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This month has seen a frantic start to the year with many developments in research and teaching. Over £0.75 million has been announced in two separate grants in areas funded by START and JREI initiatives. A new All Ireland MSc in Bio-Materials and Medical Instrumentation was launched at NIBEC in January, attracting students from all over Ireland.

A new strategy introduced to promote technology transfer on our campus and past successes have certainly attracted focus on NIBEC. Every month we intend to have a Patent Surgery, whereby patentable concepts are studied by Murgitroyd and UUTECH. Already this year we have one patent filed and others being studied. New Science Park developments are being addressed and it is hoped that NIBEC staff will participate in encouraging the success of this local venture.

Finally, we would like to thank Dr. Stephen Morley, who has undertaken to organise a monthly NIBEC Social event, The first evening in early February was highly successful and events like this are encouraged, especially with the high number of new starts in the Centre.

At the beginning of this year Dr. Jim McLaughlin was invited to represent, along with Jim Curran, Science Park interests at our Jordanstown campus. The University is committed to supporting and fully participating in, along with Queens University, the development of the main site of the Science Park in Greater Belfast. This commitment is under-pinned by the current and expanding strengths of the University at Jordanstown in the areas of Informatics, Business and Management, Advanced Materials & Sensors, Bio-Engineering and the Built Environment.

Strong links with QUB through the NICAM, BEST, NORTEL & Seagate Consortiums, as well as the NIKEL centre, is evidence of how both Universities are and have worked together on joint projects for the good of the local economy. The UUJ location in the Greater Belfast area, provides a rich supply of postgraduates and graduate students, as well as qualified professional staff in relevant scientific disciplines. The University link with industry is well proven and such partnerships are essential to give credibility and endorsement to R&D programmes as well as new products. The need for a Science Park is essential to focus technology transfer efforts and enhance inward investment in targeted disciplines associated with UUJ and QUB.

Currently Dr. McLaughlin is constructing a briefing document on the status of Technology Transfer at Jordanstown. It is envisaged that over the next year we will see a ramping up of spin-out and spin-in company developments, incubators and patenting and therefore co-ordination of these activities will help develop a UUJ strategy on all of these matters.

Founded in 1975, Murgitroyd & Company are now one of the larger firms in Europe with a staff of approximately 80 with just under 30 Patent and Trade Mark specialists.

The Patent and Trade Mark specialists are primarily UK Chartered Patent Agents and European Patent Attorneys, representing clients at the UK Patent Office and at the European Patent Office, as well as co-ordinating other International Patent Work. They have a wide range of technical and scientific disciplines from Engineering, Chemistry and Electronics, to Biotechnology and Computer Software.

Many of the specialists are also Registered Trade Mark Agents in the UK, and Community Trade Mark Attorneys, as well as having expertise in Designs, Copyright and Licensing. A number of staff, including those within our new European Unit, are also qualified in other jurisdictions, including the Republic of Ireland. The firm also has an extensive range of support services in-house, including litigation support and Patent and Trade Mark search specialists.

Company personnel are located on a number of sites. The main offices are in Glasgow with active and successful satellite offices in Aberdeen, Belfast and Dublin. Offices are also located in London and Munich.

In 1994 the company developed and introduced an ISO9001 accredited quality management system. Murgitroyd & Company were the first European Patent firm to do this and have achieved considerable benefits from doing so.

The firm has a complete mix of business, both in terms of size of client and geographical location. About a third of our clients are based abroad, primarily in the US and Japan. Another third are English based clients, with the remainder being clients in Scotland and Ireland.

Our clients deal in a wide variety of technologies and include individuals, small companies including ‘start-ups’, Universities, spinout companies, established companies and world-wide International companies.

Murgitroyd & Company act for about 15-20 Universities throughout the British Isles. They are associate members of the AURIL and UNICO organisations, and were instrumental in providing the handbook of Intellectual Property Management to AURIL. Much of this handbook was written by Murgitroyd & Company staff, and it has been well received by many Universities who use it.

Murgitroyd & Company have also produced an Intellectual Property Guideline publication named THEROS. This publication has been in existence for five years, and has again been very well received and used.

Another major initiative has been the development of our associated company Spectra, over the last two and a half years. The company provides a range of support services to Patent and other IP specialists. Spectra now has a staff of about twenty, including in-house translators and illustrators and has produced a range of innovative services. This includes the MODESTA Service to produce virtual prototypes and 3D models for technology transfer or litigation purposes.

