Institute for Research in Applicable Computing

5G-ERA

5G-ERA (5G Enhanced Robot Autonomy) is an H2020 ICT and is oriented towards a user-centric paradigm of integrating vertical knowledge into the existing standardised 5G testing framework to improve Quality of Experience (QoE). The project addresses the new challenges on experimental facilities for the vertical developers and designers. Robot autonomy is essential for many 5G vertical sectors and can provide multiple benefits in automated mobility, Industry 4.0 and healthcare. 5G technology, on the other hand, has the great potential to enhance the robot autonomy. Use cases from four vertical sectors, namely public protection and disaster relief (PPDR), transport, healthcare and manufacturing will be validated in the project by rapid prototyping of NetApp solutions and enhanced vertical experiences on autonomy. These case studies can be regarded as showcases of the potential of 5G and 5G-ERA to the acceleration of the ongoing convergence of robotics, AI & cloud computing; and to unlock a next level of autonomy through 5G based learning in general. This 6-million Euro project has the consortium of 13 partners across Europe. It is 3-years project, starting from January 2021.

NanoStencil

NanoStencil (Nanoscale self-assembled epitaxial nucleation controlled by interference lithography) is an H2020 FETOPEN project.

By overcoming all the major limitations of conventional top-down nanostructuring, the NanoStencil project seeks to initiate a new process paradigm for the production of dense arrays of identical nanostructures ofprecise size, shape and composition. By combining the simplicity of patterning with interferometric light with the advantages of structuring by self-assembly, our method provides a single step, cost effective and state of the art capability for next generation ordered arrays of nanostructures which are vital requirementfor exploitation of the quantum regime. This 3-million Euro project has 5 partners the UK, Germany, Finland and Spain. It started from October 2017 and will complete in July 2021.

MNR4SCell

MNR4SCell (Micro/Nano Robotics for Single Cancer), H2020-MSCA-RISE project.

This project aims at to single cancer cell biology using micro/nano robotics for exploration of the nanomechanical and electrophysiological properties of the cells.

It focuses on the staff exchange between the 8 world recognised institutions of EU and China, and the share of knowledge and ideas, and further the development of the leading edge technologies for the design, modelling, and control of micro/nano robotics and their applications in single cancer cell measurement, characterisation, manipulation, and surgery. The ultimate goal of MNR4SCell is to establish long-term international and multidisciplinary research collaboration between Europe and China in the challenging field of micro/nano robotics forsingle cancer cells in the characterisation, diagnosis and targeted therapy. The synergistic approach and knowledge established by MNR4SCell will serve as the building blocks of the micro/nano robotics and biomedical applications, and thus keep the consortium’s leading position in the world for potential major scientific and technological breakthroughs in nanotechnology and cancer therapy. This is a 4-years project and will be completed by the end of 2021.

REAMIT

The REAMIT project proposes to adapt and apply existing innovative technology to food supply chains in NWE to reduce food waste and hence improve resource efficiency. Though technologies exist to reduce food waste, they have not been applied to food supply chains. REAMIT focuses on fruits, vegetables, meat and fish as these are wasted in large quantities. The supply chain includes farms, packaging sites, food processors, distribution, logistics, wholesalers and retailers. The project is being carried out in Ireland, Germany, France, UK and the Netherlands due to the amount of interconnected food supply chains and huge food waste in these countries. It is forecasted that REAMIT technologies will save 1.8Mt of food waste or €3B per year in NWE, avoid 5.5Mt/yr of CO2 emissions, test and operationalise 8 solutions, and, support 20 enterprises. The technologies (hardware and software solutions) will be self-sustaining at the end of the project. They will be made available to the public via REAMIT website and social media.

RIVER

RIVER - The EU recently adopted rules requiring limits to carbon emissions and type-approval of internal combustion engines for Non-Road Mobile Machinery (Directive 97/68/EC, 01/2017). This set more stringent limits for emissions from inland waterway (IW) vessels. There is an urgent need for emission reduction due to stronger environmental standards aims. Replacing NWE’s ageing fleet with RIVER technology offers the potential for emission reduction. The objective of RIVER is to reduce or eliminate the pollutants from the polluting engines. It is expected that 6600 engines on existing vessels will need to be replaced in 2018-50 and 2400 new vessels will come into operation. RIVER aims to address these issues and to apply an Oxy-fuel combustion technology for Diesel engines that eliminates NOx (part of the GHG), and to capture, store all CO2 emissions and reduces fuel consumption by up to 15%. Partners experienced in CCS, Oxyfuel engine, treatment of CO2, Engine’s control and IWT. Partners will use the research into engine control from the Interreg 2 Seas project SCODECE and results on IWT from PROMINENT EU project to support their work in RIVER. This technology will then be tested, demonstrated and embedded on an existing vessel operating in the UK. A small-scale lab transforming CO2 into bio-solvent will be implemented and a feasibility study for a large vessel will be carried out during the project.

Project information: EC funded (via Interreg NWE), over 1.9 Million Euro funding (University of Bedfordshire about 400K Euro), 10 partners and 5 associates, grant agreement no: Interreg NWE 553, 3 years, 2017 – 2020

FCHCV

FCHCV - The key objectives of this project are to assess emission benefit and driving range of fuel cell hybrid vehicle technology after selecting proper component sizing. Two different hybrid vehicle architectures are considered: range-extender electric vehicle (REEV) and hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). Among commercial vehicles, light-duty commercial vehicle (e.g. delivery van), heavy goods vehicle (HGV) and bus are selected since different vehicle type would need a different system and component sizing. Two fuel cell type (PEMFC and DMFC) will be investigated to understand which fuel cell provides the best performance for each system and vehicle type. The outcome of this project would contribute accelerating the electrification of a commercial vehicle. Commercial vehicle OEMs would be able to meet the government policy by providing zero emission while offering enough driving ranges to the customer. In the end, government and council would be able to reduce emission from transportation while maintaining social benefit.

