project title:the centre for design and innovation (c4di)
url: www.c4di.org.uk
contact details:C4di AVC Business CentreWellington CircleAltens Aberdeen AB12 3JGTel : 01224 216087e-mail: [email protected]
research team:Professor Julian MalinsChris RigbyGraham GrantVenkat LakkireddyLynne Paterson
project description:In order to survive and prosper companies are required to find ways of constantly updating and innovating their products and services. This may mean developing new products, new ways of doing things or diversifying into new areas based on existing skills and knowhow.
C4di applies design thinking methods to support SMEs to develop their sustainable innovation strategies. The project has developed a number of creative thinking tools, which it uses when delivering workshops and one to one consultation with SMEs. The tools are used to assist com-panies to develop their own culture of innovation, identify key problems and then apply creative problem solving methods to generate new solutions. The approach draws on design methods that include rapid ethnography, user focused observation, visualisation and ultra-rapid proto-typing.
At the heart of the project is knowledge transfer. The underlying research is focused on develop-ing new, interactive methods of supporting innovation within organisations.
funding and duration: It is a three year project, the principal funders being the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Scottish Government’s SEEKIT programme and additional in kind funding from Scottish Enterprise, Aberdeen City Council, Interface and Skills Development Scotland.
THE CENTRE FOR DESIGN AND INNOVATION
www.c4di.org.uk
C4diAVC Business CentreWellington CircleAltensAberdeen AB12 3JGt: 01224 216087e: [email protected]
Research Team:Professor Julian MalinsChris RigbyGraham GrantVenkat LakkireddyLynne Paterson
IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTEInnovation, DEsign And Sustainability
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
In order to survive and prosper companies are required to find ways of
constantly updating and innovating their products and services. This may
mean developing new products, new ways of doing things or diversifying
into new areas based on existing skills and knowhow.
C4di applies design thinking methods to support SMEs to develop their
sustainable innovation strategies. The project has developed a number of
creative thinking tools, which it uses when delivering workshops and one
to one consultation with SMEs. The tools are used to assist companies to
develop their own culture of innovation, identify key problems and then
apply creative problem solving methods to generate new solutions. The
approach draws on design methods that include rapid ethnography, user
focused observation, visualisation and ultra-rapid prototyping.
At the heart of the project is knowledge transfer. The underlying research is
focused on developing new, interactive methods of supporting innovation
within organisations.
FUNDING AND DURATION:
It is a three year project, the principal funders being the European Regional
Development Fund (ERDF) and the Scottish Government’s SEEKIT
programme and additional in kind funding from Scottish Enterprise,
Aberdeen City Council, Interface and Skills Development Scotland.
www.rgu.ac.uk/ideas • [email protected]
ENVIRONMENTS FOR PEOPLE RESEARCH CENTRE
Professor Richard Laing
t: +0044 1224 263716
f: +0044 1224 263777
The Scott Sutherland School of Architecture
and Built Environment
Robert Gordon University
Garthdee Road
Aberdeen AB10 7QE
www.rgu.ac.uk/sss/research
IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTEInnovation, DEsign And Sustainability
ACTIVITIES
Research in architecture and the built environment at Robert Gordon
University relates to national policy and social agendas and usually involves
the solution of practical problems. There is a high degree of collaboration
between disciplines, with industry and with professional and public bodies.
Most research is based around the ‘Environments for People’ Centre,
with a focus on social, economic and physical resource sustainability and
evaluation of the design of built environments in terms of their ability to
meet the needs of people.
The centre brings together a team of surveyors, architects, social scientists,
physical scientists and engineers. The Centre reflects our belief that
producing successful architecture and built environments is predicated on
their evaluation by reference to the widest possible group of people for
whom they are designed.
The diverse issues we have dealt with include the design of assistive
technology systems, the modelling, planning and design of urban open
space, social issues arising from new ways of building houses, the
sustainability of new housing, mapping social research on architecture
across Europe, life-cycle issues in the design of hospital environments and
understanding of experience in virtual environments.
