Date:

2008-2012

Theme:

Novel Sensors

Funding:

European Commission

Primary investigators

• Steve Beeby
• John Tudor

Secondary investigators

• Russel Neil Torah
• Kai Yang

Partners

• IFTH
• DITF
• Klopman International Srl

Associated research group

• Electronics and Electrical Engineering

Date:

2012-2013

Themes:

Nanoelectronics, Biomimetics, Biologically Inspired Computing and Robotics

Funding:

EPSRC

This project aspires to investigate memory mechanisms in emerging non-CMOS devices and to correlate these with the short-term dynamics of biological synapses. Nanoionic devices are nowadays regarded a promising solution for establishing next-generation’s memory elements, yet most of their impact is anticipated through the realization of bio-inspired systems and applications. While brain-inspired computing typically focuses on the long-term dynamics of the synapses, it was recently shown that short-term dynamics play an important role in enhancing neural information processing. To this end, we seek to realistically emulate dynamical synapses behaviour with volatile memory elements, towards developing fundamental blocks for establishing unconventional computational formalisms.

Primary investigator

• Themistoklis Prodromakis

Associated research groups

• Nano Research Group
• Southampton Nanofabrication Centre

Date:

2013-2016

Themes:

Nanoelectronics, Bionanotechnology and Biosensors, Biologically Inspired Computing and Robotics

Funding:

European Commission

Information processing in classical ‘von Neumann’ architectures is less efficient compared to biological counterparts when dealing with ill-posed problems and noisy data. The reason is that the biological brain is configured differently and the key is its evolving structure, where connectivity elements between individual neurons, the synapses, undergo ‘birth’ and ‘death’ as well as strengthening and weakening through a selection process, reconfiguring neuronal connectivity in a self-organizing manner and allowing the networked population of neuronal processors to adapt motor and behavioural responses to the ever changing environment. Artificial neural networks in the form of software run on conventional ‘von Neumann’ computers appear incomparable to the biological systems in terms of speed, energy efficiency, adaptability and robustness. The challenge is to propose a ‘physical’ neural network where elements overcome this deficiency by merging data storage and processing into single electronic devices and by self-organizing and reconfiguring connectivity. Along this route, we aim to create a new biohybrid architecture of natural and artificial neurons endowed with plasticity properties. Communication between artificial and natural worlds will be established through new nano- and microtransducers allowing direct electrical interfacing of a network of neurons in culture to an artificial CMOS-based counterpart. Adaptation properties of the artificial network will rely on memristive nanoelectronic devices with synaptic-like plasticity and on activity-dependent rearrangement of neuronal connectivity. As such, the biohybrid system will provide new and unique adaptive, self-organizing and evolving properties deriving from the fusion of natural and artificial neuronal elements into a new plastic entity and will represent a fundamental step towards the development of novel brain-inspired computing architectures as well as ‘intelligent’ autonomous systems and prostheses.

Primary investigator

• Themistoklis Prodromakis

Associated research groups

• Nano Research Group
• Southampton Nanofabrication Centre

Date:

2013-2018

Themes:

Nanoelectronics, Biomimetics, Biologically Inspired Computing and Robotics

Funding:

EPSRC (EP/K017829/1)

Nanoscale resistive switching (RS) elements, also known as memristors, are nowadays regarded as a promising solution for establishing next-generation memory, due to their infinitesimal dimensions, their capacity to store multiple bits of information per element and the miniscule energy required to write distinct states. Currently, the microelectronics community aspires exploiting these attributes in a deterministic fashion where information encoding and processing is realised via static representations. In consequence, research efforts are focused on optimising memristor technology in a "More Moore" approach to comply with existing CMOS devices attributes, i.e. high-yield, supreme reproducibility, very long retention characteristics and conventional circuit design formalisms. The functional properties of such elements are however associated with irreversible rate-limiting electro/thermo-dynamic changes that often bring them in "far from equilibrium" conditions, manifesting opportunities for unconventional computing within a probabilistic framework.

This fellowship aims exploiting the strong emergence of ultra-thin functional oxides, nanoscale resistive switching elements and large-scale systems of the same. We will first investigate the effect of quantum phase transitions and the mechanisms leading into thermodynamically stable/unstable long-range order/disorder of distinct materials. These mechanisms will then be exploited in nanoscale solid-state devices for establishing the state-of-the-art in non-volatile multi-state memory but also volatile elements that could potentially be employed as dynamic computational elements. The rich-dynamics of the later will be compared against reaction-diffusion mechanisms of naturally occurring nano-systems to facilitate novel design paradigms and emerging ICT applications for substantiating unconventional computation formalisms. A successful outcome will demonstrate a mature memristive device manufacturing technology that will be supported by the necessary design tools, for taking CMOS technology far beyond its current state-of-art.

Primary investigator

• Themistoklis Prodromakis

Secondary investigators

• ak1a12
• Spyridon Stathopoulos
• dc1e13

Associated research groups

• Nano Research Group
• Southampton Nanofabrication Centre

Date:

2011-2014

Themes:

Nanoelectronics, Biomimetics, Biologically Inspired Computing and Robotics

Funding:

EPSRC (EP/J00801X/1)

During the past two decades, philosophers, psychologists, cognitive scientists, clinicians and neuroscientists strived to provide authoritative definitions of consciousness within a neurobiological framework. Engineers have more recently joined this quest by developing neuromorphic VLSI circuits for emulating biological functions. Yet, to date artificial systems have not been able to faithfully recreate natural attributes such as true processing locality (memory and computation) and complexity (10^10 synapses per cm2), preventing the achievement of a long-term goal: the creation of autonomous cognitive systems.

