Hong Zhu

School of Technology

Safety Technology

Brookes’ Interdisciplinary Research Theme

The Theme

Safety technology is concerned with the development and deployment of modern technology based on scientific foundations to enhance and improve safety.

The Scope From individual to society From daily life to work place From normal to adverse conditions From tools and methods to engineering principles From techniques to theoretical foundations From equipment, devices to complex systems and

infrastructures From development, to deployment, operation and

maintenance From immediately applicable to long term vision From social impact to commercial benefit

Interdisciplinary Views (1)Technology disciplines

Communication and computing technology how modern enabling techniques and infrastructures can

be efficiently and effectives used for safety

• Mobile communication and computing,

• Wireless communication

• The Internet and Web,

• Sensor networks, etc.

Motes are already being manufactured by Crossbow, Intel and others.

Perceptive networks have been developed to monitor vibrations of manufacturing equipment, strain on bridges,and people in retirement homes.

Interdisciplinary Views (2)Engineering disciplines

Mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, chemical engineering and software engineering, etc.

how engineering principles can be adapted to develop equipment, devices as well as systems for the realisation of safety?

Interdisciplinary Views (3)Social sciences, psychology, etc.

Safety technology must be based on a thorough and deep understanding of human behaviours in various conditions in the environment.

How would crowd respond to disasters, such as in earth quake, tsunami, explosion and fire, claps of buildings, terrorist attacks, etc.?

How can techniques help in such adverse conditions? Monitoring, simulation, control,

instruction, direction, …

Interdisciplinary Views (4)Building architecture

and environment planning Safety technology must

be realised through the design of our living and working environments.

Interdisciplinary Views (5)

Household appliances: Fire alarms, for child safety,

smart home, … Transportation

Smart cars Road safety devices

Dealing with emergent situations

Application domains Healthcare:

the healthcare of patients of diabetics, patients after stroke, and the social care of the disabled and the old, etc.

Preliminary PlanWorkshops

Internal informal workshop (once a year) For the members of the group and interested researchers Intensive discussions on a selected topic informally;

Public formal workshop (once a year) Open to the public of the research communities. Formal research papers are sought through public call-for-

papers. Submissions are peer reviewed. Accepted papers are formally published in proceedings

and presented at the workshop.

Seminars Once a month during semesters (about six seminars a year) Presentations by researchers at Oxford Brookes University

as well as from the outside Website: Virtual Research Centre on Safety

Technology To facilitate the communication between the members of

the theme To improve the visibility of the group.

Preparation of research proposals Encourage joint research proposals from researchers of

different disciplines A small a mount of financial support is set aside for the

relieve of teaching if needed

All suggestions and comments are welcome!