Time series classification is the problem of trying to predict an outcome based on a series of ordered data. So, for example, if we take a series of electronic readings from a sample of meat, the classification problem could be to determine whether that sample is pure beef or whether it has been adulterated with some other meat. Alternatively, if we have a series of electricity usage, the classification problem could be to determine which type of device generated those readings. Time series classification problems arise in all areas of science, and we have worked on problems involving ECG and EEG data, chemical concentration readings, astronomical measurements, otolith outlines, electricity usage, food spectrographs, hand and bone radiograph data and mutant worm motion. The algorithm we have developed to do this, The Collective of Transform Ensembles (COTE), is significantly better than any other technique proposed in the literature (when assessed on 80 data sets used in the literature). This project looks to improve COTE further and to apply it to three problem domains of genuine importance to society. In collaboration with Imperial, we will look at classifying Caenorhabditis elegans via motion traces. C. elegans is a nematode worm commonly used as a model organism in the study of genetics. We will help develop an automated classifier for C. elegans mutant types based on their motion, with the objective of identifying genes that regulate appetite. This classifier will automate a task previously done manually at great cost and will uncover conserved regulators of appetite in a model organism in which functional dissection is possible at the level of behaviour, neural circuitry, and fat storage. In the long term, this may give insights into the genetic component of human obesity. Working closely with the Institute of Food Research (IFR), we will attempt to solve two problems involving classifying food types by their molecular spectra (infrared, IR, and nuclear magnetic resonance, NMR). The first problem involves classifying meat type. The horse meat scandal of 2012/3 has shown that there is an urgent need to increase current authenticity testing regimes for meat. IFR have been working closely with a company called Oxford Instruments to develop a new low-cost, bench-top spectrometer called the Pulsar for rapid screening of meat. We will collaborate with IFR to find the best algorithms for performing this classification. The second problem aims to find non-destructive ways for testing whether the content of intact spirits bottles is genuine or fake. Forged alcohol is commonplace, and in recent years there has been an increasing number of serious injuries and even deaths from the consumption of illegally produced spirits. The development of sensor technology to detect this type of fraud would thus have great societal value, and the collaboration with Oxford Instruments offers the potential for the development of portable scanners for product verification. Our third case study involves classifying electric devices from smart meter data. Currently 25% of the United Kingdom's greenhouse gasses are accounted for by domestic energy consumption, such as heating, lighting and appliance use. The government has committed to an 80% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2050, and to meet this is requiring the installation of smart energy meters in every household to promote energy saving. The primary output of this investment of billions of pounds in technology will be enormous quantities of data relating to electricity usage. Understanding and intelligently using this data will be crucial if we are to meet the emissions target. We will focus on one part of the analysis, which is the problem of determining whether we can automatically classify the nature of the device(s) currently consuming electricity at any point in time. This is a necessary first step in better understanding household practices, which is essential for reducing usage.

Wearable technologies such as smart glasses have recently caused much excitement in the business and technology spheres. However, these examples use relatively conventional technologies. The real breakthrough in wearable technologies will come when we can manufacture materials and components that are flexible and non-intrusive enough to be integrated into everyday items, such as our clothes. The main challenges to achieving this are the lack of reliability, performance limitations of (opto)electronics on flexible substrates, and the lack of flexible power sources. Much of the necessary device technology exists in some nascent form; our proposal will provide the technological innovation to allow its manufacture in a form compatible with wearable technology. In this project we aim to solve a key technological challenge in wearable technologies, namely that of scalable and cost-effective manufacturing by taking advantage of the following areas of UK technological excellence in components and scale-up technologies: 1) The assembled consortium has an emphasis on inventing and demonstrating the key wearables technologies required on flexible substrates for displays, energy harvesting and sensing. 2) The consortium consists of key researchers in the fields of modeling prediction, metrology, systems integration and design for reliability, all required to complement the device engineering. 3) Importantly, by integrating, right from the word go, the aspect of Roll-to-Roll (R2R) scale-up of manufacturing such flexible technologies, we will create the manufacturing know-how to allow fundamental science to translate into manufacturing. The deposition processes for all wearables face similar challenges such as low material yield, high waste (important for functional films where minimizing waste saves costs substantially) and lack of in-situ process monitoring. Additionally, for our targeted applications, there is currently no scalable cost-effective manufacturing technology. Roll-to-roll processing fulfills this crucial need and our aim will be to enable this scalable manufacturing technology for inexpensive production on flexible substrates, an area very much underexplored in terms of advanced functional materials, but one with huge potential.

