Uni joins global research network CTIF Global Capsule

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bob Cryan, and the CGC President, Professor Ramjee Prasad

THE University of Huddersfield has joined a global network that is dedicated to researching the latest developments in information and communications technology, including the new, ultra-fast 5G networks and innovations that lie beyond.  These could include communication devices that utilise touch, taste and smell.

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the University and the multi-national organisation named CTIF Global Capsule (CGC), whose President is Professor Ramjee Prasad, of Aarhus University in Denmark.  He is a technologist – and holder of a Danish knighthood – whose role includes the building of bridges between scientific research and the business world.

He came to Huddersfield to sign the five-year MoU, which will lead to joint research initiatives, offering opportunities for both staff and students.  It is also intended to create links between business and technology and to ensure that academic research is of value to society, said Professor Prasad.

He has developed the concept of Human Bond Communication, which has been described as the “Holy Grail of holistic communication and immersive experience”.  His book on the subject examines the prospect for devices that not only convey speech, text and images, but also use the remaining sensory features – olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste) and tactile (touch) – in the transfer and replication of information.

The CTIF Global Capsule was inaugurated in 2015,but has been active since 2004, first as CTIF (Centre for Tele-infrastructure), and then as CTIF Global.  Its mission is to develop interdisciplinary research at national and international level, concerning information and communications technology and its multidisciplinary application.

Members are professors and researchers at universities in Europe, the USA, Japan, India, Australia and several other countries, working in fields that range from medicine to economics and law.  In addition, the CGC has signed MoUs with universities in many countries around the world – with Huddersfield being the first in the UK.

One result of the new agreement will be a multi-national workshop – focusing on telecommunications – that will bring some 70 researchers from more than 20 countries to Huddersfield.

Co-ordinating the MoU at the University of Huddersfield are the telecommunications and electronics experts Professor Ian Glover and Dr Pavlos Lazaridis, who said that one aim was to work with major companies.  It is also intended that there will be links between the University’s School of Computing and Engineering and its Business School, added Dr Lazaridis.

The new MoU was signed by Professor Prasad and the University of Huddersfield’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bob Cryan.