Dr Sabesan Sithamparanathan (BEng (Hons), MPhil, PhD, FREng, FIET) was born and educated in Sri Lanka where his studies of physics, maths and chemistry fostered a love of technology and their applications in engineering. He came to the UK to study Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Sheffield on a scholarship, winning a Sir William Siemens Medal while he was here, recognising that he was an outstanding student.
He then embarked on a PhD at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he developed his Radio-frequency identification (RFID) location tracking system. RFID systems use electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and locate tags and the objects they are attached to. The tags each carry a unique identity and are passive, obtaining their energy from the electromagnetic fields and, therefore, needing no batteries or other power source. Dr Sabesan Sithamparanathan’s ground-breaking research work achieves a 99%+ accuracy with up to 20-metre detection range, compared to that of the industry standard of 80% accuracy with a two-metre range.
He founded his company, PervasID, to commercialise his innovations and further his PhD research, and grew it into a multimillion-dollar global enterprise, raising more than $10m in investment and launching superior products that are transforming retail, healthcare and aerospace industries.
In manufacturing, Stanley Black & Decker use the tags to track supplies from their tool cabinets used by aircraft manufacturers. Each cabinet contains over 1,000 tools, and it can result in serious safety incidents if any are left inside an aircraft. It is estimated that Foreign Object Debris (FOD) costs the aviation industry $13 Billion per year in direct and indirect costs, including flight delays, plane changes and fuel inefficiencies. In healthcare, PervasID solutions are being deployed in NHS hospitals including Guy’s and St Thomas’ for tracking surgical instruments to enhance the decontamination and sterilisation processes, and for tracking hospital assets to ensure that mission critical medical devices are available at the right place and time for robust and efficient care.
“I am absolutely delighted to have been recognised in the New Year Honours list; this is a great honour and testament to the hard work and innovation of the entire team at PervasID,” said Dr Sabesan Sithamparanathan. “Our products offer a national and international benefit and we will continue to pioneer technology that has a wider value to society as a whole.”
Dr Sithamparanathan was recognised for services to innovation technology and the promotion of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in education.
He has been awarded numerous accolades and has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Institution of Engineering and Technology.