38 ITEA Magazine MARCH 2021
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
ITEA Magazine
MARCH 2021 38
Focus on Portugal ITEA Success stories Viewpoint on mentorship
3DPathology & FUSE-IT
Contents
3 Editorial
Zeynep Sarılar
Focus on
4 Portugal
Country focus: Portugal
ANI – a new generation framework to drive
Portugal into the future
10
ITEA Success story: FUSE-IT
Enhanced connectivity and security for building
management at lower costs
13
4
News
A Deep Learning project – PAPUD’s lessons learned
Cost-efficient smart system software synthesis
14 Viewpoint on mentorship
Mentoring is ...
17 SotA highlight
IoT: where do we stand? Viewpoint on
mentorship
18 Community Talk: Raúl Santos de la Cámara
The rewards of being part of a strong Community
20
End-user happiness: MOSIM
Digital human simulation helps manufacturer
14
improve productivity and safety
21 Calendar
Upcoming events
22
ITEA Success story: 3DPathology
A digital pathology solution for more effective and
efficient treatments
ITEA Success stories
26 SME in the spotlight: Clevernet
Fast, efficient, secure
FUSE-IT &
28 AI Call projects in ITEA
Diverse and promising innovations improving AI
3DPathology
32
10/22
ITEA Cyber Security Day 2021
Understanding and solving cyber security
challenges together
34 Eureka News
Eureka Clusters AI Call 2021
March 2021 – no. 38 3
Editorial Dear ITEA Innovation Community,
There are many definitions of innovation with some common phrases in each, such as: a new idea,
added value, related to customers/end-users. Building innovative solutions requires:
courage to dream new ideas and accept the challenge of the unknown,
technical knowledge to build added value beyond the State-of-the-Art, and
good understanding of your customer needs and requirements.
Within the ITEA Community (in addition to the properties above), a positive attitude (factor of
happiness) and the willingness for collaboration are the other main properties for ITEA’s impactful
results.
In the Success stories of the FUSE-IT project and the 3DPathology project, you can read which
challenges are tackled in cyber security and healthcare respectively and which innovative solutions
have been created to build added value for their end-users. You can read courageous stories of FUSE-
IT, which focuses on smart and secure buildings, and 3DPathology that moves pathology into a digital
world.
The ITEA Community has presented its strong technical knowledge on AI in its projects over the past
years. This knowledge base created many project ideas that resulted in 11 ITEA-led projects in the
Eureka Clusters AI Call 2020. And a new Call on AI has been opened on 1 March. I would like to kindly
invite the ITEA Community to contribute to this new Call.
Another aspect of innovation is end-users. ITEA is getting closer to end-users in order to support the
innovation within its Community. Therefore, the ITEA Cyber Security Day has been organised with a set
of customers and ITEA project partners. You can read the event report in this magazine. Furthermore,
the MOSIM project explains the added value to its customers in the end-user happiness article.
Building successful international partnerships is always a challenge for SMEs. Within the ITEA
Community, there are many examples of international collaboration resulting in economic growth for
SMEs. The stories of Evoleo and Clevernet will show you their experiences from the perspective of an
SME. And Raúl Santos De La Cámara from the Spanish SME HI Iberia Ingeniería y Proyectos shares his
experience in ITEA as a Community member.
These successes are more than a coincidence but rather are based on continuous analysis and
support. In the article covering the Viewpoint on Mentorship, you can read how the ITEA Community
supports each other through coaching and mentoring. And in the article on the SotA Highlight, you will
find the analysis of a set of IoT projects written by the Vice-chairman of ITEA.
Building up innovative communities can only be achieved by having long-term plans and continuous
and agile short-term actions. Focusing on Portugal in this magazine shows us how a successful
innovative national strategy is developed. The ITEA Community is stronger with the increasing support
of ANI and the Portuguese partners.
I am very happy to share the successes of ITEA projects and its partners in this magazine again.
I wish you all a joyful read.
Zeynep Sarılar
Editorial Zeynep Sarılar
4 ITEA Magazine
ANI – a new
generation
framework to drive
Portugal into the future
Portugal's progress over the past decade in the international innovation rankings shows
the effort of public and private investment in science, R&D and innovation activities. Today
Portugal has excellent scientific and technological infrastructures worldwide, a favourable
framework for technology-based entrepreneurship with a strong connection to the scientific
and higher education system, as well as companies and startups that compete globally. A new
generation National Innovation Agency ANI (Agência Nacional de Inovação) supports technological
and business innovation in Portugal, contributes to consolidating the National Innovation
System (NIS) and strengthens the competitiveness of the national economy in
global markets.
March 2021 – no. 38 5
Focus on
Portugal
Country focus on Portugal
6 ITEA Magazine
established Portugal Digital to address and
overcome the challenges in the digital transition
in Portugal.”
Portugal Digital
Portugal Digital is founded on three pillars: i)
training and digital inclusion of people, ii) digital
skills and a greater proportion of ICT graduates transformation of the industrial sector, and iii)
is evidence of a growing impact and progress in digitalisation of the public administration.
the ICT industry. The general digital transition strategy for
industry called ‘Industry 4.0 Programme’ (i4.0)
ePortugal that was established in 2017 has three main
Of course, in the advent of the Coronavirus goals: to accelerate the adoption of i4.0 by
pandemic and the need to support the economic the Portuguese business fabric, to promote
recovery, Portugal has taken a large number of Portuguese technological suppliers as i4.0
initiatives to minimise contagion and to support players, and to make Portugal an attractive hub
the health system as well as accelerate and for i4.0 investment. The implementation and
reinforce digital service infrastructures to deal monitoring of the strategy is overseen by COTEC
Committed to R&D and innovation with higher demand. “Like rapidly digitising Portugal, a Portuguese business association for
With Portugal about to assume the chairmanship the public administration mainly through the innovation, as well as by its Strategic Committee
of Eureka this summer, Rita Silva, Senior ePortugal portal and offering new services like composed of representatives of both the public
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Consultant online registration of births,” Rita explains. “For sector and the private sectors, who finance the
at ANI, is joined by Miguel Bello (CEO) and the economy, digital platforms were set up in programme.
