Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - COEL (Cognitive Electronics)

Teaser

This summary covers the activities conducted under the ERA-Chair “Cognitive Electronics” (COEL ERA-Chair) for the period 1 December 2015 to 28 February 2017. The COEL ERA-Chair project is led by and implemented at Thomas Johann Seebeck Department of Electronics (School of...

Summary

This summary covers the activities conducted under the ERA-Chair “Cognitive Electronics” (COEL ERA-Chair) for the period 1 December 2015 to 28 February 2017.

The COEL ERA-Chair project is led by and implemented at Thomas Johann Seebeck Department of Electronics (School of Information Technologies, Tallinn University of Technology), Estonia.

The COEL ERA-Chair project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 668995.

One of the key objectives for Thomas Johann Seebeck Department of Electronics ELIN in establishing an ERA Chair is to increase cooperation and enhance visibility, both domestically and in the European context.

The ERA Chair will enhance close cooperation with outstanding European research partner organizations in the same S&T domain or in complementary fields, and when appropriate with industry and SMEs from the local, national or European landscape.

The aim of the ERA Chair is improve the research quality by combining the principles of sustainability and fundamentals of cognitive electronics technologies, and concentrate this entire topic at Thomas Johann Seebeck Department of Electronics under one strategic lead.

Work performed

**Overall project management
The first meeting took place on 6-7 October, 2016.
We have started building up our research network both with SC members but also other international partners such Ericsson-Estonia and with Prof. Luca Reggiani (Dept. of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering - Politecnico di Milano) to closely work on IoT.

We are taking part in the Estonian Electronics Industries Association (www.estonianelectronics.eu), Estronics (cluster for smart electronics) (cluster.estonianelectronics.eu), and ICT Cluster Estonia (www.itl.ee/cluster) to participate and initiate industry/academia collaborations (e.g. technology transfer, create innovative prototypes, etc.).

We are also liaising with Mektory, an Estonian knowledge transfer organization located on TUT’s campus (https://www.ttu.ee/mektory-eng).

**ERA Chair recruitment and Chair establishment
The COEL ERA-Chair holder position has been advertised internationally and the competition-based recruitment took place during spring 2016.
As a result, Dr. Muhammad Mahtab Alam has been elected for the COEL ERA-Chair holder position and joined TUT on 1 September 2016.

The COEL team is nearly formed. Some new faculty members coming from the industry have been recruited and PhD students have been associated to the team.

Additionally, two postdoc positions were advertised internationally by the end of November 2016; one position on resource-efficient and reliable communication in cognitive electronics and one position on connectivity-aware reliable networking for dense indoor heterogeneous cognitive networks.

**ERA Chair specialization strategy
The preparation of the COEL ERA-Chair specialisation strategy plan is ongoing. It consists of three scientific directions and one quality plan.
The three scientific directions are A) Smart and Compressive Signal Processing (e.g. algorithms and their hardware/software implementations), B) Cognitive communication (e.g. Internet of Things, device-to-device communication, wearable wireless networks), and C) Sensing technologies and lab-on-chip (e.g. microfluidic, point-of-care, sensor technologies).
The quality plan includes various measures to improve the quality of the research and teaching activities related to the COEL ERA-Chair and the department in general, including the introduction of a tenure track system.

**Building up research capability and training
Examples include:
A guest course has been conducted by Professor Claudio Sacchi from University of Trento, Italy. The course dealt with MM-Wave communication in the context of 5G.
Associate Professor Reeno Reeder, program manager for our MSc program “Communicative Electronics” participated in Ecotesy University of Alicante Study Visit (co-funded by Tempus), 13-15 September 2016 and gave a presentation on research and possible cooperation areas including cognitive electronics with Thomas Johann Seebeck Department of Electronics.
Senior Researcher Natalja Sleptsuk participated in Lab-on-Chip Europe/Selectbio, Spain, March 2016.
PhD student Maksim Butsenko is collaborating with and has visited Professor Andreas Jakobsson, Lund University, Sweden
PhD student Tamas Pardy is collaborating with and has visited Professor Marta Rencz, Budapest University of Technology, participated in the 26th Anniversary World Congress on Viosensorics in Sweden, May 2016, and Heat Transfer conference in Italy, September 2016.

**Dissemination
The COEL Project website is now available (https://ttu.ee/coel).
One innovation has been registered in the Estonian Patent Office (Muhammad Mahtab Alam, Reliable system for reducing response time in terror attacks. Priority date: 18.10.2016, Priority Number: P201600024, Classification: International (IPC), Estonia. Tallinn University of Technology)
Finally, the topics related to cognitive electronics have or will be promoted via conferences such as DASIP 2016, SAMPTA 2017, Materials Characterization 2017, BEC 2018.

Final results

In line with the structural reform at Tallinn University of Technology and its vision for 2020 and beyond, the activities carried out in the context of the COEL project will result in improved capacity and competitiveness of Thomas Johann Seebeck Department of Electronics, School of Information Technologies, and Tallinn University of Technology.
In turn, this will contribute to increasing the capacity, productivity, and innovation in Estonia by means of a highly qualified workforce and better synergy between academia and industry.

The first effects of the project start to be visible, including among things:

- Increasing internationalization in the department, both in terms of more senior (e.g. ERA-Chair holder, postdocs) and junior researchers (e.g. PhD students);

- Better financial conditions for the PhD students;

- More rigorous selection process and monitoring of the PhD students;

- Increasing preparation of and participation in national and international projects.

The expected impact of COEL, until and beyond the end of the project, includes:

- Strenghtened academic and industrial networks accross Europe to support high quality research, exchange of know-how and experience to ensure technology and knowledge transfer;

- Increased participation in, and ultimately leading of, projects in the EU Research and Innovation Framework Programmes;

- Increased attractiveness in terms of internationally recognized researchers and qualified MSc and PhD student;

- State-of-art laboratory equipment and research environment to enable scientific leadership;

- Increased visibility of the excellence of the concerned beneficiary and setting-up of long-lasting strategic partnerships in the European Research Area;

- Effective responsiveness to society and regional/European development concerns by involving relevant regional or national authorities;

- Contribution to the innovation potential and contributes to economic growth;

- Increased engagement with academic, industrial, public stakeholders, and the public at large.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.ttu.ee/coel.