Steve ParkesBack to Dundee Ambassadors

I moved to Kirriemuir, north of Dundee, just before Christmas 1995. It was very cold, the heating didn't work in the house, and the snow fell until there was about half a metre of drifting snow. We wondered what we had done moving to Dundee. The fact that we still live in Kirriemuir and I still work in Dundee says a lot about the city.

I am a Reader at the University of Dundee, leading a research group working on electronic systems for spacecraft. This is high-tech, challenging, great fun, and involves extensive international collaboration. Technology that we have developed, funded mainly by the European Space Agency (ESA), is being used on many spacecraft across the world. Back in 2002 we spun-out a company, STAR-Dundee, to commercialise some of the technology we had developed. Still based in Dundee, we now have the world's space agencies and a host of famous names from the aerospace industry as customers.

Developing leading edge technology that can compete with the very best in the world requires a highly capable team. And that is what Dundee means to me more than anything else. It's the team that I work with, which includes Dundonians and people from across Scotland and the UK. It's not just the immediate team of engineers but the team of people supporting our work including the University and outside organisations such as Scottish Enterprise.

Putting the reputation of a declining industrial city behind them and transforming it into a vibrant, creative community. This required the desire for something different, the vision for what it should be and hard, hard work by many, many people. That work is still going on, but Dundonians should be proud of the results so far.

The University of Dundee is one of the city's main assets. The University's research is highly regarded in many different areas. What is less well known is the work that is done in commercialising technology from the University and the help given to spin-out companies. This is, in my experience, is certainly among the best support available from any UK university.

Dundee has a reputation for Biotechnology and Computer Games, but the fact that a small research group has technology on satellites that are circling the Earth, and on spacecraft that will soon be landing on Mars, orbiting Mercury and exploring other places in the solar system, is something that most people find surprising. Space technology isn't just developed by NASA, it's coming out of Dundee too, in fact NASA is one of the many organisations that using Dundee technology. There are other small companies based in Dundee and the surrounding area that have also had a major international impact, through excellence and innovation. Maybe that is what the city really excels at: excellence and innovation.