Researchers from Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton are heading for the local pub to present their latest pioneering research as part of the international Pint of Science Festival.

The annual Pint of Science Festival was launched in 2012 and takes place in nearly 300 cities around the globe. This year's festival runs from May 14-16 and brings some of the most brilliant scientists to venues across the UK to discuss their research and findings with members of the public in an accessible location – in the pub.

As part of the Festival, ECS researchers Dr Gopal Ramchurn and Professor Koushik Maharatna will be exploring the world of Artificial Intelligence in an evening entitled I, Robot.

Many’s the time that Fantasy Football league performance has been debated in a pub environment but it’s a new signing for Dr Ramchurn, Director of the Centre for Machine Intelligence in ECS. Gopal will tell the story of Squadguru, an algorithm he developed to play the English Premier League Fantasy Football – and which beat 99% of human players on average. He’ll also talk about the difficulties of taking the algorithm out from the labs to the real world and why AI will not beat all humans at everything...yet.

Koushik Maharatna, Professor in Signal Processing Systems Design in ECS, works on next-generation mobile healthcare systems. In his talk, Koushik considers how a ‘predictive’ approach to remotely monitoring the health of populations could help reduce costs of long-term care by predicting impending episodes of chronic disease. He’ll also identify the elements hindering the adoption of such systems and a strategy to overcome these challenges.

Other Pint of Science evenings include In the Dark, exploring supermassive black holes and the ‘darkest’ areas of science, and A Journey Though Galaxies which looks at the formation, evolution and research simulations of galaxies. Both evenings are delivered by Southampton’s school of Physics and Astronomy.

The I, Robot talks take place at Southampton’s Stein Garten on Tuesday 15 May. Tickets for this, and all Pint of Science activities in Southampton, are available online from pintofscience.co.uk/events/southampton with each evening costing only £4.

Machine learning experts from the University of Southampton have completed a £100,000 seed investment deal for a retail technology startup founded from PhD research in Electronics and Computer Science (ECS).

Aura Vision Labs will join the Collider accelerator this summer having innovated a cloud-based platform that can detect the gender, age and clothing styles of every person in a crowd.

The marketing, advertising and technology – or MadTech – startup uses computer vision and biometric identification techniques to analyse CCTV video footage, producing valuable insights into customer behaviour that can help boost sales performance and loyalty.

Co-founders Daniel Martinho-Corbishley and Jaime Lomeli have built the startup on PhD research undertaken in ECS' Vision, Learning and Control research group and have been based for the past year in the University’s Future Worlds incubator. The team will move this summer as they join the London-based Collider accelerator, one of Europe’s leading hubs for the MadTech industry.

“We’re thrilled to announce this important step in our startup journey and are looking forward to progressing our business alongside our new investors,â€? Jaime says. “With a few other offers on the table, we decided to close this deal because of the valuable experience the Collider team can provide. Our interests are well aligned. In the coming months we will be working further on our platform and exploring in detail what elements can create even greater value for our customers.â€?

Aura Vision Labs’ cost effective solution captures up to 100 per cent of in-store visitor demographics, dwell spots, walk-ins and walk-bys. This data can be accessed and analysed by retailers through a cloud-based platform to improve conversion rates, act on missed opportunities and target specific customer segments, all without needing to access sensitive personal information.

The tech startup was launched last spring when the team first pitched the idea at an on-campus Dragons’ Den style investment competition. The entrepreneurs have been based in the University’s Future Worlds incubator since the summer and received early-stage support from the Web Science Institute’s Z21 Innovation Fund.

“The past year has been a great experience,â€? Jaime adds. “We’ve been continually learning and developing through mentoring and support from the University. This January, we exhibited with the Future Worlds incubator at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and this has resulted in several very important leads that are becoming our first key partnerships. We plan to release a scalable platform in the next few months, before raising a second round of investment to scale up and expand our customer base.â€?

Find out more about Aura Vision Labs through their video, made by the University's Future Worlds incubator.

Computer scientists from the University of Southampton will support key developments of global scale decentralised systems as part of a new EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum launched by the European Commission.

Experts from Southampton’s Department of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) will work with European research groups and industry partners to shape blockchain technologies that will impact digital services across different sectors, e.g. in the healthcare, finance and government services.

Blockchain technologies bring about high levels of traceability and security in online transactions by storing blocks of information that are distributed across a network. The new EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum will help Europe seize new opportunities offered by this technology by building expertise and leadership in the field.

Professor Elena Simperl and Research Fellow Dr Luis-Daniel Ibáñez from ECS’s Web and Internet Science research group will publish findings from recent research and innovation activities as part of Southampton’s contribution to the international consortium.

“The EU Blockchain Observatory is one of the first projects of this kind to be supported at a European level and will provide a comprehensive, holistic overview to a field that has been advancing at great pace,â€? Elena explains. “The University of Southampton brings in unique expertise in studies and methods to blockchain technologies which will have profound socio-technical impacts in the near future. Our work in this project will result in white papers on specialist subjects that inform thought leadership frameworks and policies in the blockchain space. In particular, we will be promoting our recent activities around interoperable distributed ledgers and their applications in creative industries, government and science, drawing upon principles that have already made the Web so successful.â€?

The EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum was launched last month February and continues the European Union’s rich investment in the field. By 2020, up to €340 million in projects could be funded through the EU’s FP7 and Horizon 2020 research programmes that could draw upon blockchain technologies.

Andrus Ansip, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, says, “Technologies like blockchain can help reduce costs while increasing trust, traceability and security. They have huge potential for making social and economic transactions more secure online by guarding against an attack and removing the need for any middleman. We want to build on Europe's substantial talent base and excellent startups to become a leading world region that will develop and invest in the rollout of blockchain.â€?

Research from SMARTmove, a collaborative project between Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) and the Faculty of Health Sciences will be presented at the Houses of Parliament on Monday 12th March 2018 at the prestigious ‘STEM for Britain’ event. Dr Katie Meadmore, a Senior Research Fellow in Health Sciences, was shortlisted from hundreds of applicants, and will attend Parliament with Dr Neil Grabham, a Senior Research Fellow in ECS.

Katie and Neil are representing an interdisciplinary research team, funded by the Medical Research Council and led by Dr Kai Yang. The research combines cutting edge printed smart fabrics, intelligent control and health care methods to achieve wearable electrical stimulation technology that will assist arm movement in stroke survivors both in clinical settings and at home.

On the opportunity to present this research in Parliament, Katie said, ‘STEM for Britain is an excellent platform from which to advocate the need for low cost solutions to rehabilitation and to showcase our research to address this which was developed with stroke survivors. I hope that my day in Parliament will raise awareness amongst MPs of this need for rehabilitation, as well as the consequences of living with stroke more generally.’

STEM for Britain is a poster competition that aims to encourage and foster greater engagement between early-stage researchers and MPs. Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, said: ‘This annual competition is an important date in the parliamentary calendar because it gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country’s best young researchers.’ The SMARTmove research will be presented to politicians, scientists and a panel of expert judges. It has been entered in to the Engineering session of the competition and judges will award a gold, silver and bronze winner.