1. Engagement in EU projects
Professor Roger Woods
CTO
27 May 2014

2. About me
CTO of Analytics Engines Ltd.
• Accelerated Analytics for Big Data
• Technical company direction for company
• Monitoring/engaging in funding opportunities for company
Professor of Embedded Systems, Queen’s University
• Leads a research group of 10 people in embedded systems for
image processing and telecommunications
• Considerable experience of computer platforms particularly
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) based acceleration
• £2.4M of current grant support

3. Contents
Analytics Engines
Review of current EU projects
• Handhold
• Panorama
• Nanostreams
EU project journey
• Nanostreams
Misconceptions
Final thoughts

4. Who we are
Analytics Engines is a leading provider of
acceleration products, focussed on
providing optimal performance without
technology bias.

5. Our Mission
To improve application performance
by enhancing the speed and efficiency of
software algorithms through hardware
acceleration.

6. What we do
We provide our suite of accelerators, which can be easily
integrated with existing software to provide increased
application performance.
This performance boost leads to significant commercial
advantage, allowing increasingly complex analytics and
enhanced real time processing of Big Data.

7. Our History
• Company founded in 2008
• Spun out of world leading ECIT Institute at Queens
University Belfast
• Commercialising output from a long-term advanced
research programme in hardware acceleration and
FPGA processor design
• Deep capabilities in high performance system design,
and hybrid data processing platforms

8. Contents
Analytics Engines
Review of current EU projects
• Handhold
• Panorama
• Nanostreams
EU project journey
• Nanostreams
Misconceptions
Final thoughts

9. EU projects
HANDHOLD (HANDHeld OLfactory Detector)
• Use of sensors/low power embedded computing for improved mobile
detection devices to complement dogs in security.
• Security Theme of FP7
Partners
• Ireland (NUI, UCC, Irish Revenue Commissioners, Scorpion Net.)
• UK (QUB, Analytics Engines)
• Germany (Karlsruhe Inst. Of Tech)
• Portugal (Instituto de Novas Technologias)
• Defendec Ou (Estonia)
Details
• Total cost: 3,495,805€ (April 2012 – August 2015)

10. EU projects (cont’d)
PANORAMA: Ultra Wide Context Aware Imaging
• A ENIAC framework 7 project (Public-private partnership on nanoelectronics
that brings together ENIAC Member/Associated States, EC and AENEAS (an
association representing European R&D actors in this field)).
• Highly sophisticated image processing technology has now has an
established role in our lives,
• move from ‘single-’ to ‘multi-view’ -> performance
Partners
Armines, Analytics Engines, Bosch Security Systems, CMOSIS, CycloMedia
Technology, Eindhoven Univ., Grass Valley, IBBT-FMI, INRIA, Medisys, Philips
Healthcare, Q-Free, STMicroelectronics, Technolution, Thales Angenieux,
University of Catania, University of Leeds
Details
• Total cost: 22,800,000€ (April 2012 – August 2015)

11. EU projects (cont’d)
Nanostreams: A Hardware and Software Stack for Real-
Time Analytics on Fast Data Streams
• A framework 7 ICT project
• Data deluge is an unprecedented challenge for the computing ecosystem
• Micro-server architecture and a scalable software stack that addresses the
unique challenges of real-time analytics on streaming data.
Partners
QUB, Analytics Engines Ltd, Neueda Consulting Ltd (UK)
ACE Associated Compiler Experts B.V., (Netherlands)
IBM Research GMBH, Credit Suisse Bank, (Switzerland)
Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (Greece)
Details
• Total cost : 4,676,795€ (Sept. 2013 – Aug. 2016)

12. EU projects (cont’d)
Nanostreams: A picture worth a thousand words

13. Contents
Analytics Engines
Review of current EU projects
• Handhold
• Panorama
• Nanostreams
EU project journey
• Nanostreams
Misconceptions
Final thoughts

14. How did Nanostreams
start?
Approach from academia at Queen’s University Belfast
Neither an EU ICT Work Programme nor targeted call
• Clearly identified challenge that merits investigation from strong consortium
Critical mass in the financial trading sector in Belfast
• Extreme performance requirements, at odds with technology trends
towards energy‐efficient servers
Solutions considered required disruptive changes that
span the entire computing software & hardware stack
• Not be solved by a university, SME, or even multi‐national
• First hint to consider an EU project

15. How did Nanostreams
evolve?
Context
• Real‐time analytics on streaming data require extremely high performance
and low latency
Critical for important markets: capital markets, forensics
• Currently supported by servers with high total cost of ownership
Idea
• Can a low‐cost server be used instead?

16. How did Nanostreams
Evolve into an EU project?
Contemplated several funding alternatives
• Hard to involve SMEs and industry as funded partners in RCUK
• Limited funding, small “demos” supported from instruments like TSB
Critical mass of expertise available in the UK but
important components missing
• Compilers for application‐specific processors
• Major server vendors not UK‐based

17. The consortium

18. Contents
Analytics Engines
Review of current EU projects
• Handhold
• Panorama
• Nanostreams
EU project journey
• Nanostreams
Misconceptions
Final thoughts

19. Misconceptions
Is EU project involvement too difficult?
• Network
• Projects actively need SME involvement
• Identify clear goals
• Remain focused on your company’s priorities
• Use as opportunity for future R&D
• Avoid major involvement
• Don’t lead an EU project (or even workpackage)
• Plead admin poverty!
Is EU funding too hard to get?
• Projects need SME involvement
• Identify strong partners with EU experience

20. Misconceptions
What are the financial implications?
• May fund your proposed R&D plans
• Be aware of the funding regulations
• Shift towards partial payment upfront
Doesn’t EU projects take too much work/time?
It can do but you should…
• Focus of what you want/can offer in terms of partnership
• Don’t be badgered into doing something you don’t want!
• Avoid leading a EU project
• Set sensible achievable objectives

21. Contents
Analytics Engines
Review of current EU projects
• Handhold
• Panorama
• Nanostreams
EU project journey
• Nanostreams
Misconceptions
Final thoughts

22. Final thoughts
Getting involved
• Cordis (http://cordis.europa.eu/)
• InvestNI
… more involved
• InvestNI
• Networking e.g. Linkedin
• Attend focused meeting event
• Engage with local/national research units
Numerous advantages
• Customers
• Funding ‘cushion’

23. Final thoughts
Go for it!

24. Engagement in EU projects
Professor Roger Woods
CTO
27 May 2014