Imperial College London - Equipment Account
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Research Office
Abstract
For over 50 years, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has demonstrated itself as an invaluable technique in the study of filled electronic states of solids, as well helping to determine the nature of interactions between solid surfaces and molecular species. Unfortunately there is one main drawback in the technique, that being that typical XPS measurements are performed in ultra high vacuum (UHV) conditions (10-10 mbar), due to the need of minimising the chances of unfavourable collisions occurring before the excited photoelectrons reach the energy analyser. Due to this restraint, studying the surfaces of technologically important materials occurs at a pressure many orders of magnitude lower than the operational conditions of the systems themselves (1-50 bar). Bridging this so-called "Pressure Gap" has remained a significant technological challenge. Very recent developments in electron energy analyser and sample holder design have for the first time allowed photoelectron spectroscopic measurements to be performed in ambient pressures of up to 25 mbar. The opportunity to study "real" surfaces in-situ and in-operando is a step change in the field of photoelectron spectroscopy, and opens a new and vital chapter in the area of surface science.
The ambient pressure photoelectron spectroscopy (APPES) system is a state-of-the-art laboratory-based instrument with capabilities of performing high-energy resolution, low signal-to-noise photoemission measurements in up to 25 mbar ambient pressure with a number of different gases (O2, N2, H2, ethylene, acetylene). The instrument is equipped with a monochromated x-ray source and a high transmission, differentially pumped electron energy analyser. The system is fitted with an in-situ sample cell, which can provide a temperature range of 80 - 1100 K in the ambient atmospheres, permitting in-operando measurements. This specially designed modular in-situ cell, which is fully retractable from the analysis chamber, also allows standard UHV XPS comparative measurements to be performed with ease.
The APPES instrument based at the Department of Materials, Imperial College London will be highly multidisciplinary, covering five broad research themes (i) Energy; (ii) Catalysis; (iii) Electronic Materials; (iv) Biomaterials; (v) Environmental and Heritage Science. The instrument, while hosted at Imperial is engaged in highly collaborative research at a regional, national (including the Diamond Light Source) and international level, with access arrangements also provided through coordination the National XPS Facility (NEXUS) at the University of Newcastle. This new approach to providing wide-reaching access will allow the APPES technique to be fully exploited and generate world-leading cutting edge scientific output.
The ambient pressure photoelectron spectroscopy (APPES) system is a state-of-the-art laboratory-based instrument with capabilities of performing high-energy resolution, low signal-to-noise photoemission measurements in up to 25 mbar ambient pressure with a number of different gases (O2, N2, H2, ethylene, acetylene). The instrument is equipped with a monochromated x-ray source and a high transmission, differentially pumped electron energy analyser. The system is fitted with an in-situ sample cell, which can provide a temperature range of 80 - 1100 K in the ambient atmospheres, permitting in-operando measurements. This specially designed modular in-situ cell, which is fully retractable from the analysis chamber, also allows standard UHV XPS comparative measurements to be performed with ease.
The APPES instrument based at the Department of Materials, Imperial College London will be highly multidisciplinary, covering five broad research themes (i) Energy; (ii) Catalysis; (iii) Electronic Materials; (iv) Biomaterials; (v) Environmental and Heritage Science. The instrument, while hosted at Imperial is engaged in highly collaborative research at a regional, national (including the Diamond Light Source) and international level, with access arrangements also provided through coordination the National XPS Facility (NEXUS) at the University of Newcastle. This new approach to providing wide-reaching access will allow the APPES technique to be fully exploited and generate world-leading cutting edge scientific output.
Planned Impact
Since the first development of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) over 50 years ago, the technique has formed the basis of numerous scientific breakthroughs providing vast economic and societal benefits. The proposed APPES technique, has the potential to have an even greater impact, due to the fact that the surface electronic structure of a wide array of different materials, each with their own technological applications will be be studied under conditions close to which they operate.
The obvious beneficiary of APPES measurements is in the commercial private sector, with emphasis on businesses operating in all the identified research themes. For example, Johnson-Matthey who work within the area of catalysis, could utilise the technique for understanding how catalysts behave in near-operational conditions. This could lead to significant improvements in reactor design and lowering catalyst cost, thereby the technique will have a direct economic impact.
The impact to the planned VERSOX beamline at the Diamond Light Source is important to stress. This proposal seeks to help to coordinate and develop the national capability, and strategy, in the APPES technique at a personnel, instrumentation and scientific output level.
There are a number of government agencies who would benefit from this research including the Health Protection Agency (HPA - Biosafety Unit, Decontamination Studies and Molecular Identification Services), the Environment Agency (National Laboratory Service). We would also seek to liaise and seek collaborative research efforts with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Understanding how pathogens behave in contact with surgical instruments, without exposing the samples to extreme UHV environments would have great national and international health benefits. One experiment could look at the growth of pathogens under aerobic and anaerobic conditions within a specially designed in-situ high pressure cell.
The APPES technique would also have a great impact on the area of conservation and heritage science, where we have already sought interest in the study of paint pigments from a colleague at Tate Britain. As the instrument is hosted geographically close to many museums (Natural History, Science Museum, V&A) we would seek to establish collaborative research with those institutions. We would also use the Institute of Conservation as a point of contact for planned heritage science research.
At a more specific project level, the Lead Co-I will develop a range of skills including public communication (training by the Royal Society), a well as opportunities to interact with government and policy makers at a national level (again through the Royal Society MP-Scientist pairing scheme).
The obvious beneficiary of APPES measurements is in the commercial private sector, with emphasis on businesses operating in all the identified research themes. For example, Johnson-Matthey who work within the area of catalysis, could utilise the technique for understanding how catalysts behave in near-operational conditions. This could lead to significant improvements in reactor design and lowering catalyst cost, thereby the technique will have a direct economic impact.
The impact to the planned VERSOX beamline at the Diamond Light Source is important to stress. This proposal seeks to help to coordinate and develop the national capability, and strategy, in the APPES technique at a personnel, instrumentation and scientific output level.
There are a number of government agencies who would benefit from this research including the Health Protection Agency (HPA - Biosafety Unit, Decontamination Studies and Molecular Identification Services), the Environment Agency (National Laboratory Service). We would also seek to liaise and seek collaborative research efforts with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Understanding how pathogens behave in contact with surgical instruments, without exposing the samples to extreme UHV environments would have great national and international health benefits. One experiment could look at the growth of pathogens under aerobic and anaerobic conditions within a specially designed in-situ high pressure cell.
The APPES technique would also have a great impact on the area of conservation and heritage science, where we have already sought interest in the study of paint pigments from a colleague at Tate Britain. As the instrument is hosted geographically close to many museums (Natural History, Science Museum, V&A) we would seek to establish collaborative research with those institutions. We would also use the Institute of Conservation as a point of contact for planned heritage science research.
At a more specific project level, the Lead Co-I will develop a range of skills including public communication (training by the Royal Society), a well as opportunities to interact with government and policy makers at a national level (again through the Royal Society MP-Scientist pairing scheme).
Organisations
- Imperial College London (Lead Research Organisation)
- Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) (Collaboration)
- Nanjing Jinhe Energy Materials Co Ltd (Collaboration)
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Collaboration)
- Oregon Physics (Collaboration)
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA (Collaboration)
- Hiden Analytical (United Kingdom) (Collaboration)
- Renji Hospital (Collaboration)
- BASF (Collaboration)
- Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (Collaboration)
Publications
Zou F
(2017)
High-Accuracy Ultrasonic Corrosion Rate Monitoring
in Corrosion
Zou F
(2018)
On quantitative corrosion rate monitoring with ultrasound
in Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry
| Description | The Imperial College London Equipment Account consists of 7 individual funding streams. The impacts reported here relate to specific streams. Stream 3 ("Capital for Great Technologies - Grid Scale Energy Storage", PI Nigel Brandon) has led to one patent (Huang C.A. and Grant, P.S., Electrode structure and method of manufacture thereof, GB1420309.5, 2014) and one patent application (Aqueous Ink Compositions; Filing date: 22 June 2016; Application No. GB 1610925.8). It has also appeared in the media ("The Urban Sciences Building at Science Central in Newcastle has received a BREEAM Innovation Credit", http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sustainability/news/item/urbansciencesbuildingreceivesbreeaminnovationcredit.html and "Newcastle energy storage test bed reported as an integral piece of Newcastle Energy Center" http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/business/business-news/newcastle-centre-looking-ways-making-11669880) and won first prize at the UK Climate Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) Launchpad (http://www.eng.ox.ac.uk/about/news/first-prize-at-uk-climate-knowledge-and-innovation-community-launchpad) The capital equipment facility of Stream 4 ("Micro-Engineering Facility for Medical Robotics", PI Guang Zhong Yang) was used as the principle equipment resource for developing surgical robotics presented at the International Robotics Showcase at the IET, the grand finale event of UK Robotics Week 2016 (http://roboticsweek.uk/). UK Robotics Week is an innovation that is directly descended from the Micro-Engineering Facility for Medical Robotics via the EPSRC UK RAS Network. The equipment facility was also used to run, prepare entries for and compete in the 2nd Surgical Robot Challenge in 2016. This was an international competition run by the Hamlyn Centre as part of the first UK Robotics Week (http://roboticsweek.uk/surgicalrobotchallenge.htm) Other outputs from these streams and others are academic and therefore are not listed here, in accord with the instructions above. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
| Sector | Energy,Healthcare,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | The Royal Society Briefing Note for COP26 - CLIMATE CHANGE : SCIENCE AND SOLUTIONS: Low-carbon heating and cooling: overcoming one of world's most important net zero challenges |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | A multi-scale, high-resolution, tri-beam facility for fast machining and 3D characterisation |
| Amount | £1,970,212 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/T031379/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2020 |
| End | 09/2023 |
| Description | A new high-temperature carbon- based anticorrosive coating material |
| Amount | £468,711 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Baowu Steel |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | China |
| Start | 05/2021 |
| End | 04/2023 |
| Description | Centre for Doctoral Training |
| Amount | £5,808,027 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/S023232/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2019 |
| End | 09/2027 |
| Description | DEcarbonisation of Low TemperAture Process Heat Industry, DELTA PHI |
| Amount | £2,004,075 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/T022981/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2020 |
| End | 09/2023 |
| Description | Development of an in-situ characterisation facility for both proton and neutron irradiation |
| Amount | £1,296,308 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/V035649/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2021 |
| End | 09/2023 |
| Description | EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship: Romy Lorenz "Tailoring non-invasive brain stimulation" |
| Amount | £56,711 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2017 |
| End | 08/2018 |
| Description | EPSRC Industrial CASE Voucher |
| Amount | £84,900 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2018 |
| End | 09/2022 |
| Description | EPSRC RAS Capital |
| Amount | £6,500,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2016 |
| End | 04/2017 |
| Description | EPSRC Skills and Training Hub in Quantum Systems Engineering |
| Amount | £3,044,614 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/P510257/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2016 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | Electro- Intrusion - Simultaneous transformation of ambient heat and undesired vibrations into electricity via nanotriboelectrification during non-wetting liquid intrusion-extrusion into-from nanopores |
| Amount | € 3,651,381 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | FETPROACT-EIC-07-2020 |
| Organisation | European Commission H2020 |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Belgium |
| Start | 01/2021 |
| End | 12/2024 |
| Description | Electro-Intrusion - Simultaneous transformation of ambient heat and undesired vibrations into electricity via nanotriboelectrification during non-wetting liquid intrusion-extrusion into-from nanopores |
| Amount | € 3,651,381 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | FETPROACT-EIC-07-2020 |
| Organisation | European Commission H2020 |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Belgium |
| Start | 01/2021 |
| End | 12/2024 |
| Description | ICASE studentship |
| Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Johnson Matthey |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2017 |
| End | 09/2020 |
| Description | Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) |
| Amount | £19,903,412 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/V027050/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2021 |
| End | 03/2024 |
| Description | Industry Sponsorship of PE-CDT studentship |
| Amount | £45,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Cambridge Display Technology |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2015 |
| End | 09/2019 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of CDT studentship |
| Amount | £27,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Atomic Weapons Establishment |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2014 |
| End | 09/2018 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of CDT studentship |
| Amount | £45,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | BASF |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | Germany |
| Start | 10/2014 |
| End | 09/2018 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of CDT studentship |
| Amount | £45,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | BASF |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | Germany |
| Start | 10/2014 |
| End | 09/2018 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of CDT studentship |
| Amount | £20,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Lake Shore Cryotronics, Inc |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 10/2014 |
| End | 09/2016 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of CDT studentship |
| Amount | £45,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | TATA Steel |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | India |
| Start | 10/2014 |
| End | 09/2018 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of PE-CDT studentship |
| Amount | £7,375 (GBP) |
| Organisation | National Physical Laboratory |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2014 |
| End | 09/2016 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of PE-CDT studentship |
| Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Eight19 |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2017 |
| End | 09/2021 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of PE-CDT studentship |
| Amount | £60,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Solvay |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | Global |
| Start | 10/2014 |
| End | 09/2018 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of PE-CDT studentship |
| Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Procter & Gamble |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 10/2016 |
| End | 09/2020 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of PE-CDT studentship |
| Amount | £45,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | BASF |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | Germany |
| Start | 10/2014 |
| End | 09/2018 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of PE-CDT studentship |
| Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Merck |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | Germany |
| Start | 10/2015 |
| End | 09/2019 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of PE-CDT studentship |
| Amount | £6,750 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Pragmatic Printing Ltd |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2015 |
| End | 09/2016 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of PE-CDT studentship |
| Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Merck |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | Germany |
| Start | 10/2015 |
| End | 09/2019 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of PE-CDT studentship |
| Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Oxford Photovoltaics |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2018 |
| End | 09/2022 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of PE-CDT studentship |
| Amount | £45,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Cambridge Display Technology |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2015 |
| End | 09/2019 |
| Description | Industry sponsorship of PE-CDT studentship |
| Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Thomas Swan and Co Ltd |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2018 |
| End | 09/2022 |
| Description | MEMPHYS |
| Amount | € 2,088,195 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | 735533 |
| Organisation | European Commission H2020 |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Belgium |
| Start | 01/2017 |
| End | 12/2019 |
| Description | PCM based Thermal management of battery systems |
| Amount | £26,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute Europe GmbH |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | Germany |
| Start | 02/2018 |
| End | 01/2022 |
| Description | Research England GCRF Internal Funding |
| Amount | £113,754 (GBP) |
| Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
| Department | Global Challenges Research Fund |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2018 |
| End | 07/2019 |
| Description | Research on high temperature thermal energy storage device with high effective storage densities for flexible heat supply |
| Amount | £208,333 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute Europe GmbH |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | Germany |
| Start | 08/2020 |
| End | 01/2023 |
| Description | Salt Science - Physical Properties |
| Amount | £164,874 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NNL/NIP/031 - Lot 3 |
| Organisation | National Nuclear Laboratory |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2020 |
| End | 06/2021 |
| Description | Salt Science - Salt Handling |
| Amount | £239,667 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NNL/NIP/031 - Lot 4 |
| Organisation | National Nuclear Laboratory |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2020 |
| End | 06/2021 |
| Description | Sodium battery project |
| Amount | £166,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Shell International Petroleum |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2017 |
| End | 09/2019 |
| Description | Sorcerer |
| Amount | € 1,650,632 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | 738085 |
| Organisation | European Commission H2020 |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Belgium |
| Start | 02/2017 |
| End | 01/2020 |
| Description | Supergen Storage Network Plus 2019 |
| Amount | £1,012,009 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/S032622/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2019 |
| End | 09/2023 |
| Description | Utilising Composite Phase Change Materials |
| Amount | £131,124 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2021 |
| End | 05/2022 |
| Description | crescendo |
| Amount | € 2,739,602 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | http://www.crescendo-fuelcell.eu |
| Organisation | European Commission H2020 |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Belgium |
| Start | 01/2018 |
| End | 12/2020 |
| Description | industry sponsorship of PE-CDT studentship |
| Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Procter & Gamble |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 10/2018 |
| End | 09/2022 |
| Description | n-COSH |
| Amount | £924,591 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/P003435/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2016 |
| End | 10/2019 |
| Title | A 3-D Printed Metallic Flexible Joint for Snake-Like Surgical Robot |
| Description | Snake-like robots have numerous applications in minimally invasive surgery. One important research topic of snake-like robots is the flexible joint mechanism and its actuation. Our research team designed and fabricated a new type of flexible joint mechanism that is enabled by metal powder bed additive manufacturing technique. Kinematics and static models of the flexible joint are presented, which can help in designing and controlling the flexible joint. As a compliant mechanism, the fatigue characteristics of the flexible joint is investigated. Finite element analysis (FEA) is performed aiming for optimizing the design process. This research tool/method was developed by Dr Yang Hu, Dr Lin Zhang, Wei Li and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | In the experiment section, model estimation, FEA, and experimental validation are conducted for further understanding the characteristics of the flexible joint. An example design that can survive after 100 000 full loading cycles is demonstrated. In addition, different design variations of the proposed method and a multi-section flexible endoscope using the proposed design are introduced. The proposed flexible joint has the potential not only in reducing the cost of manufacturing and assembling a snake-like surgical robot, but also benefits for developing of more sophisticated three-dimensional snake robotic structure that has an optimized space for embedded sensing and actuation. |
| Title | A Flexible Suturing Robot for Transanal Endoscopic Microsurgery |
| Description | Suturing and knot tying in a confined space is a technically challenging yet clinically demanding task in minimally invasive surgery, which requires the use of highly articulated instruments passing through small incisions on the patient's body. Manually operating such instruments is usually very difficult, so robot-assisted methods have been introduced to reduce the burden of the surgeon. Our team proposed a robotic suturing system for simplifying suturing in a confined space. The main part of the suturing robot is a 6-mm flexible suturing instrument that consists of suturing probe and a customized flexible joint. A novel needle driving and locking mechanism have been proposed. For controlling the suturing robot with teleoperation, the kinematics of the robot and its differential Jacobian as well as inverse kinematics are provided. A working prototype of the suturing instrument is built and integrated into a teleoperated suturing system. Running stitch and knot tying experiments have been conducted to evaluate the robot's feasibility for suturing in a confined space, which mimics the transanal endoscopic microsurgery procedure. This research method/tool was developed by Dr Yang Hu, Wei Li, Dr Lin Zhang and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The most important part of this suturing robotic system for single-port TEMS is a flexible suturing instrument which consists of a needle switching probe and 2-DoF flexible joint. A novel needle driving and locking mechanism have been proposed. For controlling the suturing robot with teleoperation, the kinematics of the robot and its differential Jacobian as well as inverse kinematics are provided. A working prototype of the suturing instrument has been built and integrated into a teleoperated suturing system. Running stitch and knot tying experiments have been conducted to test the suturing robot's feasibility for suturing in a confined space which mimics the TEMS environment. The running stitch experiment shows that the suturing instrument can stitch in a faster and repetitive manner in various suturing orientations. |
| Title | A Graded and Preference Based Bayesian Approach for Gaze-Assisted Adaptive Motion Scaling Optimization |
| Description | A key component to the success of master-slave surgical systems is the quality of the master interface used to relay the surgeon's instructions to the slave robot. In previous work, our research team developed a gaze-assisted intention recognition scheme, allowing the system to dynamically adapt the motion scaling based on where the user is trying to reach. This allowed users to perform tasks significantly more quickly and with less need for clutching. However, the system possessed a number of core parameters that were manually optimized, potentially providing a non-optimal solution depending on the user. Our research team presented a Bayesian approach to the problem of optimizing a human-robot interface in a user-specific manner. Two Bayesian optimization methods are studied: one in which users are asked to grade robot behavior for a given set of parameters, and one where only preference relative to other parameter sets is expressed. This research method was proposed by Dr Gauthier Gras, Dr Carlo Seneci, Dr Petros Giataganas and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The performance of these optimizations is evaluated in a blind comparison user study, demonstrating that the optimized parameters are preferred to the manually optimized ones in over 90 % of cases after only 12 test samples. These parameters are further shown to perform at least as well as the manually optimized ones in all cases, and showing statistically significant improvement in the case of the graded optimization. |
| Title | A NFC-Powered Flexible Chest Patch |
| Description | A battery-less and flexible device to be worn as a chest patch for monitoring cardiac and hemodynamic parameters through electrical and acoustic measurements, combined with sweat pH level estimation and skin temperature, by swiping a smartphone over the patch area for enough time (?5 seconds) to allow adequate acquisition and estimation of the aforementioned parameters. This research tool was developed by Dr Bruno Miguel Gil Rosa, Dr Salzitsa Anastasova-Ivanova, Professor Guang Zhong Yang. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Fast screening of vital signals from patients in ambulatory or emergency scenarios can thus be achieved by this Near Field Communication (NFC) powered device, as well as home or office monitoring for those individuals suffering from diseases affecting the hemodynamic, cardiac and endocrine parameters detected by the proposed technology. |
| Title | A Novel Approach for Outlier Detection and Robust Sensory Data Model Learning |
| Description | In the past few decades machine learning and data analysis have been having a huge growth and they have been applied in many different problems in the field of robotics. Data are usually the result of sensor measurements and, as such, they might be subjected to noise and outliers. The presence of outliers has a huge impact on modelling the acquired data, resulting in inappropriate models. Our research team proposed a novel approach for outlier detection and rejection for input/output mapping in regression problems is presented. The robustness of the method is shown both through simulated data for linear and nonlinear regression, and real sensory data. This research method was developed by Francesco Cursi and professor Guang-Zhong Yang. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The algorithm takes inspiration from online learning and it allows to deal with outliers, and, thus, to have a more robust model learning. The performances of the method have been tested on simulated data for a linear and nonlinear mapping in case of one-dimensional input and one-dimensional output problem. |
| Title | A carbon-nanotube-coated 3D microspring force sensor |
| Description | Flexible electronic materials combined with micro-3D fabrication present new opportunities for wearable biosensors and medical devices. A novel carbon-nanotube-coated force sensor is developed by our research team. The device employs carbon-nanotube-coated microsprings with varying configurations and geometries for real-time force sensing. This research method was developed by Dr Bing Li, Dr Bruno Gil, Dr Maura Power, Dr Anzhu Gao, Dr Shen Treratanakulchai, Dr Salzitsa Anastasova and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This development successfully combined the advantages of flexible conductive nanomaterials and the versatility of two photon polymerization technologies for creating functional 3D microstructures. To demonstrate its practical value, the device has first been embodied as a patch sensor for transcutaneous monitoring of human arterial pulses, followed by the development of a multiple-point force-sensitive catheter for real-time noninvasive intraluminal intervention. The results illustrate the potential of leveraging advanced nanomaterials and micro-3D-printing for developing new medical devices. |
| Title | A dual-wavelength line-scan confocal endomicroscopy system for rapid molecular imaging |
| Description | Fiber-bundle based confocal laser endomicroscopy combined with fluorescent biomarkers has shown promise for high-resolution imaging of tissue microstructure in vivo and in situ. However, limited image acquisition speed and a restriction to single fluorescence agents (due to single channel excitation and fluorescence collection spectral bands) for most existing systems makes simultaneous visualization of multiple morphological and functional features difficult. Our research team proposed a high-speed dual-wavelength line-scan confocal laser endomicroscopy system suitable for multiplexed molecular imaging applications using 488 nm and 660 nm laser sources. The fluorescent confocal images are captured by a rolling-shutter CMOS camera at a constant frame rate of 120 Hz, with the rolling shutter of the CMOS camera acting as a virtual detector slit. Dual-wavelength imaging is achieved by switching between the laser sources for alternate frames, avoiding bleed-through, and providing an effective frame rate of 60 Hz. This research tool/method was developed by Dr Khushi Vyas, Dr Michael Hughes and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The two channels are pseudo-coloured and combined, and large area dual-wavelength mosaics are created by registering and stitching the image frames as the probe moves across the tissue. Preliminary images with a resolution of 1.2 µm are presented from fluorescently stained phantoms and ex vivo tissue, demonstrating the clinical feasibility of the technique. |
| Title | A flexible/stretchable multiparametric sensing device realized via a commercial process |
| Description | A novel flexible/stretchable device realized via a commercial process. this device is comprised of horseshoe interconnects, electrochemical sensor electrode arrays, a heater for thermotherapy/thermo-regulation, a temperature sensor, electrodes for recording/applying signals to tissues and a bioimpedance sensor. This research method was developed by Dr Panagiotis Kassanos, Dr Florent Seichepine, Dr Dominic Wales and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Electrochemical deposition and characterization of platinum black to the bioimpedance sensor and gold and subsequently IrOx for pH sensing to other electrodes, characterization of the temperature and bioimpedance sensors and heater are presented. |
| Title | A hybrid marker design combining circular dots and chessboard vertices for facilitating tracking cylindrical tools |
| Description | To provide an integrated visualisation of intraoperative ultrasound and endoscopic images to facilitate intraoperative guidance, real-time tracking of the ultrasound probe is required. State-of-the-art methods are suitable for planar targets while most of the laparoscopic ultrasound probes are cylindrical objects. A tracking framework for cylindrical objects with a large work space will improve the usability of the intraoperative ultrasound guidance. A hybrid marker design that combines circular dots and chessboard vertices is proposed for facilitating tracking cylindrical tools. The circular dots placed over the curved surface are used for pose estimation. The chessboard vertices are employed to provide additional information for resolving the ambiguous pose problem due to the use of planar model points under a monocular camera. Furthermore, temporal information between consecutive images is considered to minimise tracking failures with real-time computational performance. This research tool/method was developed by Dr Lin Zhang, Dr Menglong Ye, Dr Po-Ling Chan and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Detailed validation confirms that our hybrid marker provides a large working space for different tool sizes (6-14 mm in diameter). The tracking framework allows translational movements between 40 and 185 mm along the depth direction and rotational motion around three local orthogonal axes up to ±80°. Comparative studies with the current state of the art confirm that our approach outperforms existing methods by providing nearly 100% detection rates and accurate pose estimation with mean errors of 2.8 mm and 0.72°. The tracking algorithm runs at 20 frames per second for 960×540 image resolution videos. |
| Title | A laser-profiled continuum manipulator for the guidance of bronchoscopic instruments |
| Description | Bronchoscopic intervention, as a minimally invasive method for the diagnosis and treatment of lung diseases, has attracted more and more attention in recent years. However, existing endobronchial instruments lack the steerability accessing the peripheral airways with difficult bifurcations. Our research team proposed a novel wire-driven dexterous manipulator for the guidance of such instruments. Precision laser profiling is used to cut a stainless steel tube into multiple interlocked segments with revolute joints. The outer diameter of the manipulator is 2.20 mm which is small enough to be inserted into the working channels of most commercial bronchoscopes and distal airways, while keeping a large inner lumen with a diameter of 1.44 mm for passing various bronchoscopic instruments. The small bending radius provides enough flexibility to navigate inside the complex bronchial tree. Two kinematic models are proposed to predict the manipulator configuration from the translation of actuation wires. The former model is geometrically derived with the assumption of constant curvature bending and the latter one is statistically driven by capturing the motion trajectories of manipulator joints. This research method/tool was developed by Dr Ning Liu, Mohamed Abdelaziz, Dr Mali Shen and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | A prototype of our low-cost add-on instrument guidance robot for bronchoscopic intervention is presented which can be easily integrated into current clinical routine. |
| Title | A micro-scale fiber-optic force sensor produced using direct laser writing (DLW) |
