Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

SPECIAL EDITION: SCIENCE FOR 16 A CONNECTED NATION Super brain Professor Steve Furber – building a computer to think like a human

Greener trucking Cooler ice cream Safer water Smarter energy networks Faster supercomputers CONTENTS 4-5: News Recent EPSRC research and training investments 12 6-9: What we’ve learned Snapshots of EPSRC research and training from the world of engineering and physical sciences 10-15: People Movers, shakers and science in action – from slower melting ice cream, to pioneering technology to 34 help in the global fight against water pollution and water-borne parasites 16-23: Science for a connected nation EPSRC’s portfolio of investments spans the UK economy and society. Chief Executive Professor 26 Philip Nelson describes how it is more than the sum of its parts 24-25: Joined-up thinking New technologies for a smarter, safer, more connected world 26-27: Quantum ballet Doctoral student Merritt Moore describes her dual careers – quantum physics and professional ballet 28-33: Super brain Professor Steve Furber’s remarkable career reaches new heights 34-35: Driving ambition New research cuts road freight emissions and fuel bills by seven per cent 36-39: Only connect Professors Goran Strbac and Tim Green rewrite the 28 energy grid rulebook 40-41: Connected for success Young entrepreneurs’ brilliant businesses span the digital economy 42-43: Swinging wings Bat flight 44 inspires a new generation of micro air vehicles 44-49: EPSRC Science Photo Editor: Mark Mallett ([email protected]) EPSRC works alongside other Research Councils which have responsibility in other research areas. Competition 2015/16 The winners and Design: Rachael Brown ([email protected]) The Research Councils work collectively on issues of their research stories Contributors: Professor David Cebon; Professor Steve common concern via Research Councils UK. Furber; Professor Gary Leeke; Professor Cait MacPhee; Melih 50: In profileCyber security pioneer To provide feedback on this magazine, and to subscribe to Professor Máire O’Neill Manyera; Merritt Moore; Professor Philip Nelson; Grace print and/or electronic versions of Pioneer, please e-mail Palmer; Matt Shinn; Richard Tibenham [email protected] 51: About EPSRC Who we are, what [email protected] Pictures courtesy of thinkstock.com unless otherwise we do, and the latest facts and figures stated. Contact: 01793 444305/442804

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 2 Linking thinking EPSRC Chief Executive, Professor Philip Nelson, sets out the challenges and opportunities for research in the digital age.

Every year, and intertwining sectors in a rapidly EPSRC invests changing digital world of smartphones, “Over the coming £800 million in Artificial Intelligence and the Internet research and of Things. decades, the UK’s postgraduate Over the coming decades, the UK’s prosperity will be training in prosperity will be driven by a host of engineering and new industries and services, some as driven by a host of the physical yet unimagined. Our skill at connecting sciences. people, things and data together new industries and Indeed, we are the UK’s largest in safe, smart, secure, trustworthy, investor in these two critical areas for productive and efficient ways will be services” science. But what does this mean in crucial to this process. But we can the real world? only achieve our goals through new To put things in perspective, we discovery and innovation stemming have identified four inter-linked from fundamental research – leading outcomes from our investments which to transformational technologies from collectively underpin UK prosperity – which the world will benefit. Connectedness, Productivity, Resilience This edition of Pioneer is all about and Health. exploring how we approach such These four outcomes provide a sense challenges and opportunities now and of focus for us as an organisation and in the future, in ways that will enable inform our long-term investments our economy and society not just to – giving researchers the best survive, but to thrive in a digital world environment for ideas and innovation to as a truly connected nation. flourish; attracting significant leverage on public investment; and helping to create new jobs, products and services. Taken as a whole, they facilitate growth, benefit society and improve the quality of people’s lives – both in the UK and, by association, globally. Of these four outcomes Connectedness is all pervading – spanning disciplines

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 3 NEWS EPSRC research and training investments

£11 million autonomous Fellows on quantum quest vehicle programme The UK’s ability to lead the world in quantum of quantum phenomena – leading to new science and technologies has been boosted technology and on to eventual application. How can cars become fully independent by a £12 million investment in 10 EPSRC Quantum technologies promise dramatic of human direction? What is the best Quantum Technology Fellowships, which will changes in key research areas such technology to incorporate into new vehicles support individuals and their teams to help as secure communications, metrology, and infrastructure? How will humans realise the country’s potential in this key sensor technologies, simulation and and vehicles interact with each other and area for science. computation. The Fellowships will help their environment? Part of the £270 million National Quantum enhance capabilities in these areas and These are just a few of the questions Technology Programme (see pages 26- will complement other components of the facing academics and industrialists who 27), the Fellowships are aimed at early national programme, including EPSRC’s will be working on a new £11 million and established career stage academics investments in Quantum Technology Hubs research programme, jointly funded by whose research focuses on the exploitation and Centres for Doctoral Training. EPSRC and Jaguar Land Rover, as part of their strategic partnership, to develop fully autonomous cars. The research will New autonomous manufacturing projects take place at 10 UK universities and the Transport Research Laboratory. EPSRC is investing £6.2 million Dyson Ltd, SPIRIT AeroSystems and The five projects will look into the use of in three projects that will aid the Autocraft Drivetrain Solutions. Together radar and video sensing to interpret the development of autonomous systems they will investigate areas such as external environment, road conditions and in UK manufacturing in sectors such as automating the complex disassembly other road users; how drivers will react aerospace, construction and automotive. of returned products; developing to new autonomous systems; and how Researchers at the University of the world’s first aerial additive systems can be designed to adapt to the Birmingham, Imperial College London manufacturing systems for use on-site, personal characteristics of users. and the University of Strathclyde will and creating automated non-destructive TheyIt will also investigate how the be supported by companies including evaluation systems for use in high transition between human control and Caterpillar, Kuka Robotics, Skanska Ltd, value manufacturing. automated systems can be designed to best effect; how distributed control systems and cloud computing can be integrated with vehicles; and how data from intelligent £20 million for new Fellowships for the infrastructure, drivers and automated energy systems centre future of manufacturing vehicles can be used to aid interaction.

EPSRC has invested £20 million in a new EPSRC has created four new fellowships, £15 million for centre at Newcastle University that will based at the universities of Nottingham, allow experts to test the entire energy Manchester and Kent, to support senior formulation system in real time. The EPSRC National researchers in manufacturing at the Centre for Energy Systems Integration frontiers of technological change. manufacturing will bring together energy experts from The grants will allow senior researchers around the world to help unravel the to spend time responding to the EPSRC is investing £15 million in energy network and understand future challenges set out in the government’s seven new research projects that aim supply and demand. 2014 Manufacturing Foresight report; and to improve the complex formulation Focused on understanding how we can will focus on key technologies likely to processes used to manufacture optimise the energy network and inform change how products are designed, made, products such as toothpastes, inhalers future government policy, the centre will offered and used by consumers, including and pharmaceuticals. play a leading role in the drive towards a additive manufacturing, biomaterials The projects involve researchers fully integrated, smart energy network, for personalised healthcare, analytical at 16 UK universities and over and will help improve energy efficiency, technologies in continuous manufacturing, 40 industrial and academic partners. drive down customer bills and reduce and passive bio-sensing wireless carbon emissions. tag technologies.

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 4 NEWS EPSRC research and training investments

£204 million for science £20 million for manufacturing hubs Forty UK universities will share a total EPSRC is investing in two £10 million The EPSRC National Hub in High Value of £167 million in support for doctoral manufacturing research hubs, led by the Photonic Manufacturing, in partnership with training thanks to a new two-year University of Southampton and Brunel the National Centre for III-V Technologies investment by EPSRC in its Doctoral University in London, that will address at the University of Sheffield, will provide Training Partnerships (DTPs). major, long-term challenges facing the national leadership in manufacturing for the In addition, £37 million will be invested in UK’s manufacturing industries, and capture next-generation of photonics technologies. developing the graduate skills, specialist opportunities from emerging research. The hubs will feature multidisciplinary equipment and facilities that will put UK Impact from the EPSRC Manufacturing research with strong engagement with quantum technologies research at the Hub in Future Liquid Metal Engineering will manufacturing industries. forefront of its field. initially be in the UK automotive industry EPSRC’s £20 million investment will be These strategic investments will help and its supply chain and then the wider enhanced by £14 million from the universities science push at the boundaries and transportation industry. and a further £58 million from industry. make discoveries that are taken through into innovations. Maths centres tackle life-threatening diseases £3.9 million urban EPSRC is investing £10 million in five and Exeter universities, will enable regeneration new research centres that will explore mathematicians and statisticians to how mathematics and statistics can work closely with healthcare planners, partnerships help clinicians tackle serious health clinicians, policymakers and industry People in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, challenges such as cancer, heart partners across the UK to conduct Newcastle and Gateshead and York disease and antibiotic resistant multidisciplinary research to help will benefit from a new research and bacteria. The centres, based at overcome some of the biggest challenges innovation initiative that puts them Liverpool, Glasgow, London, Cambridge facing the NHS (see page 20). in the driving seat to help improve their cities’ health, wellbeing and prosperity as they face up to the UK-China low carbon £2.5 million for challenges of modern urban living. Phase one of the Urban Living cities initiative autonomous systems Partnership (ULP) (see page 20), a Researchers from UK and Chinese EPSRC and the Natural Environment first-of-its-kind investment by the universities are collaborating on four new Research Council (NERC) are co- seven UK Research Councils and projects to work towards achieving low investing £2.5 million in a new Centre for Innovate UK, brings citizens together carbon cities in the UK and China. The Doctoral Training in the use of Smart and with university researchers, local projects will receive over £3 million in Autonomous Observation Systems (SAOS) authorities and over 70 partners funding from EPSRC. This will be matched for the environmental sciences. from business and the third sector, by equivalent resources from the National The NEXUSS centre will provide specialised including IBM UK Ltd, Atkins Global, Science Foundation of China. training in this increasingly vital area, The Environment Agency and Funded under the RCUK Low Carbon creating a community of highly-skilled the Future Cities Catapult, in five Cities programme, the projects will people whose expertise will contribute multidisciplinary pilot initiatives. encourage collaboration between leading both to scientific breakthroughs and to Taking a ‘whole city’ approach, the UK and Chinese academics, combining economic growth. partnership combines a unique research to reduce the carbon emissions of The consortium behind NEXUSS is led body of expertise cutting across existing technologies. by the University of Southampton, in over 20 disciplines including civil The projects will also carry out partnership with the British Antarctic engineering, computer science, fundamental research into alternative Survey, Heriot-Watt University, the National planning, psychology, management, energy sources and ways to reduce energy Oceanography Centre, the Scottish arts and humanities, the creative demand, all with a focus on future urban Association for Marine Science and the industries and health sciences. environments (see page 20). University of East Anglia.

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 5 THINGS WE’VE LEARNED

To find out more, type the keywords into your favourite search engine. Air today… EPSRC-supported researchers at The University of Nottingham, led by Dr Ed Cooper, have developed an easy-to- use test for measuring the airtightness of buildings in order to help eliminate draughts, improve energy efficiency, prevent poor indoor air quality and reduce heating bills. The PULSE test is quick and easy to operate and can be conducted by anyone with minimal training. It has been extensively researched and developed over 14 years since an EPSRC First Grant helped secure proof of concept, and is now being commercialised with industry partners, supported by funding from Innovate UK. Search engine: Pulse Ed Cooper

