New £3.8m Industrial Doctoral Centre for New Materials in Bristol
The University of Bristol is to set up a new Industrial Doctorate Centre to provide the composites manufacturing industry with elite research engineers of the future.
The £3.8m IDC will be based at the National Composites Centre, a research centre led by the University of Bristol and industry to provide the composites manufacturing industry with engineers equipped with the necessary advanced technical and leadership skills required for effective adoption of new knowledge and technologies in composites manufacture.
The IDC is integral to the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Composites EPSRC Centre and will support over 30 EngD programmes, each over four years, where selected research engineers will undertake specialist training and conduct an industrially focused research project, spending 75 per cent of their time at a company. The IDC will have access to a complete range of equipment and techniques required for composites manufacturing research. It is open to all UK industry and academia and will eventually offer wide access to its bespoke taught modules.
Ivana Partridge, Director of the IDC, explained that the project demonstrates an urgent and growing need in the UK polymer composites manufacturing sector for greater numbers of technically qualified individuals. She said: “The new IDC fills an existing gap in the provision of industrially focused higher level education in the UK.”The research engineers are expected to encourage joint industry and academia collaboration to a much greater extent than is usual in classical PhD training.”
Professor Michael Wisnom, Director of the University’s Advanced Composites Centre for Innovation and Science ACCIS, said “The new IDC based at the NCC and in industry will focus on applied research at technology readiness level 3-5, and will be highly complementary to the Bristol ACCIS Doctoral Training Centre, where PhD students work on more fundamental research topics at TRL 1-3.”
The IDC is now looking for industrial projects and supervisors to run innovative composites manufacturing projects, providing a commitment of cash support for research engineer training and stipend top-up. Eligible research engineers with an engineering/science background and an interest in industrially focused composites manufacturing research should apply through idc@epsrc-cimc.ac.uk, for a position with a tax-free stipend of £20k pa.
Science fair boost in Bath this weekend
Over 800 local school pupils will be getting to grips with science in unusual ways in a two-day hands-on science fair opening at the University of Bath on Friday 9 March.
The Bath Taps into Science fair provides school children and their families with the opportunity to discover science at a fun, hands-on fair. Everything from making a special type of ’slime’ with very odd properties, trying out lego robotics, finding out about the life of a bee, magical mathematics, digging up dinosaur bones to astronomy, and liquid nitrogen will all feature in this two-day science fair. Stalls will be run by staff and students from the University of Bath, Bath Spa University, Bristol University and the University West of England (UWE) and other colleges. Some stalls are also run by school children from local schools and societies like the Galenicals.
Day two of the Science Fair (Saturday 10 March) is held for the public in the city centre, with lots of families coming year after year. Based in Green Park Station, the venue is smaller with fewer stalls but this year will feature a brand new event – a maths and Morris dancing workshop from 2.30pm.
Mathematics professor Chris Budd said: “This year we are bigger than ever, with many schools coming and presenting, a team of science communications experts from Ireland and even a Morris Dancing Group. We will truly be dancing with science.”
The Bath Taps into Science event opens with a bang with a showcase lecture by Professor Budd on Wednesday 7 March. Titled Maths in and out of the zoo, Professor Budd will challenge guests to use their imagination and follow him as he takes a tour of a zoo in order to look at mathematics from a completely different perspective. The lecture will take place at the University of Bath Claverton campus in the University Hall and starts at 7pm. It is aimed at families and young people.
The fair is organised, run and supported by hundreds of volunteers from the University of Bath, Bath Spa University, Bristol University and the City of Bath College together with Keele University Earth Sciences Education Unit and organisations including the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, The Ethical Property Group, B&NES Waste Services, the Herschel Society, Wessex Setpoint, the Propioception Trust and Science City Bristol.
On Friday 9 March the fair will be held at the University of Bath’s Founders’ Sports Hall (10.30am to 3pm). The second day will take place at Green Park Station on Saturday 10 March (10am to 4pm). The event is funded by the University of Bath’s Widening Participation and HE STEM Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programmes.
SouthWest grows as hotbed of 4G technology testing
The SouthWest is extending its position as the key areas for testing the latest LTE (long-term evolution) 4G technology, writes Sian Harris. Cornish trials to deliver broadband in rural areas are being extended until June, while commercial trials of 4G technology are happening in Bristol, Swindon and the Thames Valley.
