Leading the way to a Smart Future

Our global society is placing increasing demands on its critical infrastructure, systems that deliver vital services such as energy, transportation, telecommunications, food and water, the built environment and healthcare.

ERPE researchers are working to transform data into actionable information and utilise this insight to create innovative, data informed, Smart Systems that can assess, adapt and respond to dynamic conditions. Our team with expertise in data analysis, artificial intelligence, prognostics, manufacturing, energy systems and sensing technologies, are focused on the design, manufacture and characterisation of transformative Smart Systems. Below is some of the areas where our innovative research will revolutionise and prepare the UK for the next wave of the digital economy.

ReFLEX

Based in Orkney, ReFLEX explores how communities are transforming their relationship with energy services, and how this research can not only deliver a renewable and resilient energy future, but also the potential to transform communities through distributed wealth creation.

As well as reducing carbon output to net zero it is also hoped that the ground-breaking project will help alleviate fuel poverty on the islands – one of the hardest hit areas in the UK despite producing over 100 per cent of the islanders’ energy needs through renewables.

Once it is up and running it is hoped the project could be used as a prototype for similar work in communities across the globe.

The enterprise, which aims to make Orkney a smart energy area, has now successfully passed its feasibility review meaning it can move on to the demonstration stage. ReFLEX Orkney is installing flexible technologies to address the constraints in the energy network that cause system inefficiencies and demonstrate a Responsive Virtual Energy System which links these networks together.

Leading the way in intelligent hearing aid technology

Our performance in everyday noisy situations is known to depend on aural and visual senses. The ‘multi-modal’ nature of speech perception has been confirmed by research, which has established that listeners unconsciously lip-read to improve the intelligibility of signals amid background noise.

The Cognitively-Inspired, 5G-IoT Enabled Multi‐Modal Hearing Aids (COG-MHEAR) will harness these insights to create “transformative, privacy-preserving multi-modal hearing aids”, which are hoped to be ready by 2050. The new hearing aids will seamlessly mimic the unique human cognitive ability to focus on hearing a single talker, effectively phasing out background distraction sounds regardless of their nature. This ambitious project will use innovative data science related to machine learning and privacy algorithms, while integrating enabling technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G wireless technology.

ERPE researchers will be working on the next generation of low-power high-performance computing architectures for off-chip and on-chip machine learning, to enable IoT and 5G-connected hearing aids.

They will also use revolutionary low-power radio frequency sensing technologies for ‘cognitive load sensing’, enabling researchers to create intelligent hearing devices which take into account emotional stress in the brain alongside a range of other factors that a user experiences.

Research will be carried out in consultation and collaboration with clinical partners and end-users including:

• Sonova, the leading global hearing aid manufacturers
• Nokia Bell-Labs, an R&D company which drives wireless research and standardisation
• Alpha Data, high performance computing SME
• Digital Health & Care Institute and The Data Lab, both centres for national innovation
• Hearing loss charities Deaf Scotland and Action on Hearing Loss

Our global society is placing increasing demands on its critical infrastructure, systems that deliver vital services such as energy, transportation, telecommunications, food and water, the built environment and healthcare.

ERPE researchers are working to transform data into actionable information and utilise this insight to create innovative, data informed, Smart Systems that can assess, adapt and respond to dynamic conditions. Our team with expertise in data analysis, artificial intelligence, prognostics, manufacturing, energy systems and sensing technologies, are focused on the design, manufacture and characterisation of transformative Smart Systems. Below is some of the areas where our innovative research will revolutionise and prepare the UK for the next wave of the digital economy.

ReFLEX

Based in Orkney, ReFLEX explores how communities are transforming their relationship with energy services, and how this research can not only deliver a renewable and resilient energy future, but also the potential to transform communities through distributed wealth creation.

As well as reducing carbon output to net zero it is also hoped that the ground-breaking project will help alleviate fuel poverty on the islands – one of the hardest hit areas in the UK despite producing over 100 per cent of the islanders’ energy needs through renewables.

Once it is up and running it is hoped the project could be used as a prototype for similar work in communities across the globe.

The enterprise, which aims to make Orkney a smart energy area, has now successfully passed its feasibility review meaning it can move on to the demonstration stage. ReFLEX Orkney is installing flexible technologies to address the constraints in the energy network that cause system inefficiencies and demonstrate a Responsive Virtual Energy System which links these networks together.

Leading the way in intelligent hearing aid technology

Our performance in everyday noisy situations is known to depend on aural and visual senses. The ‘multi-modal’ nature of speech perception has been confirmed by research, which has established that listeners unconsciously lip-read to improve the intelligibility of signals amid background noise.

The Cognitively-Inspired, 5G-IoT Enabled Multi‐Modal Hearing Aids (COG-MHEAR) will harness these insights to create “transformative, privacy-preserving multi-modal hearing aids”, which are hoped to be ready by 2050. The new hearing aids will seamlessly mimic the unique human cognitive ability to focus on hearing a single talker, effectively phasing out background distraction sounds regardless of their nature. This ambitious project will use innovative data science related to machine learning and privacy algorithms, while integrating enabling technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G wireless technology.

ERPE researchers will be working on the next generation of low-power high-performance computing architectures for off-chip and on-chip machine learning, to enable IoT and 5G-connected hearing aids.

They will also use revolutionary low-power radio frequency sensing technologies for ‘cognitive load sensing’, enabling researchers to create intelligent hearing devices which take into account emotional stress in the brain alongside a range of other factors that a user experiences.

ERPE researchers will be working on the next generation of low-power high-performance computing architectures for off-chip and on-chip machine learning, to enable IoT and 5G-connected hearing aids.

They will also use revolutionary low-power radio frequency sensing technologies for ‘cognitive load sensing’, enabling researchers to create intelligent hearing devices which take into account emotional stress in the brain alongside a range of other factors that a user experiences.

Research will be carried out in consultation and collaboration with clinical partners and end-users including:

• Sonova, the leading global hearing aid manufacturers
• Nokia Bell-Labs, an R&D company which drives wireless research and standardisation
• Alpha Data, high performance computing SME
• Digital Health & Care Institute and The Data Lab, both centres for national innovation
• Hearing loss charities Deaf Scotland and Action on Hearing Loss