Research undertaken by the centre deals with the assessment of present
and future built environments in terms of their suitability for the people
for whom they are designed, and is also underpinned by a practical
grounding in the design, production and assessment of innovative, ground-
breaking buildings, mostly in the field of housing, achieving national and
international recognition.
www.rgu.ac.uk/ideas • [email protected]
CULTURES OF REPRESENTATION
Michael AgnewAndrew CranstonLennox Dunbar
e: [email protected] t: +44 1224 263694
Gray’s School of ArtRobert Gordon UniversityGarthdee RoadAberdeen AB10 7QE
www.rgu.ac.uk/subj/ats/research/staff/dunbar.html
IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTEInnovation, DEsign And Sustainability
MICHAEL AGNEW
My work, past and present, has always been concerned with the making of ideas through the processes of drawing, painting, collage and printmaking. Contextually my work examines ideas of nationality, colonialism, locale and autobiography. Ideas that are both emblematic and enigmatic. The painted works are objects: three dimensional, layered, built surfaces, icons buried in paint: sometimes later revealed, sometimes entombed forever. The notion of making and unmaking, and obliteration, is central to their production. The prints are complex visual spaces, juxtaposing iconography from many sources. The collages/drawings are investigations at the preliminary stages.
Current research examines the possible procedures and philosophies for constructing complex pictorial solutions with the aim of outputting these ideas through traditional fine art methodologies. The language is ever evolving and iconography determined from a broad spectrum of starting points: drawings from the objective source, found matter, photographs, postcards, downloads etc. Essentially any appropriate visual information, from any source can be utilised in the work.
An ongoing research strategy is the development and production of the “Printmaking Department Annual Portfolio” in collaboration with Professor Lennox Dunbar and Cameron Ross, now in it’s eight year. The aims of this project are to foster a professional environment for staff, students and invited artists to explore historical/contemporary means of making limited edition prints and to nurture the pedagogic relationship through my personal teaching and learning.
ANDREW CRANSTON
The interior, whether it be observed or imagined, forms the basis of Andrew Cranston’s paintings. He is interested in how both presence and absence are felt ( and represented) in architectural space. He often looks to literary descriptions of such spaces and this is closely linked to his belief in painting as a real kind of fiction.
PROFESSOR LENNOX DUNBAR RSA
The continued development of my studio practice includes Drawing, Painting and Printmaking. Recent prints have been shown in a one-man exhibition at the Museum of contemporary Art in Gyor Hungary. This show was as a result of winning a major award at “Matrices” an International exhibition of contemporary printmaking held in Hungary in 2007. My current research is looking at how to combine traditional methods of print making with digital technologies.
In addition to my studio practice, other research has focussed on creating a Summer school of contemporary printmaking that embraces and develops safer applications of print practice using low and non toxic methods, building on the pilot programme run last year with New York artist Dan Welden who conducted a workshop in Solar plate, a process that utilises energy from the sun. This years workshops will again be held in collaboration with Peacock Visual Arts. These workshops will be conducted by Elspeth Lamb, Keith Howard and Paul Furneaux, who all have an International reputation in Printmaking and the aim is to further establish Printmaking at Grays as a centre of excellence. The summer workshops I conduct at the Printmaking Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico has had significant impact in attracting instructors and hopefully students to the summer school programme.
Front cover image, detail from, ‘The Jacket’ by Lennox Dunbar.
www.rgu.ac.uk/ideas • [email protected]
www.rgu.ac.uk/eng/cvc
Contact:
Dr Sampath Kannangara, Dr Yafan Zhao Dr Laura Muir
Centre for Video Communications, School of EngineeringThe Robert Gordon UniversitySchoolhill, AberdeenAB10 1FR
Tel: +44 1224 262423IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTEInnovation, DEsign And Sustainability
Our research and
development work covers
the technology of imaging
and communication.
CENTRE FOR VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS
Our active research areas include, image and video compression (coding), compression standards (MPEG1/2/4, H.264/AVC, SVC, RVC), video quality metrics and perceptually optimised video coding, low-complexity video coding, applied visual communications (including video compression for sign language communication) and transport of compressed multimedia data across networks.
CURRENT PROJECTS
Fast video coding: estimation based control of video codec complexity Funded by EPSRC, this new approach delivers high quality compressed video whilst controlling rate and computation to match the resource availability of a power- or computation-constrained platform.
TRANSPORT OF CONFIGURABLE VIDEO DATA FOR CONFIGURABLE VIDEO CODING
Re-configurable / Fully-configurable video coding is a radical new concept in video coding where a receiver is automatically configured to decode any video format. This project is to develop a novel framework for efficient and robust transport of configurable video data. This new framework will enable the adaptation of configurable video coding in a variety of industry applications such as television broadcasting and multimedia streaming over the internet.
