This is the last post this blog will ever have. I'm writing it during my last days of employment at the University of York, and I decided it would be appropriate to simultaneously close the lifecycle of the blog.
I started this blog in May 2011, a few years into my academic career in York (I moved from TU Darmstadt in October 2008). Its goal was to host my reflections on the teaching and research contributions I was making in the area of embedded systems. While academics have well-established outlets for research outcomes (conference proceedings, journals), blogs became an informal outlet for the "meta" level, i.e. reflection and discussions on the practices of research and teaching. If you look into the past posts, you will find discussions about teaching styles, rants about peer review, celebrations of research successes and even job adverts. But perhaps the most common theme in the blog is the celebration of the success of my students. This includes not only my research students, but also the undergraduate students who won my Embedded Systems Design Challenge every year (and who would flaunt their picture in this blog as a badge of honour!)
After nearly fifteen years at the University of York, I have now accepted a chair at the University of Leeds. While I am very excited about the new opportunities and challenges that will come with the new position, I also look back on all of the accomplishments during my tenure at York. I have graduated nine PhD students (and have four still in the pipeline), co-created the SEtS doctoral centre, brought to York more than £1 million in research funding as a principal investigator and nearly £3 million as co-investigator (within projects with a total funding surpassing £14 million), published more than 100 articles in the top conferences and journals in my area, taught 10 different modules to York students, led the Real-Time and Distributed Systems research group, organised two conferences, won 11 awards for my research and teaching, hosted eight academic visitors, co-created the Wireless Society, examined 28 PhD theses, presented seven keynotes and 25 invited talks, managed three MSc programmes, organised two summer schools for international students, supervised eight post-doctoral research associates, 33 MEng/MSc projects and 22 BEng projects. And I've written 30 posts to this blog. This feels like a good time to close this chapter, so this 31st post will be the last one.
But I can't close this chapter without thanking the people that made my whole experience at York very enjoyable. I will use the "you know who you are" blanket statement, but I will also name a few people who made an outstanding impression on me over the years, and will use two and only two words to describe what I admired the most about each of them (not an easy task!).
I must start with the unassuming brilliance of Alan Burns and the friendly wisdom of Andy Wellings, as they were both mentors and examples to me. Then, in no particular order: Debra Lashua's vibrant competence, Ana Cavalcanti's drive and reliability, Lilian Blot's insightful determination, Jim Woodcock's elegant generosity, Luiza Morrell's goal-oriented mindset; Chris Power, caring and outspoken; Jo Phillips, calm and helpful; Helen Ducker, quietly unfazed; Mike Freeman's resilient inventiveness; Ibrahim Habli's diplomatic tenacity, Susan Stepney's collaborative creativity, Jeremy Jacob's honest kindness, Michael Hicks' can-do attitude, Catherine Smith's work ethic, Sia Shahandashti's principled stance, and Richard Paige's informal leadership.
I will continue to live within York's city walls and will retain an honorary visiting professorship in the department, so I will still be around and hope to keep in touch with everyone. But for now, I must say: LSI, over and out.