Soothing shuteye Mini Discoveries made by a multidisciplinary team mote at the University of Bristol’s Centre for Synaptic Plasticity have provided further evidence of the A low cost benefits of a good night’s sleep. energy harvester The findings show that patterns of brain activity developed by that occur during the day are replayed at fast- the EPSRC- forward speed during sleep. This replayed supported activity happens in part of the brain called Cambridge the hippocampus, which is our central filing Centre system for memories. for Smart The key new finding is that sleep replay strengthens the microscopic connections Infrastructure between nerve cells that are active – a process deemed critical for consolidating and memories. Therefore, by selecting which daytime activity patterns are replayed, Construction sleep can sort and retain important information. (see page 21), has been successfully The research team was supported by EPSRC, the Medical Research Council, tested on the Forth Road Bridge Wellcome Trust and Eli Lilly & Co. in Scotland where, powered only by traffic and wind-induced bridge Search engine: Bristol Sleep EPSRC vibrations, it powered a miniscule wireless ‘mote’ which transmitted data to a miniature receiver. Battery power The wireless, battery-free energy A lithium-oxide-powered ‘super battery’ 90 per cent more efficient than its harvesting technology has the lithium-ion counterparts has been developed by researchers from the University potential to enable maintenance free, of Cambridge. autonomous measurement of the Supported by EPSRC, Johnson Matthey behaviour of key structural elements and the EU, the team have not only been of infrastructure, even in the most able to increase capacity 10-fold they difficult-to-reach areas, giving the have also been able to increase the owner a far greater understanding of battery’s stability. the actual capacity and level of safety of an asset. In time, batteries like this could be used to power electric cars – at A spin-out company, 8Power, is a fifth of the cost of a gasoline- being formed to commercialise powered vehicle. the technology. Search engine: Lithium-oxide Search engine: CISC Forth Road super battery EPSRC Bridge PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 6 Nuclear waste filter A team led by Sir Andre Geim at The University of Manchester Data have shown that ‘wonder material’ graphene can simplify download production of heavy water A tracking system based on eye- and help clean nuclear waste safe lasers, developed with EPSRC by filtering different isotopes support at the University of Oxford, of hydrogen. could enable aircraft, unmanned aerial The EPSRC-supported team vehicles and even orbiting satellites to demonstrated that using transmit vital data to ground stations membranes made from graphene more securely, quickly and efficiently. can act as a sieve, separating protons The proof-of-concept HYPERION – nuclei of hydrogen – from heavier system, developed through Innovate nuclei of the hydrogen isotope deuterium. UK’s HITEA programme and with The process means producing heavy water for Airbus Group Innovations, has a range nuclear power plants could be 10 times less energy intensive, as well as of 1km and has been successfully simpler and cheaper, using graphene. tested in flight. Work is under way to Search engine: Geim heavy water extend this range. HYPERION could also enable airliners of the future to offload huge amounts of technical and performance data Cool for cats gathered by on-board sensors to ground crews during final approach EPSRC-funded engineers at Lancaster to an airport, speeding maintenance University have drawn inspiration procedures and cutting aircraft from the eyes of cats to create a new turnaround times. camera that can see radiation coming Search engine: EPSRC Hyperion from nuclear reactors – boosting safety and efficiency and helping during nuclear disaster emergencies. Book learning Mind control Developed with Createc Ltd, the EPSRC-supported research led by technology can see high-intensity Heritage scientists at UCL have Newcastle University has resulted in ‘fast-neutron’ and ‘gamma-ray’ fields developed demographic models of technology that enables amputees to simultaneously – enabling monitoring decay and loss to predict when a ‘feel’ using their prosthetic limbs. of the state of nuclear reactors, as large library or archival collection found in nuclear power stations, in might age beyond repair. Project leader Dr Kianoush Nazarpour near real time, giving vital information Lead author, Professor Matija (pictured) says the bionic arm contains on the state of the nuclear core. Strlic, says: “Although some library a new generation of sensors which detect pressure, enabling the user Search engine: materials might easily survive to carry out complex tasks such as EPSRC cat’s eyes thousands of years, some have internal clocks triggering faster picking up a glass by ‘sensing’ the decay. Using the demographic shape and feel of the object. models from this research we Search engine: can now easily predict how much Nazarpour more degradation will be induced by a hotter and more humid climate in the future, and perhaps more importantly, how this can be mitigated.” The research was co-funded by EPSRC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council through the Science and Heritage Programme. Search engine: Strlic decay

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 117 THINGS WE’VE LEARNED

Flight plans Cella Energy, a company formed to commercialise EPSRC-supported research into hydrogen storage materials, and Arcola Energy have combined to successfully develop and test fly a prototype unmanned autonomous aircraft (pictured) that uses a new solid-state hydrogen power system with the potential to outperform lithium-ion batteries. The maiden flight was conducted by the Scottish Association for Marine Science using Cella’s Palm power hydrogen-powered gas generator married with a fuel cell supplied and Palm oil, commonly used in foods integrated by Arcola. The work was funded by a grant from Innovate UK. such as cakes and biscuits, is in high demand, causing environmental Cella specialises in advanced hydrogen storage material capable of storing issues such as deforestation, water up to one litre of hydrogen per gram – giving three times the specific energy and air pollution due to the increased compared to lithium-ion batteries. number of global palm plantations. US organisation, Space Florida, has invested in Cella’s unique pelleted Researchers from the universities of hydrogen system for an Unmanned Aircraft System platform, paving the way Bath and York have integrated cutting- for a second Cella facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. edge bio- and chemical technologies Search engine: Cella Arcola to develop a ‘synthetic’ yeast-derived alternative to palm oil with near- identical qualities. Super software This four-year project was jointly funded by EPSRC, the Biotechnology EPSRC-supported researchers from Queen’s University Belfast and and Biological Sciences Research The University of Manchester are creating ground-breaking computer Council and Innovate UK as part of software that will increase the ability of future supercomputers to model the IB Catalyst Programme, aimed and simulate incredibly complex systems. Simulations that would take at supporting the development and thousands of years on a desktop PC will be completed in minutes. commercialisation of innovative Now being tested, evaluated and optimised for use by computational industrial biotechnology processes. scientists at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Daresbury Working with industry partners Croda, Laboratory, the software is said to be critical to drive Exascale C-TECH and AB Agri, the researchers supercomputers that would be capable of performing one billion, billion are confident their work will lead to calculations per second. This is a thousand times more powerful than the a palm oil alternative that can be Chinese Tianhe1A – the fastest supercomputer in operation today. produced on an industrial scale. Search engine: EPSRC Tianhe1A Search engine: EPSRC palm oil

MRI marvel Scientists at The University of Manchester and The Institute of Cancer Research, London have developed a new imaging test using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that could enable doctors to identify more dangerous tumours before they spread around the body – and tailor treatment accordingly. The technology maps areas of oxygen deprivation within tumours. Lack of oxygen, or hypoxia, is often a sign that a cancer is growing aggressively. Hypoxia also stimulates the growth of blood vessels within tumours, which in turn can fuel the spread of cancer cells to other parts of the body. The new study could also lead to more effective radiotherapy planning to boost the doses of X-rays delivered to dangerous, hypoxic areas within tumours, and new ways of monitoring whether radiotherapy or some drugs are working. The research was funded by a range of organisations including EPSRC, Cancer Research UK, and Wellcome Trust. Search engine: Manchester MRI EPSRC hypoxia

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 8 Aquatic robots

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have created an aquatic robot which could be used during underwater search and rescue operations. The researchers developed a set of robotic modules (pictured above) that, similar to Lego, can be assembled into robots of arbitrary shape. This allows London driverless robots to be customised to meet the changing demands of their task. Each module is a cube and has four micro pumps which allow it to move car trials around independently in the water. When modules are joined together, they can Oxbotica, a company formed to draw in fluid from each other as well as the environment. bring to market EPSRC-funded research into autonomous The routing of the fluid through the network of modules causes the robot to vehicles led by Professor Paul move. Six prototype modules of an MHP robot were constructed, which float on Newman at the University of the surface of water. In search and rescue operations the modules could split Oxford, is collaborating with up and search for survivors more quickly and recombine to lift a heavy object Westfield Sportscars and Heathrow and open up a passageway. Enterprises on a project that This type of robot could also be used by utility companies wanting to deal with will see Ultra POD autonomous blockages or faults in pipes that are difficult and expensive to access from vehicles operating on the streets of the surface. London this summer. Search engine: Sheffield aquatic robots Since 2005, Ultra PODs, the concept for which is based on EPSRC-supported research at Magnetic motors the University of Bristol in the More efficient and less polluting marine vessels could result from a UK 1990s, have carried 1.5 million collaboration to build a new type of motor based on magnetic gears. passengers and completed three million kilometres of fully The compact, low maintenance motor is being developed by award-winning automated operation at Heathrow magnetic gear developer Magnomatics, a company formed in 2006 to Airport’s Terminal 5. commercialise EPSRC-supported research at the University of Sheffield, together with Rolls-Royce and motor specialist ATB Laurence Scott. The project is part of the GATEway driverless car initiative, funded by Innovate UK, the government’s innovation agency, is co-funding the Innovate UK and industry, which is £1.7 million project. taking place in the London borough The magnetic gear developed by Magnomatics, known of Greenwich. as the Pseudo Direct Drive (PDD), uses magnetic If the trials prove successful, these fields generated by powerful permanent magnets iconic vehicles could become a to transmit mechanical power, and is an important familiar sight in many cities around advance over conventional permanent magnet the world. motor and generator technology. The technology available in Magnomatics employs 30 people in a variety Oxbotica’s IP portfolio underpins of disciplines – from electromagnetic design to the Oxford RobotCar – the UK’s manufacturing engineering – creating bespoke first autonomous car approved for solutions to customers in hybrid/electric vehicles, public trials. renewable energy, rail, marine propulsion, oil and gas and aerospace. Search engine: Ultra POD Oxbotica Search engine: Magnomatics Laurence Scott

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 9 PEOPLE Cool news As our thoughts turn to barbecues, Pimm’s and the occasional sunbeam peeking through the clouds, there’s good news to report from the University of Edinburgh where scientists have unlocked the secret of slower melting ice cream, thanks to a new food ingredient. Professor Cait MacPhee CBE, from the University of Edinburgh, working with colleagues from the University of Dundee, has discovered a naturally occurring protein, known as BslA, that can be used to create ice cream that is more resistant to melting than conventional products. The protein binds together the air, fat and water in ice cream, creating a super-smooth consistency. The new ingredient could enable ice creams to keep frozen for longer in hot weather. It could also prevent gritty ice crystals from forming, ensuring a fine, smooth texture like those of luxury ice creams. The development could allow products to be manufactured with lower levels of saturated fat – and fewer calories – than at present. The team have developed a method of producing BslA, which occurs naturally in some foods, in friendly bacteria. They estimate that ice cream made with the ingredient could be available within five years. The protein works by adhering to fat droplets and air bubbles, making them more stable in a mixture. Using the ingredient could offer significant advantages for ice cream makers. It can be processed without loss of performance, and can be produced from sustainable raw materials. Manufacturers could also benefit from a reduced need to deep freeze their product, as the ingredient would keep ice cream frozen for longer. The supply chain would also be eased by a reduced need to keep the product very cold throughout delivery and merchandising. BslA was developed with support from EPSRC and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and the team are working directly with industry partners across various sectors interested in applying this technology commercially. The protein could soon be used not just in ice cream but for home and personal products. Professor MacPhee (pictured above) says: “BsIA came about through my research into the behaviour of proteins – biomolecules responsible for the vast majority of functions in living organisms. I’m investigating their role in health and disease, and their possible use in industry. “The controlled self-assembly of proteins into well-defined structures and functional assemblies is essential to our wellbeing. However, occasionally protein self-assembly takes place inappropriately. When this happens in the body it typically causes disease, including diseases of ageing, such as Alzheimer’s. “Protein self-assembly can also cause havoc in industrial processes including the production of biopharmaceuticals such as insulin. When this occurs, the pharmaceutical is often lost as an irretrievably tangled mass of gelled protein. “All is not lost, as the self-assembly of proteins also underpins the texture of foodstuffs including egg, meat and milk products. “My research seeks to understand this process of self-assembly – both to prevent or reverse disease, and to drive the development of new materials and foodstuffs.“ Search engine: MacPhee ice cream

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 10 Serial innovator and technology investor, Dr Hermann Hauser, has been awarded an honorary Knighthood for his extraordinary contribution to entrepreneurship in the UK. Born in Vienna, Dr Hauser has played a vital role in the growth of Cambridge’s cluster of high-tech companies for over 30 years. A founding director of many companies, including Acorn Computers and ARM Holdings, one of the UK’s leading listed technology companies, he gave a first job to Steve Furber, who features on the cover of this edition of Pioneer (see pages 28-33). Opposites attract Search engine: Hauser KBE Professor Winfried Hensinger, and hazardless elements, such as carbon EPSRC-supported scientists at the a team of physicists at the University University of Leeds have demonstrated and copper.” of Sussex, have frozen single charged for the first time how to generate Magnets are used in many industrial atoms to within a millionth of a degree of magnetism in metals that aren’t and technological applications, including absolute zero with the help of microwave naturally magnetic, which could end power generation in wind turbines, radiation. The team used equipment our reliance on some rare and toxic memory storage in hard disks and in found in everyday technology such as elements currently used. medical imaging. kitchen microwaves. In their study, the researchers “Future technologies, such as quantum The technique, developed with EPSRC detailed a way of altering the quantum computers, will require a new breed support, will simplify the construction of interactions of matter in order to of magnet with additional properties ‘quantum technology devices’ including ‘fiddle the numbers’ in a mathematical to increase storage and processing powerful quantum sensors, ultra-fast equation that determines whether capabilities,” says Fatma (pictured quantum computers, and ultra-stable elements are magnetic, called the above), who made the breakthrough with quantum clocks. Stoner Criterion. colleagues Dr Oscar Cespedes (above Search engine: Hensinger zero centre) and Tim Moorsom (above right). Co-lead author, Fatma Al Ma’Mari, from Dr Melanie Despeisse, from the EPSRC Oman, says: “Being able to generate “Our research is a step towards creating Centre for Innovative Manufacturing such ‘magnetic metamaterials’ that can magnetism in materials that are not in Industrial Sustainability, and Ian fulfil this need.” naturally magnetic opens new paths Bamford, the centre’s commercial to devices that use abundant and Search engine: Fatma magnet director, have devised an eco-efficiency tool based around a card game format. Trialled with employees from partner organisation Airbus SAS at its factory Liquid asset in Broughton, the game helps staff EPSRC-supported research led by Professor Wayne Hayes, from the University of understand the opportunities that exist Reading’s School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy, has led to the development of a to make energy saving improvements in new kind of plastic that can repair itself at body temperature. Experts not involved a factory environment. in the study have hailed the discovery as ‘beautiful’. Search engine: Despeisse card The new material, a supramolecular polyurethane, ‘flows’ like a liquid when cut An EPSRC Knowledge Transfer or scraped, filling in the damage in a couple of hours before its molecules bind Account at the University of Bath was together to become solid again. instrumental in founding CiteAb: an antibody search engine that provides Professor Hayes says: “While self-healing plastics have been developed before, the new material is remarkable because it is safe to humans and works at a simple way for scientists to find temperatures as low as 37 degrees Celsius, making it ideal for use in healthcare, antibodies that work. and opens the door to new self-healing wound dressings.” Now the largest antibody search engine in a US$2 billion industry, and ranked Other potential applications include self-healing vehicle paint, or as a coating number one by Google, CiteAb is helping for mobile phones, which could repair scratches or scuffs automatically with only save time and money across research mild heat. into the life sciences. Search engine: Wayne Hayes plastic Search engine: CiteAb $2 billion

11 PEOPLE CORE values Gary Leeke leads the EPSRC-funded EXHUME project, investigating the deconstruction of fibre reinforced composites at end-of-life and of waste from manufacture, and their re-use in new materials. Gary and Liam’s participation in the Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race was supported by EPSRC through the CORE initiative, which helps academics

working in areas such as sustainability Nick credit: Rawle Photography Picture and resource efficiency communicate their work to the public.