In Cornwall 180 customers living in and around St. Newlyn East are testing a unique combination of mobile and fixed technology. It was due to end at the end of January but Ofcom has granted an extension to the temporary radio licence until the end of June so that the partners – Everything Everywhere and BT Wholesale – can continue the study.
The trial users previously had no broadband or struggled to get speeds of 2 Mbps. According to the partners, the trial is now giving these participants an average download speed of 7 Mbps, which is enabling them to access a range of content including on-demand television, HD video and VoIP services.
Providing broadband to rural users is a hot topic in the UK today, with the government pushing for every home in Britain to have at least a 2Mbps connection by 2015.
“The industry needs to work together to tackle the issue of rural broadband for the last 10% very hard-to-reach areas. Two or three thousand premises in the UK really don’t receive broadband at all, said Dave Axam, director of managed services business development for BT Wholesale, at the LTE/EPC & Converged Mobile Backhaul conference in London.
With this target in mind the two partners – a mobile operator and a fixed operator – launched a trial in October 2011 to see whether LTE wireless technology could provide the infrastructure to meet this need. The partnership enables Everything Everywhere’s wireless technology to be used in combination with BT’s fibre network.
The partners chose Cornwall for the trial because of its largely-rural nature and because the digital television switchover was complete in the county, freeing up the 800MHz radio spectrum for the trial. This spectrum is good for rural areas because it has a relatively long wavelength and low attentuation by obstacles so can serve a longer range than higher-frequency spectrum. In addition, Cornwall recently received a European Union grant for superfast fibre rollout.
In addition to trying out LTE as a way of providing rural broadband, the trial experimented with another concept: the idea of a fixed operator and a mobile operator sharing the same network. The partners set up two eNodeB trial sites, for which BT provided dedicated fibre backhaul.
“The uniqueness of the trial is that both ourselves and BT have deployed our own packet core networks. This enables the customer experience to be controlled independently across the two mobile and fixed service sets, allowing for an optimised use of the radio resources available,” said Tim Rawling, principal solutions designer at Everything Everywhere and one of the team involved in the trial.
He explained that each eNodeB trial site is connected via a BT Openreach circuit (Etherway), supporting a 300Mbps capacity into the site. Separate VLANs provide connectivity via the BT 21 CN network back to separate packet core networks at Bristol for the mobile dongle customers and Adastral Park near Ipswich for the BT fixed customers. He added that the technical design and build of the network took around six months from concept to going live.
At the customer end, the BT triallists gain access to their network using one of three different types of router, the smallest of which looks much like any broadband router – except that its fixed position is near a window rather than a telephone socket – and the largest is similar to a small television aerial (a similarity that is not surprising given what the radio spectrum was used for until recently). Everything Everywhere’s trial customers access mobile broadband via an LTE dongle.
Of course the trial has met challenges. According to Rawling, “a key challenge was in selecting sites that provided a suitable trial area (filling significant ‘not spots’) without compromising the current network coverage or stability, and getting sufficient backhaul to these sites.”
Another challenge, he added, was “finding a way to combine fixed and wireless technologies whilst providing a stable and consistent experience to our trialists. A main initial finding is that the complementary technical assets of Everything Everywhere and BT can work together to enable a consistent broadband experience for our customers,” said Rawling.
The customers are unlikely to be too concerned about the network details but so far triallists seem happy with their experiences. One triallist Mark Jose, commented that the trial has enabled his family to enjoy streaming movies and participating in fast online gaming, which was previously not possible for them.
Another triallist, Tamasin Battell, noted: “Before the 4G trial downloading anything was impossible; it was so slow. Now, we can watch on-demand television and stream music. Better still, my fiancé’s sister in Australia has met her four-month-old nephew for the first time over Skype. The extension of the trial is a godsend for me, as I really don’t want to go back to the digital dark age.”
Related articles
- Rural Britain gets a boost, as the 4G LTE broadband trial is extended until June 2012 (thenextweb.com)
- BT, EE’s mobe broadband trial jump-starts Cornish village (go.theregister.com)
- Everything Everywhere Planning 4G Network in 2012 (rightmobilephone.co.uk)
- UK Broadband flicks switch on Blighty’s first 4G network (go.theregister.com)
SouthWest startup Xsilon launches in Barcelona
A startup from Bath has launched its technology to the world at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona aiming to connect up all the different bits of electronics in the home.
Xsilon’s HANADU “Whole Home, Every Home” technology is aimed at service operators and equipment makers and can handle any communications link whether it is wireless or wired, with low cost and low power. It is initially aiming at smart meter connections in the home as s well as in difficult building deployments, in-home energy management solutions, appliance monitoring and maintenance applications, and telemedicine services.
