New funding for engineering research
Four researchers from AU Engineering have received major grants from the Independent Research Fund Denmark for new technological research. In total, the Faculty of Technical Sciences at Aarhus University has received DKK 26 million shared between eight projects.
Communication technology, building materials, AI-controlled drones and oil-degrading microorganisms. Four researchers working on very different aspects of engineering at AU Engineering have received funding from the Independent Research Fund Denmark (IRFD).
The prestigious grants are part of a total investment of DKK 746 million for innovative research in everything from the effects of cold plasma for the preservation of food products, to how big data can be used to improve public transport services.
The four engineering researchers at AU Engineering have received a total of approx. DKK 11.4 million.
The researchers are
- Professor Daniel Lucani Rötter, Department of Electrical and Computer engineering, who receives DKK 2.9 million for his GROWLean project (Green, low latency, ultra-fast in-network compression). The project is about finding new solutions for more efficient networks to reduce drastically data traffic in the Internet.
- Assistant Professor Tito Andriollo, Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering, who receives DKK 2.8 million for his project Network-inspired models to predict the strength of heterogeneous materials. The project is to develop a new method to predict and quantify the strength of advanced materials.
- Associate Professor Alberto Scoma, Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering, who receives DKK 2.9 million for his project: PressOmet: How pressure shapes microbial oil metabolism. The project is about investigating how pressure deep down in the sea affects the cells in oil-degrading microorganisms.
- Associate Professor Erdal Kayacan, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who receives DKK 2.8 million for his project DISTINCT (Detecting Ice uSing ArTificial INtelligenCe-based Techniques). The project is about using AI-powered drones to detect ice on the wings of wind turbines. This can be a major problem, because ice on wind turbines can reduce the annual energy generated by a wind farm by up to 80 per cent.
A total of 210 researchers from Danish universities have received grants.
"Danish research environments foster researchers of very high quality. This is clear from the level of the research projects that have applied for funding this year. Their research also spans many fields of study and has the potential to create scientific breakthroughs that can benefit all of society,” says Maja Horst, chair of the Independent Research Fund Denmark, in a press release.
The Faculty of Technical Sciences at Aarhus University, has received a total of DKK 26 million in grants from the IRFD. The grants will run over the next 3-6 years. See a complete list of the grants for TECH here.