Paddle power

Professor Gary Leeke, from Cranfield Westminster Canoe Race, a 125-mile Building the kayak took longer than University, recalls his experiences in endurance test that’s as hard on the expected, and in the end the boat was the 125-mile Devizes to Westminster boat as it is on its pilots. ready just three days before the race. Canoe Race – in a kayak built from We were, however, delighted with I have completed the race twice before, recycled aerospace waste. the vessel, which is just 2mm thick with my Birmingham colleague, throughout. But how would it fare in Gary (pictured front) says: “I lead a Professor Liam Grover, so we were multi-centre EPSRC-funded research the ordeal ahead? We had trained confident we could handle 22 hours of hard to prepare ourselves physically. project that’s developing processes non-stop paddling. But racing down a to recycle fibre-reinforced composite What we couldn’t have factored into river in an untested boat made from our equations was typical British bank waste. Composites are increasingly bits of old aircraft was another matter. holiday weather. Storm Katie was on used in modern aircraft because of its way... their light weight and high strength; In previous attempts we’ve lost five currently the majority of waste goes rudders, cracked the hull of one boat, After 85 gruelling miles and over to landfill. broken a footrest in another and had 16 hours paddling through the night to constantly repair the kayaks as we in the wind and rain, and up against Recycled composites are set to play went along. constantly churning waves, Liam a huge role in future manufacturing sustained a back injury. We were industries such as automotive, To make our racing kayak, we worked forced to withdraw. renewable energy and construction, closely with British manufacturer and I was very keen to create a Kirton Kayaks. The Kirton team were The good news is the kayak had demonstrator product to show excited to be using an experimental performed impeccably. In fact, it was that they can be put to good use. material, which we created in the as good as new. It will now be used I turned to one of my hobbies – lab by treating waste aerospace as a demonstrator at events and kayaking – for inspiration. composites using a process called exhibitions. We are already making plans to complete the race next year. We set about creating a racing kayak solvolysis, which results in a product In the same boat, naturally.” from these materials – and then that we believe can be as strong as the racing it in the international Devizes to original, unmodified material. Search engine: Solvolysis kayak

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 12 Dr Anna Kalogirou, Dr Vijaya Ambati and Professor Onno Bokhove, from the University of Leeds, have developed a unique new computer model built on highly complex mathematics that can show exactly how sea waves affect fast ships. Developed with EPSRC support, the model could aid the design of fast ships better able to withstand the effects of rough seas, and also make it possible to design safer versions of the fast ships for operations such as search-and-rescue, Picture courtesy: Yu Ji/University of Cambridge Ji/University Yu courtesy:Picture Picture credit: Nick credit: Rawle Photography Picture Swirl in motion: Expanding polymer-coated gold nanoparticles. anti-drugs and anti-piracy. Search engine: Kalogirou ships World’s tiniest engine A team of EPSRC-supported scientists at Heriot-Watt University, led by A University of Cambridge research coatings expel all the water from the Dr Krystian Wlodarczyk, have created team, co-funded by EPSRC and the gel and collapse. This has the effect of ‘tamper-proof’ holograms that could European Research Council and led forcing the gold nanoparticles to bind provide a blow to the counterfeit by Professor Jeremy Baumberg, have together into tight clusters. But when the goods trade. developed the world’s tiniest engine – device is cooled, the polymers take on just a few billionths of a metre in size – water and expand, and the nanoparticles The team used an ultra-violet laser which uses light to power itself. are strongly and quickly pushed apart, to sculpt unique patterns on to metal. Individual laser pulses were used to The nanoscale engine could form the like a spring. melt the metal in an extremely precise basis of future nano-machines that can Professor Baumberg says: “Our method way. They hope the technique could be navigate in water, sense the environment is incredibly simple, but can be extremely used to create security markings for around them, or even enter living cells fast and exert large forces, with a force to fight disease. The prototype device per unit weight nearly a hundred times often-faked items such as high value is made of tiny charged particles of better than any motor or muscle. The watches or aircraft parts. gold, bound together with temperature- devices are also bio-compatible, cost- Search engine: Tamper-proof holograms responsive polymers in the form of a gel. effective to manufacture, fast to respond To mark Women in Engineering Day, When the ‘nano-engine’ is heated with a and energy efficient. The challenge now The Telegraph published its list of the laser to a certain temperature, it stores is how to harness this technology for Top 50 Women Engineers in the UK. large amounts of elastic energy in a nano-machinery applications.” Featuring prominently on the list were: fraction of a second, as the polymer Search engine: EPSRC nano-engine Professor Helen Atkinson; Baroness Brown (Professor Dame Julia King); Professor Muffy Calder; Professor FeedFinder Dame Ann Dowling; Professor Lynn Gladden; Professor Dame Wendy Hall; Dr Madeline Balaam, The FeedFinder app, supported by the Professor Karen Holford; Professor from Newcastle EPSRC-led RCUK Digital Economy Sue Ion; and Professor Eleanor Stride, University, has theme, works much in the same way all of whom have led ground-breaking developed a highly as Trip Advisor, encouraging women to EPSRC-supported research, or successful free mobile leave reviews for places where they have supported it in an advisory capacity. phone app, FeedFinder, breastfed, as well as add new venues Search engine: Telegraph Women in that supports women in when they breastfeed somewhere that isn’t Engineering finding, reviewing and already listed on the map. Professor Lionel Tarassenko, from the sharing places for public breastfeeding. Dr Balaam (pictured) says: “We are University of Oxford, who leads Oxford’s Madeline and her team worked with extremely proud that several NHS Trusts Institute of Biomedical Engineering, mothers in the Newcastle and Gateshead now use and recommend FeedFinder to has been named for The Queen’s area to explore the issues that hinder new mothers as part of their community Anniversary Prize for pioneering work in women breastfeeding in the UK. midwifery service.” biomedical engineering. Many said they found the prospect of Over 4,000 users have registered to use Professor Tarassenko has been breastfeeding in public nerve-wracking, the app, and have collectively mapped and supported by EPSRC for over not least because of the possibility of reviewed over 2,000 locations in the UK. two decades. exposure, but also because they were Search engine: Tarassenko Queen’s unsure how the public would respond. Search engine: FeedFinder award

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 13 PEOPLE

Parasitic Schistosoma worms infect around 200 million people each year. Turning the worm

The parasitic Schistosoma worm, prevalent in tropical and sub-tropical areas, infects around 200 million people each year – many of them children – and can cause liver, kidney and bladder damage, infertility, and stunted growth. The parasite infects snails in freshwater ponds, lakes or rivers. Microscopic larvae are then released from these snails into the water where they infect people by burrowing through their skin and into the body. These larvae then transform into worms inside the body. Now, a team of scientists at the EPSRC Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation at Imperial College London have created a new test that could instantly detect the presence of Schistosoma in the water supply. The test, which uses a similar technology to a pregnancy test, and changes colour when the parasite is detected, deploys genetically modified versions of bacterial cells to detect the parasite. The team used bacterial cells as they can be freeze- dried and, in theory, transported around the world. Once they arrive at their destination they can be rehydrated with a drop of water, and ready to use within 24 hours. Dr Alex Webb (pictured), lead author of the research, says: “Current tests need expensive equipment, or require samples to be sent to a lab for testing. Neither of these make it ideal for many of the regions of the world affected by this parasite. “Using synthetic biology approaches we have engineered the biosensors to be ‘housed’ in two bacterial chassis – Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli – and we have further designs that will enable a cell-free based biosensor.” Although the researchers caution the work is at an early stage, they now have proof of principal, The Biomphalaria and hope it could provide a cheap and easy test for snail, usually found remote areas with limited resources. in tropical standing The technology originated as an undergraduate water or fresh project for the International Genetically Engineered water, serves as as an intermediate Machine (iGEM) Competition by Imperial College host for the students. The work was then continued by deeply unpleasant members of Professor Paul Freemont’s synthetic Schistosoma worm. biology group.

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 14 Current methods Professor Sir Andrew Wiles, who of analysing the famously solved Fermat’s Last quality of drinking Theorem, which stood as an unsolved water take more riddle in mathematics for over 300 than 12 hours and years, has received the Abel Prize – the use expensive mathematical sciences equivalent of the reagents. This is Nobel Prize. not fast enough to meet people’s After a distinguished international needs in disaster career, Professor Wiles rejoined the zones and poor University of Oxford in 2011 as Royal communities. Society Research Professor, supported by an EPSRC Strategic Package. Professor Search engine: Wiles Abel Prize Bridgeman (pictured) says: Professor Andrew Blake, director of the “Microbiological EPSRC-supported Alan Turing Institute waterborne (see page 17) has received the 2016 disease remains a significant concern for BC Lovelace Medal, the top award in Stuff of life the global water community… computing in the UK, awarded by BCS, Over 750 million people globally do not have “Duo Fluor is a huge step forward in The Chartered Institute for IT. access to safe drinking water supplies, and managing water and wastewater systems Search engine: Blake Lovelace Medal 2.5 billion do not have access to improved and has particular relevance in areas of Professor Robert Mair CBE FREng sanitation services. poor sanitation such as refugee camps and has been appointed to the House of An EPSRC-supported research team led by disaster zones, where it is vital to ensure Lords as an independent crossbencher. Professor John Bridgeman at the University that people have access to safe water Professor Mair is founder and director of Birmingham have developed Duo Fluor, a supplies. It should also help reduce the risk of the EPSRC-supported Cambridge unique device that could save lives around of future widespread outbreaks of cholera Centre for Smart Infrastructure and the globe by quickly and simply testing and other water-related diseases. Construction (CSIC) (see page 21). whether water supplies are safe to drink. “Duo Fluor allows water experts to He has advised on many large-scale The prototype optical equipment, interpret results but also uses user-friendly underground engineering projects developed at the university’s Department technology to allow non-experts to test including the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, of Civil Engineering, uses water’s natural whether water is safe to drink. This means and is a member of the Expert Panel for fluorescence to ‘scan’ the water and that people in the poorest communities Crossrail in London – currently Europe’s highlight pollutants that are present in the could help to protect themselves from largest construction project. sample – almost instantly revealing whether unsafe drinking water.” Search engine: Mair House of Lords supplies are safe to drink. The researchers are working with Oxfam SimPrints, a non-profit company Duo Fluor uses portable and inexpensive and the Diageo Foundation to refine the co-founded by Alexandra Grigore, off-the-shelf equipment to reveal unsafe instrument design and make it ideally suited a student at the EPSRC-funded sources of drinking water in less than to disaster relief and areas of poor sanitation. Nanotechnology Centre for Doctoral 30 seconds. Search engine: Duo Fluor Training at the University of Cambridge, has been named Startup Company of Seeing’s believing the Year at the Business Weekly Awards. The accolade follows a US$250,000 Dr Martynas technology to restructure the glass in award in seed funding by the Bill and Beresna, from optical fibres. Melinda Gates Foundation’s Saving the EPSRC- Combined with the flexibility of fibre optics, Lives at Birth competition. The R&D supported the technology will enable the production of phase will be matched by ARM Ltd, Optoelectronics new types of all-fibre optical devices for the making it a total grant of US$450,000. Research next generation of telecom networks, high SimPrints’ biometric fingerprint Centre at power light sources, low cost sensors and the University of Southampton, has scanner accurately connects people high-resolution imaging systems. received a prestigious Royal Academy of to their digital records via a simple Engineering Research Fellowship; one Royal Academy of Engineering Research fingerprint scan – thus solving a of only eight awarded in the year. Fellowships provide support for high-quality long-standing problem in the delivery engineers and encourage them to develop of mobile services in healthcare in The award will enable Martynas to successful academic research careers. developing regions (see page 20). develop a manufacturing platform Search engine: SimPrints that uses laser-assisted engineering Search engine: Beresna ORC

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 15 CONNECTED NATION Science for a Connected Nation In the modern world, everything is connected. Social media joins people across the globe; satellites tell our cars how to park safely; remote systems keep our electricity grid safe; computers predict global weather patterns; we use our phones to check our heart rate – and, if the internet sneezes, everyone could catch a cold. EPSRC’s Chief Executive, Professor Philip Nelson, explains how EPSRC is supporting science for a connected nation.

