A new transistor made from graphene - the world’s thinnest material – has been developed by a research team at the University of Southampton in the new world-class Southampton Nanofabrication Centre.

The new transistor achieves a record high-switching performance which will make our future electronic devices - such as PDAs and computers - even more functional and high-performance.

In a paper published in 'Electronics Letters' today (3 February 2011), Dr Zakaria Moktadir of the Nano research group at the University's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) describes how his research into graphene, a material made from a single atomic layer of carbon, arranged in a two-dimensional honeycomb structure, led to the development of graphene field effect transistors (GFETs) with a unique channel structure at nanoscale.

According to Dr Moktadir, in the context of electronics, graphene could potentially replace or at least be used side by side with silicon integrations. "CMOS (Silicon Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) downscaling is reaching its limits and we need to find a suitable alternative,â€? he says. "Other researchers had looked at graphene as a possibility, but found that one of the drawbacks was that graphene’s intrinsic physical properties make it difficult to turn off the current flow."

Dr Moktadir discovered that by introducing geometrical singularities (such as sharp bends and corners) in bilayer graphene nanowires, the current could be turned off efficiently.

According to Professor Hiroshi Mizuta, Head of the Nano group, this engineering approach has achieved an on/off switching ratio 1000 times higher than previous attempts. "Enormous effort has been made across the world to pinch off the channel of GFETs electrostatically, but the existing approaches require either the channel width to be much narrower than 10 nm or a very high voltage to be applied vertically across bilayer graphene layers. This hasn’t achieved an on/off ratio which is high enough, and is not viable for practical use."

Dr Moktadir developed this transistor using the new helium ion beam microscope and a focused gallium ion beam system in the Southampton Nanofabrication Centre, which has some of the best nanofabrication facilities in the world.

"This is a breakthrough in the ongoing quest to develop advanced transistors as we progress beyond our current CMOS technology,â€? said Professor Harvey Rutt, Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science. “It will have major implications for next generation computer, communication and electronic systems. Introducing geometrical singularities into the graphene channel is a new concept which achieves superior performance while keeping the GFET structure simple and therefore commercially exploitable.â€? Having created the transistor, Dr Moktadir is now undertaking further research to understand the mechanism which causes the current to stop flowing in the channel, testing its reliability and performance under various noise and temperature conditions.

His paper: 'A U-shaped bilayer graphene channel transistor with a very high Ion/Ioff ratio' is available from Joyce Lewis.

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This research was undertaken in the Nano research group of the School of Electronics and Computer Science. If you are interested in undertaking postgraduate research in this group, see our Postgraduate admissions page.

For further information on this news story, contact Joyce Lewis; tel.023 8059 5453.

New software which will improve how products are modelled and designed in the embedded software industry has just been released by researchers at the University of Southampton.

Professor Michael Butler, Head of Group in Dependable Systems and Software Engineering at the University’s School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) has led the release of a new prototype tool which automatically generates software code from high-level models. A second tool, a theory plug-in, will take product modelling to a more advanced stage.

The tools are part of DEPLOY - Industrial Deployment of Advanced System Engineering Methods for High Productivity, a European Commission Information and Technologies FP7 Project. It involves academia and industry working together up to February 2012 to improve industrial development processes which will meet the engineering demands of future systems.

Academic partners – University of Southampton, University of Newcastle, Aabo Akademi University, ETH Zurich, Heinrich-Heine Universität Düsseldorf - are working with Bosch, Siemens Transportation Systems, Space Systems Finland, SAP, CETIC, ClearSy and Systerel to enable industry to meet more rigorous certification processes.

There is a growing awareness of the importance of formal modelling in the industrial certification process,â€? says Professor Butler. “Software is a vital component of most modern systems yet software engineering is still quite immature in comparison to more established engineering fields. Industry is starting to realise that if they use modelling tools, they can reduce errors in the design of software products and improve reliability.â€?

The software toolkit, named Rodin, is open source and was initially developed in the EU FP6 Rigorous Open Development Environment for Complex Systems (RODIN) project 2004-2007. It is now being exploited further in DEPLOY.