| Description | Fiber-optic sensors have numerous existing and emerging applications spanning areas from industrial process monitoring to medical diagnosis. Two of the most common fiber sensors are based on the fabrication of Bragg gratings or Fabry-Perot etalons. While these techniques offer a large array of sensing targets, their utility can be limited by the difficulties involved in fabricating forward viewing probes (Bragg gratings) and in obtaining sufficient signal-to-noise ratios (Fabry-Perot systems). Our research team presented a micro-scale fiber-optic force sensor produced using direct laser writing (DLW). The fabrication entails a single-step process that can be undertaken in a reliable and repeatable manner using a commercial DLW system. The sensor is made of a series of thin plates (i.e. Fabry-Perot etalons), which are supported by springs that compress under an applied force. At the proximal end of the fiber, the interferometric changes that are induced as the sensor is compressed are read out using reflectance spectroscopy, and the resulting spectral changes are calibrated with respect to applied force. This calibration is performed using either singular value decomposition (SVD) followed by linear regression or artificial neural networks. We describe the design and optimization of this device, with a particular focus on the data analysis required for calibration. This research method was developed by Dr Alex Thompson, Dr Maura Power, and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The force sensing capability is based on the use of reflectance spectroscopy to readout interferometric changes induced as the force sensor is compressed. To extract force measurements from the complex spectral data, we used both SVD-regression analysis and artificial neural networks, obtaining reliable and accurate force prediction in both cases. In some scenarios we observed errors in the optical force prediction, and the most serious of these discrepancies were attributed to differences between the calibration and test data that were not sufficiently detected or accounted for in the training algorithm. In conclusion, we demonstrate proof-of-concept force sensing over the range 0-50 µN, with a measurement error of approximately 1.5 µN. Overall, this work demonstrates the feasibility of the use of DLW for the fabrication of micro-scale dynamic structures for fiber-based sensing. Importantly, this involves a simple and repeatable fabrication protocol that allows for the production of forward viewing probes. |
| Title | A novel approach for stress condition monitoring using disposable flexible sensors |
| Description | By integrating flexible amplifiers with a commercially available flexible polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) mechanical deformation sensor and a pH-type chemical sensor, this proposed system proposed by our research team can detect arterial pulses from the neck and pH levels from sweat located in the back of the body. The system uses organic thin film transistor (OTFT)-based signal amplification front-end circuits with modifications to accommodate the dynamic signal ranges obtained from the sensors. The OTFTs were manufactured on a low-cost flexible polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrate using a coater capable of Roll-to-Roll (R2R) deposition. This research tool/method was developed by Dr Salzitsa Anastasova, Dr Bruno Gil Rosa, Dr Benny Lo and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This proposed system can capture physiological indicators and data be interrogated by Near Field Communication (NFC) and has been validated with healthy subjects, demonstrating its application for real-time stress monitoring. |
| Title | An Intraoperative Robotic Device for Large-Area High-Speed Microscopic Imaging and Intervention |
| Description | Probe-based confocal endomicroscopy is an emerging high-magnification optical imaging technique that provides in vivo and in situ cellular-level imaging for real-time assessment of tissue pathology. Endomicroscopy could potentially be used for intraoperative surgical guidance, but it is challenging to assess a surgical site using individual microscopic images due to the limited field-of-view and difficulties associated with manually manipulating the probe. Our research team presented a novel robotic device for large-area endomicroscopy imaging is proposed, demonstrating a rapid, but highly accurate, scanning mechanism with image-based motion control, which is able to generate histology-like endomicroscopy mosaics. The device also includes, for the first time in robotic-assisted endomicroscopy, the capability to ablate tissue without the need for an additional tool. This research tool/method was developed by Dr Petros Giataganas, Dr Michael Hughes, Dr Christopher Payne, Dr Piyamate Wisanuvej, Dr Burak Temelkuran and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The device achieves preprogrammed trajectories with positioning accuracy of less than 30 µm, while the image-based approach demonstrated that it can suppress random motion disturbances up to 1.25 mm s -1 . Mosaics are presented from a range of ex vivo human and animal tissues, over areas of more than 3 mm 2 , scanned in approximate 10 s. Conclusion: This paper demonstrates the potential of the proposed instrument to generate large-area, high-resolution microscopic images for intraoperative tissue identification and margin assessment. Significance: This approach presents an important alternative to current histology techniques, significantly reducing the tissue assessment time, while simultaneously providing the capability to mark and ablate suspicious areas intraoperatively. |
| Title | An image retrieval framework for real-time endoscopic image retargeting |
| Description | Serial endoscopic examinations of a patient are important for early diagnosis of malignancies in the gastrointestinal tract. However, retargeting for optical biopsy is challenging due to extensive tissue variations between examinations, requiring the method to be tolerant to these changes whilst enabling real-time retargeting. Our research team presented an image retrieval framework for inter-examination retargeting. We propose both a novel image descriptor tolerant of long-term tissue changes and a novel descriptor matching method in real time. The descriptor is based on histograms generated from regional intensity comparisons over multiple scales, offering stability over long-term appearance changes at the higher levels, whilst remaining discriminative at the lower levels. The matching method then learns a hashing function using random forests, to compress the string and allow for fast image comparison by a simple Hamming distance metric. This research method was developed by Dr Menglong Ye and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | A dataset that contains 13 in vivo gastrointestinal videos was collected from six patients, representing serial examinations of each patient, which includes videos captured with significant time intervals. Precision-recall for retargeting shows that our new descriptor outperforms a number of alternative descriptors, whilst our hashing method outperforms a number of alternative hashing approaches. Real-time performance also allows for practical integration without disturbing the existing clinical workflow. |
| Title | An multifunctional flexible/stretchable smart e-skin with dedicated readout electronics |
| Description | Here we propose the development of a smart e-skin sensing and instrumentation capabilities based on the aforementioned technologies. The work focuses on the design of the e-skin platform and the development of compact readout electronics with multiplexing capabilities in the vicinity of the sensors. - Development of flexible and stretchable sensors for wearable and surgical applications. - Exploitation of commercial flexible/stretchable technologies for the realization of flexible and stretchable sensors. - Development of a custom in-house process for the fabrication of flexible/stretchable electronics. - Development of sensor readout electronics. Methods for microelectronics integration of flexible substrates. - Methods for the electrochemical post processing of electrodes for reduced interfacial impedance and chemical sensing. - Methods for the characterization of flexible/stretchable devices under s=induced stresses and methods for sensor characterization. Researchers with significant contribution: Panagiotis Kassanos, Florent Seichepine and Salzitsa Anastasova |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | A set of flexible/stretchable sensing and interconnect technologies have been developed at the Hamlyn Centre, based on flexible printed circuit (FPC) technologies [2-3] and conductive composite materials. Tissue bioimpedance sensors, optical, capacitive and resistive strain and pressure sensors, electrochemical sensors for metabolite measurements, and inductors for power delivery and data communication have been realized with these. |
| Title | Biohybrid prosthetic for nerve regeneration based on multi-functional fibre |
| Description | A new generation of microfabrication techniques, based on multi-functional fibre could improve the rehabilitation of patient by allowing for the implants to directly reconnect severed nerves. To achieve this, the growth of cultured nervous cells along an implant axes will be induced and enhanced by the mean of topological, electrical and chemical stimulations. A unique set of techniques has been developed in the Hamlyn Centre for the fabrication, functionalisation, electrical connection and fluid delivery capability of fibre designed and realised on site. Those fibres of tuneable diameter and length can be used to meet the requirement of nerve regeneration implants. This project have been focused on the development of new technology and protocols as well as testing of the first prototypes in in-vitro situation. In this framework the first phase of WP1 has been closed by the development of the first generation of implant base on polycarbonate fibre. One of the key achievements has been the use of a combination of carbon nanotube and polyLysine coating to achieve a large enhancement of cells seeding and growth (Acknowledgement, Dr Dominic Wales). The second generation is now under development with our effort currently focused on the usage of 3D printed hydrogel for 3D culture. For WP2 several tools have been developed in order to properly asses in repeatable condition the effect of electrical simulation for cells cultured. A new type of micro-electrode array (MEA) platform offering thermal control possibility has been design and an elegant solution has been developed for the electrical stimulation of cells for an extended period of time in sterile condition via the design and fabrication of a hand held stimulation generator. (Acknowledgement, Dr Panagiotis Kassanos, Dr Bruno Gil Rosa)). Techniques for the control modification of the electrodes via Pt Black deposition and long term stability have been developed. WP3, focused on the cell culture aspect of the project has been focused on this first month on the development of a reliable culture protocol for HELA cells. We have performed a study on the effect of various surface functionalizations on the cells behavior. Protocols for the efficient cells staining and imaging have been adapted to study the geometrical aspect of the cell development. (Acknowledgement, Dr Meysam Keshavarz) Researchers with significant contribution: Florent Seichepine, Meysam Keshavarz, Bruno Gil Rosa, Panagiotis Kassanos, Dominic Wales, Salzitsa Anastasova-Ivanova, Burak Temelkuran and Mohamed Abdelaziz |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | A unique set of techniques has been developed in the Hamlyn Centre for the fabrication, functionalisation, electrical connection and fluid delivery capability of fibre designed and realised on site. Those fibres of tuneable diameter and length can be used to meet the requirement of nerve regeneration implants. We develop a prototype of bio-hybrid implant by investigating a large number of growth condition and architecture using several on-fibre technologies, such as electronic stimulation, microfluidic local delivery of growth factors and other chemical and micro- and nano- structuring of the surfaces. Such approach allows for the integration of various growth enhancing technologies developed in the literature directly onto the substrate, the shape of which can be tuned to fit the requirement of a specific injured nerve.Moreover, such artificial implants would not require a donor and thus remove the risk of pathogen transmission. |
| Title | Cerebrospinal fluid filtration (CSF) system as a therapeutical approach |
| Description | To analyse the CSF, it must be sent to the laboratory and certain analysis for example cultures can take up to several days to obtain a result. This project aims to develop a means of real-time continuous monitoring of different biomarkers in CSF which will allow for more evidence based therapeutic approaches and to show the huge potential of having a rapid diagnostic bedside test that will alleviate the need for time and labour-intensive testing. Preliminary work involving development of ionic sensors related to the CSF analysis such as sodium potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride is under development for the required working range. Researchers with significant contribution: Salzitsa Anastasova-Ivanova, Hanifa Koguna, Haidie Adams and Bruno M Gil Rosa |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | CSF filtration has been shown to decrease burden of disease and hence improve outcome in a case study with a pneumococcal meningitis treated with extra-corporeal filtration a favourable outcome was achieved. Subarachnoid Haemorrhage (SAH) is one of the most serious neurosurgical emergencies and results in high mortality and morbidity. Complications such as hydrocephalus develop as well as other sequelae because of blood load, blood breakdown products and other inflammatory cytokines. Complications following SAH may lead to poor outcomes, underlying mechanism include vasospasm, microthrombosis, and delayed cerebral ischemia. |
| Title | Confocal fluorescence microscopy platforms |
| Description | The Hamlyn Centre of Robotic Surgery at Imperial College London has recently developed a high-speed line-scanning confocal endomicroscope that can achieve frame rates upto 120 fps, an order of magnitude improvement over commercially available microconfocal systems. Preliminary work has been carried out on assessing margins of 51 wide local excision specimens demonstrate that it is possible to image tissue margins with 93% accuracy without affecting their oncopathological assessment & interpretation by histopathologists. A second system with integrated high-speed scanning stage is designed for rapid gigapixel imaging of whole tissue specimens like core needle biopsies. This system has been taken over to Renji hospital, Shanghai for rapid imaging of whole prostate biopsies and bladder cancer specimens. Currently, 25 tissue specimens have been imaged and the correlations with corresponding histopathology analysis is carried out. |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Tissue imaging protocol: The tissue acquisition, staining, assessment and validation protocols have been developed and tested on freshly excised as well as snap frozen tissues. Over 150 samples have been imaged using the Hamlyn line-scan confocal system and 20 specimens using the St. Andrews light-sheet fluorescence microscope. For staining: a solution of acriflavine hydrochloride at 0.02% concentration is applied on each margin of the tissue under assessment. This fluorescent agent is left to stain the tissues for approximately 1 minute and imaged immediately. The stain is not found to interfere with the routine histology analysis. |
| Title | Development of fibre-optic SERS probes using two-photon polymerisation for rapid in vivo detection of bacteria |
| Description | Sensing elements developed on planar substrates and the tip of an optical fibre are demonstrated for rapid bacteria detection. This research method is led by Dr Jang Ah Kim. Internal collaborators: Dr Dominic Wales and Dr Alex Thompson. |
| Type Of Material | Biological samples |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This research can aid rapid in vivo infection diagnosis during minimally invasive interventions in the future to reduce time and cost burdens of diseases. A conference presentation/proceeding was out in 2019 and a journal article was published in 2020. |
| Title | Electronics tethered Microrobots |
| Description | Our team developed Electronics tethered Microrobots for tissue biopsy and for theranostic and regenerative application. The researchers first applied electronic patterning on tethered Micro-robots and designed two-level biphasic high voltage electroporation with simultaneous bioimpedance sensing. Following this, fibre integration of electroporation electrodes will be generated. This research tool is developed by Dr Panagiotis Kassanos, Dr Antoine Barbot and Dr Florent Seichepine |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The development of micro-manipulation and biopsy tools will be potential beneficial to fundamental biology study and micro-biopsy. The final goal is to fully integrate the tools into the continuum robot for the application of the micro-robotics surgery. |
| Title | Fabrication of Pressure Sensors on Medical Catheter for Intraluminal Intervention |
| Description | This project introduces a novel carbon nanotube-coated force sensor, successfully combining the advantages of flexible conductive nanomaterials and the versatility of two photon polymerization technologies for creating functional 3D micro structures. The device employs carbon nanotube-coated micro springs with varying numbers and geometries for the real-time force sensing and dielectric micro springs to hold the top gold electrode. To demonstrate its practical value, the device has firstly been embodied as a patch sensor for monitoring human arterial pulses through skin, followed by development of a multiple point force-sensitive catheter for real-time non-invasive intraluminal intervention in an animal lung. The results illustrate the potential of leveraging advanced nanomaterials and micro 3D printing for developing new medical devices. Researchers with significant contribution: Bing Li, Anzhu Gao and Bruno Gil Rosa |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | It is expected in future that the pressure perception could be integrated with the robotic control loop to enable more accurate and safer positioning within the confined space, even improve the operation effectiveness and efficiency, therefore benefiting the global health system. |
| Title | Fibre based sensing method for diagnostic |
| Description | By using electrochemistry, optics and micro fluidic based biopsy, our team aims to realise a fibre-based sensor for biomarker detection to assist and accelerate diagnosis of lung disease during bronchoscopy procedures. This method is developed by Dr Antoine Barbot, Dr Haijie Tan, Dr Panagiotis Kassanos, Dr Salzitsa Anastasova, Dr Florent Seichepine, Dr Burak Temelkuran and Mohamed Abdelaziz. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | One of the challenges clinicians currently face is not being able to determine exactly which kind of abnormality lungs patients have using conventional bronchoscopes, and conventional biopsy results can usually take up to weeks and even months to obtain. Developing a fibre-based sensing method and tool for rapid diagnostic would be beneficial to the clinical application and compliment conventional bronchoscopes, which lack of such sensing capability. |
| Title | Floating magnetic microrobots for fiber functionalization |