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 16 The connected world we live in trends that will help give the UK a housing and public transport depends on joined-up research to commercial edge over its competitors systems, will become connected to make it tick. As the UK’s main investor to helping to prevent diseases and the Internet, many with the ability to in research and doctoral training in combat cyber crime. sense, communicate, network and engineering and the physical sciences, The recently launched £42 million Alan produce new information. We need to EPSRC has developed a profoundly Turing Institute, co-founded by EPSRC understand this phenomenon and be multidisciplinary portfolio of research and the universities of Cambridge, alive to its challenges and possibilities. and training – spanning academic Edinburgh, Oxford, Warwick and UCL, Our investments in the Internet of disciplines and economic sectors; was set up to make sense of the Things include numerous research connecting people, things, data and the extremely large and complex data projects and technologies (see environment together in smart, safe sets that characterise Big Data. The pages 24-25), as well as dedicated and productive ways. institute is well placed to play a leading centres of academic excellence, such The research we support underpins role in providing guidance on ethical, as PETRAS (Privacy, Ethics, Trust, and complements that of the other legal and technical issues to allow Reliability, Accessibility and Security) six UK Research Councils, as well as UK data science to develop quickly, a new £9.7 million multidisciplinary funding agencies such as Innovate UK. appropriately and productively. This will research hub in the cyber security of help the UK gain a global competitive the Internet of Things involving nine To name but a few cross-disciplinary advantage across economic sectors leading UK universities. collaborations with other research and academic disciplines. councils, EPSRC-supported scientists PETRAS works with over 60 partners and engineers are developing non- Driving the digital economy from industry and the public sector invasive imaging techniques for fine Our lives are increasingly connected and has received partner contributions art research; devising sensors that to the digital world. To harness of around £24 million. Featuring a help environmental scientists predict multidisciplinary research and support strong social science component, hotspots in earthquake-prone regions; doctoral training across this fast PETRAS is part of IoTUK, an creating the e-infrastructure used in growing landscape, EPSRC leads the integrated, three-year, government social scientists’ longitudinal studies; Research Councils UK (RCUK) Digital programme that seeks to advance providing the data analytics tools Economy theme, in conjunction with the UK’s global leadership in IoT needed in genomics and healthcare; the Economic and Social Research and increase the adoption of high inventing new medical imaging Council (ESRC) and the Arts and quality IoT technologies and services equipment to help surgeons save lives; Humanities Research Council (AHRC). throughout businesses and the and creating next-generation robotic The theme has a portfolio of 129 public sector. and autonomous systems that are projects within a total investment of With Innovate UK and the Digital becoming essential across society. £170 million. Catapult, the Digital Economy theme We are also charting new research The research and doctoral training we is also co-investing £45 million in six frontiers in disciplines such as Big support in this area is helping to ensure new multidisciplinary research centres Data Analytics, complemented by an information technology becomes as focused on developing a suite of approach to responsible innovation commonplace as any other utility – innovative digital technologies across that ensures new technologies, and technology so simple, useful, accessible UK society – from personalised digital indeed ideas, are developed securely, and reliable that it becomes second health services to interactive media in ethically and legally. nature (see pages 24-25). education. The centres bring together over 150 university, industry and By analysing Big Data sets, using A key research area is the so-called regional enterprise partners. Artificial Intelligence and semantic Internet of Things (IoT). In the not- Research and training in Information technologies, it is possible to identify too distant future, billions of things and Communication Technologies new connections across society and we take for granted in daily life, such the economy – from spotting business as streetlamps and food packaging, Continued on page 18

“Our investments underpin and complement those of the other six UK Research Councils, as well as agencies such as Innovate UK”

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 17 CONNECTED NATION

Continued from page 17 13 Academic Centres of Excellence in (ICT) is another priority for EPSRC, Cyber Security Research formed under dovetailing with the Digital Economy the Research Councils UK Global theme and providing technologies vital Uncertainties Programme. Across the to the prosperity of the UK, as well as wider digital landscape, we support the safety and wellbeing of its people. investment of over £40 million in EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training EPSRC’s ICT theme supports a in different areas of data science to £443 million research portfolio through ensure industry is provided with the 570 grants, helping to develop next- data skills it needs. generation technologies in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, software Among many cyber security-related engineering, cyber security systems, research projects we support, computer science, and the increasingly scientists at the University of Bristol important research field of Robotics are harnessing the mind-boggling and Autonomous Systems (RAS). potential of quantum physics to design unbreakable encryption codes into To harness potential in this field, new products and services – thus through our Engineering theme we pre-empting and thwarting possible have launched a national network for criminal attacks (see page 40). Robotics and Autonomous Systems. The UK-RAS Network provides Joined-up infrastructure academic leadership, expands For nations to thrive in the collaboration with industry and modern world, they need joined- “The more integrates and coordinates activities up infrastructure – from visible at eight EPSRC-funded RAS capital structures like highways, railways facilities, four Centres for Doctoral and utilities to unseen systems, such connected we Training and UK partner universities. as communications networks, traffic To name but two EPSRC-supported control systems, and energy storage become, the more robotics research projects, scientists and transmission. at Lancaster University are developing EPSRC supports around 350 research we are vulnerable submersible remote-controlled projects that relate to infrastructure machines to help accelerate clean-up across engineering and physical to threats to our at nuclear sites such as Fukushima. sciences, helping stimulate growth and Elsewhere, University of Hertfordshire create jobs domestically and globally. cyber security” researchers have developed Kaspar, Acting on behalf of the UK a minimally expressive humanoid Government, EPSRC is delivering robot, as a therapeutic toy for a major £138 million capital autistic children. investment programme to support Tackling the cyber threat our infrastructure and cities. The The more connected we become, the UK Collaboratorium for Research more we are vulnerable to threats to in Infrastructure & Cities (UKCRIC), our cyber security – both technological involving 13 UK university partners, and human. In addition to our support focuses on ways to make our for The Alan Turing Institute, through infrastructure more resilient to the ICT theme EPSRC has invested extreme events, and more adaptable £5 million with Innovate UK in a to changing circumstances. It £14 million cyber security research also aims to make services more and training hub based at Queen’s affordable, accessible and useable to University Belfast (see page 50), the whole population. focusing on cyber security for Smart Another long-term EPSRC investment, Cities and the Internet of Things. the Infrastructure Transitions To develop the cyber security Research Consortium (ITRC), focuses experts of tomorrow, we have set on understanding the bigger picture – up two EPSRC Centres for Doctoral how do things join up? It has developed Training in Cyber Security at Royal the world’s first national infrastructure system-of-systems model, which has Holloway, University of London and the University of Oxford. We also support Continued on page 20

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 18 Thwarting e-crime: e-crime is estimated to cost £205 million every year in the UK retail sector alone. But in a move that could help put online fraudsters worldwide out of business, EPSRC-supported physicists at the University of Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt University are using quantum physics to crack down on internet fraud. The systems which currently underpin the security of Internet transactions, known as digital signatures, are founded on complex mathematical formulae. These can be cracked and are therefore vulnerable to e-crime. The team have used quantum technology to develop what is effectively an unbreakable digital signature. This prevents malevolent third parties from ‘listening in’ to the transaction – making hacking, cyber-fraud and theft near-impossible. The process takes place without shoppers having to make changes to their normal security precautions.

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 1719 CONNECTED NATION

Continued from page 18 In the commercial sector, Intelligent Energy, a company formed to been used by many organisations and commercialise EPSRC-supported government to analyse long-term research at Loughborough University, investment strategies for energy, recently signed a billion-dollar deal to transport, digital communications, supply India with sustainable hydrogen water, waste water and solid waste. fuel cell-based power to 27,000 The ITRC’s work has also been used telecoms towers across the country. by the Department for Transport to analyse the resilience of the transport A healthy nation network, National Grid to help plan The new age of connectivity brings the integration of solar energy, and with it new challenges to UK and by Lockheed Martin to analyse the global health and wellbeing, and risks of cyber attack on electricity new opportunities to predict and substations. Now in its second manage healthcare problems. We phase, the ITRC is also informing the need only look at the Ebola outbreak Committee on Climate Change in its of 2014, or more recently the Zika 2017 Risk Assessment. virus, to understand the threats to “A society’s Smart cities humankind generated by the global movement of people around the In the UK, 80 per cent of us live in globe. Correspondingly, an ageing infrastructure has urban areas and 61 per cent of UK population poses clinical and economic growth is generated by city regions. challenges to the UK as a whole. In addition to capital infrastructure many layers – from investments such as UKCRIC, EPSRC- Through our Healthcare Technologies supported research into tomorrow’s theme, we are investing £347 million visible structures cities includes the £6 million Digital in research spanning engineering and City Exchange at Imperial College the physical sciences, and supporting like highways London, which is researching how to 340 research grants. digitally link a city’s utilities, such as A core strand of the Healthcare and utilities, to energy, transport and waste, in such Technologies portfolio focuses on a way that enhances the quality of life transforming community health and in our cities; maximises new business care through self-management, communications opportunities and enables valuable particularly through the use of smart new services to emerge. connecting technologies such as networks, energy We are also co-investing in the Urban mobile phone apps and novel sensors. Living Partnership (ULP), a unique Key investments include £32 million storage and project involving all seven UK Research in three Interdisciplinary Research Councils and Innovate UK aimed at Collaborations (IRCs) investigating the transmission, to forging a new blueprint for urban use of sensing systems in healthcare. regeneration, initially through five city Among these, the i-Sense project, pilot projects. led by UCL, is developing disposable name just a few” The ULP is harnessing talents from sensor chips for mobile diagnosis across the research, innovation and of HIV, and smartphone-based civic sectors to develop solutions diagnostics to detect pathogens such to interconnected challenges such as MRSA for use in hospital and as crime and social housing and to community settings. It is also working harness commercial opportunities with Google and Harvard University arising from them. to develop a new generation of global early warning systems to identify Further afield, researchers from disease outbreaks. UK and Chinese universities are collaborating on four new projects to Meanwhile, the Sphere IRC, led by work towards achieving low carbon the University of Bristol, is developing cities in the UK and China. The sensors for the home to diagnose projects will receive over £3 million diseases and help manage health and from EPSRC, with matched equivalent wellbeing – enabling more patients to resources from the National Science live independently at home. The third Foundation of China (NSFC). Continued on page 22

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 20 The photograph on this page, of a doctoral student preparing monitoring equipment before it is installed in an abandoned rail tunnel, was taken by Dr Phil Catton, from the EPSRC-supported Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) at the University of Cambridge – which is developing an innovative and impactful research portfolio. The picture, which has been cropped for publication, was a runner up in the 2014-15 EPSRC Science Photo Competition. Phil writes: “Once this tunnel carried four million letters a day across London. Today, the Post Office Tunnel is a relic from an era before e-mail, and has been mothballed since 2003. Despite its city centre location, it is deserted and eerily quiet. However, the tunnel is perilously close to the new Crossrail tunnels – part of Europe’s biggest construction project to build a new high capacity railway for London and the South East. Researchers at CSIC are using innovative measurement systems to monitor the behaviour of the old, cast iron tunnel as the Crossrail construction takes place. The ‘Mail Rail’ also runs just beneath the Central Line – damage to the tube network could have catastrophic knock-on effects. However, as it is of a similar design to much of London Underground’s network, the real benefits from the systems this PhD student is installing come from learning how similar tunnels behave during nearby construction. This will help engineers plan future projects and continue to grow our capital safely and efficiently.” Turn to pages 44-49 for a gallery of winning images from the latest EPSRC Science Photo Competition.

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 216 CONNECTED NATION

Continued from page 20 supercomputer is run on behalf of all the UK Research Councils and “The new age IRC, Proteus, led by the University of stakeholders, crunching through Edinburgh, is developing technology two thousand trillion calculations that will sit next to the bedside of of connectivity every second. In addition to its critically ill patients in the intensive core functions, ARCHER’s outreach care unit. This equipment will monitor brings with it new programmes of software development, conditions deep inside the patient’s training courses, public engagement lung in real time, enabling doctors to and encouraging women into HPC are challenges to diagnose disease more accurately and making headlines. select the correct drugs to treat the global health and patient should lung infection occur. Since 2011, we have invested £8 million across the UK in five regional centres Mathematics in healthcare of computing excellence, which enable wellbeing” Mathematics underpins all technology, academics to locally access high and is crucial to the algorithms performance computing. Funding for and systems underpinning all these centres has been matched by computer modelling. EPSRC is host institutions and collaborators; investing £10 million in five UK-wide and EPSRC plans to invest a further Mathematical Sciences in Healthcare £20 million to support its portfolio of Research Centres to help doctors gain HPC centres of excellence. a better understanding of diseases, Right: A family of forest-dwelling EPSRC also founded and continues make faster diagnoses, plan better, Mbendjele Pygmies in the to support the Software Sustainability more targeted treatment for patients Republic of Congo learn to use a Institute, which, with new partners and predict disease progression in smartphone for the first time. BBSRC and ESRC, helps researchers individuals and populations. from across disciplines accelerate The phone has been equipped EPSRC is also part of a consortium their research through the use of with an app that enables them of 10 partners in the Farr Institute reliable, reusable and reproducible to map their local resources and of Health Informatics and Research, state-of-the-art software. We have record evidence of illegal logging led by the Medical Research Council, also invested in training through activity, following which the data which aims for the UK to become a the Research Software Engineers can be transmitted via SMS to the global leader in health data science Fellowship, enabling skilled software local authorities. by accelerating the understanding of developers to work with scientists The app has been designed disease and improving health and care and engineers. for users who have no textual, for patients and the public. Joining the dots numerical or technological Pioneering the e-infrastructure literacy, as although much of the We are all connected. To make sure world is becoming increasingly In the modern era, next to the human that some aren’t more connected connected, few (if any) people in brain, computers are the most than others, EPSRC takes a proactive this community will have seen a important tool for scientific research. approach to diversity and equality and mobile phone before. Researchers from across disciplines – is committed to driving out conscious from art historians to climate scientists and unconscious bias. Among ongoing Unlike regular smartphone apps, – rely on a connected e-infrastructure initiatives, we will ensure that by the interface is entirely picture- that enables them to connect with 2020 EPSRC’s Council, its governing based and has been designed and computers beyond the reach of their body, has a 50-50 gender split; the developed by UCL’s EPSRC-funded own labs. It also helps them move same will be true for our Strategic Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) and analyse vast amounts of data, as Advisory Network. research group, together with the communities who are the well as access, develop and utilise the Together with Resilience, Health and software they need for their work. intended end-users. This process Productivity, Connectedness underpins ensures that it is both usable and Through strategic investments UK prosperity. Indeed, we focus our relevant to their needs. stretching back over a quarter of a investments around these outcomes. century, EPSRC has administered By working across disciplines, and This photograph and summary some of the UK’s fastest computers, by encouraging the development is by ExCiteS researcher, Gillian including the current service, ARCHER, of a holistic understanding of the Conquest, who won the People the national High Performance challenges and opportunities of category in the 2013 EPSRC Computing (HPC) facility at the a connected ecosystem, EPSRC Science Photo Competition. The University of Edinburgh. Funded by is helping drive UK research and winning images from the 2015/16 EPSRC and the Natural Environment innovation forward, making sense of competition are featured on Research Council (NERC), the ARCHER the complex world in which we live. pages 44-49.

