Date:

2010-2012

Themes:

Knowledge Technologies, Web Science, e-Defence

Funding:

U.S. Office of Naval Research

The IEXTREME project is a trans-Atlantic collaborative project, funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research. The project is a collaborative venture between the University of Southampton, Applied Research Associates and Rababy & Associates LLC, with Applied Research Associates acting as the prime contractor. The main goal of the IEXTREME project is to develop a better understanding of the ideological enablers associated with the behaviour of terrorist and insurgent groups. The National Military Strategic Plan for the War on Terrorism identifies extremist ideology as the enemy’s strategic center of gravity, and the Department of Defense (DoD) plays a significant role in establishing an environment unfavourable to extremist ideas, terrorist recruitment, and support. In spite of this, however, we have, as yet, little understanding of the specific ways in which extremist ideology contributes to various forms of terrorist action. IEXTREME aims to address this shortcoming by combining state-of-the-art approaches to cultural modelling with a variety of advanced knowledge technologies. The project builds on the scientific and technical outcomes of a number of previous projects, including SEMIOTIKS, MIMEX, ITA, ArtEquAKT and AKT.

The IEXTREME project is broken down into a number of separate, but inter-dependent, research and development activities:

1. Cultural Model Development: Using state-of-the-art approaches to cultural model development, Applied Research Associates will develop qualitative models of both extremist and moderate religious groups. The aim here is to provide a cognitive characterization of groups in terms of their commitment to terrorist activities. Clearly, extremist and moderate groups can be distinguished in terms of their decision to commit acts of terrorism, but to what extent can this commitment be accounted for in terms of the specific beliefs and values of the group members? Furthermore, what role do beliefs and values play in legitimating terrorist action? Do specific beliefs serve to reinforce extremism by prohibiting a consideration of alternative ideologies? And can pre-existing beliefs effectively inoculate a religious community against the adoption of extremist ideologies? These are the kind of questions that the cultural modelling activity intends to explore. In developing cultural models, Applied Research Associates will rely on a technique called Cultural Network Analysis (CNA). CNA is a technique for developing cultural models that draws on ideas, methods and techniques from a variety of disciplines, including naturalistic decision making, cognitive anthropology, cognitive psychology, and decision analysis. CNA was developed by Applied Research Associates, and it has been used in a variety of application contexts. For example, it has been used to support the identification of cultural differences between US and UK military planners, to analyse the decision making processes of Middle Eastern crowd members, and to model the decision-making frameworks associated with nuclear terrorism.
2. Cultural Ontology Development: Cultural models are intended to represent a group’s causally-relevant beliefs and values as they relate to a specific decision outcome, e.g. the decision to commit acts of terrorism. The conventional way of communicating such models is, however, somewhat informal, and this prohibits the effective exploitation of the models in automated processes. The aim of the cultural ontology development activity is to develop cultural ontologies that represent the content of cultural models in a form that is much more amenable to machine-based processing. The activity also seeks to extend and adapt the cultural ontologies developed in previous projects, such as the MIMEX project.
3. Cultural Analysis System (CAS) Development: The University of Southampton will act as technical lead on the development of a technical demonstrator system to support the analysis of culture-relevant resources on the World Wide Web. The system will also be used to support a number of empirical evaluation studies. The CAS comprises a suite of knowledge processing and information visualization technologies. Together these technologies deliver the following capabilities:
   1. Ontology Visualization and Editing: The CAS will support the visualization and editing of cultural ontologies by providing access to state-of-the-art semantic browser interfaces and controlled natural language editors.
   2. Resource Classification: Building on the scientific and technical outcomes of the SEMIOTIKS project, the CAS will include a resource classification capability that capitalizes on the availability of semantically-enriched meta-data characterizations of resource content.
   3. Knowledge Extraction: The IEXTREME project will incorporate information extraction capabilities developed in the course of previous projects. One of these capabilities is demonstrated by the ArtEquAKT initiative, which was undertaken as part of the Advanced Knowledge Technologies (AKT) programme. ArtEquAKT relied on an ontology of artists and artistic works to support the extraction of relational information from a number of Web-based resources. A similar capability will be developed as part of the IEXTREME project to support the extraction of culture-relevant information from both Web-based and archival resources.
4. Empirical Evaluation: The IEXTREME project includes a number of empirical evaluation activities which will be undertaken to assess the performance of the CAS's knowledge extraction and resource classification capabilities in the cognitive anthropological domain.