PERCEPTUALLY OPTIMISED RATE CONTROL FOR VIDEO CODING
This project started in April 2010. Bit-rate control is an essential part of video compression and communication. State-of-the-art rate control schemes are only designed to minimise the objective video degradations based on error measurements. The aim of this project is to develop new rate control algorithms that maximise perceptual / visual video quality whilst satisfying bandwidth constraints.
VISUAL QUALITY MEASUREMENT FOR BROADCASTING
With the advent of HDTV broadcasting, there is significant industry interest in optimising compression techniques to maximise visual quality. The aim of this project is to develop a video quality measurement tool that can mimic specialist video quality evaluators or observers, so- called, “Golden eyes” that can measure small changes in visual quality by detecting artefacts that affects the visual experience.
VCLEAR: PERCEPTUALLY OPTIMISED VIDEO COMPRESSION
This project developed from a Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept award, it was awarded second place in the Thales Scottish Technology Prize 2009 and is currently being developed for commercial applications. The patented technology provides better video image quality at low bandwidths than standard video CODECs by giving priority in the coding scheme to perceptually important image content. It is currently available as a real-time software package which demonstrates the concept using “live” video captured from a camera and can be integrated into any system/instrument that makes use of video coding, streaming and display.
www.rgu.ac.uk/ideas • [email protected]
IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTEInnovation, DEsign And Sustainability
Cognitive Engineering involves a
multidisciplinary approach to the
analysis, design, implementation
and evaluation of highly complex
interactive systems.
www.comp.rgu.ac.uk/docs/is/
Contact:
Professor Patrik O’Brian Holt
Tel: +44 1224 262700
COGNITIVE ENGINEERING RESEARCH GROUP
The academic aims are to understand human interaction with complex systems
while the applied objectives are to design and build novel interactive systems that
are highly usable.
COGNITIVE ENGINEERING AT RGU
Cognitive Engineering research at RGU focuses on imaging, graphics, visualisation,
cognitive & performance modelling and complex visual user interaction. All the
research has a common theme of visualisation and visual interaction and this is
manifested in a number of themes:
• Optimisation of graphical user interface layouts with cognitive modelling and
genetic algorithms.
• Face recognition and facial modelling.
• Perceptual and cognitive issues in visual interaction and communication.
• Visual Learning Systems.
• Human error modelling in visual communications.
• Wearable and portable Augmented and Virtual Reality Systems.
• Visualising complex statistical data.
Additionally, we do applied work in Usability Engineering, Usability Evaluation and
User Experience data capture.
APPLICATION AREAS
Our research is applied in a number of different areas that include:
• Medicine (Telemedicine & Human Error Modelling; Data Visualisation; Facial
Modelling).
• Oil and Gas (Human Error Modelling; Usability Engineering; Data Visualisation).
• Aerospace (Augmented Wearable Virtual Reality; Usability Engineering; Visual
Learning).
• Games (Face recognition and Facial Modelling).
• Trauma Therapy (Augmented Virtual Reality).
INDUSTRIAL LINKS
We lead the dePICT project (Developing the ICT Business Base) which aims
to support SMEs in the North East to develop and globalise advanced ICT
products. The project has a value of £1.1M with funding from EU ERDF Priority
1 and the Scottish Government SEEKIT programme. Members of the group
have acted as consultants for numerous organisations such as NHS (Scotland),
Scottish Government, Lockheed-Martin Avionics, BAE SYSTEMS, Selex Galileo,
ConocoPhillips.
PARTNERSHIPS
The Cognitive Engineering Research Group leads the Joint Research Institute for
Computational Systems, which is part of the Northern Research Partnership in
Engineering, a pooling initiative funded by the Scottish Funding Council. We work
in partnership with Dundee University and the University of Aberdeen. We are
also members of the world-leading Scottish Informatics and Computer Science
Alliance (SICSA).