Our vision is to create a distributed CDT that unites the strands of magnetic resonance (MR) technology funded under the EPSRC Basic Technology (BT) Programme that accounted for more than 10% of the funding in this programme. We will create a world-leading combination of expertise, infrastructure resource and training. Furthermore this vision seeks to capitalise on the BT investment by developing MR technology to have real and lasting impact on UK science and industry. The UK has an outstanding and continuing record of contributions and advances to many aspects of MR research and technology. UK-based companies (e.g. Oxford Instruments, Magnex (now part of Agilent), Cryogenics, Bruker UK, Thomas Keating) using highly trained staff with higher degrees (e.g. MSc, PhD) have pioneered world-leading MR technology, much of it emerging from UK universities. The letters from our industrial partners are absolutely clear about the need for an increased supply of MR researchers trained to PhD level with a broad perspective of the field to maintain the UK's position at the forefront of the development of MR technology. MR methods are firmly established as a primary analytical tool in chemistry, are increasingly influential for characterisation in materials science and have revolutionised medical imaging. Despite the great success of MR there is huge demand to push the boundaries through increasing the sensitivity, resolution (spectral and spatial) and speed of the technique. The technologies involved include fast, high power and versatile electronics, signal detection and processing, high frequency/power sources, cryogenics, micromechanics, sample environments and pulse sequences. These drivers, the range of technologies involved and strong, integrated industrial involvement make the field an ideal research training ground for our PhDs and ensure wider BT impact. The CDT will provide impetus for further cross-collaboration in the UK MR community, with the projects jointly supervised across partners. Our vision centrally fits this CDT call by exposing students to multiple, but synergistic BT concepts around MR. Although the physical principles of the different branches of MR, i.e. nuclear (NMR), electron (EPR) and imaging (MRI), are fundamentally related, conventional 'isolated' PhDs associated with one specific MR topic often miss the connection and broader picture of the field. This CDT will bring new dimensions to the training of a cohort of UK PhD students in MR including acquiring the background skills for creative exploitation of their research. PhD projects centred on developing MR technology will have multidisciplinary impacts Page 3 of 9 Date printed: 20/01/2011 11:21:23 EP/J00121X/1 Date saved: 20/01/2011 10:45:13 through extending the range of application of MR techniques. The MR instrument market (certainly worth many hundreds of millions of pounds globally) continues to show strong growth as evidenced by the annual reports of the leading companies and by their projected forecasts of rapid expansion. Hence the already identified need along with the potential growth amply demonstrate the demand for trained people in this area. There is a strong fit to national needs in priorities aligned to RCUK, industry and more broadly. Increasingly there are national concerns about critical mass and improved sustainability through shared services/infrastructure. The demand for very expensive state of the art equipment in MR to compete internationally will require more coordination and joint planning between the leading groups and this CDT can play a central role in this. Specific areas of MR technology where training will be provided and also further developed through the research projects of the students are: (i) MR Pulse Sequence Technology (ii) Cryogenic Magnetic Resonance (iii) Advancing pulsed Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (iv) Beyond conventional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (v) Dynamic Nuclear Polarisation enhanced NMR

Development of materials has underpinned human and societal development for millennia, and such development has accelerated as time has passed. From the discovery of bronze through to wrought iron and then steel and polymers the visible world around has been shaped and built, relying on the intrinsic properties of these materials. In the 20th century a new materials revolution took place leading to the development of materials that are designed for their electronic (e.g. silicon), optical (e.g. glass fibres) or magnetic (e.g. recording media) properties. These materials changed the way we interact with the world and each other through the development of microelectronics (computers), the world wide web (optical fibre communications) and associated technologies. Now, two decades into the 21st century, we need to add more functionality into materials at ever smaller length-scales in order to develop ever more capable technologies with increased energy efficiency and at an acceptable manufacturing cost. In pursuing this ambition, we now find ourselves at the limit of current materials-processing technologies with an often complex interdependence of materials properties (e.g. thermal and electronic). As we approach length scales below 100s of nanometres, we have to harness quantum effects to address the need for devices with a step-change in performance and energy-efficiency, and ultimately for some cases the fundamental limitations of quantum mechanics. In this programme grant we will develop a new approach to delivering material functionalisation based on Nanoscale Advanced Materials Engineering (NAME). This approach will enable the modification of materials through the addition (doping) of single atoms through to many trillions with extreme accuracy (~20 nanometres, less than 1000th the thickness of a human hair). This will allow us to functionalise specifically a material in a highly localised location leaving the remaining material available for modification. For the first time this will offer a new approach to addressing the limitations faced by existing approaches in technology development at these small length scales. We will be able to change independently a material's electronic and thermal properties on the nanoscale, and use the precise doping to deliver enhanced optical functionality in engineered materials. Ambitiously, we aim to use NAME to control material properties which have to date proven difficult to exploit fully (e.g. quantum mechanical spin), and to control states of systems predicted but not yet directly experimentally observed or controlled (e.g. topological surface states). Ultimately, we may provide a viable route to the development of quantum bits (qubits) in materials which are a pre-requisite for the realisation of a quantum computer. Such a technology, albeit long term, is predicted to be the next great technological revolution NAME is a collaborative programme between internationally leading UK researchers from the Universities of Manchester, Leeds and Imperial College London, who together lead the Henry Royce Institute research theme identified as 'Atoms to Devices'. Together they have already established the required substantial infrastructure and state-of-the-art facilities through investment from Royce, the EPSRC and each University partner. The programme grant will provide the resource to assemble the wider team required to deliver the NAME vision, including UK academics, research fellows, and postdoctoral researchers, supported by PhD students funded by the Universities. The programme grant also has significant support from wider academia and industry based both within the UK and internationally.