This project aspires to develop experimental platforms capable of perceiving, learning and adapting to stimuli by leveraging on the latest developments of five leading European institutions in neuroscience, nanotechnology, modeling and circuit design. The non-linear dynamics as well as the plasticity of the newly discovered memristor are shown to support Spike-based- and Spike-Timing-Dependent-Plasticity (STDP), making this extremely compact device an excellent candidate for realizing large-scale self-adaptive circuits; a step towards "autonomous cognitive systems". The intrinsic properties of real neurons and synapses as well as their organization in forming neural circuits will be exploited for optimising CMOS-based neurons, memristive grids and the integration of the two into realtime biophysically realistic neuromorphic systems. Finally, the platforms would be tested with conventional as well as abstract methods to evaluate the technology and its autonomous capacity.

Primary investigator

• Themistoklis Prodromakis

Associated research groups

• Nano Research Group
• Southampton Nanofabrication Centre

This project is concerned with rapid charging of supercapacitors as an alternative energy source to Li-Ion for portable appliacance that require high load current. The charger must operate from the AC mains and be limited only by the supply network. Fully integrated converters new algorithms for control and regulation are being designed in MV CMOS technology that allow direct connectio to the AC mains.

Primary investigators

• William Redman-White
• Rares Bodnar

Associated research group

• Nano Research Group

Date:

2011-2015

Themes:

Channel coding, Multimedia Source Compression, Software Defined Radio

Funding:

EUFP7

FP7 ICT CONCERTO (Content and cOntext aware delivery for iNteraCtive multimedia healthcaRe applications) is a STREP project in the EU's Seventh Framework Programme aiming at designing and validating several critical building blocks of telemedicine applications. These include network-aware applications that rely on content-aware codecs and storage formats, carried over an application-aware network. The ultimate aim of FP7 ICT CONCERTO is to provide high a Quality of Experience (QoE) for medics, which is a necessary condition for providing flawless medical diagnosing of the highest reliability.

CONCERTO will achieve this ambitious goal by the joint optimization of several tightly coupled system components, which form an organic ensemble, rather than a simple interconnected conglomerate. The ‘conductor of the CONCERTO’ relies on its advanced signaling system, which will support the real-time end-to-end adaptation of the constituent blocks designed for efficiently conveying the medical signals and video streams, potentially emanating from multiple, uncorrelated and rapidly moving sources. The ‘players’ are from leading-edge companies, universities and research centers with a proven experience and key positions spanning from video coding to wireless communications, collaborating with doctors and medical staff of the hospital of Perugia (participating as University of Perugia).

The CONCERTO applications will be designed to optimize these delicate multimedia transmission sessions through constant monitoring of the current network conditions. The proposed approach includes the adaptation of the encoding parameters at the source, but also the fusion of multiple objects/stream, in order to reduce the amount of redundancy in case of high tele-traffic demands aggravated by the paucity of network resources.

FP7 ICT CONCERTO will develop advanced algorithms and codecs to improve the compression as well as the protection and transmission of 3D medical image sets complemented by multi-view, stereoscopic and holographic video. High-quality near-capacity lossless and near-lossless coding schemes will be employed, which are capable of handling diverse storage formats supporting interactive control, including progressive download and streaming, just to mention a few.

From a network point of view, FP7 ICT CONCERTO will take into account media caching assisted content-aware wireless delivery (e.g., over LTE / LTE Advanced networks). The particular objectives include the optimization of LTE uplink and downlink transmissions for video delivery, considering all relevant variables (e.g., distance from base station, power adaptation, traffic priority, etc.) and decision techniques (e.g., scheduling and resource allocation).

Primary investigators

• Soon Ng
• Lajos Hanzo

Secondary investigator

• Zunaira Babar

Partners

• Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME)
• ICT Centre of Excellence for Research, Innovation, Education & industrial Labs (CEFRIEL)
• National Inter-University Consortium for Telecommunications (CNIT)
• Kingston University (KU)
• NEC Technologies (NEC)
• SIEMENS AG (SIEMENS)
• Thales Communications and Security (TCS)
• University of Perugia (UOP)
• Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)

Associated research group

• Communications, Signal Processing and Control

Date:

2011-

Themes:

Web Science, Social Network Analysis

It has been widespread interest in social network connections between individuals following the transformative advent of the Internet brought about by the implementation of the World Wide Web. Building of much earlier work on degrees of separation, theories which associated trust with networks were also established. The widespread political and social unrest in the middle east which began late in 2010 was dubbed the ‘Arab Spring’, and much social commentary pointed to the role of computer mediated social networks to disseminate information and co-ordinate confrontational activities.

However much of the existing work which has been carried out investigating social networks and trust has come from countries whose cultural traditions might be described as ‘Anglo Saxon’, Western European, or Judaeo Christian. The cultural traditions and current domestic and governmental assumptions of those countries engaged in the Arab Spring are, even at the level of superficial investigation, very different.

This study begins an examination into the nature of trust and methods in which it can be analysed and categorised. It identifies a single middle eastern country, currently experiencing some political turmoil; namely Syria, and examines some of the cultural references and norms which exist in that country. It argues that cues for interaction and clues about real and assumed identity are key factors in establishing online trust, and that such factors may have strong cultural associations.

In the light of that investigation it goes on to propose a programme of future research and investigation which is designed to gather substantive evidence to test to see how culture and practice might affect the creation and growth of trust online.

Primary investigators

• saw
• Jeff Vass

Associated research group

• Web and Internet Science