David Tolfree, VP of MANCEF
As we start the new year, our world seems to be less united and more fragmented at a time when global climate change, economic uncertainty and political polarisation require the whole of humanity to face up to the challenges they present. There is little doubt that much of this has been fostered by the massive online influence of social networks. They tend to encourage binary thinking. The ‘you like or don’t like’ approach tends to destroy rational debate and argument. Nothing is black or white, or actually binary, because the world is undergoing continuous and often disruptive change.
A global satellite wireless network connects our world so networks are ubiquitous. Broadly, two types of networks exist, namely those formed by natural processes that are essential to life and those artificially created, maintained and developed by humans. Networks can be technical and material, business and social and vertically or horizontally structured.
The largest and most accessible network is the Internet that initially evolved from the worldwide web (www). Within the Internet there are thousands of smaller networks that connect billions of people and devices worldwide. The largest technical and mechanical networks include telecommunication and railway networks. The interaction of robotics and wireless sensor networks is leading to the creation of new mobile sensor networks. One useful application for the latter is to extend and enhance existing fixed ground-based remote sensor system networks in environmental monitoring. Wireless controlled drones could be physically engaged for that purpose.
Wireless networks can provide the means by which automated machines interact. At first, such machines will follow human-designed programmed instructions but these are just the precursors to autonomous decision-making based on artificial intelligence (AI) and experienced learning. Ultimately, this is how smart factories and autonomous transport systems will operate in the future.
Everyone reading this will know that our world is connected through networks. They have enabled our civilisation to develop and function. They provide the conduits for information exchange and flow and are the lifeblood of all living things. Fundamentally, biological systems are a mass of complex interlinked networks, each necessary to sustain life. At the microscopic level, respiratory, vascular and neural systems are all interconnected networks working together. At the macro level, colonies of ants work in a similar way. In our material world, energy supply and transport systems, business, commerce and communications are just some of hundreds of networks continuously working together, each dependent on the other.
Some writers have called our society a ‘Web of Networks’, others the ‘Age of Network Entanglement’. But networks are more than just spiders’ webs. They are dynamic entities structured to facilitate multiple functions with numerous branches. Computer and wireless networks follow much the same pattern. These have enabled the Internet and the rapid growth of social networks. Although such networks are not conceptually new, modern digital technology has made the latter the arbiters of social change in today’s world.
The reason for writing this article about networks is partly because I spent much of my working time since the 1990s using them to promote and further industry uptake of micro-nanotechnologies (MNTs).
Now, near the end of the second decade of the 21st century, it is timely to pose some questions, such as: How will our present network structures change with the imminence of robotic automation and AI? and Will existing computer communication systems and the Internet be replaced by completely new technologies? The history of the last century suggests such a possibility, and it may arrive quicker than we expect. Emerging technologies such as wireless electricity distribution, quantum computing and autonomous transport are three of the many disrupting technologies that could bring out such changes. A more thought-provoking question is: In the future could there be a single network encompassing all others that is controlled by intelligent machines?’
Social networks
Social networking is part of human development and the bedrock of civilisation. We all have family trees so belong to an inherited natural network. Personal networks exist in many forms, from exclusive and sometimes secret societies to open movements such as Facebook and Twitter. In early human development working together was more productive and essential for survival, but it led to the formation of tribes with their own sets of rules and territorial boundaries which inevitably laid the foundations for tribal conflict. The world of 2018 still suffers from such conflicts.
Advanced communications technologies and the Internet have boosted social media development. Social media does help to unite people across the world. Using web-based technologies on computers, tablets, smart phones, etc., it provides interactive platforms through which individuals, communities and organisations can share and exchange information and data. It is a powerful agent for change and has the largest growth in users worldwide. Facebook and Twitter are two well-known examples. Unfortunately, these media are often used by individuals and groups to promote their own religious and political doctrines.
Human civilisation evolved with social structures based on vertical hierarchies that favoured top-down order and decision-making. Throughout recorded history hierarchies were dominant structures within networks and groups with power concentrated at the top. It was discharged ruthlessly by kings, emperors and popes to the lower orders in the structures. Such structures still exist today, even in political democracies. Most of the open social networks are horizontally structured and managed but not controlled.