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 22 PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 2123 CONNECTED NATION Joined-up thinking From eco-friendly mobile phone masts to Artificial Intelligence systems that can identify cancer cell types, EPSRC- supported researchers across the UK are designing new technologies for a smarter, safer and more connected world.

Signal success of cell, for example cancer cells, within information about the drainage and An EPSRC-supported team at the a healthy cell population, scientists sewage systems to predict the volume universities of Bristol and Cardiff usually have to use special fluorescent and flow of flood water in real time. have made a breakthrough in the stains that bind to components of Although not yet in general use, it is design of signal amplifiers for mobile the cell to allow detection using hoped the model will soon be rolled phone masts. Their research, which microscopy. Unfortunately these stains out nationwide. involved development of sophisticated alter the cell’s behaviour and modify the system being investigated. Graphene blocks radio waves new computing algorithms for EPSRC-supported scientists from “The new method we have developed incorporation into the amplifiers’ Queen Mary, University of London and avoids the use of these stains using inbuilt electronic management the Cambridge Graphene Centre have systems, could lead to a massive cut in AI machine learning algorithms. The discovered that, in addition to its other the load on power stations and reduce researchers train the algorithm to unusual properties, ‘wonder material’ CO emissions. recognise the specific cell of interest 2 graphene can absorb electromagnetic If 10,000 base stations in the UK were by giving examples of the cell to radiation. be identified. fitted with the new amplifier, it is The team suggest that graphene estimated that the total saving would “After learning what the cells look like, could be used to secure wireless amount to half the output of a mid- the computer algorithms can then connections and improve the efficiency size, 400MW power station. There identify the target cells in a population of communication devices. They have are currently around 50,000 phone of previously unseen cells.” already started working on mast base stations in the UK, so the The new method is so accurate it is prototype applications. potential energy and carbon-saving also able to determine the position of benefits could be even greater. Graphene, the cell within its life cycle. which is The team are now working with a major electronics company to take Super-fast flood prediction some of the project’s key findings EPSRC-sponsored researchers from towards commercialisation. Follow-up the University of Exeter have developed funding has also been secured through a smart computer model which can an EPSRC Impact Acceleration Award. rapidly predict when and where flooding will occur. The model is AI detects cancer 1,000 times faster than existing EPSRC-supported researchers at flood prediction systems and uses Swansea University have developed Artificial Intelligence to ‘learn’, a new method to identify different in the same way that biological cell types – such as cancer cells neural networks in the human – by training computers to detect brain process data. them using Artificial Intelligence Designed for urban areas, the (AI) algorithms. system can provide instant Principal Investigator, Professor Paul updates as bad weather Rees, says: “To identify different types conditions unfold. The model uses

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 24 effectively transparent, could be The technology, which is accurate language database as a service to app added as a coating to car windows to one metre, has the long-term developers, who can use VocalIQ as or buildings to stop radio waves from potential to be applied to planes, cars the personal assistant in their apps. travelling through the structure. and even mobile phones. It might The platform then stores and learns This, in turn, could be used to also be used for indoor navigation, from all communication from app improve secure wireless network where GPS cannot currently work, users to provide more intelligent and environments, for example. such as in multi-storey car parks, relevant answers in the future. Donor exchange shopping malls, airports and tunnels. The global market for GPS systems is Smartphone cancer test EPSRC-supported researchers at the £17.5 billion. Dr Nuno Reis, from Loughborough University of Glasgow have developed University, has developed what is sophisticated algorithms which allow On the rails believed to be the first in a new the NHS to help patients who require Technology for enhancing strength, generation of rapid detection tests a kidney transplant, and who have stiffness and resilience in rail track, for prostate cancer – with the help of a willing but incompatible donor, to developed by EPSRC-supported smartphone technology. exchange their donor with that of researchers at Heriot-Watt/Edinburgh The technology was used successfully another patient in a similar position, in universities, has led to cost savings to conduct a test for prostate cancer what is known as a paired exchange. of at least £50 million in the UK – the second most common cause According to NHS Blood and and overseas. of cancer in the male population Transplant, each kidney transplant The XiTrack technology, which is worldwide – using a small sample of saves the NHS £240,000 over 10 years a unique geo-composite solution blood, a new affordable microfluidic – based on a comparison with the cost for ballast strengthening using a test strip, and a smartphone camera. of dialysis over that time period, and polymer compound, has reduced Dr Reis says the point-of-care and taking into account the cost of the track maintenance by a factor of up over-the-counter test has the potential operation itself. to 40 and increased maintenance to “revolutionise the healthcare intervals from three-monthly to By enabling an increase of 67 new system”, by making reliable lab and 10 years. Track speeds have also kidney transplants, the University of consumer test results accessible increased up to 125 mph in critical Glasgow researchers have potentially to everyone, even in remote areas sections of the UK, Italy and Hong saved the NHS around £16 million of developing countries where Kong rail networks. over the next 10 years, with additional laboratories are limited. savings to come with each new three- The technology, developed with The study was co-funded by EPSRC way pairing identified. additional support from the Natural and Capillary Film Technology Ltd, Environment Research Council (NERC) Deep impact a UK SME. and the Technology Strategy Board Scientists at Imperial College (now Innovate UK), has been applied Reducing rail delays London have developed quantum at many strategically important sites Researchers at the University of navigation technology that could allow across the UK and has been used to submarines to determine their exact Birmingham have developed a train- stabilise the track bed at Clapham mounted system that spots railway location without needing to surface, Junction – one of the busiest railway which conventional GPS track faults before they cause junctions in Europe with over 2,500 passenger disruption. systems require trains passing through the junction them to every day. The system, which is in use throughout do. the world, collects and analyses Apple goes vocal track data using bespoke instruments US technology giant Apple has bought designed to be resilient to the VocalIQ, an artificial intelligence harsh and variable environments spin-out company formed to bring of the railway. EPSRC-supported research to Monitoring of 5,600 trackside point market. The deal is estimated to machines has led to a reduction of be worth up to U$100 million. over 60,000 minutes in UK train delays VocalIQ’s software helps in one year, equating to an average computers and people speak annual saving of £6 million. to each other in a more The project has influenced the natural way using ‘deep successful £7 billion Department learning’ to understand for Transport order to Hitachi for the context in which words new trains; and the researchers are are spoken. currently advising on instrumentation The Cambridge-based systems for the proposed High Speed company sells its natural 2 railway line.

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 25 CONNECTED NATION Quantum ballet Professional ballet dancer and quantum physicist, Merritt Moore, describes her dual careers My professional and academic journey I feel very strongly that the arts and Merritt is a doctoral student at the has always been a balance – jumping sciences are not mutually exclusive. Networked Quantum Information from lab shoes to pointe shoes; from Creative thinking is required in science Technologies Hub at the University laboratory goggles to tutus. to explore unsolved questions and come of Oxford, part of the UK National I have juggled being a professional up with innovative solutions, and yet Quantum Technology Programme, a ballet dancer with the Zurich Ballet, often there is a stigma that science is joint government, industry and Boston Ballet and English National a single-tracked pursuit that doesn’t academic initiative delivered by Ballet while graduating in physics require creativity. I’ve worked hard to EPSRC and Innovate UK, at Harvard, and pursuing a PhD in pursue both in the hope that other in partnership with other Quantum Optics at Oxford. students can be encouraged to do the stakeholders. same. I hope to inspire students (and It’s a double life that has sometimes especially more girls) to study science by caught me literally in awkward showing them that there is no ‘standard’ positions. I’ve been found doing personality or path for doing so. the splits underneath my desk, or balancing with my leg above my head There are many ways to do this, and in full cleanroom gear, waiting for one example starts with a production measurements. I’ve frantically put on I’m working on for the Barbican in and removed stage makeup in taxis as 2017, called Zero Point, which is I rushed between two performances an immersive performance a day with the Boston Ballet Company through the synergy of to finish experiments at Harvard. multiple art forms that gains inspiration Now, during my PhD at Oxford, I focus from physics. on creating pairs of photons to be used for quantum information experiments. These photons exhibit fascinating properties of quantum mechanics, such as superposition – which is a phenomenon where, for example, very small particles can be in two places at the same time. A state I mirror in my dual careers. I recently had the opportunity to combine these two seemingly disparate worlds for a Dance Your PhD contest, a light-hearted way for PhD students to share their research with the world through dance. With Nuno Fernandes, a professional salsa Merritt Moore in full flow. dancer, I danced a tango up and down Among current dance a staircase in the physics department projects, she is working on to demonstrate what’s known as Zero Point, a synergy of quantum entanglement – which occurs multiple art forms that gains when pairs of particles don’t interact inspiration from physics, independently, but rather as part of a which premieres at the whole system. Barbican in 2017.

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 26 “There is a stigma that science is a single-tracked pursuit that doesn’t require creativity”

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 27 CONNECTED NATION Super brain Can computers help unravel the mysteries of the human brain? They might if they think like one. Professor Steve Furber CBE, from The University of Manchester, is on the case – and is creating a revolutionary electronic model of the brain using a million ARM microprocessors. The project is particularly close to his heart – not least because Furber co-designed the 75-billion-selling ARM chip, one of the most significant British inventions of the last 50 years.

Words and pictures: Mark Mallett

In 1981, Steve Furber, fresh from of everything connected to the Internet completing his EPSRC-funded PhD is ARM-powered. at the University of Cambridge, took In 1990, Steve Furber left Acorn the lead in designing the hardware for Computers to assume a professorship Acorn Computers’ 1.5 million-selling at The University of Manchester, where BBC Micro. He was just getting started. today he is ICL Professor of Computer Furber went on to co-develop the Engineering, and Director of the revolutionary Acorn RISC Machine EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (ARM) 32-bit microprocessor, one of in Computer Science. Since 1990 he the most significant British inventions has been supported by over 30 EPSRC of the last 50 years, which became research grants – worth more than commercially available in 1987 and £20 million. variants of which have since sold in A few months after Furber’s departure their billions. from Acorn, the company’s R&D team The ARM processor’s key feature is its formed ARM Limited, today the world’s combination of high performance and leading semiconductor IP company. very low power usage, making it highly ARM’s success, and Steve Furber’s suitable for use in mobile devices such role in its good fortunes, are down to as smartphones and tablet computers a very British combination of limitless as it enables long battery life. Today ambition, shoestring resources, happy it’s estimated there are around circumstance – and pure genius. 75 billion devices powered by ARM microprocessors, and that 75 per cent Continued on page 30

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 28 PIONEER 16 WinterSummer 2016 2016 29 CONNECTED NATION