| Description | Minimally invasive surgery is increasingly used to target small lesions. Therefore, there is a growing demand for miniaturised tools-such as microcatheters, articulated microforceps, or tweezers-that incorporate sensing and actuation for precision surgery. Although existing microfabrication techniques have addressed the construction of these devices, accurate integration and functionalization of chemical and physical sensors represent major challenges. A microrobotic platform for the functionalization of fibers of diameters from 140 to 830 micrometers, with a patterning precision of 5 micrometers and an orientation error below 0.4°. Our research team developed two 2 millimeter-by-3 millimeter, 200-micrometer-thick microrobots to align floating electronic circuits on a fiber during a wet transfer process. The position and orientation of the microrobots were controlled at the air/water interface by a permanent magnet. The stiffness of the position controlled was 0.2 newton millimeter, leading to an average force of 0.5 newton. The nonhomogeneous magnetic field of the magnet, associated with different preferred magnetization directions recorded in the microrobots, allowed the distance between the two microrobots to be precisely controlled. This research method was developed by Dr oine Barbot, Dr Haijie Tan, Dr Florent Seichepine and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This extra degree of freedom was used to control the microrobot pair as a tweezer to grab and release floating electronic patterns, whereas the others were used to align the pattern position and orientation with the fiber. A model of this control, as well as the microrobots' interaction through surface tension, is proposed. Detailed performance validation is provided, and various exemplar sensor embodiments on a 200-micrometer-diameter fiber and three-dimensional devices are demonstrated. |
| Title | Fluorescence microscopy for rapid virtual histology of whole tissue specimens |
| Description | The objective of this project is to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of high-speed fluorescence microscopy platforms in determining radial margins status following BCS by comparison to conventional histopathology. Such systems allow non-invasive real-time 'virtual' histology imaging of whole tissue specimens without having to section and fix them. Characteristic morphological features can be visualized at sub-cellular scale and assessed to distinguish normal/benign from neoplastic tissue sites. Researchers with significant contribution: Khushi Vyas and Professor Kishan Dholakia |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Preliminary work on using wide-local and confocal fluorescence systems developed at Hamlyn Centre has been carried out on 160 ex vivo human breast tissue specimens and 41 wide local excisions following breast conserving surgery. Future studies will focus on imaging margins of 49 WLE specimens and evaluate the diagnostic performance using line-scan confocal system and light-sheet imaging system. |
| Title | Kinematic modelling for uIGES instrument |
| Description | Endoscopic procedures have transformed minimally invasive surgery as they allow the examination and intervention on a patient's anatomy through natural orifices, without the need for external incisions. However, the complexity of anatomical pathways and the limited dexterity of existing instruments, limit such procedures mainly to diagnosis and biopsies. In order to overcome these obstacles, our research team designed articulated endoscopic instruments for possible interventions of endobronchial interventions and/or interventional bronchoscopy. A new robotic platform was proposed: the Intuitive imaging sensing navigated and kinematically enhanced (i2Snake) robot that aims to improve the field of endoscopic surgery. The proposed robotic platform includes a snake-like robotic endoscope equipped with a camera, a light-source and two robotic instruments, supported with a robotic arm for global positioning and for insertion of the i2Snake, and a master interface for master-slave teleoperation. The proposed robotic platform design focuses on ergonomics and intuitive control. The control workflow was first validated in simulation and then implemented on the robotic platform. This tool was developed by Dr Pierre Berthet-Rayne, Dr Gauthier Gras, Dr Konrad Leibrandt, Dr Piyamate Wisanuvej, Andreas Schmitz, Dr Carlo Seneci and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The proposed system contributes to the field of endoscopic surgical robots and could allow to perform more complex endoscopic surgical procedures while reducing patient trauma and recovery time. |
| Title | Laser-Profiled Continuum Robot with Integrated Tension Sensing |
| Description | Our research team proposed the use of optical fibres for both actuation and tension/shape/force sensing. It uses a model-based method with structural compensation, allowing direct measurement of the cable tension near the base of the manipulator without increasing the dimensions. It further structurally filters out disturbances from the flexible shaft. In addition, a model is built by considering segment differences, cable interactions/cross talks, and external forces. This research tool/method was developed by Dr Anzhu Gao, Dr Ning Liu, Dr Mali Shen, Mohamed E.M.K. Abdelaziz, Dr Burak Temelkuran, and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The proposed model-based method can simultaneously estimate the shape of the manipulator and external force applied onto the robot tip. Detailed modelling and validation results demonstrate the accuracy and reliability of the proposed method for the miniaturized continuum robot for endoluminal intervention. |
| Title | Light-sheet fluorescence microscopes for Fluorescence microscopy for rapid virtual histology of whole tissue specimens |
| Description | Lightsheet microscopy facilitates rapid, high-contrast, volumetric imaging with minimal sample exposure. However, the rapid divergence of a traditional Gaussian light sheet restricts the field of view (FOV) that provides innate subcellular resolution. Our collaborators at University of St. Andrews have recently developed an open-top histology light-sheet microscope with Airy beam that innately yields high contrast and resolution up to a tenfold larger FOV and enables rapid 3D tissue imaging. The first generation system was tested on 10 fresh-frozen breast tissue specimens and 3D tissue images with cellular resolution and visual distinction between normal and neoplastic tissues were obtained. However, the system was not turn-key and its large size was found to be difficult to move to a clinical setting. A second generation of the system was developed to be compact and tested in Charing cross hospital for fresh tissue imaging experiments. Large-cohort studies and system design modifications to make it more turn-key and reduce alignment issues is currently underway. |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Tissue imaging protocol: The tissue acquisition, staining, assessment and validation protocols have been developed and tested on freshly excised as well as snap frozen tissues. Over 150 samples have been imaged using the Hamlyn line-scan confocal system and 20 specimens using the St. Andrews light-sheet fluorescence microscope. For staining: a solution of acriflavine hydrochloride at 0.02% concentration is applied on each margin of the tissue under assessment. This fluorescent agent is left to stain the tissues for approximately 1 minute and imaged immediately. The stain is not found to interfere with the routine histology analysis. |
| Title | Magnetic Microrobots for Stem Cell and Drug Delivery |
| Description | The microrobots are small enough to be injected through the blood stream and overcome the impediments of reaching these delicate organs. A cage-like structure of these microrobots coated with a thin layer of Nickel and Titanium make them magnetic responsive and at the same time bio-compatible the requirements by which they can be manoeuvred through to body after insertion. An electromagnetic field will be exploited to guide the microrobots through the body with extreme accuracy. Our preliminarily experiments demonstrated that these microrobots can be successfully loaded with cells and being used as a payload of primary cells to the predetermined target organs. The first generation of this magnetic robots have been successfully fabricated using the commercial photo-resist and been coated with Ti and Ni for magnetic response. On the next step, these microrobots were seeded with HeLa cells and were maneuvered by exploiting a magnetic field. Based on the preliminary results, a need for synthesizing a custom-made photo resist to fabricate these microrobots was determined - since the commercial photo resist has deficient biocompatibility and therefore it has to be coated with metallic deposition. The second generation of this magnetic robots focuses on biocompatibility and an alternative for metallic deposition. Therefore, polyethylene glycol (PEG) based polymer has been used to overcome the biocompatibility issue of the first generation, at the same time magnetic nanoparticles were added into the PEG-based resist to circumvent the need for metallic deposition that hinders the degradation of these microrobots. In the following years, the untethered microrobots will be exploited for targeted delivery of cargoes such as drugs, stem cells and/or other therapeutic agents and the tethered microrobots/microactuators will be used for tissue biopsy at end of the fibres. As for the actuation, the first generation of untethered microrobots is focused on magnetic responsive actuation. We are also developing photo and chemo responsive resists as well - the microrobots will be steered by photo- or chemical gradients. The tethered microrobots/microactuators are to be fabricated from the same 2PP photo-resists so the actuation can be controlled by magnetism, light or chemical gradients. This research method is led by: Dr Meysam Keshavarz Internal Collaborators: Dr Dominic J. Wales, Dr Antoine Barbot and Dr Jang-Ah Kim |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The microrobots designed in this project contains micro-porous that help holding cells, using magnetic fields, that can guided to an organ of interest in the body where cells will start proliferating and regenerating damaged tissues. The first generation of the microrobots are coated with thin layer of nickel and titanium deposition. The nickel allows manipulation of the microrobot using an external magnetic field, while the titanium increases the biocompatibility of the structure, reducing its cytotoxicity. Another notable impact of this project is that our researchers successfully integrated the magnetic nano-particles into the PEG-based resist as well as generated the fabrication of the microrobots. This integration has hampered the feasibility of using microrobots for cell delivery application. |
| Title | Magnetic Microrobots for Transportation of Primary Cells, Targeted Therapy and Tissue Regeneration |
| Description | The microrobots are small enough to be injected through the blood stream and overcome the impediments of reaching these delicate organs. A cage-like structure of these microrobots coated with a thin layer of Nickel and Titanium make them magnetic responsive and at the same time biocompatible the requirements by which they can be manoeuvred through to body after insertion. An electromagnetic field will be exploited to guide the microrobots through the body with extreme accuracy. Our preliminarily experiments demonstrated that these microrobots can be successfully loaded with cells and being used as a payload of primary cells to the predetermined target organs. The first generation of this magnetic robots have been successfully fabricated using the commercial photo-resist and been coated with Ti and Ni for magnetic response. On the next step, these microrobots were seeded with HeLa cells and were maneuvered by exploiting a magnetic field. Based on the preliminary results, a need for synthesizing a custom-made photo resist to fabricate these microrobots was determined - since the commercial photo resist has deficient biocompatibility and therefore it has to be coated with metallic deposition. There second generation of this magnetic robots focuses on biocompatibility and an alternative for metallic deposition. Therefore, polyethylene glycol (PEG) based polymer has been used to overcome the biocompatibility issue of the fist generation, at the same time magnetic nanoparticles were added into the PEG-based resist to circumvent the need for metallic deposition that hinders the degradation of these microrobots. As the hydrogel-based approached seems promising for fabrication of micro-robots for cell delivery, a new mainstream of synthesis of PEG-based hydrogel has been added to objective of this project. The pending and future works to be done are including the cultivation of HeLa and primary cells on the second generation of the hydrogel-based micro-robots and ex-vivo experiments on Zebrafish. Researchers with significant contribution: Meysam Keshavarz, Antoine Barbot, Dominic J. Wales |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The microrobots designed in this project contains micro-porous that help holding cells, using magnetic fields, that can guided to an organ of interest in the body where cells will start proliferating and regenerating damaged tissues. The first generation of the microrobots are coated with thin layer of nickel and titanium deposition. The nickel allows manipulation of the microrobot using an external magnetic field, while the titanium increases the biocompatibility of the structure, reducing its cytotoxicity. Another notable impact of this project is that our researchers successfully integrated the magnetic nano-particles into the PEG-based resist as well as generated the fabrication of the microrobots. This integration has hampered the feasibility of using microrobots for cell delivery application. |
| Title | Micro-manipulation and biopsy tools (cutting tissue, isolating tissue, retrieve tissue) |
| Description | A range of micro-manipulation and biopsy tools have been developed to aim to reach single cell surgery for fundamental biology study and micro-biopsy. This research tool is developed by Dr Antoine Barbot, Dr Hyun-Taek Lee and Dan-Dan Zhang |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The fiberbot approach have the capability to downsize the scale of the tools used in surgery. The development of micro-manipulation and biopsy tools will be potential beneficial to fundamental biology study and micro-biopsy. The final goal is to fully integrate the tools into the continuum robot for the application of the micro-robotics surgery. |
| Title | Modelling Micro-IGES Dynamics |
| Description | In the past few decades machine learning and data analysis have been having a huge growth and they have been applied in many different problems in the field of robotics. Data are usually the result of sensor measurements and, as such, they might be subjected to noise and outliers. The presence of outliers has a huge impact on modelling the acquired data, resulting in inappropriate models. Our research team proposed a ''robust'' method for learning the mapping which is able to discard possible outliers in the dataset (outlier detection and rejection for input/output mapping in regression problems) This Research method was developed by Dr Francesco Cursi, Professor Guang-Zhong Yang. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This novel method for outlier detection and rejection for input/output mapping in regression problems is shown both through simulated data for linear and nonlinear regression, and real sensory data. Despite being validated by using artificial neural networks, the method can be generalized to any other regression method. |
| Title | Rolling-Joint Design Optimization for Tendon Driven Snake-Like Surgical Robots |
| Description | The use of snake-like robots for surgery is a popular choice for intra-luminal procedures. In practice, the requirements for strength, flexibility and accuracy are difficult to be satisfied simultaneously. Our research team presented a computational approach for optimizing the design of a snake-like robot using serial rolling-joints and tendons as the base architecture for minimally invasive surgery. The method optimizes the design in terms of joint angle range and tendon placement to prevent the tendons and joints from colliding during bending motion. The resulting optimized joints were manufactured using 3D printing. The robot was characterized in terms of workspace, dexterity, precision and manipulation forces. The results show a repeatability as low as 0.9mm and manipulation forces of up to 5.6N. This research method/tool was developed by Dr Pierre Berthet-Rayne, Dr Konrad Leibrandt, Dr Kiyoung Kim, Dr Carlo Seneci, Dr Jianzhong Shang and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The key technical contributions of the work include a new bi-stable synchronous rolling-joint, a corresponding optimization algorithm that also consider collisions, and a spinal cord architecture with tendon routed in the center of the robot to reduce tendon cross-talk. The model of the rolling-joint for 3D motion is investigated, and the details of the algorithm to optimize the joint parameters are described. The resulting dexterity of the proposed device was studied in detail, demonstrating marked improvements compared to a previous prototype. An optimized joint was manufactured using additive manufacturing and characterized in terms of precision and manipulation forces. The results show manipulation forces up to 5.6 N but will need to be further characterized in a clinical scenario with an outer sheath and tools running inside the robot. |
| Title | Soft, biodegradable and 3D printed fibres and device-cell interfaces |
| Description | A fabrication of biodegradable hydrogel and/or biopolymer materials for 3D printing of fibres has been developed for the creation of a new paradigm in fibrebots and fibre-based medical devices. This research method is led by: Dr Dominic Wales Internal Collaborators: Dr Meysam Keshavarz, Dr Panagiotis Kassanos, Dr Antoine Barbot, Dr Jang-Ah Kim and Dr Hyun-Taek Lee |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | These fibre devices can be used for the next generation of neuro-regeneration and also as injectable (injected/delivered from the end of a fibre bot) cylindrical fibre-based stents that unfold to reopen/repair damaged or collapsing alveoli/airways located at the small far distal branches of the lung. |
| Title | PyPNS -- multiscale simulation of a peripheral nerve in Python |
| Description | A Python module to simulate many axons within a peripheral nerve. The nerve can be stimulated intra- and extracellularly and recordings can be made. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Artificial recordings from peripheral nerves can be generated and stimulation efficiencies of electrodes and stimulation current time courses can be evaluated. This is of use for both interface development and decoding algorithm testing. |
| URL | https://github.com/chlubba/PyPNS |
| Title | catch22 -- CAnonical Time-series CHaracteristics |
| Description | A collection of 22 useful and mutually complementing time-series features that were selected by their classification performance and implemented in C for fast execution. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The set of 22 estimators can be used for quick clustering, classifying and summarizing of time series in a space of interpretable characteristics. |
