Projects

We want to pilot the possible approaches of using telepresence robots in teaching. We are investigating whether the use of telepresence robots to bring teachers and students into a common physical learning space in cases where their participation would be prevented due to disability, health condition, location, etc., offers them a greater experience of presence, closer to contact learning, compared to the solutions used so far. Among other things, this is a prerequisite for high-quality implementation of problem and project based learning in a contact learning situation, encouraging the integration of active learning methods (group work, discussions, etc.) into various activities and offering more versatile opportunities for participation in learning. Social isolation and the resulting mental problems have been pointed out in various research articles covering higher education studies during the COVID-19 era. Presence mediated by a telepresence robot gives the robot user more versatile freedom to act in physical space, for example, moving around independently, establishing contact and eye contact with fellow students (including changing one's relative height - sitting vs. standing companion), controlling objects in the physical environment using voice commands, additional manipulators, movement, etc.

DIH-World aims to accelerate the uptake of advanced digital technologies by European manufacturing SMEs in all sectors and support them in building sustainable competitve advantages and reaching global markets strengthening the capacities of regional DIHs, particularly in underepresented regions across Europe. As intermediaries of successful local SME digital transformation, DIH World, aims at providing DIHs, acces to harmonised tools, well proven technologies, effective methodologies, sound knwoledge, smart investment sources, rich training assets and overall a vibrant innovation environment. The final aim is to accelerate the matureness of DIHs and the development of their collaboration capabilities, and avoid a DIH divide due to lack of access to technologies, skills, networks, investment and infrastructures with special enfasis in underrepresented regions; so they can capitalise and leverage on the European DIHs Networks their resources and facilities for the benefit of their local SMEs. This will be achieved thanks to the: DIH-World platform, that will provide a full coverage of the services needed by the DIHs and the SMEs willing to identify the right DIH for them, the DIH-Academy that will provide the tools to train DIHs and bring them to the next level, Open calls for experiments, that will provide sufficient technological support to SMEs and midcaps. As well as with a broad geographical coverage, with more than 26 countries to be covered in Europe including specific activities to involve regional and national actors in the DIH network.

Goal of the CoE in ICT, EXCITE, is to bring together the Estonian research competences in the areas of modern robotics, Internet of things, and cyberphysical systems; securiy and dependability; software engineering and foundations of computing; and biomedical application areas. The alignment of research areas strengthens the mutual collaboration and cross the field joint activities, allows to create the capacity and critical mass of next generation ICT researchers. Linking the hardware (robotics, systems design, internet of things, biomedical devices), software and services, developing the security and dependability, working with massive data, and applying these competences to biomedical applications among others, will create a significant impact on society and economy.

"EXCITE brings together the topranked ICT research groups Estonia to work jointly on a focussed, yet broad and extendable, research programme. It will capitalize on the existing expertise to create synergies on the rich but fragmented landscape of the Estonian ICT research. The consortium will advance foundational theories of model verification and data analysis. On this groundwork, it will develop methods and tools for sound practices of designing and analyzing reliable and secure ICT systems processing large data volumes, as demanded by applications to domains of high socioeconomic relevance (cyberphysical and robotic systems, ehealth and biomedical systems). We will start with 10 cooperation themes with clearly defined objectives, methodology and expected results. These themes will be refined and redefined after 3 years. EXCITE will support research sustainability and provide a development opportunity for young researchers by financing 20-30 PhD students and postdocs.

Implementation of the IT Academy programme ICT research support project according to three strategic objectives: 1. Increasing the innovation capacity of the Estonian economy and society at large through the smarter use of ICT; 2. Increasing the ICT R&D capacity of universities in priority research areas; 3. Linking R&D with teaching activities at all levels of higher education.

The central research focus of the technology and economics of trust in software theme will be certified software. Topics of research include: • methods and tools for certification of software; program analysis, transformation, generation; in particular for big data, cloud and IoT; • static analysis (model checkers, theorem provers), verification, systematic testing; • contract languages, languages with powerful type systems (refinement types, dependent types); domain-specific languages; • program synthesis and program learning, program understanding; • repositories of certified software, evolution of certified software; • trust in closed-source software, gradual trust-building; • trading trust, pricing of trust, game theory of trust.

The aim of the project is to develop new types of energy materials: (1) MNC type electrode catalysts for carbon dioxide reduction; (2) new calcium-based electrolytes for calcium and related batteries; (3) testing of these materials in equipment devices; (4) Optimized devices (specifically, multi-layer filters) for large-scale reversible applications in metal recuperation, incl. selective adsorbents, electrochemical methods and absorbers for the separation of rare-earth metals and for the treatment of the residual water.

The aim of this study is to determine the physico-chemical parameters and the content of selected bioactive substances of bee bread samples collected from different counties of Estonia.

The project “An innovative platform for Estonia-Norway research-based teaching in bioinformatics and gene editing” will develop tools for teaching two cutting-edge technologies needed in almost all fields of Life Sciences. The project will be coordinated by TalTech and will have as partner NMBU. Group leaders are plant scientist experts in one of these technologies with teaching experience at universities. During the project, material for lectures and practical work in the laboratories will be developed. These tools will be tested in two 10 days long intensive courses for MSc and PhD students. During the courses, students will benefit from interaction with another culture in a different educational atmosphere. The tools developed will be presented at the end of the project in a seminar in TalTech with PhD students presenting their work. A special emphasis will be given to gene editing technologies, including science policy, since this topic is of interest to different stakeholders.

Wood is the most abundant form of biomass used by industry and is the source of the three major biolpolymers in nature – cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. While cellulose is responsible for about 40-50% of the dry weight of wood, lignin content varies from 10% to about 35% across species. For decades, lignin has been seen as a bothersome side-product that needs removal at all cost. However, in the last decade, due to its polyphenolic nature, lignin has emerged to the focus of attention as a renewable alternative to crude oil based chemistry. The project aims to develop technologies for the extaction and fractionation of lignin and cellulose derived from low valorization level bleached chemi-thermomechanical pulp or industrial wood-waste. The goal of the project is to develop practical and environmentally friendly functional materials (e.g. thermo isolators and surfactants). Also, the project will identify and characterize novel industrial enzymes from extreme thermophilic organisms.

Development of adaptable supramolecular chirality sensors is important for the industry and academia. Chiral molecules, in nform of enantiomers, are commonly used in the pharmaceutical, food, perfume, cosmetic, and agricultural industries. In biological ecosystems, chiral molecules are metabolized, absorbed, and excreted selectively, and their biological effects can vary significantly. Therefore, the environmental impact of different stereoisomers can be radically different. Standard analysis methods that do not distinguish the chirality of molecules may underestimate the effects of these compounds. In this project, we designed and synthesized new receptor molecules through both supramolecular interactions and covalent bonding. By investigating the structure, optical, and supramolecular properties of the obtained receptor molecules, we reached several new compounds with the potential to be applied for separation, isolation, and detection of bioactive compounds and environmental pollutants. We developed environmentally friendly mechanosynthesis methods to reduce waste production during the synthesis process of organic compounds. Additionally, we studied formation of oligomeric macrocyclic receptors and developed methods for obtaining both mono- and multifunctional macrocyclic compounds. We initiated research on the creation of supramolecular materials and demonstrated that materials for enantioselective electronic noses can be easily prepared using porphyrins and chiral hemicucurbiturils. We also investigated the correlation between the circulardichroism signal generation and molecular orbitals and geometries modelled by quantum chemical methods. We also showed that the signal of the studied optically active sensor molecules can be amplified via interaction with inorganic chiral materials. The results of the project were published in number of research articles and two patents were applied for.

Prolonging the shelf life of food is important to reduce food losses in supply chain and consumption as well as enable products to be marketed longer distance. Measures to extend the shelf life are directly related to food safety and quality; however, its sensory properties are best within a certain optimal shelf life. Although human sensory receptors are set by nature to identify food safety risks, good taste does not necessarily guarantee food safety and vice versa. Safety risks are particularly high for unpasteurised products with neutral pH. The temperature of 2-6°C used in the supply chain does not prevent the growth of spoilage, including pathogenic, bacteria and thus limits the shelf life. This project explores various technical options for extending the shelf life of food without sacrificing safety and quality: incl. aseptic production, rapid cooling, use of ice binding proteins and storage temperatures of -2...0°C as well as control of essential flavor components.