SYMPHONY aims to develop a new technology enabling the implementation of dense networks of cloud-connected, low-cost, portable, and user-friendly sensors capable of multi-target detection. These sensors will find applications in air quality control, pollution monitoring, industrial process control, and safety
Air pollution poses a significant environmental risk to health, resulting in nearly half a million premature deaths each year in Europe. Biogas production serves as an enabling technology to achieve net-zero emissions while accelerating energy diversification in Europe. However, both air quality control and biogas production demand critical improvements in sensor technology.
SYMPHONY aims to develop a new technology enabling the implementation of dense networks of cloud-connected, low-cost, portable, and user-friendly sensors capable of multi-target detection. These sensors will find applications in air quality control, pollution monitoring, industrial process control, and safety. To address this challenge, SYMPHONY will make key advancements in silicon photonics, neuromorphic circuits, artificial intelligence, integration, and packaging. It will also leverage state-of-the-art silicon microelectronics for ultra-low power edge computing with artificial intelligence and connected sensor networks for spatially-resolved analysis and prediction.
The primary focus of SYMPHONY smart sensors will be gases related to biogas production and those identified by the European Environmental Agency (EEA) as highly pollutant and contributing to the greenhouse effect, such as CO2, CH4, and NO2. These smart sensors will undergo validation in three different relevant scenarios: city pollution monitoring in Cyprus, process control, and leakage detection in biogas micro-plants across multiple locations in Europe.
With this ambition in mind, SYMPHONY has brought together a diverse consortium comprising three academic institutions, two research institutes, four companies, and two end-users from seven different countries in Europe. The consortium covers the full value chain, including silicon photonics, neuromorphic circuits, silicon microelectronics, integration, packaging, artificial intelligence, gas sensing, the Internet of Things, biogas production, and air pollution monitoring.