The terahertz (THz) frequency region within the electromagnetic spectrum, covers a frequency range of about one hundred times that currently occupied by all radio, television, cellular radio, Wi-Fi, radar and other users and has proven and potential applications ranging from molecular spectroscopy through to communications, high resolution imaging (e.g. in the medical and pharmaceutical sectors) and security screening. Yet, the underpinning technology for the generation and detection of radiation in this spectral range remains severely limited, being based principally on Ti:sapphire (femtosecond) pulsed laser and photoconductive detector technology, the THz equivalent of the spark transmitter and coherer receiver for radio signals. The THz frequency range therefore does not benefit from the coherent techniques routinely used at microwave/optical frequencies. Our programme grant will address this. We have recently demonstrated optical communications technology-based techniques for the generation of high spectral purity continuous wave THz signals at UCL, together with state-of-the-art THz quantum cascade laser (QCL) technology at Cambridge/Leeds. We will bring together these internationally-leading researchers to create coherent systems across the entire THz spectrum. These will be exploited both for fundamental science (e.g. the study of nanostructured and mesoscopic electron systems) and for applications including short-range high-data-rate wireless communications, information processing, materials detection and high resolution imaging in three dimensions.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

We are living through a revolution, as electronic communications become ever more ubiquitous in our daily lives. The use of mobile and smart phone technology is becoming increasingly universal, with applications beyond voice communications including access to social and business data, entertainment through live and more immersive video streaming and distributed processing and storage of information through high performance data centres and the cloud. All of this needs to be achieved with high levels of reliability, flexibility and at low cost, and solutions need to integrate developments in theoretical algorithms, optimization of software and ongoing advances in hardware performance. These trends will continue to shape our future. By 2020 it is predicted that the number of network-connected devices will reach 1000 times the world's population: there will be 7 trillion connected devices for 7 billion people. This will result in 1.3 zettabytes of global internet traffic by 2016 (with over 80% of this being due to video), requiring a 27% increase in energy consumption by telecommunications networks. The UK's excellence in communications has been a focal point for inward investment for many years - already this sector has a value of £82Bn a year to the UK economy (~5.7% GDP). However this strength is threatened by an age imbalance in the workforce and a shortage of highly skilled researchers. Our CDT will bridge this skills gap, by training the next generation of researchers, who can ensure that the UK remains at the heart of the worldwide communications industry, providing a much needed growth dividend for our economy. It will be guided by the commercial imperatives from our industry partners, and motivated by application drivers in future cities, transport, e-health, homeland security and entertainment. The expansion of the UK internet business is fuelled by innovative product development in optical transport mechanisms, wireless enabled technologies and efficient data representations. It is thus essential that communications practitioners of the future have an overall system perspective, bridging the gaps between hardware and software, wireless and wired communications, and application drivers and network constraints. While communications technology is the enabler, it is humans that are the producers, consumers and beneficiaries in terms of its broader applications. Our programme will thus focus on the challenges within and the interactions between the key domains of People, Power and Performance. Over three cohorts, the new CDT will build on Bristol's core expertise in Efficient Systems and Enabling Technologies to engineer novel solutions, offering enhanced performance, lower cost and reduced environmental impact. We will train our students in the mathematical fundamentals which underpin modern communication systems and deliver both human and technological solutions for the communication systems landscape of the future. In summary, Future Communications 2 will produce a new type of PhD graduate: one who is intellectually leading, creative, mathematically rigorous and who understands the commercial implications of his or her work - people who are the future technical leaders in the sector.

The UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Machine Intelligence for Nano-electronic Devices and Systems (MINDS-CDT) will operate as a centre of training excellence in the next generation of systems that employ Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms in low-cost/low-power device technologies: hardware-enabled AI. The use of AI in real-world applications through systems of interconnected devices (so-called Internet of Things) is increasingly important across the global economy. Various market surveys estimate the sector to be valued in the hundreds of billions, and project levels of compound annual growth of 25-30%. Applications of these technologies include smart cities, industrial IoT and robotics, connected health and smart homes. It is widely agreed that new advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning are key to unlocking the potential of these systems. Significant challenges remain, however, in the development of robust algorithms and coordinated systems that are efficient, secure, and work in concert with modern devices. Advances in electronics will soon hit atomic scales, requiring new approaches if we are to continue to improve hardware speed and power consumption. Novel nanotechnologies such as memristors have the potential to play a key role in addressing these challenges, but critical to their employment in real-world applications is how algorithms work in the context of device physics. Further, there are significant challenges around how resources available to devices (energy, memory, etc.) can more effectively adapt to the computational tasks at hand, again requiring us to think about how hardware and software work together. The MINDS CDT is unique in its cross-disciplinary research programme crossing emerging AI algorithms and models with advances in device technologies that underpin and enable their potential. To quote from one of our industry partners, "innovation is to come from software and hardware co-development" and that "this joined-up thinking as a potential game changer". The MINDS-CDT will train a substantial number of experts with the knowledge and skills to lead the development of this next generation of intelligent, embedded systems. The training programme will draw from both computer science and electronics expertise at the University of Southampton, and a substantial network of stakeholders from across industry, government and the broader economy. Core to our training ethos is the up-front investigation of the potential impacts of technological innovation on society, security and safety, and in the engagement of interest groups and the public in understanding the benefits as well as the risks of the use of these new developments in AI and technology for our society and economy. The processes we will use here include that all projects and research activities will be informed by in-depth impact assessment, and we will instigate an ambassadors programme for public engagement and, in particular, the engagement of underrepresented groups in AI and engineering.

Web Science is the science of the World Wide Web and its impact, both positive and negative, on society. The Web is a socio-technical mixture of the people, organizations, browsers, policies, applications, standards, data centres, shopping baskets and social network status updates that have come to shape our everyday lives and global futures. Web Science offers the insights necessary to understand the flow of data and knowledge around the globe, and the social and technical processes that can turn gigabytes and terabytes of raw data and into valuable new applications or evidence-based policy. Web Science helps us appreciate the threats to our online identities but also the opportunities of allowing our personal digital avatars to participate in new kinds of online businesses, online politics and online social engagements. Web Science offers a basis for innovating new personal practices and new social formations, and the ability to predict the consequences for the UK's digitally connected citizens. With an integrated understanding of these research areas, Web Science doctoral graduates will be able to innovate in the shaping of Web growth and Web policy, positioned to lead UK industry and government to reap the maximum economic and social value from its emerging digital economy. The Centre will recruit 13 excellent candidates annually from a variety of science, engineering, social science and humanities backgrounds. It will provide a cohort-based, 4-year doctoral programme with an initial training year that combines foundational aspects of Web Science research with technical aspects of the Web's architecture, an intensive training in interdisciplinarity and a grounding in innovation. A student-centred process of PhD research selection will begin at the end of the first semester with students starting to negotiate a potential project topic and multidisciplinary supervisor team with members of the Supervisor Forum. The CDT will offer a thorough programme of postgraduate research and professional training in co-ordination with the University Research and Graduate School. Complementary cohort-specific training will be offered to support and enhance the opportunities offered by the CDT (e.g. more intensive team building courses or communication training to prepare for specific industry events). The cohort experience is maintained throughout the PhD with frequent team-based events including collaborations with industry partners and international research exchanges. The Web Science CDT will use a multidisciplinary training approach that has successfully cut across traditional disciplinary silos in research practice, institutional structure and University administration. Its novel cohort-based training environment creates a socially cohesive and self-supporting group of students that successfully integrate their diverse disciplinary expertise in collaborative teams. Its programme of cross-cohort activities encourages mentorship, thus making the CDT self-sustaining and allowing it to amplify the research leadership of the supervisory staff. The net effect of these cohort benefits is to allow each student to undertake more challenges and to achieve more excellent training outcomes than possible in an individual training regime.