www.rgu.ac.uk/ideas • [email protected]
IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTEInnovation, DEsign And Sustainability
THE CENTRE FOR RESEARCH IN ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
www4.rgu.ac.uk/cree
Contact:
Director:Professor Pat PollardCRE+EIDEAS Research InstituteRobert Gordon UniversitySchoolhillAberdeen AB10 1FR
Tel: +44 (0) 1224 262836
Email: [email protected]
CRE+E -THE CENTRE FOR RESEARCH IN ENERGY AND THE
ENVIRONMENT
ACTIVITIES:
The Centre for Research in Energy and the Environment is a
multidisciplinary group with expertise in applied research in environmental
monitoring, taggant development, labels and sensors, advanced water
and air treatment technology and environmental catalysis. The research
is primarily directed towards solving problems and technology transfer
and involves consultancy, industrial partners and national and international
collaborations. Research interests have been developed in terms of
National and EU Government priorities, which address many environmental
challenges facing the world. The multidisciplinary Centre including
physicists, chemists, biologists, mechanical and electronic engineers and
environmental scientists and is split into 3 Groups: Environmental Sensing
and Monitoring, Renewable Energy/CUSP and Water Sustainability. With
9 purpose built laboratories incorporating a diverse range of advanced
optical/laser equipment, excellent analytical facilities, materials processing
and a range of advanced water treatment reactors and sensors, our
flexibility is second to none.
The Environmental & Sensing subgroup group develops environmental
sensors and tracers for detecting a range of compounds in air, water and
soil and has been involved in the development of reference materials
and monitoring regimes. The sensors developed are mainly based on
spectroscopy and electrochemical technologies allowing remote or in-situ
detection. Novel taggants have also been developed which can be utilised
in a wide range of applications not only in environmental monitoring and
tracer studies but also as security taggants and as medical labels.
The group also carries out industrial consultancy to the oil industry
developing, optimising and exploiting the chemistry/biology of target
species and detection systems to solve a range of problems giving
complete integrated solutions.
www.rgu.ac.uk/ideas • [email protected]
IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTEInnovation, DEsign And Sustainability
www4.rgu.ac.uk/cusp/general/
Contact:
Dr Alan Owen
Director, CUSP
The Robert Gordon University
Schoolhill
Aberdeen
AB10 1FR
T: 0044 1224 262360 / 262362
F: 0044 1224 262316
CENTRE FOR UNDERSTANDING SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE (CUSP)
BACKGROUND:
The Centre for Understanding Sustainability in Practice (CUSP), a
£0.5 million virtual centre brings together a broad range of cross-
faculty academic expertise in energy, business, architecture and social
subjects from the Robert Gordon University. The newly established
Centre works closely with the Centre for Research in Energy and the
Environment (CRE+E), aiming to educate and inspire people to embrace
sustainable practice in their daily lives.
ACTIVITIES:
CUSP will seek to change thinking, behaviour and practice, focusing
on sustainable development, in all areas of activity by individuals,
organisations and government. The University is committed to applying
the principles of sustainable development to its estates management
with particular emphasis on environmental management systems, energy
sustainability, waste management, green travel planning, Fair Trade status
and procurement.
CUSP will assist to develop and deliver teaching modules at both
undergraduate and postgraduate level covering general sustainability
issues and/or the specific application of sustainable practices in
relevant degree subjects. Topics for study are likely to include: water
use, treatment and reclamation; energy (renewables, technology
optimisation, resource modeling, conservation) carbon management,
building design and energy use; business applications; travel and
transport. The research model for CUSP includes resource for PhD
studentships and research undertaken by staff.
The centre also aims to form strategic partnerships with schools,
colleges, local authorities, professional bodies, industry organisations
and the voluntary sector with a view to incorporating sustainability as part
of the policy making and strategic agenda for any organisation.
CUSP will seek to identify individuals, businesses, local authorities
and institutions willing to incorporate sustainability projects into
their activities. The initial work will be to understand the barriers
that constrain the uptake of sustainable practices. CUSP will offer
consultancy to organisations on developing sustainable practice within
their environments.
www.rgu.ac.uk/ideas • [email protected]
IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTEInnovation, DEsign And Sustainability
INFORMATION RETRIEVAL
www.comp.rgu.ac.uk/staff/ds/
Contact:
Professor Dawei Song
T: 01224 262475
Information Retrieval (IR) is the study of methods and systems for representing, organising and retrieving information from online text and multimedia document collections and data repositories to support users’ information seeking and knowledge discovery.
INFORMATION RETRIEVAL
Our research is focused on the following directions:
- Text Document and Entity Retrieval
- Multimedia and Social Information Retrieval
- User Modelling and Interaction
- Domain knowledge structure discovery and adaption
THE AUTOADAPT PROJECT
(FUNDED BY EPSRC: EP/F035705/1)
The goal of the project is to find ways of aiding the information seeking
process within the intranets by providing:
- A model of document collections that summarise the underlying
knowledge structures, and to guide seekers to explore the
information space.
