- Date:
- 2008-2009
- Themes:
- Assessment, ELearning, Platforms and Tools, Learning Technologies
- Funding:
- JISC
The project and the resulting report will focus on four areas: ââ¬Â¢ the theoretical underpinning for quality assurance of e assessment; ââ¬Â¢ current practice in Higher Education (HE) contexts both in the UK and overseas; ââ¬Â¢ current practice in professional, commercial, and industrial contexts; and ââ¬Â¢ recommendations for future practice in UK HE.
Theoretical underpinning will be provided by an overview of current psychometric and test theory as it applies to the quality assurance of conventional and e-assessments carried out in HE, FE, professional, and training contexts.
Current practice in HE will be characterised and analysed through a set of case studies across representative institutions and academic domains, guided by expert consultants from Southampton University, the University of Plymouth, and the Institute of Education.
Current practice in professional accreditation, commerce, and industry and its relation to HE and FE will be described, guided by consultancy from Questionmark, the leading vendor to UK HE, and Question Tools, a significant commercial vendor to organisations including the British Computer Society and Network Rail.
Finally, the report will detail recommendations for UK HE (and FE) arising from psychometric theory, the case studies, and commercial and professional practice.
Primary investigators
Secondary investigators
- Dr Bill Warburton, iSolutions
- Veronica Gale, independent consultant
- Greg Pope, Questionmark
- John Kleeman, Questionmark
- Paul Booth, Abas UK Ltd.
- Harvey Mellar, London Knowledge Lab
- Chris Ricketts, University of Plymouth
- Denise Whitelock, The Open University
Associated research groups
- Electronic and Software Systems
- Learning Societies Lab
- Date:
- 2009-2013
- Themes:
- Agent Based Computing, Decentralised Information Systems
- Funding:
- Industrially Funded (Hampshire Company)
This project aims to explore the issues associated with the decentralised control, operation and management of future generation electricity networks. It is targetted at scenarios in which micro-generation and storage capabilities are ubiquitous, where intelligent sensing devices allow users to make informed choices about the control of devices in their home, and where producers and consumers are connected via a series of dynamically negotiated supply contracts. This is an industrially funded project from a Hampshire-based company.
Initially, work in this project will have 3 main foci, corresponding to 3 main application settings:
Home Setting
This setting will consider the intelligent use of energy within a single home. It will develop algorithms and methodologies that will enable intelligent appliances and energy storage devices (such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) to autonomously negotiate and coordinate for optimal energy use. In particular, it will address the need for algorithms that can continuously adapt the behaviour of the home in response to information such as weather, energy prices, energy carbon content and the lifestyle and preferences of the home owners.
Neighbourhood setting
The neighbourhood setting aims to study the optimization of energy for the homes in a local neighbourhood. Each of these homes in a neighbourhood follows some electricity consumption pattern, based on the preferences of the residents. Also, some of these homes could also have a local (green) electricity generator, such as PV solar panels or a wind turbine. Furthermore, there may be some local storage capability of produced energy, which can be either local (e.g. a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle), or a shared neighbourhood storage facility (e.g. a redox flow battery).
Given this setting, we envisage that intelligent sensing devices could not only optimize the local demand in each home, but also buy the required electricity, or trade the locally produced energy, on a neighbourhood energy market. The grid company is also a player in this market. The main concern on the grid side is the reduction of the so-called ``peak demand" (i.e. demand in periods of time when the network is overloaded).
Therefore, the performance criteria in designing such a market are two- fold: it should reduce as much as possible the costs for each home owner, subject to satisfying his/her constraints. But it should also balance loads within the neighbourhood, so as to reduce peak-time demand on the grid side of the system.
Grid setting
Building on the home and neighbourhood setting, in this part of the project we aim to look at the implications of Decentralised Energy (DE) on the coordination of energy production, transmission and distribution. In particular, the coordination of switches (when there is a surge in demand or breakage of transmission lines) is important in building robustness into the network. Moreover, the fact that energy production can take various forms (e.g. from batteries, green energy sources, or coal power stations) and the fact that consumers may express preferences on the type of energy source referred means that transmission and distribution needs to be coordinated to ensure effective delivery of electricity. Against the above background, we aim to study the applicability of various multiagent system tools and techniques.