Emir Sirage (COO) of the Atlantic International order to support SMEs that have stayed open
Research Centre (AIR Centre), an international during the crisis and several initiatives have Transformation
collaborative framework to address global provided support to digital home schooling, “Initially, the focus was on mobilisation and
challenges and local priorities in the Atlantic with national and regional tele-school channels raising awareness,” Rita explains. “The second
Ocean. Here they consider the current state of created mainly to support students without phase of the programme, launched in April
the software industry and innovation landscape internet access or equipment.” 2019, has ambitious transformative goals and
in Portugal along with its ambitions in this aims at placing Portugal in the leading group of
area and its drive to help position Portugal in Addressing digital skills countries driving the digitalisation of European
the group of highly innovative European Union Looking further ahead, post COVID-19 crisis, industry. Currently, there are four Digital
countries by the beginning of the next decade. Portugal is advanced in the deployment of Very Innovation Hubs, two in the North focusing on
“When we look at the main ICT industrial cluster High Capacity Network (VHCN) and is above manufacturing, one in Coimbra targeting the
in Portugal,” Rita begins, “the fact that the EU average in the provision of digital public health sector and one in Lisbon specialised in
sector mobilises the highest rate of private services, although it lags behind in assigning the agricultural sector.” Furthermore, Portugal is
investment, with almost 1000 million euros of the radio spectrum for 5G and needs to tackle its also finalising its National Strategy for AI, which
private investment on R&D, is a clear statement weak performance in the digital skills indicators. has already been presented and discussed
of ambition for this sector that is dominated by “But,” Rita says, “we are implementing the with AI companies, the research community,
SMEs (only 0.3% are large enterprises). As far national initiative on digital competences uptakers and public administration. AI is one
as public support to R&D in ICT is concerned,” (INCoDe.2030) as well as launching the second of the main priorities for future investment. All
she continues, “in the period between 2014 to phase of the Industria 4.0 national strategy in all, overall investment in areas connected
2020, we funded 420 R&D projects involving for the digitisation of the economy, dedicating with digitalisation are expected to surpass 918
a little over 555 million euros of investment, 600 million euros in total funding over the next million euros.
corresponding to 319 million euros of public two years. In addition, two relevant strategies
support. This accounts for 34% of the overall on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Advanced Software opportunities
public support to R&D and innovation in Computing have been launched with a strong Rita continues: "More specifically in terms of
Portugal.” However, while Portugal performs focus on improving advanced digital skills. software and software innovation, Portugal's
below the EU average in terms of human capital, In our pursuit of a National Strategy for the national priorities lie in the areas of artificial
the improvement in the basic level of digital Digitisation of the Economy, we have recently intelligence, advanced computing, 5G and
March 2021 – no. 38 7
cyberspace security. The Portuguese Association the category ‘innovation in small and medium- Promoting internationalisation
of Software, Assoft, believes great opportunities sized enterprises (SMEs)’,” Rita says proudly. “Together with CELTIC-NEXT, ITEA 3 provides an
exist for Portuguese software companies if ANI has also launched a Call for the classification excellent channel for the internationalisation
they can overcome a number of challenges. of entities as Digital Innovation Hubs as part of of our companies and research centres. In fact,
Firstly, technological: The growing use of mobile the Portugal’s Action Plan for Digital Transition. these two Eureka Clusters have the largest
solutions, cloud computing, big data, the internet The aim is to create a National Network of Digital Portuguese participation,” Rita points out.
of things, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain Innovation Hubs that allows for the growth and “The opportunity also to collaborate beyond
and crypto coins – these are some of the key faster digital transition of companies, particularly Europe, on a truly global stage, is one of
trends that require the redesign and rewriting of SMEs, and Public Administration. the major benefits. The recent growth of the
applications currently in production. Secondly, ITEA Community, with countries as far and
human resources. Given the “brain drain” Platform for the Eureka Chairmanship wide as Turkey, Canada, South Korea, South
phenomena of ICT graduates in Portuguese A good platform when taking up the Africa and Chile, provides a real incentive
universities to foreign markets, resulting in the chairmanship of Eureka in the summer, an event and complements our own efforts to promote
scarcity of qualified people for the needs of the that Miguel Bello is looking forward to. “In our internationalisation, as I said earlier.” In terms
market which is witnessing a growing penetration last Eureka presidency, in 2008, we championed of funding and participation in ITEA projects,
of multinational and outsourcing companies. the expansion of Eureka Clusters so we were 14 projects have been financed by the Portugal
pleased to see South Korea join a year later and 2020 Notices (since 2017), with a total eligible
Emir Sirage adds: “Actually, in Portugal we more, such as Canada and South Africa, since. investment of around 9.5 million euros and a
have three unicorns (companies whose value We believe that expanding the outreach will total incentive of 5.9 million euros.
exceeds 1 billion US dollars) that are Portuguese bring great benefits, and this will be one of our
founded and a good number of other high- lines in our forthcoming chairmanchip. We will The Portuguese entities most represented in
value companies that have good international be taking up this role during COVID-19 and will ITEA include Evoleo Technologies, SISTRADE
exposure. Their centres of competence – or the be leaving, in all probability, post-COVID-19. Software Consulting, S.A., Instituto Superior de
brains of these companies – are still based in One of our priorities will be to foster innovation Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), University of Porto,
Portugal, which pays tribute to the quality of through international collaboration to meet the Polytechnic Institute of Porto and Instituto de
the engineering in the various institutes and challenges, where areas like Earth Observation Telecomunicações.
institutions we have here.” from Space are a technological enabler to tackle
climate change, ocean sustainability, health Game-changing, high-tech innovations
Strong innovator and energy that have been pushed into the “The collaborative environment provided in
Assoft is working hard to conclude cooperation background by the pandemic. So our motto is such networks as ITEA has helped Portugal
protocols with government authorities and ‘innovation for a greener, digital and healthier become the nest for some high-tech innovations
other foreign associations - namely in Angola, planet through a collaborative approach’. During that have changed the world we live in today.
