1568 1 News MSc Cyber Security students gain insight from global security business Secarma msc-cyber-security-students-gain-insight-from-global-security-business-secarma

Security Lancaster strengthened its relationship with <a href="http://www.secarma.co.uk/">Secarma</a>, a security business specialising in rapid business continuity and data recovery solutions, by inviting Stuart Coulson, Head of Sales, to be a guest lecturer for MSc Cyber Security students.

Security Lancaster strengthened its relationship with <a href="http://www.secarma.co.uk/">Secarma</a>, a security business specialising in rapid business continuity and data recovery solutions, by inviting Stuart Coulson, Head of Sales, to be a guest lecturer for MSc Cyber Security students. Covering hot security topics including "bring your own device" "cloud security" and "securing the supply chain" Stuart gave the students valuable insight into the commercial impact that security risks like these can have on businesses. Not only was this a great opportunity for students on the course, it also developed the partnership between Secarma and Lancaster University, which was recently awarded an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research by GCHQ and the EPSRC Stuart explained "Developing a partnership like this adds an extra facet to Secarma giving us access to the latest research and ensuring that we stay ahead of the latest cyber security trends." Secarma also set a challenge for the MSc students - putting three Raspberry Pi micro-computers up for grabs to the students that deliver the most competent answers to the questions designed by Secarma in collaboration with the University lecturers. Dr Daniel Prince, Associate Director for partnerships at Security Lancaster which brings together Lancaster University's research in cyber security, security futures, violence and society and investigative expertise said: "It was great to have Stuart here presenting to the students. His talk reinforced the material they have been learning on the module on information security systems management as part of their MSc in Cyber Security, by providing real world examples and grounding the students in the day to day realities of life in a high tech security company. We believe that engagement from companies such as Secarma in the MSc is vital to the vitality and success of the programme and the company. By working together we can combine cutting edge education and innovative current business problems in order to develop the next generation of Cyber Security practitioners and leaders." Working with cyber security business in this way is extremely important to ensure that our graduates leave university with a real understanding of the commercial impact of a cyber-attack. The Faculty of Science and Technology now has its own dedicated Student Employability Manager in recently-appointed Pam Pickles. Pam commented "Experience working with employers and business to solve real-world problems is what makes graduates stand out to potential recruiters. Relationships such as this between the MSc in Cyber Security and Secarma enhance and develop the employability of our graduates and postgraduates, so important in today's competitive job market." http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1351003412.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1351003412.jpg 250 250 Tuesday Tue 23 October Oct 10 2012

1405 1 News 3 year Funded Eco Innovation Phds open for application 3-year-funded-eco-innovation-phds-open-for-application

Graduates have until 4th June to apply for one of 50 exclusive industry-based three year funded PhDs from the Centre for Global Eco-innovation, a partnership between Lancaster University, the University of Liverpool and international commercialisation consultancy Inventya Ltd.

Graduates have until 4th June to apply for one of 50 exclusive industry-based three year funded PhDs from the Centre for Global Eco-innovation, a partnership between Lancaster University, the University of Liverpool and international commercialisation consultancy Inventya Ltd. 22 of the 3 year Funded Eco-Innovation Phds are now advertised online and open for application and more are being added on each week. The centre - designed to bolster the region's economy in key export markets and drive forward improvements in green technology and services - brings together the expertise, resources and global contacts of Lancaster University and the University of Liverpool, together with international commercialisation consultancy Inventya Ltd. The centre is to receive £4.9m of funds from the European Regional Development Fund's North West operational programme. The centre will form collaborative research and development partnerships to enable and drive innovation in businesses. Businesses are matched with 50 of the UK's brightest graduates who will complete three-year research and development projects in partnership with the business to develop new products, processes and services for the global marketplace that have positive environmental benefits. The graduates will use these collaborations as the basis of a PhD programme of study. Project Manager Dr Phil Leigh said: "A number of businesses have already been partnered up with experts at Lancaster University and the University of Liverpool, kick starting some genuinely exciting possibilities. Our business and academic teams are already exploring new products and services with the potential to make a real difference to people's lives. These range from developing technology for a low-cost, power-free renal therapy device to techniques for future domestic energy control for low carbon buildings. We also have projects looking at new approaches to sustainable pest control using light and partners exploring technology for a novel transparent biopolymer that has the potential to revolutionise the design of contact lenses and corneal bandages." The Centre for Global Eco-innovation is the only centre of its kind in Europe and is part financed by the European Regional Development Fund. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1337170904.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1337170904.jpg 400 400 Tuesday Tue 15 May May 05 2012

996 1 News Lancaster's New School of Computing and Communications

From 1st August, Lancaster University will be host to the new School of Computing and Communications, combining the strengths of the Computing Department and the Department of Communication Systems.

From 1st August, Lancaster University will be host to the new School of Computing and Communications, combining the strengths of the Computing Department and the Department of Communication Systems. The new school is a multi-million pound centre for study and research in the fields of computer science, ICT and communications engineering and is housed in the iconic InfoLab21 building. The new school includes over 40 academic staff, 50 full time researchers and 439 students. Members of the school lead over £10 million worth of research funding and the HighWire Doctoral Training Centre. As part of the creation of the new School the SPEARS group currently part of the Department of Communication Systems will join the Physics Department. The new school will be led by Professor Nigel Davies and will admit its first students in October 2010. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1280493782.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1280493782.jpg 250 250 InfoLab21 - home of the new School of Computing and Communications Sunday Sun 01 August Aug 08 2010

998 9 LU News First ever dual degree programme between UK and Pakistani universities launched in Lahore

Students in Pakistan offered a major new higher education opportunity with dual degree from Lancaster University/Comsats Institute of Information Technology

Students in Pakistan offered a major new higher education opportunity with dual degree from Lancaster University/Comsats Institute of Information Technology in August 2010, 250 Pakistani undergraduate students will start the first dual Lancaster University (Lancaster)/Comsats institute of Information Technology (CIIT) degrees delivered in Pakistan. During a visit to Pakistan July 21-26, Lancaster University's Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Bob McKinlay attended the formal launch ceremony of the Dual Degree Program , meeting parents and prospective students. Professor McKinlay visited the Lahore and Islamabad campuses and facilities and met with the Federal Minister of Science and Technology, the Chairman of the Higher Education Commission and the Chief Minister of Punjab, as well as with CIIT's management. This visit to Pakistan by Lancaster, comes after a launch in London in February 2010 attended by the Pakistani Federal Minister of Science and Technology, and chancellor of CIIT, Muhammad Azam Khan Swati and Sir Christian Bonington CVO CBE DL, Chancellor of Lancaster University . Pakistani students at the CIIT Lahore campus will be given the opportunity to earn a highly regarded international degree from Lancaster, a top UK university, in addition to their degree from CIIT for a fraction of the cost of study in the UK. Lancaster's relationship with CIIT first began in 2007 when masters and PhD students came to Lancaster. The first joint degrees , BSc Computing, BEng Communications Systems with Electronics and BSc Business Administration, will be delivered this year in Pakistan by local academics. Lancaster will have final approval on the curriculum and the content of the degree programme and will work closely with CIIT on quality assurance of the delivery. "We are pleased to be partnering with Lancaster University and believe that this dual degree programme, supported by two leading institutions, will benefit Pakistani students greatly," said Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, Minister of Science and Technology for the Federal Government of Pakistan and Chancellor, CIIT. "Our dual degree programme with CIIT showcases the international reach of Lancaster University and we are proud to provide top local learning opportunities for students abroad," said Professor Bob McKinlay, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Lancaster University. "Lancaster University has broken into the elite group of UK Universities to be ranked 10th in The Times for the first time in 2010. We hope that these external indicators of excellence help students on the new degree in our highly competitive world." Staff from CIIT including the librarian, heads of academic departments and administrative staff from the CIIT Lahore campus, will visit Lancaster this year to be trained by Lancaster experts. By the end of the first four years of the dual degree programme, an estimated 1000 students will be registered for the dual degree. Following this pilot, Lancaster aims to extend this programme to offer joint degrees with CIIT from all its four faculties including the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the School of Health and Medicine. Lancaster University has been actively pursuing the setting up of a network of collaborative teaching and research partnerships in key countries around the world including a partnership with Sunway University College, Malaysia and has launched a new campus in India with GD Goenka Educational Trust which admitted its first cohort of 300 students in August 2009. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk Thursday Thu 29 July Jul 07 2010

991 1 News InfoLab21 demos best practice to international community

InfoLab21 has been asked to join an international community of Higher Education Institutions called HEXTLEARN - "Higher Education Exploring ICT Use For Lifelong Learning."

InfoLab21 has been asked to join an international community of Higher Education Institutions called HEXTLEARN - "Higher Education Exploring ICT Use For Lifelong Learning." InfoLab21 was approached and asked to demonstrate best practice on ICT for local and regional development because of the regional impact of its work with businesses through the InfoLab21 Strategic Innovation Support Programme (ISIS). ISIS aims to raise levels of ICT investment across the region by providing objective advice, guidance and appropriate ICT solutions to SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) throughout the Northwest, supporting business changes to minimise cost and maximise the benefits from ICT, both now and in the future. ISIS is the first project of its kind in the UK and is delivered under the "Transformational ICT" product, part of the Government's Solutions for Business portfolio. HEXTLEARN has over 500 members and is a network project co-funded by the Lifelong learning programme EACEA, Key Activity 3 - ICT. HEXTLEARN aims to contribute to the deployment of Lifelong Learning strategies through ICT within Higher Education Institutions by means of peer reviews methodologies, offering a database of good practices and other useful materials, organising seminars and devoted events and promoting sharing and common understanding amongst the members. HEXTLEARN focuses on the quality assurance aspects and the integration of ICT as innovation that is key for Higher Education Institutions. The HEXTLEARN network addresses the apparent lack of a synergies amongst groups working in ICT within most European Universities. The aim is to highlight and explore the increasing diversity of roles and target groups of Higher Education Institutions through a network which will contribute to the enhancement of quality assurance aspects and the strategic integration of ICT in teaching, learning and innovation across Lifelong learning subsystems. Anne-Christin Tannhauser, Bologna based HEXTLEARN Researcher based in commented "We have been searching around Europe for strong practices of Higher Education Institutions utilizing ICT for local and regional development. InfoLab21's activities in this area are among the most ambitious and impressive programmes that we found. By creating a strong link between local SMEs and up-to-date research at Lancaster University, the centre contributes to innovation and job creation on a large scale. We are more than pleased that InfoLab21 joined our online community to share its expertise with its European peers." InfoLab21 has also featured as an exemplar case study for another international group, "Mainstreaming Innovative Instruments for SME developments in Europe" (Mini Europe). For more information on HEXTLEARN and to join see link below: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1280242916.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1280240015.gif 250 250 Tuesday Tue 27 July Jul 07 2010

980 1 News Success For First Faculty of Science & Technology Industrial Showcase

Over 100 people attended the first Faculty of Science and Technology at Lancaster University Industrial Showcase event for businesses at Lancaster House Hotel on 6th July 2010.

Over 100 people attended the first Faculty of Science and Technology at Lancaster University Industrial Showcase event for businesses at Lancaster House Hotel on 6th July 2010. The Faculty of Science and Technology has a strong tradition of research and teaching and an active collaborative approach to working across disciplines to address important issues. With six departments, two business centres, approximately 2,500 students, 340 PhD students and over 600 staff, the Faculty has a considerable research capacity, generating 69% of the University's research income with 94% of research categorised as international quality in the RAE 2008. The aim of the event was to develop links between academics and commercial partners who had an interest in collaborative innovation and commercialisation. The one day event showcased research areas with technologies that are near to market from the Faculty's Departments of Computing, Communication Systems, Physics, Engineering and the Lancaster Environment Centre. The format of the day included presentations and demonstrations across a variety of areas including Automated Anonymous Customer Information Systems, Delivering Broadband to Rural Communities via Wireless Mesh, Wire Integrity Testing Using Intermodulation Products Processing, Touch-Display Keyboards, Delivering High Quality Personalised Television Content to the Web Browser, On-Board Smart Sensory and Broadband Networks for Aviation Security and Safety, the Endotheliometer, Magnetic Nanoparticles and GAIA, an improved Wave Energy Converter. The event also included a welcome from Faculty Dean Prof. Mary Smyth, keynote speakers from industry and funding experts. Harry Thomason from Crownbio Ltd spoke about "Activation of the interface between academia and industry" and Graham Worsley from the Technology Strategy Board gave a presentation on a potential area for technology development, the case of the Assisted Living Innovation Platform. Specialist staff from the University's Intellectual Property Office, Strategic Partnerships Team and InfoLab21's Knowledge Business Centre were on hand throughout the day to facilitate collaboration between the researchers and event attendees which included specially selected representatives from industry, such as the BBC's Future and Media Technology Group, key Faculty staff and representatives from partner organisations and funding bodies. The organiser of the event, Prof. Bahram Honary, Faculty of Science and Technology Director for Enterprise and Industry Relations stated, "This was the first event of its kind at the University to bring industry and academics from across the whole Faculty together. The high level and novel technical ideas given to attendees with different backgrounds in well described easy to follow presentations and demonstrations. The feedback was very positive and people would like to see the event regularly in the future." Feedback included comments like "excellent opportunity to understand the breadth and depth of innovation at Lancaster", "a chance to meet early-stage researchers in search of an exploitation route" and "excellent cross section of topics". Julia Weller, KTP Co-ordinator commented, "We found it very useful and discussed KTPs with several key delegates. The event also provided an excellent opportunity to show to our two regional KTP Advisers what the Faculty has to offer." The event was facilitated and supported by InfoLab21's Knowledge Business Centre (KBC) as one of a series of Northwest technology events as part of the InfoLab21 Strategic Technology Exploitation Programme (ISTEP), a Solutions for Business product which provides a range knowledge exchange activities to indentify & support collaboration between Northwest Digital & Creative companies and the 270+ strong research community at InfoLab21. Steve Riches, Director of the KBC said "The event was very well attended and we had a lot of interest on the day from the private sector with some potential collaborations in the pipeline. All attendees were very impressed with the range, content and quality of the academic presentations and would like to see more events like this." Summaries of each project and presentations for the event are available on the links below. For more information about any of the technology mentioned please contact Prof. Honary b.honary@lancaster.ac.uk Tel: 01524 5103897. Presentation slides from the event are now available: <ol class="link"> <li class="pdf"><a href="/docs/sci-tech-show-2010/presentations/bahram_honary.pdf">Bahram Honary - Event opening statement</a></li> <li class="pdf"><a href="/docs/sci-tech-show-2010/presentations/mary_smyth.ppsx">Mary Smyth - Welcome speech</a></li> <li class="pdf"><a href="/docs/sci-tech-show-2010/presentations/graham_worsley.pdf">Graham Worsley - Pulling more levers-the case of the Assisted Living Innovation</a></li> <li class="pdf"><a href="/docs/sci-tech-show-2010/presentations/reuben_edwards.pdf">Reuben Edwards - Automated Anonymous Customer Information Systems</a></li> <li class="pdf"><a href="/docs/sci-tech-show-2010/presentations/johnathan_ishmael-nick_race.pdf">Johnathan Ishmael and Nick Race - Delivering Broadband to Rural Communities via Wireless Mesh</a></li> <li class="pdf"><a href="/docs/sci-tech-show-2010/presentations/bamidele_adebisi.pdf">Bamidele Adebisi - Wire Integrity Testing Using Intermodulation Products Processing</a></li> <li class="pdf"><a href="/docs/sci-tech-show-2010/presentations/nick_race-keith_mitchelli.pdf">Nick Race and Keith Mitchell - Delivering High Quality Personalised Television Content to the Web Browser</a></li> <li class="pdf"><a href="/docs/sci-tech-show-2010/presentations/garik_markarian.pdf">Garik Markarian - On-board Smart Sensory and Broadband Networks for Aviation Security</a></li> <li class="pdf"><a href="/docs/sci-tech-show-2010/presentations/aneta_stefanovska-alan_bernjak.pdf">Aneta Stefanovska and Alan Bernjak - Endotheliometer</a></li> <li class="pdf"><a href="/docs/sci-tech-show-2010/presentations/barbara_maher.pdf">Barbara Maher - Magnetic Nanoparticles</a></li> <li class="pdf"><a href="/docs/sci-tech-show-2010/presentations/george_aggidis.pdf">George Aggidis - GAIA-An Improved Wave Energy Converter</a></li> </ol> http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1279642217.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1279642217.jpg 300 300 L-R Keynote Speaker Graham Worsley-Technology Strategy Board, Prof. Bahram Honary- Faculty of Science & Technology Director for Enterprise & Industry Relations with Keynote Speaker Harry Thomason from Crownbio Ltd Monday Mon 12 July Jul 07 2010