| URL | https://github.com/chlubba/catch22 |
| Description | 'Biohybrid prosthetic for nerve regeneration based on multi-functional fibre' Clinical Colaboration with Renji hospital in Shanghai |
| Organisation | Renji Hospital |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Hospitals |
| PI Contribution | The Hamlyn Centre is developing a new generation of microfabrication techniques, based on multi-functional fibre could improve the rehabilitation of patient by allowing for the implants to directly reconnect severed nerves. To achieve this, the growth of cultured nervous cells along an implant axes will be induced and enhanced by the mean of topological, electrical and chemical stimulations. A unique set of techniques has been developed in the Hamlyn Centre for the fabrication, functionalisation, electrical connection and fluid delivery capability of fibre designed and realised on site. Those fibres of tuneable diameter and length can be used to meet the requirement of nerve regeneration implants. Our research teams brought our current research results regarding neuro-regeneration, robotic assisted surgery for spinal cord surgery and wearable devices to our collaborators for further discussion. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The collaborators from Renji Hospital offered their advices to our research issues. This collaboration will be used to set up an experimental framework adapted toward our long term goal of in vivo study. |
| Impact | N/A |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Biohybrid prosthetic for nerve regeneration based on multi-functional fibre |
| Organisation | Shanghai Jiao Tong University |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The Hamlyn Centre team is focused on the development of the technology required for this project as following: - the development of the first generation of implant base on polycarbonate fibre - the second generation is now under development with our effort currently focused on the usage of 3D printed hydrogel for 3D culture - Microfluidic drug delivery will be integrated in the next generation and electronic stimulation will first been study on 2D planar culture - the arrival of a new 3D bioprinter in the laboratory changes some of our vision for the future integration on 3D bundle type culture Collaborative visit in Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine: - Workshop with clinician - Seminar with students - Technical demonstration of the surgical robotic capabilities |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Shanghai Collaborator is supporting our clinical trials. |
| Impact | N/A |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Composite PCM production and demonstration |
| Organisation | Nanjing Jinhe Energy Materials Co Ltd |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We have helped with the process design of the world first large scale commercial demonstration plant using composite phase change materials for the use of the curtailed wind power. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partner has helped us in the development of our materials for engineering applications. We have also be able to access their facilities for measuring our materials properties. |
| Impact | The collaboration has led to a new collaborative project funded by Innovate UK and Jiangsu Provincial Government. |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | EU Project StoRIES |
| Organisation | Karlsruhe Institute of Technology |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This is a consortium led by KIT with many other partners |
| Collaborator Contribution | Funding via the EU project, access to expertise and facilities on energy storage |
| Impact | Various workshops, infrastructure call, funding for infrastructure etc |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Flow chemistry collaboration with BASF |
| Organisation | BASF |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | The ROAR team provided training and scientific advice to an intern from BASF on a short 3-month project. We provided the technical expertise to design a flow reactor for their process, and the intern used our advanced analytical instrumentation to characterise the reactor. |
| Collaborator Contribution | BASF provided the funding to support a graduating student to spend 3 months in the ROAR laboratory learning about flow chemistry. The student has subsequently moved to BASF in Germany to complete a 6 month internship where they will transfer the knowledge gained during their time in our laboratory. |
| Impact | Student's next destination was internship at BASF. Collaboration was multidisciplinary - chemistry and chemical engineering. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | GIST-CPE International R&D Centre for Plastic Electronics |
| Organisation | Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology |
| Country | Korea, Republic of |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Focus on the advanced characterization of material photophysics, device physics, and the solid understanding of charge dynamics in the integrated solar systems, which provides important information for improving the final device efficiency and lifetime. |
| Collaborator Contribution | To develop high-performance perovskite/organic integrated solar systems based on a variety of functional materials and established printing techniques. |
| Impact | Multi-disciplinary: Physics, Chemistry, Materials. Publications in preparation/under review. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Hiden Analytical |
| Organisation | Hiden Analytical Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Hiden have been invaluable in the design and build of the system and in continuing to provide support for researchers through optimisation of measurement conditions, and in partnering with Oregon Physics to ensure the two key components work seamlessly. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Continuing support for technique development and optimisation. |
| Impact | N/A |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Oregon Physics |
| Organisation | Oregon Physics |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Oregon Physics has been actively involved in the design, build and commissioning of the instrument and continue to provide significant added value to the project. As this is a unique piece of equipment the partnership between the researchers and suppliers is vital to continuing success. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partner has provided significant technical consultancy and re-engineering of key components of the system based on the feedback from the users. They have also co-authored presentations to technical conferences. |
| Impact | Conference presentation to international SIMS meetings along with continued development and improvement of the instrument. This learning has fed into the continued product development of the source, and its incorporation in products marketed by Oregon Physics. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | South African Flow Chemistry Collaboration |
| Organisation | Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) |
| Country | South Africa |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The ROAR laboratory is providing access to state of the art equipment (flow chemistry and analytical suite) to visiting researchers from the South African partners. The ROAR team is also collaborating with the partners on developing new flow chemistry routes to a number of pharmaceutical molecules of importance to South Africa. The Imperial researchers have secured GCRF funding to continue this research collaboration into 2019. |
| Collaborator Contribution | University of Pretoria have provided a travel grant to one of their students so they could spend 3 months in the ROAR laboratory. Further research visits to Imperial will be supported in 2019. The South African partners are providing expertise on multi-step organic synthesis, knowledge of the South African pharmaceutical sector (and its needs), and have plans to build further activity in South Africa in this area. |
| Impact | Research England GCRF Internal Funding of 113754 GBP received by Imperial team as a result of this collaboration. Collaboration is multi-disciplinary with researchers from chemistry and chemical engineering. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | South African Flow Chemistry Collaboration |
| Organisation | University of Pretoria |
| Country | South Africa |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The ROAR laboratory is providing access to state of the art equipment (flow chemistry and analytical suite) to visiting researchers from the South African partners. The ROAR team is also collaborating with the partners on developing new flow chemistry routes to a number of pharmaceutical molecules of importance to South Africa. The Imperial researchers have secured GCRF funding to continue this research collaboration into 2019. |
| Collaborator Contribution | University of Pretoria have provided a travel grant to one of their students so they could spend 3 months in the ROAR laboratory. Further research visits to Imperial will be supported in 2019. The South African partners are providing expertise on multi-step organic synthesis, knowledge of the South African pharmaceutical sector (and its needs), and have plans to build further activity in South Africa in this area. |
| Impact | Research England GCRF Internal Funding of 113754 GBP received by Imperial team as a result of this collaboration. Collaboration is multi-disciplinary with researchers from chemistry and chemical engineering. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Title | A joint |
| Description | A bendable portion, also called a flexible joint, which is arranged at the distal end of a flexible surgical device is disclosed. Its application includes flexible endoscope or other flexible operative instruments for minimally invasive surgery (MIS). This design is a combination of rigid and compliant mechanisms. It has the advantages of accurately controllable, monolithically manufactured and easily assembled. A basic embodiment of the flexible joint section resembles a helical spring bended by pulling tendons routed through the channels passing axially of the spring. Since the helical spring represents an assembly of infinite number of flexural points, it is difficult to control reliably. To limit the number of DOF and increase axial stiffness, rolling contact joints are added at each pitch segment of the spring. Two antagonized tendons are routed 90o apart from the rolling contact joint in radically direction. Therefore, the flexible joint is constrained to only planar movement without unwanted axial compression. The aforementioned design could have many variations, e.g. the spring structure could either be single or double helix. Multiple flexible joint could be combined to achieve spatial bending and S-shape bending. |
| IP Reference | GB1812622.7 |
| Protection | Patent application published |
| Year Protection Granted | |
| Licensed | No |
| Impact | This invention could be used for developing flexible endoscope and other flexible surgical devices. |
| Title | CONJUGATED POLYMERS |
| Description | The invention relates to novel conjugated polymers containing one or more units based on dithieno[3,2-c;2',3'-e]azepine-4,6-dione that is fused to further aromatic rings, to methods for their preparation and educts or intermediates used therein, to polymer blends, mixtures and formulations containing them, to the use of the polymers, polymer blends, mixtures and formulations as organic semiconductors in, or for the preparation of, organic electronic (OE) devices, especially organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices and organic photodetectors (OPD), and to OE, OPV and OPD devices comprising, or being prepared from, these polymers, polymer blends, mixtures or formulations. |
| IP Reference | WO2016037678 |
| Protection | Patent granted |
| Year Protection Granted | 2016 |
| Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
| Impact | unknown |
| Title | COUPLING FOR A ROBOTIC SURGICAL INSTRUMENT |
| Description | The present invention provides a load sensing device for a surgical robot comprising a load sensing means and a hook mounted to the load sensing means, wherein the coupling is slideable longitudinally and engageable with a tendon for actuating a surgical instrument such that longitudinal movement of the hook imparts a load on the tendon and the load sensing means measures such load. |
| IP Reference | US2020008890 |
| Protection | Patent granted |
| Year Protection Granted | 2020 |
| Licensed | Yes |
| Impact | This patent allow for the developmental of a new type of medical robots. |
| Title | Composite thermochemical energy storage materials - formulation and manufacturing |
| Description | Aimed to address performance, life-span of the type of materials - it is as a result of 5 years of development, learned for particle technology and energy storage |
| IP Reference | GB2202958.1 |
| Protection | Patent / Patent application |
| Year Protection Granted | 2022 |
| Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
| Impact | Disclosed a method to formulate and manufacture composite thermochemical energy storage materials |
| Title | ENERGY GENERATION |
| Description | A method of converting thermal energy to electrical energy, the method comprising the steps of harvesting thermal energy from a source;using the thermal energy to drive one or more chemical reactions;using one or more reaction products of the one or more chemical reactions to drive an electrochemical cell to produce electrical energy. |
| IP Reference | WO2019158948 |
| Protection | Patent application published |
| Year Protection Granted | 2019 |
| Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
| Impact | Considerable commercial interest and further R&D projects |
| Title | PREPARATION OF FUNCTIONALISED MATERIALS |
| Description | The invention provides for a method of preparing a covalently functionalised carbon nanomaterial, comprising the steps of (i) treating a carbon material with a reducing agent comprising an alkali metal M in the presence of a solvent S to form a reduced-carbon material solution; and (ii) treating the resulting reduced-carbon material solution with a functionalising reagent to form a covalently functionalised carbon nanomaterial, wherein (a) the concentration of alkali metal [M] in step (i) is between 0.003 mol/L and 0.05 mol/L, and (b) the ratio of carbon material to alkali metal (C/M) in solution in step (i) is at least 2:1. A method of preparing a covalently functionalised carbon nanomaterial using N,N-dimethylacetamide as a solvent is also provided. |
| IP Reference | WO2015071441 |
| Protection | Patent granted |
| Year Protection Granted | 2015 |
| Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
| Impact | unknown |
| Title | PROCESS FOR PRODUCING NANOPARTICLES |
| Description | This invention relates to a process for the preparation of surface-functionalised metal oxide, metal sulphide, metal selenide or metal telluride nanoparticles, a process for the preparation of a composite material comprising such nanoparticles, nanoparticles and a composite material produced thereby, the use of such nanoparticles in catalysis and a catalyst comprising such nanoparticles. |
| IP Reference | US2015126359 |
| Protection | Patent granted |
| Year Protection Granted | 2015 |
| Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
| Impact | Unknown |
| Title | SELF-ASSEMBLY OF NANOTUBES |
| Description | The present invention relates to a nanostructure comprising a first hollow nanotube having at least one open end and a first anchor structure comprising a first anchor portion configured to anchor within the open end of the first nanotube, the first anchor structure further comprising a tether portion arranged to allow at least a part of said tether portion to extend outside of the end of the nanotube. |
| IP Reference | WO2015063341 |
| Protection | Patent granted |
| Year Protection Granted | 2015 |
| Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
| Impact | unknown |
| Title | Surgical arm |
| Description | The ornamental design for a surgical arm, as shown and described. |
| IP Reference | USD825066S |
| Protection | Patent granted |
| Year Protection Granted | 2018 |
| Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
| Impact | Development of several robotic platform based on this robot. |
| Title | Surgical instrument |
| Description | The ornamental design for a surgical instrument, as shown and described. |
| IP Reference | USD812750S |
| Protection | Patent granted |
| Year Protection Granted | 2018 |
| Licensed | Yes |
| Impact | This patten has been part of the effort for the launch of one of our surgical robot. |
| Title | VEHICLE CHARGING |
| Description | Disclosed is a vehicle charging station (1) comprising a first reservoir (5) arranged to contain a first charging fluid and a charging fluid delivery system (3) arranged to deliver at least part of the first charging fluid (5) into a heat exchange relationship with a vehicle thermal energy storage material (108) of a vehicle (100) selectively connected to the vehicle charging station (1), thereby charging the vehicle thermal energy storage material (108) by changing its temperature and/or phase and/or chemistry. |
| IP Reference | WO2019162680 |
| Protection | Patent application published |
| Year Protection Granted | 2019 |
| Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
| Impact | Significant interest from commercial companies; leading to several subsequent research and development projects |
| Company Name | Blakbear Ltd |
| Description | A postage stamp-sized paper air sensor stuck on the back of a smartphone could help Londoners gather vital data in the fight against air pollution. A team of PhD students from Imperial College has developed OpenSense, a cheap sticker that can measure deadly airborne exhaust gases. The paper has a pollution-sensitive sensor inside and is stuck on the back of a smartphone, which powers it. |
| Year Established | 2017 |
| Impact | In development |
| Website | http://BlakBear.com |
| Company Name | KELVIN THERMOTECH LTD |
| Description | It is set for holding Ups related to cold storage, cold chain technologies, thermal energy storage, consulting. |
| Year Established | 2019 |
| Impact | Just started, to be updated next year |
| Company Name | PRECISION ROBOTICS LIMITED |
| Description | Precision Robotics is a new startup company from Imperial College London. It aims to develop precise, agile and intelligent surgical robots that are dexterous, compact and versatile. Based on technologies developed by research team at Imperial College London, the company expects to establish itself as a significant player in this burgeoning field. |
| Year Established | 2017 |