Together the scientific outcomes of the IEXTREME project are expected to deliver improvements in our understanding of the way in which extremist ideological influences support the behaviour of terrorist and insurgent groups. The project will also deliver a number of important technical outcomes. These include state-of-the-art approaches to resource classification, semantic annotation, knowledge extraction, and information visualization; ontologies to support the representation of culture-relevant information; and tools to support the entry and editing of cultural model content. All these outcomes will contribute to our understanding of the ideological enablers associated with the behaviour of terrorist and insurgent groups. They also provide insights into how the decision-making processes of terrorist organizations might be subverted as part of future counter-terrorism initiatives.

The IEXTREME project is due for completion in February 2012. The project is a collaborative research and development effort between the University of Southampton and Applied Research Associates.

Primary investigators

• ps02v
• Nigel Richard Shadbolt

Secondary investigators

• Winston R. Sieck
• Louise Rasmussen

Partner

• Applied Research Associates

Associated research group

• Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group

Date:

2009-2011

Theme:

Robotics and Control

Funding:

EPSRC

Conventional therapy to improve upper limb function following stroke is not effective. Only 5% of people who survive a stroke but have severe paralysis regain upper limb function. No conventional therapy is better than another, but intensity has been shown to be important. During the last decade there has been growing evidence for the effectiveness of technologies such as rehabilitation robots and electrical stimulation, to provide an enriched training environment for recovery of movement post-stroke.

In particular, use of functional electrical stimulation (FES) is motivated by a growing body of clinical evidence, and theoretical support from neurophysiology and motor learning research, which shows that its therapeutic benefit is maximised when it is applied co-incidently with a patient's own voluntary intention. A hypothesis has been proposed that explains why the increased degree of functional recovery is closely related to the accuracy with which the stimulation assists the subject's own voluntary completion of a task.

Iterative Learning Control (ILC) has been shown to be highly effective when applied to stroke rehabilitation. In recent cross disciplinary research at the University of Southampton, FES was applied to generate torque about the elbow joint, and ILC was used to update the stimulation level to assist patient's completion of a planar reaching task. To enable accurate performance, dynamic models of the arm were developed, together with model-based ILC schemes. When used in clinical trials, statistically significant results across a range of outcome measures showed that impairment in arm function reduced over the course of only 18 treatment sessions, thereby establishing the effectiveness of the approach. However improvement in motor function was only significant across tasks similar to those trained during treatment.

To maximise its potential for rehabilitation, a system is developed in this project which extends the technology to assist unconstrained 3D arm movements using FES applied to multiple muscles. This involves substantial extension to the underlying dynamic model of the system, and to the ILC schemes used to provide the precise tracking control required. This system includes a mechanical robotic unweighing system used to support the patient's arm, FES hardware, control and user software, and custom-made virtual reality software. Trials with unimpaired participants supplying no voluntary contribution confirm the efficacy of the system, and its ability to produce accurate tracking over a range of 3D tasks. Trials will shortly commence with stroke patients.

Primary investigator

• Christopher Freeman

Secondary investigators

• zc
• dt08r
• amh

Associated research groups

• Electronics and Electrical Engineering
• Electrical Power Engineering

Date:

2009-

Themes:

HTS power apparatus, Superconductivity

After the discovery of high temperature superconductor in 1986, the interest in the power applications of superconducting has increased dramatically. With a number of successful in-field installations around the world, this technology promises great improvements in compactness, capability and efficiency of power systems. The development of HTS apparatus requires thermally stable, mechanically compatible and electrically efficient dielectrics. In addition, cryogenic dielectric materials must have high breakdown strength to withstand operating voltage as well as survive fault conditions. Liquefied gas is essential for the concept of high temperature superconducting (HTS) applications as coolant and insulator. With the boiling temperature of 77K and constituting 78% of earth’s atmosphere, liquid nitrogen (LN2) is a common choice. The electrical breakdown of LN2 subjects to various defects (i.e. bubbles, high stress points, free particles...) initiating partial discharges from which streamers are formed. If allow to propagate through the liquid the result is a complete breakdown. Previous work has demonstrated that streamers caused erosion to composite barriers, for example GRP (glass fibre reinforced plastic). In the case of more homogenous material such as PTFE, the same event can result in more catastrophic damage such as puncture through the solid board. The aim of this study is to further investigate on the pre-breakdown behaviour liquid nitrogen to improve the understanding on streamers initiation and propagation through the liquid. In addition, the project will consider the performance of solid materials for use as dielectrics at cryogenic temperature (below -196 degrees celsius).

Primary investigators

• Paul Lewin
• djs

Secondary investigator

• hlt306

Associated research groups

• Electrical Power Engineering
• Electronics and Electrical Engineering

Date:

2009-2014

Theme:

Web Science

Funding:

EPSRC

Web Science has an ambitious agenda; it is necessarily interdisciplinary – as much about social and organizational behaviour as about the underpinning technology of the World Wide Web. Its research programme targets the Web as a primary focus of attention, adding to our understanding of its architectural principles, its development and growth, its capacity for furthering global knowledge and communication, and its inherent values of trustworthiness, privacy, and respect for social boundaries.

A new Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) for Web Science is part of a £250million investment in the future of UK science and technology by the RCUK Digital Economy programme, providing funded studentships for 4-year PhD training. Web Science is a new discipline that addresses:

• the study of the World Wide Web as the world's largest and most complex engineered environment
• the impact that this information system has on human society
• the changes and accommodations necessary to maintain a pro-human Web with positive societal benefits.

Primary investigators

• Nigel Richard Shadbolt
• Wendy Hall
• Les Carr
• Catherine Pope

Secondary investigators

• Susan Halford
• Graham Earl

Associated research groups

• Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group
• Web and Internet Science

Date:

2009-2011

Theme:

Digital Libraries

Funding:

JISC (IDMB)

In the run-up to the 10th anniversary of the Open Archiving Initiative it is necessary to elevate research data to be a first-class citizen in the world of open scholarly communication to enable transformative inter-disciplinary research. Such a profound goal requires far more than technical capability, but encompasses significant change for all stakeholders.

The aim of the Institutional Data Management Blueprint (IDMB) project is to create a practical and attainable institutional framework for managing research data that facilitates ambitious national and international e-research practice. The objective is to produce a framework for managing research data that encompasses a whole institution (exemplified by the University of Southampton) and based on an analysis of current data management requirements for a representative group of disciplines with a range of different data.

Building on the developed policy and service-oriented computing framework, the project will scope and evaluate a pilot implementation plan for an institution-wide data model, which can be integrated into existing research workflows and extend the potential of existing data storage systems, including those linked to discipline and national shared service initiatives.

The project will build upon a decade of previous open access repository initiatives at Southampton to create a coherent set of next actions for an institutional, cross-discipline 10-year roadmap, which will be flexible in accommodating future moves to shared services, and provide a seamless transition of data management from the desktop to national/international repositories. The outcomes from this project, which will draw together technical, organisational and professional expertise from across the institution, will be widely disseminated within the sector as a form of HEI Data Management “Business Plan How-To�.

Primary investigators

• Kenji Takeda
• Les Carr
• Simon Coles
• Graham Earl
• Jeremy Frey
• Mark Brown
• Peter Hancock

Associated research group

• Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group

Date:

2010-2013

Theme:

Digital Libraries

Funding:

ESRC (RES-576-25-0023)

The delivery of technology-enhanced learning is of increasing relevance to the training and development of researchers in the social sciences. Online resources not only provide a valuable personal development resource for researchers unable to participate in face-to-face training, but also provide an important repository of social science knowledge. There has been a considerable ESRC investment in online resources through initiatives such as the Research Methods Programme (RMP), the Researcher Development Initiative (RDI), Quantitative Methods Initiative (QMI) and the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM).