The new releases: The Rodin tools, including the new Theory plug-in and Code Generation plug-in can be downloaded at: www.event-b.org

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If you are interested in undertaking PhD research in the Dependable Systems and Software Engineering research group you can find more information on our Postgraduate Admissions pages.

For more information on this new story contact Joyce Lewis; tel +44(0)23 8059 5453

A project which will make it easier to discover and map online information about ancient places begins this month.

Leif Isaksen, a member of the ECS Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia research group, who is about to commence a Research Fellowship with the Archaeological Computing Research Group, University of Southampton, is leading a global consortium, together with Elton Barker of The Open University, to develop a method of integrating data from existing ancient world resources.

He is Co-Investigator on the JISC-funded Pelagios (PELAGIOS: Enable Linked Ancient Geodata In Open Systems) Project which aims to create a common format for referencing ancient locations in online resources over the next nine months.

"The inspiration for this project came largely from our on-going Google Ancient Places (GAP) project which aims to identify classical locations in Google Books and other digital libraries," said Mr Isaksen. "Pelagios will take this a step further by creating a generalised and machine-readable format for referring to ancient places in any Web document whether it’s a text, map or even database."

The project partners are using the Pleiades online gazetteer of over 30,000 ancient locations and will use Linked Open Data principles to connect textual, visual and tabular documents that reference the Ancient World. They will also develop mapping and discovery tools to make it easy for researchers, developers and the general public to make use of the data.

"Although we are developing this standardized method for Antiquity, once it exists, it can also be used just as easily for references to modern place names as well," said Mr. Isaksen.

David Flanders, programme manager at JISC, said: "The Pelagios Project offers the exciting potential to make historical texts more real to students and researchers than ever before: imagine being able generate maps of the stories by Herodotus or even know if the journeys spoken about by Euripides and Sophocles were similar in nature. By adding geospatial data to these classical texts new insights will be added, making data otherwise hidden in the texts explicit and real at a new level of understanding."

The consortium is keen to involve digital librarians and other online resource curators involved in Ancient World research and will host a workshop in March to brief them further. The project will also host an ongoing blog at: http://pelagios-project.blogspot.com/

Consortium project partners are: Archaeological Computing Research Group (ACRG), University of Southampton Faculty of Arts & LUCERO, The Open University Pleiades, New York University Perseus, Tufts University Arachne, University of Cologne Supporting Productive Queries for Research (SPQR), King’s College, London Digital Memory Engineering (DME), Austrian Institute of Technology

Image: The Madaba Map (6th C. D) gives an indication of the importance of placenames in ancient cartography. (image source: Wikipedia. (c) Jean Housen).

High-quality video communications capable of supporting flawless video conferencing and home entertainment without goggles could become a reality as a result of research led by Professor Lajos Hanzo.

Professor Hanzo, Head of the Communications Research Group in the School of Electronics and Computer Science, and his team are working on systems to support flawless tele-presence with the aid of three-dimensional (3D) ‘Avatar-style’ stereoscopic video and audio communications. The process involves the conception of stereoscopic video systems that can stream footage in real time to a recipient over wireless networks.

The team at Southampton has recently made substantial investments in 3D cameras and displays as well as in holographic visualization facilities in support of these radical research goals.

“Existing 3D video systems are based on people wearing goggles to view them,â€? said Professor Hanzo. “Our system is expected to become more 'immersive' by dispensing with the inconvenience of wearing goggles." Part of this process involves the conception of stereoscopic video systems that can stream footage in real time to a recipient over wireless networks."

The other radical objective of the 'tele-presence' research at Southampton is to conceive more 'green' wireless systems, requiring less energy than existing systems.

“The first stage is to conceive flawless, immersive video conferencing concepts and then to transfer the design principles to shirt- pocket- sized compact mobile devices, such as camera-phones, within the next decade,â€? said Professor Hanzo.

“At the moment, flawless video conferencing is not widespread, since the quality is not up to scratch. We are working to ensure that video is transmitted without errors and we are developing 'green' techniques to ensure that less energy is used.â€?

The researchers claim that they are the first group to work on the wireless transmission of holographic video.

