EW BrightSparks 2023 profile: Tom Bowman, BT

Now in its sixth year of awards, EW BrightSparks sees Electronics Weekly highlight some of the brightest and most talented young engineers in the UK today.

Here, in our series on the latest EW BrightSparks of 2023, we highlight Tom Bowman, an Apprentice Applied Researcher at BT.

Achievements

Tom’s most significant achievement during his apprenticeship, he told us, was helping to develop an innovative security software tool called Inflame. A multi-award-winning epidemiological malware propagation simulator, it uses “deep reinforcement learning to facilitate the automatic detection and response to cyber-attacks and threats before they compromise a communications network”.

While working within this project Tom was joint lead developer, primarily using python to construct backend software. The hardware this was deployed onto was a locally built research cluster, containing databases and containers for spinning up software instances, we learned.

His role within Inflame included leading the coding and architectural development of the key novel and patentable concepts, ensuring the ideas could be incorporated into Inflame’s codebase and become long-standing features of the tool.

Tom’s work was published in multiple online technology articles – including TechRadar, Computer Weekly, Enterprise Times – and Inflame is now a service being used with BT customers.

As part of his work for the system, he co-authored four patents, which is certainly exceptional for an apprentice, and demonstrates Tom’s technical understanding of the subject area. We learned, for example, that he is currently the only BT Research apprentice to have contributed new patents to BT’s portfolio.

Another key achievement for Tom was co-authoring a BT and Ulster University research report on AI’s use within the automation of BT sport graphical insertion.

He enjoys regularly presenting to BT’s customers and this year he also gave lectures at the University of Exeter and the University of Suffolk on the applications of IoT services.

In addition to the projects above, he has created an algorithm using python that identifies critical devices within a network and details the remittance steps per device. Meaning when malware infected nodes are discovered, responses are adapted based on the type of device and the criticality of the malware, resulting in improved response selection.

Finally, he has authored a research paper for an IEEE IoT conference which has been accepted, and has been the co-author on another two papers, which have both been accepted.

Community

Tom is a certified STEM ambassador, promoting and encouraging students into STEM subjects and job opportunities. An example of his volunteering effort is that he led the team that won the award for the most interactive stand at the Suffolk Careers Fair. They promoted BT and the telecommunications industry by demonstrating new technologies and advising students about career opportunities.

He has also managed two 17-year-old students on a Nuffield Research Placement scheme – designed for students from challenging socio-economic backgrounds – giving them an engaging, hands-on cyber security research project to work on.

During lockdown, he helped build 15,000 PPE facemasks – raising nearly £5,000 – at Adastral Park. This helped hospitals, primary schools and SMEs, we learned, and ensured BT maintained and strengthened relationships with its local community.

Tom was also involved with the Norwich Science Festival, where 67,000 visitors attended this popular STEM event in 2021. He organised and led stands across two days. He also represented BT by hosting a virtual TV-like event, covering five different subjects over five days days: healthcare, climate change, optical fibre, networks, and artificial intelligence. Tom enjoyed the opportunity and told us being a TV host boosted his confidence and presenting abilities.

For the STEMtastic virtual event in July 2020, he created numerous videos that discussed topics such as how best to prepare for an online interview. These were created to help students looking to apply for apprenticeships and were formally published on BT’s Adastral Park website. This resource has been distributed to hundreds of colleges across the UK, helping BT to reach a wide range of schools, increasing their young talent applications.

Coaching eight apprentices from various departments on how to lead apprentice attraction for their respective areas also fell to Tom. The work he led has been so successful that the model implemented is being used at other BT sites and has helped contribute to BT becoming the #1 Private Sector Apprenticeship provider.

Due to such efforts, Tom has now been approached by senior management to become a coach for the newest apprentice cohort. This involves management activities including organising 1:1 meetings, working on written appraisals, setting goals, liaising with their university lecturers and personal development.

He concludes that his apprenticeship has certainly taught him alot. As well as skills in presenting, organising, managing, and communicating, he realises the importance of making a broad contribution to society.