Primary investigators
- Nick Jennings
- acr
Secondary investigators
- Sarvapali Ramchurn
- wtlt
- vr2
- tdv
Partner
- Hampshire Company
Associated research groups
- Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group
- Agents, Interaction and Complexity
- Date:
- 2007-2008
- Themes:
- Applied Electromagnetism, Modelling and Simulation
Each mobile phone has a large number of small antennas for communication over several GSM and WCDMA bands, for Bluetooth and WLAN, and more mobile phones are also using integrated GPS, DVB-H, etc. The number of products using wireless communication is growing from having mainly been mobile phones, WLAN routers and laptops to now also include cameras, wireless TV game controllers, mp3-players, RFID tags, etc. One of the differences of small antennas compared to large antennas is that they are much harder to model accurately with software. This is mainly due to the fact that large antennas normally are used in an open environment without any neighbouring objects to disturb the antenna function. Small antennas on the other hand are usually integrated in a chassis containing materials that absorb radiation or in different ways disturb the antenna function. In a mobile phone there are furthermore a number of antennas that all affect each other. For small antennas the most important parameter is its antenna efficiency, i.e. the parameter that directly influences how much of the transmitter power is radiated into space, or how much of the radiation incident on the antenna reach the receiver. By optimizing the antenna function to as high antenna efficiency as possible it is possible to directly influence such important parameters as coverage, battery life time and bit rate in the up and down link. In this project the possibility of miniaturizing Dielectric Resonator Antennas (DRA) is explored. DRA have certain advantage such as high radiation efficiency, simply feeding and high resistance to detuning. These characteristics are required for small antennas that are integrated into mobile phones.
Primary investigator
- mr
Associated research group
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering
- Date:
- 2008-2011
- Theme:
- Microfluidics and Lab-on-a-chip
- Funding:
- EPSRC
The design and construction of a micro-flow system capable of the anaylsis of phytoplankton, (microscopic algae that live in the sea). Using the technique of impedance spectroscopy data will be collected to enable anyalsis and identification of the sample. Due to the varying dielectric properties of different types of phytoplankton such an analysis will be able to uniquely identify different types, further due to the compact size of the system the analysis can be conducted at the source thus eliminating the problems associated with bringing up samples from depth. The system will employ novel electrode designs as well as employing novel techniques for hydrodynamic flow focusing.
Primary investigators
- Hywel Morgan
- Dr Matt Mowlem
Secondary investigator
Associated research groups
- Nano Research Group
- Southampton Nanofabrication Centre
- Date:
- 2005-2008
- Theme:
- Robotics and Control
- Funding:
- EPSRC
When you practice playing tennis you become better at it, because new nerve connections have been made within your brain and spinal cord. Not only do you need to practice, but you also need feedback of your performance so that you can correct your movement. In this research we are using this idea to teach people who have had a stroke how to learn new skills.
A Stroke is usually caused when a blood clot blocks a blood vessel in the brain. It acts like a dam stopping the blood reaching the brain downstream. As a result some of the connecting nerve fibres die and the person becomes partially paralysis on one side of the body, this is called hemiplegia. These fibres cannot re-grow, but the brain has plenty spare capacity so new connections can be made. In fact the brain is continually and rapidly changing as we learn new skills; new connections are formed, redundant ones disappear. When people re-learn skills after a stroke they go through the same process as you do when you learn to play tennis. But they have a problem because they can hardly move at all so they cannot practice which means they donââ¬â¢t get feedback. Muscles can be made to work by Electrical Stimulation. Electrical impulses travel along the nerves in much the same way as the electrical impulses from your brain. If stimulation is carefully controlled, a useful movement can be made. This works better if the person is attempting the movement themselves; we therefore need to combine a personââ¬â¢s own effort with just enough extra electrical stimulation to achieve the movement. This is what we will do in this project by adjusting the level of stimulation in response to the personââ¬â¢s movement.
To teach people who have had a stroke how to move their arm we will ask them to track a spot of light by moving a vertical rod over a flat board, like moving a chess piece. As they move we stimulate their muscles. If they track the target well, then on the next attempt we turn the stimulation down if not we increase it. To get the level and the timing of the stimulation right we measure the difference between the direction of the movement of the arm and the movement of the spot of light. We then adjust the stimulation in a way that we think will reduce the difference, ideally we want them to follow the same path exactly. After the person has had another go at following the spot of light we measure the difference again and make the adjustment again. In fact each time we make an adjustment to the stimulation we measure the effect so that we can continually improve their accuracy. This is called Iterative Learning. Adjustments are made according to a set of rules - making these rules is an important part of the project. This process is very similar to the way your brain works when you are learning to play tennis. One important addition though is that we need to keep reducing the stimulation to encourage the person to use their own effort to follow the spot of light, rather than relying on the stimulation. So if they track the spot well, then the next time they get less help from the stimulation. This technique of iterative learning is often used in ââ¬Ëtrainingââ¬â¢ robots for industrial purposes, but as far as we know nobody has tried using it to help people who have had a stroke learn to move again.
