Strathclyde Sensor Network meeting – Combined Launch of the Scottish Sensor Systems Centre (SSSC) and Research challenges from the Scottish food and Health industries
Wednesday 5th October 2011, Room 2.15 - Royal College Building
The Strathclyde Sensor Network invites you to attend the Strathclyde launch of the Scottish Sensor Systems Centre (SSSC) on Wednesday 5th October at 2pm (Room 2.15 in the Royal College building). This will be combined with presentations from The Scottish food and drink industries to highlight the current key R&D challenges in these sectors and with a presentation by Prof. Ivan Andonovic on sensor systems in agriculture:
The Scottish Sensor Systems Centre - The SSSC will be introduced by Mr Duncan Bremner from The University of Glasgow.
Interface and the Food & Health Innovation Service - Opportunities to engage with the Food & Health Sector - Dr Fiona Schäfer will present Interface and their programme to generate Food and Health innovation across Scotland
Data Gathering Technologies for Livestock - Prof. Ivan Andonovic will present this challenging area of his groups’ research portfolio
We also hope to have an Industry partner from a related sector give a short presentation, full agenda to follow, further details below
Tea and Coffee will be available afterwards (~4pm)
The Scottish Sensor Systems Centre (SSSC)
The SSSC – a new Knowledge Exchange Hub involving leading Scottish universities, private companies and the public sector is being established to help Scotland develop into a world leader in the development and use of sensor systems.
Complex sensor systems are widely used in areas as diverse as telecommunications, agricultural and environmental sensing, health monitoring and in utilities on land, as well as in the underwater oil and gas sectors. According to a Scottish Enterprise study, the industry is worth an estimated £2.1 billion to our economy. Scotland is a leading supplier of implementation and control systems to the oil and gas industry with a 20% global market share which supports 40,000 jobs in the UK, 70% of them in Scotland, according to the industry body Subsea UK.
The Scottish Sensor Systems Centre (SSSC), launched in June, aims to harness the research expertise of Scotland’s leading universities with UK and international businesses and the public sector to establish Scotland as a leading global centre for research into these systems and the development of commercial products. A powerful coalition of over 20 industrial partners is joining forces with the universities in the project.
The SSSC will focus on sensor systems research and the creation of commercial applications in two domains: terrestrial (on land) and subsea. The aim is to harness the research and development activities conducted within academia and align that knowledge with the needs of industry.
The Scottish Funding Council has committed £1.2 million to the project, higher education institutions are contributing £1.6 million in cash and in-kind support, while industry is backing the project with £1.32 million in cash and in-kind support.
Duncan Bremner
Duncan Bremner is the Technology Translator within the Knowledge Transfer Account at Glasgow University. He works with both the academic staff and industry partners to identify and sponsor collaborative projects that can demonstrate tangible impact in projects associated with nanotechnology. With over 25 years industrial experience in the semi conductor industry he has held operational and strategic executive roles in product development and technology planning within leading organisations such as National Semiconductor and The Intel Corporation. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Edinburgh University and an MBA from Glasgow University.
Interface
Interface is a matchmaking service connecting businesses quickly and easily to world class expertise, knowledge and research facilities available in all Scotland's Universities and Research Institutes. Interface's free and impartial service stimulates innovation and encourages companies to consider academic support to help solve their business challenges. Open to all, regardless of sector or geographical location, Interface proves that collaborating with academic partners brings significant business benefits. www.interface-online.org.uk
In addition to our usual remit, we are also involved in delivery of the Food & Health Innovation Service, a Scottish Enterprise programme to encourage food and health innovation across Scotland. A key part of Interface’s role in this programme is to engage academics with the project, to offer technical solutions and also we are working more closely with academics to identify novel technologies we can promote to companies to encourage their involvement and highlight the opportunities in this sector. For more info http://www.interface-online.org.uk/3993
Dr Fiona Schäfer
Dr Fiona Schäfer joined the Interface team from the Intellectual Assets Centre in 2008 to build closer links with Scottish research institutes, universities and businesses. As one of the founders of the IA Centre, she brings a wealth of experience working with Scottish companies to help them better manage their intangibles, from technical know-how, intellectual property, customer and supplier networks to branding and goodwill. Prior to this she was a patent searcher and then an information analyst for a government research agency. She gained her degree and PhD (Materials chemistry) from the University of Strathclyde. Having studied in both Germany and Switzerland, she is a fluent German speaker and enjoys various sports in the outdoors in her spare time (Formerly Fiona Jackson).
Data Gathering Technologies for Livestock
Agriculture and farming represents a key revenue stream to the European economy. As both known and new diseases pose a risk of migration between countries, it is becoming increasingly crucial to deploy a reliable monitoring system that can report various animal health conditions to the farmer or stockman in a timely manner.
Technology can be used as a platform for conveying welfare information about individual animals without the need for intensive husbandry practices which represent a significant cost to the farmer. As a result of the low cost and wide availability of digital processing, storage and communication technologies, it has now become cost effective to monitor and capture representations of the condition of individual systems or processes to a level of detail that has been previously unknown. As a consequence, welfare monitoring can take place with greater regularity than would be practical with farm staff allowing remote access, removing the need for potentially expensive specialised farm staff interventions to collect data. These solutions are best utilised in a decision support configuration, allowing farmers to make more informed decisions on the efficient use of land and the welfare of livestock.
This presentation reports on the development of a new generation of animal monitoring systems that allow data to reach a farm control system in a timely fashion (Figure 1). The system, which uses a collar tag as its foundation (Figure 2), can be considered for both indoor and outdoor farm environments and is applicable to a range of animals i.e. cow, sheep, pig, horse, etc..
Ivan Andonovic
Professor of Broadband Networks, graduated with a BSc in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde and received a PhD in conjunction with neighbouring Glasgow University. He is presently the Head of the Centre for Intelligent Dynamic Communications Systems (CIDCOM) at the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Strathclyde University. He held a two year Royal Society Industrial Fellowship, in collaboration with British Telecommunications (BT) Labs during which he investigated novel approaches to broadband networking. His research interests centre on the development of broadband networks, access and home networking and wireless sensor systems. He has edited two books and authored/co-authored six chapters in books and over 300journal and conference papers. He has held a BT Short Term Fellowship, Visiting Scientist status at the Communications Research Laboratories of Japan, Visiting Professor at the City University of Hong Kong and Princeton University, USA. He is Topical Editor for the ‘IEEE Transactions on Communications’ and was Technical Programme Co-Chair for the ‘IEEE International Conference in Communications (ICC07)’. Prof. Andonovic is a Fellow of the IET, a Senior Member within the IEEE and a Member of the Optical Society of America.