978 1 News Mobile Phone Game Goes Global

Mobile phone designers from Lancashire's two universities have worked together for the first time to create a game which is now being sold worldwide by the computer giant Apple.

Mobile phone designers from Lancashire's two universities have worked together for the first time to create a game which is now being sold worldwide by the computer giant Apple. The students from Lancaster University and UCLAN have developed an innovative mobile phone game for the iPhone and iPod handsets, which is now on sale on Apple's itunes website. Industry analysts predict a huge growth in downloads for mobile applications, up from £7bn now to £22bn by 2015. The game - called "Cabbin' Frenzy" - involves players trying to dominate the chaotic city streets of New York, Paris or London as the boss of a taxi company. Using "touch and drag", players direct up to five cabs at once across a 3D map of the city. The challenge is to choose the best route to collect and deliver passengers, earning the most money while avoiding collisions. The students' invention has been backed with £16,000 worth of investment from Lancashire County Council, North West Vision and Media, UCLAN and Preston City Council, while Lancaster University contributed equipment and mentoring. Lancaster University's Dr Reuben Edwards, from the Department of Communication Systems at InfoLab21 said: "The launch of this new product shows the strengths of the two universities and the potential benefits in bringing together design students from UCLAN and developers from Lancaster University to create commercial applications with the support of local businesses." The students will earn a bonus if the game sells well, while the profits will be shared between the two software companies involved -GlobiGames Ltd and Shiny Development. The managing director of GlobiGames Ltd, Peter Melling, praised the students' "maturity and business acumen". He said: "I believe the stakeholders behind the project were all very impressed by the innovation, work rate and hands-on skills demonstrated by all the students. We've even discussed possible start up opportunities with them because we'd like to create a cluster of games developers here in the North West instead of losing them to London." http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1278605865.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1279897647.jpg 250 250 Thursday Thu 01 July Jul 07 2010

910 1 News Space storm studies win prizes for Lancaster scientists

Lancaster University research into the threat to electricity distribution grids posed by solar activity won two prizes at the UK National Astronomy Meeting held at the University of Glasgow between 12-16 April 2010.

Lancaster University research into the threat to electricity distribution grids posed by solar activity won two prizes at the UK National Astronomy Meeting held at the University of Glasgow between 12-16 April 2010. Changes in the space environment driven by solar activity can cause fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field that lead to Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GICs) in power grids. These currents have previously been blamed for blackouts in Canada and Sweden and are suspected of damaging power transformers in countries at lower latitudes. Large GICs have even been recorded in Scotland. Department of Communication Systems PhD student Katie Turnbull presented results from a new model that shows the widespread impact inclement space weather could have on the UK. Working in collaboration with the British Geological Survey (BGS), Katie developed a model that takes magnetic field measurements from all over the UK and combines them with the BGS's 3D model of how the ground beneath the UK conducts electricity, in order to estimate the currents induced at over 250 locations in the high voltage national grid. Results presented at the conference compared simulated GICs in the UK grid model with those actually measured during a geomagnetic storm in February 2003. The simulated and measured currents are similar, but the model suggests that high currents are likely to be induced at several locations in the grid where GICs were not being monitored by the power industry at the time. At the same meeting, Katie's PhD supervisor in the Space Plasma Environment and Radio Science group, Dr Jim Wild, presented a poster summarising the present day challenges in understanding the geomagnetic hazard to national power grids. The presentation highlighted the outputs of a recent workshop held at the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory in South Africa and funded by the Royal Society that brought together British and South African space scientists and power engineers to assess the state-of-the-art in the measurement, prediction and mitigation of GIC hazards. Both Katie's talk and Jim's poster won a Royal Astronomical Society Rishbeth Prize. These prizes are awarded annually to the best talk and best poster presented at the meeting, as voted by delegates attending and being judged on which were the most novel, interesting, clearly presented, and influential. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1272015644.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1272015508.jpg 300 212 Lancaster University researchers are investigating the threat to electricity distribution grids posed by solar radiation Thursday Thu 22 April Apr 04 2010

893 9 LU News Mobile Tech Teaching Partnership with Kazakhstan-British Technical University

This week Lancaster and Kazakhstan-British Technical University agreed to a new teaching partnership which will see Lancaster's Communication Systems experts deliver an MSc in mobile technology in Kazakhstan for the first time.

This week Lancaster and Kazakhstan-British Technical University agreed to a new teaching partnership which will see Lancaster's Communication Systems experts deliver an MSc in mobile technology in Kazakhstan for the first time. KBTU's Vice Rector for Academic Affairs, Professor Zoya Tuiebakhova travelled to Lancaster to sign an international collaboration agreement with Lancaster's Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings on Wednesday 17th March. It is intended that undergraduate programmes will follow, as well as opportunities for KBTU's staff to come to Lancaster for their postgraduate studies. The private university of Kazak-British Technical University was established in 2001 as a joint initiate between the British and Kazakhstan governments and has 4 Faculties: Petroleum & Gas; Information Technology (IT); Economics & Management and International School of Economics (LSE). It has around 2,000 undergraduate students and a small number of postgraduates. Its priority is to increase the number of postgraduates and it anticipates doing so by collaboration with foreign universities. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1269006994.jpg 200 250 KBTU's Vice Rector for Academic Affairs, Professor Zoya Tuiebakhova and Paul Wellings Friday Fri 19 March Mar 03 2010

855 9 LU News Researchers Developing Mobile Mind Games

If you thought mobile gaming was all about down time then think again, Lancaster University researchers have created one of the world's first mobile phone games to be driven by brain power.

If you thought mobile gaming was all about down time then think again, Lancaster University researchers have created one of the world's first mobile phone games to be driven by brain power. Mobile games researcher Dr. Paul Coulton and PhD student Will Bamford of InfoLab21 have recently unveiled their new game 'Brain Maze' in which players use both 'tilt' controls and a brain wave reading headset to progress a marble around a course. At key checkpoints round the maze, the accelerometer-equipped phone picks up electromagnetic waves from the player's brain - 'Brain Maze' uses Alpha waves which are associated with a meditative state and Beta waves which are associated with an attentive state to control access through the 'mind gates' which form part of the game. If players want to get through the mind gates then they literally have to think about it. Learning to adjust your mental state during the game can take some practice and people often find one state easier to control than others. The game, which has been designed for Nokia's N97 phone coupled with NeuroSky's MindSet brainwave interface headset, is one of the first of its kind and has been attracting attention in the both the mobile and the gaming world. Dr. Coulton leads the Nokia Mobile Experiences Group which explores new uses for mobile phones which go way beyond just texting, phoning and taking photographs. As part of the Forum Nokia Innovation Network the experiences group focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of novel, uniquely mobile user experiences from games to social networking. He said: "Whilst much of the recent press around mobile phones has concerned the emergence of touch screen devices this game takes the users experience to a whole new level and highlights the possibility of reaching the holy grail of computer interaction - using brain control." <h3>About Nokia Innovation Network at Lancaster University</h3> The UK's Nokia Innovation Network hub is based at Lancaster University which is consistently rated amongst the top ten universities in the country. It is managed by Paul Coulton and housed within InfoLab21, an international centre for excellence in ICT. The group at Lancaster has an international reputation in mobile applications research and have won a number of Awards for innovation. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1265282745.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1265282745.jpg 300 275 'Brain Maze' uses both 'tilt' controls and a brain wave reading headset to progress a marble around a course Monday Mon 25 January Jan 01 2010

805 1 News Bursaries for Intelligent Robotic Systems

A limited number of busaries are available on a competitive basis for students entering the BEng/MEng Intelligent Robotic Systems degree scheme being offered by the Dept. of Communication Systems.

A limited number of busaries are available on a competitive basis for students entering the BEng/MEng Intelligent Robotic Systems degree scheme being offered by the Dept. of Communication Systems. Candidates with the equivalent A-levels of ABB, or higher, will be automatically considered. This course pulls together the expertise of Communication Systems, Computing and Engineering to give students a unique set of skills in high demand by industry. For further enquiries concerning the course content, please contact Dr. Plamen Angelov (p.angelov@lancaster.ac.uk). http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1259054386.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1259054386.jpg 250 250 Thursday Thu 19 November Nov 11 2009

783 1 News BEng/MEng Intelligent Robotic Systems

Infolab21 is now offering a new 3 and 4 year undergraduate degree scheme on Intelligent Robotic Systems. This course pulls together the expertise of Communication Systems, Computing as well as Engineering to give students a unique set of skills in high demand by industry.

Infolab21 is now offering a new 3 and 4 year undergraduate degree scheme on Intelligent Robotic Systems. This course pulls together the expertise of Communication Systems, Computing as well as Engineering to give students a unique set of skills in high demand by industry. For further enquiries concerning the course content, please contact Dr. Plamen Angelov (p.angelov@lancaster.ac.uk). http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1254491237.gif 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1254492493.gif 110 150 Friday Fri 02 October Oct 10 2009

779 1 News New Technologies Showcased At Innovate 2009

InfoLab21 postgraduate students showcased their latest research and technologies at this year's annual Innovate Show.

InfoLab21 postgraduate students showcased their latest research and technologies at this year's annual Innovate Show. The students, from the Communication Systems Department, held a poster exhibition where visitors could come and talk to each student and find out about their areas of research. Poster topics covered; <ul><li>Developing Flash Lite applications for mobile e-learning</li><li>3D games for mobile phones</li><li>A course materials widget for Virtual Learning Environments</li><li>Space weather prediction for transpolar airlines,<li>Tools to help improve the analysis of cervical scans</li><li>Setup and deployment of production facilitates for online television programming</li><li>Technology to support lone workers</li></ul> The Innovate show was well received by InfoLab21 associate companies and partners as well as other researchers from across the University. Dr. Phil Benachour from the Communication Systems Department said, "We were very pleased with the turnout for the Innovate Show. The students felt that they benefited from explaining their ideas in this way. The event was also an ideal chance for researchers and business people to meet each other and share ideas, possibly identifying opportunities for collaboration in the future." http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1253870420.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1253872570.jpg 242 300 Dr. Phil Benachour (centre) with the students Tuesday Tue 15 September Sep 09 2009

776 1 News Solar Wind Streams Bring Space Scientists to The Lakes

One hundred and fifty years after English astronomer Richard Carrington observed the largest solar flare ever recorded, an international team of scientists has gathered in the Lake District to discuss the impact of high speed solar wind on the Earth's space environment.

