The ITEA Achievement Award 2007
ITEA Achievement Award for ambient intelligence project
The 2007 Gold Achievement Award for an outstanding contribution to the Information Technology for European Advancement (ITEA) programme went to AMEC. This project envisages a paradigm shift in which everyday devices in the home become interconnected. The partners built embedded, intelligent, interactive, user-centred systems with seamless interfaces to back-end Internet services.
The project consortium convincingly demonstrated how, in the near future, people’s lives in their connected homes will be eased by the support of an ambient ‘ecology’ of products, services and content that are adaptive and intuitive to use.
Project leader, Gavin Proctor of Philips Design: “Eco-systems of connected devices, content, applications and services still need to ‘learn’ how best to adapt and evolve … and end-users must be able to shape these systems to meet their needs, defining the relationships and interactions between different devices. In our vision, people should ultimately be free to tailor their digital media and ‘wired’ experiences to their own unique situations.”
Silver and Bronze
This year, alongside the gold Achievement Award, there were also silver and bronze awards. These went to the projects AGILE and HD4U, respectively.
Faster software development
Using 64 industrial case studies, the AGILE consortium proved that the Agile software-engineering methodology can lead to massive improvements. This methodology resulted in high-quality software that has been developed in a shorter time for lower cost then was ever possible with traditional software-engineering techniques. Several partners and their customers were convinced of the benefits and have already introduced the method in their organisations.
HDTV comes of age
The objectives of HD4U were to fill in the technological gaps in the high-definition television (HDTV) chain by creating a high-definition video encoder, improve picture quality, and ensure the interoperability of receivers. It also set up an HDTV demonstrator on three types of distribution network: satellite, terrestrial and wired broadband (ADSL2+). The demonstrations showed the impressive improvements in quality available with new MPEG4-AVC video-encoding technology compared with traditional MPEG2. Experiments in operational environments have given project partners the opportunity to master the anticipated rapid deployment of HDTV.
Leading co-operative programme
The EUREKA ITEA 2 Cluster is Europe’s leading co-operative pre-competitive R&D programme for software-intensive systems and services (SiSS) – a vital driver of innovation and the cornerstone of Europe’s most competitive industries. Over the past decade, there has been an explosion in embedded SiSS with a dramatic increase in use of electronics and SiSS in cars, aircraft, medical systems, telecom, mobile communications and consumer appliances from televisions and DVD players to refrigerators.
ITEA 2, the successor to ITEA, brings together partners from large companies, Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), research institutes and universities in strategic SiSS projects. Organisations that participate in ITEA 2 share a vision of how to disseminate digital software technology to improve European competitiveness. Projects build crucial middleware, prepare common standards and establish solid technology platforms, laying the foundation for the next generation of products, systems, appliances and services. This huge effort is supported by close co-operation between European national public authorities, ITEA founding companies, SMEs and start-ups, universities and research institutes.
The ITEA Board presents the Achievement Award for high-level technical contributions based on true European collaboration that provide significant results and promote the programme and its goals. The award highlights highly successful projects that represent best practice. Criteria include innovation, exploitation and dissemination.
As ITEA aims to make Europe’s industry more competitive, effective industrial exploitation of project results is crucial. This can include:
- Highly innovative solutions
- Implementation of standards, and the adoption and diffusion of platforms
- New services based on software, including those used within industries
- Use of software in basic network operations
- Licensing and spin-offs, and
- Product sales – directly, in packages or via original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
More information on the Award and Award winners:
ITEA Achievement Award 2007 press release
| Award winners | |||
| AMEC - Gold | AGILE - Silver | HD4U - Bronze | |
| 1. Project presentation 18 Oct | 1. Project presentation 18 Oct | ||
| 2. Project leaflet | 2. Project leaflet | ||
| 3. Project website | 3. Project website | ||
