British actor Stephen Fry (left) and Top Gear host Jeremy
Clarkson play a game of pool using ARPool technology,
which was developed at Queen's University.

A pair of engineering and applied science graduate students travelled to London to meet two British celebrities hosting a gadget TV show. The students demonstrated pool-playing technology developed at Queen’s University.

“I have given demonstrations at conferences before, but travelling to London and meeting celebrities is one of the most interesting things I have done at Queen’s,” says Salar Awan (Sc’14), who studies electrical and computer engineering.

Mr. Awan and fellow engineering student Kevin Hughes (Sc’13) taped a segment in October which airs on Britain’s Channel 4 on Dec. 10. The show, Stephen Fry: Gadget Man, features actor/comedian Stephen Fry, and BBC’s popular host of Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson.

The two students did not appear on the show. They set up ARPool for a demonstration in a London pub, gave the two celebrities a quick lesson on how the technology works, and then watched behind the scenes as the two hosts played against each other.

Jeremy Clarkson, Kevin Hughes, Stephen Fry and Salar
Awan meet in London to demonstrate ARPool
for a British TV show.

“I’m not too disappointed about not being on the show. I was just excited to go to London and get my picture taken with Stephen Fry and Jeremy Clarkson. They both seemed to enjoy ARPool,” Mr. Hughes says.

The experience gave the students a lesson in television production – they were surprised to see how much work goes on behind the scenes to create a TV show. The TV crew worked for hours on a segment that will only last a few minutes on the show.

This isn’t the first time ARPool has been profiled on British TV. The host of The Gadget Show used ARPool to beat a world champion in a 2010 episode.