One hundred and fifty years after English astronomer Richard Carrington observed the largest solar flare ever recorded, an international team of scientists has gathered in the Lake District to discuss the impact of high speed solar wind on the Earth's space environment. The solar eruption observed on 1st September 1859 was massive enough to be observed visually, but was only one step in a sequence of events that would have a huge impact upon the Earth. Observers as far south as Florida and the Canary Islands were treated to brilliant displays of the aurora borealis while the global network of telegraph lines, the Victorian equivalent of the internet, was disrupted for many hours. Space scientists now understand that the flow of electrically charged material from the Sun known as the "solar wind" carries a powerful magnetic field out into the solar system. Extreme events, such as the 1859 "Carrington Event", result from the strong interaction between the solar wind with Earth's own magnetic field. The High-Speed Solar-Wind Streams and Geospace Interactions Workshop, took place at the University of Cumbria in Ambleside between 6-11 September. It brought together scientists from around the world in order to address the outstanding uncertainties in our understanding of fast solar wind flow. The workshop was convened by Dr. Mick Denton of the Space Plasma Environment and Radio Science Group from Lancaster University's Department of Communication Systems. Dr. Denton said: "Dynamics on the Sun cause the solar wind to flow past the Earth at over 500 kilometres per second, or about a million miles per hour, for many days a time. These high speed streams are particularly effective at driving geomagnetic storms". Geomagnetic storms generate dramatic aurorae, but can also have less desirable consequences lasting several days. The impact of the Carrington event demonstrated that human technology was vulnerable to the impact of "space weather", even 150 years ago. "Modern society's dependence on space technology means that it's more important than ever to understand the physics that underpins space weather" explained Dr. Denton. Participants at the workshop heard new evidence that high-speed solar-wind streams affect many regions of near-Earth space, from the solar wind, to the aurora borealis, and even aspects of the upper-atmosphere that may link solar activity to changes in the Earth's climate. Dr. Joe Borovsky (Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA) explained some of the research discussed during the week. "The meeting provided a great focus for our science. We've made progress on understanding connections between hot plasma in the solar wind and its impact on the Earth and its atmosphere - in effect by using the inner solar system as a vast plasma laboratory. It has also been great to work in such a wonderful location." Dr. Marty Mlynczak, Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center said "This is a unique workshop. It brings together a small but scientifically diverse group of experts to discuss current questions regarding the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth's space environment and atmosphere. It fosters collaborations amongst scientists whom, without the workshop, might never have worked together." http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1253893701.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1253012197.jpg 200 275 Delegates at the 2009 workshop Tuesday Tue 15 September Sep 09 2009

750 9 LU News Mobile Game Scoops Industry Prize for Innovation

Mobile game developers at InfoLab21 have won a coveted industry prize for innovation.

Mobile game developers at InfoLab21 have won a coveted industry prize for innovation. Their location-based game 'Big Game Huntr' saw off competition from more than 150 entries from all over the world to take the Adobe FlashLite Developer Challenge Innovation Prize 2009. Big Game Huntr taps into rising trends in mobile gaming including social networking and user-generated content. It enables to people to design their own location based game to their local environment and around an activity of their own choosing. Players are awarded points for taking photographs of objects or activities in their chosen location zone which is illustrated as an interactive map on their phone screen. For example a required activity may be to perform a conga and the location could be around Lancaster Castle. Players are awarded points related to both the difficulty of the task and location. The photographs are tagged with the coordinates of their current positioned obtained from the phones in-built GPS and uploaded to an overall game server which produces a end of game map which can be added to their Facebook profile. The winning team is Dr. Paul Coulton, and PhD students Mark Lochrie and Kate Lund. The prize of $10,000 is being split between the two students who intend to use the money to continue their studies. Dr. Paul Coulton, based at InfoLab21 the University's centre of excellence for ICT, said: "We are particularly delighted to receive the award for innovation as we believe Big Game Huntr represents a new generation of mobile gaming which is designed specifically for the medium. "Mobile games can take advantage of the fact that their players are mobile, free to move around and play in real time and real locations. Big Game Huntr harnesses both this style of play and users creativity as the games are designed by the players themselves and takes mobile gaming in an exciting new direction." For further details please go to <a href="http://www.flashlitedeveloperchallenge.com/">www.flashlitedeveloperchallenge.com</a> Lancaster University is part of the Forum Nokia Innovation Network which focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of novel, uniquely mobile user experiences from games to social networking. The UK's Nokia Innovation Network hub is based at Lancaster University, which is consistently rated amongst the top ten universities in the country, and within InfoLab21 the UKs centre for excellence in ICT. The group at Lancaster specialises in Mobile Experiences and Paul Coulton leads international activities of the Innovation Network in this area. The group at Lancaster has an international reputation in mobile experience research and have won a number of Awards for innovation. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1245917999.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1245917999.jpg 250 250 The winning team: Mark Lochrie, Dr. Paul Coulton and Kate Lund Wednesday Wed 24 June Jun 06 2009

713 1 News Government Praise For InfoLab21

The Government has called Lancaster University "the UK's Centre of ICT Excellence" following the completion of an InfoLab21 project to install wireless broadband in a town in the Ukraine.

The Government has called Lancaster University "the UK's Centre of ICT Excellence" following the completion of an InfoLab21 project to install wireless broadband in a town in the Ukraine. A team led by Professor Garik Markarian from the Department of Communication Systems at InfoLab21 installed the Slavutych Town Information Network as part of a UK Government funded programme to address the "Social and Economic Consequences of Nuclear Power Plant Closure Programme". Slavutych was built to house workers evacuated after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 but a lack of internet connectivity has hampered job creation. <h3>'UK's centre of ICT excellence'</h3> Trevor Hayward, Deputy Head of the Global Threat Reduction Programme at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, said: "Lancaster University is, in the fullest sense, the UK's Centre of ICT Excellence and will, I am sure, remain at the forefront of ICT technological advancement for the long-term, although I am sure that Lancaster University will ensure "longterm" will happen in a much shorter time-frame." He also praised Prof Markarian and his team of "young dynamic experts" who designed the system. Professor Garik Markarian said: "Part of our role is to investigate how technology can improve people's lives. Every indication is that providing high speed access to the web and creating new, information based services, will advance the standard of living for all Slavutych residents and, more importantly, help to attract new businesses." The webcast began with a link up between the UK Government Minister of State at the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) Mike O'Brien in Whitehall and the town square of Slavutych, where Ukrainian government representatives joined local townspeople in welcoming the handover of the network. Mr O'Brien said: "I hope that this high speed system will help to attract new hi-tech business - nuclear and others - to make productive use of the highly qualified and skilled people in Slavutych." The town's population is expected to double as businesses take advantage of connectivity to create jobs. Following the Minister's address, children from Central Lancaster High School used the live telecast to see and speak to pupils from Slavutych Lyceum. The headteacher of Central Lancaster High School Jon Wright said he intended to continue the link with the school in the Ukraine. He said: "It's fantastic for the students to be able to talk with students in the Ukraine and it has a huge impact on them to hear direct from students of a similar age what life is like there." <h3>'21st century e-city'</h3> The Mayor of Slavutych, Volodymyr Udovychenko, said: "Slavutych might be Ukraine's youngest City but we are learning fast! We have a vision for the future which will see our town transformed into a ground breaking 21st century e-city." Before the creation of the internet network, there was a limited dial up connection and difficulty connecting internationally. Staff had to post CDs of documents abroad or physically carry them between offices in Slavutych. Now the new Town Information Network will link up to 54 municipal buildings and revolutionise the way businesses and educational organisations operate. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1240839359.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1240839359.jpg 250 250 The live link up from Slavutych town square Thursday Thu 23 April Apr 04 2009

706 1 News InfoLab21 Workshops Are A Big Hit With Schoolchildren

A grant of just under £3,000 from the Joy Welch Educational Charitable Trust is providing about 200 secondary schoolchildren from 10 local schools with a valuable opportunity to learn the basics of computer programming in InfoLab21.

A grant of just under £3,000 from the Joy Welch Educational Charitable Trust is providing about 200 secondary schoolchildren from 10 local schools with a valuable opportunity to learn the basics of computer programming in InfoLab21. InfoLab21's Dr. Phillip Benachour, from the Department of Communication Systems, applied for the funding last year to transport local schoolchildren onto campus for hands-on computer animation sessions throughout this academic year. One school has requested a second visit for more of their children to benefit from the experience -they have been invited next term. The programme has been a big hit with participating pupils and teachers, all of whom have given very positive feedback. One teacher said that it had helped some of her pupils when choosing their GCSE options. They very much enjoyed and appreciated the whole experience of visiting Lancaster University for a day and the University hopes to extend the programme for another year. <h3>Sponsorship</h3> If anyone would be interested in sponsoring or contributing to a schools project (Computer Animation in InfoLab21, Mini-beasts in Schools, Wave Power Challenge Competition or Go-kart Scavenge in the Engineering Department) please contact Julia Resenterra, Trusts & Foundations Officer, Alumni & Development Office: Telephone: 01524 593676 / E-mail: j.resenterra@lancaster.ac.uk <h3>'An awesome day'</h3> These Year 9/11 pupils from Carnforth High (possible computer programmers of tomorrow) said it all in their own unique way: "The day was really good and exciting. I enjoyed the work and learned about animation and codes which was very interesting" said Chris. "It was an awesome day!! The stuff we did was really fun! The staff were nice and helped us if we got stuck! We learnt quite a lot about a new software we had never used!!!" said Hayley. And Keira J said; "It was a good and enjoyable day. We learnt a lot about animation that we did not know. Really fun and I learnt alot more about Macromedia Flash and how to use it. I have also learnt how to use the animation on Macromedia Flash. Then we went for lunch in a conference room in the orange/green building. It was VERY nice and the coke and cheesecake were awesome too." http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1240482458.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1240482458.jpg 250 250 Department of Communication Systems at InfoLab21 Thursday Thu 02 April Apr 04 2009

704 9 LU News BBC Newsround at InfoLab21

A camera crew from the flagship BBC children's programme Newsround have visited InfoLab21 to film the latest developments in mobile phone technology.

A camera crew from the flagship BBC children's programme Newsround have visited InfoLab21 to film the latest developments in mobile phone technology. The programme, which has half a million viewers, is due to be broadcast on Monday, March 23, on BBC One at 5.05pm. Presenter Adam Fleming and a cameraman interviewed PhD student Andrew Greaves and children from Carnforth High School, who were invited to InfoLab21 to test out his new projector phone. With Dr. Enrico Rukzio from the Department of Computing, Andrew Greaves has been researching mobile phones with an integrated projector, which are expected to come onto the market in the next few years. This gives users the ability to project pictures from photos, videos, maps or games directly onto any flat surface such as a wall or table. Andrew Greaves said: "A bigger picture has lots of advantages - you can scroll large maps for example - and it's more enjoyable being able to share what you're seeing. We expect the teenage market to use it first." A dozen children from Carnforth High School projected images of everything from Homer Simpson to games and photos onto a white screen while chatting to presenter Adam Fleming as they were being filmed. Then they were asked them how they found the experience. Amy-Jo Clough, who is 11, said: "I'd use it for games because you can put it anywhere so instead of all your friends crowding round a phone to see the picture, they can see it on the wall." Science teacher Julie Rogerson, who is the assistant head at Carnforth High School, said they were thrilled to be invited. "We're keen to embrace new technology so we're delighted to participate in this research and we've thoroughly enjoyed it." The Newsround team were impressed with InfoLab21 and the warm welcome they had received, saying they would like to return. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1237979037.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1237978908.jpg 250 250 Newsround presenter Adam Fleming interviewed children at InfoLab21 Friday Fri 20 March Mar 03 2009

702 1 News San Francisco Beckons For Nokia Competition Winners

Lancaster University students have been given a chance to shape the future of mobile gaming in the UK Heat of the Forum Nokia Mobile Games Competition 2009.

Lancaster University students have been given a chance to shape the future of mobile gaming in the UK Heat of the Forum Nokia Mobile Games Competition 2009. More than 40 students from different disciplines attended GameJam@InfoLab21 - a 24hr mobile game design competition for university students initiated by Forum Nokia and co-organized by the Mobile Radicals at InfoLab21. The competition, which was held at InfoLab21, the University's centre of Excellence for ICT, on February 27 and 28, provided students with the unique opportunity to hear from leading experts in design, games and innovation together with Nokia Champions Dr. Paul Coulton and Dr. Reuben Edwards. The contest saw students working away in to the small hours at InfoLab21 - eating, sleeping and breathing mobile games. The winners of the UK heat now have the chance to go through to the next round of the competition where they could win an all-expenses paid trip to San Francisco and present their game design at the Game Developers Conference (GDC). Lancaster University has great strengths in mobile gaming. Dr. Paul Coulton said: "At Lancaster we have been researching in mobile gaming since its inception only ten years ago and have done much to pioneer gaming experiences unique to the mobile phone. "We allow the general public to download and experience our games for themselves - for example two of our mobile widget games have in excess of 1 million users between them. "This has earned us an international reputation within the Industry - enabling us to run competitions such as this one in collaboration with Nokia and N-Gage and having regular invites to speak at the main industry event GDC." The two winning games were Gardens of Karma and LiveIT. Gardens of Karma created by Infolab21 students Carlos Garcia Wylie, Kate Lund, and Mark Lochrie encourages people to perform small acts kindness which enable them to grow a Garden of Karma - displayed on their own phone and can be linked social networking sites such as OVI and Facebook. LiveIT, created by Lancaster University Management School students Lucy Read, Przemyslaw Kowalski, and Costantinos Rougeris. is a Location-based Advert game allowing players to find, buy and trade virtual objects which are unique and geo-referenced. The event was supported by Nokia, InfoLab21 and North West Vision + Media, which works on behalf of the digital and creative industries in the Northwest to grow a world-class digital and creative economy within the region. Enda Carey, Head of Games and Digital Content at Northwest Vision and Media, judged at the event and said: "As part of our remit to support the digital and creative industries within the Northwest we are keen support up and coming talent within this sector. GameJam gave us a great opportunity to do this and as a judge I was impressed with the level of innovative and creative ideas produced as a result of the competition." http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1237214292.gif 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1237214292.jpg 250 250 Some of the winners being congratulated at GameJam @ InfoLab21 Monday Mon 16 March Mar 03 2009

698 1 News PhD studentship in Space Plasma Physics

Lancaster University's Department of Communication Systems is pleased to invite applications for a 3-year funded PhD studentship. The Space Plasma Environment and Radio Science Group at Lancaster University is an internationally-recognised team in the field of space research with particular emphasis on magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling and at the forefront of space plasma research.

Lancaster University's Department of Communication Systems is pleased to invite applications for a 3-year funded PhD studentship. The Space Plasma Environment and Radio Science Group at Lancaster University is an internationally-recognised team in the field of space research with particular emphasis on magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling and at the forefront of space plasma research. For further information please see <a href="http://www.dcs.lancs.ac.uk/spears/phd">http://www.dcs.lancs.ac.uk/spears/phd</a>. Wednesday Wed 04 March Mar 03 2009

654 9 LU News Lancaster University Helps New 'Chernobyl' Town Go Online

Lancaster University is helping to provide internet connectivity for a town near Chernobyl in a UK Government funded £750,000 project to help regenerate the area which was devastated by the accident in April 1986.

