TECHNOLOGY
Ranging from a cutting-edge cyber security industry to world-leading innovation in compound semiconductors, Wales’ growing expertise and dynamic outlook in the tech sector is attracting an increasing number of businesses.
DEVELOPING A DIGITAL FUTURE
COINNOVATE 2018 Returning to Wales in January next year, Coinnovate is a unique event designed to bring the world’s leading innovators together in the spirit of collaboration. Its focus is on advancing practices in industries such as Aerospace, Life Sciences and Power, Energy and Transport. Set across two action-packed days, members from academia, SMEs and the industrial community work hand–in-hand with investors to share best practices, pitch technologies and explore market-led opportunities presented by world-leading organisations. Innovative solutions Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) technology is little known, but it affects lives every day: water and power distribution systems, sewerage, waste management and transport all depend on SCADA. When hackers took out the Ukranian power grid two years ago, Airbus challenged Professor Blyth’s group to find a way to carry out forensics on SCADA systems. “Nobody then could carry out forensics on SCADA. We developed that capability and are currently the only university in the UK that can deliver those forensics. That has positioned us globally; now we are talking to the US FBI, Homeland Security, NSA and applied research to find solutions, and transfer the technology back to them so that they can immediately exploit it. This is positioning Wales as a centre of excellence in the field. the Department of Defence about transferring that capability out to industry.”
Currently home to 3,000 tech businesses, from dynamic and innovative start-ups like Amplyfi, to some of the biggest, such as BT, Thales, Qinetiq, Airbus Defence & Space and General Dynamics, the tech sector in Wales also boasts 400 electronics businesses, more than 250 telecoms-related companies and a workforce of 40,000 contributing £8 billion a year to the Welsh economy. The close collaboration between industry and academia has attracted big name companies such as Alert Logic, Bipsync, HCI Group and IQE, choosing Wales for government support, entrepreneurial universities, competitive costs, connectivity and for the highly skilled graduate workforce. Busy developing the future, Cardiff University’s National Software Academy produces industry-ready software engineering graduates, the Alacrity Foundation produces the next generation of entrepreneurs, Innovation Point finds ideas and funds entrepreneurs and Cardiff Start, Wales’s largest start up community, connects entrepreneurs. In 2020, Cardiff Metropolitan will open the new Cardiff School of Technologies, specialising in digital media, data science and design technologies. The £1.28 billion Cardiff Capital Region City Deal plans include a series of measures aiming to drive digital innovation across South East Wales. In Swansea, the Swansea Bay City Region’s £500 million deal aims to transform the region into a digital super-hub building on the strengths of Swansea University and the Tidal Lagoon project. The concentration density of such a high calibre, innovative, fast-developing and exciting tech sector within a compact country makes Wales an ideal destination for meetings connected to the sector.
Cyber security The UK centre for cyber, the South Wales region has the largest cluster of cyber companies and is acknowledged as the prime location for R&D and the onward commercialism of defence and security products and services. Centres of excellence include the Information Security Research Group at the University of South Wales, the Airbus Group Endeavr Wales, the National Cyber Security Academy, launched last year in collaboration with Innovation Point to educate highly-skilled cyber security graduates for the future, and opened this year: The Airbus Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Analytics, the first of its kind in Europe.
Professor Andrew Blyth, Head of Information Security Research Group, University of South Wales We are the only university in the UK to have Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) accreditation for computer forensics. This makes us unique and well positioned for delivering the skills and services that the cyber security sector needs. Industry, from both Wales and globally, comes to us year after year to employ our graduates, including Microsoft and Google. Collaboration is key. We work with the cyber security sector to identify their problems and then do
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