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Edward Oughton

  • Assistant Professor

    Contact Info

    Edward Oughton
    Name
    Dr. Edward J. Oughton
    Job Title
    Assistant Professor
    Office Number
    Exploratory Hall, Room 2411

    Affiliations

    Research Areas

    • Infrastructure
    • Policy and economics
    • Computational modeling
    • Risk Analysis

    Education

    PhD, University of Cambridge 

    MPhil, University of Cambridge

    About

    Edward has expertise in data analytics, computational methods, GIS and open-source software, applying these tools predominantly in the fields of (i) broadband policy, and (ii) risk analysis.  

    He is best known for developing spatial decision-support models of broadband infrastructure, having carried out broadband strategy assessments for countries around the world. This research provides evidence on the effective strategies to connect more people to a faster Internet, which is vital for ensuring sustainable economic development. Other research interests include developing novel risk analysis methods and applying them to understand vulnerabilities relating to a variety of threats, including climate-hazards, space hazards and cyber-attacks.  

    Edward’s research is highly multi-disciplinary, drawing on engineering and computer science analytical techniques, to answer new questions pertaining to policy, innovation, planning, economics, and sustainable development.  

    Having been awarded over $1.7 million in research funding (PI: $1.05m, Co-PI: $0.22m, Other: 0.43m), Edward has led many projects for organizations including the National Science Foundation, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Cisco, Meta (Facebook) Connectivity Lab, Canadian Space Agency, Airbus, Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, HM Treasury’s National Infrastructure Commission, UK Department for Transport and UK Met Office.  

    Edward holds an MPhil and PhD from the University of Cambridge and completed post-doctoral research at the Cambridge Judge Business School Centre for Risk Studies. Prior to GMU he was a Senior Research Associate at the University of Oxford where he retains an Honorary position. 

    Edward is looking for motivated graduate students to work on data analytics research. Please get in contact if you are interested in working on high-impact papers. 

    Selected Publications

    Oughton, E.J., 2023. Policy options for broadband infrastructure strategies: A simulation model for affordable universal broadband in Africa. Telematics and Informatics, 101908 (IF: 9.14). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2022.101908. 


    Schneir, J.R., Mölleryd, B.G., Oughton, E.J., Mas-Machuca, C., 2023. Guest editorial: Techno-economic analysis of telecommunications systems. IEEE Communications Magazine 61, 22–23 (IF: 10.39). https://doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.2023.10047852. 


    Kumar, S.K.A., Oughton, E.J., 2023. Infrastructure sharing strategies for wireless broadband. IEEE Communications Magazine 61, 46–52 (IF: 10.39). https://doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.005.2200698.  


    Gallagher, J.E., Oughton, E.J., 2023. Assessing thermal imagery integration into object detection methods on air-based collection platforms. Sci Rep 13, 8491 (IF: 4.6). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-34791-8.  


    Oughton, E.J., Comini, N., Foster, V., Hall, J.W., 2022. Policy choices can help keep 4G and 5G universal broadband affordable. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 176, 121409 (IF: 10.88). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121409. 


    Oughton, E.J., Hapgood, M. A., Richardson, G.S., Beggan, C.D., Thomson, A.W.P., Gibbs, M., Burnett, C., Gaunt, C.T., Trichas, M., Dada R., Horne, R.B. 2018. A risk assessment framework for the socioeconomic impacts of electricity transmission infrastructure failure due to space weather: An application to the United Kingdom. Risk Analysis, 39: 1022–1043. (IF: 3.8). https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13229 (Best Paper 2019). 

    Awards

    • NCAR-NSF Early Career Innovator Award (2023), Uncertainty quantification of space weather socio-economic impacts from critical infrastructure failure ($360k) (PI). 

    • Cisco (2023), Evaluating the policy implications of next generation wireless broadband technologies: 6G versus Wi-Fi 7 and 8 ($50k) (PI). 

    • NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) Planning Grant (2023), Center for Climate Risks Assessment (CCRA) ($20k) (Co-PI). 

    • International Monetary Fund (2022), Digital infrastructure costing estimator ($48k) (PI). 

    • NSF Convergence Accelerator (Track G) (2022), Secure texting over non-cooperative networks and anti-jamming enhancement in 5G ($52k out of a total of $750k) (Co-PI). 

    • Planet Labs (2022), A new generation of open online tutorials for satellite image analytics in Python ($25k) (PI). 

    Contact Info

    Edward Oughton
    Name
    Dr. Edward J. Oughton
    Job Title
    Assistant Professor
    Office Number
    Exploratory Hall, Room 2411