Lancaster University is helping to provide internet connectivity for a town near Chernobyl in a UK Government funded £750,000 project to help regenerate the area which was devastated by the accident in April 1986. The town of Slavutych in the Ukraine was built after the accident to house evacuated workers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the abandoned town of Pripyat. Slavutych has 25,000 inhabitants and, although it is undergoing a process of development and diversification away from its single industry town status, economic growth is being hampered by a lack of modern and reliable telecommunications, especially internet connectivity. Professor Garik Markarian of the Department of Communication Systems at Infolab21 helped to design the wireless broadband system and also found his Russian useful for meetings with local people. He said: "We asked people what they wanted from the internet and it was a long list from banking to publishing. This system will also create wireless hotspots around Slavutych as well as a public access centre for those who do not have computers at home. The work is being carried out by a local company with the value-added services such as video broadcast being delivered by Rinicom, a technology company in Lancaster." The work is well under way and should be completed by February 2009 at which point the newly installed network will be used to broadcast a 'live' TV image of the Mayor of Slavutych to the Department of Energy and Climate Change in London. The installation of wireless broadband is part of the UK Government funded programme to address the "Social and Economic Consequences of Nuclear Power Plant Closure Programme". This programme forms part of a much larger UK government funded programme to address the nuclear, chemical and biological legacies of the Former Soviet Union. The Project Leader appointed by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (formerly Department for Trade and Industry) to manage the project is Vince Hart from international consultants, HTSPE Ltd. He said: "At the moment there is limited dial-up connection in Slavutych, you often can't dial internationally and businesses have to post CDs of documents abroad, so it's a communications black hole. Office workers carry documents across the road to other offices but the new "Town Information Network" will link up 54 municipal buildings and revolutionise the way many business and educational organisations operate." Larisa Nikitenko, Director of the Slavutych Business Development Agency and local project manager for the communications project, said: "We expect the population of the town to double as businesses create jobs facilitated by the new ICT system, which will be operated by a "social enterprise", so the profits will go back into the local community." There are also plans for Lancaster University's Engineering Department and the Lancaster Environment Centre to collaborate with the Radioecology Centre (part of the International Chernobyl Centre) in Slavutych on monitoring, a clean-up of the 30 kilometre exclusion zone around the contaminated site of the power plant and specialised radio ecology research. The Centre Director, Dr Mikael Bondakov said: "This is an exciting time both in terms of the evolution of our Centre and the opportunities that will arise to share our expertise with like-minded scientists at Lancaster." LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1227702684.jpg 263 275 People outside Slavutych City Hall on Slavutych Day Friday Fri 21 November Nov 11 2008

633 1 News InfoLab21 Launches JobShop To Transfer ICT Skills Across The Region

InfoLab21 has launched an online JobShop, which puts computer-savvy students and businesses in touch, keeping much-needed skills in the region.

InfoLab21 has launched an online JobShop, which puts computer-savvy students and businesses in touch, keeping much-needed skills in the region. The ICT JobShop aims to help Lancaster ICT students and employers find each other for part-time work, project work, vacation work and graduate positions. InfoLab21's Knowledge Business Centre (KBC) has contacts with hundreds of ICT companies across the Northwest. By using the InfoLab21 ICT Job Shop, employers get access to computing and communication systems students from InfoLab21 - one of the largest ICT research centres in Europe. The University is ranked top in the North West and was ranked 8th in the country for computer science and IT in the Guardian's University Guide 2009. The key benefits for ICT Businesses are the flexibility and simplicity of the site, the choice of ICT skills available and the time, money and resources saved using this specialist free site. Meanwhile students gain valuable business experience and an opportunity to develop and apply their skills in the workplace. Unlike the usual student jobs, the ICT JobShop allows students to earn extra cash doing work that is relevant to their career and flexible enough to fit in with their studies. There will be a wide range of jobs available as the ICT JobShop grows and the ICT JobShop will also advertise full time and part-time ICT jobs which are suitable for recent graduates. InfoLab21 acts as an innovation hub, providing a gateway for business/academic interaction and transfer expertise between InfoLab21's academics, regional businesses and community partnerships. This project adds to InfoLab21's excellent track record with businesses and provides another way to bring universities, businesses and communities together. Sarah Bennett, JobShop Project Manager said: "There is a wealth of high-tech digital and creative companies in the region and it is important that we create opportunities for our students and graduates to gain employment and industry experience with them. Students and employers can contact each other directly, safely and securely via the site." The site is open to any business seeking ICT skills and all kinds of ICT related job opportunities are welcome. Businesses and InfoLab21 Students can register with the ICT Jobshop at the link below. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1224236663.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1224236756.jpg 250 250 www.infolab21.lancs.ac.uk/ictjobshop Friday Fri 17 October Oct 10 2008

634 9 LU News Outstanding Success at Engineering Awards

Lancaster University together with BAE Systems Military Air Solutions and Cranfield University have won two awards at The Engineer Technology and Innovation Awards 2008.

Lancaster University together with BAE Systems Military Air Solutions and Cranfield University have won two awards at The Engineer Technology and Innovation Awards 2008. The BBC's Technology Correspondent Rory Cellan Jones presented the awards at a prestigious ceremony at The Royal Society in London. The University and its partners won The Aerospace and Defence Sector Collaboration Award in a strong field where one of the other finalists was Cambridge University. They also won The Engineer Special Award - an overall award not limited to any sector - for their cutting edge research into Sense and Avoid for unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). The team at Lancaster University includes Principal Investigator Dr. Plamen Angelov, Prof. Costas Xydeas, Dr. Cosmin Bocaniala , Mike Everett and Dr. Gavin Leng from the Digital Signal Processing Systems Group at the Department of Communication Systems at InfoLab21. Prof. Xydeas said: "This is a recognition of the successful collaboration we have with industry and shows what can be achieved over a number of years by working together. This area is very important for the economy. UAVs are going to generate a significant income for industry in the next 10 years or so and Lancaster University is at the centre of this." The UAV market is predicted to grow from the current figure of over $3bn worldwide to almost $55bn within a decade according to industry analysts Teal Group. Now the team's work into UAVs is to be tested out by BAE Systems in live trials over north-west England. Researchers at Lancaster have been developing intelligent and autonomous systems in co-operation with BAE systems, which will use a modified Jetstream aircraft to test the sense and avoid capability of UAVs. Another Jetstream aircraft may be used as an intruder. The work on Sense and Avoid is part of the UK's Autonomous Systems Technology Related Airborne Evaluation and Assessment Programme (ASTRAEA). This is a £32m collaborative programme with the goal of opening up civil airspace to UAVs. Dr. Plamen Angelov is the Principal Investigator on two ASTRAEA projects which focus on Adaptive Routing and Collision Avoidance Systems. He said: "This trial by BAE Systems reinforces the recognition of our team's advanced research into intelligent and autonomous systems and its usefulness. The North West is well placed to benefit from the predicted huge growth in the UAV market through Lancaster University and companies like BAE Systems at Warton." Dr. Angelov is also the Director of a new BEng/MEng degree scheme on Intelligent and Robotic Systems, due to start in 2009, and a member of the North West Science Council on Autonomous Systems and of North West Autonomous Systems Programme. He is also the Vice-Chair of the Standards Technical Committee of the Computational Intelligence Society, IEEE - The Worlds largest organization in this area. Lancaster University has been awarded £225,000 as part of ASTRAEA, which could revolutionise police and fire service surveillance, coastal surveillance, power and pipeline inspections and mobile phone and broadband services, which currently rely on manned aircraft. The ASTRAEA partners include not just Lancaster but the Universities of Leicester, Bath, Cranfield, Loughborough, Aberystwyth, Sheffield and the West of England, working alongside major companies such as BAE Systems, Thales UK, Rolls-Royce, EADS, Refuelling andQinetiQ. The public sector is represented by the Department of Trade and Industry and a number of regional development bodies. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1224502562.gif 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1224255117.jpg 225 280 From left: Prof Xydeas, Darren Ansell (BAE Systems), Dr Venkat Sastry (Cranfield), David Wright (BERR), Rory Cellan-Jones (BBC), Dr Angelov Friday Fri 17 October Oct 10 2008

626 9 LU News 'Significant damage' has been done to the UK 's international reputation in physics research

Professor Farideh Honary was quoted on the <a href="http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/36109;jsessionid=583BCD9E39D7D43BB2995129631BE481">Physics World website</a>, 2 October, in an article discussing a review into the health of UK physics which states that "significant damage" has been done to the UK 's international reputation in physics research as a result of an £80m shortfall in the budget of the Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC).

Professor Farideh Honary was quoted on the <a href="http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/36109;jsessionid=583BCD9E39D7D43BB2995129631BE481">Physics World website</a>, 2 October, in an article discussing a review into the health of UK physics which states that "significant damage" has been done to the UK 's international reputation in physics research as a result of an £80m shortfall in the budget of the Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC). LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk Thursday Thu 02 October Oct 10 2008

624 1 News Balloons and Rockets for Atmospheric and Space Studies (BRASS)

The BRASS workshop was organised by Prof. Mike Kosch and held in Lancaster on 24 September to discuss future research opportunities using high altitude balloons and rockets for atmospheric and space studies. The event attracted 28 people from Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, USA and UK. New controllable low-cost hybrid rocket motors as well as new projects and ideas for atmospheric and space research linking to climate change issues were presented. Some of the ideas, outcomes and presentations...

The BRASS workshop was organised by Prof. Mike Kosch and held in Lancaster on 24 September to discuss future research opportunities using high altitude balloons and rockets for atmospheric and space studies. The event attracted 28 people from Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, USA and UK. New controllable low-cost hybrid rocket motors as well as new projects and ideas for atmospheric and space research linking to climate change issues were presented. Some of the ideas, outcomes and presentations can be found at <a href="http://isrw.rocketrange.no/">http://isrw.rocketrange.no/</a>. Friday Fri 26 September Sep 09 2008

620 1 News Aerospace Research Reaches Awards Final

A collaborative BAE Systems MAS, Lancaster University and Cranfield University research project has been selected as one of three finalists in The Engineer Technology and Innovation 2008 Aerospace and Defense Sector awards.

A collaborative BAE Systems MAS, Lancaster University and Cranfield University research project has been selected as one of three finalists in The Engineer Technology and Innovation 2008 Aerospace and Defense Sector awards. The annual awards recognise the best examples of collaborative technology projects between Academia and Industry. The Department of Communication Systems research is directed by Professor Costas Xydeas and Dr Plamen Angelov. Part of the ASTRAEA project, it involves algorithmic research on advanced collision avoidance and route planning systems to be used onboard unmanned air vehicles. The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held on the 3rd of October 2008 at the Royal Society, London. Wednesday Wed 24 September Sep 09 2008

585 1 News Mobile Radicals Are A Forum Nokia Success Story

A publication from Nokia has highlighted Lancaster University's Mobile Radicals, led by Forum Nokia Champion Dr. Paul Coulton, for pushing the envelope of mobile application development.

A publication from Nokia has highlighted Lancaster University's Mobile Radicals, led by Forum Nokia Champion Dr. Paul Coulton, for pushing the envelope of mobile application development. With the help of Forum Nokia's University programme, the research group based in the Department of Communication Systems at InfoLab21 have been finding new ways to combine location-based services (LBS) and social networking. Dr. Coulton says; "We're looking at other ways of using existing and emerging mobile technology in a more sociable way, to bring people together with their immediate environment and the people around them." More details can be seen in the publication via the link below. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1216394776.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1216394776.jpg 250 250 Thursday Thu 17 July Jul 07 2008

570 9 LU News InfoLab21 Students Scoop Vodafone & Nokia Competition

InfoLab21 students have taken first and third place in an international mobile web technology competition.

InfoLab21 students have taken first and third place in an international mobile web technology competition. Initiated by Vodafone Betavine and sponsored by Forum Nokia, the WidSets Challenge 2008 was open to students from all universities, polytechnics and colleges across the world. It aims to encourage student innovation in mobile Web 2.0 technologies by providing a showcase for their ideas and working models. Lancaster University Communication Systems MSc students Lyon Laxman and Klen Copic Pucihar took first prize for their game 4 in the row - a multiplayer game whereby you can challenge, play and chat with a player anywhere in the world across the mobile network. Meanwhile, third place was taken by Lancaster University Communication Systems PhD student Will Bamford who redeveloped his popular Bombus game (which has achieved over 268918 downloads) in 3D space. Department of Communication Systems Dr. Paul Coulton said: "We're really proud of this result. Lancaster students have again demonstrated they have the creativity and technological ability to take new developments in mobile technology and dream up interesting user-friendly applications ." Lancaster University is the only University in the UK to teach mobile phone game design. The MSc in Mobile Games and Social Networks was launched in 2004. For further information on the department of Communication Systems go to their website below. WidSets service by Nokia is a popular consumer Internet service where users can create, publish, enjoy, and share their favourite Internet content on their mobile phones. It uses mini-applications called 'widgets' to identify updates made to the user's favourite Internet sites and pushes the content to a phone as soon as it becomes available. Vodafone Betavine is a site designed to encourage mobile applications developers and enable them to test their designs across the Vodafone network. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1213698735.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1213698735.jpg 250 250 Tuesday Tue 17 June Jun 06 2008

525 9 LU News Next Generation Mobile Interactivity

Lancaster University is leading an international research network which could shape the way in which we use our mobile phones in the future.

