To see a copy of my current CV, click here.
University of Southampton
Postgraduate Researcher (PhD)
September 2015 – Present
Currently undertaking research with the Transport Research Group investigating the subject matter ‘Integrating Autonomous Vehicles into the Transport Network’. Sponsored by EPSRC and TRL – Transport Research Laboratory.
My research involves modelling traffic signal control systems that use data from Connected Vehicles (CVs) to perform adaptive traffic signal control at urban intersections. This is achieved using the SUMO microsimulation environment with a control layer written in Python. The project aims to understand if data from CVs is worth using for traffic signal control over existing technologies, which data that can be obtained from CVs are most suitable for traffic signal control. The results from this project will help us understand what impact CVs will have on the transport network if their data is used for traffic signal control.
Publications: Google Scholar
Conferences and Seminars:
– 2016, hEART Conference, poster presentation, Delft, The Netherlands
– 2017, IEEE ITS Conference, lectern presentation, Yokohama, Japan
– 2018, TRB Annual Meeting, poster presentation, Washington, D.C., USA
– 2018, University of Southampton Transportation Research Group Seminar, lectern presentation
– 2018, NGCM Strategic Advisory Board Meeting, invited lectern presentation
– 2019, TRB Annual Meeting, invited lectern presentation, Washington, D.C., USA
– 2019, University of Southampton Transportation Research Group Seminar, lectern presentation
– 2019, University College London (UCL), invited lectern presentation
Peer review:
– TRB Annual Meeting 2018 – 1 paper
Software Carpentry Instructor & Research Software Community (RSC) Champion
December 2017 – Present
As a software carpentry instructor I teach researchers the BASH, Python, and Git skills they need to improve their software engineering ability and write better research code.
As a champion of the RSC, I promote good software engineering and reproducible coding practices within my research group and faculty. I am also available to assist my colleagues, and advise them on issues they encounter with their codes and research software. I have assisted colleagues with tasks such as: experiment automation, code parallelisation, algorithm implementation, debugging, data structure design, code refactoring, and testing.
Undergraduate Python Lab Demonstrator
Oct 2016 – January 2020
I lead the introductory Python programming labs for the first year civil engineering students.
IAESTE Ireland
President: Dublin Local Committee
January 2014 – August 2015
The International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience (IAESTE) is an independent, non-profit and non-political student exchange organisation. It provides students in technical degrees with paid training abroad and employers with highly skilled, highly motivated trainees, for long or short term projects. With over 80 countries involved and exchanging over 4000 traineeships each year worldwide, it is the largest organisation of its kind in the world.
At a national level the Local Committee (LC) is responsible for aiding the National Secretary with Job raising, organising a cultural programme for incoming students and informing potential outgoing students of the IAESTE programme.
As the President of the Dublin LC for two sessions, I worked closely with National Secretary, coordinating LC activities and advancing the programme here in Ireland, as well as working with the other committee members to help this years IAESTE students have a fantastic and memorable experience!
JUMP 2014 Event Coordinator
March 2014 – September 2014
Join Us to Motivate People (JUMP) is the IAESTE organisations only international training and motivation conference. For its 20th year the conference was brought to Ireland for the first time! The event attracted over 100 participants from 17 different countries to the Rowan Tree Hostel, Ennis, Co. Clare, and was a huge success. The event gained support from Fáilte Ireland, Léargas (which manages national and international exchange and cooperation programmes on behalf of the Department of Education), Trinity College Dublin and SAP.
The purpose of JUMP is to share IAESTE knowledge and broaden the network of future IAESTE leaders. This is done through workshops and seminars focused on various IAESTE tasks and personal skills development. This year we had motivational speaker Mark Mulligan speaking on the topic of overcoming fear, industry speakers from Trinity College and Essilor, as well as workshops in management, marketing, job raising, and administration.
As the event coordinator I was responsible for organising the JUMP team and realising the event. Promotion, gathering sponsors and programme development were key focus points for the teams efforts. There was a large project management effort in coordinating a relatively new committee but the groups motivation in fulfilling their roles was astounding and ensured the organisation process was well taken care of.
S3 Group
Dublin, Ireland
Hardware Development Engineer
January 2014 – August 2014
Worked as a Hardware Development Engineer for S3 Groups’ TV Technology business unit. My responsibilities included PCB design, development and testing, Matlab scripting, and general support to other engineers within the group. Projects I was involved in included:
• 4 Channel Video and IR Matrix Switch
• RF Cable Specification
• Gateway Device Build
• Mechanical Capacitive Touchscreen Stimulator
• Rack Unit Temperature Testing
• Warning Centre Server Setup
• HDMI Audio Inserter Testing
• Parts Database Design
• Radiated Emissions Testing at Compliance Engineering Ireland (CEI)
• AV Switch Simulation in LTSpice
University of Split
Data analysis and code development intern
June 2013 – July 2013
Code Development for the MAGIC Telescope Project for the Department of Physics and Mathematics at the Faculty of Electronic Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture. This involved writing macros in C/C++ for use with the “MAGIC Analysis and Reconstruction Software” (MARS) which is an extension of the ROOT data analysis framework and C interpreter developed by CERN. The projects I undertook are now part of the daily data gathering routine at the MAGIC data centre at La Palma. The reports produced are published online for use by the data check groups of the MAGIC collaboration.
Projects:
• Previously only a daily report macro was available to MAGIC researchers. I developed a macro that analyses the telescopes daily observation data over several months and plots the long term behaviour of its systems for analysis. This allowed superior noise characterisation than was previously available.
• Created a macro to assess the performance of the MAGIC Telescope’s Domino Ring Sampler.
• Created a macro to assess the effects of atmospheric conditions on the telescopes photoelectron detection rate.
• Wrote server-side scripts in BASH and Python to run each of the three macros for both telescopes if new daily data was generated for that day.
Craig Rafter 