The Microlab experience in bridging the gap between academia and industry

EU - Israel Seminar on Technology Transfer with an Emphasis on Clean Tech

Tel Aviv, November 25-26, 2012Name: Dr. Alex BartzasMicroprocessors and Digital Systems LabNational Technical University of Athens, Greece

Academia and Industry

Academia(Microlab/

NTUA)

Technology Clusters(Corallia)

Industry

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Mainly through EC-funded research projectsand HiPEAC NoE

Clusters supported by Corallia

Nano/Microelectronics based Systems and Applications Cluster

Nano/Microelectronics based Systems and Applications Cluster

Space Technologies and Applications

Cluster

Space Technologies and Applications

Cluster

Members: 22Initiation: 2009

Turnover: > € 100 mil.

Employment: > 600

Members: 22Initiation: 2009

Turnover: > € 100 mil.

Employment: > 600

Gaming Technologies & Creative Content

Cluster

Gaming Technologies & Creative Content

Cluster

3Nov. 25, 2012

Members: 130Initiation: 2004

Turnover: > € 5.7 bil.

Employment: > 5000

Members: 130Initiation: 2004

Turnover: > € 5.7 bil.

Employment: > 5000

Members: 22Initiation: 2011

Turnover: > € 1.2 bil.

Employment: > 1000

Members: 22Initiation: 2011

Turnover: > € 1.2 bil.

Employment: > 1000

Microlab is a member of all three clusters

Services to Cluster Members

4Nov. 25, 2012

• Acquisition of third party funding (R&D and non R&D projects, VCs, BAs, Banks)• One Stop Shop (consulting, mentoring, coaching -mainly- for founders)• Networking Events (networking days, user days, open days, carpe diem, webinars)• Internationalisation Events (trade fairs, exhibitions, roadshows, etc.)• Web presence (social networks, knowledge base, cluster mapping)• Incubation Area (office space and amenities, data centre and management)• Business Area (meeting rooms and amenities, printing services, telepresence etc.)• Exhibition Area (physical and virtual booths)• Job finder (career days, career matchmaker platform)• Public Relations (Newsletter, News-Stream, NewsWatch, branding)• Training events (business acceleration programme, patenting, etc.)

Application domains we are active

Multimedia• Run-time resource and data management,

application and data mapping, design space exploration, middleware development

Trusted/Secure computing

• Secure data management for smart-grid applications, trusted middleware

Medical • RTOS and real-time applications, low-power software

Microelectronics

• Design of reliable HW in the deep sub-micron context, functional and parametric reliability

Space• Implementation of computer vision algorithms as

HW IPs

Games• Run-time resource and data management,

application and data mapping, middleware development

Energy• Adaptive control of PV module parameters, run-time

management

Nov. 25, 2012 5

The exploration of Mars is one of the main goals for both NASA and ESA, as confirmed by past and recent activities• The last 15 years there are a number of on-orbit and

surface missions to Mars

• Our projects are part of the ExoMars mission (scheduled for 2018)

Space: What is our work?

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Collaboration with industry• European Space Agency (ESA) Projects

•SPARTAN•SEXTANT

• Develop IP kernels for computer vision algorithms targeting to rover navigation for Mars terrain•ESA-compatible VHDL

• Mapped onto Xilinx Virtex-6 board•Optimized C/C++ code

• Running onto 150MIPS processor (space-oriented device)

GMV AEROSPACE and DEFENCE

Democritus University of ThraceNational Technical University of Athens

TRASYSCNES

7Nov. 25, 2012

Medical: What is our work?

Nov. 25, 2012 8

• Tackling societal needs• Reduced healthcare costs as a result of reduced need

for hospitalization, and clinician visits through increased remote monitoring

• Increase access to best practice care for patients living in remote geographical locations

• More efficient use of Governmental and Insurance healthcare resources by ensuring patient concordance with treatment protocols through remote monitoring

• The applications we are working on aim at the next generation, integrated solutions for personalized treatment and management of patients• integrated solution for patients with chronic renal

failure• integrated autonomous device for the monitoring and

the personalized management of chronic wounds

Collaboration with industry

• Collaboration through E.C. IP-Projects• SWAN-iCare• Nephron+

• Developing real-time and low-power embedded SW applications running on the wearable medical devices• Reading data from the sensors, handling the actuators and relaying data to the

patients and medical personnel

Nov. 25, 2012 9Embedded real-time

SW, integrated control

Wireless comm.

Actuators

Sensors

Energy: What is our work?Problem: Power loss due to partial shading of the PV array and the PV module• Conventional topologies of modules deal with partial shading by placing

bypass diodes across group of cells• These bypass diodes are effective in dealing with mismatch losses between the

groups of cells• A shaded group of cells is bypassed when shaded in order to allow the rest of

the module to operate on a higher current• The power potentially produced by the bypassed group is lost

• When the incident shade affects all the groups in a similar way, the entire module operates on a lower current since there is no option of bypassing the shaded cells.

Nov. 25, 2012 10

Collaboration with industry

• Close collaboration with IMEC, vzw., Belgium• Partial funding of Ph.D. researchers• Internships

• Our proposal: Intra-module configurable cell interconnection topology• Instead of using bypass diodes, switches can be used to alter the

interconnection of the cells within the module. • Cells with similar operating conditions are grouped together.

Nov. 25, 2012 11

Collaboration with Industry and Academia

Industrial Academic

Nov. 25, 2012 12

Thank You!Questions?

More information:Alex Bartzas, Ph.D.

alexis@microlab.ntua.gr

www.corallia.org

www.microlab.ntua.gr