Lloyd Wood

Who am I? Where am I?

Where am I? Usually on some campus or other, near a lake. Tiring of the weather in London, I've relocated to Sydney, Australia.

Past

doctoral work at Surrey

I first tried to study my way into the space business by taking one of the University of Surrey's masters degrees in Satellite Communications Engineering, joining what was then the Centre for Satellite Engineering Research. I was lucky enough to spend five months of that masters course in the south of France while working on my masters thesis, learning the rudiments of satellite constellations when I should have been wandering along the Garonne into Toulouse and learning more French instead.

I returned to Surrey to earn my PhD while in the Centre for Communication Systems Research, next to the lake at the University of Surrey.

Finishing with school, I moved to London to work at Stockley Park and then Bedfont Lakes for Cisco Systems (here's an upbeat article describing what working for Cisco was like at the time, and a more downbeat later reflection). After a couple of years working on development of Cisco's router software, I worked as a space initiatives manager in Cisco's space team. There I was involved in testing the first Cisco router in orbit and taking the Interplanetary Internet into space with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, as my publications indicate.

After years collaborating in research with the Centre, I later returned to do research full-time for a couple of years, before leaving for Australia. I worked in the Lakes Business Park to bring better Internet to the Pacific islands, as part of Pactel International, later SpeedCast Pacific after an acquisition and a successful public offering on the stock market. That occasionally took me somewhere remote in the Pacific.

development work at Cisco
Some of the things I've worked on have received media attention:

Case Study: Bringing the Internet to the I-Kiribati, SpeedCast, September 2014.
Improving satcoms lifelines for the most remote islands on Earth, Newtec News, 5 September 2014, p. 11.
Case Study: Macarthur Minerals, Pactel International, July 2012.
Pactel delivers enhanced corporate and welfare solution to emerging iron ore producer - Macarthur Minerals, Pactel International press release, 16 July 2012.
Double honour for space researchers in prestigious Sir Arthur Clarke awards, University of Surrey press release, 15 June 2011.
Nominees shortlisted for Sir Arthur Clarke Awards, UK Space Agency press release, 14 June 2011.
CLEO Orbital Internet earns Time Magazine award, Robin Wolstenholme, Surrey Satellite Technology space blog, 14 November 2008.
UK-DMC satellite first to transfer sensor data from space using 'bundle' protocol, University of Surrey press release, 11 September 2008.
US military plans to put Internet router in space, John Blau, IDG News Service, 12 April 2007.
Cisco in space, Phil Hochmuth, Network World, 31 October 2005.
Cisco Systems is at the Forefront of Extending the Internet Into Space, Jenny Carless, Cisco Newsroom story, 30 June 2004.

Adding technical credibility, things I've done have featured on Slashdot:

Big Satellite Systems, Simulated On Your Desktop, Slashdot, 1 February 2016.
O3b Launches Four More Satellites To Bring Internet To 'Other 3 Billion', Slashdot, 11 July 2014.
IPv6 Tested in Space, Slashdot, 8 April 2007.
Router Tested On Satellite In Space, Slashdot, 1 July 2004.

I've also been tidying up odds and ends related to my PhD work, such as SaVi, and thinking of working on perhaps coming up with strategies to regain some semblance of a life. You know, holidays. Hobbies. Social interaction. That kind of thing. You'd think being in the Pacific would help with that.

Lloyd Wood