Nuala Moran, Senior Editor
FET may be about advancing overall knowledge, rather than being product orientated, but the robots and other gadgets on show were not only truly fascinating, they promise enticing and much-needed applications.
A robot chef may seem an indulgence. Consider though, a robot worm. Not a children’s toy but potentially a new method for diagnosing colorectal diseases. There’s no delicate way of putting this – the idea is that the camera-equipped worm could be sent to navigate and investigate the colon in the same way as its natural counterpart burrows through earth. The researchers suggest the worms could also be equipped to carry out surgical procedures.
Other equally compelling projects are capturing thought waves and using them to control wheel chairs and operate computers. These are prototypes that will need money and commitment to get the technology to those that need it most. But they are mind-boggling realisations of concepts that most of us thought were still firmly in the realms of science fiction.
It is clear the marriage between neuroscience and computing – which is being explored in several of the FET projects that had an airing last week – is going to have a huge impact. One project that is relatively close to market is based on a bit of basic neural plumbing, mirror neurons, which link the eye to the brain. FET researchers have devised a way of using this pathway as the basis of a computer game exercise regime for stroke patients with impaired limb function.
This has been tested in a controlled clinical trial, in which it was found to be more effective in restoring upper limb function than expensive and labour-intensive physiotherapy. As the researchers noted, having an avatar in computer game to take you through your paces is more likely to make you do exercises than being shown once by a physio and then being expected to repeat them regularly on your own initiative.
By the European Commission’s assessment, research funded by FET has put Europe at the forefront of quantum computing, with applications in network security now being deployed by Siemens and others. It has also helped two Nobellists to their prizes.
Indeed, the success of FET in advancing Europe’s position in a number of areas of fundamental importance to future information technologies is seen to be of such significance that, as we reported last week, the budget is to be increased. In the next three years it will rise from €100 million a year to €170 million – a faster rate of increase than Framework Programme 7 as a whole.
And Commissioner Viviane Reding is out to persuade Member States to increase spending on EU collaborative projects in the field.
As one of the organisers told me, the reason it has taken 20 years to bring the FET community together is that the brief for the Framework Programmes is to focus on applied, product-orientated research. That made for some difficulties in staging the event.
On the evidence of last week’s conference and exhibition, European Commission funding has made a more than useful contribution to fundamental research in ICT. Furthermore, scientists in newer Member States with less-developed research infrastructures need Community support in basic science, as much as in applied science.
And if the European Research Area is to be realised there can be no injunctions on what sort of research Framework Programmes can fund.
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