Lancaster University is leading an international research network which could shape the way in which we use our mobile phones in the future. Mobile games researcher Dr. Paul Coulton is leading the Nokia Mobile Experiences Group which explores new uses for mobile phones which go way beyond just texting, phoning and taking photographs. As part of the Forum Nokia Innovation Network the experiences group focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of novel, uniquely mobile user experiences from games to social networking. Specific areas of interest include context-aware games, mixed and augmented reality, user-generated content, collective intelligence, location-based applications and community building. Dr. Coulton said: "If you look in any café, bar or bus stop you can see people using their phones in a way which isolates them from people in their immediate vicinity. We are in the habit of texting and phoning people on the move, creating a little cyber bubble around us where ever we go. "We are interested in looking at other ways of using existing and emerging mobile technology in a more sociable way, to bring people together with their immediate environment and the people around them." Ideas in development include games which combine 'tilt' sensors and GPS with augmented reality, enabling players to play games on their phone, either individually or with a group interacting with their real environment and a type of interactive installation known as Mash Reality. Mash Reality enables people to text fragments of prose to giant screens using their mobile phone. The words are then married up with matching images chosen from photo sharing sites such as Flickr or MOSH. Lancaster researchers are testing their ideas in the real world at large social gatherings such as Futuresonic, Urban Festival of Art, Music & Ideas, 1-5 May, Manchester, UK and Roskilde Festival, 3-6th July in Denmark. Nokia Mobile Experiences Group Members are: Lancaster University; Technical University of Denmark (DTU) ; University of Aarhus, Denmark ;New York University, ITP ; Parsons: The New School for Design, New York; Helsinki University of Art & Design; Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich; Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. About Nokia Innovation Network at Lancaster University The UK's Nokia Innovation Network hub is based at Lancaster University which is consistently rated amongst the top ten universities in the country. It is managed by Drs Paul Coulton and Reuben Edwards and housed within InfoLab21, an international centre for excellence in ICT. The group at Lancaster has an international reputation in mobile applications research and have won a number of Awards for innovation. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1204540165.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1204540165.jpg 250 250 Dr. Paul Coulton Monday Mon 03 March Mar 03 2008

493 1 News Let Your Business Benefit From an E-Business Project

We are seeking proposals for dissertation projects that can be undertaken by students during summer 2008.

We are seeking proposals for dissertation projects that can be undertaken by students during summer 2008. Deadline for project proposals: February 8, 2008. The Lancaster Masters in E-Business & Innovation (EBIN) is a unique multidisciplinary programme that provides students with the management, entrepreneurial and ICT knowledge required for managing enterprises driven by innovations in e-business. Further details including a timetable and past project examples can be found in the documents below. If you would like to submit a project proposal for a project to suit your business please use the proposal template. Send your proposal outline to: Dr. Gerd Kortuem Programme Director E-Business & Innovation Email: <a href="mailto:kortuem@comp.lancs.ac.uk">kortuem@comp.lancs.ac.uk</a> Phone: 01524 510324 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1200488852.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1200488852.jpg 250 250 Thursday Thu 17 January Jan 01 2008

477 1 News Top Marks for Teachers' Day at InfoLab21

InfoLab21 hosted another successful Teachers' Day which has been praised for creating valuable connections with local schools.

InfoLab21 hosted another successful Teachers' Day which has been praised for creating valuable connections with local schools. Teachers from around the region came to InfoLab21 as part of a programme to provide professional development and create links between schools in the North-West and the University. The Department of Communication Systems, the Knowledge Business Centre at InfoLab21, Lancaster University Schools Liaison Office and Lancashire Education Business Partnership (LEBP) organised a teachers' day event on Wednesday 31st of October. The event focussed on the use of computer animation to develop a computer game. Christine James of LEBP who co-ordinated the event said; " This is the second event InfoLab21 has hosted once again has proved to be a great success, I look forward to planning similar events in the future, as teachers really value the links they are able to establish." In total, sixteen teachers from schools and further education colleges from around the North-West attended the event. Dr. Phil Benachour from the Department of Communication Systems at Lancaster said: "This is a great opportunity for local Secondary School and Community College teachers to find out about what kind of software tools are being used for teaching at the University, it also allows institutions like Lancaster to promote and engage with local schools and pass on its expertise in specialised areas of media and communication technology". Colin McLaughlin from the Knowledge Business Centre at InfoLab21 added: "It is important for us as a University to engage with the wider community. One of the ways to do this is to work with the teaching staff from Schools and Colleges in the North West in order to share the knowledge and expertise that the academic staff here possess." http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1197388569.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1197388569.jpg 173 250 Teachers' Day at InfoLab21 Tuesday Tue 11 December Dec 12 2007

472 9 LU News Aviation Security Expert Joins InfoLab21

InfoLab21 is set to become a leading European centre for aviation security research following the appointment of an international expert in communications technology.

InfoLab21 is set to become a leading European centre for aviation security research following the appointment of an international expert in communications technology. Professor Garik Markarian has joined researchers at Lancaster University's centre of ICT excellence where he takes up a Chair in Communication Systems. He has more than 20 years of academic and industrial experience in communications systems. His research interests include information theory, communications systems, digital broadcasting systems, wireless broadband systems, error correction coding and digital modulation, and satellite communications. Professor Markarian, formerly director of the Institute of Integrated Information Systems at the University of Leeds and an internationally-renowned expert in communications technology, will lead a programme of research at Lancaster. Currently, the research programme includes two projects focusing on time-critical decision making in aviation with a view to introducing automation, prediction and intelligent understanding. One project is a KTP partnership with ULTRA Electronics, which was set up to produce an onboard security prototype providing decision makers on the ground with real-time situation awareness. The other project focuses on the development of a real-time management framework in aviation security. The scope of research and group activities are expanding into various areas of aeronautical security by participation in the creation of the new European standard in aeronautical systems security (EUROCAE WG72) and upcoming EC directed Programme under the umbrella of FP7. The Armenian-born professor and his team of researchers were the only UK University group to take part in an aviation security exercise in Munch in October which included the simulated hijacking of an aeroplane. Organised by EUROCONTROL (European Organisation Air Traffic Management), MunichAirport and PATIN (Protection of Air Transportation and Infrastructure) Project, ) the event simulated the high jacking of an aircraft flying between Munich and Prague. Professor Markarian- along with Lancaster University Knowledge Transfer Partnership Associate Alex Tarter, and Lancaster University PhD student Rainer Koelle who works for EUROCONTROL, Brussels - attended the event where they exhibited research to senior aviation experts from across Europe. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1196864489.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1196864489.jpg 250 250 L-R Alex Tarter, Rainer Kölle, Professor Garik Markarian Wednesday Wed 05 December Dec 12 2007

465 1 News Artificial Personality Goes Clubbing

An interactive Artificial Personality pulled faces at nightclubbers in Leeds last month.

An interactive Artificial Personality pulled faces at nightclubbers in Leeds last month. This installation work was a collaboration between Lancaster University Department of Computing,the Communication Systems Department, UCREL, KBC resident company BigDog Interactive and Leeds Metropolitan University's Department of Fine Art. The installation (a giant projected human character) took place on 20th October 2007 at the Speedqueen night in Discotheque/Gatecrasher nightclub in Leeds. The artificial personality has her own tastes and preferences. Anyone can send the character with a text message from their mobile phone. The character can understand the meaning of the text and reacts emotionally to the content of the message using facial expressions. She can portray a total of 8 different emotions including anger, sadness, happiness, annoyance and so on. The work is one of a number of currently ongoing collaborations as part of the eMedia Design Lab (eMDL) initiative at Lancaster. Gatecrasher is currently one of the UK's most influential Clubbing brands with permanent venues in cities around the country as well as annual special events both with the UK and abroad. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1195209448.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1195209448.jpg 250 250 Speedqueen night in Discotheque/Gatecrasher nightclub in Leeds Thursday Thu 15 November Nov 11 2007

464 1 News Futuresonic - Call for Submissions

The Social - Online, Mobile and Unplugged Social Networking.

The Social - Online, Mobile and Unplugged Social Networking. Deadline for conference submissions - 5pm 18th December 2007 Urban Festival of Art, Music & Ideas 1-4 May, Manchester, UK Presented in association with Imagination at Lancaster, Lancaster University. <h4>Futuresonic 2008</h4> Futuresonic has 4 strands: Art, Music, Ideas and EVNTS. Currently in its 12th year, the festival occupies the orbits of both music and digital culture. A focus in recent years has been presenting artworks in unexpected city spaces, and on social art and social technologies. Futuresonic now invites artists, thinkers and makers to get social and present new types of collaborative social experience at Futuresonic 2008. The Futuresonic international conference and the Social Technologies Summit invite proposals for talks, presentations, workshops and session themes. Submissions of innovative formats for social interaction and experimentation are encouraged. A £5,000 commission plus many other opportunities are available in the Futuresonic 2008 Art, Music & EVNTS calls for submissions. For details on submitting to the conference visit <a href="http://www.futuresonic.com/submissions-conference">www.futuresonic.com/submissions-conference</a> <h4>The Conference</h4> The Futuresonic conference is a place where important international discussions take place. Over recent years hype about social software and web 2.0 has raged largely unchecked. The conference will bring together leading figures to unpick the hype around the latest technological zeitgeist, broaden the debate, and propose and explore a critical understanding of social technologies. <a href="http://www.futuresonic.com/getinvolved">www.futuresonic.com/getinvolved</a> Futuresonic brings 500 opinion formers, futurologists, artists, technologists and scientists from the digital culture, music and art communities to Manchester for four days of seminars, workshops and events. At the heart of the festival is the internationally-acclaimed Futuresonic conference, and its focal point the Social Technologies Summit. <h4>Conference Theme</h4> The Social - Online, Mobile and Unplugged Social Networking. Digital culture burns bright with a vision of being not in isolation but in groups, placing the relations between people first. Beyond the hype lies ever greater isolation and conformity. Join us as we go in search of the social. The 2008 conference will explore the theme of The Social - Online, Mobile and Unplugged Social Networking. The conference will also mark 40 years since people took to the streets of Paris in 1968 calling for society to be abolished, and will assess the claims of todays digital culture as a potential catalyst of radical change amidst wider currents of radicalism. Computers have become social interfaces for sharing digital media and collaborating to build online communities and folksonomies. Social technologies create an extension of social space, and new ways for people to come together, meet and share in today's society. As well as social software such as MySpace, Flickr, YouTube and FaceBook, there are technologies created and maintained by social networks, such as communities of developers and users working collaboratively with open source tools, or that enable people to connect with each other in public places, or that bind people together in their everyday lives. The Social Technologies Summit will explore the new social spaces and the social implications of technologies for the many different kinds of people who make, use and are affected by them. Some proclaim the death of email. Life is supposed to be 'more social' - easier to communicate, the world at our finger tips, more sharing, more social. But this is a time when we see how electronic communication can isolate us, as more and more people drown in a deluge of email that generates stress, even reducing IQ. Additionally, 'online communities' are based upon an artificial equivalence between 'users' which obscures power relationships and issues of ownership. In all parts of the globe people are seeking to open up or hold onto places to meet and communicate freely, online and offline. In India we see emergent kinds of community media, in South Korea new social uses of the mobile internet, and in Brazil the spread of 'cultural hotspots'. Join us as we go in search of the social today. <h4>Booking Information</h4> If you want to meet the creative thinkers, artists, programmers, digital media experts, scientists, industry specialists, hardware and software developers, marketers, political thinkers and activists; If you want to find out about new technologies and their impact on tomorrow's society; If you are looking for new and exciting ways to create, do business and interact; Then sign up early to the Futuresonic conference and the Social Technologies Summit. Email Your Name, Address and Contact Details to <a href="mailto:ideas2008@futuresonic.com">ideas2008@futuresonic.com</a> to receive full conference details and priority booking options. <h4>Conference Pass</h4> Early Bird Delegate Pass £60 (must be bought by February 1 2008) Advance Delegate Pass £100 Delegate Pass (on the door) £150 Students/Concessions £30. Further discounts available for group bookings. A limited number of pay-what-you-can Day Passes will be available on each day of the conference. The Conference Pass includes access to all festival events. Email your name, address and contact details to <a href="mailto:ideas2008@futuresonic.com">ideas2008@futuresonic.com</a> and we will send you full details on Futuresonic Conference 2008 as well as priority booking options. Join us as we go in search of the social today. Web 2.0... I take part you take part he takes part we take part you all take part they profit. (Slogan from Paris '68, remixed) <a href="http://www.futuresonic.com">www.futuresonic.com</a> Futuresonic is supported by Arts Council England North West and presented in association with Imagination at Lancaster, Lancaster University. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1194868559.gif 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1194868559.gif 250 250 Futuresonic 2008 Monday Mon 12 November Nov 11 2007

439 9 LU News Girls Get Set for Science at InfoLab21

Girls from ethnic minority communities across Lancashire visited InfoLab21 last week.

Girls from ethnic minority communities across Lancashire visited InfoLab21 last week. As part of an initiative run by Setpoint Lancashire, around 42 year 8 and 9 pupils visited the University to take part in science and technology workshops in Computing, Engineering and Communication Systems. The girls were given an introduction to a number of developments in the University including a string of futuristic fairy lights which are being developed by researchers in the Department of Computing. The lights - which are each embedded with a tiny computer - communicate with one another and can be manipulated by a computer programme. This innovation, known as project firefly, has the potential to revolutionise all kinds of lighting displays in the future - from home use to large scale outdoor advertising. Lancaster University Science Partnership Officer Dr. Alan Darragh said: "It was great for the pupils to be able to get hands on and to discover some new technology for themselves. They met researchers and had a look around the campus, getting a feel for some of the first class science and technology happening at the University. "We hope that some of the pupils visiting today will be inspired and enthused to continue their studies in science and technology in the future." The schools were: MoorheadSportsCollege, Accrington, Beardwood School, Blackburn, Rhyddings Business and EnterpriseSchool, Oswaldtwistle and Moorpark Business and EnterpriseSchool, Preston. For information on firefly go to <a href="http://www.infolab21.lancs.ac.uk/news_and_events/news/?article_id=280">Firefly Article</a> LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1191242841.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1191242841.jpg 176 250 Girls at Setpoint Science and Technology Day in InfoLab21 Monday Mon 01 October Oct 10 2007

448 9 LU News NASA Joins Lancaster In Pioneering Space Workshop

A team from Lancaster University joined academics from NASA and the British Antarctic Survey at the first ever international workshop on solar wind streams.