Murgitroyd & Company have been working with the University of Ulster since 1996, and have established a good working relationship with staff and Mr Jim Curran at UUTECH Limited. We have conducted a number of seminars in various Departments and other parts of the University, both at Jordanstown and Coleraine. We are now working with Jim Curran to provide regular staff development seminars to new University personnel.

Some people couldn’t be without their Teddy Bear, others have a lucky coin. I love my scooter, 'she' is a Vespa Piaggio PX 125cc. ... er ... that does not mean that I sleep with her

....Anyway, I study in UUJ (I am a PhD student in NIBEC), and last summer I was home in Italy for my holidays. I was thinking "Wouldn't it be cool to have my Vespa in Northern Ireland?".

So on 17th of August at 4:30am I started my Vespa and I left my city, Pesaro (middle east coast in Italy), and headed north. I crossed 'Pianura Padana' and travelled along the coastal road to reach France. If you cannot appreciate traffic jams, don't be there between 3pm and 5pm in summer. Swimming suits, buckets, sand, sun glasses walking around everywhere. Genova, Ventimiglia, Sanremo, Montecarlo and Nice show you a pure sample of Mediterranean summer life. Posh, weird, casual, classic, stereotypes and extravaganza. I finally found peace inland next to Marseille, 'en Provence'. Nice and warm weather, green trees, antique light, stout houses and buildings.

I had a beautiful dream absorbed by that scenario and when I woke up I had to rush to north of France and get the ferry to England. From Marseilles to Brugge (Belgium) in one day and a half stopping for the night in Reims (France). The ferry brought me to Kingston upon Hull. Another day on my Vespa at an average speed of 70 Km/h and I could reach Aberdeen. On the way I passed where the Roman Empire had to stop, Hadrian's Wall.

Now, you would say "What the @!#~ was I going to Aberdeen for? That is not the way to NIBEC".

Well, we decided to visit some other places and we agreed to follow the Viking's footprints to Iceland. To go to Iceland, a stop in Shetland Islands and in Faroe Islands is mandatory. Those are two groups of Islands, which show two different approaches to rough island life. Smooth landscapes and flat coasts in Shetland, cliffs and sharp mountains in Faroe.

Finally, after travelling two days on the ferry, we reached the Moon ... I mean Iceland. The National Road N.1 is the main road in Iceland. It goes all around the Island and until the '80s was not completed, which means that it was an open loop. Still 20% is in dirt floor, and I am talking about National Road N.1. Going inland it is just amazing, many times there are no bridges on rivers (I had to ford small streams).

Iceland is all you have never seen before, a lunar landscape, which changes continuously. Strange combination of colours overlap and print beautiful pictures on your pupils; no camera, no video is able to represent the same sensation of being in the middle of Iceland abandoned in desert passage, icy scenery and far from any form of life for at least 250Km. Just go there and enjoy.

And if you ever get tired of all this (in case you need a bit of home flavour), Rekjavik is waiting for you. I am sorry no Pub Crawl, but 'The Circuit' as they call it. Same thing.

What else about Iceland? Geysers, Geothermal-Baths, friendly people, sheep (home, sweet home), genuine food and adventure.

The way back to UUJ and NIBEC was a piece of cake. I went back to Aberdeen by ferry and then straight to the other coast. From Larne to Jordanstown, it was evening and it had been raining, I was home, my second home.

Dr. Eric McAdams and Mark Hyland of NIBEC attended a meeting of the E.U "Microtrans" Group in Pisa, Italy. The Project is set up to assess the viability of organs during transplant procedures and to determine the stages of the transplant that are responsible for organ damage. One of the goals of the project is to develop a "smart" cool box for the transplant of organs between donor and acceptor. An array of implantable sensors is being developed at NIBEC to continuously monitor extra-cellular potassium ion concentration, pH, tissue impedance, temperature, and cardiac enzyme concentrations at all stages of the organ transplant. Previously, liver transplants for example, have been assessed through simple visual examination of the surface of the organ and the experiences of the surgeon. A device which can assess the condition of the liver during the cooling, transport, and implant processes is thought to be a major contribution to the area and will clarify the processes of liver necrosis. Such a device has implications for transplants involving heart, kidneys, and liver and should lead to more effective use of donated organs.

