Nimbus Research Centre: DENiM project
Nimbus is Munster Technological University's (MTU) largest research centre with over 40 staff and research students. Nimbus's DENiM Platform unlocks energy savings through data analytics.
Nimbus has a large multi-disciplinary team that includes computer scientists, computer engineers, and lots of people from multimedia, hardware, software, networking, and design backgrounds. They are based in MTU's Cork campus in County Cork.
Nimbus are focused on cyber-physical systems (CPS) and Internet of Things (IoT) research, innovation and learning.
They were shortlisted for the SEAI Excellence in Energy Research and Innovation Award in 2023 for their project DENiM.
The project
The Nimbus team found that managing energy efficiency within the manufacturing sector is hugely complex. The performance is linked to many parameters across the production environment such as components, usage of materials, machines, production lines and supply chains. The team set out to find a way to make it easier for organisations to understand their energy use and manage it better.
Their solution was to create DENiM - a digital intelligence platform enabling a collaborative approach to energy management. An energy dataspace for large energy users in the manufacturing sector. It includes a systematic digitalisation strategy, energy prediction models, and process indicators. If you want to save energy, you need to know where you're using energy. The goal of DENiM is to provide the visibility of how that energy is being used across very complex sites and processes.
Making information easier to digest and understand is a key goal for the Nimbus DENiM project. It will allow organisations to make informed decisions that will save energy and reduce energy costs.
Immersive data
Understanding energy data and what it means can be challenging for some organisations. The team at Nimbus have researched ways to contextualize the information and make it more immersive for an energy engineer or an operator on the floor to interpret that information.
Using a headset, they have developed an immersive virtual reality (VR) that allows an energy manager to really engage with the physical environment in this digital world. They can use VR to see real time information faults that are occurring. Having access to this information can help an organisation run more efficiently and save energy.
It's fantastic to be nominated as a finalist. I think it really recognises the value of collaborative research and innovation and our ability to work together towards this common problem that affects everybody. I think that it's really appreciated that it's valued and recognised and viewed by industry .
What's next?
The DENiM solution is being trialled in four complex pilots across the EU in diverse manufacturing sectors. These pilots represent different levels of digital maturity, large and small industries with targets for increased digitalisation, significant energy savings and waste reduction.
Learn more about SEAI's Research programme See all SEAI Energy Awards 2023 finalists