Data and artificial intelligence has played an increasingly prominent role in elections in recent years. 2024 is packed with democratic elections, in countries including the UK, United States and India, but what impact will data and AI have – both positive and negative?

How are rogue actors spreading disinformation and deploying plausible deepfakes to influence elections – and undermine our trust in democracy more generally?

How can democratic societies counter those threats – and more importantly, how can we build better future democracies by regulating and controlling AI and data effectively?

Hear from experts on these and a range of other issues around the complex interplay between artificial intelligence, data and democracy.

The Bayes Centre Forum series is intended to create the opportunity for Members & Partners of the Bayes Centre, the wider University community and external business guests to interact, share experiences and explore multi-disciplinary AI and data science research collaboration opportunities.

November’s Forum will provide a quarterly overview of the University of Edinburgh activities in data science and AI and how the Bayes Centre supports the adoption and translation of data science and AI technologies for businesses and organisations.

Speakers include:

• Ruth King, Director of the Bayes Centre
• Emily Lekkas, Business Development Manager, Bayes Centre
• Anne Robertson, Head of Business Development & Sales, EDINA Services
• Sohan Seth, Lead Data Scientist, School of Informatics
• Chris Dent, Director of the Statistics Consultancy Unit
• Julien Sindt, Commercial Manager, EPCC
• Simon Chapple, Head of Data Technology, DDI IoT Programme

Please note, this event will be online only, a Zoom link will be sent to your email prior to the event.

Calling all Scottish tech innovators and entrepreneurs! Attend an event, where the worlds of venture capital and tech startups collide. This event is designed to equip you with the knowledge, inspiration, and connections needed to take your startup to new heights.

A distinguished panel of experts, comprising seasoned venture capitalists and experts, including Chris Neumann, Marvin Liao, Monique Woodard, Casey Lau, and Mike Sigal, will take the stage to share their invaluable insights on what it takes to become investor ready. From securing seed funding to scaling your business, these experts have witnessed and supported countless success stories.

Prepare to be inspired as we dive into dynamic panel discussions featuring local tech founders who have successfully attracted investments and scaled their ventures. Learn from their experiences, challenges, and strategies for achieving investor readiness in the fiercely competitive landscape of Scottish tech startups.

Amidst the thought-provoking discussions, you’ll have the opportunity to network with fellow entrepreneurs, industry experts, and, of course, our esteemed panellists. Forge meaningful connections, foster collaborations, and uncover exciting opportunities during the networking refreshments that conclude the event.

Don’t miss out on this pivotal event that promises to unlock new pathways to success for your tech startup. Secure your spot today and embark on a transformative journey toward investment readiness and accelerated growth in the vibrant Scottish startup ecosystem.

Who is this event for?

This event is specifically designed for Scottish tech innovators and entrepreneurs who are eager to attract investments, scale their startups, and take their businesses to new heights. Whether you’re an early-stage founder seeking seed funding or an established startup looking to secure additional investments for growth, this event offers valuable resources and guidance for tech entrepreneurs at all stages.

The CENSIS Technology Summit, taking place on 2 November 2023 at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow, is Scotland’s leading sensing, imaging and IoT event – a free day of top class speakers, exhibitors, debates and networking. This is a fully in-person event and will not be streamed live.

• Hear about challenges, solutions and innovation across the sectors  from presenters and panellists
• Meet exhibitors from industry and academia showcasing new technologies and products
• Understand how businesses are delivering sensing, imaging and IoT solutions across a range of markets 
• Network and connect with key business people, policy makers and researchers 

Who should attend

You’ll get the most from the day if you are a business developing sensing, imaging and/or IoT products or services or a company or organisation of any size and in any sector interested in using, sensing, imaging and/or IoT to  improve or grow your business. Academics and researchers will also find the day interesting, as will anyone working in knowledge exchange or business development in this space.

Find out more about this year’s CENSIS Technology Summit 2023.

Registration is now open.

The rECOver group focuses on identifying and developing robotics as a sustainable technology and their potential contribution to a more sustainable world while identifying and working to overcome the social and economic implications associated with their integration by closing the gap between domestic and international policymakers and industrial partners.

The rECOver group comprises of a unique combination of cross discipline researchers including scientists, lawyers, sociologists and engineers.

This ‘Collider Event’ at the National Robotarium in Edinburgh, will bring together these sectors into a multidisciplinary group of experts to engage in discussions that will identify and draw out key principles and issues that should be addressed when using robotics for sustainability and focus on questions such as:

•Robotics in a sustainable world: are they accelerating or hindering the objectives?

•Can the increased use of robotics for sustainable mining affect the critical material supply?

•How does the contribution of robotic technology affect the transition to a circular economy?

•How can potential negative socio-economic or political impacts of robotics use be mitigated?

Robotic technology is increasingly being used to drive us to a more sustainable world, for example, in the offshore wind sector. However, whether and how robotics themselves can be made more sustainable – socially and environmentally – is emerging as an issue of debate. The development and use of these robots require coherent interdisciplinary analysis suitable to understanding their potential socioeconomic and environmental downsides and to create better regulatory approaches to incentivize innovation while avoiding negative externalities.

Initially, rECOver is seeking to initiate conversation and collaboration among scientists, engineers, policymakers and social scientists to analyse the use of robotics in mineral acquisition for and recycling of sustainable or ‘green’ technologies by combining both techno-economic and socio-political analysis.