The "Microtrans" project is a collaboration between 5 academic groups, 3 clinical groups, and 2 industrial groups from Italy, Spain, Netherlands, and United Kingdom of which NIBEC is taking a leading role.

The "Microtrans" group. Dr. McAdams is 5^th from the left.

Dr. McAdams talking with Prof. Jordi Aguilo (project co-ordinator) , at the Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari Sant' Anna, Pisa, Italy.

In January, Drs Mc Laughlin and Maguire presented this past years work at a special Review lecture series at Seagate Technology in Derry. Other UK Universities also attended and the work was reviewed by senior USA Seagate staff as well as EPSRC representatives. The work presented from NIBEC included an overview of new ultra thin deposition and characterisation techniques applied to head and tape devices. Electrical isolation studies were also presented thus covering our major DLC efforts associated with Disc Storage research.

Feedback from this review has been favourable for the UUJ team. We have been asked to set up new links with Cambridge and Aston University through EPSRC funding as well as develop stronger research links with Seagate Minneapolis.

The University of Ulster is participating, through IDB, in the forthcoming CeBIT 2000 Exhibition in Hanover, the World’s No.1 Business Fair for Office Automation, Information Technology and Telecommunications.

The Stand, organised and designed by IDB, is to be entitled "Technology Northern Ireland" at which the University will be represented in 7 areas, that is:-

Those who will be manning the stand from NIBEC are Jim Allen, Mark Hyland, Eric McAdams, Steve Morley, Patricia Pepper, William Scanlon and Francesco Villanese.

Drs Morley, Maguire and McLaughlin have recently been awarded £300,000 grant in the area of physical vapour deposition: closed field unbalanced magnetron sputtering. This project is to be funded by the joint research councils equipment initiative and in particular EPSRC and DENI. The project will study the new science of closed field systems as well the development of novel diamond like carbon based materials. Such systems have already demonstrated novel film properties achievable with denser plasmas and Dr Morley and colleagues believe that many new applications related to medical and electronic device coatings can benefit from research in this area.

New sputter coating techniques that will develop surface modifications for medical and electronic devices.

Dr Eric McAdams came across this thought-provoking article in British Airways in-flight magazine during a recent business trip. The article was written by John Naughton and was entitled ‘Speak Up’.

"I went to a conference recently where the keynote speaker did something really original. First he switched off the overhead projector. Then he shut down the laptop that the technicians had hooked up to the video projector. A ripple of alarm went through the organisers of the conference. Members of the audience shifted uneasily in their seats. The speaker then said that he had decided to speak to us rather than test our ability to read and comprehend bullet-points at a range of 50 paces, and proceeded to hold forth for 45 spellbinding minutes without a single note. At the end we gave him an enthusiastic but slightly shamefaced standing ovation.

Shamefaced? Yes, because he had exposed our own pathetic dependence on what in the old days used to be called ‘visual aids’ and is nowadays called PowerPoint.

On the one hand, PowerPoint is a lovely program to use; it’s slick, lean and fast quite unlike the bloated software that Microsoft usually produces. This is why it’s become not just a market leader by the market conqueror. On the other hand, it has become the ubiquitous security blanket of the corporate executive class.

Although they claim it’s the ultimate communication tool, in fact it is often just a device for concealing that they have nothing much to say. When faced with the task of giving a presentation, they abandon the reproachfully blank sheet of paper on the desk, reach for PowerPoint and suddenly everything’s okay. Click on ‘File New’ and the program asks if you want to use an existing template for your slides. All of these templates will give your presentation a consistent graphical look and feel. Some go further and essentially offer you a fill-in-the-blanks skeleton show.

You can produce wonderful stuff with PowerPoint, if you possess a modicum of visual flair. I don’t myself have this talent, but I know people who do and as a result have seen a few dazzling shows in my time. But what strikes me most is how banal are the uses to which the program is generally put. The same dreary, pre-cooked templates are endlessly trotted out. And although everyone who has ever attended a workshop on presentation skills is taught that a picture is worth a thousand words, most people wind up producing slides containing nothing more than text organised in bullet points.