A lot of wireless links struggle to reach devices that are located inside homes, as external wireless networks struggle to penetrate the shell of the building and internal wireless networks continue to face challenges with the obstacles, clutter and coverage deadspots within a typical home environment.
HANADU plus into the growth of machine-to-machine, or M2M, technology where machines in the home all talk to each other and so is low cost enough to work in your fridge or washing machine as well as with your phone or iPad. The key is that it reaches within the home to every point where M2M connectivity might be needed, and overcomes the deadspots and range problems typically associated with previous inhome deployments. Unlike equivalent wireless offerings, costly but underused repeater points are not needed.
All sorts of different ‘ad hoc’ approaches are supported with auto-discovery routing algorithms where the system looks around for waht avaiable and then connects to it automatically, and the bandwidth scales to support many dozens of connected endpoints within a single home.
HANADU comes with a radically lower power consumption than legacy approaches and state-of-the-art network security keeps householders’ privacy fully secure.
Xsilon’s experienced technology team in the South West has created HANADU using more than two man-centuries of communications technology development and product experience. Other communications technologies deployed in the home were originally designed for other areas, and compromises in performance or connectivity have inevitably been encountered during deployment as an In-Home M2M offering. Rather than accepting such compromises, the Xsilon team designed HANADU using a cleansheet approach with three design goals in mind: superior performance within the home environment; direct relevance to the needs of in-home M2M applications; and, compatibility with all
legacy in-home technologies.
Xsilon has generated its own intellectual property in designing HANADU, and it will be opening the technology up to standardisation activities in the near future. The first products will allow vendors and service providers to evaluate the connectivity advantages of HANADU technology, followed by connectivity modules for integration into equipment.
Related articles
- The Wireless Sensor Network Market – A Sea of Small Volume Opportunities (pr.com)
- M2M predictions 2012 (slideshare.net)
- Why Adopt A Wireless Standard In The M2M Industry? (wirelessnetworkblog.wordpress.com)
- Would an Internet of Things Threaten of the Internet of People? (readwriteweb.com)
Bristol hospitals team with NPL to make breast cancer detection more reliable
Initial tests show promising results for new ultrasonic screening technique
The main hospitals in Bristol are working with the National Physical Laboratory on a initial trial of a new, potentially more reliable, technique for screening breast cancer using ultrasound. The team at NPL are now looking to develop the technique into a clinical device.
“Our initial results are very promising. Whilst it’s early days, we’re very excited about its potential and with the right funding, support and industry partners, we may well have something here which could have a huge and positive impact on cancer diagnosis and the lives of many thousands of women,” said Dr Bajram Zeqiri, who leads the project at NPL.
The project was funded by the research arm of the NHS, the National Institute of Health Research, under its Invention for Innovation funding stream and co-funded by the NPL Strategic Research Programme. University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust is a leading UK centre in breast screening using ultrasound and partnered with NPL on the initial tests. They are now working on a demonstrator and will look to work with a manufacturer to commercialise the technology.
Around 46,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK every year, mostly using breast screening based on X-ray mammography. Only about 30% of suspicious lesions turn out to be malignant. Each lesion must be confirmed by invasive biopsies, estimated to cost the NHS £35 million per year. Ionising radiation also has the potential to cause cancer, which limits the use of X-rays to single screenings of at risk groups, such as women over 50 through the National Breast Screening Programme.
There is a compelling need to develop improved, ideally non-ionising, methods of detecting breast lesions and solid masses. Improved diagnosis would reduce unnecessary biopsies and consequent patient trauma from being wrongly diagnosed.
Ultrasound ticks many of the boxes: it is safe, low cost, and already extensively used in trusted applications such as foetal scanning. However the quality of the images is not yet good enough for reliable diagnoses.
Part of the problem lies with the current detectors used. Different biological tissues have different sound speeds, and this affects the time taken for sound waves to arrive at the detector. This can distort the arriving waves, in extreme cases causing cancellation them to cancel each other out. This results in imaging errors, such as suggesting abnormal inclusions where there may be none.
The new method works by detecting the intensity of ultrasonic waves. Intensity is converted to heat that is then sensed by a thin membrane of pyroelectric film, which generates a voltage output dependant on the temperature rise. Imaging detectors based on this new principle should be much less susceptible to the effects caused by the uneven sound speed in tissues.
