2018Centre for Distance-spanning Technology Annual Report Production: CDT, Luleå University of Technology Contact for the Annual Report: Marie Nolin, CDT, phone: +46 (0)725 26 20 70, e-mail: [email protected] Graphic design & print: Luleå University of Technology, Graphic Production 2 Photo: Per Pettersson, Linda Alfredsson, Melina Granberg, Shutterstock Images, Marie Nolin, LTU and others 12 s10 Great investment in data center research The new project Datacenter Innovation Region will strengthen companies’ opportunities for creating large-scale data management and data centers. 10 s12 Reduced energy consumption in data centers By using simulation methods, the consumption of energy in data centers can decrease considerably, according to the project SAVE. s14 A new national research center 14 The purpose of Cloudberry Datacenters is to develop new knowledge about energy and resource-efficient data centers. s18 The blockchain in focus at conference Can blockchain technology revolutionise the world economy and what impact can the technology have on our future? The answers to these 18 questions was discussed at the Blockchain North conference in Boden. 3 CDT in brief The Centre for Distance-spanning Technology’s mission is to accelerate ICT innovations for our partners, with desirable and sustainable impact based on high quality scientific research. WE CONNECT ACADEMIA, INDUSTRY AND SOCIETY NETWORKING AND COLLABORATION AT LARGE IN RESEARCH, DESIGN AND INNOVATION, • External (e.g. ENoLL, NESSI, Net World 2020, EARMA, IoT Forum, INCLUDING KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER PROCESSES Swedsoft, BDVA, AIOTI) • LTU internal, partners (e.g. meeting with researchers, partner networking OUR PARTNERS ARE: and events) • IT users (companies, organisations, individuals) • Local: Luleå Business & Economic Development, IT Industry • IT developers (companies, IT departments) Association, RISE SICS North AB, Luleå Science Park • Experience of EU FP 4/5, 6, 7 and Horizon2020 • Innovation and research supporting organisations • Policy and decision makers KNOWLEDGE INTEGRATION AND COMMUNICATION • Academia (students, teachers, researchers) • Workshops • Handbooks CDT OPERATIONS ARE; RESEARCH, DESIGN • Courses AND INNOVATION INTEGRATION: • Conferences • Projects FUTURE FUNDING INFLUENCE • Proposals • Contribution to policies, roadmaps, lobbying, research agendas and programs • Experimentation • Future studies • Spin-off support • Regional development plans 4 Key Areas We are looking for new collaborations in the following emerging ICT-areas with great challenges, change and impact. Internet of Things Data centers Communication networks Computer systems today can be both cognitive CDT is working towards making data centers CDT is active in the area of 5G testbeds and operational. They can replace human senses. energy and resource efficient and has a number and is looking for collaboration in areas such as This means that people sometimes are no longer of data center and cloud projects through the Communication architectures, Wireless access necessary to interface system and reality. This entire data center value chain from the ground to networks, Wireless sensor networks and allows systems to entirely take over the daily the cloud. Communication in sparsely populated areas. operation of some businesses. Become a CDT partner CDT offers an integrated environment of people, infrastructure, tools, processes and services for research, development and test. CDT has an extensive network covering private and public sector, tation environments to take research concepts to the reality, for example multinational enterprises and SMEs as well as academia and non- IoT Innovation Lab. profit organisations in Sweden and worldwide. CDT is not only a partner One of our specialities is to generate and exploit ground-breaking in a number of European Union projects. We are also a partner of the innovations with and for our partners. Innovations may be in shape of Alliance of Internet-of-Things Innovation (AIOTI) and the Big Data Value new processes, new solutions, new products and new business. Association to name a few. CDT is hosting Open Innovation experimen- For more information on how to become a CDT partner, contact us. 5 6 2018 – another successful and eventful year for CDT The year of 2018 has now come to an end and when we close innovation. The project runs until end of 2021, has a budget our books, we can conclude that 2018 turned out to be a very of 30 mSEK and is mainly sponsored by ERUF. Also the two successful and event-ful year. northern-most regions (Region Norrbotten and Region Project-wise CDT has during the year successfully con- Västerbotten) contribute substantially to the budget. cluded and finalised a range of projects including Gender