University among ‘Best of the Best’ at Innovate UK engineering awards
An outstanding University research partnership based on the novel use of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision has been nominated for two prestigious national engineering awards. Professor Gordon Morison’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) collaboration with Edinburgh-based Geckotech Solutions Ltd is shortlisted at the Innovate UK ‘Best of the Best’ Awards 2019 for Best KTP Award and the Engineering Excellence Award.
Professor Morison, who is head of the University’s Department of Computing, said “Glasgow Caledonian is the only Scottish university to be nominated, and our project is the only one to feature in two categories. This is fantastic recognition for our excellence in these important areas of AI and Computer Vision. We’re excited to attend the awards in London this week, and showcase the success of our industrial collaborations.”
Geckotech provides specialist access services to engineering clients and has been working with the University for over 4 years through multiple KTP projects. The company’s Research and Development manager, Dr Mark Jenkins, who is also a GCU alumni, says the success of the research partnership is helping the company see opportunities for future growth.
Dr Jenkins said “The focus of this collaboration is to revolutionise the field of structural condition monitoring through the development of computer vision and machine learning systems. Thanks to the KTP we’ve been able to access a Data Lab funded Industrial Doctorate project and a GCU funded PhD project and we’ve made great strides in developing our approach. To be recognised at a UK level with these nominations confirms Geckotech’s commitment to R&D is paying off.”
The School of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment is currently involved in two new KTP projects with software company, Intrallect, and industrial giant Mitsubishi Electric Air Conditioning Systems (Europe). Professor Morison said “One of the reasons I see these Projects as so important is because they allow me to feed my research into cutting-edge industrial projects, and then take these real-life industrial challenges back into the classroom in front of our students. Data science is on the cusp of transforming industry. I see it as part of our commitment to the Common Good that we as a University are bringing a positive influence to the way data science will change our lives in the future.”
The Innovate UK ‘Best of the Best’ Awards 2019 awards take place on 2nd of May at a ceremony at the Royal Society of Chemistry in London.