This technique, when used in a Computed Tomography (CT) configuration, should produce more accurate images of tissue properties and so provide better identification of breast tissue abnormalities. The aim of tomography is to produce a cross-section map of the tissue, which describes how the acoustic properties vary across the tissue. Using this map, it is possible to identify abnormal inclusions.
An initial feasibility project has proved the concept by testing single detectors using purpose-built artefacts. These artefacts were designed to include well-defined structures, enabling the new imaging method to be compared with more conventional techniques. The results confirmed that the new detectors generated more reliable maps of the internal structure of the artefacts than existing techniques.
NPL is now seeking funding to develop the work further. They hope to produce a demonstrator using a full array of 20 sensors, which should allow more rapid scanning and move the idea towards a system which might eventually be used clinically. It is hoped that this will provide both a suitable resolution and fast enough scanning to become a viable replacement for current clinical scanners.
Related articles
- Breast cancer screening benefits are oversold and harms could be greater than thought (dailymail.co.uk)
- What Is Breast Thermography? (everydayhealth.com)
- Breast Cancer Diagnosis (everydayhealth.com)
- Ultrasound for Breast Cancer Detection (everydayhealth.com)
New Airbus research professor takes off in February
Professor Jonathan Cooper, formerly Professor of Aerostructures and Aeroelasticity at the University of Liverpool, is to take over as the new Airbus Sir George White Chair in Bristol this February.
“Aerospace engineering at Bristol is one of the leading aerospace research and teaching departments in the UK, with strong industrial links benefiting both students and researchers,” said Professor Nishan Canagarajah, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Bristol. “Professor Cooper has an outstanding reputation for his research and we are delighted that he will be joining colleagues who are internationally recognised for their groundbreaking research.”
Prof Jonathan Cooper, the new Airbus Sir George White Chair
Bringing extensive experience in aeroelasticity, loads and structural dynamics, Professor Cooper will be leading the Bristol University Aeroelasticity and Aerostructures activities in the Department of Aerospace Engineering. The joint Bristol University and Airbus position commemorates Sir George White who founded the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1910, one of the forerunners to BAE SYSTEMS and Airbus in the UK.
This new appointment will benefit the aerospace industry, as it will play a key role in linking Airbus into academia. Additionally, it will also benefit the University, with a strong industrial input into the University research programme.
“In our ever demanding and challenging role in aerospace engineering, it is essential to maximise the combined strengths of both industry and academia, and this role is an important step in that direction,” said Neil Scott, Vice President of Engineering and Head of Landing Gear Centre of Competence.
Originally from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Professor Jonathan Cooper graduated with a BSc in Engineering Mathematics and a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from Queen Mary College, University of London. He then worked at the Royal Aerospace Establishment in Farnborough and spent 18 years at the University of Manchester lecturing on the Aerospace Engineering courses and researching in the fields of vibration and aeroelasticity.
Agent-based modelling helps simulate the spread of diseases
Demonstrating the value of working across disciplines, researchers at Bristol University’s Civil Engineering department have developed computer models that could help with managing the spread of diseases.
They have developed models that provide accurate simulations of how crowds behave can be used to identify health and safety issues at mass gatherings and could be adapted to simulate the spread of infections and to test the potential of public health interventions to disrupt or prevent an outbreak, and have published the results in the medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Dr Anders Johansson from the Department of Civil Engineering and colleagues reviewed how crowd behaviour can be sensed, analysed, and modelled, and used this to manage environments in which mass gatherings take place to improve safety and security and lessen the risks of injury or death.
Large crowd disasters such as stampedes are major causes of death and injury at such gatherings, the inevitable result of extreme crowding. In 2010, ineffective crowd control and a poorly designed venue (the site was designed for 250 000 participants, but had 1.4 million) resulted in a stampede in a narrow tunnel during the Love Parade music festival in Germany, in which 21 people were crushed to death and 500 injured.
The authors observe that although the objective of mass gatherings is to bring people together, crowd management strategies aim to keep people separated (in time and space). To resolve this paradox requires environmental management to guide the appropriate movement and emotion of the crowd.
Agent-based computer models use fine-scale data from actual movements of individuals obtained by techniques such as detailed video recordings, Global Positioning System (GPS), or mobile phone tracking to identify points of congestion and overcrowding that are useful for crowd management. Such models have already been used for the Notting Hill Carnival to simulate the ways crowds interact and disperse under different conditions of movement and congestion, and to assess alternative routes to reduce the number of accidents, delays in treatment, and public order offences.