- A trail of information scent throughout the user’s search process
and space.
- The self-adaption of these to changing collections and users over
time.
THE RENAISSANCE PROJECT
(FUNDED BY EPSRC: EP/F014708/2)
The project aims to provide a unified framework and effective mechanisms
to integrate context-sensitive and multimodal search, leading to a
revolutionary shift of the Information Retrieval paradigm. Special
attention is paid to verifying, quantifying, formalising and operating the
“entanglements” between users, textual and multimedia content and
retrieval contexts, i.e. how they are interacting with each other in an
integrated way, to support more effective contextual IR systems.
CONTENT-BASED IMAGE AND VIDEO RETRIEVAL
(FUNDED IN PART BY NORTHERN RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP)
We are incorporating visual content, textual, ontological, and social
information into retrieval systems. Current research is focused on
extracting local features, building “visual words”, and applying these
methods to adaptive user profiling in image retrieval. In video retrieval,
we aim to consider not only “what it is”, but also “where it is” and “how it
behaves” by utilising spatial and temporal features when modelling the
content of videos. The motion patterns of visual words are recorded and
classified to represent the spatial-temporal structures within a video.
www.rgu.ac.uk/ideas • [email protected]
IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTEInnovation, DEsign And Sustainability
ENERGY RESEARCH GROUP
Our mission is to engage
in cutting edge research to
provide solutions to the current
and future operational and
technological challenges of the
oil and gas industry.
www.rgu.ac.uk/eng/research/page.cfm?pge=43848
Contact:
Professor Babs Oyeneyin
T: +44 1224 262327
OIL AND GAS CURRENT PROJECTS
• The Mare’s Tail® Produced Water Management System
• Intelligent Variable Slot Screen System (VSSSTM )
• Sand Management Network (SMN)
• Unconventional Reservoir Management [Heavy Oil & Condensate]
ASSET AND INTEGRITY MANAGEMENT
• Asset Diagnostic, Prognosis, Monitoring and Management
• Non Destructive Testing (NDT)
• Integrity Management of Ageing offshore installations
• Decommissioning of offshore Infrastructures
RENEWABLES (RNW)
Robert Gordon University has been involved in renewable energy research
since 1995 and continues to contribute at an international level.
We have strong capabilities in numerical resource modelling for all renewables,
CO2 footprint quantification and management, energy balancing and optimal
technology selection for any application, and project due diligence.
We are presently analysing the tidal current resource of Guernsey so that the
States of Guernsey can build an appropriate seabed licensing system, and
have just been selected as the lead academic institution (supported by Oxford
& Edinburgh) for the collaborative renewable energy project between the
Scottish Government and the Government of the Maldives
OIL AND GAS
Our People Our Focus
Professor B. Oyeneyin Well & Reservoir optimisation
Dr M. Hossain Sand management
Dr G. Oluyemi Flow assurance
Ms B. Vijayakumar Drilling optimisation, Multiphase flow
ASSET AND INTEGRITY MANAGEMENT
Our People Our Focus
Professor I. Steele Asset integrity
Dr J. Andrawus Condition monitoring
Dr E. Adom
RENEWABLES
Our People Our Focus
Dr A. Owen Tidal wave energy
Dr M. Hossain Wind energy
Dr D. Ali Turbine, Fuel cells
www.rgu.ac.uk/ideas • [email protected]
IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTEInnovation, DEsign And Sustainability
COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCELEARN, OPTIMISE, COMPUTE!
www.comp.rgu.ac.uk/research/cig
Andrei Petrovski
John McCall
Horacio Gonzalez-Velez
Contact:
Andrei Petrovski
Tel: +44 1224 26270
The IDEAS Computational
Intelligence research group
has a primary focus in three
related areas: evolutionary
algorithms; probabilistic
modelling; and parallel
computing.
LEARN, OPTIMISE, COMPUTE!
We specialise in adaptive, intelligent computational approaches to
problem-solving. Many real-world problems are complex, involving
the consideration of vast amounts of data, the balancing of multiple
objectives within challenging constraints and the evolving requirements
for information and communication resources. We research powerful
computational approaches to discover key relationships in data, to
intelligently search for solutions in complex scenarios and to provide high
performance computing strategies that best adapt resources to demands.
