Innovation Centre for Sensor & Imaging Systems

www.censis.org.uk

Sensing Opportunities for Scotland

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CENSIS: The Innovation Centre for Sensor & Imaging Systems (SIS)CENSIS is one of 8 Innovation Centres in Scotland and is a centre of excellence for Sensor and Imaging Systems (SIS) technologies. CENSIS encourages large-scale collaboration by bringing together the country’s leading industry innovators with our world-class universities to create a beacon for economic value and growth in Scotland.

Our goal is the delivery of industrially-led collaborative R&D projects, helping to bring a range of

new services and products to market over the course of our initial five-year funding period.

Essentially, CENSIS is a business-focused organisation and our aim is to:

�� support the growth of the 170+ companies incumbent in the Scottish SIS sector,

�� reinforce Scotland’s position as a world leader in SIS technology

�� ensure that SIS solutions underpin innovation in the wider industrial base.

CENSIS is supported by the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands

Enterprise and is funded by a £10 million grant from the Scottish Funding Council

CENSIS aims to stimulate innovative thinking and help businesses within the supply chain to grow through the enormous repository of SIS knowledge that we can access.

CENSIS is based in the INOVO building in George Street, Glasgow

Sensing Opportunities for Scotland 3

The Market for Sensor and Imaging SystemsThere are already over 170 companies working in SIS in Scotland, contributing around £2.6Bn per year to the Scottish economy and employing around 16,000 people. The underlying requirement of SIS is to sense, measure, process, communicate and visualise in a way that provides valuable and actionable information based on data.

SIS is a key enabling technology to achieve quality, efficiency and performance across all key

markets, such as transport, defence, oil and gas, agriculture, the built environment, life sciences and

food and drink. There are few areas of modern life, if any, that are untouched by SIS. This brings

huge opportunities for businesses operating in this area.

�� The global SIS market is estimated to be worth $500bn and is projected to grow at around 10%

per year.

�� The sensors market was unaffected by the worldwide recession, increasing by 8.7% pa between

2008-10.

�� Growth is driven by four key trends–lower cost, lower power, chip-level integration, and

wireless connectivity.

�� Wireless sensors were projected to show a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 48.5%

for 2010-2015

Scotland has an innovative and dynamic user base and a solid component supply chain already connected to global markets. The SIS market is growing at around 10% per year.

Smart Cities (top) have many applications which will be enabled by ubiquitous sensing. The oil and gas industry (bottom) has many sensing challenges which push the boundaries of complex and harsh environment application

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The CENSIS Delivery Mechanism: Hub & SpokesThe CENSIS Hub in Glasgow provides overall strategic direction, planning, programme management and operational support. Functions include strategy, business development, operations and technical management, training, communications and administration.

The Spokes are virtual communities of interest, formed around particular themes aligned to the SIS

stack; areas where there is a strong academic base, strong industry engagement, clear challenges

and opportunities and where CENSIS intervention can make a difference.

Spokes are collaborative between industry, universities and CENSIS Hub staff and will comprise

a community of technical capability and expertise. Each spoke has a Special Interest Group with

interest in the development of the Spoke’s capabilities.

SignalProcessing,

Sensing Opportunities for Scotland 5

The Sensor Systems Stack: From raw data to informed business decisionsSensor systems enable businesses to assess the significance of the data they gather, using it to gain stronger insights in to their activities and act with authority and confidence on results presented to them.

Our ‘stack’ model illustrates the elements of a complete sensor system.

At the bottom are the sensors, detecting and measuring change in all its forms, e.g., temperature,

light or energy. However, this data may mean very little if it cannot be set in context or awarded

significance – the real value lies in transforming it into meaningful and actionable information.

As we move up through the stack, the system converts these basic sensor measurements to signals,

prioritising the most valuable data. Through a series of complex processes, the data is securely

stored, managed, organised and analysed, finally being converted into information that allows the

right business decision to be made.