Johansson and colleagues also describe how models of crowd movement can be adapted to take into account other scenarios, for example, how individuals in confined spaces might spread disease through their proximity.
This new modelling approach to the spread of epidemics incorporates population-level features typically used in epidemiological models, while also taking into account individual-level behaviour and features that could prevent the spread of disease such as immunisation, screening, and quarantine.
“Such models would allow us to test various interventions on a virtual population with a computer and measure their success rates before testing them on real populations, possibly saving both resources and life,” said Johansson.
Bath chip maker bought for $75m | Silicon South West
Bath-based chip designer Picochip is to be acquired by US company Mindspeed Technologies for $51.8m with a potential further $25m over the next year
Mindspeed to buy Picochip for $75m | Silicon South West.
Chip industry is talking itself into a recession | Silicon South West
The chip industry is in danger of talking itself into a recession, said a leading technology and market analyst in Bristol recently.
Analyst warns of ‘reckless pessimism’ in semiconductor startups | Silicon South West.
Bristol hosts key security and safety conference
Next month Bristol hosts a key conference on safety critical systems at the Marriott Royal Hotel from 7th to the 9th Feb.
The region is hosting expert speakers from around the world on a wide range of issues from the Fukushima nuclear accident and train security to cyber security and the vulnerabilities of the GPS navigation system.
SSS ’12 – Celebrating the accidents that haven’t happened – covers the vulnerabilities in global navigation satellite systems; safety culture and community; transport safety; cyber-attacks on safety-critical systems; improving our approach to systems safety; accidents; assessment, validation and testing; to safety standards and safety levels.
Alongside the conference, now in its 20th year, will be an exhibition and tools and services fair. SSS ’12 is organized by the Safety-Critical Systems Club, and is the must-attend forum for all those working on safety-critical systems in industry and academia.
In the opening keynote address, Martyn Thomas will highlight vulnerabilities in GPS and other global navigation satellite systems, demonstrating the impact on safety of many general purpose systems. Other keynotes include Roger Rivett looking at the challenge of technological change in the automotive industry, Chris Johnson looking at cyber-attacks on safety-critical systems, Peter Ladkin on the accident to the nuclear reactors at Fukushima, and Jens Braband presenting a risk-based approach to assessing potential safety deficiencies. The final keynote, by John McDermid and Andrew Rae, focuses on goal-based safety standards. Like all the previous symposia the proceedings will be available from Springer.
More details are on the SCSC website at www.scsc.org.uk/sss.
Contact: Joan Atkinson, on 0191 221 2222 and joan.atkinson@newcastle.ac.uk.
Nokia works with Bristol on new secure quantum communications technology
Technology from research into quantum security at the University of Bristol has been patented as the basis of a new secure chip being developed with Nokia.
Jeremy O’Brien and colleagues have patented this technology with Nokia and the partners are thinking beyond the idea of secure communications with banks. “We have firm ambitions with Nokia. More and more private and personal information is going to be communicated on mobile devices,” said O’Brien. “You could imagine a scenario where the device asks you how secure you want a message or voice call to be before you start.” Using the technology could prevent eavesdropping on calls, for example.
More in this exclusive article by Sian Harris
Making Sense of Sensors
Wednesday 30 November
09:30 – 16:00
UWE, Exhibition and Conference Centre, Bristol
iNets South West are actively seeking to provide financial support and free business services to new projects relating to sensors and their innovative use in both existing and new application areas. Bringing together companies, entrepreneurs and academics from the South West’s microelectronics sector, this event will seek to generate activities for the iNet to fund and assist. Five ‘Smart Building’ projects resulting from a similar iNet event currently stand to share in the region of £50,000 of support.
How the innovation lab works
At iNet Innovation Labs attendees are given an overview of current trends, commercial opportunities and funding sources before discussing how they might use their pooled knowledge, skills, technologies and ideas to exploit gaps in the market.