Chile, the UK and the USA - and with several our chairmanship we will also be overseeing the For example, the Multibanco network, one of
European government organisations and NGOs. implementation of the new Eureka governance the more sophisticated banking networks in
“And, of course,” Rita adds, “ANI is supporting model related to the revitalisation of the Eureka the world; Via Verde, the first closed system of
technological and business innovation in Clusters. So we have lots to do, and we’re automatic highway tolls in the world; and the
Portugal and strengthening the competitiveness looking forward to the challenge.” Pre-Paid Mobile Phones, which quickly became
of the national economy in global markets. We the foundation for the mobile revolution we
pursue policies and initiatives to promote private Business incentives have today. Portugal is also one of the European
investment in R&D, collaboration between R&D There are a good few incentives for Portuguese countries with the highest FTTH penetration, 46%
entities and enterprises for an effective transfer businesses to get involved in the Eureka of all households, and has been in the forefront
of knowledge to the market as well as promote Clusters, such as the SIFIDE tax incentive system of the 3G and 4G infrastructure investment.” In
the internationalisation of Portuguese innovative and grant-based incentives for industrial co- this context, Portugal is not only a market open
companies and R&D institutions through development R&D projects led by companies in to innovation, but also the best gateway to ICT
supporting participation in Horizon 2020 (future collaboration with R&D institutions or so-called companies in the Lusophone markets (where
Horizon Europe), hosting part of Horizon Europe’s Mobiliser programmes in which strategic R&D Portuguese is spoken). Ready for the next phase
NCPs network, as well as other international projects involve industry clusters and impact its along with the forthcoming Eureka chairmanship.
networks such as Eureka. For the first time, value chain with the creation of new products,
Portugal has joined the group of Europe’s ‘strong processes or services with a high technological More information
innovators’, showing the best performance and innovative content. In addition, the https://www.ani.pt/en/international-promotion/
improvement in relation to the other members Interface Programme is geared to strengthening global-network/eureka-eurostars/
states, with an increase of 21.5%. In addition, knowledge transfer between academia/R&D
Portugal, for the second consecutive year, leads entities and businesses.
Country focus on Portugal
8 ITEA Magazine
EVOLEO
Technologies
EVOLEO Technologies was
created 14 years ago in
Daring to
January 2007 in Maia (Porto),
Portugal. The company of some
dream
20 people is dedicated to the design
rare capability to adapt, be flexible and meet the
and integration of small/medium size specific needs of our customers and partners.
It also helps us to participate and, especially,
solutions that focus on reliable electronics, be useful in a very wide range of projects and
electromechanical and software systems. The topics, as long as they involve engineering.
This is our main selling point. Not many
company also holds EVOLEO Technologies GmbH companies do what we do – it’s an approach
that involves risks and makes it much harder
in Munich, Germany, as part of the growing strategy. to grow vertically. But,” Rodolfo adds, “the
reason we exist is to be useful, to our people,
“Embedded and computational solutions, to be precise, the community we interact with and, if possible,
in the B2B market” says Rodolfo Martins, founder and CEO. to accomplish dreams! And for me, the tool to
realise dreams is engineering.”
Software – the new goldmine
As for how important software innovation is,
Raison d’être Rodolfo is in absolutely no doubt. “Everything
The company’s key business areas are: Space we do – from machines to embedded systems
(computer systems, embedded design), for Space or Railways – requires software.
Infrastructures & Railways (monitoring, Being an SME that focuses on the Cyber
knowledge extraction for decision support) Physical Systems, computer systems in which a
and Industrial Test Machines (quality control, mechanism is controlled or monitored by
test and automation systems), which Rodolfo computer-based algorithms, we simply can’t go
describes as looking like ‘an ugly but effective around the software, whether embedded or
fridge’. The root of EVOLEO’s activities lies applicational. It has a growing impact on the
in electronics and embedded systems. “Our performance and features of the different
anchor is that EVOLEO is very horizontal with a products and services we develop,” Rodolfo
multidisciplinary technical team that gives us a explains. “So, it is highly relevant for us
March 2021 – no. 38 9
to participate and follow such developments. this, companies and even universities would funding projects in recent years. “If we compare
Even in areas not directly covered by ITEA have many fewer ongoing projects and most the landscape, we can see both benefits
projects, like Space, software is becoming of them would probably be abandoned along and drawbacks in the ITEA programme. For
the new gold mine with the democratisation the way. This is particularly relevant for low example, although the ITEA projects can often
of access to space and the easier recurrence TRL and disruptive projects, where small be more complex to manage, the consortia are
of development, update, correction and companies cannot afford to risk their funds. But usually larger in terms of number of entities
implementation of AI and microelectronics. it is precisely such disruptive ideas that, when and demonstrators. This has the advantage of
Hardware is very expensive to develop and successful, have the most impact on and for allowing several partners to contribute their
implement physically. Software costs much society.” specific perspective for the same need and
less. But there is still some distrust of software, expertise, which boosts the critical mass for that
especially among ‘conservative’ industries, yet The ITEA benefits project. With participation from industry and end
they can’t escape the need for it. After all, you EVOLEO has been involved in a number of ITEA users, small companies can learn and benefit
can’t just send up a truck full of maintenance projects in the past, from automotive to energy from the experiences from their ways of working.