| Impact | Modern robotic surgery methods are in high demand due to the improvements they offer over traditional surgical techniques. Precision Robotics is addressing this demand through its unique platforms, which combine a range of patented technologies to deliver advantages to surgeons and patients. The company's first product incorporates fully articulated robotic arms, which provide accurate manoeuvres and a high level of control to surgeons. It also includes its unique 3-D Augmented Reality-based image navigation software to enable precise, intraoperative control and navigation. Precision Robotics in on course towards regulatory approval and clinical development in the coming years. Headquartered in London, the company has also offices in Hong Kong, brining together talents in both engineering development and clinical translation. |
| Website | http://www.pruk.ltd/ |
| Company Name | P.E.S. Technologies |
| Description | Soil should be teeming with life -- especially microbial life -- but intensive farming practices are degrading soils throughout the world; the associated costs of this degradation are estimated to be $6.3-10.6 trillion. Owing to ever tighter economic margins in farming, the farming community is very interested in monitoring long-term changes in soil health arising from current soil management and cropping practices. To correctly manage soil health, farmers need reliable information about the biological properties of their soils. |
| Year Established | 2017 |
| Impact | We are developing a sensor to monitor the soil biology via soil gases to complement existing soil nutrient testing practiced by farmers to enable farmers to make soil health assessments themselves. |
| Description | "Decarbonising UK Energy" Joint Royal Society/RAEng/BA meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Talks and discussions |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2017/10/decarbonising-uk-energy/ |
| Description | 2019 Advanced biophotonics workshop (the Hamlyn symposium on Medical robotics) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Co-organized the 2019 Advanced biophotonics workshop as part of the Hamlyn symposium on Medical robotics - The workshop consisted of 50 delegates from academic, clinical and industrial backgrounds to come together and exchange ideas on the current state-of-the-art and future trends in optical imaging techniques for surgery, with a focus on robot assisted intervention. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | 21st BMVA Computer Vision Summer School 2016 (Swansea) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | One of my team members (CB) gave a presentation on advanced 3d neuron reconstructions |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://cvss.swansea.ac.uk/index.php?n=Site.Registration |
| Description | Annual UK-Korea Symposium on Plastic Electronics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The annual UK-Korea Symposium on Plastic Electronics is held alternately between the UK (usually Imperial College London) and South Korea. Academics from several different institutions take part, including Imperial College London, Oxford University, Gwangju Institute of Science & Technology, and POSTECH. There are often also visits to companies, e.g. Flexenable and Cambridge Display Technologies in the UK, and Samsung and LG Displays in Korea. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017 |
| Description | BVMA Poster "Adversarial Training for Sketch Retrieval" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presented Poster "Adversarial Training for Sketch Retrieval" at the British Machine Vision Association. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/pdf/1607.02748 |
| Description | Big Neuron (Cambridge/ London) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The purpose of these events to encourage collaboration, and participation of people working on the topic of 3D neural reconstructions, and analysis of the 3D reconstructions. The aim is to make automated tools available and open-source online, so that anyone will be able to analyse neuron data. Also, this will standardize analysis methods between different labs/ groups. A landmark paper on this topic is in progress. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016 |
| URL | http://alleninstitute.org/article/bigneuron-project-launched-advance-3d-reconstructions-neurons |
| Description | Centre for Plastic Electronics Annual Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A two day symposium open to external academics, researchers and students. Showcases the work of Centre for Plastic Electronics postgraduate students and researchers, as well as invited talks by CPE academics plus academics from universities in the UK and overseas. Typically 2 keynote presentations, 9 invited talks, and 9 contributing talks, plus poster session. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017 |
| URL | http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/180510/cpe-annual-symposium-2017/ |
| Description | Centre for Plastic Electronics at the London Natural History Museum "Late" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | CPE researchers and students showcased some of the research going on in the field of plastic electronics at the Natural History Museum Lates evening. With an event theme of 'Colour and Vision,' this was the perfect setting to demonstrate the science behind bright organic LED devices from Cambridge Display Technology, how some polymers can emit light, and the way solar cells made of different materials absorb different colours of light. We were overwhelmed at the interest from the public in the field of plastic electronics, a completely new concept to many. Children and adults alike were excited by the prospect of flexible TV screens and solar panels which are made possible by plastic electronics research. They also enjoyed our solar-powered videogame and being able to build a spectroscope (or 'rainbow in a box') from just a piece of card and a CD. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/173951/cpe-natural-history-museum-late/ |
| Description | Design of Experiments Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Held 4 one day workshops which provided scientists and engineers with an introduction to statistical analysis and Design of Experiments. These workshops were held in September 2018 and February 2019. Each workshop was attended by between 20 to 30 participants, made up of postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, academics, and industrial scientists. These participants came from across all departments at Imperial College, and universities from across the UK (including students from as far away as Leeds). As a result of these workshops we have provided 100 researchers with an introduction to Design of Experiments, and enough knowledge and practical experience to begin employing these statistical techniques in their own research. Since holding these workshops we have had further requests for introductory level workshops on this topic, and also for more advanced workshops. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/centres/roar/eventssummary/event_10-1-... |
| Description | EPSRC Scientific Advisory Board & Research Steering Group Bi-annual Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Scientific Advisory Board & Research Steering Group members came to the Hamlyn Centre for participating the bi-annual meeting to examine our current research progress. Our research teams presented a series of demos as well as current progress presentation to all the members for demonstrating our works. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/ICLHamlynRobots/status/1088766049590394880 |
| Description | EPSRC-NIHR HTC Network+ Project Final Presentation & Showcase |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | All the sub-project researchers of this grant showcased their work by posters as well as presented their final result and future steps to the PI. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/ICLHamlynRobots/status/1177904266981326848 |
| Description | EPSRC-NIHR HTC Network+ Project Progress Presentation Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | All the sub-project researchers of this grant present their current progress and remaining work to the PI for progress examination. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Energy Storage Conference, London, Jan 25th 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dissemination conference for the Energy Storage for Low Carbon Storage and IMAGES projects - talks from investigators and industry / policy stakeholders |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://energysuperstore.org/esrn/event/energy-storage-grand-challenge-projects-dissemination/ |
| Description | European Conference on Computer Vision - "Adversarial Training for Sketch Retrieval" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Gave a Power Point presentation on "Adversarial Training for Sketch Retrieval". Appeared as Lecture Notes In Computer Science. Has received 4 citations so far. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/pdf/1607.02748 |
| Description | Former Prime Minister Tony Blair Visit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The former Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Imperial College and toured the Hamlyn Centre for Robotics, viewing demonstrations of surgical robots, 3D printed microrobotic tools and augmented reality technology for medical imaging. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/187036/former-pm-supports-lord-darzi-report/ |
| Description | Friends of Imperial Visit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Supporters |
| Results and Impact | The Hamlyn Centre participated in the programme of "Friends of Imperial Visit" as one of visit destinations. Our research teams demonstrated the latest research result to the "Friends of Imperial Visit" participants and answered their questions regarding the works. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.friendsofimperial.org.uk/Media/Documents/Current_Programme.pdf |
| Description | Hamlyn Centre Official Twitter |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Hamlyn Centre Official Twitter account aims to reach out all types of audiences for demonstrating our research progress and result, promoting our events and sharing relevant information. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/ICLHamlynRobots |
| Description | Hamlyn Winter School on Surgical Imaging and Vision |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Hamlyn Winter School focuses on both the technical and clinical aspects of Surgical Imaging and Vision. Through invited lectures, hands-on demonstrations, workshops, and mini-projects, the purpose of our winter school is to help researchers familiarise with the cutting edge research of this rapidly expanding field covering key areas of: Fundamentals and current state-of-the-art in surgical imaging; Vision algorithms for tracking, 3D scene reconstruction and surgical navigation; Intra-operative registration and retargeting; Multi-modal image fusion and real-time augmented reality systems based on inverse realism; Robot assisted large area microscopic imaging and mosaicing; Dynamic active constraints with real-time vision; Vision enabled surgical robot design and miniaturisation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/hamlyn-centre/news-and-events/hamlyn-winter-school-on-surgical-imaging-an... |
| Description | Hamlyn Winter School on Surgical Imaging and Vision |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The Winter School focuses on both technical and clinical aspects of Surgical Imaging and Vision, with invited lectures, hands-on demonstrations, workshops, and mini-projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/winterschool/ |
| Description | Hounsfield Lecture 2015 (Imperial) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Hounsfield Lecture brings together medical imaging researchers at Imperial and beyond and allows an international leader in biomedical imaging to address the College imaging community. The Hounsfield Lecture 2015 was given on Wednesday 4th November by Professor Juergen Hennig from the University Medical Center Freiburg. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.hounsfieldlecture.org/ |
| Description | Imperial College article about the opening of the ROAR facility in January 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | An article was written about the opening of the Centre for Rapid Online Analysis of Reactions by Imperial College reporter Hayley Dunning. The article highlighted the importance of this new facility to the UK synthetic chemistry community. The news was subsequently picked up by both ChemistryWorld (Automated lab at Imperial College will have robots run reactions, 18 February 2019, https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/automated-lab-at-imperial-college-will-have-robots-run-reactions-/3010132.article) and Chemical & Engineering News (Business Concentrates, February 11, 2019), the magazines published by the two leading international chemical societies (Royal Society of Chemistry and American Chemical Society). ROAR is receiving further requests for information about how we can work with industry from international companies which we have not previously interacted with. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/190097/first-of-its-kind-automatic-chemistry-facility-opens-imperial... |
| Description | International Robotics Showcase |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A showcase of robotics for academia, industry and the public The International Robotics Showcase will be part of the International Business Festival this year, and this will be held on Thursday 21st June 2018 at the Exhibition Centre Liverpool, Kings Dock, Liverpool Waterfront, L3 4FP.The full-day programme includes exclusive talks by world-renowned experts in science and technology, panel discussions, exhibitions, robot demonstrations and an award ceremony for competition winners demonstrating cutting-edge robotics innovation. Exciting demonstrations of cutting-edge robotics technology; Lively discussion and debate, covering ethical, legal and economic impacts of Robotics and AI; The release of several new White Papers, covering the current research landscape in: Urban Automation & Transport AgriTech The day also offers academics, industry, government organisations and the public, the opportunity to enjoy the fascinating and diverse exhibits by our sponsors, as well as provide a lively forum for discussion and discovery of some of the latest technological developments and research challenges in Robotics and Autonomous Systems. The event will take place within the 2018 International Business Festival and a 9 day pass is included withi your registration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/uk-ras/robotics-week/showcase |
| Description | Interview - Peter Bruce interviewed by Tom Whipple, Times |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interview - Peter Bruce interviewed by Tom Whipple, Times, 13 Feb 2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Interview - Peter Bruce interviewed by the Financial Times |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interview - Peter Bruce interviewed by the Financial Times, 16 Aug 2018 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Interview and feature in "Wired" Magazine Sep 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interviewed for feature on AI in "Wired" Magazine (Long Reads) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.wired.co.uk/article/automatic-neuroscientist-ai-brain-experiments |
| Description | Invited Speaker - "Iterative Approach To Improving Sample Generation" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | RE-WORK organised event. Informing industry member about Deep Learning. Resulted in further discussion for industrial partnerships with Samsung. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.re-work.co/events/deep-learning-summit-london-2017 |
| Description | Invited Speaker: Trinity College Dublin |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited to present recent research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Invited Talk- Prof Itaru Kitahara: 3D-CG Virtual Surgical Operation in University of Tsukuba |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Our senior research fellow Dr Matina Giannarou invited Prof. Itaru Kitahara to share the experience about "3D-CG Virtual Surgical Operation in University of Tsukuba" with our researchers in the Hamlyn Centre. Prof. Itaru Kitahara is leading the Virtual Surgery research project at the University of Tsukuba, Japan and his research focuses on Computer Vision and Mixed Reality. During the talk, he not only introduced "3D CG Virtual Surgery", which aims to realise a navigation system of surgical operation using Computer Vision and AR/VR techniques, but also presented the collaboration between their research team and the medical doctors in our university regarding 3D CG Virtual Surgery. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/ICLHamlynRobots/status/1102943972790542336 |
| Description | Invited Talk- Prof Jackrit Suthakorn: the past, present and future of the BART LAB |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Prof Jackrit Suthakorn, the BART LAB executive director and the department chair of Department of Biomedical Engineering at Mahidol University, visited the Hamlyn Centre on Monday 25th January 2019. He gave a talk regarding the development of the BART LAB as well as their current research areas and progress in robotics for extreme environment as well as rehabilitation to the Hamlyn Centre researchers and members. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk at MEP-2018, Fudan University, Shanghai China, 20-23 Sept 2018, title: Lithium Batteries |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk at MEP-2018, Fudan University, Shanghai China, 20-23 Sept 2018, title: Lithium Batteries |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Kinetics Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Held a one day workshop on the theory and practice of reaction progress kinetic analysis on 31st January 2019. The workshop was delivered by distinguished guest speaker Professor Donna Blackmond (Scripps) and application scientists from Mettler-Toledo. The workshop was attended by chemistry and chemical engineering postgraduate students, postdoctoral research associates, academics, and industrialists. The attendees came from Imperial College, Queen Mary University, University College London, Uni of Bristol, Uni of Huddersfield, Uni of Leeds, Uni of Nottingham, Uni of Oxford, Uni of Strathclyde, GSK and Dr Reddy's Laboratories. The workshop received positive feedback and we will be repeating it in future years. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/centres/roar/eventssummary/event_28-11... |
