logic based control. Some of this work was carried out in the field of robotics in conjunction with Jelena Godjevac then at EPF-Lausanne. I also work with Andrej Dobnikar and his group in Ljubljana, Slovenia. This group organised the International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms (ICANNGA99) in Slovenia in 1999. The next conference in the series was held in Prague in Spring 2001 followed by meetings in Roanne, France and Coimbra Portugal. I have a long-standing collaboration with Prof. David Pearson, now at the University of St Etienne in France, who organised the conference in Roanne. The next conference in the ICANNGA series is expected to be in Poland in 2007.

I have involvement with a number of other conferences, in particular the series of International Conferences on Systems Engineering (ICSE) last held at Coventry in September 2003. Coventry University was host to an LMS supported workshop in Uncertainty Modelling in May 2003. For a report, please contact Dr H Robinson.

My other interests include the mathematical education of engineers, and I was a co-author of the SEFI core curriculum in mathematics for European Engineers. I am one of the author team which produced `Advanced Modern Engineering Mathematics', edited by Glyn James and published by Addison-Wesley. Mike Chapman, David Goodall and I have also published `Signal Processing in Electronic Communication', which is a textbook aimed at showing the mathematical basics of the modern communication process. It is perhaps unfortunate that the publisher spelt my name wrongly on the cover!!

Favourite Places

Anywhere which combines good food, attractive scenery, interesting railways and opportunities for walking and fishing.

Interests

Travel by rail in Europe. I detest flying...and I am interested in railways.

Fishing for trout, sea-trout and salmon (Three cats to support).

Walking, particularly in Scotland and Switzerland.

The Mathematics Group

The Mathematics Group at Coventry is highly active. As well as our two main research groups, we have a strong interest in educational matters, in particular, the use of the computer to enhance the teaching of mathematics and the mathematical education of engineers. Together with our colleagues in the Statistics Group, we offer a number of degree courses in mathematics/statistics plus joint degrees with other subjects. All our courses are also available for part-time study. In the recent TQA we were awarded 23 points out of 24, reflecting the quality of the student experience at Coventry, both on our own courses and on those we service. A recent development has been the designation, in partnership with Loughborough University, as a HEFCE-funded Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) focused on mathematics support. We offer studies at postgraduate level and supervision for research degrees. There are two taught MSc courses one in Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation and another in Control Engineering. We also offer MSc's by Research in Control Theory and its Applications and in Computational Applied Mathematics. We provide supervision for research studies leading to the degrees of M Phil and PhD in several areas. For more information on any of these, go to the School Homepage. We are particularly interested in working with companies and other organisations to meet educational/training needs and to undertake consultancy. Contact should be made through the Head of Department, Dr J H Tabor.