RGU IDEAS Inserts

T H E CE NT RE FOR D E SI G N AND INN OVAT I ON

www.c4di.org.uk C4di AVC Business Centre Wellington Circle Altens Aberdeen AB12 3JG t: 01224 216087 e: info@c4di.org.uk

IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Research Team: Professor Julian Malins Chris Rigby Graham Grant Venkat Lakkireddy Lynne Paterson

anies are required to find ways of constantly updating and s. This may mean developing new products, new ways of areas based on existing skills and knowhow.

Innovation, DEsignto And Sustainability s to support SMEs develop their sustainable innovation a number of creative thinking tools, which it uses when

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.

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ENV IRO NM EN TS FOR PEO PLE R ESE A R C H C E N T RE

www.rgu.ac.uk/sss/research Professor Richard Laing t: +0044 1224 263716 f: +0044 1224 263777 e: r.laing@rgu.ac.uk The Scott Sutherland School of Architecture

IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Innovation, DEsign And Sustainability

and Built Environment Robert Gordon University Garthdee Road Aberdeen AB10 7QE

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, groundbreaking buildings, mostly in the field of housing, achieving national and international recognition.

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CULTURES OF REPRESENTATION

www.rgu.ac.uk/subj/ats/research/staff/dunbar.html

Michael Agnew Andrew Cranston Lennox Dunbar e: l.dunbar@rgu.ac.uk t: +44 1224 263694

IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Innovation, DEsign And Sustainability

Gray’s School of Art Robert Gordon University Garthdee Road Aberdeen AB10 7QE

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.

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CENTRE FOR VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS

Our research and

www.rgu.ac.uk/eng/cvc

development work covers the technology of imaging

Contact:

and communication.

Dr Sampath Kannangara, Dr Yafan Zhao Dr Laura Muir

IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Innovation, DEsign And Sustainability

Centre for Video Communications, School of Engineering The Robert Gordon University Schoolhill, Aberdeen AB10 1FR Tel: +44 1224 262423

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.

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COGNITIVE ENGINEERING RESEARCH GROUP

Cognitive Engineering involves a

www.comp.rgu.ac.uk/docs/is/

multidisciplinary approach to the analysis, design, implementation and evaluation of highly complex

Contact:

interactive systems.

Professor Patrik O’Brian Holt ph@comp.rgu.ac.uk

IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Innovation, DEsign And Sustainability

Tel: +44 1224 262700

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).

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THE CENTRE FOR RESEARCH IN ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

www4.rgu.ac.uk/cree Contact:

IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Innovation, DEsign And Sustainability

Director: Professor Pat Pollard CRE+E IDEAS Research Institute Robert Gordon University Schoolhill Aberdeen AB10 1FR Tel: +44 (0) 1224 262836 Email: p.pollard@rgu.ac.uk

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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.

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C ENTRE FOR U ND E RSTAND ING SU S TAINAB LE PR A CTICE (CU S P)

www4.rgu.ac.uk/cusp/general/ C on t a c t: Dr Alan Owen Director, CUSP The Robert Gordon University Schoolhill Aberdeen AB10 1FR

IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Innovation, DEsign And Sustainability

T: 0044 1224 262360 / 262362 F: 0044 1224 262316 e: a.owen@rgu.ac.uk

B A C K G ROUN D: The Centre for Understanding Sustainability in Practice (CUSP), a ÂŁ0.5 million virtual centre brings together a broad range of crossfaculty 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.

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I NFOR M AT I O N RETRI E VA L

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.

IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Innovation, DEsign And Sustainability

www.comp.rgu.ac.uk/staff/ds/

C on t a c t: Professor Dawei Song T: 01224 262475 E: d.song@rgu.ac.uk

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.

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E N ER GY RESE A R CH GR O U P

Our mission is to engage

www.rgu.ac.uk/eng/research/page.cfm?pge=43848

in cutting edge research to provide solutions to the current and future operational and technological challenges of the oil and gas industry.

IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Innovation, DEsign And Sustainability

C on t a c t: Professor Babs Oyeneyin E: B.Oyeneyin@rgu.ac.uk T: +44 1224 262327

OIL AND GAS CURRENT PROJECTS •

The Mare’s Tail® Produced Water Management System

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Intelligent Variable Slot Screen System (VSSSTM )

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Sand Management Network (SMN)

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Unconventional Reservoir Management [Heavy Oil & Condensate]

ASSET AND INTEGRITY MANAGEMENT •

Asset Diagnostic, Prognosis, Monitoring and Management

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Non Destructive Testing (NDT)

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Integrity Management of Ageing offshore installations

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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

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COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE LE ARN , O PT IM I SE, CO M P UT E!