Continued from page 28 but the principles of operation were the processor was suitable for more than Genesis same.” He keeps his first home-made one application, such as in a mobile computer on a shelf in his office at The device. Low power wasn’t a target. It The story begins in 1977 with University of Manchester. was a consequence of the simplicity.” Steve Furber’s doctoral thesis, in aerodynamics, funded by EPSRC’s Inspired by the US microprocessor At launch, in 1987, the media predecessor, the Science and revolution, and after a fact-finding were incredulous –and sales were Engineering Research Council. With a trip to the US that helped shape their disappointing. Salvation came in the natural talent for electronics, Furber thinking, Furber and Wilson, now full- form of Apple Corporation. Furber says: built and programmed a computer in his time employees at Acorn, set about “Apple could see we had the basis for spare time, with the express purpose of designing their own processor from very small, low power technology, and using it to write his thesis on. scratch, this time for a ‘budget’ desktop so used our processor at the heart of computer. How hard could it be? its Newton PDA, an early forerunner of Crucially, he had built his machine the iPhone and iPad.” using what he describes as “new- Furber says: “Hermann Hauser was fangled” technology at its core – a very confident we would succeed, and Acorn’s deal with Apple allowed its microprocessor, bought mail order identified two advantages over the likes R&D team to spin off into ARM Ltd, in from America, which was leading of Intel and Motorola, the first being no late 1990, just months after Furber’s the way in cutting-edge computer money and the second being no people. departure. Despite the Newton’s brief processing technology. He says: “The lifespan, it had been influential, and in microprocessor, which is a computer the mid-1990s the ARM processor was processor on a microchip, is the engine chosen by Nokia for its mobile phone that drives all modern computers, but Hauser said we had handsets. The rest is hi-tech history. the technology it uses was still in its Focused business model infancy in 1977, and frowned upon by two key advantages Key to ARM’s success is its highly some enthusiasts, who still preferred to focused business model, which has assemble their own processors using over the likes of effectively remained unchanged logic gates.” Intel – no money since launch. ARM designs its chip Furber’s hobby led him to meet Chris technology but allows other firms to Curry and Hermann Hauser KBE, and no people fabricate its processors, thus keeping the founders of Acorn Computers, its overheads and liabilities relatively one of the British companies at the low. ARM also charges an upfront fee. vanguard of the 1980s personal Furber says he has no regrets about computer revolution. “Actually that isn’t too far from the leaving Acorn to become an academic, Furber subsequently moonlighted for truth. We really had no other option and enjoys the freedom that university- Acorn while finishing his thesis. In lieu than to keep things simple. First, the based research gives. He also retains of payment, he recalls, he was given processor had to be reasonably cheap, close ties with ARM. so we chose to encase it in plastic, “bits of technology with which I could He says: “In the UK there is a general which cost 50 cents. A ceramic package carry out my next project”. feeling that we Brits do the research would have cost 10 dollars. We also had then the Americans do the exploitation Enduring partnership to make sure the processor didn’t use and make the money. I like to think By the end of Furber’s research much power – otherwise it would have that with the ARM processor we fellowship at Cambridge, Acorn had got too hot, and the whole thing would showed the perfect reversal of that. secured the contract to build the BBC have malfunctioned.” We took US research and turned it into Micro, commissioned by the BBC as Powered by thin air commercial success.” part of its Computer Literacy Project. Furber’s partner on the project was On 26 April 1985 they activated the In July 2016, ARM Holdings’ Board software engineering genius, Sophie prototype for the first time. It worked recommended the company’s acquisition Wilson, whom he first met at an – but the team were baffled when by Japanese technology giant Softbank, informal electronics club night at the they discovered the processor’s power which has valued it at £24.3 billion. University of Cambridge, and who supply had failed, meaning it appeared Softbank has provided assurances to at created the Micro’s programming to be running on thin air. least double UK employee headcount; language, BBC BASIC. It was the start Furber says: “It turned out the preserve the ARM organisation and of a remarkable partnership. processor was being powered by senior management; and retain the partnership-based business model. Furber says: “We were up against the the tiny amounts of energy it could clock, so the machine that went on sale gather from the signals of the devices The companies say the transaction will was actually based quite heavily on the connected to it. We had intended it to be enable the combined group to ‘fully design I’d been building at home for used in a faster desktop computer, but capture the Internet of Things opportunity’. fun. It wasn’t directly cut and paste, this was the first inkling we had that the Continued on page 32

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 30 If it ain’t broke... Steve Furber with the home-made computer he built as a PhD student to write his thesis on. When he came to co-design the 1.5 million-selling BBC Micro computer, he drew heavily on his student creation, which he keeps on a shelf in his office at The University of Manchester.

PIONEER 16 WinterSummer 2016 2016 3127 CONNECTED NATION

“For an android robot to fully emulate the workings of the human brain it would need a nuclear power station in its head just to keep the computer going”

Continued from page 30 number of processors simultaneously and industrial researchers globally to Breaking new ground perform a set of coordinated advance knowledge and work together computations in parallel with each in the fields of neuroscience, computing But what does a microchip designed other. Unfortunately, as the number of and brain-related medicine. 30 years ago and which you can buy processors grows, so do the challenges, today for tuppence have to do with The team hope that the lessons such as finding ways to lengthen a learned from SpiNNaker, which is cutting-edge 21st century academic chip’s lifetime before a ‘hard’ fault research into the nether regions of the already available on line through the occurs, and ensuring the software Human Brain Project, will help develop human brain? The answer, in a word, can run glitch-free. Stability and is power. powerful new tools to treat conditions sustainability are the watchwords. and diseases like Depression and In a world increasingly dependent on Grand Challenges Alzheimer’s. They also hope it will help super-powerful but energy-hungry pave the way for a new generation of Recent EPSRC grants have focused computer processors, Steve Furber is ultrafast, energy efficient chips. at the forefront of several pioneering on a range of interrelated Grand Absolute power international research projects, Challenges through which researchers including a number of academia/ are tackling everything from developing Power, again, is key; and a core goal for industry ‘Grand Challenges’ set by pocket-sized supercomputers, to Furber and his team is to reveal how EPSRC to break vital new ground in creating ‘intelligent’ prosthetics by the brain is able to do so much while global computing. interfacing living organisms with consuming so little energy. He says: electronics. The most ambitious of “The human brain runs at about 20-25 Much of Furber’s research revolves these projects – creating an electronic Watts, the same as a low-power light around the challenges, opportunities brain inspired by how our biological bulb. We can’t get close to this. and potential applications offered by brains function – sees Steve Furber and many core computers. “For a full-scale computer model of his team taking bold steps towards the the brain we’d be looking at a machine We already use dual, quad, and octa- development of an extremely powerful that consumes tens of megawatts. You core technologies in our laptops, tablets computing concept. Dubbed SpiNNaker won’t be building that into your walking, and smartphones, but the potential of (Spiking Neural Network Architecture), talking Android robot any time in the ‘embedded’ multi-core technologies it is radically different from anything foreseeable future – it would need a grows hugely as the number of cores that currently exists. nuclear power station in its head just to increases; and will lead to ultra- SpiNNaker, largely funded by EPSRC, is keep the computer going. powerful portable devices and super- based on a computing platform made smart technologies used in everything “There are interesting parallels up of a million ARM microprocessors, from ‘predictive’ traffic lights, intelligent between the development of the aligned in parallel, which emulates MRI scanners, and autonomous original ARM chip and SpiNNaker, the the way brain neurons fire signals systems such as driverless cars and intellectual property for which has nominally ‘clever’ domestic robots. in real time. Capable of modelling been made available by ARM Ltd to aid up to a scale of one per cent of the design and manufacture. Both have Furber says: “The new generation of human brain, it is the first low-power, to consume under a watt of electricity embedded systems will change the large-scale digital model of our brain and both must be encased in a plastic way we work, do business, shop, travel, functions. With it researchers will be package. Both designs are very much and care for ourselves through a wide able to accurately model areas of the driven by a baseline of simplicity, albeit range of applications where low energy brain and test new hypotheses about on vastly different scales.” consumption and reliability are central. how it might work. The final word goes to Mike Muller, “Ultimately, these systems will shape SpiNNaker is an integral part of the ARM Ltd’s Chief Technology Officer. the emergence of a new digital society €1 billion Human Brain Project, a He says: “Steve is part of the ARM for the 21st century.” major European initiative involving over family, so this project is a perfect way to A key area of focus for him and his 100 universities and research centres partner with him and The University of team is what is known as massively to develop an ICT-based research Manchester, and for ARM to encourage

parallel computing, where a large infrastructure to enable scientific leading research in the UK.” of Manchester University The courtesy:Picture

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 32 Setting sail: The 864-processor SpiNNaker board. The SpiNNaker computing platform incorporates one million ARM chips. Picture courtesy: The University of Manchester University The courtesy:Picture

PIONEER 09 Winter 2013 33 CONNECTED NATION

Driving ambition Researchers at the EPSRC Centre for the Office for Low Emission Vehicles clock up around 16 billion miles Sustainable Road Freight (CSRF) at the (OLEV), as part of a programme to on UK roads. That’s a lot of driving University of Cambridge, working with encourage road haulage operators – and a huge amount of fuel and

Waitrose, have developed a new trailer in the UK to buy and test low carbon CO2 emissions. design for articulated vehicles that commercial vehicles. “A vital feature of our work at the makes the vehicle more aerodynamic – To accurately gauge how the truck CSRF is our close links with the cutting fuel consumption and pollution moves through the air, the CSRF team freight industry, which has invested by around seven per cent. used a novel water tank test facility. £1.4 million in an industrial consortium Stemming from early EPSRC- Moving scale models at different comprising freight operators such as supported research at Cambridge speeds through the water, researchers DHL, John Lewis Partnership, Tesco by a student team led by Professor used lasers to accurately measure the and Wincanton, as well as vehicle Holger Babinsky, the blueprint for displacement and flow of the water industry partners including Firestone, the new trailer design was developed around the vehicle. To help visualise Goodyear, Haldex and Volvo. These through systematic wind tunnel testing drag and rolling resistance, the team companies help set the research aimed at optimising aerodynamic simply added milk to the tank. Teabags agenda as well as the pace in the performance, followed by further were an optional extra. adoption of results. testing supported by the Technology The centre’s Director, Professor David “With fuel representing, on average, Strategy Board (now Innovate UK) and Cebon, says: “Every year, truck drivers 45 per cent of operating costs, and

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 34 To accurately gauge how the truck moves through the air, the CSRF team used a novel water tank test facility – deploying lasers to accurately measure the displacement and flow of water around the vehicle.

with aggressive emission-reduction wheels. The underside of the trailer driving the modified vehicle at highway targets set by government, the road was smoothed, making it more speeds. This saving was verified by freight industry has substantial aerodynamic and helping air flow Waitrose in back-to-back highway incentives to minimise its use out from underneath. Up front, the tests against an unmodified design. of energy.” tractor unit was fitted with a matching Waitrose has already added 36 of the aerodynamic kit. A key aspect of the research was the modified trucks to its fleet. UK bakery need to optimise the design of the With the design optimised, a prototype company, Warburtons, will specify the trailer without impeding performance vehicle was built and successfully new design for all future purchases. or capacity. The result was a tapered tested on the test track. The results David Cebon says: “The research ‘boat-tail’ solution at the back of the speak for themselves: 14 per cent not only demonstrates a successful trailer which cuts into its insulation reduction in aerodynamic drag collaboration between academia and rather than lowering the door height. coefficient and a three to six per industry; it is also important evidence The capacity of the trailer is not cent reduction in rolling resistance for Government which, under the 2008 affected and the number of loadable coefficient for the modified vehicle; Climate Change Act, has committed the cages remains the same. in comparison with the unmodified UK to reducing its emissions by at least To reduce drag further, the ride vehicle. This equates to a real-world height was lowered and folding side seven per cent reduction in both fuel 80 per cent by 2050.” skirts were fitted to cover half the consumption and CO2 emissions when www.csrf.ac.uk

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 35 CONNECTED NATION Only connect

Researchers at Imperial College London are rewriting the rule book on the way we use electricity.

Words: Matt Shinn

“The trouble with electricity,” says conditions, so they also can’t respond Professor Tim Green of Imperial quickly when there’s a sudden spike College London, “is that it is the in demand. ultimate in perishable goods. As things Internet of Energy stand, you have to sell electricity pretty much as soon as you produce For Tim Green, who is Director of the it; there’s no cost-effective way to Energy Futures Laboratory at Imperial, warehouse it or store it.” there are three main ways in which we could get round these problems, which So, until now, the way we’ve run our seem to limit our ability to make use Professor Goran Strbac Professor Tim Green power system has been to use fast- of greener energy. “First,” he says, “we acting power generators, running on can try to ensure that demand isn’t Multiplied across millions of fossil fuels, to react quickly to demand. king. Can we make demand respond to households, this demand flexibility With every spike in energy use (say supply instead?” would mean that fewer conventional when the nation turns on its kettles power stations were needed to meet during half time in a big football It’s known as demand flexibility: the demand, and that renewable energy match), gas and coal-burning power idea that, in a world of Web-enabled could be incorporated more easily into stations are fired-up to deal with it. household appliances, you could the network. create an Internet of Energy, with your The clean energy challenge washing machine or fridge able to talk Another solution would be to become The trouble is, some two-thirds of to the power network it’s connected to. much better at storing energy from our existing power stations (most of At times of high demand, a computer intermittent renewable sources such them of the old fossil fuel type) are belonging to your energy provider as wind and solar. Storage technology due to close by 2030, as they reach would contact your freezer, say, and is accelerating rapidly, and the UK has the end of their working lives. If we’re ask it to power down for a while: being the potential to become a world leader to switch to using cleaner forms of well-insulated, a few minutes or so in it. energy, as a replacement for these dirty shouldn’t make much difference. Then Finally, we could make life easier for old power stations, we’re faced with when supply is plentiful (when the ourselves by connecting our power some problems. Wind and sunlight are sun is shining, or the wind is blowing), network to those of our European unpredictable, so the electricity supply your energy provider’s computer neighbours, smoothing out supply from turbines and solar panels can’t might ask your washing machine if it and demand between us. Better be relied upon. Nuclear power stations wanted to turn on, to make the most of need to operate under constant cheaper power. Continued on page 38

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 36 PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 37 CONNECTED NATION Opportunity knocks