| Description | MAGNIFI - Margin Assessment using Global Non-Invasive Fluorescence Imaging (HSMR2019) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Poster presentation at the Advanced biophotonics workshop organized as part of the 2019 Hamlyn symposium on Medical robotics, June 2019. Poster title: MAGNIFI - Margin Assessment using Global Non-Invasive Fluorescence Imaging Presented by: Dr. Khushi Vyas |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | MAGNIFI - Margin Assessment using Global Non-Invasive Fluorescence Imaging (St. Andrews) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Poster presentation at International Conference on Biophotonics (ICOB), 22-24 May 2019, St Andrews, UK - Organized by our collaborator at University of St. Andrews. Poster title: MAGNIFI - Margin Assessment using Global Non-Invasive Fluorescence Imaging Presented by: Dr. Khushi Vyas |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | ML Launch Event: "On denoising autoencoders trained to minimise binary cross-entropy" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presented a poster |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/pdf/1708.08487 |
| Description | Minister of State for Immigration Caroline Nokes MP and Cancer Research UK Visit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Caroline Nokes MP, Minister of State for Immigration, visited Imperial in October 2018 and took a tour of the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery. She was joined by representatives of Cancer Research UK and our college president Alice Gast. During the visit, Caroline Nokes was shown some of our latest robot technology in medicine, developments which have enabled healthcare professionals to conduct smarter operations with higher precision. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/188691/immigration-minister-sees-benefits-internationalism-imperial/ |
| Description | NETT International Conference on System Level Approaches to Neural Engineering |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The aim of the International Conference on System Level Approaches to Neural Engineering (ICSLANE) is to bring together theoretical and experimental neuroscientists and roboticists to discuss the state of the art in the field of Neural Engineering. This three day long event is part of a series of training events organised by the Marie Curie Initial Training Network NETT (Neural Engineering Transformative Technologies). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.neural-engineering.eu/BarcelonaConference2015/index.html |
| Description | NIPS Workshop 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Poster was presented "Inverting the generator of a generative adversarial network", resulted in 10 citations so far for an ArXiv pre-print. Currently, being re-written for a Journal submission. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/pdf/1611.05644 |
| Description | Peter Bruce attending an engagement event at the Royal Institution, London, 12 Mar, This event is part of a three-part series entitled 'The Batteries are Coming!' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Peter Bruce attending an engagement event at the Royal Institution, London, 12 Mar, This event is part of a three-part series entitled 'The Batteries are Coming!' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Plastic Electronics CDT Annual Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The Plastic Electronics CDT holds an annual 1 day symposium in September every year. PhD students give talks and present posters to an audience of other postgraduate and undergraduate students, postdocs, academics, external invited academics, industrial sponsors, and the PE-CDT external advisory board. The symposium also features invited talks from high profile academic and industrial researchers, and from PE-CDT alumni. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018 |
| URL | http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/182831/pe-cdt-students-present-their-research-annual/ |
| Description | Plastic Electronics Winter School |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The Plastic Electronics week-long Winter School is held in January every year. Two cohorts of Plastic Electronics CDT students (1st and 3rd year of PhD) attend, as well as "aligned" students and postdocs, PE-CDT/Centre for Plastic Electronics academics, and invited external academics from UK and European institutions/companies. The programme includes talks from PhD students on their research, invited talks from PE-CDT/CPE academics, and invited talks/tutorials from external academics/industry researchers. The students and postdocs also undertake a week-long group challenge project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018 |
| URL | http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/177232/plastic-electronics-winter-school-2017/ |
| Description | Plastic Electronics at the Imperial Festival (science festival) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | mperial Festival is a free public event which is held each year on Imperial's South Kensington Campus. The weekend-long event features activities and attractions for all ages, including: Hands-on demonstrations Workshops Talks Tours Music and dance performances Across the two-day celebration we invite members from across our wide community to experience our research in science, engineering, health and business up close. The Plastic Electronics CDT puts together a stand at the Festival every year, and there are usually other stands from Centre for Plastic Electronics research groups too. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017 |
| URL | http://www.imperial.ac.uk/festival/about/ |
| Description | ROAR Director Prof Mimi Hii gave presentation about ROAR at the Dial-a-Molecule network annual meeting 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | ROAR Director Prof Mimi Hii gave presentation about ROAR at the Dial-a-Molecule network's annual meeting held on 9th and 10th July 2018 at Imperial College London. This meeting brought together academic and industrial chemists and chemical engineers from across the UK. As a result of the talk given there have been numerous inquiries about accessing the ROAR facility from academics and companies from the chemical process sector. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018 |
| URL | http://generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk/dial-a-molecule/annual-meeting-2018/ |
| Description | ROAR Director Prof Mimi Hii gave presentation about ROAR at the SiLA and ELRIG Workshop at Drug Discovery 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | ROAR Director Prof Mimi Hii gave presentation about ROAR at the SiLA Consortium and European Laboratory Research & Innovation Group workshop held on 9th October 2018 as part of Drug Discovery 2018 at the London ExCel centre. This workshop on 'Closing the loop in the Lab using Artificial Intelligence' brought together industry experts to discuss how AI could be applied in screening and chemical synthesis. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://elrig.org/portfolio/dd2018/ |
| Description | ROAR Director Prof Mimi Hii gave presentation about ROAR at the launch meeting of the RSC's Process Chemical Technology Group (PCTG) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | ROAR Director Prof Mimi Hii gave presentation about ROAR at the launch meeting of the RSC's Process Chemical Technology Group (PCTG) on 19 November 2018. This event was attended by academics from across the UK, and representatives from the chemical process industries (e.g. pharmaceutical, agrochemical and fine chemical). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.rsc.org/events/detail/35517/rsc-process-chemistry-technology-group-launch-symposium |
| Description | ROAR Director Prof Mimi Hii interviewed for a ChemistryWorld article in January 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | ROAR Director Prof Mimi Hii interviewed for a ChemistryWorld article in January 2019. The article entitled 'A brave new world of robot chemists and 'synthesiser farms' awaits'. The article is expected to have been read widely by the chemical and chemical engineering sector (academic and industrial) in the UK, and internationally. The article generated discussion among the community about the role of automation in synthetic chemistry. See Derek Lowe's blog In the Pipeline http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2018/01/30/automated-chemistry-a-vision for an impression from a leading chemist in the pharmaceutical industry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/wanted-synthetic-chemists-humans-need-not-apply/3008401.article#... |
| Description | ROAR Director Prof Mimi Hii was part of a panel discussion at the Tech Foresight 2038: Shifting Realities |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | ROAR Director Mimi Hii was part of a panel discussion with Prof mark Kennedy (Business School) on "how AI could revolutionise scientific discovery and what future relationships between AI and humans could look like". http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/186747/in-pictures-technologies-future-revealed/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.imperial-business-partners.com/events/tf2038/ |
| Description | ROAR Facility Manager Benjamin Deadman presented a talk about ROAR at 'Promoting accessibility of Enabling Technologies and Low-Cost Automation' at the Materials Innovation Factory. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | ROAR Facility Manager Benjamin Deadman presented a talk about ROAR at 'Promoting accessibility of Enabling Technologies and Low-Cost Automation' at the Materials Innovation Factory on 18th January 2019. The purpose of the talk was to inform young researchers in the UK about opportunities to access the ROAR facility. The meeting was attended by postgraduate students, early career researchers, established academics and some industrial representatives with an interest in high-throughput experimentation. It is expected that this presentation will lead to some proposals to access the ROAR facility in our currently open call for proposals. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk/dial-a-molecule/promaccess/ |
| Description | ROAR Facility Manager Benjamin Deadman presented a talk about ROAR at 'Supporting Synthesis and Self-Assembly 2018' at the University of Strathclyde |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | ROAR Facility Manager Benjamin Deadman presented a talk about ROAR at 'Supporting Synthesis and Self-Assembly 2018' at the University of Strathclyde on 18-19th June 2018. This meeting brought together early career researchers from across the Dial-a-Molecule and Directed Assembly networks (approx 40 from across the UK including Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Southampton, and York). The talk covered how early career researchers can work with, and access the state of the art equipment available in the ROAR facility. This talk has resulted in several inquiries about accessing the facility, and at least one proposal being submitted in our currently open call for proposals. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk/dial-a-molecule/ecr-meeting-2018/ |
| Description | Radio 4 Programme on Mitigating Air Pollution in Cities |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | "Putting Science to Work" Radio 4 Programme on Mitigating Air Pollution in Cities, with Jim Al-Khalili. As described in the BBC website: As the recent VW scandal reminds us, the exhaust from petrol and, in particular, diesel cars are damaging our health. So what can science do to help? Jim Al-Khalili invites three scientists into the studio to explain how their research or technology could help reduce pollution from dirty car exhausts. Professor of Chemistry, Tony Ryan makes the case for smart materials that absorb noxious gases. If only everyone could treat their jeans with nanoparticles that that clean up the air as they walk around town. Professor Clare Grey and her team are working on the next generation of batteries for electric cars. And engineer, Bernard Porter is a champion of hydrogen fuel cells. So, which technology is best designed to help us reduce air pollution in our cities? Who deserves the lion's share of Jim's imaginary pot of research funding to help us tackle this problem?. Outcome - lion share of funding allocated to CPG |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06rxyct |
| Description | School Robot Challenge |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The challenge will be run jointly by any interested UK-RAS partner universities, and is aimed at teams of schoolchildren of ages up to 16 (year 11). It will be published in the UK-RAS Robotics Week 2018 brochure and on the website, and will be distributed via each participating university's local schools' network. The challenge will consist of 2 separate activities: the first involves schools working independently to develop and then submit a design(s) for a robot system to help older people. The deadline for submissions for this activity is 18/05/2018. The best entries will then be chosen, with one winning team selected by each participating university (the proximity of school to university may or may not influence the decision), which will then invite that team to a special one-day event on 26/06/2018 (that is, the Tuesday of UK Robotics Week). After a tour of the robot labs, the teams will be set another similar care-themed challenge using whatever basic, programmable robotics equipment is to hand (e.g., Lego Mindstorms - there is no requirement for the same equipment to be used at each university). This activity will last from 10.30am until 3.30pm with a working lunch provided, and if possible live streaming of video from the other participating sites (also shown on the UK-RAS website). The goal of each team will be to produce a smartphone video of no longer than 1 minute's duration that describes the problem, the concept and design of their suggested solution, and - hopefully - shows their solution in action. The videos will be uploaded to YouTube or similar. A panel of judges - one from each participating university - will view each of the videos, and then confer to select an overall winning team. (Some of) the winning team will then be invited to the UK Robotics Week Showcase event on Thursday 21st June, where they will receive a prize (budget permitting) on behalf of their school. The suggested text publicising the challenge is below. (Note that it is not intended to be as explicit as the above text to allow for some flexibility in the format to take into account the number and quality of submissions, budget available, participating universities, etc., and all dates are subject to confirmation.) The UK-RAS Health and Social Care Challenge 2018 We invite schools to submit their designs for a robotic system that addresses the challenge of how to help older people stay healthy and live independent lives. Submissions should be the work of teams of up to 8 children aged 16 or under. Entries can be in any format, should be no longer than 1000 words (or equivalent) in length, and each school may submit an unlimited number of entries. The closing date for submissions is Friday 18th May. The judging panel will then select the best entries, with submissions being judged according to their usefulness, practicality and creativity. The winning teams will be invited to a special one-day event on Tuesday 26th June at their nearest UK-RAS University, during which they will visit our robotics facilities to learn more about our research, and then get to develop and test their own robots. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/uk-ras/events/school-robot-challenge |
| Description | Surgical Robot Challenge |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The aim of this challenge is to exploit the unique expertise of the consortium in medical robotics to develop low-cost robot-assisted surgical and diagnostic devices that can benefit the NHS as well as be used as solutions for global health. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/hsmr/events/surgical-robot-challenge-2017 |
| Description | TATA presentation for potential industrial partnership. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Requested to present recent work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | The Hamlyn Centre Christmas Showcase |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Supporters |
| Results and Impact | The Hamlyn Christmas Showcase is an event that showcased the latest research outputs form our research teams at the Hamlyn Centre. Every year we invite our collaborators and affiliates to participate this event in order to demonstrate our research findings and to discuss potential further collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/ICLHamlynRobots/status/1073577685488754688 |
| Description | The Hamlyn Centre Official Website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Hamlyn Centre Official website aims to engage with all types of audiences for introducing our centre purpose and structure as well as our research areas and environment. On the website, we also constantly update job opportunities, event information and News from our research teams as well as the Imperial College. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/hamlyn-centre/ |
| Description | The Hamlyn Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics (HSMR) provides an annual forum for surgeons and engineers from across the globe, to network and explore the latest developments in medical robotics. The Symposium has been successfully conducted for the past 11 years and has become a leading international conference on medical robotics, current clinical practice and emerging technologies in robotic surgery. Every year researchers, clinicians and engineers are invited to submit papers on a range of topics covering clinical specialities in Urology, Cardiac Surgery, Neuro Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, General Surgery, Gynaecology, ENT, Orthopaedic and Paediatric Surgery. The Hamlyn Symposium is composed of a series of workshops on various clinical and technical topics and the main conference with the participants from leading medical, science and technology institutions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.ukras.org/hamlyn/ |
