Within the Second International Science-to-Practice Conference “Measurement: States and Prospects of Development”, Professor from Oxford University Manus Patrick Henry visited South Ural State University. The conference is dedicated to one of the most important scientific topics, which is traditionally being developed by South Ural State University’s researchers. SUSU has many-years experience of successful training of specialists in the sphere of metrology, and also of development, manufacturing and application of measuring tools. That is why the university became organizer of such large-scale event for the second time. Professor Henry told us about topical issues of metrology and prospects of collaboration with SUSU.
– This is the second time that you participate in the International Ural Conference on Measurement. What reports of the conference are the most interesting to you?
– Well, I’ve only just arrived, and I’ve only just given my first talk, so I’m looking forward to hearing of developments through the conference but also through the continuing technical collaboration that is taking place between Oxford and SUSU in the sensor validation group that you have here. And it’s always my great pleasure to come back and see the developments that are happening here.
– At the previous conference, you talked about the measurement of three-phase liquids in the oil and gas industry. What progress has been done in the field? Tell us about your work with Coriolis flow meter.
– So, with the Coriolis flow meter we have developed for the oil and gas industry, this is being used by Russian industry to improve the effectiveness of the operation of the oil and gas industry. Just this week, we had some technical problems raised by colleagues in the Russian oil industry, and we’re now at the stage of observing how the technology is being used in the field before we consider the next stage of the development.
– In your opinion, which problems of metrology are the most topical today?
– By far, the most important is the challenge of the Internet of Things. We expect billions and billions more sensors being used everywhere – in the home, in medicine, in industry, in transport. And we need to understand how to integrate that information – how to use it. But also of particular interest is how to validate that information, how to ensure that the measurements being generated are correct, so that actions are not taken based on faulty data.
– How does the collaboration of Oxford University and South Ural State University contribute to this problem solution?
– Well, my visit here marks a deepening of the relationship between Oxford and SUSU. Just a few months ago, your Rector visited Oxford to talk about collaboration, and it was very good to be able to welcome him there. We’re now going to talk about more detailed technical projects. For example, work on Coriolis, and also work on using this new signal processing technique developed at Oxford called Prism. I’ve just given a talk about it, but we’re going to be looking now for applications in fault detection and measurement projects here using this new signal processing.
– Tell us about your collaboration with South Ural State University. What are the current results and what is planned to be done in the future?
– So, just now I have been talking about a project with Doctor Bushuev, with whom we’ve worked together on a pressure sensor fault detection. Some very good equipment has been built here, and some signal processing techniques have been developed here, and I have applied the Prism signal processing to improve those results, and this project has occurred in 2017, and we presented these results at an international conference in Edinburgh just a few months ago. And now I’ve come back here for the rest of this week in order to plan the next stages of research collaboration.
– What do you think is the role and interrelation between dynamics of development of Industry 4.0 and technical measuring means?
– In effect, Industry 4.0 is a particular type of the Internet of Things. So, it’s particularly for industry. And this is precisely what I’ve been talking about – as many more sensors are going to be used in industry, there is less design expertise available to develop each new device. And yet, somehow, we have to make sure that the measurements are accurate and that fault detection is carried out. And so the new techniques are needed for solving that problem. And the prism signal processing I have been talking about is one possible solution to that problem.