Dr Ing. Marc Anthony Azzopardi's relationship with electrical engineering traces back to early childhood with over 30 years experience in electronics. He wrote his first GWBasic software programs at age 4 on a Zilog Z80 Sinclair Spectrum, constructed his first oscillators at age 8, blew-up his parents' washroom-turned-laboratory at age 10 and started formal training in electronics at the Fellenberg Training Centre, aged 13.
Dr Azzopardi went on to graduate with an Honours degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Malta (UM) in 2002, majoring in Control, VLSI and Communications.
Following an internship as product engineer for automotive devices with STMicroelectronics, he rejoined UM to embark on a research career. He has been with the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering ever since, carrying out applied research.
Through collaboration with STMicroelectronics (Catania), he developed low voltage analogue 180nm CMOS circuits for use in CATV. Dr Azzopardi maintains an active interest in biomedical electronics. Previous work involved Fast Cyclic Voltammetry for neurotransmitter discrimination in living tissue.
Dr Azzopardi was involved in the development of driver/pilot head localization hardware for use in the automotive/aerospace sectors, for point of gaze and eye-blink/saccade measurement. A high performance camera synchronization technique was developed for which Dr Azzopardi holds an international patent, which is being further developed for cinematographic use.
A scholarship took Dr Azzopardi's research career to the UK where he obtained his Ph.D. in aeronautics from Cranfield University. He specialized in Intelligent Transport Systems and Computational Air Traffic Management (CATM) based on Swarm Robotics.
On his return in 2015, he refocused his interests towards advanced electronics for applications in the aerospace sector and set up the Astrionics Research Group to research and develop small satellite technology for use in large constellations, together with the associated ground segment technology. The research is focused on reliability engineering under severe cost constraints, and is transferable to several non-aerospace applications, such as automotive and computing.
During his free time Dr Azzopardi enjoys hacking nanodrones, scubadiving, photography, especially marine photography as well as trekking in the great outdoors.
Academic Awards: ================ 2020_Award for Medical Innovation - Ten Outstanding Young People (TOYP), JCI Malta 2020_First Prize - MDIA Award for Innovative Technologies in Response to COVID-19 2011_Best Paper Award, IEEE/AIAA Digital Avionics System Conference, (DASC2011) 2006_Malta Government Scholarship Scheme (MGSS) Ph.D. Scholarship in Avionics 2000_Young Scientist Award - World Young Researchers for the Environment (WYRE) 1998 & 1997 LIYSF - London International Youth Science Forum, as Maltese delegate