A team from Lancaster University joined academics from NASA and the British Antarctic Survey at the first ever international workshop on solar wind streams. The five day event was held in Ambleside in the Lake District, and was organised by Dr Mick Denton from Lancaster along with colleagues from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA, British Antarctic Survey, University of California and University of Newcastle in Australia. The team from Lancaster University also included Dr Andrew Kavanagh, Nicola Longden, Dr Rebecca Seviour and Dr Jim Wild. The workshop aimed to highlight the current state of knowledge regarding High Speed Solar Wind Streams and their interaction with Geospace - the region beyond the Earth's atmosphere, out through the magnetosphere. Dr Denton, from the Department of Communication Systems at InfoLab21, has been invited to visit Los Alamos National Laboratory next summer. He said: "Researchers at Lancaster are among the leaders in this field with numerous publications in the area in the last two years. It was pleasing to be able to attract such renowned international workers in this research area to discuss recent progress, and the outstanding physics questions to focus on in future." He will now guest edit a special edition of a journal based on the conference. Dr. Nancy Crooker from Boston University said: "I am sure all participants would agree this was a successful workshop. For me, it was particularly interesting to learn about the latest ideas on magnestospheric processes involved in electron acceleration." The magnetosphere is the region of near-space dominated by the Earth's magnetic field and the researchers are interested in the electromagnetic connection between the sun and Earth. Disturbances in this coupling to the Sun - often called "space weather" - can lead to electrically charged particles of solar origin entering the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere. The most striking natural effects of space weather are the Aurora Borealis of "northern lights" but a large influx of charged particles can damage Earth-orbiting satellites and play havoc with radio communications. The next international conference will be held in Ambleside in two years' time. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1191589225.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1191581074.jpg 233 300 Scientists from all over the world gathered in the Lake District for the workshop Friday Fri 28 September Sep 09 2007

431 1 News £25,000 Commercialising Research Competition

Do you think your research has commercial potential but you're not sure what to do next?

Do you think your research has commercial potential but you're not sure what to do next? Entrepreneurs with ideas at all stages of development are invited to participate in this high profile national competition by submitting a one-page outline of a business idea by 14 September 2007. The competition is designed to help entrepreneurial researchers from across the UK find successful routes to market. Previous ompetitions have successfully helped to establish several new spin out companies. Applicants accepted for the competition will receive training through a two day commercialisation workshop. Those suceeding to the second phase will have access to highly skilled experts with experience of research commercialisation who will guide in the preparation of a high quality business plan, the essential requirement for marketing a business idea to potential investors. Prizes of up to £25,000 will be awarded to the business plans judged to have the best potential to help turn business ideas into reality. Full details and application forms can be found at: <a href="http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/innovation/fundingkt/bpc">www.rcuk.ac.uk/innovation/fundingkt/bpc</a> For more information contact Sarah Cooper, Competition Manager; Tel: 01793 444422; Fax: 01793 444562; Email: <a href="mailto:rcbpcomp@epsrc.ac.uk">rcbpcomp@epsrc.ac.uk</a> http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1187691775.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1187691775.jpg 250 250 Research Councils Business Plan Competition 2007-08 Tuesday Tue 21 August Aug 08 2007

413 1 News InfoLab21 Students Win Europe Nokia Final

InfoLab21 mobile developers Will Bamford and Tamas Vajk, have won the European Final of the Nokia 2007 Mobile Innovation Competition.

InfoLab21 mobile developers Will Bamford and Tamas Vajk, have won the European Final of the Nokia 2007 Mobile Innovation Competition. The prizes were awarded at the Forum Nokia Tech Days held in Budapest, Hungary, on June 6-8. Will, a PhD student and Tamas, who has come to Lancaster from Budapest University on a four month scholarship, previously won the UK leg of the competition and went on to compete with mobile developers from Finland, Denmark and Hungary. The finalsist had beaten 80 teams across Europe to get to the last stage. The winning application was TiltRacer which used the built-in 3D motion sensor of the Nokia 5500 Sport phone to create a motion controller for games similar to Nintendo's Wii. The two students created a small car-racing game to play with the motion-detecting Nokia 5500 phone. The game was developed with the C++ programming language and using the XNA framework, which means the game could later be played on an Xbox system. The jury cited this application for its simplicity, adding that TiltRacer points to great opportunity for the mobile industry's future. Co-developer Bamford said it was fun and engaging to spend time and effort on this project. And Vajk added that the two are also working on other interesting projects, which can be viewed on the Mobile Radicals site, see also YouTube. Forum Nokia Champion Dr. Reuben Edwards from the Department of Communication said, "It is not only great to have won but also that this has been a collaboration between the UK and Hungary and has been a good chance to for students from two European Universities to work together". http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1183973280.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1183973280.jpg 170 250 Will Bamford presenting Tiltracer at the Nokia final in Budapest. Monday Mon 09 July Jul 07 2007

402 1 News Wireless Sensor Networks Event

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are one of InfoLab21's specialist areas of expertise.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are one of InfoLab21's specialist areas of expertise. The aim of SensorNet 2007, held at Lancaster University on 30th May, was to bring together experts in WSN from research & industry to share ideas, demonstrate commercial applications of WSN and foster collaboration. SensorNet 2007 speakers Speakers from Microsoft Research, BT, Manchester University's School of Electrical Engineering, InfoLab21 Associate company <a href="http://www.infolab21.lancs.ac.uk/business/associate_company_scheme/profiles/savant_enterprises_limited.php">Savant Enterprises Ltd</a> and Lancaster University spin out digital art company <a href="http://www.infolab21.lancs.ac.uk/business/locating_in_infolab21/kbc_companies.php?company=bigdog_interactive">Big Dog Interactive</a> joined speakers from University Departments of Computing, Communication Systems, Engineering, Geography, Sociology amd Environmental Sciences. SensorNet 2007 topics Through-out the day attendees were presented with different perspectives and uses of Sensor Networks. The event started with the keynote speech on Thought Communication, Networks for the Future by Prof. <a href="http://www.kevinwarwick.com">Kevin Warwick</a>, Professor of Cybernetics, Reading University, internationally renowned for implanting a device into his arm in order to link his nervous system directly to a computer. Other topics covered included using Sensor networks in the field to support Health & Safety in Industrial Sites and for monitoring climate change, developing Wireless Sensor Networks for Industrial Processes, the applications of Ultra-wide-band (UWB) in Mobile Sensor Networks, how sensors are being used to develop more effective treatments for cancer and improve hygiene standards through-metal RFID Tagging of Surgical Instruments. In addition, BT discussed their ideas for a standard global platform for devices to aid communication between sensors and the final speaker from Sociology examined the current and potential social impact of Technologies of Social Communications, Cognition & Securities. SensorNet 2007 Demonstrations Demonstrations included Digital Live Art from Big Dog Interactive and a posters display and the event closed with an open discussion exploring questions on improving sensor networks accuracy and reliability in the field. Join IT! To join the SensorNet2007 group see <a href="http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/sensornet">www.comp.lancs/sensornet</a> http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1181224310.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1181224310.jpg 250 250 Key Speaker Professor Kevin Warwick Friday Fri 08 June Jun 06 2007

401 1 News University Prizes For InfoLab21 Staff

Three of this year's University prizes have gone to InfoLab21 staff.

Three of this year's University prizes have gone to InfoLab21 staff. Dr. Reuben Edwards & Dr. Paul Coulton, of the Communication Systems department have been awarded a prize for commercialisation. Dr. Reuben Edwards has also won a Teaching prize and Dr. Jim Wild, also of the Communication Systems department, has won the prize for Media & Communication. Dr. Edwards said of the Commercialisation prize, "It represents a welcome acknowledgement and recognition by the University of the work that Paul and I have done in building an international reputation for the creation of ground-breaking and world-leading mobile applications that have received awards for their research contribution, plaudits from businesses for their innovation, and, as Forum Nokia Champions, personal recognition from the industry leader for our status as leaders and innovators." He also highlighted the close relationship between teaching, research and industry. "The teaching prize specifically recognises the close relationship between teaching, research publications and industry and provides an important recognition by the University that one can maintain a balance between working with industry, producing academic publications, and providing a high quality education to students." The Staff Prizes will be presented on Tuesday 12 June 2006 at 6.00pm At Barker House Farm by Chancellor Sir Chris Bonnington CBE. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1181204268.gif 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1181204268.gif 250 250 Wednesday Wed 06 June Jun 06 2007

390 1 News InfoLab21 Prepares For Innovation Exchange

Overviews of some of the projects to be featured at InfoLb21's next Technology Matters Event - The Innovation Exchange, on June 14th, are now available.

Overviews of some of the projects to be featured at InfoLb21's next Technology Matters Event - The Innovation Exchange, on June 14th, are now available. The Innovation Exchange will showcase research in marketable new technology from the Computing and Communication Systems departments, and the Knowledge Business Centre. Entrepreneurs and Technology Businesses from accross the region will be invited to come and meet the researchers and discuss the possibilities of collaboration. To read the overviews or to find out more please follow the link below to the event details. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1179925572.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1179925572.jpg 250 250 Wednesday Wed 23 May May 05 2007

371 9 LU News InfoLab21 Spin-Out Company Signs Global Games Deal

Lancaster University spin-out company m-ventions has signed a deal to distribute 20 mobile phone games developed at InfoLab21 to a worldwide market of millions.

Lancaster University spin-out company m-ventions has signed a deal to distribute 20 mobile phone games developed at InfoLab21 to a worldwide market of millions. The games are being marketed by North West firm GlobiGames Ltd in a deal which will see revenues ploughed back in the University. The games were initially devised by Dr. Reuben Edwards and Dr. Paul Coulton of the Department of Communication Systems before being developed by their students along with recent graduates from the Graduate Academy at InfoLab21. Both academics aim to provide students with commercial experience through the University spin-out company m-ventions Ltd, which was created to market mobile applications developed by students. Dr. Edwards said: "The significant thing is that this gives students the chance to get something direct to the market so it helps their confidence and they can put it on their CV. It's a great way of directly transferring the knowledge here at Lancaster out into business." The games will be distributed online and via mobile phone portals. The first games to be released include Mobslinger, where players pretend to shoot each other with their mobile phone, Blue Air, an air hockey game, StickmanShootout, Mash-A-Mate, a reaction boxing game, and Msomnia, a game in which a puzzle has to be solved every 2 hours. "We are developing a lot of games that are very unique, very advanced in terms of the technology and at the top end of development. And we are stream-lining the development process so we can push them into market as they're developed." Students involved in developing the games will receive around a third of the revenue to the University providing a financial incentive and reward for the creation of innovative games. Dr. Elizabeth Phillips, who has just completed a PhD in Computing, worked on StickmanShootout as part of a project at the Graduate Academy. She said: "I've never done anything like this before and it was an interesting experience because my emphasis so far has been on web development." Andy Cunningham, who is doing an MSc in IT and Data Communications, developed a game called Seal Cull based on the fairground game of splat-the-rat. He said: "I'd like to get into the games industry so this will be very useful. It was good to produce something and see an end result." Dr. Edwards said mobile phone games differ from computer games in several ways. "Mobile phones are very personal yet social devices which connect you to other people so we're trying to develop games which have a social dimension where you can interact with people and objects in your current surroundings" Both Dr. Edwards and Dr. Coulton are Forum Nokia Champions, an invitation-only programme which recognises the top mobile developers worldwide. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1176979627.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1179395818.jpg 168 250 clockwise: Dr Paul Okanda, Dr Reuben Edwards, Andy Cunningham and Dr Elizabeth Phillips Thursday Thu 19 April Apr 04 2007

359 9 LU News International Audience for Mobile Games Expert

An InfoLab21 researcher has caught the attention of technology media after giving a talk at an international conference in America.

An InfoLab21 researcher has caught the attention of technology media after giving a talk at an international conference in America. Games researcher Dr. Paul Coulton has had his work featured in a number of technology magazines and websites after he gave a presentation on the future of mobile phone games at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on March 6. The conference is the premier event of the world games industry and attracts the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto - who is arguably the father of the modern video game and the man behind Nintendos DS and Wii. In his presentation 'Using Touch, Sight and Gesture in Mobile Games' developer Dr. Coulton, who is based in Lancaster University's Communication Systems Department in Infolab21, discussed a number of innovative ways in which mobiles can be used to play games in new situations - for example by using the mobile phone's camera or 3-D motion sensors to play games in real time and space with other mobile users. Speaking at the event Dr. Coulton said: "The innovative motion controller of the Wii has had an amazing impact in attracting new audiences across all ages and genders to video games. Combining motion sensors in phones could ultimately be even more dramatic as we can create unique ways of interacting with these devices and not just for games. Imagine making a phone call but instead of typing the numbers you write them in the air! The possibilities are endless and the experiences will be unique." Following his presentation his work has been featured in publications including Business Week and Next Generation. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1174641934.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1179396527.jpg 199 250 User playing game with motion sensing phone interacting with large public display Friday Fri 23 March Mar 03 2007

352 9 LU News UK Space Research Goes Online

Members of the public will get the chance to question the world's leading space scientists with the launch this month of an interactive website set up by Lancaster University.

Members of the public will get the chance to question the world's leading space scientists with the launch this month of an interactive website set up by Lancaster University. The site is the idea of Dr Jim Wild of the Department of Communication Systems at InfoLab21 who wants to showcase the UK's record of world class space research. The <a href="http://www.sunearthplan.net">www.sunearthplan.net </a> website is aimed at people interested in finding out more about research into the solar system. Anyone will be able to post questions on the website for scientists to answer. Dr Wild said: "Whether using satellites to study the heart of the sun or the sizzling radiation found in Saturn's magnetic field or ground-based cameras and radars to probe the northern lights high over the arctic circle, UK scientists are at the forefront of solar, solar-terrestrial and solar planetary science. The www.sunearthplan.net website will showcase this exciting science and provide a forum for visitors to question the scientists directly." The launch is timed to coincide with the launch of the UN's International Heliophysical Year, when scientists and engineers from all 191 member states take part in an international campaign to promote the space and earth sciences. Dr Wild said: "The UK has an enviable record in space research and a significant number of UK scientists work on programmes operated by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Chinese National Space Administration. Lancaster University has a strong record of being a part of this and I wanted to showcase what we do here in the UK. "It's important because space research leads to developments which affect us all like nuclear fusion from understanding the power source of the Sun. There are even plans to send astronauts back to the moon and to Mars but we need to understand much more about space if we are to do that successfully." The website project is funded by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. Other organisations contributing to the website include the British Antarctic Survey, Imperial College and University College, London, and the universities of Leicester, Bath, Southampton, Sheffield and Aberystwyth. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1172053636.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1179397015.jpg 208 250 The Earth bathes in the solar wind (credit: NASA) Wednesday Wed 21 February Feb 02 2007

349 1 News International Symposium on Communication Theory and Applications: Final Call For Papers

A major objective of ISCTA'07, taking place in Ambleside UK in July 2007, will be to pursue the progression from communication and information theory through to the implementation, evaluation and performance of practical communication systems of various types.

