Working with business and industry

ECS actively engages with industry to ensure the industrial relevance of all its activities.

Research

We are committed to ensuring that new knowledge developed from our research makes an impact. Much of our leading-edge research takes place with support from our industrial partners. Our strategic long-term partnerships include ORCHID a multi-million pound, five-year interdisciplinary project with BAE Systems, led by Professor Nick Jennings, which aims to define and develop the new science of human-agent collectives; and PRiME, a £5.6M national collaboration, led by Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi, which will undertake creative research into the design and implementation of energy-efficient and dependable embedded systems with many-core processors.

Facilities

The Southampton Nanofabrication Centre in the £120M Mountbatten Building is a state-of-the-art facility for microfabrication and high-spec nanofabrication, providing a wide range of characterisation capabilities.The leading research cleanroom in Europe, the Centre has a uniquely broad range of technologies, combining traditional and novel top-down fabrication with state-of-the-art bottom-up fabrication. This facility, and the unique Tony Davies High Voltage Lab which offers testing and research facilities to the power generation and supply companies, provide invaluable links between the School's academic expertise and the needs of business and industry

Spin-out companies

ECS strongly encourages an entrepreneurial attitude in both staff and students. Over the years ECS research and enterprise has led to the establishment of an extraordinary number of spin-out companies, particularly in the area of photonics and telecommunications (Southampton Photonics Inc Mesophotonics, Arkivum and Stratophase), and more recently in the area of software engineering. The most recent success has been Perpetuum which harvests kinetic energy from the environment to power small devices such as sensors.

ECS Partners Ltd

In addition to the creation of spin-off companies, ECS has an established company, ECS Partners Ltd, which provides consultancy to industry and business from the research expertise of staff and postgraduate students. Contracts can vary from half a day to several years, and research ranges from marketing and corporate strategy to revenue and product protection.

IT Innovation

The School has its own applied research centre, IT Innovation, based at the University of Southampton Science Park. IT Innovation has more than 10 years of success in applying new technologies from the research community to problems in industry and commerce, delivering proofs-of-concept, demonstrators and novel operational systems to companies such as BAE Systems, the BBC, Boeing, ESA, GSK and VW Audi. IT Innovation has a substantial portfolio of collaborative projects supported by EC and UK programmes, complemented by professional services.