Bournemouth University

School of Design, Engineering & Computing

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All Hands on DEC - January 2008

 This Months Stories:
Tom Lawton Harnesses the Power of the Wind

Product Design Visualisation graduate Tom Lawton has already achieved commercial success through his final year project, the Wake Yoo alarm clock, and has now brought a new product to market. Six years in the making, Tom’s newest invention the Firewinder is now available to pre-order.

The Firewinder is a decorative, eco-friendly garden light, which uses the power of the wind to operate, creating the effect of a glowing spiral of light.

For more information about the Firewinder and to see it in action visit www.firewinder.com

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More Proof of Concept Award Success for Pressure Sore Research

Dr Jon Cobb has successfully achieved a Proof of Concept award of £13,500 to develop a sensor that will measure skin blood flow.

This Proof of Concept award builds upon research in biomedical optics that Jon has been involved in over the last five years. The work applies advances in laser technology, fibre optics and spectroscopy to obtain clinically useful measures of physiological function by making non-invasive measurements on the skin.

In particular, skin blood flow is a useful indicator of the risk of pressure sores – a prevalent risk factor in immobile hospital patients who currently have to be turned manually by a nurse at regular intervals to avoid breakdown of skin tissue. In order to reduce the risk of pressure sores, developing the detection of at risk tissue is required, and can be achieved using techniques such as laser Doppler flowmetry. However, at present the sensing heads of these systems are typically a few millimetres thick, which can aggravate the local pressure problem. Therefore the wider use of this technology in the NHS relies upon reducing the sensing head to around 1mm. Jon’s investigation will be made in collaboration with Moor Instruments who are the major UK manufacturer of laser Doppler systems.

Jon’s work will closely relate to work being carried out by Dr Glyn Hadley in the assessment of at risk tissue. Glyn’s work focuses on the chemical changes that occur in skin under pressure, whereas Jon’s work looks at changes in skin blood flow. Where possible, Glyn and Jon will be sharing resources, working together and checking correlation between their results, meaning that the research conducted within DEC could make real advances in the understanding, treatment and prevention of pressure sores.

If successful this project has the potential to improve the quality of life of at risk patients and significantly reduce NHS costs relating to the treatment of pressure sores.

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GWR research grant success: Smart Technology Research Centre

Professor Bogdan Gabrys and Dr Stephen McKearney from the Smart Technology Research Centre, together with Mr Michael Barker from Screwfix Direct Ltd and Prof Trevor Martin from Bristol University, have been awarded a research grant from Great Western Research for a project entitled ‘Robust Adaptive Algorithms for Relational Data Mining’.

This project will establish completely new regional links with Screwfix Direct Ltd and the Artificial Intelligence Research Group from Bristol University.

Screwfix Direct is an example of a data rich organisation that can use data mining and analysis skills to improve relationships with their customers. However, current attempts to analyse their data have failed due to the amount of data, the complexity of the relationships and the poor quality of the data.

This project will investigate the application of relational data mining to large real-world data sets. Using relational data mining we hope to develop algorithms that do not require the data to be exported from the database. This will make it possible to investigate methods of adapting and changing data mining models online as the nature of the Screwfix business grows and changes. Adaptation helps to prolong the useful life of learned predictive models which is an important part of making such models more useful to non-expert users.

The impact of the applied algorithms and the usefulness of the extracted or corrected information will be assessed through the monitoring and reducing of the operational costs (ie. from not requiring or reducing the need for manual data verification and checking of databases to reduced costs of printing and sending of multiple copies of the product catalogues to the same customers) and improving the return from the targeted marketing campaigns (ie. on the basis of automatic extraction of various customers' preferences, brand loyalty, patterns of behaviour etc.).

For more information about the above please contact Prof Bogdan Gabrys at bgabrys@bournemouth.ac.uk

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Stephen Edge to Lecture at Artsway Gallery

Stephen Edge will be conducting a lecture entitled ‘Art in Context (Environment): The Dialectics of Environmental Art’ on 5 March.

This lecture will examine the creative synergy that takes place between artists, engineers and contractors in the production of large-scale works of art. The Dialectics of Environmental Art, will focus on the work of legendary environmental artists Christo and Jeanne Claude, and will cover all aspects of producing large-scale works of art from concept to completion. Edge will use, as a key case study, Christo and Jeanne Claude's temporary work 'Running Fence', set in Northern California in 1976, which he helped erect. The lecture will be presented alongside the exhibition Alex Frost: BBQ at the Artsway Gallery in Sway in the New Forest.

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DEC Graduate is in Fashion

Fashion & Textiles graduate Tom Lipop is in the running to win Sky One's popular show Project Catwalk. Twenty-three-year old Tom is competing against 12 other contestants to win £25,000 cash, an exclusive deal with Oli and a spread in Grazia magazine. The show, which is hosted by Kelly Osborne, features tasks such as designing a red carpet gown for Nancy Dell'Olio.