Primary investigators
- Professor Jane Burridge
- Christopher Freeman
- amh
- phc
Associated research groups
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering
- Information: Signals, Images, Systems Research Group
- Electronic Systems and Devices Group
- Electrical Power Engineering
- Date:
- 2004-
- Theme:
- Nanophotonics and Biomimetics
The eyes and wings of some species of moth are covered in arrays of densely-packed pillars with heights and spacings of approximately 200 nm. These structures introduce a grading in the effective refractive index at the surface and so have an antireflective effect, allowing the moth to avoid detection by predators. This mechanism results in low reflectance for a broad range of wavelengths and angles of incidence, properties which would be highly beneficial to solar cells, where the aim is to transmit as much of the incident solar spectrum through the surface and into the cell as possible. We are investigating ways to mimic moth-eye structures in silicon solar cell designs to form antireflective surfaces that are superior to traditional thin film coatings.
Primary investigators
- sab04r
- Darren Bagnall
- pjs05r
Associated research groups
- Nano Research Group
- Southampton Nanofabrication Centre
The study of the potential decay in dielectric materials has a long history and is closely related to the wide application of corona charged dielectrics. One of the phenomenon that has an important influence on potential decay is the observation by Professor Ieda in 1967. His results were that in particular circumstances polyethylene potential decay curves with several initial charge levels did cross each other. This crossover phenomenon has been scoped in many works and excited theoreticians imagination. Many models about the potential decay have been published but no more experimental results to prove the hypothesis. This project aim is to utilize the space charge measurement technique to explain the crossover phenomenon and moreover to find physical mechanism through observing the charge decay process in a corona charged polymeric material. The anticipation is that the application of this charge mapping technique may shed more light on the mechanism of charge decay. As we know if the deposit charge can inject and transport from the bulk of charged sample, there should be an acoustic wave detected by the sensor because the charge will move under the columbic force produced by the narrow and high voltage pulse. If some signals detect by the oscilloscope, there should be charge inside the bulk of sample. If the charge distribution in the sample is observed, there will be experimental evidence for the research of charge injection, transport and storage in the dielectrics. One essential phenomenon; bipolar charge injection has been derived from charge distribution results. By combining both surface potential of two layers LDPE and space charge measurement, direct evidence has been found to support the theory that the bulk transport process is accountable for the surface potential decay. Charge mapping technique (PEA) was successfully introduced to the potential study. This provide an alternative way to investigate charge decay process and allows monitoring charge migration through the bulk of corona charged film.
Primary investigator
Secondary investigator
- zx04r
Associated research groups
- Electrical Power Engineering
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering
- Date:
- 2007-2010
- Theme:
- Nanoelectronics
Electrodeposition is investigated as a technique for fabricating Nickel Palladium alloy contacts for carbon nanotube spintronic applications. Palladium forms good quality, reliable contacts with carbon nanotubes and the addition of Nickel to the alloy may yield high quality contacts capable of injecting spin into carbon nanotubes. The Nickel Palladium alloy forms good quality Schottky barriers with a 1-2 Ohm.cm resistivity Silicon wafer and the variation of alloy composition with different electrolytic solutions and variation of magnetisation with the Nickel percentage in the alloy is being studied. This project will also examine techniques to align Carbon nanotubes with patterned electrodes, improve the yield of devices obtained by spin coating carbon nanotubes on Silicon and will illustrate the suitability of electrodeposition as a fabrication technique for carbon nanotube spintronic applications.
Primary investigator
- Dr. C.H. de Groot
Secondary investigator
- Ashwin R. Usgaocar
Associated research groups
- Nano Research Group
- Southampton Nanofabrication Centre
The growing requirement for reliability of insulation systems gives researchers more responsibility to investigate new techniques of monitoring and diagnosis of dielectrics. It is well known that the presence of space charge plays an important role in premature failure of polymeric high voltage cables. Space charge surveillance is becoming the most generally used skill to evaluate polymeric materials, particularly high voltage cables. The well-known pulsed electroacoustic method (PEA) is a reliable non-destructive method. It gives a reasonable resolution about the concentration of the space charge in the insulation material. The main tasks in this project were carried out using PEA technique to measure space charge in low density polyethylene.
A sudy into space charge formation and distribution at the interface of a multi-layer sample under dc and ac applied voltage was initially carried out. Electrode materials and frequency are two important factors to determine the charge injection and distribution. It has been found that the interface between films acts as traps for charge carriers, especially for electrons. Positive charge has high mobility compared to negative charge shown from this interface study. An advanced PEA measurement system with high rate test and excellent phase resolving capability was then designed. Compared with the typical PEA system the new one can provide enhanced experimental results for transient situations, achieving high-quality diagnosis for the typical industrial conditions such as dc cable polarity reversal and transient voltage failure.
Primary investigator
Secondary investigator
- zx04r
Associated research groups
- Electrical Power Engineering
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering