Cognitive Electronics

Project Information

COEL

Grant agreement ID: 668995

DOI

10.3030/668995

Project closed

EC signature date 25 November 2015

Start date 1 December 2015

End date 30 November 2019

Funded under

• Establishing ‚ERA Chairs’

Total cost

€ 2 791 088,75

EU contribution

€ 2 500 000,00

Coordinated by

TALLINNA TEHNIKAÜLIKOOL
Estonia

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - COEL (Cognitive Electronics)

Reporting period: 2018-12-01 to 2019-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The COEL ERA-Chair project has been led by and implemented at Thomas Johann Seebeck Department of Electronics (School of Information Technologies, Tallinn University of Technology), Estonia.
The project has been 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 was to increase cooperation and enhance visibility, both domestically and in the European context.

The ERA Chair enhanced 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 was to 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.

As a conclusion, the various initiatives that we have conducted during the project have contributed to the sustainability of the activities through research and teaching projects (16 projects funded), PhD students (11 graduated, 16 ongoing, up to 4 to start in 2020), and creation of IPRs (3 patents approved, 1 under review).

The action has contributed to improving the skills and competences of the researchers, increased our involvement in teaching development (new Bachelor programme where our department now plays a central role; re-focused Master studies).

Collaborations efforts with academic and industrial partners, as well as actions such as a hackathon, have helped improving our visibility and led to new opportunities with both Estonian and European partners.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

"*Project management
Four steering committee meetings (1 per year)
Collaborations with the industry have been initiated for teaching and/or research purposes, with e.g. Stoneridge Electronics AS; Rantelon Ltd, Bercman Technologies AS, Telia, SeflDiagnostics Ltd.

*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 was formed, including some new faculty members coming from the industry; PhD students have been associated to the team.

*ERA Chair specialization strategy
The preparation of the COEL ERA-Chair specialisation strategy plan 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).

*Building up research capability and training
-Participations in conferences, workshops, etc.
-Guest lecturers, guest PhD students
-Giving lectures abroad
-Weekly PhD seminars and PhD students participating in teaching
-Co-organized Tallinn Winter School Smart Systems of Tomorrow on 12-23 February 2018
-Participation in summer school Belt and Road Student Summer Camp-Beijing on 29 July 29 - 17 August 2018
-Organized hackathon on Cognitive Electronics on 8-10 November 2019
-11 PhD defended

*Dissemination
-The COEL website (http://wwww.ttu.ee/coel) which has been updated on a regular basis, 2216 visits as of 26/01/2020;
-The COEL project on ResearchGate (https://www.researchgate.net/project/H2020-COEL-ERA-Chair-of-Cognitive-Electronics-Thomas-Johann-Seebeck-Department-of-Electronics-Tallinn-University-of-Technology-Estonia) updated with scientific publications and announcements, 497 views as of 26/01/2020;
-The COEL project on LinkedIN (https://www.linkedin.com/company/coel-era-chair/) updated with scientific publications and announcements, 159 followers as of 26/01/2020;
-Updates and articles related to the COEL project are shared on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/COELERAChair/) 332 followers, 325 likes as of 26/01/2020;
-New projects acquired thanks to the support of COEL also get webpages and ResearchGate pages (e.g. http://clcs.ee/ https://www.counterterror.eu/ https://www.researchgate.net/project/Public-Safety-Communication-in-the-Context-of-Terrorist-Attacks-NATO-SPS-G5482 )
-Participated in the Teadlaste Öö 2018 and 2019 (Researcher’s Night Festival 2018 and 2019) to also showcase our developments in student small-satellite initiative “TTU-100 Satellite”.
-Introduction of the ERA-Chair holder Muhammad Mahtab Alam in Tallinn University of Technology’s journal Mente et Manu: https://www.ttu.ee/ttu-uudised/uudised/mente-et-manu-5/varske-veri-ttus-prof-muhammad-mahtab-alam/
-2 full pages in Estonian (Pages 40 and 41) and a 0,5 page summary in English (Page 71) about the development of 5G technology published in Tallinn University of Technology’s magazine “Mente et Manu”.
https://ttu.ee/public/m/mente-et-manu/MM_04_2019/mobile/index.html#p=40 ;
-Article about Professor Muhammad Mahtab Alam: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_171185.htm
- IPR (3 patents approved, 1 under review)"

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

"The COEL ERA Chair has significantly contributed to:

- Sustaining cognitive electronics research directions, e.g. via the Estonian Research Council PUT “Closed-loop communication system to support highly responsive neuromuscular assistive stimulation” and PUT “CogniFlow-Cyte: Cognitronic Lab-on-a-Chip System for Highly-Automated Flow Cytometry” projects which are connected with university, Estonian, and EU strategies.

- Improving our capacity to obtain national and international funding (16 projects with national and international partners from sources such as Estonian Research Council (e.g. see above), European Commission (e.g. ERA-net CHISTERA project ""JEDAI - Event Driven Artificial Intelligence Hardware for Biomedical Sensors""), NATO (""“Public Safety Communication in the Context of Terrorist Attacks”).

- Competitive PhD students thanks to improved knowledge and skills, as well as success in competition for additional scholarships, etc.

- Increase both the quantity and the quality of the scientific publications produced in the department, e.g. increase by +50% the average number of publications per year in impact journals indexed in Web of Science or Scopus.

- Establish research cooperation with advanced partner country’s universities such as Politecnico Di Milano, RWTH Aachen, Oslo University, University of Glasgow. MSc and PhD students exchanges are taking place.

- Contribute towards standards development including European Telecommunication Standardization Institute (ETSI) SmartBAN, as well as IEEE Green ICT standards."

Group 3

Group 1

Group 2