Speaking in the Daily Echo, Tom said: "The degree course was brilliant and I had a great time. Everything I learned at BU has set me up to where I am now.”

See Tom in action on Project Catwalk Series 3 at 9pm on Sky One.

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More Kauffman Foundation Success for CAPD

Yet another Computer Aided Product Design graduate has been selected by the Ewing Kauffman Foundation and National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) as an Entrepreneurship fellow. Following in the footsteps of Simon Phelps, James Reed was one of just 14 Entrepreneurship fellows chosen.

James is currently working on developing his unique space saving outdoor furniture collection called “Complico” (displayed at the 2006 Festival of Design & Innovation) with BU’s commercialisation experts. The Fellowship experience will help James develop his commercial know-how and make key contacts to help his business succeed. James commented: “The Fellowship is an outstanding opportunity for me to start learning all I need to know about the business world and how I can make my idea a reality.”

Chief Executive of the NGCE, Ian Robertson said: “During the application process, James demonstrated commitment to his business idea and the determination needed to succeed.”

James will begin his six-month fellowship in Kansas City, home of the Ewing Kauffman Foundation.

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Review of the Psychology Research Seminar Series from Dr Jacqui Taylor, Series Coordinator

Following the launch of the Psychology Research Seminars in November with Professor Michael Eysenck, the seminars have continued to attract psychologists working locally as well as University staff and final year students. The seminars have been held on Thursdays at 5pm in alternate weeks and in Term 1 covered most areas of Professional Psychology, including: Developmental, Forensic, Clinical, Educational and Occupational Psychology. Term 2 has included a similarly wide-ranging selection of talks. The first two seminars came from a Health Psychology angle, one on EcoPsychology and Ecotherapy, and the other reviewing the research produced by the Macmillan Cancer Research Unit. Both these and the seminar on Understanding Sexual Orientation highlighted the important role of qualitative methods in psychological research. The two final seminars were delivered by members of the BU Psychology Research Group on: 'Recognition of Emotionally Expressive Faces' and 'Online Identity and Deception'. The feedback from seminar attendees has been very positive and many new research collaborations have been initiated and explored as a result of these talks.

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DEC at West of England Aerospace Forum Annual Conference

DEC was one of over forty exhibitors at the WEAF annual conference held in Western-Super-Mare on the 6 February. The conference team consisted of Norman Stock, Colin Hewitt-Bell, Cornelius Ncube and Lawrence Tratt.

WEAF are a trade association within the south west of England that support the interests of the local aerospace and defence industry.

The University was given a boost at the conference by key speaker David Way, Director of Operations, Technology Strategy Board quoting BU with regard to Knowledge Transfer Partnerships which generated additional interest at the DEC stand.

One highlight from the conference was the presentation from Virgin Galactic giving everyone a flavour for their space travelling programme and what the passengers’ journey would be like. Norman Stock commented: “The conference was well worth attending and some useful contacts were made”.

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Paula Jones in International Sports MBA Case Competition, San Diego

DEC Business Relations Officer Paula Jones has been selected along with three of her fellow MBA students to compete in the third annual International Sports MBA Competition in San Diego, California.

BU is the only European university represented at the invitation-only event. In previous years teams from elite business schools such as Columbia University, Northwestern University and the University of California-Berkley have competed.

The event will challenge the teams to devise and present solutions to an international sports-related case study in just 24 hours. The presentations will then be graded on creativity and efficacy by a judging panel made up by sports industry executives.

Paula said: “I’m thrilled to have been selected and just hope we do BU proud. My experience, coupled with the huge amount of knowledge gained during the MBA at BU, should compliment the team’s other attributes and give us a fighting chance. If my sporting knowledge fails me, I’m hoping my business knowledge will compensate!”

We wish Paula and the rest of the team the best of luck, and look forward to hearing how they get on.

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PhD Poster Presentation

DEC’s PhD students will be exhibiting posters about their work in the Thomas Hardy Suite on 23 April. Throughout the morning students will be presenting their posters to a panel of experts, and winners will then be selected from students in each year of study.

The exhibition will be open to all at 3pm and the prizes will be presented at 4pm. Staff are invited to come along to support the students, and refreshments will be provided. To confirm your attendance please email Jo Sawyer.

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Postgraduate Open Afternoon

The next Postgraduate Open Afternoon will take place on 12 March between 3.30 and 7pm. The event will be our first since introducing changes to our postgraduate courses.

As always, everyone’s support at this event is very much appreciated. It provides a great opportunity to meet our potential students and explain our new range of courses to them.

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How to submit future stories

If you have a story you would like included in the next issue of “all hands on DEC” please send it to Emma Bennett . Each month the next deadline will be found at the bottom of the newsletter and a document can be found in the ‘I drive’ (I:\DEC\Private\Marketing\All Hands on DEC) with all copy/story deadlines for the rest of the year.

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Next Newsletter

Story deadline is: 15 March 2008
Newsletter will be sent out: 31 March 2008

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