Any resulting eligible project proposals will be invited to apply for financial support and free business services:
Fri 23 Dec– proposal submission deadline
Mon 9 Jan– proposals reviewed / results announced
Confirmed key speakers…
Dr. Steve Nicklin
Senior Fellow at Dstl
Dr Giles Sanders
The Technology Partnership plc
Dr. James Richard Fishwick
Bio-Optical Oceanographer Western English Channel Observatory
Confirmed company case studies…
Plessey Semiconductors: EPIC sensor
Alpha-Active: EEG Products
Atlas Genetics
Agenda
09:30 Coffee and registration
10:00 Welcome and introduction, Rick Chapman, iNets SW
10:15 Dr Steve Nicklin, Senior Fellow, Dstl
10:40 Dr Giles Sanders, The Technology Partnership plc
11:05 Coffee & Networking
11:35 Dr James Richard Fishwick, Bio-Optical Oceanographer Western English Channel Observatory
12:00 Workshop 1: Brainstorming
13:00 Lunch and networking
14:00 Company Case Study: Plessey Semiconductors Ltd
14:10 Company Case Study: Alpha Active
14:20 Company Case Study: Atlas Genetics
14:30 Workshop 2: Project Ideas
15:45 Closing summary and next steps
16:00 Networking and close
Related articles
- EPIC BioSensor Senses Disturbances in the (Electromotive) Force (medgadget.com)
- South West Trains installs second hi-tech train listening device (rail.co)
- New Biosensor Chip Picks Up Heart Signals Remotely (spectrum.ieee.org)
- EPIC sensor claimed to simplify ECGs (gizmag.com)
Vince Cable opens £25m Bristol National Composites Centre
Business Secretary Vince Cable has officially opened the £25m National Composites Centre site in Bristol to speed up innovative new products going from the laboratory to the shop-floor.
The Centre is a new 8500m2 state-of-the-art building offering laboratory space for SMEs to develop new products on the same site as the Bristol and Bath Science Park. It is also one of seven research and technology facilities which form the £140m High Value Manufacturing technology and innovation centre.
The Bristol city-region is already at the forefront of composites development, both as an international research hub and as a world-leading manufacturing base. The National Composites Centre will capitalise and build on this. “Here in the UK we are very good at invention, but we need to do more to innovate and turn our ideas into products and jobs,” said Cable. “I don’t want the UK to miss out on any opportunities to create economic growth through manufacturing. This centre will work with our world class universities and international businesses based in the South West and across the UK, to develop and commercialise new technologies. Its work will strengthen our manufacturing sector, exploiting the next generation of advanced composites materials and helping maintain our global lead in this technology area.”
Cable also visited EADS and Airbus at Filton, who have received conditional offers of funding from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund. This £1.4 billion fund is supporting projects that will create jobs in areas dependent on the public sector. “The South West is becoming a real hub for composites and aerospace manufacturing, and is exactly the sort of place where targeted Government support through schemes like the Regional Growth fund, can have a real benefit,” he said. “By helping companies large and small unlock their potential for growth, we can make sure that we rebalance the economy and emerge with a stronger and more diverse industrial base.”
EADS plan to use the Government support to fund the development and industrialisation of additive layer manufacturing which uses laser or plasma energy beams applied to powdered material to build a 3D product up in layers. Airbus have received conditional approval for their bid to support the expansion of aircraft wing design, manufacture, assembly and equipping capabilities. Their application supports a wider investment by Airbus in the project.
Core activities at the National Composites Centre (NCC) include:
- Providing manufacturing facilities at an industrial scale and rapid manufacturing processes capable of building prototypes to validate design concepts.
- Being the hub of the UK’s effort to develop and implement rapid composites manufacturing technologies and systems. It will also co-ordinate the regional network of composites centres.
- Providing direction and focus for fundamental research and collaborative links with UK universities.
- Helping to develop and co-ordinate training to support the skills base necessary for applying advanced and specialist composites technologies. A skills Academy is being established at the NCC.
Related articles
- Airbus to recruit 200 engineers (bbc.co.uk)
- Bristol site at the heart of new advanced manufacturing centre (swinnovation.co.uk)
- AgustaWestland Launches new R&D Programme Supported By £10m TSB Grants (swinnovation.co.uk)
New head at Toshiba’s Bristol research lab
Professor Ian Craddock is taking over as Managing Director of the Telecommunications Research Laboratory (TRL) in Bristol.
Professor Joe McGeehan retired from the position of Managing Director on the 31 July 2011 after leading the Telecommunication Research Laboratory since its inception in 1998. He becomes a Senior General Advisor to the company and continues in his role as Director at the Centre of Communication Research at the University of Bristol.
Professor Craddock is Research Director for the Merchant Venturers School of Engineering at Bristol University and a member of the Centre for Communications Research. His research interests include wideband microwave imaging, electromagnetic modelling, antenna design and medical applications of communications technology.