All networks—technical, business or social—have key people who manage them. Many have presidents and boards of directors who closely protect the interests of members. Such hierarchical structures can become barriers to linking networks, even at the lower levels of society. In extreme situations, disagreements and protectionism have resulted in power struggles and even wars. I do not wish to dwell too much on the history of networks and hierarchies since the lessons of the past may be irrelevant to the revolutionary technological changes we can expect in the future. However, will hierarchical structures in networks be an issue for the designers of our future automated machine-driven society?
Most readers are probably members of, or are associated with, some form of social or business network. I have outlined below my personal involvement in networks over many years, particularly, the one that initiated the UK’s uptake in microtechnologies.
Since this edition of the magazine is concerned with micro-manufacturing in the UK, and I was one of the early founders of the first UK MNT network back in 1998, I have reproduced some extracts from an article that was published in the February 2/15 edition of CMM on the development of MNT infrastructure in the UK1. This is to help readers understand how we have arrived at our present situation in MNT.
Situation of MNT in 1993
I first brought notice of the importance of the emerging field of microtechnology to UK industry in 1993. This was after having visited the Karlsruhe Research Centre (now merged with the University of Karlsruhe to form the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)) and the Institute for Microtechnology Mainz (IMM) in Germany as well as the company MicroParts, founded by the Germany company STEAG. In 1993, these were developing and manufacturing microstructures and micro-components for industrial applications. Then, it was a great surprise that UK industry had no or little knowledge of the work being done in Germany, although the UK did have an embryonic semiconductor industry.
With encouragement and the help of the UK’s Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) at Daresbury Laboratory, the late Northwest Development Agency (NWDA), and the company Technopreneur Ltd, of which I was a director, I set up the first UK small microtechnology network known as SMIDGEN (Small, Microengineering, Intelligence, Design, Generation, Exploitation, Network).
SMIDGEN was initially a project to bring together researchers, industrialists and practitioners from universities and large and small companies with an interest in the commercialisation of small technologies. It was essentially a network of industry and academic practitioners. The network was later acknowledged by the government’s Foresight Programme Directorate as an example of good practice and a driver of innovation. At the time, the government foresaw the need to reduce the wide gap between research and industrial uptake and promote innovation and commercialisation. The introduction of microtechnology with its huge potential for new innovative products was timely.
SMIDGEN, together with a few other small bodies such as the Microsystems and Nanotechnology Manufacturing Association (MMA) and the Microengineering Common Interest Group (MCIG), was a precursor to the first government funded UK MNT Network, established in 2004. These bodies and networks also connected with the Micro-Nano and Emerging Technologies, Commercialisation, Educational Foundation (MANCEF), founded in the late 1990s to promote MNT commercialisation internationally through international conferences known as COMS. The conferences started in 1994 and they have progressed annually. The 2018 conference will be held in Montreux, Switzerland.
Members of all these networks participated in many national and international conferences and workshops specifically focused on MNT manufacturing and commercialisation. In the late 1990s, nanotechnology, which had for over a decade stayed in the realm of research, took centre stage. The beginnings of commercial applications of nanotechnology were foreseen by many companies, although they were limited to bulk applications of nanomaterials rather than the transformative applications envisioned by the researchers.
After the publication of the Taylor Report in 2003, nanotechnology was added to the Government’s programme. In 2001, Lord Sainsbury, the science minister at the time, announced at a MANCEF international conference in Oxford that £90 mn of government funding would be made available to support a micro-manufacturing network. This long-awaited government recognition of the importance of microtechnology was a milestone moment for the UK.After its actual formation in 2004, the MNT network attracted a wide membership from the UK community. It created: a web-based communications forum; an MNT directory; a quality mark for companies; many specialised focused groups and sector-based roadmaps; and an industrial map showing the locations and capabilities of UK organisations. One of the outcomes from the MNT network programme was the setting up of multi-disciplinary specialist centres of excellence in the UK where companies could access expertise and equipment that they did not possess themselves. The successful activities of the network are well-documented in the published literature. It laid the foundations for a wider infrastructure that is still developing today.
The MNT network strategy was partially successful. After 2006 the number of companies and organisations using MNT increased to about 700. But these numbers failed to attract the level of private investment needed for sustainable commercial success. Companies tended to rely on the softer options of public funding from national or European sources rather than private funding support. The angel and venture capital uptake was relatively low.