engineers to fix a glitch or a hack in space. domains, representing the diversity of its own On the other hand,” Rodolfo says, “having to
Back on Earth, there are critical infrastructures business areas. Why become involved? “For the go through two stages of proposal (PO + FPP)
where reliable software is essential. Software reasons mentioned. It gives us access to public plus the national application phase is a complex
innovation plays a vital role, but we still have a funding and to the knowledge of universities and delaying process, which minimises the
very long way to go.” and research centres. But it offers more besides. chances of good cooperation if funding approval
We benefit from business collaborations in comes at very different timings. This has been
The value of publicly funded research the projects as well as the network of the our experience in the past, and is the main
For SMEs like EVOLEO publicly funded research ITEA Community. Through this we build up reason why we have not participated in the
projects are particularly relevant and contribute relationships and partnerships that can become latest round of ITEA projects. But we are aware
to knowledge transfer between universities, R&D long-term. It is also an environment in which we that landscapes change and we would certainly
centres, SMEs and larger enterprises, something learn a lot, not only from a technical perspective be open to participating again, if the process
that would otherwise not be possible. Rodolfo but also in gaining insight into the trends enables us to do so. Because we know the
explains. “As an SME, it is difficult to allocate in industry and society – what’s likely to be rewards can be really beneficial. And because
the resources we need to promote relevant happening in the next three to five years.” we know that collaboration is key to helping us
research and innovation projects using private fulfil our dream, our vision, of changing people’s
funds. The public funding allows resources to be Public funding landscape lives for the better.”
dedicated to promoting such activities which are EVOLEO Technologies participates in various
relevant for companies to continue to innovate national and European research projects and More information
their products and services. If it weren’t for has coordinated several H2020 and national http://evoleotech.com/
Country
Countryfocus
focuson
onPortugal
Finland
10 ITEA Magazine
ITEA Success story
FUSE-IT
Enhanced connectivity and security for building
management at lower costs
Imagine that a malicious hacker is taking over the heating, ventilation and air
conditioning system of a hospital, changing the temperature in such a way that
diseases can easily spread in a place where people are actually supposed to be
healed. A bit of a scary scenario, but with all of the equipment and facilities becoming
more and more connected in order to make the systems smart and save a lot of
energy, this has become a serious threat that needs to be taken into account. Should
we be afraid to go to hospital now? Luckily not, as cyber security is also becoming
increasingly successful in addressing these issues. And one of these success stories
can be found in the FUSE-IT project, which was led by Airbus CyberSecurity and ran
from October 2014 until December 2017. This ITEA project gathered 20 strong partners
from France, Belgium, Portugal and Turkey. Airbus CyberSecurity acted as the project
coordinator and pilot site for France while Gazi Technopark in Turkey, Imec’s HomeLab
in Belgium and Centro Hospitalar São João in Portugal acted as pilot users for
demonstrations performed in an operational environment in 2017.11
FUSE-IT addressed the need for sustainable,
reliable, user-friendly, efficient, safe and secure
Building Management Systems in the context
of Smart Critical Sites. From a site management
perspective, it solves the dilemma of efficiency
and security in intelligent buildings. At the user
level, a smart unified building management
interface enables the daily monitoring and
control of a building, while a full security
management interface enables the supervision
of both physical and logical security throughout
the premises. And at the end-user level, this can
save both energy and lives.
Smart Secured Building System
To achieve this, the project developed a Smart
Secured Building System resulting from cross-
domain innovation between energy and security
activities that are traditionally very segmented.
The system can be deployed as standalone
components, as a fully-integrated system or threats and decision support to responders in using semantic BIM (Building Information
as a service. The innovation proposal of FUSE- charge of building and network protection. Modelling). Thanks to this development,
IT resides in five key capacities which were VTREEM was acquired by Catenda in 2019. This
demonstrated with striking progress beyond A pioneer project with impressive results Norwegian software editor is specialised in BIM.
the State-of-the-Art of the application areas of On the back of the project results, Airbus has One of the project participants is now involved
energy, facility, ICT and security. successfully filed a patent on a method for in developing innovative integrations with SaaS
1. Secure shared sensors, effectors and devices: securing and authenticating telecommunication. and mobile applications for BIM at Catenda,
smart interoperable sensors, easily deployable Overall, the project has led to the acceptance while another joined Railenium (the French
on legacy building infrastructures, enabling of four patents. Notable results of the FUSE- Research Institute for Railways) in October 2020
the measurement of efficiency and security- IT project have been brought to standards to develop open BIM standards for sustainable
related indicators in real time for improved within the following groups: buildingSMART, infrastructures.
management in enhanced security conditions. CoAP, LWM2M, IPSO, oneM2M, Zigbee, Z-wave,
2. Trusted, federated energy and information Wirepas, Enocean, Alljoyn, semantic BIM and IFC The Turkish consortium members have acquired
networks: enabling the conveyance of data formats. a contract for monitoring buildings as well
these measurements under time-sensitive as for the remote monitoring of several solar
constraints through unified network Airbus CyberSecurity has also been awarded plants. Contract negotiations are ongoing, with a
infrastructures while ensuring end-to-end data a €740,000 contract to fulfil risk assessment hospital and pilot installations being tested for
protection. surveys on 14 sites of Airbus Defence and several government organisations.
3. Core building data processing and analysis: Space in Spain, France, the UK and Germany
a scalable data processing capacity, enabling and a contract worth €500,000 to secure a data For the Belgian consortium, Niko has created
the extraction of real-time performance and centre organisation against cyber and physical the next-generation Niko Home Control platform
security indicators from vast amounts of threats. In addition, Airbus CyberSecurity has NHC 2.0 (https://www.niko.eu/en/products/
heterogeneous building data. been awarded a multimillion-euro contract niko-home-control), which now has more
4. Smart unified building management interface: with an important gas transportation company, open API interfaces (https://www.niko.eu/en/
a user-friendly building management interface an integration contract for the protection of a our-products/home-automation/partners).
providing live indicators and alerts on highly large data centre’s infrastructure and several Additionally, all of their new wireless products
realistic 3D building models as well as contracts with large energy production utilities will be based on the open standard Zigbee
historical data and statistics for improved and distribution system operators in the UK, instead of only proprietary protocols. All of these
facility management and energy optimisation. France and Germany. changes will make Niko Home Control more open
5. Full security management interface: an and available for fast and smooth integration
integrated security supervision Human- In Q2 2018, the French SME VTREEM launched by third parties. The FUSE-IT project has helped
Machine Interface (HMI) enabling the a new SaaS product named ‘BIMValue’ to Niko to create a new architecture and move to
management of blended cyber and physical enhance, control and manage sensitive data said open standards, allowing them to grow
Success story FUSE-IT12 ITEA Magazine
faster and to become more attractive to other
companies. The team is still growing and has had
double-digit growth during the last five years.
The FUSE-IT Portuguese consortium (GREEDi)
built a prototype for a hospital, which is a
critical form of infrastructure providing care
to the population, especially during the
COVID-19 pandemic. The prototype allowed
the demonstration of demand-response
participation in critical buildings, ensuring
cyber and physical security. The Portuguese
consortium will continue in a national project
with exploitation projected to come at a later
stage. Using the knowledge and developments
of FUSE-IT, the Portuguese consortium was able Impact highlights
to create a new solution for intelligent building
management focused on a semantic-based A new (and misunderstood) topic when
approach to fault detection in cyber-physical the project idea was first introduced
environments. The C2C (Click to Control) back in 2013 was the protection of
solution is now entering TRL 8 after having been smart infrastructures against combined
demonstrated in an operational environment. cyber and physical threats. This
Moreover, the alarm and warning mechanisms one sensor authentication and lightweight now appears in the top three areas
developed in FUSE-IT were integrated in a encryption solution, one identity and access of investment by public and private
commercial product by IPBRICK targeting critical management solution, one piece of sensor actors. From this perspective, FUSE-IT
buildings. EVOLEO developed a middleware placement optimisation software, two forms has been a pioneer project, enabling
solution that allowed it to interface with of interactive smart building management, the consortium members to take a
the legacy control systems of the building, one form of building lifecycle management strategic lead.
including HVAC, oxygen and room pressure, and two pieces of security supervision Since 2017, about €48 million in
thanks to up-to-date IT systems to implement software; revenue has been reported in direct
new functionalities and optimisations. These the successful market introduction of relation to the project results.
developments are of great importance for a start-up company delivering SaaS The project has led to the acceptance
EVOLEO as several legacy systems can be platform services for enhanced control of four patents.
turned into smart systems without the need for and management of sensitive building Airbus CyberSecurity has been
replacements or very demanding customisations information; and awarded a €740,000 contract to fulfil
or retrofits. the deployment of a permanent full building risk assessment surveys on 14 sites of
micro-grid supporting sustained academic, Airbus Defence and Space in Spain,
In summary, about €48 million in revenue has industrial or research collaboration on France, the UK and Germany and a
been reported in direct relation to the project matters of security and efficiency in smart contract worth €500,000 to secure a
results since 2017. The most striking commercial buildings. data centre organisation against cyber
successes include: and physical threats. In addition,
a total of 17 system integration/managed A new (and misunderstood) topic when the Airbus CyberSecurity has been
operation contracts in the field of smart project idea was first introduced back in 2013 awarded a multimillion-euro contract
building management and optimisation; was the protection of smart infrastructures with an important gas transportation
a total of 25 contracts won in the field of against combined cyber and physical threats. company, an integration contract for
critical infrastructure protection against cyber This now appears in the top three areas of the protection of a large data centre’s
and physical threats for external customers investment by public and private actors. From infrastructure and several contracts
from the aeronautic industry, oil & gas, this perspective, FUSE-IT has been a pioneer with large energy production utilities
electricity production, electricity distribution, project, enabling the consortium members to and distribution system operators in
healthcare, air transportation, rail take a strategic lead. the UK, France and Germany.
transportation and maritime transportation;
the successful market introduction of three More information
smart building sensor network solutions, https://itea3.org/project/fuse-it.htmlMarch 2021 – no. 38 13
A Deep Learning project –
PAPUD’s lessons learned
Today, companies are generating a huge operation, human resources, e-government
amounts of data through their activities. Without and HPC prescriptive maintenance. In a recent
an adapted analysis, these large amounts of publication by PAPUD project leader Cornel
heterogenous data go to waste. Crisan from Bull Atos Technologies, some
of the key lessons learned are shared. The
The aim of the ITEA project PAPUD is to help experiences of the PAPUD project are exchanged
companies to exploit their large amounts of including valuable insights about areas
heterogenous data. Within a platform based such as hardware platforms, infrastructure,
around a shared architecture, the project libraries commonalities, inference through
has developed models and algorithms for web applications and the experience of a Deep specifically to their own internal or commercial
data analysis with a particular focus on Deep Learning collaborative project. needs. This should then provide a competitive
Learning. By tailoring the analyses of both advantage over companies which fail to make
structured and unstructured data to different The story is a message to industry as a whole: it the most of Deep Learning. You are encouraged
domains, PAPUD provides a competitive is becoming significantly easier for companies to read the full article to integrate or evaluate
advantage for companies in the targeted to benefit from data analytics. Use of the PAPUD the Deep Learning techniques for all kind of
markets. platform and the creation of domain-specific projects, especially for research projects using
Deep Learning tools allow businesses to bypass or generating large amounts of data.
The project outcomes proved the efficiency huge organisations which have dominated
of the Deep Learning techniques applied to the field, saving them time and money while More information
the following fields: e-commerce, call centre also allowing them to tailor resources more https://itea3.org/project/papud.html
Cost-Efficient Smart System
Software Synthesis
such as automotive and manufacturing. Within which leads to a 20-70% reduction in software
the ITEA project COMPACT, partners from Austria, development costs. As a side effect, software
Finland and Germany managed to develop and migration time can be reduced to 40-65% as well.
prototype advanced model-based methods to The effort to build a generator is simply writing
generate embedded software automatically, the code once, i.e. the generator technique pays
especially the lower levels of firmware. COMPACT off already with the second use. Another benefit
demonstrated that these methods enable a worth mentioning is that the generated code
quantum leap in productivity increase with no executes as well as handwritten code – if not
performance or area penalty. Even better results better, and uses the same memory space – if not
are feasible. less.
The COMPACT technology automates about 10% If you are interested in learning more, please
of the embedded software development effort, contact Wolfgang Ecker (Wolfgang.Ecker@
which is about 45% of the overall development infineon.com) or Andreas Vörg
effort of a System-on-a-Chip (SoC). (voerg@edacentrum.de).
IoT devices account for a €40 billion market and Using the COMPACT approach allows one to More information
are essential for important European industries generate about 90% of the addressed code, https://www.edacentrum.de/compact/
Success story C³PO
Calendar
News14 ITEA Magazine
VIEWPOINT ON MENTORSHIP
Mentoring is
… sharing knowledge, skills and life experience to guide
another towards reaching their full potential; it’s a
journey of shared discovery. 1
ITEA Chairwoman Zeynep Sarılar speaks with Andy Go-to person
Asli gets the ball rolling: “Mentoring is an
de Mets (Barco) and Asli Tanriverdi (Philips) about important element in our Community. You can
really make a difference, especially with regard
their views on and roles in mentoring within the ITEA to new project leaders. For me a mentor is a
go-to person for both the project leader and the
Community. What does it mean to be a mentor in a consortium as a whole. Someone who looks
at matters through the lens of a reviewer and
project? What would they advise new mentors on can give direction, guidance and advice when
needed at any phase of a project. From ideation
mentorship? What do they enjoy most as mentors in a to implementation.”
project? And would they recommend the role to others? This is a perspective Andy shares: “And, of
course, mentorship goes beyond the reviews. I
Zeynep kicks off the discussion by underlining the see the role extending to a, shall we say, more
informal space whereby project participants
importance of mentorship in the ITEA Community and can contact a mentor for practical or informal
questions, for example: How do you deal with
asking the two mentors how they define their roles. specific practicalities? Of course, the ITEA Office
knows all the rules, processes and criteria but
it can sometimes be more ‘comfortable’ to just
be able to consult someone who has actually
gone through – experienced – what you are
about to confront. As Asli said, a go-to person. If
1
What is Mentoring? | Mentor | Mentor the project is in the hands of more experienced
Support Network leaders, then the mentoring role is likely to beMarch 2021 – no. 38 15
less prominent. Nonetheless, as mentors we from, what are they based on? In essence, we ask you, what would you say to anyone who
can still enable the innovation, the State-of- can provide the kind of insight that will help the intends to become a mentor? If I were a newbie,
the-Art and other key aspects of the project to consortium to address the issues in the right what advice would you give me?”
come to the foreground in the review process. way.”
We can help those developing the technology Asli: “The first important thing is to get a good
to highlight the usefulness of that technology. Reward understanding of the project, its goals, the
Also if we, as mentors, can point to an anomaly Andy also cites the value of having a mentoring participants and people involved. Get hold of
in a project, this comes across as much less system, recalling a Call 2 project a few years the feedback and regularly check in on progress.
‘threatening’ than a reviewer's comment. A kind ago that encountered the dropout problem in Be open and accessible to the project leader. If
of confidante whose goal is to help a project which a number of companies and countries in a you can do that, you can offer value.”
succeed as best as it can.” consortium were unable to continue, leaving just
a few smaller companies to pursue the work. A Andy: “Run! But joking aside, one of the tasks
Liaison very daunting prospect, especially with the loss that we have as mentors is to demonstrate,
Asli adds, “I completely agree with everything of specific expertise. Or so it seemed. Andy was especially to newbie project leaders with little
Andy says and particularly in the ideation asked at the time to contact the Belgian project experience in ITEA, that we are a Community.
phase, it’s very important in a platform such leader and following a few conversations, the We are there for each other. Show them that
as the one ITEA offers, full of opportunities and project made some adjustments. While it did the strength of ITEA – our flexibility and
ideas, to sit down with everyone and really not retain all the goals that had been set out collaboration – is there to help them. And
consider which ideas have the biggest chance of at the beginning, this steering intervention interact. This is particularly vital during the
making an impact. How do we develop this and nevertheless helped to reshape the ambitions initial phase of a project when changes tend to
what stages do we need to plan over the next and produce a set of very impactful results. occur. Help them see beyond the problems to
year or two? This is where the mentor can play “For me this was a very rewarding thing to do. I find opportunities to have successful innovation
a supporting role in enabling the right choices know that I made a contribution to the success and impact. And, as Asli alluded to, it’s
to be made – what projects can showcase the of the project, not in a technical way but as a important that project leaders are aware that it’s
ground-breaking innovations that will create the collaborator.” an open line to you as a mentor.”
most business impact? So the mentor has an
important role in guiding the right proposals to “That’s right,” says Asli, “as a mentor you can Third eye
be submitted. Furthermore, the mentor acts as a still feel like you are an integral part of a project Asli: “The intensity of that contact will, of
kind of intermediary or liaison officer in bringing even though you are not part of the technical course, depend on the experience a project
the feedback from the steering committee or development. You are engaged through guiding leader has and you have as a mentor. Where the
Public Authorities to the project consortium and supporting and so feel part of the success. project leader is experienced, the focus of the
and ensuring that this feedback is taken up and That’s the real reward you get as a mentor.” mentor is often on acquiring a helicopter view
addressed.” to keep a good eye on what’s happening and
Open line where things are heading. Of course, with a new
“Indeed,” Andy replies, “while we don’t actually Zeynep is fully convinced of the value of mentors project leader your role will be more to guide
have a very active role in the actual reviews in ITEA projects. “When I see the successes of and direct, and invest a bit more time.”
themselves, we are present during the post- our projects, very often the golden touch of a
review discussions with the reviewers. This mentor is evident. Whether that’s in a technical, “I agree,” says Zeynep. “Having an engineering
is beneficial since we are able to clarify the management or human way. The projects feed background myself, I am well aware of getting
reviewers’ comments – where do they come off the valuable input from mentors. So let me so wrapped up in the technical detail that there
Viewpoint on mentorship16 ITEA Magazine
is a danger of missing the mission – the reason
why you began the project in the first place. So
I am very much in favour of a third ‘objective’
eye in the whole process. So, even whether you
are an experienced or inexperienced project
leader, the value of this third eye cannot be
underestimated. But if we look at the flipside of
the coin, a new mentor also faces challenges,
wouldn’t you agree?”
