The R&D objectives of Technologies for the Digital World match the priorities of the EU Horizon 2020 Work Program 2018-2020 in ICT, and are aligned with the current drafts of the Framework Program beyond H2020. This Unit will address, in a multidisciplinary approach, the following key scientific areas:
- Robotics and Artificial Intelligence: Intelligent robots working and living with people in daily live environments with high-level self-organizing and interaction skills.
- 5G networks and systems: Future ultra-fast networks to meet new digital use cases such as ubiquitous robotics, IoT, broadcasting and lifeline communication.
- Autonomous and smart transportation: Self-driving cars network with electrical propulsion and sharing use concept, integrated in digital society applications.
- Internet of Things: Internet-based networking of physical devices, vehicles, buildings, and other items embedded with electronics, sensors and actuators.
- High-Density Photonics: New ICT devices and sensors with new and improved functionalities using nanostructured materials.
- Industry 4.0: New smart & personalized production processes including cyberphysical systems control, monitoring & additive manufacturing during the life cycle.
- Educational technology: Internet-based technologies for education & knowledge sharing, information extraction, semantic technologies and social network analysis.
- Knowledge Centric Engineering: Reuse the knowledge representation and knowledge retrieval in the software engineering research field.
Imagine that we live surrounded by friendly intelligent robots connected through powerful and fast 5G commutation networks and ubiquitous distributed sensors. Imagine that traditional smart phones, computers and automated devices do not exist anymore and are substituted by high-density embedded, and even bionic, devices. Imagine that connectivity is global and continuous, which permits us to predict any situation. Imagine that factories produce goods attending an automatic and personalized demand. Imagine that we do not use our own stick-based cars anymore and share autonomous vehicles to move in ecological cities. This story, which is much closer to reality than what people think, is the core of new
Digital Life in Digital World that will transform our society. We shall live in a different and better manner.
To smoothly transform the nowadays society to the new Digital one, a multi- and interdisciplinary approach is necessary. Research teams from different fields need to work coordinately and not in isolation, as commonly happens today. The Technologies for the Digital World Unit is not an artificial joint of researchers but a careful grouping of knowledge in different domains with common objectives. Each research team brings its own technologies and experiences to try to solve cross-disciplinary problems.
The Technologies for the Digital World Academic Unit will plan to carry out a number of joint activities among its multidisciplinary scientists. As a non-exhaustive list of joint activities, we may cite:
- Applications to joint EU projects
- Applications to ERC research grants
- Application to María de Maeztu program
- Creation of joint Research Institute
- Creation of joint Master degrees
- Applications to “macrogrupos” from the regional government
- Cross-access to the leading laboratories of the involved members
- New shared laboratories
- Joint multidisciplinary publications
- Contributions to standards bodies
- Promotion of spin-off companies
- Joint supervision of PhD Thesis