“‘Supporting Ukraine, both now and when the country rebuilds after the invasion, is a key priority for Warwick. We deeply value our partnership with NURE and the opportunity to work closely with them through the REWARD project.”
University of Warwick
and
Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics
The Twinning partnership between Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics (NURE) and the University of Warwick represents a unique opportunity to harness the two institutions’ strengths.
The REWARD project, which secured £178,763 of funding from Research England, connected leading researchers in AI, additive manufacture, and other disciplines to produce ground-breaking Research & Innovation outputs. ‘We believe the practical results of these projects will demonstrate significant impact and innovation solutions for society,’ says Anastasiya Chupryna, the Project Coordinator at NURE.
Between November 2022 and December 2023, REWARD facilitated two clearly defined Research & Innovation projects, but also developed a wider range of connections between NURE and Warwick researchers, laying the groundwork for a long-term partnership.
Introduction
Digital Image Analysis
The first project in REWARD focused on the development of novel search technologies to manage and analyse digital images. Researchers in Warwick’s Computer Science department are working with NURE to test innovative algorithms, and project funds have also been used to supply advanced computing equipment to NURE.
‘This collaboration has exposed researchers at both institutions to new ideas that had not been exploited before. More precisely, it has allowed merging technologies that can adapt to the difficulty of the image search by exploiting simple signal processing with more powerful machine learning. Such new technologies can impact the way multimedia content is managed, analysed, and retrieved.’
Victor Sanchez, leads Warwick’s Signal and Information Processing (SIP) Lab
3D-Printing and Diagnostic Algorithms
In the other central R&I project, researchers in WMG have developed 3D-printed replicas of embedded shrapnel in human tissue to train AI-based image analysis systems. This will enable faster and more accurate diagnosis of injury and illness, for example in triage situations. The 3D models (in digital and physical form) have been manufactured and will shortly be transported to Ukraine, along with the above-mentioned computing equipment.
‘We are delighted with the technical outcomes of the project, that will have such a significant potential in accelerating the patient triage process; also it has been a fantastic opportunity to work with colleagues at NURE in this collaborative project.’
Professor Greg Gibbons, head of Additive Manufacturing at WMG
‘As a result of the project research, our AI will be able to predict with 99% accuracy what the outcome is for the patient after the CT scans of shrapnel wounds. The idea is to develop a tool which will speed up treatment at busy and understaffed hospitals across Ukraine and reveal information about wounds that might not be obvious to the naked eye.’
Kyrylo Smelyakov, the project’s Scientific Supervisor at NURE
Supporting Early-Career Researchers
Two visiting PhD students from NURE, Mariia Novichonok and Tetiana Normatova, collaborated with Ishwar Kapoor in WMG, who spoke warmly of this experience: ‘I would like to express my gratitude for this excellent opportunity to host Mariia and Tetiana, two exceptional PhD students from Ukraine, for a month at Warwick. During their stay, we explored Machine Learning approaches for materials discovery and development. Despite the constraints of their brief visit, Mariia and Tetiana made significant strides by developing a machine learning algorithm to test hypothetical materials properties predictions. This experience has ignited our curiosity and serves as a catalyst for continued exploration towards sustainable development goals through new materials.’
‘…This experience has ignited our curiosity and serves as a catalyst for continued exploration towards sustainable development goals through new materials.’
NURE Visit to Warwick
In July 2023, six researchers from NURE visited Warwick for four weeks, and two of these researchers returned for a second visit in November. These visits enabled the academic leads on both sides to meet in person and develop their collaboration on the two central projects, but also enabled new connections to be formed.
During the visits, meetings were arranged with 33 members of Warwick staff (plus a number of postgraduate researchers) across the following departments and research groups: Computer Science, WMG (including Metrology and Cybersecurity), Engineering (including Biomedical Engineering and Renewable Energy), Mathematics, Statistics, Digital Humanities, the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology, Warwick Business School, and Warwick Medical School (in a hybrid meeting with a medical institute in Kharkiv who are partnered with NURE). All of these meetings pointed towards potential areas of future collaboration, and helped to demonstrate the extent of both NURE’s and Warwick’s investment in the Twinning project.
‘It’s great to foster these international ‘We jointly identified several mutual research interests with Warwick’s researchers in Biomedical Engineering, the Secure Cyber Systems Research Group, and Computer Science education. We identified several further collaboration directions in all three areas.’
Ievgeniia Kuzminykh, visiting professor at NURE and lecturer in Cybersecurity at King’s College London,
‘It’s great to foster these international collaborations, especially with talented technical researchers such as those at NURE, so that we can address global problems through world-leading research. The topics we’ve discussed with NURE link in with existing projects we have, sparking ideas for new projects and proposals. It’s also a great opportunity for us to involve our visiting researchers from the Turing Institute, who are working on similar topics.’
Carsten Maple, Director of Cybersecurity Research at Warwick
Outcomes and future prospects
Significant research outputs have been created via the two central R&I projects, and extensive relationship-building has cemented the durability of the partnership. NURE and Warwick have also held meetings with Computer Vision and Cybersecurity experts in Ca’ Foscari University Venice and the University of Ljubljana, and plan to explore other opportunities for multilateral collaboration via the EUTOPIA Alliance (of which Warwick is a founding member). Beyond REWARD, Warwick also hosted two NURE students on summer programmes in 2023, and there are plans to build on this education-focused work as a complement to our R&I activities.