Andy: “Absolutely. But what certainly helped
me when I became a mentor for the first time
was that I had already been involved in ITEA
for quite a while. I already had experience as
both a project participant and leader. Being a
relatively familiar face in the Community also
helped, that’s for sure. I faced challenges but
when I think back on the projects I have been
involved in as a mentor, we always managed
to turn things around when problems arose. As
I said earlier, there’s a tremendous amount of Andy de Mets Asli Tanriverdi
satisfaction you derive from this. It underlines Barco Philips
your value and demonstrates how worthwhile it
is to take on such a role. In addition, you gain
the benefits of acquiring knowledge from a
range of domains that, as a mentor, may not be throughout the course of the project. To be the and picking up signals from project leaders
part of your daily work. This is a big plus.” spider in the web, as it were.” and participants, we are also able to bring
feedback to ITEA that can help us to improve the
Asli: “Well I do get satisfaction from the value “I think this might be an obvious one,” adds programme.”
we provide being recognised. I recently talked to Andy, “but I also expect them to be open to us.
a project leader about the comments received We can only do our job effectively if they are To be recommended
in a review and he said how useful it had been open to us about issues that are at play, for As a parting shot, Zeynep asks both why they
to actually discuss the comments in detail. instance. And that’s my experience – they are as think someone would or should get involved in
That kind of feedback reaffirms your value as open to us as mentors as they are to the project mentoring. Andy goes first. “Would I recommend
a mentor. Another thing that makes me feel participants. But that shouldn’t be so surprising it? Yes. For all the reasons we have already
good about my role is, as Andy suggested, the actually since one of the main strengths of the referred to. But I also think they should be
knowledge you pick up. All the amazing things ITEA Community is the openness that pervades.” aware that it can take up quite a bit of your time.
being done throughout our Community. And Asli confirms this. “That’s right, we engage Despite that, the appreciation of your efforts
what’s really great is that you get insight into in mutual trust building. We are transparent by the consortium and ITEA is very rewarding.”
beyond State-of-the-Art. But if I had to say what towards each other.” In fact, Zeynep suggests Asli is again in full agreement here. “Of course,
the most rewarding thing is, it’s the final review that the mentorship role fulfilled by Andy, Asli handling your time can be quite a challenge
when the project presents its achievements. and others goes beyond just mentorship – that at times, especially when you are engaged in
And you know that you have been part of that it also has a family-building effect. mentoring several projects at the same time, but
process.” when you realise the value you bring, then you
As ITEA Chairwoman, Zeynep is also a also realise how worthwhile it is. It’s a win-win
Signals and feedback beneficiary of the mentoring work of Andy situation. Professionally and personally.” On
“So,” Zeynep asks, “you obviously have certain and Asli, among others. “I remember Andy this very positive note, Zeynep expresses her
expectations of the project leaders when you whispering in my ear about spotting a new own appreciation for the valuable work and
engage in your role. What are these?” project leader as a ‘rising star’. I think that is commitment of ITEA mentors in general and of
also a very valuable contribution mentors can Andy and Asli in particular, who offered even
Asli: “First and foremost, you expect your project make. They bring awareness to us. They enhance more of their precious time to share their views
leader to have and keep the project objectives the connections in our network.” Andy: “It also and perspectives here.
– innovation and results – firmly in focus works the other way around. By being a mentorMarch 2021 – no. 38 17
IoT: where do
we stand?
By ITEA Vice-chairman Jean-François Lavignon
I encourage you to read the I2PANEMA State-of-the-Art (SotA) to discover the current status of many A comparison of IoT Application Layer
technologies used by IoT devices. Protocols.
Information on Sematic Sensor Network
IoT is a very important and active piece of sector, which is the focus of the ITEA project Ontology.
technology that has the potential to positively I2PANEMA, the industrial reference architectures The status of ongoing IoT projects,
impact business, economy and society. We are more relevant but in their SotA you will find A comparison of tools to handle IoT
see applications in different domains such as the complete picture. application workflow.
industry automation, improved healthcare, Guidelines for designing a secure IoT
more efficient working environments and smart This SotA covers many important topics such solution.
homes. IoT is a pervasive technology that has as:
great potential if we can handle challenges such IoT Reference architectures By reading this very high-quality SotA you will
as easy integration of new devices, IoT safety and International Data Spaces learn a lot about all the technologies needed to
security, efficient software for resource-limited IoT Cloud provider platforms develop IoT applications. You will understand
devices, maintenance and continuous upgrade, IoT Communication the options for integrating the IoT devices in
and cost-effective production and management. IoT Interoperability a global IT infrastructure. Furthermore, you
IoT Data management will see the current solutions provided by big
To tackle these challenges and to develop a IoT Operational workflow cloud companies (Amazon, Microsoft, IBM,
healthy IoT ecosystem, you need to promote IoT Visualisation Google, Oracle) and how the complete software
some shared visions on how the IoT devices IoT Security & Privacy stack can be organised. The document also
will be integrated and will interact with the IT provides some insights on how to integrate
infrastructures. Currently, there are two main It contains among others: the data provided by the sensors in a common
types of IoT reference architectures: generic A discussion about some of the proposed platform and on the current solutions to build
ones and industrial ones (IIoT). In the port reference architectures. visualisation tools. The crucial topic of IoT safety
and security is presented with some guidelines
for designing a secure IoT solution.
