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Mobile technologies and in particular mobile applications have become key drivers of the economy in many countries especially those that lack established communications infrastructures. Since 2003, the research team led by Professor Al-Begain has created both significant infrastructure and know-how that became the base for the creation of the £6.4million Centre of Excellence in Mobile Applications and Services (CEMAS) that is providing research and development to SMEs in Wales to increase their competitiveness. In the first three years since its inception 28 projects have been completed and 66 companies have received services.
UCL spinout company, Senceive Ltd, has established itself as an innovative provider of wireless enabled remote condition monitoring solutions. The company provides a robust, scalable, safe and highly cost-effective infrastructure monitoring capability for railway and construction industry applications, with customers including Amey, Costain, Network Rail and Tubelines. Recent deployments on projects such as Crossrail have been recognised by industry bodies as delivering significant product innovation and cost savings in excess of £1 million compared to use of a wired monitoring solution.
Body Sensor Networks (BSN) research developed novel sensing algorithms and technology suitable for on-body pervasive sensing suitable for healthcare, well-being and sporting applications. The main impact includes:
Research undertaken between 2002 and 2012 at Birkbeck has helped establish a participatory approach to cyber-physical computing as the predominant methodology for the construction of mobile and pervasive computing systems. Cyber-physical systems intimately interlink material entities and their information representations as existing on the Internet. Our specific research contributions in systems architecture, privacy protection and human dynamics have demonstrated how the user's activity can be exploited as the core ingredient in building such systems. Our research has resulted in the implementation of applications that are used to monitor biodiversity across the globe, to assess and support Parkinson's disease patients in the UK, to improve the well-being of office workers in London, to engage the public in a debate about the costs and benefits of pervasive computing, and to inform legislatures in the UK and the US.
Collaborations funded through EPSRC Interact and RCUK UK-China Science Bridge resulted in QUB's advanced control research having important economic and environmental impact in China, Pakistan, Vietnam. This includes the creation of new core modules for the Shanghai Automation Instrumentation Co (SAIC) SUPMAX Distributed Control System series of products now in use for whole plant monitoring and control to maximise energy efficiency and reduce pollutant emissions. These products have since 2008 increased SAIC's revenue by over $50M p.a. Related networked monitoring technologies have been successfully deployed in Baosteel's hot-rolling production lines and in the Nantong Water Treatment Company that treats 20,000 tonnes of industrial waste water daily.
Our work has facilitated the creation of a variety of innovative control strategies for First Hydro Company (FHC), owner of Europe's largest pump storage plant. FHC's two plants are both supported by the simulation platform developed as part of our research and responsible for balancing load variation on the National Grid. Critically, FHC's business model relies on their ability to provide ancillary services within a short time. Our research produced a comprehensive plant model, and was used to enhance the dynamic response of the Dinorwig station; this resulted in improvement in National Grid stability and has provided competitive advantages to FHC since 2008.
University of Cambridge research on the principles of `sentient computing' led to the foundation of spin-out company Ubisense, which has grown into a leading location solutions company. By the end of 2011, Ubisense had 170 employees and was floated on AIM with a valuation of £38.6million. It serves customers such as BMW, Airbus, Aston Martin and the US Army. Deployment of the Ubisense Real Time Location System has improved production line accuracy and efficiency by up to 10%.
The underpinning research has led to a methodology for cost-effective monitoring systems to interpret complex and emergent conditions in real-world applications. There are ten different organisations utilising the technology, benefitting the UK economy and health care provision, both nationally and internationally. These include MAST Group Ltd, Electricity North West Ltd, TMMHRC (India) and the Milestones Trust (Bristol). The impacts are (i) Economic: improving business capabilities and UK company profit margins (ii) Societal: benefiting health sector organisations in India and in the UK through improved diagnosis and care for the elderly and vulnerable; and (iii) Environmental: reducing waste and carbon footprint.
Pioneering research at Bangor on the advanced communications technology termed Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OOFDM) has enabled industrial impact with global implications. OOFDM was a candidate technique for the ITU-T G989.1 NG-PON2 and the IEEE 802.3bm standards and is currently under consideration by the IEEE 802.3 400Gb/s Ethernet Study Group. Supported by 8 patent families and first-phase funding of £1.1M, in 2013, the pre-revenue Bangor University spin-off company Smarterlight Limited, was established. Smarterlight has deployed services to several international telecommunications companies to develop advanced solutions for access optical networks and data centres.
The impact described in this case study is the more efficient use of transport infrastructure through the application of our research into the use of wireless components and wireless communication devices. This gives passengers reduced travel times, better business performance for operators, and, for everyone, reduced pollution (including CO2) and a more pleasant urban environment as a result of reduced congestion. The impact has benefitted transport systems throughout Europe, including Nottingham and Coventry in the UK, Gouda in the Netherlands, Leuven in Belgium and Sofia in Bulgaria.