Centres of excellence

Academic centres of excellence

University of Edinburgh - Department of Informatics
Automated Security engineering (ASE), Prof Don Sannella
A suite of related technologies that aim to ensure key security properties of software systems by means of automatic analysis and certification.

University of Glasgow - Dept of Mechanical Engineering
Centre for Systems and Control, Prof Ken Hunt
Several automotive control system research projects are ongoing with leading European OEMS. The projects are mostly confidential but the research group is highly regarded for developing leading edge technology within the automotive industry.

University of Strathclyde - MicroElectro Mechanical Systems (MEMS)
MEMS and Microsystems Research group
The group evolved from earlier research in optical sensing in response to rapid international growth in micro and nanotechnology.

University of Edinburgh, Signal Processing - Dept of Electronics and Electrical Engineering
Centre for Comms Interface Research, Dr Tughrul Arslan
Deals with people interacting with automated systems, undertakes usability and dialogue engineering for speech recognition services.

University of Strathclyde, Signal Processing - Institute for Communications and Signal Processing
Signal and Processing Group, Prof Tariq Durrani
Fundamental advances in non-linear signal/image processing, including higher order statistical (HOS) techniques neural networks fuzzy tools and their applications to compression techniques mobile communications.

Wireless Networks Consortium (Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. Andrews and Strathclyde Universities) - Speckled Computing
Project Leader:  D.K. Arvind, Edinburgh University,
Speckled computing offers a radical new concept in information technology that has the potential to revolutionise the way we communicate and exchange information. Specks will be minute semiconductor grains that can sense and compute locally and communicate wirelessly. Each speck will be autonomous, with its own captive, renewable energy source. Thousands of specks, scattered or sprayed on the person or surfaces, will collaborate as programmable computational networks called Specknets. 

Napier University - Transport Research Institute
Transport modelling & technology cluster incorporating planning and engineering, freight modelling, infrastructure, transport sensing and energy and environment.

University of Dundee - Dept of Applied Computing
Human Machine Interfaces & Displays - Prof. Ian Ricketts
Motor vehicle accidents are caused by driver inattention that is induced by the operation of secondary controls. The ACTIVE project developed a novel, finger-pointing interface for operating such controls. The current physical secondary controls will be replaced by a computer interface, operated by the driver using pointing gestures that are identified by a computer vision system. This approach utilised digital cameras and image processing of sight.

University of Strathclyde - Dept of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Design of Sensor Networks through Multi-dimensional Co-design, Prof John Dunlop

Large EPSRC funded project in the area of wireless sensors, a collaboration investigating the integration of generative programming, data streaming, low level RF communications with embedded intelligent systems. This technology has tremendous potential to facilitate significant advances in a wide range of sectors, including automotive.

Industry associations

As well as the in-depth research taking place across numerous universities in Scotland into areas related to intelligent transport, the following are industry associations based in Scotland:

  • Wireless Innovation - Scotland's national centre for wireless & mobile communications, focused on the economic growth of Scottish companies developing and selling products within the wireless space
  • The Institution of Engineering and Technology – the largest professional engineering society in Europe
  • British International Freight Association’s role is to provide a focus for the international freight distribution industry
  • The Institution of Highways & Transportation is a learned society concerned with land-based transport systems and infrastructure
  • The Railway Forum - the voice for the whole of the railway industry. It is the only UK railway group that represents the majority of the industry
  • MX Alliance - MX is the industry alliance for the mobile and wireless - we connect the community in Scotland and beyond
  • ScotlandIS - to promote Scotland as a world class centre for software, interactive media and internet industries
  • Mobile Data Association - The Mobile Data Association is the non-profit, global association for vendors and users of mobile data and their advisors
  • Electronics Scotland brings together all parts of the sector from design through to manufacture