Robin_PHD/submission_thesis/colophon/copy.tex
Robin Clark 5e138bc11e PLT
2013-09-27 00:00:02 +01:00

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4.6 KiB
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\chapter*{Colophon}
In short ``Thanks every body''!
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Completing my PhD %degree
is the most intellectually challenging %% FUCK OFF ZERNIKE POLYNOMIALS WERE MORE DIFFICULT --- and actually useful unlike set theory
activity of my first 52 years of my life! %% SET THEORY IS A LOAD OF BOLLOCKS
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%The best and worst moments of this journey
%have been shared with many people.
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It has been a great privilege to spend several years
visiting the Mathematics and Engineering departments of
the University of Brighton, pushing me forward in clarity of self-expression,
precision through mathematics, critical assessment and carefully crafted English:
its members will always remain dear to me. %, and I am sure, a strong influence
%on work I produce after this.
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%%%% IS THIS BIT A BIT MAD???? YES! 27AUG2013
% % % Like an army recruits training Sergeant Major I found them
% % % hard task masters at first, and then, as with realising the rationale behind training and
% % % {\em even} parade drill, respected and grew to like them. well one of them anyway, the one who actually helped. the one with the motorbike.
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My first debt of gratitude must go to my supervisors,
Dr. A. Fish,
Dr. C Garret and %% TOP BLOKE
%Dr. C Garret, %% TOP BLOKE
Professor J. Howse. %% LAT HUND
%Dr. A. Fish. %% JAVALA LAT HUND
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They patiently provided the guidance,
encouragement and advice necessary for me to proceed through the
research, consolidation and write-up phases of the PhD program,
to prepare and present three papers to conferences~\cite{syssafe2011,syssafe2012,Clark_fastzone}
and to complete and submit this thesis.
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I owe a debt of thanks to Dr J. flower, my MSc project supervisor,
who explained that the chapter in my project documentation postulating a modular form of
FMEA---which had %obvious
potential for making the process %FMEA
more efficient---was a concept worthy of being developed for a PhD and assisting me
to present the chapter as %submit this as
a conference paper~\cite{Clark200519}.
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Further I thank her for encouraging me to apply for the PhD. %% PITY SHE DID NOT STAY ON AS MY PHD SUPERVISOR
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I am deeply thankful to the directors of {\etc} not only for
funding this course, but providing training and work experience in the
field of safety critical engineering, and giving me Friday
afternoons to pursue my studies.
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At Energy~Technology~Control, the following people gave encouragement, and
validated the concepts for the `modular~FMEA' that I was developing,
Martin~Thirsk,
Colin~Talmay,
Darren~Legge and
Hazel~Anderson.
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These Engineers, whose whole careers
have been focused on the safety critical electronic/computing area,
gave valuable time to look at and comment on my FMMD proposals.
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Their comments gave me confidence that the methodology I was developing had
%was not only an academic exercise but had
potential practical
applications and benefits.
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The environment and context of the work at {\etc}
was very useful for clarifying concepts relating to FMEA and
safety; at least once a week there is a new practical case study arising
and being discussed, be it, say, the observability of the effect of failures in an
traditional amplifier configuration,
or how a particular sensor could fail.
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The field of industrial burner control, is highly regulated and
is rich with practical examples of safety measures built into
hybrid digital/electronic systems.
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This has given me many opportunities to % has been % be
apply the new methodology against `real~world' problems.
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%and thus its
%theoretical aspects have been often
%sounded out against `real~world' problems.
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These real~world failure scenarios and their proposed solutions, were often detailed in
requirements and design documentation, submitted in support of
safety accreditation.
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I was glad to be tasked to produce many of these documents.
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Again I thank {\etc}, for giving me
these parallel tasks, which aided my studies.
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I wish to thank my parents, Jennifer and Richard Clark.
% MY MUM for proof reading alot!
I hope that this work makes you proud.
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\chapter*{Declaration}
I declare that the research contained in this thesis, unless otherwise formally indicated within the
text, is the original work of the author. The thesis has not been previously submitted to this or any
other university for a degree, and does not incorporate any material already submitted for a
degree.
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Signed
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Dated
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