University College London (UCL) is a public research university located in London, UK, and is the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1826, UCL was the first university institution to be founded in London and the first in England to be established on an entirely secular basis, to admit students regardless of their religion and to admit women on equal terms with men. UCL became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London in 1836. UCL’s main campus is located in the Bloomsbury area of central London, with a number of institutes and teaching hospitals located elsewhere in central London. UCL is organised into 10 constituent faculties, within which there are over 100 departments, institutes and research centres. UCL has 983 professors and more than 6,000 academic and research staff who are dedicated to research and teaching of the highest standards (HESA 2013). Its student community is almost 36,000, the largest in the UK. UCL is the top-rated university in the UK for research excellence (REF 2014). UCL is ranked fifth in the world’s top ten universities by the QS World University Rankings (2014) and it is one of the most-cited universities in the world. There are 29 Nobel Prize winners and three Fields Medalists amongst UCL’s alumni and current and former staff. UCL has extensive experience in participating (and managing) European research projects. In particular, UCL has been awarded over 650 EU-funded research projects since 2007 (FP7 and Horizon2020) with a total value in excess of €400 million plus over 100 prestigious European Research Council grants. UCL is consistently ranked amongst the top 5 university participants in EU collaborative research worldwide (#1 in the UK).
The UCL Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, which will participate in NeuHeart activities is one of the leading research-led departments in its subject area worldwide, and has received top ratings in every UK Research Evaluation carried out to date. The Department offers world-class facilities both for research and teaching. Some specific highlights of the facilities available include: Nanotechnology Lab, Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE), High-Spec Test & Measurement Lab, Anechoic Chamber and Clean Rooms (Class 100, 1000 and 10000 located at the London Center for Nanotechnology – LCN). The Analog and Biomedical Electronics Lab in the UCL Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering has significant expertise in the design of silicon integrated circuits for biomedical, sensor and signal processing applications. Research activities include the design of implanted devices for neuroprosthetics, lab-on-a-chip devices for bioassays, bioimpedance instrumentation for medical imaging and cancer diagnostics, smart sensors with integrated electronics (e.g. humidity, temperature), and data converters.
The main tasks of the UCL team, led by prof Andreas Demosthenos, will be design and development of the implantable electronics in WP3. They will also contribute to the integration of the electronics with the electrodes (WP2) and the sensor (WP4), as well as the system integration activities (WP7).