Related articles
- Bristol hosts Energy-Aware Computing workshop (swinnovation.co.uk)
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- IBM partnership with Bristol University aims for a smarter planet (swinnovation.co.uk)
- Bristol NHS and University researchers win £11m in record funding (swinnovation.co.uk)
German DJ equipment maker uses Bristol chip
Native Instruments Use XMOS Silicon in New Products
The flexibility of the XMOS chip and software allows engineers to bring a range of equipment with new features to market much quicker than competitive solutions at the same time as adopting emerging standards. Native Instruments has integrated a single XMOS chip with software based on the XMOS USB Audio 2.0 reference design into a variety of new products. The ability to re-use major parts of the software allowed their engineers to focus on the differentiating features and reduce the time taken to bring the products to market.
Native Instruments has a mission to develop innovative, fully integrated solutions for all professions, styles and genres. It started providing real-time sound synthesis on standard computers in 1996, and today offers a range of products for musicians, producers and DJs. The company currently employs around 270 people in its two offices in Berlin and Los Angeles.
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- GEAR ~ iMASCHINE by NATIVE INSTRUMENTS (undergroundhousetv.com)
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- Native Instruments debuts Traktor Kontrol S2 DJ system (electronista.com)
- Native Instruments Maschine Mikro just wants to make the world dance, forget about the price tag (engadget.com)
- Native Instruments unveils new Guitar Rig, Kontakt, Komplete suites (gizmag.com)
Bristol site at the heart of new advanced manufacturing centre
The National Composite Centre in Bristol is a key part of a new Technology and Innovation Centre in high value manufacturing (HVM) that was launched today.
The Technology Strategy Board will invest £140 million over the next six years to stimulate manufacturing in the UK, reduce the risk of innovation for new and established UK manufacturing businesses and attract international business to the UK. The new centre in high value manufacturing will be the first of at least six Technology and Innovation Centres to be established by April 2013.
The HVM Centre brings together seven institutions of excellence to better support UK manufacturing:
· Advanced Forming Research Centre (University of Strathclyde)
· Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (University of Sheffield)
· Centre for Process Innovation (Wilton & Sedgefield)
· Manufacturing Technology Centre (Coventry)
· National Composites Centre (University of Bristol)
· Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (University of Manchester and Sheffield)
· Warwick Manufacturing Group (University of Warwick)
By incorporating the seven institutions, the HVM Technology and Innovation Centre will support a number of different industries including pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, food & beverages, healthcare, aerospace, automotive, energy, chemicals and electronics.
The HVM Technology and Innovation Centre will commercialise business-led research and innovation that will help UK manufacturing businesses become more competitive on a world stage. As well as receiving funding from the Technology Strategy Board, direct contracts with UK business will form a third of the overall funding for the centre. The Centre will also be well positioned to secure funding from competitive Research and Development (R&D) grants, including EU funding.
“High value manufacturing is a priority for the Technology Strategy Board. The future of manufacturing in the UK needs to be high value, delivering strong financial performance, strategic importance, and positive social impact,” said Iain Gray, Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board. “The UK has some of the best manufacturing businesses in the world, the industry accounts for 12 per cent of GDP, around half of exports and in 2010 employed 2.5 million people in the UK. The new centre will help UK businesses stay at the leading edge of manufacturing technology and create and protect jobs long into the future.”
“This is a fantastic opportunity for UK businesses in manufacturing. The new HVM Technology and Innovation Centre will become the go-to place for innovation in the UK manufacturing,” said Peter Chivers, Chief Executive of the National Composites Centre. “Using the facilities and expertise from the seven institutions, the new centre will provide a compelling advantage for UK manufacturing. We have already received strong interest from UK businesses to use the service and will be working collaboratively with UK manufacturing businesses from today.”
Cabinet Office Approves Bristol’s Open Source Plans
Bristol City Council has been given the green light to push ahead with its open source strategy following a meeting with CESG, the cyber security arm of the UK intelligence services.
The move is a key step in stimulating innovation in software for government systems.
via Cabinet Office Approves Bristol’s Open Source Plans | eWEEK Europe UK.
Related articles
- Cabinet Office shuns open-source in IT-tracking deal (go.theregister.com)
- UK cyber security plan delayed till October (go.theregister.com)
Bristol hosts Energy-Aware Computing workshop
Alternative Models for Energy-Aware COmputation
Wednesday, 19th October 2011, 9:00 – 17:00, Cabot Room, The Hawthorns, 14-16 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UQ
Researchers and engineers with interests in energy-aware computing are coming together in Bristol next week to identify the challenges that can be developed into collaborative research projects in computing systems that are aware of the energy they consume.