Visualisation & Presentation

Analysis & Post Processing

Communications & Networking

Transductance & Pre-processing

Data Repository

Sensor Element

Applications/Software

Devices/Hardware

POWER CONTROL MANAGE

Presenting information to inform decisions

Converting the measured data to meaningful information

Storing, managing and organising data and its content

Transporting the data to a storage location

Converting changes to signals & prioritising valuable data

Detecting and measuring a change eg vibration, impacts, heat, light, energy, colour, temperature etc

Product evolution demands connected sensing

The value of sensor and imaging systems is in transforming raw data into meaningful information

This enables businesses to: • assess the value of data• be targeted in data gathering• gain insights• act on the results

Information

Raw Data

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The CENSIS Leadership Team

Bob Downes Chairman

Bob has wide experience across private and

public sectors in the UK, Europe and the US. He

has been involved with many business sectors

including telecommunications, energy, and

health care; and has managed infrastructure

provision as well as regional economic

development. His responsibilities have covered

large scale change management, strategy

development and deep operational leadership.

He has worked in large international corporate

organisations and fast growth start-ups as well

as government.

Bob is currently Deputy Chair of the Scottish

Environment Protection Agency; Chair of Global

Surface Intelligence; Advisory Board member for

Scotrail and the Adam Smith Business School at

Glasgow University.

Up until the end of 2011 Bob was a Director in BT

Group in London leading the design and build of

the UK local telecommunications network. He is

also a former Director of Scottish Enterprise and

the Scottish Development Agency

Ian Reid CEO

Ian has held CEO and CTO positions and brings

experience of a wide variety of functional roles

in R&D, engineering, operations, corporate

venturing and business development. His

career includes time with GEC- Marconi, Pulse

Engineering, Rood Technology and QinetiQ,

where he led the company’s Aerospace Division.

Most recently, Ian completed a project as

Strategic Marketing Director at Plastic Logic,

which involved working closely with UK

Electronic Skills Foundation (UKESF), the

Electronic Systems Community (ESCO) and the

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

He has held a number of statutory directorships

in various European technology businesses

and was Chairman of the Board of Verhaeart

Space in Belgium. He is a Chartered Engineer

and a Chartered Physicist and has been elected

Fellow of the Institute of Physics, the Royal

Astronomical Society, and the Chartered

Institute of Marketing.

Prof Steve Beaumont OBE CEng FREng FRSE Academic Lead

Steve Beaumont is Vice Principal Emeritus at

the University of Glasgow. He has a portfolio

of responsibilities including academic lead for

CENSIS, the Centre for Sensor and Imaging

Systems; chairing and holding non-executive

directorships on the boards of a number of

the university’s spinout companies; principal

investigator on strategic research grants and

leading on projects associated with Glasgow’s

campus development. He is a member of the

Innovation Scotland Forum.

Until 31 July 2014 Steve was Vice-Principal for

Research & Enterprise at the University of

Glasgow in which role he was responsible for

the University’s research strategy, policies and

operational matters including negotiations

and relationships with research sponsors and

strategic partners. Additionally he oversaw

the University’s enterprise activities, including

research links with industry and the promotion

of spinout companies.

His research background is in nanotechnology

and nanoelectronics for which he was awarded

the OBE in 2002.

Sensing Opportunities for Scotland 7

Areas of InterestRenewables, energy extraction and energy generation

Subsea, offshore and marine

Built environment

Defence

Intelligent transport

Smart grid and energy distribution

Environmental and agriculture

Ocean science

Manufacturing and process control

Food and drink

Healthcare

Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and drug discovery

Hydro nation

Consumer

Entertainment and games

University PartnersUniversity of Aberdeen

University of Dundee

The University of Edinburgh

University of Glasgow

Glasgow Caledonian University

Heriot-Watt University

Robert Gordon University

University of St Andrews

University of Stirling

University of Strathclyde

University of the Highlands & Islands

University of the West of Scotland

Join the CENSIS mailing list at www.censis.org.uk

Follow us on Twitter@CENSIS121

Contact details:CENSISThe Inovo Building121 George Street GlasgowG1 1RD

Tel: 0141 330 3876Email: info@censis.org.uk