Industry, innovation and enterprise
The electronics team is closely involved with industry through a number of channels, each of which is described in more detail further down the page:
The Technology Development Centre at the University of Bolton was established in 1992 as the regional support centre for the North of England under the Government's Microelectronics in Business programme. Support centres were funded to assist small companies incorporating electronics into their products for the first time or moving to a new electronics technology. The Government programme ended many years ago but the work of the Centre continues.
The Centre continues to help local companies by undertaking electronics development work, finding partners, research contracts and development funds. It is currently running four Knowledge Transfer Partnerships in conjunction with local companies and two more are under negotiation. The Centre is a member of the Electronic Design Partnership and has links to the new DTI-funded Electronics Knowledge Transfer Network.
Electronics Design Support Team |
Examples of work by the Electronics Design Support team|
University of Bolton Centre for Enterprise|
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The electronics team co-ordinates "CEESI Training" which involves nine universities and provides a wide range of specialist postgraduate modules. Of the 36 modules developed to date, ten are from the Bolton team and more will be developed in 2007. CEESI Training aims to meet the education and training needs of UK industry for highly skilled electronic design engineers. CEESI is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through the University of Bolton's Collaborative Training Account. For full details see www.ceesi.ac.uk|
The CEESI programme won the 2006 award for Educational Initiative of the Year, presented in San Francisco at SemiconWest by EuroAsia Magazine. Details.|
The university is an academic member of the National Microelectronics Institute| (NMI), giving access to reports and surveys, analysis and benchmarking statistics for the UK microelectronics design community and semiconductor manufacturing companies operating in the UK. The NMI provides the industrial input to the CEESI project and encourages its members to sit on the CEESI Board of Management and take part in the Industrial advisory groups. The NMI is represented on the Board of the new Electronics Knowledge Transfer Network.
Professional bodies provide access to information that can be invaluable to industry. Most of the academic staff are Chartered Engineers and therefore registered with the Engineering Council| of the UK. Most are either members of the Institution of Engineers and Technologists| (IET, formerly the Institution of Electrical Engineers) or the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.| (IEEE).
The electronics team has managed many Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with local companies. This government scheme covers roughly half the cost of employing one or more graduates over a two or three year period, with input from the local university. The scheme has existed for over twenty years and was previously known as the Teaching Company Scheme. Details of the scheme are at www.ktponline.org.uk/|
The UK's Electronics Knowledge Transfer Network launches in December 2006. Knowledge Transfer Networks are part of the DTI's Technology Programme whose purpose is to provide funding to facilitate further investment in science, engineering and technology with the active participation of business and industry.
The EKTN will bring together a variety of organisations such as businesses (suppliers and customers), universities, research and technology organisations, the finance community and other intermediaries who will provide a range of activities and initiatives to enable the exchange of knowledge and stimulation of innovation amongst this community. Quotations from the KTN website |
Background
In setting up the EKTN the government has recognised the importance of electronics in society and the fact that it is hidden and all too easily overlooked.
"Electronics today tends to be invisible but in fact is all pervasive, and is commonly an enabler in most sectors - from retail to defence and healthcare. The trend continues to accelerate with more and more embedded electronic systems in everyday products and services." Ministerial foreword, Electronics 2015 - Making a Visible Difference, Dec 2004. Order or download from DTI site|
The electronics team at the University of Bolton looks forward to working with the EKTN to help achieve its aims, especially in the North West region of England in partnership with the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA|).
Students undertake projects at various stages throughout the courses and sometimes it is possible to match a student project to a local need outside the university. Project opportunities range in complexity from first year degree level to the final stage of an MSc, where a substantial amount of investigation, design or analysis may be involved.
Where an industrial requirement has to be completed to a fixed timescale or to a certified outcome, a lecturer may be available to take on the work as industrial consultancy. Most of the electronics staff are chartered engineers with specialist up-to-date knowledge and skills in their particular field. If required, procedures are in place for a non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement to be be signed. In some cases it may be necessary to purchase an industrial licence for a short period to cover the use of a design package which is otherwise licenced for educational purposes only.
Consultancy and enterprise engagement by the electronics staff at Bolton has generally been applications oriented and often focused on industrial process-measurement and control. There has been a strong emphasis on non-contacting measurement, and the development of novel transducers. Substantial contributions have been made in process tomography; automotive systems; power electronic systems and modelling; correlation and digital signal processing; RF resonant systems; biomedical devices and signal processing. The team has particular strengths in instrumentation, analogue design and ASIC integrated circuit applications.
There is potential to develop and exploit a number of inventions in instrumentation, biomedical, RF and analogue processing.
Currently two electronics staff are supervising PhD programmes in a cross-disciplinary initiative within the Centre for Materials Research and Innovation (CMRI).
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Throughout 2005 and early 2006 the team of web developers worked with many others in the North West to create practical learning resources for students and teachers of a new GCSE programme, the Diploma in Digital Applications (DIDA). Collectively known as Dida-delivered, the resources are online at: www.dida-delivered.org|
North West Learning Grid|
DiDA resources|
Edexecel DiDa|
BECTA|