Continued from page 36 Goran Strbac says: “There’s no question that without EPSRC, without interconnection could give us access to the years of fundamental research, cheap, green power supplies such as there’s no way that all this would those of Norway or Iceland. have happened… Smart power “The Smart Power report, for example, This three-pronged approach, of used evidence based on models we greater interconnection, better storage, produced under an EPSRC-funded and increased demand flexibility, was Grand Challenge project. Developing the basis of a report produced in March these finer-grained models took a this year by Professor Goran Strbac, lot of sleepless nights, but thanks to who is also a member of the Power EPSRC, we were able to do it.” Systems research team at Imperial. Tim Green is like-minded. He says: The report was produced for the “Using the innovative Imperial model, “If the smart power revolution is to National Infrastructure Commission we have estimated that more than become a reality, EPSRC-funded (NIC), which has been set up to help £130 million could be saved through research will be at the heart of it, in with long-term decision making the application of demand-side many different guises.” regarding the UK’s infrastructure. response, dynamic rating technologies Looking ahead, Goran Strbac concedes The Smart Power report estimates and various active network that managing the UK energy system that by 2030 the UK could save up to management techniques, and we have will be a challenge. But there are £8 billion a year, as well as meet its included this in our business plan.” enormous opportunities too, not just 2050 carbon targets and secure its to give the UK an efficient, flexible energy supply, by bringing about a and secure energy infrastructure, smart energy revolution. By focusing potentially saving billions of pounds, on interconnection, storage and but also for the country to take the demand flexibility, the report argues, lead internationally in the kinds of these benefits could be gained without innovation that are set to transform the need for much more infrastructure, the world electricity market. And which would require huge amounts of that means not just developing new public spending. hardware, but new forms of system As well as advising the government, management and new business together with colleagues in other models, too. universities the Imperial team have Professor Strbac says: “Provided that been helping some of the big power we keep developing our knowledge generators and networks companies base, the UK can lead the world in to make decisions around investment the smart power revolution, helping in infrastructure. to bring jobs and investment into the The message is consistent: smart Advising an industry country, at the same time as cutting technology enables existing energy bills for consumers.” Since 2008, the team have assisted infrastructure to be used much more National Grid in defining new intensively, which works out much investment affecting £3 billion worth cheaper than building infrastructure of network assets now approved by from scratch. the regulator. They also provided tools “If the smart power to develop the first offshore networks design standards, saving an estimated revolution is to become £500 million by 2013 and leading to a projected overall saving of £1-2 billion a reality, EPSRC- by 2020. In addition, they’ve helped energy infrastructure company Alstom funded research will to design a new generation of High Voltage DC converters for offshore wind generation. They have also enabled UK be at the heart of it, in Power Networks to think differently about the future. many different guises” Barry Hatton, UK Power Networks’ Director of Asset Management, says:

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 38 Fossil fuel power stations like this coal-fired station in Ferrybridge, Yorkshire, are due to close by 2030. The Imperial team are proposing radical alternatives as the switch-off nears.

in photo-voltaic integration BBOXX now designs, makes and and techno-economic analysis distributes innovative solar power helped pave the way for the systems. Easy-to-use solar kits development of off-grid energy power lights and phone chargers kiosks for electrification in rural in individual homes, while larger Africa, first set up by e.quinox, a solar installations can replace student-run charity at Imperial. noisy, costly and polluting diesel BBOXX took the concept further. generators used by businesses. Energy kiosks offer basic Since its formation in 2010, BBOXX electricity to local communities, has expanded rapidly from three and can be life changing for founders to a global staff of 140. off-grid villages. They also BBOXX BBOXX products have already help create local jobs. Customers BBOXX, a company formed by pay to borrow a BBOXX unit from the saved over a million dollars’ students at Imperial College ‘owner’, and the amount depends on worth of energy, and offset over 19,000 tonnes of CO . London to tackle the challenges their needs. 2 and opportunities arising from By providing households with off-grid The company is currently a partner unreliable electrical supplies electric lighting, children can do their in a five-year, £1.2 million EPSRC within the developing world, drew homework and families can run a smart grid project tackling key its technical inspiration from business without incurring threats to global challenges such as those EPSRC-funded research at Imperial their health by paraffin smoke. In turn, faced by developing countries involving Professors Tim Green BBOXX has created a sustainable non- suffering from an intermittent and Goran Strbac. Their expertise subsidised business model. electricity supply.

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 39 CONNECTED NATION

Connected for success

A new generation of EPSRC-supported doctoral students and early career researchers are turning their bright ideas into commercial success through successful companies that are helping to make the UK a more connected and productive nation.

Quantum Base which comprise the fundamental of Nobel Laureates. Held in Lindau Jonathan Roberts building blocks of matter, cannot be Germany, the event gives some of the is on a roll. Fresh ‘transmitted’ or manipulated without world’s most promising scientists from winning the being unintentionally altered. below the age of 35 the opportunity to meet 35 Nobel Prize winners. Grand Prize at Jonathan says: “By slimming digital the EPSRC-led fingerprints down to an atomic scale Aesthetic ICT Pioneers we’ve created devices that are not Integration awards in 2015 only smaller and cheaper but also for his research fundamentally more secure than any Aesthetic into nano- other existing technology. Integration, identification, he is commercialising a company his invention through Quantum Base, “Each device we’ve made is unique, co-founded by a spin-out company set up by his 100 per cent secure and impossible to Dr Grant Olney supervisor, Dr Robert Young, and copy or clone.” Passmore, Philip Speed. Robert Young says: “One could imagine whose doctorate was supported by The invention uses next-generation our devices being used to identify a EPSRC during a studentship at the quantum nano-technology to ‘brand’ broad range of products, and could be University of Edinburgh, has won the any object or product with its own used to authenticate branded goods, UBS Future of Finance Challenge, unique identity, making it 100 per cent for example, or SIM cards, or important a major international competition impossible to copy. manufacturing components. The for entrepreneurs, start-ups and growing companies. Each product is given a unique identity possibilities are endless.” based on atomic-scale imperfections. Jonathan was invited to the 66th Lindau The UBS Future of Finance Challenge In their quantum state, atoms, Nobel meeting, an annual gathering is a global open innovation competition

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 40 aimed at changing the way finance adapt the technology to meet industry touch and feel devices – by removing works and how banks meet their standards for power systems. touch from the equation entirely. clients’ needs. Aesthetic Integration In December 2015 Synaptec signed a Using ultrasound it is possible to won for its pioneering Artificial partnership deal with ScottishPower, create the sensation of touch in mid- Intelligence technology, which GE Grid Solutions, ABB and The air – allowing the user to feel virtual automatically analyses financial University of Manchester to develop objects without touching them, or algorithms for glitches, ultimately a smarter electricity network for wearing any special equipment. An helping make financial markets safer, consumers. The project is led by array of small ultrasound emitters fairer and more transparent. ScottishPower Energy Networks. creates the feeling in the user’s The company saw off 600 international fingers, and is linked by software to entrants, picking up a cheque for a camera which sees how the hand US$50,000 and a commitment from is moving. UBS to help it commercialise and The effect of a touch sensation, known scale-up its ideas and technologies. as haptic feedback, could lead to applications in many sectors including healthcare, manufacturing and gaming. In the future there could be no need for a keyboard or mouse. If the success of the company weren’t enough, Tom Carter – who Dynamon co-founded Ultrahaptics alongside Dr Angus Webb, an EPSRC-supported his PhD supervisor Professor Sriram researcher from the University of Subramanian – has been named Young Southampton, has received a Royal Engineer of the Year by the National Synaptec Academy of Engineering Enterprise Microelectronics Institute. Fellowship to develop his start-up Synaptec Ltd, a Strathclyde University This follows his Rising Star – New company, Dynamon. company formed to bring to market Engineer of the Year award at research by Dr Philip Orr, a former Dynamon provides an online data Electronics Weekly magazine’s 2015 EPSRC Doctoral Prize holder, whose analytics service to the road haulage awards, which recognise excellence in doctorate was supported by EPSRC, is industry, combining big data from Europe’s electronics industry, and the going from strength to strength. vehicles with dynamic modeling and Top Picks Award from Laptop Mag for statistics to provide hauliers with Best Enabling Technology. The award-winning company, set up tailored recommendations on ways to by Philip and two colleagues from the Mark Spoonauer, Editor in Chief of help them make the greatest savings. university, has developed sensor-based Laptop Mag, says: “Ultrahaptics has technology, originally designed for the Ahead of the commercial launch of its developed something completely oil and gas sector, that enables energy products, Dynamon is already working different; the ability to feel virtual and telecoms companies to quickly with Southampton City Council, First objects in mid-air will revolutionise isolate network faults, reducing the Group and Go South Coast to quantify how we interact with our computers, length of service cuts and minimising the impact of fuel saving devices they automobiles and games. I cannot fines by regulators. are fitting to buses to improve city wait to see this integrated into air quality. A significant number of real products.” The system piggy-backs on existing hauliers have expressed early interest fibre networks, thus minimising The company’s early development in the company’s products. the cost of installing, expanding or was supported by an EPSRC Impact enhancing sensor coverage on power Ultrahaptics Acceleration Account, and arose thanks to a decade of EPSRC- systems. By gathering many different Ultrahaptics, a measurements on a single fibre, supported research into ultrasonic spin-out company wave phenomena. Synaptec is able to make protection formed to bring to and monitoring schemes simpler and market technology Complementary technologies have more efficient. developed with been developed by colleagues at Philip founded the company when EPSRC support the universities of Bristol, Bath and working as a postdoctoral research at the University Dundee. Among a range of projects, associate at the University of of Bristol, has they are using sonics to manipulate Strathclyde in Glasgow. He was received £10.1 microparticles by what has been subsequently awarded an Enterprise million backing described as an invisible pair of hands. Fellowship from the Royal Academy from investors to grow its business Carried to its illogical sci-fi extension, of Engineering, which led to a further globally. The company’s revolutionary the technology could one day be used £260,000 in funding from Innovate UK to technology is creating a new way to in Star Trek-style tractor beams.

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 41 Swinging wings A multidisciplinary research team have developed and test- flown technology inspired by bat flight that could pave the way for a new generation of unmanned micro air vehicles (MAVs), which are increasingly used in a wide variety of civil and military applications, such as surveying remote and dangerous areas.

The team, from the University of College London, with funding from After extensive wind tunnel testing, the Southampton and Imperial College EPSRC. The United States Air Force, vehicle was put through its paces at a London, created innovative membrane through its European Office of nearby coastal location. wings that work like artificial muscles Aerospace Research and Development The result is a micro air vehicle – similar to how bats fly. (EOARD), provided additional support. that is more economical to run than The researchers noted how bats vary Professor Bharath Ganapathisubramani, conventional MAVs. As it has no the shape of their wings based on from the University of Southampton, mechanical parts, it is also easier the wind’s direction and speed. Thus led the overall project. He says: to maintain. The proof of concept the MAV’s wing membrane’s shape is “The combined computational wing will eventually enable flight constantly changed under varying wind and experimental approach that over much longer distances than conditions to optimise its aerodynamic characterised the project is unique in currently possible. performance, enabling the MAV to fly the field of bio-inspired MAV design.” The next step is to incorporate the over long distances. To inform and speed up the design active wings into typical MAV designs, This approach typifies the team’s process, the Imperial team built with deployment in real-world methodology. Instead of a traditional innovative computational models and applications potentially achievable approach of scaling down existing used them to aid the construction of over the next five years. aircraft design methods, they borrowed a test MAV. the bat’s biological technology to Dr Rafael Palacios of Imperial’s create a unique wing design that Department of Aeronautics, who incorporates electro-active polymers, led this aspect of the project, says: which make the wings stiffen and relax “No-one has tried to simulate the in response to an applied voltage. in-flight behaviour of actuated bat- By changing the voltage input, the like wings before, so we had to go shape of the membrane and therefore back to fundamentals, develop the aerodynamic characteristics can be mathematical models and build the altered during flight, further enhancing multi-physics simulation software we their performance. needed from scratch.” The wings have been developed The Southampton team incorporated through a unique combination of some of these findings into a The wings have been developed through a unique hands-on experimental work at 0.5m-wide test vehicle, designed to combination of experimental work at the University the University of Southampton and skim over the sea’s surface and, if of Southampton and computational research at computational research at Imperial necessary, land there safely. Imperial College London.

PIONEER 16 Summer 20162016 42 PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 43 EPSRC Science Photo Competition 2015/16

The third annual EPSRC Science Photo Competition once again revealed the inquisitive and perceptive nature of the scientists and engineers supported by EPSRC, and gave them the opportunity to share their research through pictures. The competition is open to all EPSRC-supported researchers and doctoral students and this year received over 200 entries into five categories: Equipment, Innovation, Eureka!, People, and Weird and Wonderful. Not only are the 15 winning entries stunning images in their own right, they help to reflect the exciting research in physical sciences and engineering going on right now in the UK.

PIONEER 0916 WinterSummer 2013 2016 PIONEER 12 Summer 2014 50 44 1st Eureka! and overall winner

Microwave ion-trap chip for quantum computation

This image of a gold chip used to trap ions for use in quantum computing, shows the chip’s gold wire-bonds connected to electrodes which transmit electric fields to trap single atomic ions a mere 100 microns above the device’s surface. By Diana Prado Lopes Aude Craik, University of Oxford, with Norbert Linke, University of Maryland

2nd Curious neurons This image shows the complexity of developing brain cells. Cells send protrusions to sense other cells and connect to them (in green). This research aims to help identify the environmental elements necessary to grow stem cells for use in therapeutic treatments for people with Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. By George Joseph, Keele University

Eureka!

Mating pair of critically endangered Costa Rican 3rd lemur leaf frogs The lemur leaf frog is one of the rarest frogs in the world. The frog undergoes a rapid and distinct colour change most nights from pale green to dark brown, and is one of a small group of species that reflects strongly in the near infrared region, matching the reflection of the leaves it sits on beyond the visible wavelengths of light. Seeing this pair in the same conditions, but different colourations, helped me to design new tests to better understand the unique optical properties of these frogs and the benefits they impart. By Chris Blount, The University of Manchester Eureka!

