In this category, visitors to the Electronics Weekly website are invited to select the University research project which they feel will make the largest impact on the commercial market in the next five years.

A shortlist of five university research projects has been selected by the Editor: they are from the Universities of Glasgow, Manchester, Nottingham and Southampton, and Imperial College. Read the entries below and cast your vote!

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Imperial College 24/7 room temperature maser

Diamond is the key to a room-temperature maser that can operate continuously, according to Imperial College London, which has made one. “This breakthrough paves the way for the widespread adoption of masers and opens the door for a wide array of applications that we are keen to explore,” said Imperial lead researcher Dr Jonathan Breeze.

University of Glasgow flexible supercapacitor

Researchers at The University of Glasgow have created a flexible supercapacitor based on graphene foam, and have combined it with a flexible solar cell to form a power source for wearables. The capacitor uses layers of flexible, three-dimensional porous foam formed from graphene and silver. Capacitance was 38mF/cm2.

University of Manchester thin-film oxide transistor

The University of Manchester has made a 1GHz thin-film transistor from amorphous IGZO – indium gallium zinc oxide. The devices, created with Shandong University in China, are made on a high-resistance silicon substrate using Ta2O5 gate dielectric. The material is 80% transparent, opening the door to display applications.

University of Nottingham wearable quantum brain scanner

Brain scanning is now possible through a hat, according to the University of Nottingham. The technique used is magnetoencephalography, which senses the tiny magnetic fields created by electrical signals in the brain. Once, this would have required bulky super-cooled equipment because it needed superconducting quantum interference devices as sensors.

University of Southampton memristor record

Scientists at the University of Southampton have enhanced memristors, the non-volatile storage technology, achieving 128 discernible memory states per switch, almost four times more than previously reported. The researchers reached 128 levels by evaluating several configurations of functional oxide materials.