They will also popularize these techniques within the framework of their Indian and Chinese research consortia conducting research towards the next generation of wireless systems.

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This research is taking place in the world-renowned Communications Research Group in ECS. If you are interested in research in this group you will find more information on our Postgraduate Admssions pages.

For further information about this news story contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.

ECS students Ash Browning and John Isger have produced a new app which provides real-time bus information in the Southampton area.

SotonBus covers all major bus operators in Southampton and provides real-time information on when the next buses are due at a particular bus stop, as well as pinpointing where you are in the city to help you find the nearest stop.

The app was designed last summer when Ash and John were employed as University Interns on the Southampton Learning Environment (SLE) project. They worked under the direction of Professor Hugh Davis and Dr Su White of ECS, who are leading the SLE project, and collaborated with Southampton City Council and Nic Burns of the Southampton ROMANSE traffic project.

“The only requirement for our internship was to produce a real-time bus application for the iPhoneâ€?, said Ash, “but when we started neither of us had iPhones!

“In the future, we’d like to have static ‘offline’ timetables on the application, as well as route planning and a way to display bus routes on a map.â€?

Dr Su White, Senior Lecturer in Electronics and Computer Science, who oversaw the project said: “Our students have again shown their ability to develop a concept to produce an extremely useful tool.

“Increasingly, people need clever technology to help them navigate their complex lives and this application does just that. This app has been developed based on the talents of our students and the application of our research knowledge to improve our local community for the better.â€?

Ash and John are both students on the MEng Computer Science course in ECS; John graduates this summer, and Ash graduates in 2012. The SotonBus app is free to download from the iTunes store, and has already been downloaded over 300 times.

The University of Southampton today released a range of non-personal data online as part of its pioneering commitment to the open data revolution.

data.southampton.ac.uk which launches today (Monday 7 March) builds on the University's commitment to access by opening up a wide range of data for students to create the information they seek in the way that they want it, such as the development of iPhone apps.

Electronics and Computer Science has already played a significant role in the development of the Open Data movement through the work of Professors Nigel Shadbolt and Sir Tim Berners-Lee as Transparency and Open Data Advisers to the UK Government.

There will be over 20 datasets available on data.southampton.ac.uk with information about University buildings, National Student Survey statistics, research outputs and financial statements. Over the coming year, the University will progressively increase the bank of data available. Much of the development work for the new site has been carried out by Christopher Gutteridge and Dave Challis of the ECS Systems team, building on an initiative begun in the School some years ago by Dr Nick Gibbins.

Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts says: “It is important that universities are transparent and that they provide good quality information to prospective students making decisions about where and what to study. It’s great to see the University of Southampton making this level of data publicly available and helping students make better, more informed choices about their future.â€?

The University is making the data available under an open licence, from a single point of access and in a standard format – this gives anyone permission to use and reuse the data.

As well as students, the information can be used by anyone to create new apps and services that will be of benefit to the University, its staff, students, visitors and the city of Southampton. The University has already created apps such as an iPhone app to showcase its 2011 Undergraduate prospectus and give further details into life at the University; and Sotonbus, developed by ECS undergraduates Ash Browning and John Isger, which provides real-time information about bus services across the city. iSoton, which acts as a personal assistant for students providing timetables, lecture locations and a campus map, was developed in 2009 by ECS undergraduate student Francois-Xavier Beckers. For the past 10 years, the University of Southampton has been a pioneer in Open Access to research. In 2001 it was the first place in the world to mandate that all its academics should place their research papers online. Since 2009 Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt have been leading the data.gov.uk project, and are key members of the current government’s transparency initiative.

Professor Shadbolt says: “The UK leads the world in the opening up of government data using the very latest Web standards. Open data allows people to hold governments to account and improve public services. It is exciting to see Southampton taking a lead in the higher education sector – increased data transparency will make for better decisions all round.â€?

The University is keen to know about any apps or services developed from the data released today. Ideas can be posted at: http://data.southampton.ac.uk/feedback.

For further information contact: Joyce Lewis; tel. +44(0)23 8059 5453.