The IDEAS Computational

www.comp.rgu.ac.uk/research/cig

Intelligence research group has a primary focus in three related areas: evolutionary

Andrei Petrovski John McCall

algorithms; probabilistic

Horacio Gonzalez-Velez

modelling; and parallel

Contact:

computing.

Andrei Petrovski E: a.petrovski@rgu.ac.uk

IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Innovation, DEsign And Sustainability

Tel: +44 1224 26270

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

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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

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Data modelling and inference using probabilistic graphical models

such as Bayesian and Markov network models.

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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

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estimation of distribution algorithms.

systems, including structured parallelism, algorithmic skeletons

and parallel patterns, cloud and grid computing, heuristic

scheduling, and resource adaptivity.

Models and applications of computational science and parallel

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.

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dePICT: DEVELOPING THE ICT BUSINESS BASE

www.comp.rgu.ac.uk/docs/is/

Contact: Professor Patrik O’Brian Holt E: ph@comp.rgu.ac.uk Tel: +44 1224 262700

IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Innovation, DEsign And Sustainability

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.

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E N ER GY FUTU RE S R ESEAR CH CENT R E

www.rgu.ac.uk/eng/research/page.cfm?pge=13128

Contact: Professor Hicham Idriss School of Engineering Robert Gordon University (and University of Aberdeen) E: ideas@rgu.ac.uk

IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Innovation, DEsign And Sustainability

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. Fast and efficient hydrogen generation catalyzed by cobalt talc nanolayers dispersed in silica aerogel. M. Domínguez, E. Taboada, H. Idriss, E. Molins, J. Llorca, J Materials Chemistry, in press.

2. The Surface Reactions of Uranium Oxides. H. Idriss, Surf. Sci. Reports 65, 67-109 (2010) 3. Size Effects in the Gas Phase Hydrogenation of Dinitrobenzene over Au/TiO2. F. Cárdenas-Lizana, S. Gómez-Quero, H. Idriss and M. A. Keane. J. Catalysis. 268, 223-234 (2009).

4. Photoreaction of ethanol and acetic acid over model TiO2 single crystal surfaces. G.W.N. Waterhouse, H. Idriss; in “On Solar Hydrogen & Nanotechnolog; L.Vayssieres editor, John Wiley & Sons (2009).

5. Handbook of Green Chemistry - Green Catalysis, Volume 1, Chapter 10; Heterogeneous Catalysis for Hydrogen Production. Scott & Idriss, , Editors Anstis & Crabtree, ISBN-10: 3-527-31577-2 (2009)

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R HETO R I CS OF P R A CT I C E

www.rgu.ac.uk/subj/ats/research/ staff/osullivan.html

Researchers: Dr Joanne Tatham Tom O’Sullivan E: t.r.o-sullivan@rgu.ac.uk T: +44 1224 263647

IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Innovation, DEsign And Sustainability

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.

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ON THE EDGE VISU AL ARTS R ESE A RCH

Investigating the

www.ontheedgeresearch.org

aesthetics and ethics of artists working in the public sphere

Professor Anne Douglas Gray’s School of Art Robert Gordon University Aberdeen AB10 7QD e: a.douglas@rgu.ac.uk

IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Innovation, DEsign And Sustainability

t: 01224 263647

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.org www2.rgu.ac.uk/subj/ats/ontheedge2/artistasleader/index.html www.workinginpublicseminars.org http://discussionsart.wordpress.com 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.

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.

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C ASE BA S E D R EAS O N I N G : REUSING EXPERIENCES

Closing the Loop

www.comp.rgu.ac.uk/docs/kbs/

between Corporate

Professor Susam Craw

Knowledge

Dr Nirmalie Wiratunga

and

Dr Rob Lothian Dr Stewart Massie

Innovation Contact:

IDEAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Innovation, DEsign And Sustainability

Dr Nirmalie Wiratunga E: N.Wiratunga@rgu.ac.uk T: +44 1224 262573

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 largescale text collections and industrial databases.

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