RESEARCH APPLICATION AREAS
• prediction of pathological staging in prostate cancer
• chemotherapy treatment design and optimisation
• care visit scheduling
• data modelling for rig operations
• concurrent mining of neuro-oncological data
• parallel molecular dynamics of nano-materials
TECHNICAL INTERESTS
• Data modelling and inference using probabilistic graphical models
such as Bayesian and Markov network models.
• Theory and applications of a wide range of naturally inspired
techniques for single- and multi-objective optimisation, including
evolutionary algorithms, particle swarms, ant colonies and
• estimation of distribution algorithms.
• Models and applications of computational science and parallel
systems, including structured parallelism, algorithmic skeletons
and parallel patterns, cloud and grid computing, heuristic
scheduling, and resource adaptivity.
COLLABORATION AND FUNDING
The group has strong collaborative links with other institutions worldwide.
We are members of the world-leading Scottish Informatics and Computer
Science Alliance (SICSA) with strong representation in the Complex
Systems Engineering theme. We also belong to the Northern Research
Partnership, where we have strong links to the Medical Technologies
JRI. Collaborators include: British Telecom plc, GlaxoSmithKline plc,
NHS Grampian, the DTI, ODS-Petrodata Ltd., and Technology Managers
Ltd. Funding is received from: EPSRC, SHEFC, TSB (KTP), NESTA, The
European Commission, NHS, Scottish Enterprise, The Carnegie Trust, The
Nuffield Foundation; industrial consultancy and charities.
www.rgu.ac.uk/ideas • [email protected]
IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTEInnovation, DEsign And Sustainability
dePICT:DEVELOPING THE ICT BUSINESS BASE
www.comp.rgu.ac.uk/docs/is/
Contact:
Professor Patrik O’Brian Holt
Tel: +44 1224 262700
WHAT IS DEPICT?
dePICT (developing the ICT Business Base) is an RGU led initiative that aims to establish a new and innovate collaborative pooling network of academia and SMEs in the North East of Scotland, Highlands and Lowlands. The project is product driven and will, through new ways of working, deliver new and improved products with increased marketability, greater flexibility and routes to global exploitation. SMEs will be assisted in developing new products but also to move from a service orientation to a global product focus. The dePICT project will run from 2010 to 2012 and is funded by EU
ERDF Priority 1 and the Scottish Government SEEKIT programme.
HOW DOES dePICT WORK?
dePICT partners will work with SMEs through initial feasibility studies before providing assistance in obtaining external funding for new and novel R&D in a partnership between industry and academia.
dePICT PARTNERSHIP
In the dePICT project innovation will be driven by the Joint Research Institute for Computational Systems (JRIcs), which is part of the Northern Research Partnership in Engineering (NRPe), a Scottish Funding Council funded pooling. The JRIcs pools expertise from three universities, the Robert Gordon University, Dundee University and the University of Aberdeen. The academic partners represent recognized international excellence in research and will provide expertise and experience in research and research project management. dePICT has support from Scottish Enterprise, Interface, KTP, TSB and other economic development agencies, Scotland IS as well as various SMEs.
IMPACT OF dePICT
The primary aim of dePICT is to assist SMEs to enhance and develop new ICT products through increased research and development. An important aspect of the project is the expansion and diversification of skills and expertise. There will be a focus initially on ICT related SMEs that work in the Oil, Gas and Energy sectors, but will also include companies and organisations outside these sectors. This will allow SMEs to expand into new sectors and to exploit global markets.
In addition to new and improved products, job creation and the expansion of markets, the project aims to introduce and sustain innovative collaborative methods of working that will build permanent bridges between SMEs and academia to mutual benefit. These activities will contribute to enhancing ICT skills in the SME sector. This mirrors other activities currently seen in Oil and Gas where large organisations are establishing new and novel collaborations using the Northern Research Partnership in Engineering as a core facilitator as well as a source of recognised expertise.
www.rgu.ac.uk/ideas • [email protected]
IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTEInnovation, DEsign And Sustainability
ENERGY FUTURES RESEARCH CENTRE
www.rgu.ac.uk/eng/research/page.cfm?pge=13128
Contact:
Professor Hicham Idriss
School of Engineering
Robert Gordon University
(and University of Aberdeen)
T: +44 1224 274503
ACTIVITIES:
The centre has been created to put together scientists with a common
mission on research projects focusing on alternative and renewable
sources and carriers of Energy in Europe. The centre main activity is in
solid materials related research including catalysis, surface and materials
sciences and nano-structured materials for energy application such as in
fuel cells, hydrogen storage and photo-conversion. The centre objectives
are (i) to establish an internationally leading research centre with a
focused activity on long term research and (ii) educate present and future
generations in Energy related research and development projects that are
compatible with the environment and renewable.