The development of an online resource is time-consuming and expensive and the full value of the resource only comes into play close to the point at which funding ends. Following the completion of the initial award, the value of the resource will often deteriorate, seriously limiting the returns on the initial investment by ESRC.

The purpose of the ReStore project is to come up with a solution to this problem. The project is the result of extended discussion between RMP, NCRM and ESRC and is hosted by the NCRM Hub.

Primary investigators

• Professor DJ Martin
• Les Carr
• Dr J Seale
• Professor CJ Skinner

Associated research group

• Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group

Date:

2009-2011

Theme:

Digital Libraries

Funding:

JISC

Readiness for REF (R4R) will investigate and implement how to streamline the REF data gathering exercise by building an interoperable institutional infrastructure, including repositories, that would capture and manage research outputs and other factors. The project will work with the existing REF Stakeholders Group (research administrators and information and computing professionals from over 100 UK institutions with particular interests in the REF) via the REF Steering Group to determine a suitable candidate for an interoperable data model to deliver repository and CRIS interoperability for the REF. The project intends to investigate and implement the CERIF (Common European Research Information Format) data model as the ‘glue’ that will hold disparate information systems together, allowing for interoperability and exchange of data within and across institutions, including external systems.R4R is a partnership between between King's and the University of Southampton.

Primary investigator

• Les Carr

Partner

• Kings College

Associated research group

• Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group

Date:

2010-2013

Theme:

Agent Based Computing

Funding:

EPSRC

This is a collaborative interdisciplinary project that is seeking to develop intelligent agents (and other machine learning techniques) within the smart grid in order to reduce energy use within domestic settings. The project brings together an interdisciplinary team comprising experts in the fields of intelligent agents and multi-agent systems (School of Electronics and Computer Science), renewable energy and energy efficiency in the built environment, and human factors in the design of automated control and feedback systems (Sustainable Energy Research Group and Transportation Research Group in the School of Civil Engineering and the Environment) at the University of Southampton.

Primary investigator

• acr

Secondary investigators

• Nick Jennings
• Dr. Patrick James
• Professor 'Bakr Bahaj
• Professor Neville Stanton

Associated research groups

• Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group
• Agents, Interaction and Complexity

Date:

2010-2014

Themes:

Healthcare in ECS, Microfluidics and Lab-on-a-chip, Bionanotechnology and Biosensors

Funding:

EPSRC

This proposal aims to exploit a novel platform for parallel on-chip electrophysiology, developed at the University of Southampton, for the functional characterization of a family of voltage-gated sodium channels, including human/bacterial chimeras, for which the expression, purification and reconstitution into liposomes is being developed at Birkbeck College. Specifically, the project will use this high-throughput platform to identify novel ligands/drugs that modulate the conductance properties of the sodium channels.

Primary investigators

• Hywel Morgan
• Maurits De Planque
• Prof. Bonnie Wallace (Birkbeck)
• Prof. Marco Tartagni (Bologna)

Secondary investigators

• Mr Sumit Kalsi
• Dr Shimul Saha
• Mr Alex Henderson (Birkbeck)
• Dr Andy Powl (Birkbeck)

Partners

• Birkbeck College, London
• University of Bologna

Associated research groups

• Nano Research Group
• Southampton Nanofabrication Centre

Date:

2009-

Themes:

Healthcare in ECS, Bionanotechnology and Biosensors

Funding:

Adventure in Research Grant

This ongoing project aims to develop a series of complimentary methods to systematically study the interaction of nanoparticles with synthetic cell membranes, in order to gain an understanding of the role of the physical and chemical properties of nanoparticles, with and without a protein corona, in cellular interactions and to develop an assay that screens for a hallmark of cellular toxicity.

Primary investigators

• Maurits De Planque
• Ms Hend Alkhammash

Secondary investigators

• Dr Jens Madsen (Medicine)
• Dr Philip Williamson (Biological Sciences)

Associated research groups

• Nano Research Group
• Southampton Nanofabrication Centre