The SMCSE alumnus and research associate has been awarded a RAEng Enterprise Fellowship to start a company which will develop optical fibre sensors for the predictive maintenance of railway trains.

Published (Updated )

Dr Miodrag Vidakovic, has been awarded a highly competitive and prestigious, Enterprise Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng).

The Fellowship will enable the SMCSE alumnus and research associate to establish a company to develop optical fibre sensors for the predictive maintenance of railway trains.

Exceptional innovation

The RAEng Enterprise Fellowship programme supports innovative, creative entrepreneurial engineers who have demonstrated an exceptional innovation in engineering which they want to develop further. The programme focuses on equipping the awardee with the confidence, skills, experience and network of expert advisors necessary to enable them to develop their innovation. It supports researchers wishing to spinout a company from a university or research institute, recent graduates wishing to create a company, and international PhD students based in the UK, wishing to spin out or start up.

Dr Vidakovic is delighted with his Fellowship:

I truly believe that innovation is an essential aspect of the economic growth of any country, and the RAEng Enterprise Fellowship will greatly assist me in bringing innovation to the UK and help the economy by creating more employment and providing a positive impact to the wider community. My long-term vision is to provide unique and intelligent predictive maintenance tools which will transform the railway sector and provide benefits for infrastructure owner, Network Rail, train operating companies, and other railway asset owners.

He completed his MSc in Telecommunications and Networks at City by way of an Erasmus Mundus scholarship.

After successful completion of his master’s degree, he took up a City studentship and went on to complete a PhD in Measurement and Instrumentation in 2017, under the supervision of Professors Tong Sun and Kenneth Grattan. Dr Vidakovic has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals and became a co-inventor of the patent related to the Intelligent Railway Pantograph.

Dr Vidakovic is currently a research associate on an Innovate UK-funded project where he is actively involved in the development of leading-edge technology for the predictive maintenance of railway assets, and strengthening relationships with industrial stakeholders. He has worked on several City technologies by conducting due diligence for IP commercialisation.

He is passionate about taking up business ventures by translating technological innovation into new products, systems and services that will benefit society and the economy within the UK and beyond. He has been actively involved in extracurricular activities, including being the co-founder of two ventures in the tech space and attending of a number of training courses associated with enterprise and start-ups. A keen sportsman, Dr Vidakovic captained the City basketball team and was awarded ‘Sportsman of the year’ recognition in 2013.

During his PhD, he demonstrated his entrepreneurial skills by a winning number of student start-up competitions; he was an active member of the London City Incubator.

More recently, Dr Vidakovic has demonstrated his culinary skills and community-mindedness by preparing meals for NHS staff at the University College London Hospital (UCLH).

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