Facilities

SPADS CDT staff, students and partners have access to unrivalled expertise, experience and facilities to ensure the delivery of a world-leading PhD training program.

Academic entities within SPADS

The SPADS training programme leverages the teaching expertise of five main Schools across the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University:

Moreover, the SPADS team is drawn from five world-leading research institutes within UoE/HWU:

  • The Institute for Imaging, Data and Communications (IDCOM) at the UoE is a leading research institute in SP, Communications and ML with 18 faculty, including 3 IEEE Fellows, and over 100 research associates (RA) and PhD students. Its expertise extends from SP theory through algorithm development to applications in radar, electronic surveillance, acoustics, imaging and communications.
  • The Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour (IPAB) at the UoE is the UK’s leading robotics research institute with 18 faculty and over 70 RAs and PhD students. IPAB is UoE host for the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, and EPSRC CDT in Robotics, and previously the £36M EPSRC-Industry ORCA Hub (winner of the 2018 Guardian University Award for Business Collaboration).
  • The Institute for Sensors, Signals and Systems (ISSS) at HWU is a leading research institute in robotics, microsystems, communications, and signal and image processing. ISSS has more than 40 academic staff, 70 RAs and PhD students, leads the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics programme, and previously led the EPSRC-Industry Robotics and AI ORCA hub.
  • The Institute for Integrated Micro and Nano Systems (IMNS) at UoE covers the full spectrum of microelectronics and nanotechnologies, from design to fabrication and has 22 academic staff, and over 150 RAs and PhDs. IMNS hosts the ACRC Academy CDT in Advanced Care and is UoE host for the Applied Photonics CDT. It has in-house capability to process foundry wafers and hosts the Centre for Electronics Frontiers, working with Dstl on low SWAP-C, and hardware-enabled AI.
  • The Maxwell Institute combines HWU and UoE mathematical research and is one of the largest groupings of mathematical expertise in the UK, with more than 100 academic staff. Research themes in the remit of the CDT include “Data and Decision” and “Applied and Computational Mathematics”. It hosts the MACS-MIGS CDT and the Maxwell Institute Graduate School within its dedicated premises with training and office space available in the Institute to all PhD students.

World-leading facilities

The National Robotarium, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh

The National Robotarium. A world-leading centre for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, creating innovative solutions to global challenges.

Research student working in a SMC Clean room, University of Edinburgh

The Scottish Microelectronics Centre (SMC). The space to innovate advanced semiconductor solutions.

  • The Bayes Centre is the University of Edinburgh's Innovation Hub for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. The technical strengths brought together in the Bayes Centre build on world-leading academic excellence in the mathematical, computational, engineering, and natural sciences in the University of Edinburgh's College of Science and Engineering.
  • The SMC, based in the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, offers commercial and academic clients access to state-of-the art facilities and in-house expertise in areas such as micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), semiconductor, and nano fabrication.
  • Based on Heriot-Watt's Edinburgh Campus, the National Robotarium has unrivalled technology and facilities, central to the development and testing of robotics and AI solutions across three distinct areas; Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS), Human and Robot Interaction (HRI) and High-Precision Manufacturing.
  • EIDF is a collection of computational, data management and safe haven services supported by the Data Driven Innovation Programme of the Edinburgh and South-East Scotland City Region Deal.