How Harald Haas is matching industry problems with academic solutions

• The Federated Telecoms Hubs (FTH) initiative brings together the best comms research from the UK’s leading universities
• Four telecom research hubs are collaborating on cutting-edge developments that can become commercial solutions 
• Professor Harald Haas of the University of Cambridge, and director of the TITAN Hub, is at the heart of the initiative, trying to bridge the gap between academic research and industrial activity
• The intent is to harness academic excellence while fostering entrepreneurial mindsets directed towards real-world services, applications and commercial success at nationally strategic scale

Over the past few years, the UK has experienced a growing trend of academia moving to commercialise university research by creating and spinning out independent high-tech, scalable, for-profit, market-ready companies. More recently, the trend has been given added impetus by the government’s decision to provide a £2.5bn cash injection to help commercialise AI and quantum technology research and development. 

The extra money is designated, in part, to help redress regional disparities between university research labs in different parts of the country, a structural fault line that is highlighted in the British government’s Independent Review of University Spin-out Companies. Until 2023, the high-tech spin-out sector was dominated by the wealthy ‘golden triangle’ of the elite universities of Oxford, Cambridge and University College London. Back then, those three seats of learning between them secured 75% of all the UK’s spin-out investments while other universities scrabbled and competed between themselves to secure something from the remaining 25% of funding available. It was messy and inequitable.

The review stresses the many economic benefits that will follow as the UK pushes on towards fully realising its ambition to become a major global player in science and technology. That goal means ensuring other universities in other parts of the UK can operate on a level playing field where innovation is concerned by enabling them to operate on a more equal footing with their wealthier and more prestigious cousins.

Furthermore, a major change in the mindsets of academics will have to be engendered where spinning out innovative new commercial companies is concerned. That may well be a challenging long-term educational process in itself. Some senior inhabitants of the groves of academe tend to be ‘small-c’ conservatives and are often wary of institutional change and are slow, or downright reluctant, to adapt to the new practices. To quote Paul Simon, they “tend to lean on old familiar ways”. 

However, if they are serious about spinning out dynamic, scalable commercial enterprises they are going to have to learn to bend with the prevailing breeze and lean in to inevitable change.

This is where the Federated Telecoms Hubs (FTH) initiative comes in. Founded in 2023, the federation brings together the best comms research from 35 of the UK’s leading universities and other research institutions with the purpose of driving and fostering cutting-edge research and extending and exploiting collaboration. It is also a trusted and highly effective catalyst for telecom innovation. The FTH is backed by the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and also by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Central to the FTH’s remit are the UK’s four core unique telecom research hubs – TITAN, CHEDDAR, HASC and JOINER – that are collaborating on the development of the entire telecom ecosystem and standards, the notion being that their combined intellectual power will be greater than the sum of their parts and make them powerful catalysts for continuing innovation.

Developing an integrated ‘Network of Networks’ 

The TITAN Telecommunications Hub – dubbed as the Platform Driving The Ultimate Connectivity – is led by the University of Cambridge. Its prime focus is on the development of an integrated ‘Network of Networks’ connecting terrestrial and non-terrestrial systems.

Professor Harald Haas is the Van Eck Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and director of the TITAN Hub. He leads pioneering research at the intersection of physics, AI and telecom. The focus of his work for the TITAN Hub includes the further development of network intelligence, AI-driven and user-centric network management, 6G & LiFi (advanced optical wireless systems and data transmission through light modulation), converged networks, and the integration of quantum networks, non-terrestrial networks and fibre connectivity. Previously, Haas was Professor of Mobile Communications at Scotland’s University of Strathclyde and is the founder and chief scientific officer of Edinburgh-based pureLiFi. 

What’s more, he runs several governance functions across the Hubs, establishing effective frameworks and processes to facilitate the translation of research through new and established approaches such as the pooling of IPR (intellectual property rights), standards development engagement, partnerships with SMEs (small- and medium-size enterprises) and industrial partners, technology roadmap creation and skills and training.

TelecomTV spoke with Haas, who is not only an internationally well-known and respected academic but also a man of strong and proven entrepreneurial instincts, skills and experience, and asked him about the practical process of creating a university spin-out from scratch. 

He told us that with TITAN, a two-pronged approach is taken. The first task is to capture truly innovative ideas from research and apply user groups to work with the vertical industries involved to ensure a full understanding of any pain points they may be experiencing. 

Then comes analysis of the agreed issues and the definition and offering of prospective solutions by matching industry problems with academic solutions, all backed up by proofs of concepts (POCs) to illustrate the practicability of the solution offered.

As Haas points out, “These days many companies no longer have their own strong R&D capabilities or facilities but, obviously, they still need to innovate. It’s a dilemma. The solution is that pain points are discovered via user group interactions where industries open up about their problems in a secure and confidential environment under the terms of binding NDAs [non-disclosure agreements] relating to IP and commercial plans. We also work alongside research institutions with the intent to build trusted relations and trusted solutions.”