A major objective of ISCTA'07, taking place in Ambleside UK in July 2007, will be to pursue the progression from communication and information theory through to the implementation, evaluation and performance of practical communication systems of various types. Original papers are invited in related areas. The deadline for the submission of papers for consideration is Friday 2nd March, 2007. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1171621095.gif 75 75 Friday Fri 16 February Feb 02 2007

351 9 LU News Lancaster Scientist Joins NASA Mission To Understand Space Storms

Dr. Jim Wild from the Department of Communication Systems is to play a key role in a NASA mission which sees five satellites launched today from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Dr. Jim Wild from the Department of Communication Systems is to play a key role in a NASA mission which sees five satellites launched today from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The satellites will orbit the Earth and help scientists study the mysteries of the Northern Lights or aurora borealis, the spectacularly colourful glow in the sky at the North Pole as energy from the sun hits the Earth's magnetic field. THEMIS is specifically designed to investigate substorms, atmospheric events visible in the northern hemisphere as a sudden brightening of the northern lights. The two year mission will also provide clues about the role of substorms in severe space weather and identify where and when substorms begin. As well as instruments on board the satellites, a worldwide network of remote-controlled cameras will photograph the Northern Lights from the Earth. Dr. Wild will be responsible for the cameras in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. He said: "There will be a huge array of special auroral cameras on the ground all across Canada and Alaska and I'll be responsible for deploying identical cameras in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. This will help the north American chain link up with the existing cameras in Scandinavia." Dr. Wild is working with the NASA team and the University of Calgary in Canada, which has made the cameras specially for sub-zero temperatures. "I'll be operating the cameras remotely and it'll be my job to get them connected to the internet." Frank Snow, THEMIS Project Manager at the Goddard Space Flight Centre in the US said: "There are few more awe inspiring sights than the colourful and dynamic beauty of the Northern Lights. THEMIS is a challenging project employing 5 satellites, 25 scientific instruments and 20 ground observatories that will replace old myths with scientific explanations for a spectacular light display." Dr. Wild's next task is to carry out research based on data from the NASA mission from both the cameras and experiments on the spacecraft in order to try to understand what triggers magnetospheric substorms. "The cameras should produce spectacular images of the aurora borealis but there will be thousands of DVDs filled with millions of these images so the next stage is to develop the intelligent software to analyse them." This research is funded by Lancaster University and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1171642377.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1179397054.jpg 188 250 An artist's impression of the five THEMIS spacecraft orbiting the Earth (courtesy of NASA) Friday Fri 16 February Feb 02 2007

332 1 News Postgraduate Funding Opportunities for 2007

the Department of Communication Systems has a number of funding opportunities available for postgraduate students beginning their studies in 2007.

the Department of Communication Systems has a number of funding opportunities available for postgraduate students beginning their studies in 2007. For MSc students we have scholarships attached to several of our courses that cover tuition fees and in some cases offer a stipend as well. In addition we have Nokia prizes for specific research projects and Nokia funded Industrial Training Programmes aimed at high quality international students wishing to work in the UK. For PhD students there are a number of research council (EPSRC, PPARC) research studentships and CASE awards for well-qualified Home/EU applicants, as well as some departmental scholarships for postgraduate research students (Home/EU and Overseas). For more information on funding available to postgraduate students, get in touch with our Postgraduate Co-ordinator <a href="mailto:s.irving@lancaster.ac.uk">Sandra Irving</a>. Friday Fri 19 January Jan 01 2007

333 1 News New Undergraduate Course: Telecommunications with Management

A <a href="http://www.dcs.lancs.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate.php?course_id=management&entry_session_id=000107">new undergraduate course</a> is on offer for students starting in 2007. Available at either BSc or MSci level, this course aims to develop high quality graduates equipped with both communications and management skills, ready to work in the telecommunications industry, information technology or academia.

A <a href="http://www.dcs.lancs.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate.php?course_id=management&entry_session_id=000107">new undergraduate course</a> is on offer for students starting in 2007. Available at either BSc or MSci level, this course aims to develop high quality graduates equipped with both communications and management skills, ready to work in the telecommunications industry, information technology or academia. Students can graduate either with an engineering background or a systems background by selecting from variety of modules offered by the Department of Communication Systems and Lancaster University's world-class Management School. The first three years (BSc) will provide a breadth of knowledge, followed by increasing depth of knowledge in the fourth year (MSci) in specialised topic areas. The fourth year will enable students to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the InfoLab21 initiative. Students will be presented with greater opportunity to take on projects of a real-world nature at the cutting edge of the industry. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1169239414.jpg 250 300 Combining ICT with business Tuesday Tue 16 January Jan 01 2007

311 9 LU News InfoLab21 Part Of UK ASTRAEA Project To Enable UAV Access To Civil Airspace

Lancaster University has been awarded £225,000 for research into technologies designed to enable the routine use of Unmanned Air Vehicles in non-segregated airspace.

Lancaster University has been awarded £225,000 for research into technologies designed to enable the routine use of Unmanned Air Vehicles in non-segregated airspace. ASTRAEA is a £32m national collaborative programme with the goal of opening up civil airspace to unmanned autonomous vehicles. Specifically, it is looking to overcome the technological and regulatory barriers that currently prevent UAVs' safe and routine operation alongside manned aircraft. The ASTRAEA partners include not just Lancaster but the universities of Leicester, Bath, Cranfield, Loughborough, Aberystwyth, Sheffield and the West of England, working alongside major companies such as BAE Systems, Thales UK, Rolls-Royce, EADS, Flight Refuelling and QinetiQ. The public sector is represented by the Department of Trade and Industry and a number of the regional development bodies. The use of UAVs could revolutionise police and fire service surveillance, coastal surveillance, power and pipeline inspections and mobile phone and broadband services, which currently rely on manned aircraft. Dr. Plamen Angelov, of the Department of Communications Systems at InfoLab21, is the Principal Investigator for Lancaster University on two ASTRAEA projects led by Thales UK which focus on Adaptive Routing and Collision Avoidance Systems. Dr. Angelov said: "The unmanned aircraft can be seen as an autonomous system which takes off, lands and manoeuvres successfully without direct human interference unless it is needed. To make this possible, one needs to address different problems. For example, the unmanned aircraft needs to avoid obstacles autonomously and safely; another issue is to fly an optimal route in terms of fuel consumption, time and other factors, such as storms or mountainous terrain." ASTRAEA is a key element of a national strategy to build on the collective capability of 'UK aerospace plc' in the realm of aerospace technology, with clear benefits in terms of improved competitiveness, high-value jobs and sustainable economic growth. The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Alastair Darling said: "ASTRAEA is a significant programme for the UK in establishing our credentials in the rapidly growing field of UAV development. It will strengthen collaboration across industry, universities and regulatory authorities, positioning the UK amongst the world's leaders in UAV technology." LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1163508592.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1179397949.jpg 250 250 Herti UAV, an autonomous airborne craft, courtesy of BAE Systems Tuesday Tue 14 November Nov 11 2006

293 9 LU News Hollywood Award For InfoLab21 Inventors

Two Lancaster University students who helped invent a pioneering mobile phone game have been invited to Hollywood to receive an award at the American Film Institute.

Two Lancaster University students who helped invent a pioneering mobile phone game have been invited to Hollywood to receive an award at the American Film Institute. PhD students Will Bamford and Omer Rashid have been awarded the Computers in Entertainment Scholarship Prize 2006 from the US-based ACM which is one of the world's premier computer societies. They will each receive up to $5,000 and the choice of an internship at either the Mixed Reality Lab at the National University of Singapore or its offshoot, the Hollywood Lab in Los Angeles, which researches digital media technology in collaboration with Hollywood studios and entertainment companies. Omer said: "It's totally unexpected and I'm looking forward to working at the cutting edge of digital media and establishing international connections." Their invention is the first game in the world to use mobile phones equipped with Radio Frequency Identification Tags. RFID tags are small devices - like barcodes - which can transmit and receive data. It is estimated that over half of mobile phones will be equipped with RFID by 2009. Will said: "RFID is already being used in some countries to pay for tickets with your phone which has a tag inside, or to add up your shopping as you go around so you don't have to empty the trolley.It's going to be huge and this was the first game in the world to use phones with RFID for mixed reality gaming." Called Pac-Lan - in homage to the early computer game Pacman - the game can be played by up to five players on mobile phones.They keep track of one another's position through images on their mobile phones as they chase each another around. Players have to collect points from a series of RFID tags attached to discs on lamp posts. When a player collects their points by holding their mobile phone against the disc, the virtual reality maze on each phone is updated with the player's position.Each player shows up as an animated character - Pac-Lan or Ghost - moving round the screen. This enables a team of Ghosts to track the player down and catch them. Also sharing in the prize are Dr Paul Coulton and Dr Reuben Edwards from Lancaster University's Department of Communications Systems, based at InfoLab21, along with Jurgen Scheible of the University of Art and Design in Finland. Dr Coulton said: "There's a change in the delivery of entertainment with the development of a DIY culture with blogs, mash-ups and sites like MySpace and there is considerable interest in new entertainment genres such as highlighted by Pac-Lan. <a href="http://www.pac-lan.com">www.pac-lan.com</a> <a href="http://www.mobileradicals.com">www.mobileradicals.com</a> <a href="http://www.acm.org/pubs/cie.html">http://www.acm.org/pubs/cie.html</a> <a href="http://www.afi.com/default.aspx">http://www.afi.com/default.aspx</a> <a href="http://www.mixedrealitylab.org/%20">http://www.mixedrealitylab.org/ </a> LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1159369457.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1179398654.jpg 250 250 Players taking part in a test run of Pac-Lan Wednesday Wed 27 September Sep 09 2006

292 9 LU News Lancaster Hosts Evolving Intelligent Systems Conference

The 2006 International Symposium on Evolving Fuzzy Systems (EFS'06) offered a forum for the academic community and industry to share views and ideas about developing and using Evolving Intelligent Systems - technology that can make possible computers and machines that can 'think', 'learn', adapt and self-develop like humans.

The 2006 International Symposium on Evolving Fuzzy Systems (EFS'06) offered a forum for the academic community and industry to share views and ideas about developing and using Evolving Intelligent Systems - technology that can make possible computers and machines that can 'think', 'learn', adapt and self-develop like humans. Senior figures from companies including General Electric, Ford, The Dow Chemical Company and Nokia joined academics at the St Martin's College campus at Ambleside in the Lake District for the three day event. It was organised by Lancaster University and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which has members in over 150 countries. Dr Plamen Angelov, the General Chair of the Symposium from the University's Department of Communications Systems at InfoLab21, said: "It's an exciting area because we want to develop autonomous systems like a robot which can adapt to its environment and evolve its 'intelligence', whether in a disaster zone or on another planet. "Humans do not have a fixed set of knowledge but are learning all the time so we want to create algorithms for computational intelligence to enable machines to stand in for humans in hazardous or unknown environments. "For example, people follow rules such as "If it is cold outside I will take a coat" or "If the distance to the car in front of mine is too small I will slow down". "Cold" and "too small" are usually not precisely defined. They are rather 'fuzzy' values defined by fuzzy sets. Fuzzy logic is a theory to represent the way humans manipulate knowledge, using so-called approximate reasoning." Evolving fuzzy systems is an emerging area that is inspired by Nature and focuses on the evolution of the machine to enable it to learn and adapt to an unpredictable environment. Possible applications include intelligent sensors in the oil industry, autonomous unmanned vehicles in the defence industry, personalised medicine tailored to the patient and personalised web usage, plus smart mobile phones that can restore lost portions of the signal. The President of the North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society, Dr. Dimitar Filev, Senior Technical Leader at Intelligent Control and Information Systems, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering in Michigan, USA, said: "Recent advances in information technology, sensor networks and communications, exponentially increasing amounts of information, the need for autonomous systems and architectures for automated data summarization, soft sensing, prognostics, and new types of knowledge-based software application (intelligent agents) are some of the main technology drivers for the emerging research area of evolving systems. "Evolving systems result from the synergy between conventional systems, neural networks and fuzzy systems as structures for information representation and the evolutionary and machine methods for learning. Embedded soft computing applications are the natural implementation area of evolving systems as one of the main tools for design of real time intelligent systems. EFS'06 was a great visionary event establishing and promoting the concept of evolving system." Another senior participant from a leading global company, Dr. Arthur Kordon, R&D Leader at The Dow Chemical Company in Texas, added: "Evolving Intelligent Systems have a high potential for implementation in industry. EFS'06 was a very successful event that brought together the key theoretical leaders in the field with several big industrial participants, like GE, Ford, Nokia, and Dow Chemical. The interesting presentations and fruitful discussions have moved forward this new research area." Dr. Oscar Cordon, the Chairman of IEEE's Genetic Fuzzy Systems Task Force and a Principal Researcher at the European Centre for Soft Computing in Asturias, Spain, said: "In my opinion, EFS '06 was an outstanding event, including the participation of world-wide recognized experts on the topic of genetic and evolving fuzzy systems. The organization was excellent and took special care to bring together people from academia and from industry, which can result in interesting collaborations in the near future." One of the leading academics, Prof. Dr. Janusz Kacprzyk, Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of the IFSA and Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, said: "Not only a great number of very interesting papers have been presented but due to the proper choice of participants, EFS'06 has obtained a synergistic effect. I am sure that discussions have clarified many aspects of evolutionary fuzzy systems, and the conference will be an important event for this area, triggering further progress and new research directions." Dr George D. Magoulas, from the University of London, said the Symposium created a lively atmosphere for discussing research with internationally recognised researchers. "The Symposium helped existing collaborations to be extended and provided opportunities for new collaborations to be forged between industry and academia." EFS '06 was organised by Lancaster University's InfoLab21 together with the Genetic Fuzzy Systems Task Force of the IEEE and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. It was co-sponsored by BAE Systems, Nokia-UK Ltd, J&S Marine and Retail Analytics. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1160661659.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1179398758.jpg 188 250 Members of the syposium Wednesday Wed 27 September Sep 09 2006

284 9 LU News Location-Based Mobile Blogging Invented At InfoLab21

Academics in the Department of Communications Systems are busy designing the next generation of mobile phone applications - and they want your input.