One of the main activities of the centre is on Hydrogen production from
renewables which is the only possible solution for fuel cells if one is to
include the environment into the overall economical/technical equation.
We were among the pioneers studying the reactions of ethanol for
hydrogen production with publications dating back a decade ago. The
work is conducted on two fronts: catalytic and photo-catalytic reactions.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
1. Fastandefficienthydrogengenerationcatalyzedbycobalttalc
nanolayersdispersedinsilicaaerogel.M.Domínguez,E.Taboada,H.
Idriss,E.Molins,J.Llorca,JMaterialsChemistry,inpress.
2. TheSurfaceReactionsofUraniumOxides.H.Idriss,Surf.Sci.Reports
65,67-109(2010)
3. SizeEffectsintheGasPhaseHydrogenationofDinitrobenzeneover
Au/TiO2.F.Cárdenas-Lizana,S.Gómez-Quero,H.IdrissandM.A.
Keane.J.Catalysis.268,223-234(2009).
4. PhotoreactionofethanolandaceticacidovermodelTiO2singlecrystal
surfaces.G.W.N.Waterhouse,H.Idriss;in“OnSolarHydrogen&
Nanotechnolog;L.Vayssiereseditor,JohnWiley&Sons(2009).
5. HandbookofGreenChemistry-GreenCatalysis,Volume1,Chapter
10;HeterogeneousCatalysisforHydrogenProduction.Scott&Idriss,,
EditorsAnstis&Crabtree,ISBN-10:3-527-31577-2(2009)
www.rgu.ac.uk/ideas • [email protected]
IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTEInnovation, DEsign And Sustainability
RHETORICS OF PRACTICE
www.rgu.ac.uk/subj/ats/research/staff/osullivan.html
Researchers:
Dr Joanne Tatham
Tom O’Sullivan
T: +44 1224 263647
RHETORICS OF PRACTICE
RESEARCHERS: JOANNE TATHAM AND TOM O’SULLIVAN
Rhetorics of Practice is an ambitious and long-term enquiry into the
function, role and status of art in the public sphere. The project is an
ongoing practice-based enquiry that benefits from an extensive network of
external partners. The research enquiry occurs through multi-disciplinary
collaborative working across a range of public outputs.
Rhetorics of Practice considers how the design of objects, environments
and experiences can stimulate critical and/or reflective thinking in
audiences. The project develops innovative approaches that enquire
into the relationships between contexts and audiences. The project
considers how material processes can enable the design of new models of
interpretation and investigates how different models of documentation and
dissemination construct and order knowledge.
Our most recent output will be an exhibition at the Centre for
Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, in Autumn 2010. The exhibition will use
objects, images, text and performance as a strategic enquiry into the
context of their exhibition and consider how the construct of the Arts
Centre shifts and frames an audience’s encounter with Contemporary Art.
The exhibition is being funded by the Scottish Arts Council and Glasgow
City Council through the CCA and The Henry Moore Foundation.
www.rgu.ac.uk/ideas • [email protected]
IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTEInnovation, DEsign And Sustainability
ON THE EDGEVISUAL ARTS RESEARCH
www.ontheedgeresearch.org
Professor Anne Douglas
Gray’s School of Art
Robert Gordon University
Aberdeen
AB10 7QD
t: 01224 263647
Investigating the
aesthetics and ethics
of artists working
in the public sphere
On the Edge is a research programme that is concerned with the changing nature of art in the public sphere. It is part of the Creativity, Design and Innovation theme of the IDEAS Institute. This research involves doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in the development of art research developing questions and methodologies to address issues such as contemporary art and remote rural cultural contexts, artistic leadership and the aesthetics and ethics of artists working in the public sphere. On the Edge regularly develops collaborations with external partners including Fremantle Consultants and Performing Arts Labs, London. The researchers also contribute to the Art, Anthropology, Architecture and Archaeology network (AAAA) in collaboration with University of Aberdeen.