PIONEER 091216 WinterSummer 2013 20142016 5145 From nano-molecules to mega-structures

1st Innovation

Where there is light, there is shadow

In this image, a piece of glass is being processed with a high power ultrafast, ultraprecise laser. This causes very bright plasma to form. Extremely small, well controlled features can be created using ultrafast light pulses, which occur faster than heat can pass between the atoms of the material, resulting in very little heat damage to the surrounding areas. The laser was developed by the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Ultra Precision. By Jonathon Parkins, University of Cambridge

2nd Fluid streams from an oscillating microbubble In the presence of ultrasound, microbubbles oscillate by cyclically expanding and contracting. This causes the displacement of the surrounding fluid and the generation of a fluid flow, which takes the form of counter-rotating vortices. In this photograph, fluorescent microparticles are added to the fluid in order to visualise the flow streamlines using a microscope. Importantly, the observed fluid flow could be exploited in therapeutic applications as a means of effectively transporting drugs towards desired locations Innovation within the body (for example, cancer tissues). By Dr Dario Carugo, University of Oxford

3rd Laser image of a million degree Celsius plasma column

The central object is a plasma, formed when a huge one million Amp electrical current passes through a circle made of thin, upright carbon rods (the four vertical black bars). The current heats the rods and hurls streams of plasma into the centre of the circle, forming a dense, rippling plasma column at a temperature of over one million degrees Celsius. Despite this violent formation process, this plasma is very stable, confirming a Innovation recent mathematical theorem important for computer simulations of plasmas. By Jack Hare, Imperial College London

PIONEER 0916 WinterSummer 2013 2016 46 From nano-molecules to mega-structures

1st People

iCub and the Tutor During infancy, children learn from their experiences of the world around them. Researchers are modelling how young infants learn and are applying their findings to a humanoid iCub robot. The aim is to develop a mechanism for robots to learn about the basic physics of the world through understanding objects. Here, the iCub is learning about how to play from the baby.

By Dr Patricia Shaw, Aberystwyth University

2nd Tunnelling into London’s past The key objective of this project is to investigate the potential for utilising heat accumulated in the surroundings of the London Underground tunnels for low carbon heating. In the picture, researchers are approaching the platform level, around 27 metres below the ground in a disused station at York Road, permanently closed since 1932. The site is currently used only as a state-of-the-art technological testing facility. It is a fascinating ambience where many of the original features of the Tube stand the test of time. People By Akos Revesz, London Southbank University

3rd Children welcoming earthquake engineering researchers to Lapsibot

EPSRC sponsored a number of academics to join the Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team’s earthquake reconnaissance mission to disaster-stricken Nepal – one of five missions supported by EPSRC since 2010. While earthquakes are tragic for the affected communities they are an invaluable opportunity to understand what happens during these events and how to better protect communities from future events. People The smiles on the children’s faces mask the devastation. Most of the houses in their village had totally or partially collapsed, and the earthquake had triggered many landslides, severely hampering relief efforts. By Dr Sean Wilkinson, Newcastle University

PIONEER 0916 WinterSummer 2013 2016 47 1st Weird & Wonderful

A spinning dancer A beautiful rotating jet of viscoelastic liquid water resembling a spinning dancer that demonstrates the effect of adding a tiny amount of polymer to water and an example of fluid dynamics research at Imperial College London. Here, this liquid jet was produced by adding a tiny amount of polymer into water, which made the liquid behave surprisingly differently from clean water. The polymer molecules act as tiny springs in the mixture and tend to restore any deformation of the jet. This effect, together with the centrifugal force, makes the liquid exhibit a complex curved shape, like a graceful spinning dancer, while the surface tension produces ripples on the surface of the jet, just like the dress of the dancer in the wind. By Professor Omar Matar, Imperial College London

2nd On the Edge of Glory – sub-micron particles on the surface of a human tooth This is a false-colour electron micrograph of the dentinal tubules in a human tooth, with sub-micron silica particles, about 800 nanometres small, hanging onto the edge of the surface. We are investigating new ways of pushing antimicrobial particles into teeth to kill bacteria that invade the tubules during dental decay, thus preventing further damage to the tooth. Weird & Wonderful By Nina Vyas, University of Birmingham

Micro-metal flower 3rd This is an electron microscopy image of a silicon (Si) wire with gold at the tip. Si wires are envisaged to find applications in future electronic integrated circuits, and are prepared in the chemistry laboratories using gases/chemicals and gold at temperatures above 500°C. Upon completion of the process, by cooling down the experiment to room temperature the liquid metal solidified to appear as a flower- like morphology. By Dr Dhayalan Shakthivel, University of Glasgow

Weird & Wonderful

PIONEER 0916 WinterSummer 2013 2016 48 1st Equipment

Wowing the crowds A spectacular 9.5 metre wave created to wow crowds at the EPSRC-supported FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility at the University of Edinburgh, which twice a year opens its doors to the public. The huge spike easily hits the ceiling above the water’s surface, and is one of the highlights of the demonstration where a variety of ‘party tricks’ are shown alongside the test facility’s more usual task of accurately replicating the ocean at scale. By Stuart Brown, University of Edinburgh

2nd Dark field light microscopy picture of a 40nm thick electrodeposited titanium oxide layer This research focuses on developing sustainable fuels, such as hydrogen, through water splitting reactions. This can be done by creating functional systems that incorporate biological and synthetic catalysts in nanostructured, often photoactive, materials such as titanium dioxide. Using photoactive materials will allow researchers to harness sunlight to drive the water-splitting reactions to produce the desirable hydrogen which can then be stored as fuel. Equipment This process is carbon-free and it comes from an inexhaustible resource. Using dark field microscopy will bring better insights into the materials researchers are working on, and allow them to improve on the system. By Katarzyna Sokol, University of Cambridge

3rd Investigating light-matter interaction using a high- finesse optical ring cavity and cold atoms

In this experiment we are studying the fundamental aspects of light- matter (photon-atom) interaction. We use potassium atoms which we trap and cool to a temperature very close to absolute zero. We probe those atoms with resonant light, to investigate the system’s behaviour. To enhance the probe light intensity, per photon, we use three high- reflectivity mirrors to form a triangular (ring) cavity. This way, a photon bounces about 700 times between the mirrors before it exits the cavity. By having a large atom number (around100,000) interacting with the cavity light, we enter a regime in which many interesting quantum phenomena can be observed. In this regime, light and matter cannot be thought as separate entities any more but rather as a combined system. Equipment The photo shows the aforementioned ring cavity being used in our experiment which is placed in an ultra-high vacuum chamber.

By Andreas Lampis, University of Birmingham

PIONEER 0916 WinterSummer 2013 2016 1649 In profile Professor Máire O’Neill Research Director of Secure Digital Systems at Queen’s University Belfast’s Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT), an Innovation and Knowledge Centre funded by EPSRC and Innovate UK.

What work are you engaged in at present, pose specific challenges to keeping them If you hadn’t become an academic, what and what do you hope to achieve from it? safe and secure online. My team and would you be doing now? I’m involved in a range of different projects. I are investigating the development of I would be a veterinary surgeon. Growing I lead on the H2020-funded SAFEcrypto low-power security technology you can up on a farm I loved animals, but I also project, a major initiative that aims to build into the hardware of a device that is loved mathematics. Therefore, I was develop a new generation of ‘quantum- physically unclonable, theoretically even by considering studying veterinary science safe’ technology for future ICT systems, the manufacturers themselves. alongside electrical and electronic services and applications. engineering at university. What does EPSRC support mean to you? Most data protection systems are based EPSRC support has been invaluable, What is the most important/invaluable around cryptographic problems that particularly the EPSRC Leadership tool you use to do your work? conventional computing systems find Fellowship. It has provided an excellent At the beginning of my research career, difficult or impossible to solve. Quantum foundation for my academic research I found the Handbook of Applied computers, however, which are predicted to career. The fellowship has allowed me Cryptography, by Alfred Menezes, Paul become a reality in the next few decades, time to build my research reputation and van Oorschot and Scott Vanstone, to be an would find these problems fairly easy led to opportunities to travel extensively invaluable resource. to solve. Thus, while a breakthrough to other university groups to build Who would be your ideal dinner guests? in quantum computing would afford strong collaborative links. It also helped Edith Clarke, the mathematician and many advantages, it poses a serious to accelerate my academic research cryptographer Clifford Cocks and current threat to the security of commonly career in a way that would otherwise not President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins. used security techniques. have been possible. EPSRC’s continued support of CSIT, which has a focus on If you were sent to a desert island, what SAFEcrypto will develop proof-of- both high quality research as well as three things would you take with you? concept demonstrators in the areas of the commercialisation of research, has A desert island survival guide, a solar- satellite communications, public-safety also been highly beneficial. Having the powered desalination device and communications and data analytics, as opportunity to research new ideas and sun cream. we seek ways to develop robust, safe and then seeing these develop through to trustworthy solutions for the quantum What keeps you awake at night? commercial products is very rewarding. computing age. Work deadlines and my young children. What do you consider your greatest What are the greatest challenges facing personal and professional achievements? your discipline? My greatest professional achievement was In short A major research challenge is IoT device obtaining my Chair position. My greatest security, which looks at security systems One of Europe’s leading experts on personal achievement is balancing the for devices connected to the Internet, digital security, Máire’s research demands of academia and a young family. through the so-called Internet of Things involves designing data security (IoT). As the world becomes ever more What are your main interests solutions for embedded devices connected, we will no longer have outside science? and secure communications direct control over the vast number of Spending time with my children and applications. IoT devices, either in terms of whom they travelling. I love to travel and experience Máire held an EPSRC Leadership communicate with or the information new places and new cultures. Fellowship from 2008-2015 and they hold and convey. Numerous attacks What have been your best and worst a Royal Academy of Engineering on IoT devices have already been decisions – personally and professionally? Research Fellowship from 2003- demonstrated, and these attacks can have Applying for my first research fellowship 2008. She has received numerous significant consequences. was probably the best decision. awards for her work, including As companies race to get IoT devices to the Royal Academy of Engineering market, many are overlooking security What’s the best job you’ve ever had? Silver Medal in 2014 and British or build it in as an afterthought. A major My research fellowships. Female Inventor of the Year in challenge is how to address security Who is your greatest influence? 2007. She is a Fellow of the Irish and privacy needs at all layers of the IoT Famous historical female engineers, like Academy of Engineering. ecosystem – from the devices themselves Edith Clarke – the first woman to earn a She has authored two research to the technology that enables them to talk Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering books; has had success in to each other, to the back-end systems from MIT. In 1947 she joined the University commercialising her research work providing secure storage and analysis of of Texas at Austin as its first female and is also the inventor of a high- the large volumes of data generated. professor in electrical engineering (and speed silicon security chip that is IoT devices are often low-cost, low power the first in the country). I became the first used in more than 100 million TV machines that are restricted in both female professor in electrical & electronic set-top boxes. memory and computing power – which engineering at Queen’s!

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 50

Total value of EPSRC’s research and training portfolio: £4.6 billion

Percentage of research portfolio that is multidisciplinary: 56%

Total invested in research and training annually: £800 million

Organisations involved in collaborative EPSRC grants: Over 3,553

Percentage of research portfolio that is collaborative: 54% About EPSRC

Total leveraged from users: £1.1 billion

About the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) As the main funding agency for engineering and physical sciences research, our vision is for the UK to be the best place in the world to research, discover and innovate. By investing £800 million a year in research and postgraduate training, we are building the knowledge and skills base needed to address the scientific and technological challenges facing the nation. Our portfolio covers a vast range of fields – from healthcare technologies to structural engineering, manufacturing to mathematics, advanced materials to chemistry. The research we fund has impact across all sectors; it provides a platform for future economic development in the UK and for improvements for everyone’s health, lifestyle and culture. We work collectively with our partners and other Research Councils on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK. www.epsrc.ac.uk Follow us on: www.twitter.co.uk/EPSRC

PIONEER 16 Summer 2016 51

PIONEERAutumn 2008 PIONEERWinter 2009 PIONEERSummer 2009 PIONEERAutumn 2009 www.epsrc.ac.uk www.epsrc.ac.uk www.epsrc.ac.uk www.epsrc.ac.uk 01 New Power 02 03 04 Generation Creating the wave of engineers to make wind energy work

Speed Freak Could Going Can Richard Noble’s virtual humans Underground team build the fastest revolutionise UK research is making carbon car in the world? healthcare? capture technology a reality

DIGITAL INCLUSION / IMPROVING AIRCRAFT RELIABILITY / ENERGY SCAVENGING SENSORS ROBERT WINSTON / L’AQUILA EARTHQUAKE RESEARCH / ILLUMINATING DNA EVIDENCE URBAN REGENERATION / FIGHTING DISEASE / CYBERSECURITY 9/11SURVIVORS’ STORIES / SLASHING ENERGY DEMAND / PROTECTING BRITAIN’S HERITAGE

Summer 2010

www.epsrc.ac.uk 05

MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE Creating new industries and new jobs in the UK

FUTURE PLASTICS / LOW CARBON CEMENT / PERFECT SURFACES

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council 09 EngineeringEngineering andand PhysicalPhysical SciencesSciences ResearchResearch CouncilCouncil 10 Leading UK infrastructure edge the next 50 years Spotlight on the research leaders of tomorrow

Smartphones in space The lensless microscope The pulling power of the PhD Peer review – why it works Bug magnets Science minister on engineering the future Alf Adams, godfather of the internet The train that runs on hydrogen

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council 14 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council 15

EPSRC the science behind the second decade 2004-14 The Theory of Everything the hit film’s scientific consultant on Hawking, black holes and hangovers

20th anniversary special

part two Additive Manufacturing special; people news; the energy-positive house; Nepal earthquake

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