As a result, 99 out of 100 presentations are farces that would greatly puzzle a visiting Martian anthropologist. Are they collective reading sessions? Eyesight tests? Or adult literacy classes? In the main, such slide shows insult the intelligence of their audiences, most of who have come to listen and already know how to read. They are designed not as visual aids for the listeners, but as emotional crutches for the speakers. So next time you really need to make an impression on an audience, why not leave PowerPoint at home? It’s good to talk."

July 1998 saw the departure of two University of Ulster engineering students for an industrial placement within the discipline of biomedical engineering with a multi national company in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. On arrival at Logan International Airport, they were taken to an intern induction evening aboard the Spirit of Boston, the sociable prelude to what was to prove a highly challenging and yet mutually rewarding experience for both student and company alike.

Boston Scientific, one of the largest manufacturers of minimally invasive medical devices in the world today, incorporate a mission statement, simply, "to improve the quality of patient care and the productivity of health care delivery through the development and advocacy of less invasive medical devices". The company presently employs over 14,000 people world-wide and has a product range of over 10,000 items in more than 50 categories. Such products include metallic stents, balloon dilatation catheters, vena cava filters, guidewires, introducer sheaths, intravascular ultrasound products, and vascular access systems.

The major task of the University interns was to provide support to the research and development team of the Advanced Metals department within the Vascular division and in particular the guidewire, filter and delivery system groups. Such tasks involved the building and testing of prototype devices, in accordance with company procedures. Devices produced by these groups were typically used in a critical care environment, like vena cava filters. Shaped somewhat like a "shuttlecock", these devices are used to capture life-threatening clots from entering the pulmonary veins thus avoiding pulmonary embolisms. Stents, viewed primarily as "scaffolding for the arteries", for example the coronary artery, provide support and prevent the artery from occluding. Such stents and filters are loaded into a delivery system, which is tracked through the body over a guidewire.

In order to provide this support, training on various equipment throughout the company was essential. Such equipment included Instron and MTS Sintech 1G, Smart Scope, optical comparator, Rf moulder, lap welder, resistance welder, rotary swager, UV adhesion systems and plasma cleaning equipment.

The experience gained by the University of Ulster students was invaluable and will provide a major advantage in the future careers of these Biomedical Engineering undergraduates. Furthermore the benefit of graduating with a years experience in a multi national company such as Boston Scientific provides an edge for entering into the highly competitive job market.

The last week in January saw the first intake of students on the All Ireland MSc in Bio-Engineering. Modules in the areas of Medical Instrumentation and Bio-materials were taught by NIBEC associated staff. Ten Students from Dublin and Limerick attended the set of 5 day lectures and it is hoped that next year will see increases in the overall intake. Feedback on the course was extremely positive and staff enjoyed hosting this exciting new multidisciplinary course.

Prof. Lorimer, the President of the Royal Society of Microscopy visited NIBEC recently. He also presented his pioneering work on EDX on gold leaf films. He was highly impressed with our various facilities and hoped that links between the Materials Department at UMIST could be developed.

Dr. Percy McCormick the notable Medical Doctor with various Apollo Space missions visited NIBEC for the second time in January. Dr. Mc Cormicks Bio-engineering interests include sensors, hemo-dynamics and tele-medicine. He is currently employed by the US Navy and is based in Germany. He has shown great interest in our work at NIBEC over this past two years. Some of you may remember the talk on Space Medicine he presented during his IOP Lecture Tour.

The BioTelemetry Group has recently welcomed an addition to staff, namely Giuseppe Trombino from Venezuela. He is a full-time research student funded by Nortel Networks. Giuseppe will be working on aspects of propagation affecting the 6.7GHz radio link between Jordanstown and QUB. His supervisor is Brian Burns, with myself as Advisor.

We have also said goodbye to another research student, Sam Burgess. Sam successfully completed his studies and our good wishes for the future go with him.

01/03/00 – Norbert Pilz "Sensor Array Optimisation using Neural Networks"

08/03/00 – Kun-Chao Tsai "Diamond Like Carbon coatings on tool steel substrates"

15/03/00 – Dr S Morley "Raman Spectroscopy of Si doped Diamond Like Carbon"

22/03/00 – Donna Magill "Electrical Characterisation of Diamond Like Carbon"

05/04/00 – Thomas Okpalugo "The role of surface energy and electrical properties in biocompatability and heamocompatability of biomaterials (DLC)"

12/04/00 – Dr C Nugent "Who are Medical Instrumentation and What do they do?"