| Description | UK-China Energy Storage Forum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The workshop is to bring together academia, industrialists, policymakers, NGOs and government officials between UK and China, building close links for future collaborations, and trading relationships. Over 100 participants attended. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | UK-China Workshop on Clean Energy Utilisation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This is for building close and sustainable collaborations between UK and Chinese early career researchers working on clean energy generation, storage and utilisation. Over 70 people attended. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | WiML Poster NIPS 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presented a poster at international conference workshop. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Workshop in the Hamlyn Symposium: Advanced Biophotonics: from bench to bedside |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | With increasing maturity and clinical uptake of Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS), the provision of in situ, in vivo morphological and functional imaging beyond the exposed tissue surface has become an important research topic. Clinically, it further expands the functional capabilities of MIS in providing improved tissue detection, labelling, and targeting both at macro and cellular levels. Point based spectroscopic approaches such as diffuse reflectance, Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy have been shown to be clinically useful for in vivo assessment of cancer, atherosclerosis and ischemia. Imaging techniques such as optical coherence tomography (OCT), probe-based Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy (pCLE), and two photon excited fluorescence and magnified endoscopy have shown promising results for in situ, in vivo tissue characterization for MIS. This workshop will bring clinicians together with researchers in academia and industry to exchange ideas on the current state-of-the-art and future trends in optical imaging techniques for surgery with a focus on robot assisted intervention. The scope of the workshop is broad, and includes both established and emerging technologies for image-guided surgery but with a specific focus on technologies that can be seamlessly integrated with the surgical environment. It will also include online decision support, content-based image retrieval/association, and optopathology to enable in situ, in vivo tissue characterisation and surgical oncology. The workshop will include several invited talks, and we also welcome submissions from Symposium attendees. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.ukras.org/hamlyn/workshops/advanced-biophotonics-from-bench-to-bedside/ |
| Description | Workshop in the Hamlyn Symposium: Clinical Photonics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | With increasing maturity and clinical uptake of Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS), the provision of technologies that provide in vivo morphological and functional characterisation beyond the exposed tissue surface has become an important research topic. Clinically, such technologies can further expand the functional capabilities of MIS in providing improved tissue detection, labelling, and targeting both at macro and cellular levels. Optical imaging and spectroscopy provide opportunities in this area, both in surgical environments and in other clinical scenarios (e.g. diagnostics, screening, monitoring, etc.). Point based spectroscopic approaches such as diffuse reflectance, Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy have been shown to be clinically useful for in vivo assessment of cancer, atherosclerosis and ischemia. Imaging techniques such as optical coherence tomography (OCT), probe-based Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy (pCLE), two photon excited fluorescence imaging, and fluorescence lifetime imaging have shown promising results for in vivo tissue characterisation for MIS. This workshop will bring clinicians together with researchers in academia and industry to exchange ideas on the current state-of-the-art and future trends in clinical applications of photonics. The scope of the workshop is broad and includes both established and emerging technologies based on optical imaging and spectroscopy. While a variety of photonic technologies and clinical applications will be discussed, the workshop will maintain a focus on devices that can be seamlessly integrated with the surgical environment and that can be compatible with robot-assisted interventions. It will also include online decision support, content-based image retrieval/association, and optical pathology to enable real-time, in vivo tissue characterisation. The workshop will include several invited talks, and we also welcome submissions from Symposium attendees. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Workshop in the Hamlyn Symposium: Emerging Learning Techniques for Robotics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Learning is a rapidly advancing field in recent years, in terms of both methodological development and practical applications. In medical robotics, computational models are able to learn with supervision or without supervision to facilitate intricate medical interventions, i.e. cancer detection and autonomous suturing. It can implicitly capture task principles and repeat it with comparable accuracy, robustness and time-efficiency. Whilst some of the technical challenges are still being addressed, including generative modelling, large-scale parameter optimisation, and handling heterogeneous multi-modal data with varying temporal dependencies and missing samples, its use for medical robotics has reached marked success. Examples include the use of deep learning for tissue characterisation and the use of reinforcement learning for catheter manipulation. Other applications include surgical vision, navigation, learning, adaptation and task automation. The purpose of this workshop is to report the latest advances in the field of learning for medical robotics, addressing both original algorithmic development and new applications of deep learning. Topics for this special issue include, but are not limited to: Learning for surgical vision and navigation; Learning for tissue characterisation, optical biopsy and margin assessment; Learning for learning, adaptation and surgical task completion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.ukras.org/hamlyn/workshops/emerging-learning-techniques-for-robotics/ |
| Description | Workshop in the Hamlyn Symposium: Endovascular Intervention |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Vascular diseases are the most common precursors to ischemic heart disease and stroke, which are two of the leading causes of death worldwide. Endovascular intervention is a minimally invasive surgical approach to treat such diseases. Compared to open surgery, it has the advantages of faster recovery, reduced need for general anaesthesia, reduced blood loss and significantly lower mortality. The use of the endovascular approach has been extended beyond cardiac ablation, angioplasty and stenting to complex aneurysm repair, valve replacement, and delivery of new therapies. Current endovascular approaches are limited by excessive exposure to radiation, a lack of 3D mapping, as well as lost haptic feedbacks. Technically, different solutions have been proposed for endovascular intervention, including a growing interest in robotic steerable catheter technology which brought benefits such as improved precision and stability, reduced radiation doses, improved comfort and access to difficult and tortuous anatomy. The purpose of this workshop is to address clinical opportunities, technical requirements and regulatory challenges for translating effectively robot-assisted endovascular intervention to practical clinical use. The workshop aims to gather together researchers, engineers and clinicians from both academia and industry to brainstorm and identify new potential applications and barriers for robotic assistance in endovascular intervention. The goal of the workshop will be to build bridges between academia and industry to closely work together in identifying technical, clinical and translational challenges that need to be solved. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.ukras.org/hamlyn/workshops/endovascular-intervention/ |
| Description | Workshop in the Hamlyn Symposium: Focused Energy Delivery & Precision Intervention |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Accessing to human anatomy through natural orifices or small incisions (keyholes), navigating through lumens of body, medical robotics are advancing to overcome challenges associated with access and precision, allowing rapid diagnostics and precise localization of diseases of different stages. As the surgical tools you can bring to the robotic surgical site is quite limited due to space restrictions, the energy source for the precise and safe removal of these malignancies should be carefully selected to satisfy a number of criteria such as adequate target tissue interaction, critical anatomy protection, selected ablation, coagulation and even helping tissue identification. Selected energy source potentially brings further challenges associated with flexible and low-profile delivery mechanisms to be integrated with existing robotic technologies as well as with the new technologies under development. In this workshop, we will hear from clinicians their preferred energy sources for different types of surgeries, what improvement they would like to see, and get their feedback on integration of these in robotic surgery, current state of art and their expectations from advancements in medial robotics. We will have technical talks on recent advancements in various energy sources currently used in medicine such as electrical, ultrasonic (harmonic scalpel, HIFU) and laser energies, their delivery mechanisms and the progress in integration of these technologies to medical robotics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.ukras.org/hamlyn/workshops/focused-energy-delivery-precision-intervention/ |
| Description | Workshop in the Hamlyn Symposium: From BCI to Human Robot Augmentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Artificial intelligence along with advances in wearable robotics and sensing systems pave the way towards embedded systems that form a natural extension of human physical abilities. Seamless integration of these systems would require the development of advanced systems that sense human intentions and mental states such as workload and fatigue. Brain computer/machine interface (BCI/BMI) has already broken down barriers for the physically disabled, restoring the ability to communicate, enhancing rehabilitation for paretic patients and allowing control of movements for paraplegic patients that would otherwise be impossible. These systems advance our understanding of the underlying motor learning mechanisms as they alter the mapping between neuronal activity and feedback control. Furthermore, the technology has been used to assess cognitive states for mental training and attention monitoring in safety critical tasks. This workshop aims to provide a forum to bring together neuroscientists, engineers, and healthcare practitioners from a diverse range of disciplines to present the current state-of-the-art in Brain Computer Interface research for rehabilitation and mental state assessment in critical applications. It will also present some of the major technical challenges and unmet healthcare demands that can potentially reshape the future of rehabilitation robotics and wearable devices. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.ukras.org/hamlyn/workshops/from-bci-to-human-robot-augmentation/ |
| Description | Workshop in the Hamlyn Symposium: Wearable & Assistive Robots |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Wearable robots, actuated prostheses and exoskeletons have made significant inroads in recent years for functional rehabilitation, restoration of natural mobility and enhancing musculoskeletal strength and endurance. Assistive robots also play a key role in managing the ageing population for general activities of daily living and remote presence for linking to specialist centres. The emergence of novel actuation schemes based on smart materials and sensing technologies has enabled the development of new wearable and assistive robots. The workshop aims to provide a forum to bring together researchers, engineers, and healthcare practitioners from a diverse range of disciplines to present the current state-of-the-art in wearable and assistive robots. It will also address some of the major technical challenges and unmet healthcare demands that can potentially reshape the future of wearable and assistive robots. The workshop will consist of invited talks from prominent experts in the field and peer-reviewed contributions submitted to the workshop. A panel discussion will be arranged at the end of the workshop with the aim to gather thoughts from the speakers and the audiences with respect to the future research directions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.ukras.org/hamlyn/workshops/wearable-assistive-robots/ |
| Description | Workshop in the Hamlyn Symposium: Wearable & Assistive Robots & Devices |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Wearable devices and robots have made significant advances in recent years for rehabilitation, restoration of natural mobility and enhancing musculoskeletal strength and endurance. Assistive devices and robots have also played a key role in managing the ageing population for general activities of daily living and remote presence for linking to specialist centres. The emergence of novel sensing and actuation schemes based on smart materials has enabled the development of new wearable and assistive robots and devices. The workshop aims to provide a forum to bring together researchers, engineers, and healthcare practitioners from a diverse range of disciplines to present the current state-of-the-art in wearable and assistive technologies. It will also address some of the major technical challenges and unmet healthcare demands that can potentially reshape the future of wearable and assistive robots and devices. Topics to be covered: • Bio-sensing and wearable sensing technologies • Context aware sensing and intention detection • Assistive robot design and control for healthcare applications • Exoskeletons and actuated prostheses • Novel kinematics, actuation schemes and smart materials • Neuro-interface for human robot interaction • Human-robot interaction • Human factor design and Ergonomics (device design, comfort and user acceptance) • Clinical applications (e.g. post-surgical recovery, stroke rehabilitation) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Workshop in the Hamlyn Symposium: e-skins and Advanced Materials for Soft Robotics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | There is a growing need for electronic and sensing devices that can conform to non-flat surfaces and that can accommodate mechanical motions and stresses. Such devices are needed for wearable electronics applications such as physiological monitoring of patients and athletes, but also for prosthetic devices (artificial limbs), robotics and brain-machine interfaces. There is a particular need for such electronic skins for surgical robotic devices. To introduce flexibility and stretchability, a move away from traditional materials and fabrication processes is needed. This has given rise to the field of flexible/stretchable electronics. This workshop will cover the aforementioned aspects within the context of realising e-skins that can introduce sensing intelligence to robotics, surgical tools, artificial limbs and wearable devices. The workshop features researchers from leading medical, science and technology institutions covering topics including clinical needs and the latest developments of sensing technologies and new materials in medical innovation and healthcare and their application to robotics. There is still great potential for advancing the state of the art, with a need for further miniaturisation, increased functionality, in situ computation and signal processing and sensing capabilities. What are the research directions we should focus? What are the challenges yet to be addressed? How does the future look? An open panel discussion will summarise these and bring the workshop to a conclusion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.ukras.org/hamlyn/workshops/e-skins-and-advanced-materials-for-soft-robotics/ |
| Description | Workshop on Human-Robot Interactions Applied to Health |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | As part of the Hamlyn Symposium 10th anniversary on Medical Robotics, a workshop was run. This workshop was for academics, industry and show casing the latest technologies for medical robotics and latest research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.dropbox.com/s/5uobgz4tjq7c1ue/HSMR17_programme-FINAL.pdf?dl=0 |
| Description | Workshop on Image Guided Therapies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | As part of the Hamlyn Symposium 10th anniversary on Medical Robotics, a workshop was run. This workshop was for academics, industry and show casing the latest technologies for medical robotics and latest research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.dropbox.com/s/5uobgz4tjq7c1ue/HSMR17_programme-FINAL.pdf?dl=0 |
| Description | Workshop on Micro-Robotics and Micro-Fabrication |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | As part of the Hamlyn Symposium 10th anniversary on Medical Robotics, a workshop was run. This workshop was for academics, industry and show casing the latest technologies for medical robotics and latest research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.dropbox.com/s/5uobgz4tjq7c1ue/HSMR17_programme-FINAL.pdf?dl=0 |
| Description | Workshop on Next Generation Continuum Robots |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | As part of the Hamlyn Symposium 10th anniversary on Medical Robotics, a workshop was run. This workshop was for academics, industry and show casing the latest technologies for medical robotics and latest research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.dropbox.com/s/5uobgz4tjq7c1ue/HSMR17_programme-FINAL.pdf?dl=0 |
| Description | Workshop on Robotic Catheters |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | As part of the Hamlyn Symposium 10th anniversary on Medical Robotics, a workshop was run. This workshop was for academics, industry and show casing the latest technologies for medical robotics and latest research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.dropbox.com/s/5uobgz4tjq7c1ue/HSMR17_programme-FINAL.pdf?dl=0 |
| Description | Workshop on Robotically Assisted Paediatric Interventions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | As part of the Hamlyn Symposium 10th anniversary on Medical Robotics, a workshop was run. This workshop was for academics, industry and show casing the latest technologies for medical robotics and latest research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.dropbox.com/s/5uobgz4tjq7c1ue/HSMR17_programme-FINAL.pdf?dl=0 |
| Description | Workshop on Soft Robotics Across Scales |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | As part of the Hamlyn Symposium 10th anniversary on Medical Robotics, a workshop was run. This workshop was for academics, industry and show casing the latest technologies for medical robotics and latest research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.dropbox.com/s/5uobgz4tjq7c1ue/HSMR17_programme-FINAL.pdf?dl=0 |
| Description | Workshop on Surgical Robotics: First in Human - What does it take? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | As part of the Hamlyn Symposium 10th anniversary on Medical Robotics, a workshop was run. This workshop was for academics, industry and show casing the latest technologies for medical robotics and latest research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/hsmr/surgical-robotics-first-human-what-does-it-take |
| Description | Workshop on Surgical Work?ow and Process Modelling |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | As part of the Hamlyn Symposium 10th anniversary on Medical Robotics, a workshop was run. This workshop was for academics, industry and show casing the latest technologies for medical robotics and latest research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.dropbox.com/s/5uobgz4tjq7c1ue/HSMR17_programme-FINAL.pdf?dl=0 |