Eur Ing Professor Martin Smith, BSc MSc CPhys MInstP SMIEEE CEng FIEE FCybS FRAS FRSA FRI

Martin is Visiting Research Professor in Robotics at the Open University. Previously he was a Professor at the Technology Innovation Centre, University of Central England in Birmingham. He moved there from the University of East London, where he was Head of the Mobile Robots Research Unit, Principal Lecturer, and Deputy Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Martin was formerly Chairman of the Engineering Council London Regional Organisation, a Member of Council of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Chairman of the IEE London Centre and a member of the Robotics Professional Group Committee. He was the IEE Silvanus P. Thompson lecturer from 1996 to 1998 presenting "From Homo Sapiens to Robo Sapiens - the Future of Artificial Life, Robots and Humans" to thirty universities and institutions in the UK, Eire and at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland. He and his students have provided robot displays for the Model Engineering Exhibition, the Year of Engineering Success, the Robot Olympics, Robotix, Science Engineering and Technology (SET) week, "Tomorrow's World" live, the Science Museum, the environment education charity Waste Watch and the IEE. He has appeared on over 100 different engineering and robot-related television programmes, including "Tomorrow's World" and the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, and numerous radio programmes, and has often been featured in newspaper and magazine articles. He was a judge on BBC2's "Robot Wars", Channel 4's "Scrapheap Challenge", Technical Presenter on BBC2's "Techno Games" and Granada’s “Mutant Machines”.

As well as being a Fellow of The Cybernetics Society, Martin is a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Society of Arts, and the Royal Institution. He is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (USA), a Member of the Institute of Physics, the Royal Television Society, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. He is a Chartered Engineer, a European Engineer, a Chartered Physicist, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Engineers, a Freeman of the City of London, Member of the Guild of Freemen of the City of London and a member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham.

He established www.robot.org.uk as an information resource for people of all ages who would like to know how to build robotic machines. In 2001 he received a Public Awareness of Physics Award from the Institute of Physics for his work promoting physics and engineering. In 2004 he accepted the invitation to become that year's IEE/RAeS/IMechE Isaac Newton Lecturer.