Academics in the Department of Communications Systems are busy designing the next generation of mobile phone applications - and they want your input. Their latest invention - location based mobile blogging (LocoBlog) - is released into the wild this month and they want feedback from users. "Locoblogging" is an example of one of the expected high-impact technologies for Web 2.0 - the 'mashup', which is application that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service. Their application allows users to compile a log of photos and text from their mobile phone, which is tagged with their current location obtained by the phone connecting to a GPS receiver via Bluetooth. The application sends this data to a website running Google maps so that a travelogue of their journeys can be created whilst they are on the move. Dr Paul Coulton, head of mobile game research, said: "It allows people to create a travelogue not just in the linear time of traditional blogs, or pictures sharing sites, but across space too so you get a feeling of the journey the user has taken. "Also you don't need a computer or digital camera, just any mobile phone and you then send the photos to anywhere in the world and then people can follow your journey as it unfolds." He developed the idea after working on a project recording children's health while walking to and from school. His colleague, PhD student Will Bamford, said he envisaged people using location-based mobile blogging in different and unexpected ways. "My brother is into climbing and if he finds a good route up a mountain he's going to blog his position using the phone and show other climbers. As with traditional blogs and picture sharing we can see lots of potential for users to create novel uses for the system. "Maybe tourist sites could use it to show the best routes around a city or students on a gap year could use it to show their parents where they've been." They are now waiting to see how some of the world's estimated 100 million bloggers react to their site www.locoblog.com. Anyone who is interested in participating in the trials can have the application sent direct to their mobile phone. Dr Coulton said: "Although we have developed it to commercial standards, we want feedback from a wide range of users to see how they use it, how it can be improved and their overall perception of the experience." His invention is likely to be keenly watched by mobile phone companies, as this type of location based service is seen as having enormous potential in future mobile experiences. Dr Coulton has already been recognised as one of the top mobile developers worldwide with the award of the title of Forum Nokia Champion earlier this year.The award is given to only 50 members worldwide, from a community of over 2 million, considered by Nokia to be "outstanding talents in our community." Nokia also supports the university's MSc in Mobile Game Design & M-Commerce Systems - one of the leading courses on mobile applications development in the world and the only course in the UK to teach mobile phone game design. The Department of Communications Systems provides academic research for InfoLab21, Lancaster University's £15m world-class centre in ICT. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1158595249.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1158595249.jpg 230 300 LocoBlogging creates a travelogue of your journey while you're on the move Monday Mon 18 September Sep 09 2006

281 9 LU News International Satellite Workshop

Researchers from the Department of Communication Systems are part of an international team of scientists trying to predict 'space weather' in an attempt to prevent global power failures and damage to satellites.

Researchers from the Department of Communication Systems are part of an international team of scientists trying to predict 'space weather' in an attempt to prevent global power failures and damage to satellites. The researchers from Europe, the USA, China and the UK are investigating measurements from satellites orbiting the Earth together with data from a worldwide network of ground-based experiments. The aim is to try to predict the effects of geomagnetic storms, when electrically charged particles from the sun enter the Earth's atmosphere.This can damage defence and telecommunications satellites and overload electricity networks on the ground, causing power failures across whole continents. Aircraft may also have to be diverted because of the risk of high doses of radiation. Dr Jim Wild, from the Space Plasma Environment and Radio Science group at InfoLab21, organised the international workshop. He said: "This research is very relevant to today's technologically dependent society where a geomagnetic storm can play havoc with radio communications. A large part of Canada once lost power because of this and it can also mean aircraft being diverted, so using up more fuel on longer routes and delays for passengers. If we could predict when these storms were likely to occur, we could plan ahead." The researchers are studying data from the four-satellite 'Cluster', operated by the European Space Agency, and the two-satellite 'Double Star', operated by the ESA and the China National Space Administration. Dr Wild said: "The satellites are designed to study the magnetosphere - the region of near-space dominated by the Earth's magnetic field - and investigate the electromagnetic connection between the sun and Earth. "Disturbances in this coupling to the Sun - often called 'space weather' - can lead to electrically charged particles of solar origin entering the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere. "The most striking natural effects of space weather are the Aurora Borealis or 'northern lights', but a large influx of charged particles can damage Earth-orbiting satellites and play havoc with radio communications. "Electrical currents flowing through the upper atmosphere can also overload electricity network distribution networks on the ground." By combining data from instruments such as ionospheric radars, magnetometers and auroral imagers with satellite data, the scientists are trying to find out when this is likely to happen. Dr Steve Milan from Leicester University said: "The goal is to predict how the sun will behave and shut down satellites on those days to save them being knocked out because just one satellite costs hundreds of millions of pounds." Professor Yang Huigen from the Polar Research Institute of China said it was good to share information. "We need to collaborate because we are scientists in different countries, with different instruments and different sets of data and we need to make sense of these." LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1157712295.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1179398909.jpg 183 250 Artist's impression of Cluster spacecraft (Image credit: ESA) Friday Fri 08 September Sep 09 2006

275 1 News SPEARS Researcher in MP-Scientist Pairing Scheme

Dr Jim Wild has been accepted onto the Royal Society's 2006 MP-Scientist Pairing Scheme which aims to inform both scientists and MPs about both areas of work.

Dr Jim Wild has been accepted onto the Royal Society's 2006 MP-Scientist Pairing Scheme which aims to inform both scientists and MPs about both areas of work. As part of the scheme, Jim will be spending a week in Westminster to attend seminars on general Parliamentary proceedings and on how science is dealt with in Parliament, and will shadow local MP Ben Wallace. His time at Westminster will also involve sitting in on Science and Technology Committees in the House of Commons and the House of Lords and Prime Minister's Questions. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1156515641.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1156515641.jpg 224 229 Dr Jim Wild Friday Fri 25 August Aug 08 2006

163 9 LU News Researcher Wins Nokia Accolade

Dr Paul Coulton, head of mobile game research at Lancaster University's Department of Communication Systems, has been made a founding member of Forum Nokia Champion - a recognition and reward program that honours a select group of mobile developers from around the world.

Dr Paul Coulton, head of mobile game research at Lancaster University's Department of Communication Systems, has been made a founding member of Forum Nokia Champion - a recognition and reward program that honours a select group of mobile developers from around the world. Nokia has described Forum Nokia Champions as 'the outstanding talents in our community'. The award was announced on, February 13, in Barcelona at 3GSM - the major mobile conference worldwide for manufacturers and operators. The award gives members global recognition as industry leaders as well as providing exclusive access to special technical services and events. Dr Coulton said: "I am delighted to receive this award and I believe it is also testament to the talented group of researchers with whom I work. The collaboration between Nokia and Lancaster is enabling us to produce some of the most creative uses of this pervasive technology for businesses and consumers alike." Lancaster University Communications Systems department has been working in collaboration with Nokia for more than three-and-a-half years. It initially started around the development of advanced learning and training materials for mobile applications development and has expanded into a wide variety of research into innovative mobile commerce systems and applications. The advanced learning materials has resulted in Nokia's support of Lancaster University's MSc in Mobile Game Design and M-Commerce Systems - one of the leading courses on mobile applications development in Europe and the only course in the UK to teach mobile phone game design. Nokia support for research comes in the form of the very latest phones and software development tools, often prior to their commercial release, which enables researchers to produce cutting edge- novel applications for mobile phones such as a mixed reality game PAC-LAN, which is helping shape a whole new genre in game development, and our live Premiership Football results service MFOOTY which provides anytime, anywhere information as it happens. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1140174090.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1139583617.jpg 250 200 Dr Paul Coulton, head of mobile game research at the Department of Communication Systems Friday Fri 10 February Feb 02 2006

178 9 LU News Catch Comms on Channel 4 in 2006

Aurora Borealis was one of the top 100 most searched for subjects in 2005 and Channel 4 visited InfoLab21 this month to gather information for a feature in an educational programme on internet searches, due to be broadcast in January 2006.

Aurora Borealis was one of the top 100 most searched for subjects in 2005 and Channel 4 visited InfoLab21 this month to gather information for a feature in an educational programme on internet searches, due to be broadcast in January 2006. As part of the programme the Channel 4 crew interviewed Prof. Farideh Honary and other members of the Aurora Watch team from Lancaster University's Department of Communications Systems. The space plasma environment and radio science group operate the UK Sub Auroral Magnetometer Network (SAMNET), which is an important tool for studying the physical processes involved in the Sun-Earth interactions. It is funded by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) as one of the UK Solar Terrestrial Physics (STP) national facilities. The data from the magnetometer is processed whilst it is recorded and used to show the current activity level on a Web page. It is also used to alert subscribers to the Aurora Watch programme when Auroras are likely to be seen over the UK. A popular misconception is that the 'Northern lights', or Aurora Borealis is only visible in the arctic (or the Antarctic for the aurora australis); however sometimes the Aurora can be observed over Britain, even Lancaster, so take a look. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1140021713.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1179400225.jpg 167 250 Farideh Honary and colleagues Dr Steve Marple, Dr Jim Wild with Channel 4 film crew in InfoLab21 Wednesday Wed 21 December Dec 12 2005

175 1 News MSc Project Success

The Department of Communications Systems are currently finalising their industrial projects (starting in April) for its 2005-06 intake of MSc students. This joint initiative with the KBC was successful in placing a number of students, resulting in the successful completion of projects.

The Department of Communications Systems are currently finalising their industrial projects (starting in April) for its 2005-06 intake of MSc students. This joint initiative with the KBC was successful in placing a number of students, resulting in the successful completion of projects. Polykarpos Charizakis, for example, has successfully completed a 6-month project with Internet4Business as part of his MSc in September 2005. He helped in the creation of automated link popularity building, which involves retrieving information from a search engine and then creating and maintaining a database to store and manage the information. Patrick Joleys, Director of Internet4Business, stated 'we are very pleased with the results you have achieved for us and will be integrating your work into our business soon'. Patrick was also impressed with the management of the project, including defining objectives of the work right at the start, regular progress updates during the course of the project and a demonstration of the completed work at the end of the project. Wednesday Wed 21 December Dec 12 2005

177 1 News Postgraduate Show

The Department of Communication Systems organised a Postgraduate show for University staff and businesses on Thursday 15th September 2005 in InfoLab21. This event provided an opportunity for MSc students to showcase their projects and was especially well attended by representatives from local businesses.

The Department of Communication Systems organised a Postgraduate show for University staff and businesses on Thursday 15th September 2005 in InfoLab21. This event provided an opportunity for MSc students to showcase their projects and was especially well attended by representatives from local businesses. Those with Bluetooth on their phones received a welcome message as they entered the show and there were some excellent demonstrations of the students' innovative work. For example, a mobile phone application which allows the user to develop, store and share recipes, new mobiles games developed by the students, a robotics demonstration and a virtual tour of InfoLab21. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who took part. Wednesday Wed 21 December Dec 12 2005

166 1 News Lab opened in memory of Dr. Hannaford

The new Hannaford Laboratory, situated in the Engineering building, has been refurbished for use by undergraduate students of the Department of Communication Systems.

The new Hannaford Laboratory, situated in the Engineering building, has been refurbished for use by undergraduate students of the Department of Communication Systems. Tuesday Tue 20 December Dec 12 2005

149 9 LU News Mobile Technology Brings Pacman to Life

Researchers in the Department of Communication Systems, based in InfoLab21, have been developing a new game which can be played by up to five players on mobile phones.

Researchers in the Department of Communication Systems, based in InfoLab21, have been developing a new game which can be played by up to five players on mobile phones. Unlike traditional mobile phone games, this game takes place in real space as well as on a mobile phone screen. Called Pac-Lan, in homage to the arcade classic Pacman, the game enables players to keep track of one another's position through images on their mobile phones as they chase one another round campus. Dr Paul Coulton, head of mobile game development at Lancaster University, said: "This game is using a traditional mobile phone game in a different way by mixing the real and virtual world. Players move around in real space interacting with one another, their environment and their mobile phone." Each phone has been programmed with a maze, which is based on a map of the University Campus. Players have to collect points from a series of Radio Frequency Identification Tags, which have been attached to yellow disks on lampposts around the University. When a player collects their points by holding their mobile phone against the disc the virtual reality maze on each mobile phone is updated with the player's position. Each player shows up as an animated character (Pac-Lan or Ghost) moving round the screen. This enables a team of 'ghosts' to track the player down and catch them. It is the first game in the world to use mobile phones equipped with Radio Frequency Identification Tags. RFID tags are small devices - like barcodes- which can transmit and receive data. LU Press Office http://news.lancs.ac.uk http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/thumbnail_1133181246.jpg 75 75 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/images/image_1133181246.jpg 256 192 RFID tags bring Pacman into the real world Monday Mon 28 November Nov 11 2005

114 1 News m-football Promoted to Conference

A novel mobile application developed by members of Communications Systems was demonstrated at E3 in Los Angeles by Orange as part of their promotion of novel 3G applications. m-football is a new sports information service that provides live updates from all premiership games on any given match day, together with a live fantasy football game that allows users to see the changing status of their fantasy team as real events unfold.

A novel mobile application developed by members of Communications Systems was demonstrated at E3 in Los Angeles by Orange as part of their promotion of novel 3G applications. m-football is a new sports information service that provides live updates from all premiership games on any given match day, together with a live fantasy football game that allows users to see the changing status of their fantasy team as real events unfold. m-ventions' Paul Coulton and Reuben Edwards were also invited to present their work at GDC Mobile held in March 2005 in San Francisco. The Game Developers Conference is the premier event for the games industry, attracting attendees from all over the world, and this was the first time academics have been invited to speak to such a gathering. This highlights the growing international recognition of the group's expertise in developing novel systems that exploit the benefits of mobile phones on the major mobile phone development platforms. They presented, to an audience in excess of 500 people, examples of their research and how industry could engage with academics using examples of projects have been taken through to commercial exploitation with industrial collaboration. Meanwhile, as part of the support Nokia provides to Communication Systems (including full Symbian developer training for the staff teaching Symbian), the department has received the latest batch of both newly released and pre-release phones. The pre-release phones include one model with an in-built RFID reader which they are using to create a very novel location based service. Wednesday Wed 22 June Jun 06 2005