Researchers in Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton are increasing collaborative research for a connected technological future through a new Centre for Internet of Things and Pervasive Systems.

Over 70 experts from across academia and industry explored the latest research in the field and discussed security challenges at the Centre’s launch event in early July.

Scientists anticipate that there will be tens of billions of connected devices - or ‘things’ - by 2020, forming an Internet of Things (IoT). These devices will be widespread, instrumenting and connecting people, their homes and their vehicles, as well as their cities and environments.

“While IoT has seen tremendous hype and growth in recent years, many challenges still need to be overcome if we are to realise the sheer scale of such a vision,â€? says Head of Centre Dr Geoff Merrett. “Solving these challenges requires contribution across hardware and software, academia and industry, and underpinning technologies and application developers.â€?

Within ECS, Southampton has established a significant breadth of research interests in IoT and Pervasive Systems, cutting across electronics and computing and the full IoT system stack. This includes both underpinning technologies: from new sensor, transistor and memory devices to algorithms for machine learning and data analytics, and applications and deployments: from earth science and agricultural management to smarter cities, homes and healthcare.

“The Centre provides a unique opportunity to create critical mass in this evolution of computing, and improve the impact and visibility of the ground-breaking research in IoT that is being undertaken in ECS,â€? Geoff explains. “It will also enable us to strengthen the community to increase collaborative and multidisciplinary research, and also to engage with our student body around this exciting field. Our launch event was a great start to these activities, and it was great to see the quality of talks and level of engagement from both academia and industry.â€?

Technical presentations at the launch event on Highfield Campus included ECS research on the detection of hardware intrusions, machine learning for secure smart traffic systems and the University’s GCHQ/EPSRC Academic Centre of Excellence for Cyber Security Research.

A number of the industry speakers posed provocative and motivational viewpoints on IoT security, from the significance and severity of the open challenges that still need to be overcome, through to considering the appropriate level of security needed for individual application domains and deployments.

The Centre will confront three key objectives in the coming years: connecting and promoting the University’s research community, increasing wider collaborative research into IoT and pervasive systems, and educating students through events, new modules and educational programmes.

Anyone interested in finding out about future events and opportunities for collaboration are invited to register an interest with the Centre.

The pain of millions of people living with arthritis in the UK could be eased through new e-textile technologies being developed within Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton.

Dr Kai Yang, a Principal Research Fellow in the Smart Electronic Materials and Systems (SEMS) research group, has been awarded a £600,000 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Fellowship to expand practical research that could help mitigate the pain generated by the common healthcare condition.

Osteoarthritis is a leading cause of pain and disability that affects people’s independence and quality of life, and represents a massive burden on NHS resources. The number of people with osteoarthritis-affected knees is estimated to increase from 4.7 million in 2010, to 6.5 million by 2020, and 8.3 million by 2035, due to the UK’s ageing population.

Kai’s research is exploring the use of e-textile technology as a therapeutic application enabling self-management of healthcare conditions to help people feel better and live longer.

She says, “The Fellowship will allow me to build on my previous research into developing cutting-edge electronic textiles for wearable therapeutics, where dry electrodes printed on everyday clothing fabric can deliver a small electrical current to interfere with the pain signals and stimulate the release of the body’s natural endorphins easing the pain.

“People who are in severe pain are less mobile and this technology could enable them to become more independent, engage in more activities and experience better health for longer. Wearable e-textiles will provide a comfortable to wear, easy to use and cost-effective solution to end-users.â€?

The three-year Fellowship will see Kai expand her team, and widen collaboration with industry, clinicians and - most importantly to her - the end-user.

“All of my research is driven by the end-user,â€? she says. “I focus on what they need and that governs the direction of my research. The biggest impact for research is to make it useful for the individual. It doesn’t matter how clever the technology is if the end-user doesn’t like it or can’t use it.â€?

The Fellowship is underpinned by two existing projects in the SEMS group. The Medical Research Council (MRC) SMARTmove project Kai is also leading has developed the printed electrodes for healthcare applications. The EPSRC-funded FETT project, led by Professor Steve Beeby, has identified manufacturing and packaging processes that enable circuits to be reliably and invisibly incorporated in textiles. Kai’s Fellowship will combine these technologies, demonstrating a complete e-textile wearable solution targeted initially at pain relief but with potential for many other healthcare and medical related applications.

Kai’s research is also being supported by FortisNet – an interdisciplinary hub of expertise in regenerative medicine, orthopaedics, prosthetics and assistive technologies launched by the University’s Institute for Life Sciences.