In 2007, changes in government policies towards science, technology and industry eventually produced a successor to the MNT network. Sixteen Knowledge Transfer Networks (KTNs) were established under the auspices of the Technology Strategy Board with a £400 mn government budget. One of these, the Nanotechnology KTN, served the MNT community. Its remit was to foster the exploitation and commercialisation of MNTs by informing, facilitating innovation and encouraging collaborations between suppliers, manufacturers and users.
In 2014, the name of the Technology Strategy Board was changed to Innovate UK to become the nation’s innovation agency. Its mission, to accelerate economic growth by funding, supporting and connecting innovative businesses programmes, is similar to those of previous government initiatives and networks but some of the basic problems of creating a competitive industrial base using emergent technologies still remain. There are now rapidly growing global markets for micro-nanoproducts but competition in the global market place is fierce.
MNT in the UK in 2018
It is difficult to obtain accurate estimates of the current number of UK companies involved in micro-nanomanufacturing, processing and materials supply, owing to the multi-disciplinary nature of the manufacturing processes. According to the NanoPerspective Resource Guide 20142, there are about 4,000 companies registered on the database. It is estimated that less than 1,000 are actually involved in component and product manufacture. Many are service providers for larger companies or public bodies like the NHS in areas such as diagnostics and healthcare products. This is still low in comparison to other countries in regions such as the US and Asia. In Europe, Germany continues to be the leader in MNT manufacturing.
The four sectors being given priority in Innovate UK’s strategy are emerging and enabling technologies, health and life sciences, infrastructure systems, manufacturing and materials. Within these, robotics, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, sensors and photonics will generate massive commercial opportunities. For example, robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) is estimated to have a global value up to US$6.4 tn (£4.7 tn) a year by 20253. There is no doubt that MNTs are the key enablers in all these sectors and will help shape the future.
As part of its delivery plan (Shaping the Future 2017-18), the government has committed over £1.8 bn to innovation, matched by a similar amount in partner and business funding4. This has already helped 8,000 organisations with projects, estimated to add more than £16 bn to the UK economy with the creation of nearly 70,000 jobs.
The future
We have progressed a long way since 1993 when MNT was first introduced to UK industry so there is truth in the saying that large oak trees grow from small acorns, that is, if they are nurtured in the right ground.
With the exponential advances of many technologies such as those in wireless communication and in biomedicine, the future is full of promise to solve the world’s problems if the right global infrastructure for the emerging and enabling technologies is established.
The 5th generation of mobile networks or wireless systems, abbreviated 5G, being proposed as the next telecommunications standards beyond the current 4G, will advance the usage of the Internet of Things (IoT) and next generation of smart sensor systems.
The formation of biomedical networks brings together researchers and practitioners to share in the advances in biomedical and genetic engineering that are revolutionising healthcare treatment, diagnosis, monitoring, therapy, implant surgery, regenerative tissue and biocompatible prostheses. For humanity, such developments shift boundaries beyond anything previously imagined.
It is clear that networks that bring people together for a common purpose will continue to have a significant role in helping humanity cope with future challenges.
References
1A Brief Historical Review of the Development of Small Technology Infrastructure and Manufacturing in the UK. (CMM 2/15)
2https://issuu.com/distinctivepublishing/docs/nano2014
3https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-wants-uk-to-lead-global-robotics-technolog
4https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/innovate-uk/about
David Tolfree is vice president of the Micro-Nano and Emerging Technologies, Commercialisation, Educational Foundation (MANCEF). He is a professional physicist with over forty years’ research and managerial experience having worked for the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and Research Councils UK (RCUK). He was the co-founder and director of Technopreneur, a technical consultancy company for the commercial exploitation of micro-nanotechnologies and a consultant to UK government departments on micro-nanotechnologies. He is one of the founding members of MANCEF and the UK Institute of Nanotechnology and is a member of the UK’s Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN). David has 173 publications, including roadmaps, newspaper, magazine and journal articles and books. He has been an organiser, chair and speaker at many international conferences and given interviews on television and radio on micro-nanotechnologies. He is an editor and reviewer for a number of related scientific journals and serves on the editorial advisory board of Commercial Micro Manufacturing (CMM) magazine.