Project information: Innovate UK funded, £250k funding (University of Bedfordshire £100K), another partner – AVL Powertrain UK, grant agreement no: 133618, 1 years, 2018 – 2019

QUARTZ

QUARTZ (Quantum Information Access and Retrieval Theory) is a Horizon 2020 Innovative Training Network (ITN) that aims to educate its Early Stage Researchers (ESR) to adopt a novel theoretically and empirically motivated approach to Information Access and Retrieval based on the quantum mechanical framework that gives up the notions of unimodal features and classical ranking models disconnected from context.

Project information: EC funded (~£3 million, 13 ESRs fully funded for 3 years, University of Bedfordshire: 2 ESRs, >£400k). 7 European partner organisations. 48 months, 2017 - 2020. Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 721321.

MyHealthAvatar

MyHealthAvatar - This research project studies the feasibility of advancing future healthcare services by providing a patient empowerment service to promote patients’ participation in self-management for general health and long-term conditions, to raise self-awareness, knowledge and motivation for treatment compliance via risk appraisal and information provision, and to build and improve health literacy. The platform offers a set of tools to facilitate the management of long-term conditions, and to keep long-term health records of individual patients with the potential of direct linkage with future hospital information systems. MyHealthAvatar features technology innovation for healthcare, including a range of tools to automatically collect personal health data; techniques to assist self-knowledge discovery through the analysis and mining of personal health and activity data, including those identifying important events in personal life, recognising personal life patterns and detecting sudden lifestyle change, assessing health status, summarising individual performance, and supporting community activities.

Project information: EC funded, over 2.4 Million Euro funding (University of Bedfordshire >500K Euro), 9 partner institutions, grant agreement no: 600929, 3 years, 2013 – 2016

MyLifeHub

MyLifeHub - This project develops innovative technologies for self-monitoring of daily activities, diet, sleep, mood, blood pressure, pulse, etc., which is then utilised to assess the impact of visual impairment on the quality of life of ophthalmic patients both in general health terms and in vision specific terms. The research is conducted with direct exposure to potential beneficiaries through a close collaboration with the UK Moorfields Eye Hospital.

Project information: EPSRC funded, about £310K (University of Bedfordshire >£190K), 3 partner institutions, EPSRC, EP/L023830/1, 2014 – 2016

iManageCancer

iManageCancer - Chronic cancer treatment places new demands on patients and families to manage their own care. The iManageCancer project supports this challenge and provides a cancer disease self-management platform designed according to the specific needs of patient groups. It focuses on the wellbeing of the cancer patients with special emphasis on psycho-emotional evaluation and self-motivated goals. The platform is designed based on clinical evidence through close collaboration between clinical experts, IT specialists and patients and will be assessed in clinical pilots for adult and paediatric cancer patients.

Project information: EC funded, about 4 Million Euro funding (University of Bedfordshire >600K Euro), 9 partner institutions, 3.5 years, 2015 – 2018

CHIC

CHIC - CHIC proposes the development of clinical trial driven tools, services and infrastructures that supports the creation of multiscale cancer hypermodels (integrative models). CHIC aspires to make a breakthrough in multiscale cancer modelling through greatly facilitating multi-modeller cancer hyper-modelling and its clinical adaptation and validation. Standardization of model description and model “fusion” are two of the core means to achieve this goal. The creation of such elaborate and refined hypermodels is expected to sharply accelerate the clinical translation of multi-scale cancer models and onco-simulators following their prospective clinical validation.

Project information: EC funded, over 10 Million Euro funding(University of Bedfordshire >600K), 16 partner institutions, grant agreement no: 600841, 4 years, 2013 – 2017

Dr Inventor

Dr Inventor – Dr Inventor is the first web-based system that supports the exploration of scientific creativity via a computational approach, which overcomes human limitations in creativity through the retention of potentially useful comparisons between relevant works due to a broader awareness of the state-of-the-art. It features interesting functionalities that provide computer-generated research concepts and workflows that would be thought as creative if performed by a human.

Project information: EC funded, about 2.6 Million Euro funding (University of Bedfordshire >400K), 8 partner institutions, grant agreement no: 611383, 3 years, 2014 – 2017

GPSME

GPSME – A General Toolkit for “GPUtilisation” to speed up computing performance in SME applications.

Project Information: EC, FP7-SME, grant agreement no: 286545, Total EC contribution:>1.1 million EUR, contribution to University of Bedfordshire: >500K EUR. 2011 – 2013

“Animating Humans from Static Images via an Entirely Image-Based Approach”

Project Information: EPSRC funded project, EP/F066473/1, Standard Research (Principal Investigator), 2008 – 2009

“Amplifiable Bi-directional Texture Functions for 3D High Fidelity Images”

Project Information: EPSRC funded project, EP/C006623/1, Standard Research (Principal Investigator), 2005 – 2008

CARRE

CARRE - The project investigates technologies for empowering patients with comorbidities (multiple co-occurring medical conditions), or persons with increased risk of such conditions, especially in the case of chronic cardiac and renal disease patients.

Project information: EC funded, about 2.6 Million Euro funding, 6 partner institutions, 3 years 2013 – 2016