CDT in Sensor Technologies and Applications for a Healthy and Sustainable Future

The Sensor CDT provides student-centred training to educate future leaders in sensor innovation through the provision of a structured programme of taught courses and research in enabling technologies (e.g. optical imaging technology, sensor hardware, MEMS, open source technology, physical principles of sensing, sensor interfacing and middleware, data processing) during the first year of the programme. Students undertake research mini-projects offered by the over 50 academics connected Sensor CDT. Mini-projects last 12 weeks, have to be interdisciplinary in character and bridge across at least two departments. Crucially the student cohort collectively tackle a sensor design project as a team challenge, similar in nature to, but more extensive than, current student design projects on the Engineering and Chemical Engineering undergraduate syllabi. The purpose is to design and develop, from concept to application, a fully working sensor system. In the final phase of the first year, students develop, in collaboration with their chosen supervisors, an individual PhD research project which they will pursue during years 2-4 of the programme. Importantly, the projects are cross disciplinary, involve at least two supervisors from two different Cambridge departments and/or industry. More than 70 academics and 20 industrial as well as institutional partners participate in the programme, offering the students maximal choice.

The primary outputs from the CDT will be cohorts of highly qualified, interdisciplinary postgraduates who are experts in a wide range of sensing activities. They will benefit from a world leading training experience that recognises sensor research as an academic discipline in its own right. The students will be taught in all aspects of Sensor Technologies, ranging from the physical and chemical principles of sensing, to sensor design, data capture and processing, all the way to applications and opportunities for commercialisation, with a strong focus in entrepreneurship, technology translation and responsible leadership. Students will learn in extensive team and cohort engaging activities, and have access to cutting-edge expertise and infrastructure. 90 academics from 15 different departments participate in the programme and more than 40 industrial partners are actively involved in delivering research and business leadership training, offering perspectives for impact and translation and opportunities for internships and secondments. End users associated with the CDT will benefit from the availability of outstanding, highly qualified and motivated PhD students, access to shared infrastructure, and a huge range of academic and industrial contacts.

Immediate beneficiaries of our CDT will be our core industrial consortium partners (MedImmune, Alphasense, Fluidic Analytics, ioLight, NokiaBell, Cambridge Display Technologies, Teraview, Zimmer and Peacock, Panaxium, Silicon Microgravity, etc., see various LoS) who incorporate our cross-leverage funding model into their corporate research strategies. Small companies and start-ups particularly benefit from the flexibility of the partnerships we can offer. We will engage through weekly industry seminars and monthly Sensor Cafés, where SME employees can interact directly with the CDT students and PIs, provide training in topical areas, and, in turn, gain themselves access to CDT infrastructure and training. Ideas can be rapidly tested through industrially focused miniprojects and promising leads developed into funded PhD programmes, for which leveraged funding is available through the CDT.

Government departments and large research initiatives are formally connected to the CDT, including the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA); the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC); the Centre for Global Equality (CGE); the National Physics Laboratory (NPL); the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), who all push our CDT to generate impacts that are in the public interest and relevant for a healthy and sustainable future society. With their input, we will tackle projects on assisted living technologies for the ageing population, diagnostics of environmental toxins in the developing world, and sensor technologies that help replace the use of animals in research. Developing countries will benefit through our emphasis on open technologies / open innovation and our exploration of responsible, ethical, and transparent business models. In the UK, our CDT will engage directly with the public sector and national policy makers and regulators (DEFRA, and the National Health Service - NHS) and, with their input, students are trained on impact and technology translation, ethics, and regulatory frameworks.