Late 2018, CDT also won the ERUF-funded project Wire- Contact Point, Datacenter Business Accelerator (”FUI”), and less Innovation Arena aiming at setting up a 5G testbed at our Organicity delivering high quality results and paving the way main campus supporting SMEs with a world-class testing facil- for new interesting projects ahead. Even more importantly, ity and research, development and innovation within advanced CDT has launched not less than 5 important and prestigious wireless networks. The project will last until mid-2022, has projects as coordinator, namely Cloudberry Datacenters, Rural a budget of 11 mSEK and is conducted in partnership with ICT Testbed - #fullcoverage, Gender Smart Arena, Datacenter Ericsson, Telia, and Tieto. Innovation Region, and Wireless Innovation Arena. In summary, this means that 2018 has been one of the most Cloudberry Datacenters is our flagship project in research successful years throughout CDT’s more than 20 years’ long his- and innovation around energy and resource efficient datacent- tory. I want to take this opportunity to thank all staff members, ers involving not only 8 research groups within LTU and our partners, and the financiers for making these projects a reality. RISE SICS North, but also 11 companies. During 4 years over Partner-wise CDT’s internal and external networks have been 50 mSEK will be spent on datacenter research and innovation extended with more research groups (Fluid Mechanics, Energy during the whole value chain from buildings to IT solutions Engineering, Construction Management and Building Technol- for datacenters. The Swedish Energy Agency is the main spon- ogy, Architecture, and Electric Power Engineering) and new sor, whereas also Skellefteå Kraft and Umeå Energy, Region companies participating in and contributing to our projects. I Norrbotten, and five municipalities contribute financially. want to warmly welcome all new partners onboard the CDT Rural ICT Testbed - #fullcoverage is our first larger project family. within the communication networks area working towards the Staff-wise, our previous Executive Director, Mr. Anders vision of full mobile coverage in Sweden and other countries. Lundkvist, has decided to leave CDT for a job as vice mayor VINNOVA is the main sponsor through their Challenge- in Piteå municipality. Therefore, I want to thank Anders for driven Innovation programme, and the project will last until his contributions during the years he served as our Executive mid-2020 with an overall budget of 18 mSEK. CDT works Director, congratulate him for being (re-)elected, and wish him alongside with 13 partners from academia, solutions providers, good luck in his new position. Anders is, by the way, not totally user organisations, and facilitators. disappearing from CDT’s horizon, since he will be serving on Gender Smart Arena builds on the success from earlier some of our project boards even in the future. projects in the gender area and continues the collaboration The outlook for 2019 looks very promising with many new with gender researchers and SMEs within the IT industry exciting projects and events to keep an eye on. Stay tuned to our developing methods, tools, processes, and guidelines for gender news feeds and social media channels and keep interacting with mainstreaming their businesses. We have now also expanded the us. I really look forward to hearing from you and working to- partnership with municipalities (Luleå, Piteå and Skellefteå). gether with existing and new partners during 2019 and onwards. The main sponsors are the European Regional Development Fund (ERUF), Region Norrbotten and Region Västerbotten Luleå and Skellefteå, March 2019 and the budget 5 mSEK. Datacenter Innovation Region is CDT’s new project supporting SMEs in the areas of datacenters and cloud to Dr. Karl Andersson, Associate Professor strengthen their business through research, development, and Executive Director 7 Some activities during 2018 February. The Gender Contact Point project had its annual conference and Linda Lundmark, Digital Business January.The work of event and project communication is ongoing throughout the year. Here we collect images Developer at Tromb, presented lessons and film clips through drone cameras by flying over the Luleå River in minus 22 degrees Celsius. The material will learned and the work done to create be used in an upcoming project film. fairer recruitment conditions. April. The FUI project together with RISE held a well-attended March. Michael Nilsson was interviewed in radio P4 Norrbotten about our seminar on how to develop a business through AI and machine new research center, Cloudberry Datacenters, with a budget of 50 MSEK. learning. May. The FUI project together with Boden Business Agency arranged Blockchain North, a conference