We are delighted to announce that Rose Grey, our Higher Software Engineer, has been awarded the first ever W.G.P. Lamb Award – for a major contribution to a more navigable world by a younger person.

It’s the first year the Royal Institute of Navigation has presented the award category which recognises Rose’s outstanding contribution to the development of our D-Tail pedestrian navigation technology, in particular its translation from prototype software to live deployment on smartwatches. Rose shares the award with Jean Marc Feghali for his sustained high achievement in engineering and research at WeWALK including his contribution to the world’s first smart-cane for the visually impaired.

“I’m very pleased to be given this award and be recognised as a female software engineer for my contributions towards the navigation sector. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my team and the excellent management inside the company to help get our cutting edge technology delivered as smoothly as possible.” – Rose Grey, FocalPoint Engineer

Rose, 25, joined us in September 2019 having completed her Masters degree at the University of Amsterdam in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics. She graduated from Royal Holloway University with first class honours in Physics and in ten months of joining us and getting up to speed with new positioning technologies, infrastructure and programming languages, Rose was promoted to Higher Software Engineer. Her first FocalPoint project was the sole management and development of our Android data logging tools and within the first three months she developed, from scratch, a new smartwatch sensor data logging app which opened up a new platform and market for us to reach into.

We also gave Rose the responsibility for the architectural design of FocalPoint’s smartwatch technology demonstrator, a keystone software development programme at FocalPoint. She confidently stepped into the role as key technical stakeholder to an external software development team that built part of the product infrastructure, all diligently steered by Rose. The project is currently heading towards commercialization with major smartwatch companies. Applications for the product range from sport-fitness through to aiding systems for the blind.

Team celebration

Ramsey Faragher, CEO Founder at FocalPoint, comments: “I’m incredibly proud of Rose, winning this award is very well deserved. She has made a great impact at FocalPoint and has made key contributions to getting our smartwatch-focussed products into the hands of our partners and customers.”

Mark Crockett, VP Technology at FocalPoint, comments: “I knew Rose would be fierce competition for the award. She continues to provide invaluable software-engineering support and guidance to her R&D colleagues and is universally respected by all of us here at FocalPoint. Her reputation for being an exceptionally fast learner and tenacious problem solver put her in pole position and I’m so pleased for her!”

John Pottle, Director of the Royal Institute of Engineering, comments: “On behalf of Council, and the Institute, we want to wish Rose our sincere congratulations. As soon as we can, we hope to be able to schedule an in-person celebratory awards presentation.”

We look forward to seeing what Rose can do next! She’s an excellent role model and inspiration for young female engineers and scientists embarking upon a career in PNT (Positioning, Navigation, and Timing). The Royal Institute of Navigation are engaging younger members which is great news for our industry and we continue to advocate inclusion and diversity in the workplace.

If you’re interested in a career in space technology, why not take get in touch with us?

Award information will be added to the Royal Institute of Navigation website soon.