An innovative event devised for National Science and Engineering Week will involve children and their parents in solving a dramatic murder-mystery, using scientific clues in university labs.

'Blood on the Stage Door' takes place this Saturday, 12 March, at the University of Southampton as part of the University’s award-winning Science and Engineering Day.

The family-orientated event has been designed by University researcher Dr Reena Pau, an ECS graduate, in collaboration with the Nuffield Theatre. During the event, families will solve a fictitious (and ridiculous) crime, completing a case-book of clues by visiting research labs and facilities across the Highfield campus. Scientific techniques involved include x-rays, analysis of sound, UAV lights, GPS, and transport modelling.

The trail will be framed at beginning and end by actors from the Nuffield Theatre who set the scene for the crime, and then provide an analysis of the events at the end.

Each of the children taking part will be able to conduct a number of small experiments based on current University research in order to complete their casebook and report back to a staged ‘debrief’. The ‘murder mystery’ makes a unique contribution to the value of Science and Engineering Day by allowing visitors to see EPSRC-supported research labs and other University facilities not normally open to the public. The clues will be solved by the experiments. For example, the children might use the bone scanning equipment to assess where a crack is in a person’s arm or do a whole body scan to see what particular vegetable they had eaten, or use transport modelling to work out fastest getaway routes from the scene of the crime.

“People really get the value of science as a result of events like this,â€? said Dr Pau. “We have even seen children change their GCSE options because they understand the value of science demonstrated in this way. Kids really like it and we get a lot of audience participation; even the parents end up getting really involved.â€?

This is the third year that the University of Southampton has run a murder-mystery event at Science and Engineering Day. In 2009 the University was awarded ‘Best Engineering Event’ by the British Science Association for the family-oriented Science and Engineering Day, which is held on the first Saturday of National Science and Engineering Week on the Highfield campus. The ‘murder-mystery’ science trail continues to be a high-profile and extraordinarily popular component of this day, which is free and runs from 10am to 4.30pm. The murder mystery us funded by the EPSRC’s Pathways to Impact Fund.

First-year Electronics student Andrew Cowan will be taking part in the ‘Big Bang Fair’ opening tomorrow (Thursday 10 March) at London’s Excel Centre. Andrew will be exhibiting his Search and Rescue Robot, which is in the finals of three competitions that will be judged during the event: Young Engineer for Britain 2011, the National Science and Engineering Competition 2011, and the Crest Awards 2011.

The Big Bang Fair is part of the British Science Association’s contribution to National Science and Engineering Week, and will run at the Excel Centre until Saturday 12 March. Over 20,000 visitors are expected to see the show.

Andrew built his Search and Rescue Robot during his A level Systems and Control coursework at Sutton Grammar School. The large tracked vehicle for use in disaster zones has a wireless camera (with tilt, pan and zoom), and a collection of wireless sensors including gas sampling. About 20 microchips control all the sensors, radio links and functions (including lights, a siren and water cannon). Powerful enough to pull a car, the robot weighs around 80kg and is powered by two 750W motors.

‘I wanted to design and build something for my A-level Systems and Control coursework that would be challenging and complex enough to be my hobby for my two A level years,’ he says, ‘as well as building something socially useful.’ He financed the robot by negotiating sponsorship of parts with 12 different companies (whose logos appear on the sides) and used part of an Arkwright Scholarship.

Andrew is being sponsored through his ECS course on Electronic Engineering with Mobile and Secure Systems by Cobham Technical Services. He is happy with his choice of the School of Electronics and Computer Science for undergraduate work: ‘Southampton was my first choice of university, not only because of its excellent reputation for electronics, but also because when I came here for interview the department seemed so dynamic and inspiring.

‘Perhaps this is because it is based within the ECS School, rather than a more traditional engineering department. The modern facilities in the ECS were also an attraction, as was the sailing at Southampton. The course, as any Electronics student will tell you, has long hours and is hard work, but I'm greatly enjoying it.’

‘It’s a superb achievement for Andrew to have reached the finals of three competitions as well as being able to demonstrate the innovative and sophisticated work that can be carried out at A level,’ said Professor Neil White, Head of Electronics and Computer Science. ‘We wish him well in the competition! Good luck Andrew!’

