3 years on and this collaborative project between BT and Ulster University has been recently acknowledged through a number of prestigious awards for its work.
The BT Ireland Innovation Centre (BTIIC) is a joint research and engineering centre of excellence launched in October 2017 to undertake an extensive programme of research and development over a five-year period. Based in the School of Computing at the Jordanstown campus, the project received funding from BT and Invest Northern Ireland.
3 years on and this collaborative project between BT and Ulster University has been recently acknowledged through a number of prestigious awards for its work.
The core of this particular team includes Dr Joe Rafferty, Dr Mamun Abu-Tair, Dr Bin Wang and Kashif Rabbani from Ulster University and Mo Zoualfaghari from BT, and it was announced as the winner of the ‘Digital Innovation of the Year’ category at the Digital DNA Awards 2020 in Belfast in October . This month, BTIIC was named highly commended in the ‘Emerging Technology of the Year’ category at the UK IT Industry Awards 2020, one of the most widely recognised awards in the technology industry in the UK.
During his acceptance of the commendation, Andrew Reeves of BT Labs said
“We really appreciate the recognition of all the fantastic work that is going on between Ulster University and BT.”
BTIIC is at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Telecommunications, incorporating 12 sub-projects within the two themes of Intelligent Systems and IoT. The research programme supports 20 postdoctoral researchers and 12 PhD students, working jointly with the BT Research Centre at Adastral Park in Martlesham, Suffolk, UK, alongside the BT Belfast Global Development Centre.
The work has developed a prototype software platform that enables users to create innovative systems that reach from the edge of a network to a cloud-based system that manages service creation, data analytics, device deployment and cyber-security mechanisms. Although the platform can be useful in many scenarios, the key target area at the moment is ‘Industry 4.0’, a concept where manufacturing is controlled by artificial intelligence and a huge number of networked devices. In particular, the team is developing the concept of enabling customers to create Value-Added-Services for ‘Industry 4.0’ (VASI4) which will enable data-driven automation of manufacturing, from robotic control to supply chain management, while assuring the security of the network, the data and the devices.
The team has also been involved with the Telecoms Management Forum (TMF) which is the world’s pre-eminent industry body for driving telecoms services. Its project ‘Digital Business Marketplace’, which saw the demonstration of a proof of concept system built around the VASI4 paradigm, was the winner of the 2020 Catalyst Award for Business Impact. The system was developed as part of a very large demonstration of the impact of the Internet of Things, a highly networked collection of sensors that monitor many aspects of the manufacturing process. The large amounts of data from these sensors is analysed using Artificial Intelligence methods to drive the automated management system to optimise production.
At the TM Forum Catalyst Team Awards ceremony on 11 November, the team not only took the top prize for ‘Business Impact’ but was also commended in two other categories, ‘Outstanding Innovation’ and ‘Outstanding use of TM Forum assets’.
Professor Bryan Scotney, Professor of Informatics, who leads the centre at Ulster University, said:
“It is remarkable that a University team has been involved in this TMF project and taking the top prize and two commendations is a testament to the hard work and visionary thinking of the team.
“The impact of this work is a direct result of our close relationship with BT in Ipswich and Belfast and it highlights the excellent work that can be done in Northern Ireland.”
BT’s Mark O’Flaherty chairs the BTIIC steering board and a key enabler of the BTIIC initiative. On hearing of these recent awards, he said:
“The Innovation Centre based in Belfast is a world-class centre of excellence, harnessing local innovation to make a global impact for BT and our customers. Belfast plays an integral role in our global research and development capabilities, and I am delighted that our partnership with the University of Ulster has been acknowledged by these leading local and UK industry awards.”
You can read more about BTIIC at www.ulster.ac.uk/research/topic/computer-science/btiic
For more information, contact Dr Philip Perry, Technical Project Manager, by email to [email protected]