About Opportunity:

Glasgow Caledonian University has developed a novel optical concentrator capable of providing gain on two planes.  Such a concentrator can be used in a non-tracking wall mounted BIPV system. 

The concentrator provides higher optical gains than alternative optical elements, thereby reducing the amount of PV cell (and silicon) required.  Additionally, carefully selected FOVs (Field-of-Views) contribute to capture solar radiation throughout the day and all year round, removing the requirement for electromechanical tracking.

Further, the optical structure has been designed to take into account the fact that the sun’s path deviation from summer to winter is far less than the deviation from sunrise to sunset and the entrance aperture and concentrator profile have been optimsed to redirect sunlight to the exit aperture and to the PV material.

A concentrator PV-array based on this structure is also capable of providing ambient light to building interiors. 

The reduction of PV material can be particularly important in applications using Gallium Arsenide PV cells.

The optical element can be used not only for solar energy systems (solar PV and solar thermal), it also could be used to collect visible and infrared radiation in applications such as sensing and optical wireless communications.

Key Benefits:

• Reduction in cost of BIPV systems
• High optical gain
• High electrical power output
• Optimum collection of light at a variety of angles of incidence
• No electrical tracking required
• Provides illumination as well as energy generation
• Reduction in CO2 emissions

Applications:

• BIPV Systems
• Optical sensing
• Optical wireless communications
• Lighting

IP Status:

The technology is protected by a granted GB patent and international patent application (Priority date December 2011), now in Regional/National phase.

Small prototypes have been built and tested with extremely positive results. Larger prototype array units have now been completed and initial results have confirmed these impressive results with high levels of optical gain generated.

About Opportunity:

Energy used by domestic and non-domestic buildings accounts for approximately 30% of UK carbon emissions, so there is significant opportunity for better management of building energy systems. Technological advances mean that innovative wireless sensors and metering systems can gather fine granularity data on building function and performance.

GCU have developed a building management system which continuously monitors sensors responsible for controlling environmental parameters; room temperature and humidity, air quality, lighting, room occupancy, power usage etc. The system is able to optimise these parameters through remote energy monitoring.

Key Benefits:

• More efficient building energy control
• Greater building energy efficiency
• Higher levels of occupant comfort
• Reduced building carbon footprint
• Lower building energy costs

Applications:

• Domestic building energy management system
• Non-domestic building energy management system
• Industrial control system
• Smart meters

IP Status:

A patent application has been filed to protect the technology and the University is seeking commercial partners interested in developing, licensing or exploiting this technology.

About Opportunity:

The use of TADF emitters represents a paradigm shift in emitter development wherein inexpensive small molecule organic compounds can now be used to harvest 100% of the excitons in an electroluminescent device and so obtain excellent power efficiencies. We have developed a series of deep blue TADF emitters for Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLED).

TADF allows purely organic emitters to harvest the triplet states as an alternative to the existing heavy-metal based phosphorescent OLEDs, which are known to be expensive and environmentally hostile. The emitters contain both carbazole donors and oxadiazole acceptors to effectively form excitons by a charge trapping mechanism. The blue colour emission wavelength of these emitters can be a valuable asset as there is currently a dearth of bright blue-emitting phosphorescent emitters for OLEDs.

The invention is primarily used for blue-emitting OLEDs or, when operating in parallel with green and red emitters, for energy-efficient white lighting devices. Due to the nature of TADF, potential applications also include temperature or oxygen sensors.

Key Benefits:

• Harvesting 100% of excitons via TDF for OLED devices
• Inexpensive organic emitters
• Environmentally more benign
• Deep blue emission colour
• Ambipolar characteristic

Applications:

• Blue-emitting OLEDs
• To operate in parallel with red and green emitters for energy efficient white light devices
• Due to the nature of TADF, potential applications also include temperature or oxygen sensors

IP Status:

Subject to UK patent application number 1507340.6 filed 29 April 2015.

About Opportunity:

Roll-to-roll printing of plastic electronics from solution promises to revolutionise the manufacturing of luminaires, offering a cheap and scalable method of fabricating high-efficiency light sources. White light displays are the holy grail of this endeavour and require efficient red, green and blue emitters. So far, red and green emitters using iridium-based complexes have been synthesised, but efficient and stable blue light emitter design is still a challenge in the industry. To tackle this, we have designed deep-blue emitting cationic iridium complexes that are unprecedentedly bright. A tethering strategy, where the distal components of the ligand scaffold are rigidly linked together, drastically enhances the brightness of these emitters while simultaneously invoking a deep blue colour due to the ligand’s strong electron donating capabilities.

Our rigidifying strategy differs from typical strategies that use multi-dentate ligands, which are synthetically challenging to access; our strategy uses established straightforward protocols to access these complexes.

The invention is primarily suited for OLED or LEEC application for visual display and lighting applications. Due to the charged phosphorescent nature of the emitter, applications relating to bio-imaging, analyte detection and oxygen sensing are also feasible.

Key Benefits:

• Deep blue emission
• Enhanced brightness from steric bulk and rigidified ligand scaffolds
• Straightforward synthesis through established protocols
• Highly soluble in organic solvents makes solution processing and roll-to-roll printing of optoelectronics possible

Applications:

• OLEDs for visual displays & lighting applications
• LEECs for visual displays and lighting
• Due to the charged phosphorescent nature of the emitter applications relating to bio-imaging, analyte detection and oxygen sensing are also feasible

IP Status:

Patent granted – US10236454B2