This year’s Design, Automation and Test in Europe conference (DATE 11) is being chaired by Bashir M Al Hashimi, Professor of Computer Engineering in ECS-Electronics and Computer Science.

The DATE conference series is Europe’s major global event for the electronics industry. This year’s conference is being held in Grenoble, France from 14 to 18 March.

'DATE2011 is one of the most influential events in electronics design worldwide', said Professor Al-Hashimi. 'This year we expect to attract around 2500 researchers from academia and industry, as well as leading executives from across the world to offer insights into the future of the electronics industry and research.'

Professor Al-Hashimi was appointed Conference General Chair in 2009, so this event represents the culmination of two years of planning. Highlights of the Technical Program are the four keynote talks being given by outstanding leaders from industry and research, with two Special Days focusing on topics of outstanding importance: smart electronics devices of the future; and intelligent energy management of embedded computing systems.

Each of the Special Days will have a full programme of keynotes, panels, tutorials and technical presentations, reporting the latest advances and outlining key future technical challenges. The DATE 11 Technical Programme involves 230 presentations selected from nearly 900 submissions.

ECS has a strong presence in the Technical Programme with five presentations, including a best paper nomination. DATE 11 has a vibrant exhibition with over 70 companies from worldwide showcasing the latest design and verification tools for systems-on-chip, systems-on-board, and embedded systems software. The exhibition offers a dynamic overview of key technical and business issues in electronic and embedded systems through a programme of panel discussions and industrial user presentations.

'It is a great honour to chair Date 11', said Professor Al-Hashimi. 'This is an outstandingly successful conference series which brings together industry and academic research to find out about latest developments and focus on future challenges. We look forward to an excellent and inspiring week.'

Professor Bashir M Al-Hashimi is Associate Dean (Research) of the University of Southampton Faculty of Physical and Applied Sciences.

ECS student Andrew Cowan was named Young Engineer of the Year at the British Science Association's 'Big Bang Fair', held in London to mark the start of National Science and Engineering Week.

Andrew, who is in the first year of an MEng degree in Electronics with Mobile and Secure Systems at ECS-Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, received the accolade for his Search and Rescue Robot built during his A level Systems and Control coursework at Sutton Grammar School. The large tracked vehicle he designed and built is intended for use in disaster zones, and is fitted out with a wireless camera (with tilt, pan and zoom), and a collection of wireless sensors including gas sampling. About 20 microchips control all the sensors, radio links and functions (including lights, a siren and water cannon). Powerful enough to pull a car, the robot weighs around 80kg and is powered by two 750W motors.

Andrew commented: “I’m extremely honoured and proud to be awarded such a prestigious title. The standard of entries was so high which made the finals incredibly tense at times. I’m now really looking forward to representing engineering for young people and I hope my project inspires lots of other people to do the same and pursue a career in engineering.â€?

As Young Engineer of the Year Andrew will now play a role as an Ambassador for Engineering. "My key role will be to encourage young people into studying and taking up a career in engineering," he said. "I'm looking forward to being able to talk at events throughout the year to promote engineering."

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE, one of the judges of the National Science & Engineering Competition, said: "I’m delighted to award Andrew the UK Young Engineer of the Year. The judges were truly overwhelmed by his project and it’s wonderful to witness such enthusiasm and dedication for engineering and technology.

"It’s left me hugely excited about the future of engineering in the UK, with passionate young scientists such as Andrew at the helm.â€?

Professor Neil White, Head of ECS-Electronics and Computer Science, commented: "This is an outstanding achievement by Andrew and exemplifies the sophisticated and innovative work that can be carried out at A level.

"We are very proud of Andrew's success and will of course be keen to support not only his future work in ECS but also his ambassadorial work in encouraging more young people to study engineering at university."

Andrew is pictured here (centre), with (l-r) Kate Bellingham (engineer and television presenter), Professor Brian Cox (particle physicist and television presenter), Hannah Eastwood (Young Scientist of the Year award-winner), and Professor John Beddington (Government Chief Scientific Adviser).