If you are interested in IoT, you can also look at
the new SotA produced by the ITEA COMPACT
project. It will help you to understand novel
solutions on software generation for IoT devices
with ultra-small memory footprints and ultra-
low power consumption. You will learn how
model-driven design approaches can help you to
generate very efficient and optimised codes for
devices with limited resources.
Have a good read of these SotAs and exploit
them well to push new innovation involving the
use of IoT devices.
SotA highlight IoT: where do we stand?18 ITEA Magazine
Community Talk with:
Raúl Santos de la Cámara
The rewards of being part of a strong Community
Raúl Santos de la Cámara is R&D Project Manager for HI Iberia Ingeniería y Proyectos, a Madrid-
based SME. Originally from Cádiz in southern Spain, Raúl’s fascination for computers and
engineering led him to move to Madrid to study for a university degree in Telecommunications
Engineering at Universidad Politecnica de Madrid. He now calls Madrid home.
A world of difference you work. It can start to grind you down after a
“After a couple of years at university, where I while. So eventually I wanted to go to a smaller
started my PhD (still pending, he adds!), I was ‘world’ and discovered HI Iberia, an SME whose
tempted by the industry and started working research department had only been going for a
at Telefónica R&D on avatars and other then- few years. The opportunity to focus on my work I
novel HMIs. It was there that I learned much found very refreshing – instead of being a cog in
about EU research, participating mainly in FP6 the big machine, I was actually able to have an
projects. But after six years in large industry, influence on the work and direction of my new
I switched to HI Iberia looking for a new, SME company.”
focused challenge where I have remained,
having broadened the scope of technologies Making acquaintance
to embedded systems, Artificial Intelligence “However, my first notion of ITEA came in my
and health applications. Telefónica was not so Telefónica years, where I participated in a few
much a large industry, more of a whole country. activities of an ITEA 2 project, but I was more in
The culture of the company is something that the technical aspects and never got to know the
you always have to be aware of because it can Community. Our real involvement started in the
really have an influence on what you do and how PO Days in September 2015. We were trying toMarch 2021 – no. 38 19
Digital waves instead of behind it even that 10-12 partner group feels
shaking hands way stronger: you rely on the community for
“Of course, the past year things such as dissemination, cross-application
has been a very different of results and also continuation of ideas in
experience for everyone. future projects. In terms of impact on industry
I must admit that my and society, I feel that ITEA projects contribute
experience of online events to our ability as an SME to transfer results into
before March this year had products and services. We see, for example, in
not been very positive but projects like SoMeDi how the Smart City Madrid
the way that ITEA has tackled initiative has been able to incorporate what we
the situation and made use have been doing to benefit the citizens.”
of the technology we have
at our disposal has changed The growing world of ITEA
my mind. I feel the contacts, The introduction of new countries in ITEA
despite the lack of a physical has very quickly transitioned from being an
presence, have been very exotic add-on to a truly essential part of the
successful. That comes Community. “In the beginning,” Raúl says, “it
partly from the fact that it’s felt unusual to have partners from South Korea
created a level playing field or Canada in your prototypical international
– we all have to do it this consortium, but over the years this
way. In my project meetings collaboration has strengthened and now it is
online I have been pleasantly completely normal to have them. This, of
surprised. There has been course, has broadened our horizons with new
a tremendous amount of ideas about markets and user needs very
efficiency and the meetings different to what we're used to in other
have been very productive. programmes. I think that ITEA has been very
Of course, I miss the proactive in promoting these changes and that
shared coffee, the informal the events organised (from the PO days to the
conversations, moments that Innovation Days) really help in building a
can often produce some great cohesive community.”
ideas. Personal contact is
irreplaceable and I can’t wait Part of the bigger picture
to start mingling again. Mind “HI Iberia has benefited greatly from
you, I don’t miss the travel. participating in ITEA. Several key technologies
That has been a big plus for for us, from Natural Language Understanding to
broaden our R&D horizons at HI Iberia and after me. All in all, I think we have not suffered as an health monitoring applications and Smart City
seeing the results presented in the March 2015 ITEA Community. Rather, we have risen above systems, have drastically improved from what
ITEA/Artemis Co-Summit in Berlin, we realised the challenges and shown what we are capable we have done in the ITEA projects SoMeDi,
that there were many similarities between what of.” ESTABLISH and SCRATCh. We have built an
we were doing and what was happening in the excellent network of like-minded companies
ITEA Community. So when I returned to Madrid I Perfect for SMEs in previously unexplored markets for us, from
began lobbying within the company to find out “From an SME perspective, I think programmes Finland to Romania. Personally, I think many of
more about the way ITEA works and we decided like ITEA are essential for research ideas to my favourite projects in the past years have
to attend the PO Days and learn a bit more. We transition from a very preliminary drawing board been part of ITEA and for sure my favourite
cautiously became involved in a proposal and, to near commercial products. I particularly like events are ITEA’s by quite a distance, from both
in typical fashion for us, eventually ended up the general size of consortia in ITEA: not so the professional and personal perspectives. It
coordinating it until the end of the project last small that they feel limited but also not that big is always a great feeling to go to the event and
year. With the extra experience in subsequent that they become a patchwork of small groups immediately start seeing familiar faces and
years we got involved in many more ideas, of people working on their own. The typical truly feeling part of the bigger picture there. It
eventually growing a considerable portfolio of 10-12 partners in an ITEA consortium need to comes down to the people, of course, and
projects. If you attend ITEA events there is a work together, which I believe is essential in the happiness comes as much from the social side
good chance you will see me around because production of results that build on each other’s of things as the success of the work. I find the
I’m usually the one who attends the events.” strengths. But with the strong Community mix of people really enriching.”
Community Talk Raúl Santos de la CámaraYou can also read
