Department of Engineering / News / ‘Quantum step in measurement sensors’ takes prize

Department of Engineering

‘Quantum step in measurement sensors’ takes prize

‘Quantum step in measurement sensors’ takes prize

Heba Bevan, right, is presented the award from Nigel Blacklock, Head of Technical at Sika

UtterBerry, a project of Heba Bevan, PhD student in the Department of Engineering’s Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC), has won the 2015 Constructing Excellence in London and the South East Innovation Award.

The UtterBerry sensor is a potential game-changer for civil engineering.

Heba Bevan

A spin-out venture of CSIC, UtterBerry is a wireless sensor developed for civil engineering instrumentation and monitoring. The miniature sensor makes monitoring closed or inaccessible areas and structures easier to perform and the intelligent device offers impressive measurement precision and dependable results in real time. UtterBerry combines nearly zero-power electronics, a powerful microprocessor, artificial intelligence and wireless communications; each sensor weighs 15 grams and is about the size of a small box of matches.

The Constructing Excellence Awards key criteria included: overall project installation time and complexity (impacting overall price); cost; equipment weight (affecting transportation, fixing); automation of analysis (some systems required backroom treatment of data before reporting); calibration; cabling (installation, weight, cost) and health and safety. Judges said UtterBerry sensors proved superior in all categories when benchmarked against other technologies.

​UtterBerry represents “a quantum step in measurement sensors – not just providing data but also intuitively merging geo-technical with artificial intelligence,” judge comments read. “The innovation overcomes site challenges each time it is used, has harnessed the latest emerging technologies and hugely improves on what currently exists. This product has been developed from good solid R&D and demonstrates that thorough research, allied with practical testing produces impressive next generation products.”

“I am delighted that UtterBerry has won the Constructing Excellence Innovation Award,” Heba said. “Being part of the CSIC team brings the opportunity to work closely with industry and this has enabled me to deploy my technology at many live sites where it has delivered cost-effective results every time. The UtterBerry sensor is a potential game-changer for civil engineering – it enables smart infrastructure monitoring.”

UtterBerry will go forward to the National Awards held later in the year. In addition to its latest prize, the product has won the Award for Technical Excellence and the Product and Equipment Innovation Award at the Ground Engineering Awards 2015 and Premier Digital Innovation Award at the CIOB International Innovation & Research Awards 2014. 

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