Robert Cowlishaw
Full Stack Software and Aerospace Engineer
Expertise
Distributed Ledger Technologies
Go
Solidity
Rust
C++
Linux
Hardhat
Remix
Docker
Development of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and other Web3 systems from the architecture itself to Smart Contracts executed upon blockchains.
Satellite-based Emergency Mapping
Copernicus EMS
ICSMD
GDACS
GTS
UNOSAT
Researching and optimising the current Satellite-based Emergency Mapping protocols to provide Earth Observation information faster to those who need it. Looking at a range of natural disasters from Earthquakes and Tropical Cyclones to Flooding and Droughts in the Copernicus and ICSMD protocols.
Earth Observation Machine Learning
Sentinel-Hub
PyTorch
CUDA
Scikit
Scipy
Hugging Face
Matplotlib
Automating Earth Observation analytics for Natural Disaster Response and Agricultural predictions. From classification and segmentation tasks to knowledge extrapolation using LLMs.
Interfacing with Distributed Systems
Ethers.js
Web3.js
Metamask
React
NodeJS
NPM
Nginx
APIs
SQL Databases
Once the DLT architecture is built, I build bridges between Web2 and Web3 to help regular users connect to the next generation of the internet securely and safely.
Timeline
EO Engineer for Research into Financial Regulation
2025 | University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Investigating the actual impact of Oil and Gas regulations on emissions in the North Sea. Working with the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab to provide technical background in Earth Observation and other related technologies.
Distributed Systems Engineer
2022 - Present | SpaceDAO, International
Developing the Open-Source project for finding consensus in Space with distributed technologies
Visiting Researcher at the Φ-Lab
2024 | European Space Agency, Frascati, Italy
Research into Decentralised Federated Learning for Crop Yield detection with Earth Observation
PhD Candidate in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
2022 - Present | University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Research on Satellite-based Emergency Mapping Automation and Decentralisation with Distributed Ledger Technologies
Aero-Mechanical Engineering - Masters Degree
2017 - 2022 | University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Achieved Distinction in my Masters Degree in Aero-Mechanical Engineering
Aero-Mechanical Engineering - Exchange
2019 - 2020 | Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Exchange as part of my Masters Degree in Aero-Mechanical Engineering
Research Publications
Balancing centralisation and decentralisation in federated learning for Earth Observation-based agricultural predictions
Optimizing Participant Selection for Fault-Tolerant Decision Making in Orbit Using Mixed Integer Linear Programming
Automating and Decentralising Satellite-based Emergency Mapping
Advancing Satellite Network Consensus through Optimal Orbital Configurations
Multi-Objective Optimisation strategy for On-Orbit Fault-Tolerant Decision Making
Proof of optimality for a decentralised EO data processing architecture
Decentralized and Neutral Consensus Mechanisms in Space Conjunctions Assessment and Mitigation: Space DAO STM
Projects
Distributed Ledger Technologies for Satellite-based Emergency Mapping
My PhD work is all published open source as well as code on github and datasets through multiple streams.
Space DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Orbit)
The goal of this open-source project is to decentralise and automate the current process of Space Situational Awareness data delivery for Satellite Traffic Management and Satellite-based Emergency Mapping data production.
Oil Rig Regulatory Monitoring with Satellite data
Monitoring North Sea Oil Platforms and FPSOs to understand the actual impact of Oil and Gas regulations on their emissions.
Federated Learning for Private Crop Yield Estimation
European Space Agency Φ-lab research and development project to create a Decentralised Federated Learning system for privatised copy yield estimation and to understand the effects of scale on such a protocol.
ESA OSIP Project: Cognitive Cloud Computing in Space (C3S) Campaign
This project was part of the Cognitive Cloud Computing in Space Tender with the European Space Agency.
EO Datasets for World Crop Mapping
Earth Observation datasets across different regions for crop type and crop yield mapping
Chain-Lab - A sandbox for developing smart contracts
A frontend and backend sandbox to help with smart contract development on any language that allows Solidity to execute.
Blockchain Indexer for Research and Applications
Simple and highly adaptable blockchain indexer or data cacher for a variety of blockchains based around EVM.
Matrix Maths for Solidity
A Solidity library for doing matrix maths. This is difficult as Solidity does not allow floating point numbers
Automatic n-body problem orbit finder
A method to find different and new orbit shapes in different n-body scenarios