Aston professor wins national tech award for AI work

Professor Victor Chang of Aston University won Data and Analytics Project of the Year at the National Technology Awards 2026 for federated learning research that targets healthcare, 6G networks and edge computing. The award comes as Aston joins a £989,455 Innovate UK-backed semiconductor project to adapt that edge-AI work for tactile sensing in robotics.

Why it matters: - Professor Victor Chang’s work is aimed at AI systems that can operate in places where data cannot be freely moved, including hospitals, financial institutions and critical infrastructure. - The research connects software AI to physical hardware, which could broaden where secure, low-power AI can be deployed. - Aston University’s new semiconductor project extends that approach into robotics and tactile sensing.

What happened: - Professor Chang of Aston Business School, Aston University, was named Data and Analytics Project of the Year at the National Technology Awards 2026. - The award recognised a federated learning architecture spanning 6G networks, neuromorphic edge computing and healthcare intelligence. - The judges evaluated entries across the full UK technology sector. - Professor Chang also received two other awards in May 2026: Cybersecurity Professional of the Year at the Cyber Security Awards and Data Scientist of the Year at Computing’s AI and Software Development Awards. - Aston University’s contribution to a new government-backed semiconductor programme is led by Professor Chang.

The details: - The system uses local devices to train models independently and share encrypted, aggregated parameters instead of sending raw data to a central server. - The architecture is designed for 6G’s distributed topology, where latency and compliance requirements make cloud-centric approaches difficult. - The neuromorphic edge layer uses spiking neural networks with co-located memory and processing. - The team says that approach cut power consumption by up to 100 times compared with conventional GPU pipelines. - The healthcare analytics component produced an Internet of Medical Things platform. - The judges cited the system’s efficiency and accuracy as key reasons for the award. - Professor Chang said the goal was to build something hospitals and infrastructure operators would actually use, while keeping data local, running inference at the edge and making system reasoning visible. - A separate Innovate UK-funded project brings Aston into the MultiPad consortium, led by TG0 Ltd. - The consortium has £989,455 in total funding. - The four-partner programme has backing from Samsung, Boston Dynamics and Microsoft ahead of production. - Aston’s role is to validate FPGA performance data and develop edge-deployable classification algorithms for a tactile-sensing semiconductor chip. - The chip is designed to run within a microamp power budget and a sub-10 ms latency ceiling.

Between the lines: - The awards suggest growing demand for AI systems that are secure, explainable and deployable under strict technical limits. - Professor Chang’s recognition across cybersecurity, data science and applied AI points to a broader shift toward practical AI rather than model size alone. - The semiconductor project shows that the same edge-AI methods are moving from health and security into robotics hardware. - The emphasis on constrained environments reflects an approach that treats limits on power, latency and data movement as design inputs, not barriers.

What’s next: - Aston will continue its contribution to the MultiPad consortium as the tactile-sensing chip work moves toward production. - Professor Chang’s team is expected to keep developing edge-AI methods that can be used in healthcare, cybersecurity and hardware systems. - The company-backed semiconductor project will test whether the award-winning AI approach can perform reliably in physical devices.

The bottom line: - Professor Chang’s latest award highlights a clear trend: AI that stays close to the data, uses less power and can run in real-world systems is winning both prizes and funding.