The research questions arise out of artists’ experiences working with other non art sectors of society. Current doctoral projects include:
EMPATHY IN ECOLOGICAL ART
Reiko Goto
‘CURATING THE FARM’,
investigating the synergies and generative relations between art and farming Georgina Barney
THE OCCUPATION AND CRAFT OF INDEPENDENT CONTEMPORARY CURATING
Iain Irving
CRAFT, MODERNITY AND THE COMMODIFICATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN SCOTLAND AFTER 1970
Andrea Peach
THE PRACTICE OF ART AS A FORM OF KNOWLEDGE IN PARTICIPATIVE, COLLABORATIVE ART PROCESSES
Chu Chu Yuan
CHALLENGING INTERACTIVITY IN PUBLIC SPACE THROUGH DIGITAL MEDIA
Jiiun-Jhy Her
On the Edge has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (Artist and Leader and contemporary art in remote rural locations), The Scottish Arts Council as well as the Henry Moore Foundation.
www.ontheedgeresearch.orgwww2.rgu.ac.uk/subj/ats/ontheedge2/artistasleader/index.htmlwww.workinginpublicseminars.orghttp://discussionsart.wordpress.com
The drawing “You know when it’s time to walk out into the cold” is done by Susan Benn, PerformingArts Labs, The Artist as Leader.
The drawing “You know when it’s time to walk out into the cold” is done by Susan Benn, Performing
Arts Labs, The Artist as Leader.
www.rgu.ac.uk/ideas • [email protected]
IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTEInnovation, DEsign And Sustainability
CASE BASED REASONING: REUSING EXPERIENCES
www.comp.rgu.ac.uk/docs/kbs/
Professor Susam Craw
Dr Nirmalie Wiratunga
Dr Rob Lothian
Dr Stewart Massie
Contact:
Dr Nirmalie Wiratunga
T: +44 1224 262573
Closing the Loop
between
Corporate
Knowledge
and
Innovation
CORPORATE COLLABORATORS:
European Space Agency, AxSys Technology Ltd, XCD Ltd, NHS Grampian, British Geological Survey, AstraZeneca
ACADEMIC COLLABORATORS:
Aberdeen University, Dundee University, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Université Laval, Indian Institute of Technology Madras
RESEARCH OVERVIEW
Case Based Reasoning (CBR) solves problems by retrieving and reusing similar experiences that are stored in a case base of previously solved problems and their solutions. This research has developed innovative techniques for building and applying case-based systems for real-world problems, especially decision support, product design, project planning and information management.
REASONING FROM EXPERIENCES
Case-based decision support systems have been developed for various problem domains: evidence-based decision making in healthcare from Excelicare electronic patient record data, project planning for well engineering in the Oil & Gas industry, and a joint project with AstraZeneca designing pharmaceutical formulations.
Research has developed knowledge-light learning techniques that use only the cases in the case-base to learn explicit knowledge to improve the design and maintenance of CBR systems. Case knowledge is at the heart of a CBR system. A novel complexity-based competence model is the basis of editing tools that have been effective in discovering new cases, reducing redundancy and removing faulty cases.
Effective similarity-based retrieval is essential for CBR, and adaptation of the retrieved solution is often necessary for case-based design and planning. A software tool has been developed that transforms a database of solved cases into a fully-fledged case-based system. Applied to tablet design for AstraZeneca, this research successfully replicated knowledge engineering results that were expensive to achieve manually.
KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY FROM TEXT
Textual CBR has been applied in various domains where experiences are predominantly captured in text form: a joint project with ESA for reusing satellite anomaly reports; email workflow management for the ageing population; designing supported home-living solutions from occupational therapists’ reports; health and safety report management for Grampian NHS; and text generation for weather forecasting. More recent projects address multimedia data for image management and music recommendation.
A suite of text mining software components has been developed to extend the open-source jCOLIBRI CBR framework. Concept discovery algorithms establish similar context within textual content. Semantic knowledge is extracted from concepts and organised into domain-specific taxonomies. Layered architectures integrate existing natural language processing tools with information extraction and natural language processing functionality. Finally a template based GUI guides the design of TCBR systems followed by Java code generation by jCOLIBRI. The generic nature of these software components allows easy integration with large-scale text collections and industrial databases.
www.rgu.ac.uk/ideas • [email protected]