Technium Digital is co-located in one high quality environment with research and development programmes across a range of digital technologies including: Multimedia systems, wireless communications, optical communications, computer networks, voice recognition, computer graphics, scientific computation, high performance computation, e-learning, virtual reality and volume graphics. 1. The Centre for Communications and Software Technologies (CAST) - an accredited Centre of Excellence at Swansea University is housed within Technium Digital. With strong links to industry, CAST is based on the research of a multidisciplinary group of communication engineers and computer scientists with expertise in communications, software technologies and multi-media systems. CAST houses an extensive research infrastructure that provides communications test and measurement facilities, software development and modern cluster and Grid architecture-based computational facilities. A range of multi-media suites support developments in audio-visual signal processing, animation and visualisation. CAST combines expertise in fundamental as well as applied science, which includes: Optical communications and communications networks.Virtual environments and medical informatics.Formal methods, safety critical systems and software technologies.Computer graphics, visualisation. Multimedia systems, digital signal processing and speech recognition.2. The centre for computation and simulation The centre for computation and simulation is based on the activities of Swansea University's department of civil engineering and has developed an international reputation for the development of computational techniques to simulate engineering problems. Encompassing a variety of commercial applications, such as structural and thermal analysis, as well as aerodynamics, the centre has an extensive track record for industrial collaboration, most notably contributing to the design of the supersonic car, Thrust SSC.
The centre’s expertise includes: Grid generation and geometry modelling to create simulations.Solution visualisation which includes the development of parallel visualisation techniques to address large-scale and -realistic simulations based on large data sets. Using the SGI-Fakespace Virtual Reality Studio to execute such simulations, enables greater understanding of the simulation.High performance computing, ensuring the world’s largest computers be used in an efficient manner to solve complex problems.Graphical user environments. Design engineers, rather than simulation specialist can ensure computational software is reliable, consistent and easy-to-use.Computational electro-magnetics which is used to model the interaction between electromagnetic waves and layered structures. A major application of this field is in the design of stealth technology in the aerospace industry, and is funded by BAe Systems and the US Army.Biomedical engineering. Finite element modelling to determine impact stresses on the human body resulting from common sporting actions, such as heading a football or shin impact. An extension to this work is the simulation of super-plastic forming for dental prosthesis analysis of membrane structures. Funded by BAE, this work is being conducted in collaboration with London’s Guy’s, King’s and Thomas’ hospitals. Other areas of work include air flow and blood flow modelling, together with medical imaging for mesh generation. Environmental engineering. This research programme focuses on the development of techniques to enable industries to assess the impact on the environment of their activities. For instance, stochastic techniques are used to assess the impact of lead in a particular catchment area, by simulating lead transfer from pipes into the drinking water supply. This follows, the introduction of new European Union regulations on lead concentrations in drinking water. |
