Smart Nano NI

Celebrating #IWD2025 Smart Nano NI members celebrate International Women's Day and share their experience and insights into how a supportive work environment can make a difference.  Tina O'Donnell Katie Cavanagh Emma Doherty Y. Jauregui-Sánchez Girijesh Prasad

Smart Nano Technology Access Programme (TAP) members participated in a workshop this week. Hosted by Yelo , it was a unique opportunity to gain further insights into the use of technology, photonics and analytics. The Tap programme aims to increase innovation and connections across the business ecosystem in NI and is led by Smart Nano NI consortium partner Digital Catapult 

Smart Nano had the great pleasure to be collaborating with are consortium partner member Yelo this week as part of NI Science Festival. We held a careers talk to Year 13s focusing on careers in engineering and Photonics. The talk included consortium partners Seagate Technology, Cirdan Ltd, Queen's University Belfast, PIADS CDT, and Yelo. The event provided hands-on activities and insights into these fields, showcasing the future opportunities available in Northern Ireland for today's children.

#ResearchWednesdays    This research presents a new way to automatically find tiny imperfections on silicon wafers. These wafers need to be almost perfect, because microscopic flaws can ruin an individual silicon chip. Making computer chips is a delicate process, and even tiny imperfections on the silicon wafers they're built on can cause major problems. To help identify imperfections the researchers used a type of artificial intelligence (AI) called a "deep convolutional neural network," or DCNN for short.    Today we bring you a collaboration between two of our members, Seagate and Ulster University. Contributions from Cormac McAteer, Girijesh Prasad and M. M. Manujurul Islam. This research presents a new way to automatically find these tiny imperfections. These wafers need to be almost perfect, because even microscopic flaws can ruin the chip. They used a type of artificial intelligence (AI) called a "deep convolutional neural network," or DCNN for short.  Making computer chips is a delicate process, and even tiny imperfections on the silicon wafers they're built on can cause major problems. They started with an existing AI model called LeNet-5 and improved it. This improved model has seven "layers," which are like different steps in the process of analyzing the image of the wafer. Some of these layers, called "convolutional" layers, are like sliding a magnifying glass over the image to find patterns. Other layers, called "pooling" layers, simplify the information to make it easier to process. To make the AI even better at finding flaws, they used a technique called an "Adam optimizer." This is like fine-tuning a radio to get the clearest signal. It adjusts the AI's settings to improve its accuracy. The results were excellent – the AI correctly identified the flaws over 99% of the time. This means it's a very effective way to automatically find defects and improve the quality of computer chips. Read more:  https://lnkd.in/gwwM4uWQ 

The NI Science Festival offers over 250 events across 90+ venues with a focus on the wonders of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).   Aimed at inspiring the next generation of scientists, engineers and innovators, the festival has created a unique opportunity for Smart Nano NI members to collaborate with Yelo , supporting an education event bringing together activity and insights into careers in engineering and photonics.    The NI Science Festival is a reminder of the importance and value of encouraging young minds to explore the world of STEM in our world around us and at work. Smart Nano NI members Yelo , Queen's University Belfast, Ulster University, North West Regional College (NWRC) will also host activities at their sites.     Check out the full programme and get ready to explore the wonders of science!   https://lnkd.in/eH_PH6gf       #NIScienceFestival #STEM #Innovation

#ResearchWednesdays Introducing our regular update on published papers that show our collaboration and shared learning across the teams.        This week we are focusing on Mike Hardy’s research.      The research focuses on developing new methods for determining the freshness of fish via spectroscopy and machine learning, using handheld devices that shine light on salmon fillets and measure the reflected light to determine their freshness. They found that combining different types of light measurements (data fusion), rather than the data from one device on its own, or carefully selecting certain parts of the data, was the most accurate way to predict freshness.     This new method could lead to faster and more reliable ways to check the freshness of fish in the future.  Mike's research is helping in terms of food safety and quality, and could potentially assist in the issue of food fraud, where criminals interfere with foodstuffs for economic gain.     The above was a collaboration between Queen's University Belfast, Safety Spect Inc. (USA) and the University of North Dakota (USA). Mike is now collaborating with Smart Nano partner companies Cirdan Ltd Imaging, Yelo and Queen's spin-out Causeway Sensors Limited Sensors Ltd on new devices and technologies.     Read more:     https://lnkd.in/dq6btgrd    Thank you to the Mourne Observe for the article featuring Mike Hardy.   

Smart Nano NI members are attending SPIE Photonics West this week, participating with trade delegation hosted by the UK Department for Business and Trade. Later today, Smart Nano NI will feature in the Cornerstone session on accelerating technology into the marketplace. The panel discussion, hosted by John Lincoln, will focus on how to bridge the gap between groundbreaking research and commercial success. It is also an opportunity to provide insights into the collaboration and progression for Smart Nano NI. For contacting our Smart Nano NI members at Photonics West : https://lnkd.in/gu-keZRN #photonicswest

Smart Nano NI believes there is more than one pathway to gain a successful career.   February will mark the start of Apprenticeship Week and a number of our Smart Nano NI members have apprentices within different accepts of their businesses. Smart Nano member North West Regional College (NWRC) will be holding a series of events lined up at Springtown, Strand Rd and Greystone campuses for Apprenticeship Week from the 4th - 6th February 2025. Find out more and register here:  https://lnkd.in/enGCQbsj

Smart Nano NI Technology Access Programme (TAP) for 2025 gets underway with 11 participating companies from across NI and England. The 3-month programme is tailored to meet individual business needs with access to mentoring, resources and knowledge to build capabilities in photonics and future networks such as 5G.   The overall aim of the Smart Nano NI TAP programme is to foster innovation and technology advancement.  Learn more here: https://ow.ly/ifnp50UKW3C

Smart Nano NI members get ready to attend SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco, USA from 28 to 30 January 2025.  It’s an opportunity to showcase shared NI capabilities in the critical technologies of photonics and nanotechnology along with making connections and exploring the potential for local and international collaborations.  Members are also attending as part of the UK Department for Business delegation which comprises 28 companies and 8 organisations with representation across photonics and its applications.     If you are attending Photonics West, you can connect with our Smart Nano NI colleagues from Yelo , Digital Catapult and Seagate Technology.  View our conference page with details on how to meet and connect with the team.  https://lnkd.in/gu-keZRN    #photonicswest2025