He adds: “We want to harness academic excellence while fostering entrepreneurial mindsets, so that inventiveness and ambition are directed towards real-world services, applications and commercial success at a nationally strategic scale. Previous IPR-pooling approaches sometimes brought together academic papers and patents, but were often ad hoc and not designed to drive new spin-outs. FTH is creating a systematic model by pooling relevant IPR, adopting a ‘patent before publication’ culture, aligning UK innovations with standardisation, and demonstrating commercial viability through proof-of-concept projects with investor-readiness outcomes. This ensures that commercially valuable ideas are protected and positioned for spin-out, licensing or industry adoption.”

A mutually reinforcing ecosystem 

Haas noted that “he ultimate aim is for FTH and the research hubs to operate as an integrated continuum: the hubs generate world-class research, while FTH provides the commercialisation, standardisation, network-building, investment-readiness, spin-out, PoC and industry-engagement functions needed to turn that research into economic and strategic value. This represents a new model for UK telecoms innovation and it has been challenging to communicate this because of the strong divide between academic research and industrial activity. We need to move towards a mutually reinforcing ecosystem in which research excellence, commercial translation and industrial adoption are connected from the outset. In my view, this is essential to driving real industrial innovation in the UK and supporting successful industrialisation in the telecoms sector.”

He added that the FTH initiative “is a big success both nationally and internationally. We are globally known and have established our credibility. For example, a joint decoration has been signed with all the hubs in Finland, India and across parts of Europe.”

Meanwhile, the JOINER (Joint Open Infrastructure for Networks Research) hub led by the University of Bristol provides a national platform for experimental research in telecom. It is a federation of more than 15 labs and test beds across the UK that provides the real-life conditions required for world-leading research conducted at scale. JOINER is underpinned by AI and is making advances in end-to-end system solutions, technology readiness, network automation, telco cloud, spectrum, security and non-terrestrial networks, as it strives to close the gap between the research laboratory and the market.

This creates opportunities for JOINER’s industry partners to exploit research, test in real-world conditions, work with end users and advance commercialisation. The hub brings together universities, large corporates, SMEs, spinouts, start-ups, and government bodies. JOINER claims that “no other organisation has that combination of experimental capability combined with research capability and transactional capability.”

As everyone in the industry is only too well aware, many early and later iterations of AI were so overhyped that it became all but impossible to see the dead wood for the green shoots of healthy saplings. 

Asked about the impact and application of AI in network intelligence, Haas recognises and affirms that it is of massive importance, even though, “in some cases, what used to be called ‘algorithms’ are now called ‘AI’,” which they are not, he notes. 

Haas adds that “real AI will be an integral part of our future networks and will be fundamental in terms of creating more intelligence in all parts of the system on all levels of a network. AI in different layers of a system will create a completely new environment within which edge and cloud computing will be totally redefined.” 

Furthermore, a new network architecture will emerge that will lead to end-to-end all-photonic deployments.

Currently, Haas is focusing mainly on non-terrestrial networks, an area that he regards as having particular potential. He sees the design and emergence of more and more autonomous networks and the ongoing convergence of control, comms and computing as being hugely important and set to facilitate ”connectivity everywhere.” 

He sums it up thus: “In network transformation, a combination of AI, non-terrestrial and quantum technologies will provide for a complete layer of networking in the sky where you have not only a dumb pipe but also real processing together with LEO, MEO and GEO systems communicating in a mesh network, routing traffic with intent-driven objectives through the sky. This will entirely transform networks and that is a hugely exciting prospect."

Non-terrestrial networks and the ‘low-altitude economy’

In some parts of the world, non-terrestrial networks are referred to as the “low-altitude economy”. The term applies to economic and commercial activities that take place in airspace typically from below 1,000 metres to about 3,000 metres above sea level. In comms systems, it signifies the movement towards the seamless integration of terrestrial and non-terrestrial (satellite) networks to support drones, autonomous air taxis and delivery vehicles. 

As standard ground-based cellular networks were not designed to accommodate the requirements of flying objects, communications service providers are engineering these new low-altitude economy networks, but designing and operating such systems is massively challenging, not only because of the high numbers of swiftly moving flying objects involved but also because of endlessly varying atmospheric conditions. Add to that unholy mix the absolute requirement for ultra-low latency connectivity that is vital to avoid mid-air collisions, and the extent of the practical difficulties become evident. 

The answer seems to be to fix these issues with ‘air-ground integration’, whereby flying vehicles such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used as temporary, mobile base stations to assist ground antennas and satellite networks. It is a huge, expensive and long-term proposition and if such networks are ever to become robust, real-world commercial realities they will require the application of the latest cutting edge technologies and immensely sophisticated control and management mechanisms – and that is not going to happen overnight,

TelecomTV thanks the FTH for its help in facilitating the interview with Professor Haas.

For further insights into the efforts underway at universities and other seats of learning to develop technologies that can be spun out into commercial operations, check out TelecomTV's Academia channel.