The special focus of this workshop is on Alternative Models for Energy-Aware COmputation with one session focused solely on Learning from Biology. “We strive to go significantly beyond the state of the art,” say the organisers.
Agenda (all times approximate)
9:30 Welcome and Introduction – Kerstin Eder and David May, University of Bristol
9:45 “Prising the secrets of energy efficiency out of brains” – Simon Laughlin, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK
~10:45 Discussion followed by a short Coffee Break
11:15 Intellectual Challenges Update and Discussion: What next?
~12:30 Lunch including Networking and Intellectual Challenges Discussion
13:30 “Energy-Modulated Computing” – Alex Yakovlev, Newcastle University, UK
~14:30 Discussion followed by a short Coffee Break
15:00 Brainstorming Session
~16:00 Discussion and Conclusion
16:30 Wine Reception and Networking
17:00 END
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Shutl high speed delivery launches in Bristol
Shutl, the internet start-up that can deliver goods in under an hour, is launching its service in Bristol today.
The multi award winning service allows shoppers to receive online purchases from high street retailers in as little as 90 minutes or to choose a one-hour delivery window, same day or any day. This is made possible because Shutl fulfils web orders from local stores rather than a centralised warehouse. Shutl can deliver 24 hours a day, seven days a week from £4.95, although retailers will often offer the service for free in order to drive conversion.
Having launched the service in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester in August, and within London last year, Shutl now operates across a total of 10 UK cities adding Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff and Liverpool alongside Bristol.
“This next phase of Shutl’s roll-out will enable us to serve around 40% of the UK’s online shoppers,” said Tom Allason, founder and CEO of Shutl. “We are on track to providing high-street retailers with a game-changing delivery proposition in time for Christmas, a key weapon in the battle for market share with Amazon and the other pure-play e-tailers.”
Initially the service will be offered to the new geographies through leading fashion brands Karen Millen, Oasis, Coast and Warehouse. Other major high street names are expected to follow suit shortly.
The company recently won the BT Retail Week Technology Award for “Supply Chain Excellence” and has been shortlisted as a finalist in the upcoming Retail Systems Awards in the “Internet Technology of the Year” and “Supply Chain Innovation” categories. Earlier in the year Shutl was awarded a Media Guardian Innovation Award for “Technology Breakthrough Business” and the Econsultancy Innovation Award for E-commerce.
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IBM partnership with Bristol University aims for a smarter planet
The University of Bristol is to work with IBM on joint research and technology projects in intelligent infrastructure and cloud computing
“Students and staff at the University will work more closely with IBM teams to develop the skills and technology needed for an ever-changing world,” said IBM Executive Partner and Bristol Partnership Executive Jon Bentley “The work that will be carried out by the teams will look at how new intelligent infrastructure can help the world function more efficiently and help create a smarter planet.”
The aim of the relationship is to stimulate growth and drive innovation, whilst expanding the scope of resources and experiences offered to students. Smarter infrastructure is vital in all manner of things, including cars, appliances, roadways, power grids, clothes and even natural systems such as agriculture and waterways.
The announcement builds on the success of Bristol University graduates recruited by IBM and the collaboration with IBM to establish the University’s £7million BlueCrystal supercomputer facility, which is one of the fastest and largest computers of its kind in the UK.
Cloud Computing is another research priority. This is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility.
The partnership will also see joint research and technology projects, the combining of efforts to access funding, recruitment activities, staff secondment and possible mentoring opportunities.
Professor Eric Thomas, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol, said: “Jointly we will look at accessing research funding, recruitment activities, staff secondment and possible mentoring opportunities. I look forward to building on our existing links and our shared goal of delivering a truly phenomenal student experience.”
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- Bristol hosts technology ‘mission’ from London (swinnovation.co.uk)
- Bristol NHS and University researchers win £11m in record funding (swinnovation.co.uk)
- Bristol researchers simplify move to quantum computer (swinnovation.co.uk)
- Office Designs A Smarter Planet For IBM [Pics] (psfk.com)
- IBM’s Start-Up Strategy Beginning To Pay Off (blogs.wsj.com)
- IBM Enters the Cloud (nyconvergence.com)
- IBM Develops First Chip that Mimics the Human Brain (nyconvergence.com)
- IBM Now No. 2 in World Tech Value (businessweek.com)
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