Dr Andrew Cowley
Research Computing Support Officer
A.Cowley@exeter.ac.uk
+44 (0)1326 371879
Environment and Sustainability Institute desk 16, 1.03
Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9FE, UK
Overview
Andrew graduated from the University of Wales, Swansea in 1994, gaining a BEng Hons in Materials Science and Engineering. Undertaking a dissertation on optical recording technology and an ERASMUS project at KU Leuven, Belgium studying the optical absorption properties of amorphous chalcogenide semiconductor films from the germanium-selenium system deposited on glass subtrate using plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD).
Continuing research at Swansea he went on to complete an MPhil sponsored by the then British Steel investigating the effect of thermomechanical processing on the texture of interstitial free (IF) steels using X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron back-scatter diffraction (EBSD), image analysis and standard mechanical and mettalurgical techniques.
An EPSRC / British Steel sponsored PhD at The City University, London followed researching "Hot ductiliy and its relationship to transverse cracking in steels" produced by continuous casting. The work included mathematical modelling of the hot ductility curve and study of thin slab casting where problems during straightening of steels in the peritectic carbon range virtually precludes a large slice of the plate market from this more efficient and energy saving method of production. Seven research papers were published in Materials Science and Engineering and the first primary author paper was awarded the Institute of Materials Williams Prize.
To fund completion of studies in London, Andrew took up a position as an IT Support Specialist in the City University Business School. On moving to Cornwall in 2001 continuing in an IT support role at Falmouth College of Arts and Cornwall County before becoming an Assistant Database Administrator with additional responsibilities for the County's UNIX systems running the finance, human resource, education management and fire and rescue service databases.
In 2006 Andrew took up his current role as Research Computing Support Officer at the Cornwall Campus supporting all aspects of technical computing.
Current Role
Primary point of contact in Penryn for:
- Research Computing support for desktop, server and HPC hardware and software running on Windows, Linux, Mac and other devices.
- Desktop support for Windows, UNIX/Linux and Apple Mac applications and systems not covered by FX Plus IT services at Penryn Campus.
- Support in specialist areas such as GIS, Matlab MDCS, remote sensing, data acquisition, image/data analysis and programming/scripting