About S3C
Supporting world-leading collaborative research in intelligent sensor networks and systems, S3C’s role is to deliver knowledge exchange between industry and academia in order to facilitate the next generation of sensor systems for a range of end applications. Through our extensive academic network, we can draw upon a pool of over 1400 scientists and engineers to assist in collaborative projects.
Intelligent sensing systems are a fundamental enabler across many Scottish industrial sectors, including transport, defence, energy, health, renewables, oil and gas, and ocean science. Increasingly, sensor systems and their underpinning device, signal processing, networking, information dissemination and diagnostics technologies, are being tightly integrated within the products and services of a wide range of Scottish business.
Scottish Enterprise has identified sensor systems to be one of Scotland’s growth opportunities. Research from SE suggests the Scottish sensor industry to be worth an estimated £2.1bn and to have a very high science, engineering and technology content as most solutions require innovation in sensor devices, system integration and information extraction.
Specialist Facilities and Laboratories
S3C’s subsea-focused partner universities provide access to state-of-the-art facilities as part of collaborative R&D projects with industry.
Aberdeen is world leading in the development and design of submersible holocameras, with several deployments of eHoloCam, recently redesigned for deployment to 10,000m. Along with extensive capabilities in wireless sensor networking for subsea applications including energy minimisation, security, and wireless industrial control, the University offers expertise in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), a technique for determining the atomic constituents of a target material, normally with little-to-no sample preparation. LIBS can be used for identification and quantification of elemental composition of subsea structures.
Access can also be provided to the advanced molecular sensing laboratory, equipped with instrumentation to carry out feasibility studies concerning the detection and quantification of molecular species, with particular specialism in the sensing of: corrosive substances; corrosion products; and hydrocarbons in aqueous environments (subsea leak detection).
Robert Gordon University offers advanced spectroscopy facilities, plus underwater sensor tank testing, wave tank, and pool test facility. RGU’s research capabilities include sensor development based on spectroscopic principles for environmental, biological, and subsea applications, plus expertise in optical fibre sensor development, electrochemical sensors for environmental monitoring applications, and computational modelling.
Industry Partnerships & Steering Board
A coalition of over 20 industry partners, including BP, Freescale, IBM, Network Rail, Scottish and Southern Energy, Thales, SELEX and Scottish Water, contributes to the work of S3C.
A Steering Board monitors progress, provides strategic guidance, reviews project proposals, and informs on innovative advances and upcoming research opportunities in areas relevant to the Centre’s activities. The Board comprises senior staff from our partner universities, as well as representatives from industry and Scottish Enterprise.
