- Date:
- 2006-2008
- Themes:
- Decentralised Information Systems, Knowledge Technologies, Multimedia, Semantic Web
- Funding:
- EU (FP6 IST STREP)
The existing, open Worldwide Web has been successful on a global scale because the cost of participation at a basic level is low and the individual benefit of participation is immediate, rising rapidly as more participants take part. The same cannot currently be said about semantic based systems because the cost of being precise about semantics for sophisticated components is prohibitively high and the cost of ensuring an individual, absolute semantics for a component rises rapidly as more participants take part. OpenKnowledge aims to break out of this deadlock by focusing on semantics related to interaction (which are acquired at low cost during participation) and using this to avoid dependency on a priori semantic agreement; instead making semantic commitments incrementally at run time. The "Open" in OpenKnowledge thus is significant in two senses: it assumes an open system, which anyone may join at any time; it assumes an openness to being joined, achieved through participation at low individual cost.
We shall provide a unifying framework based on interaction models that are mobile in the sense that they may be transferred to other components, this being a mechanism for Web service composition and for coalition formation. A key contribution of OpenKnowledge is to demonstrate that by shifting the emphasis to interaction (the details of which may be hidden from users) we can obtain knowledge sharing of sufficient quality for sustainable communities of practice without the barrier of complex meta-data provision prior to community formation. This requires us to re-interpret forms of contextual reasoning, ontology mapping, query routing and visualisation for this new arena. We ground our research in two testbed areas: bioinformatics and emergency response.
Primary investigators
Secondary investigators
- mc3
- dpd
- lx
- bh
- al05r
Partners
- University of Edinburgh
- Institut d'Investigacio en Intel.ligencia Artificial, Barcelona
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Open University
- University of Trento
Associated research group
- Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group
- Date:
- 2006-2008
- Themes:
- Agent Based Computing, Knowledge Technologies, Semantic Web
- Funding:
- EU (FP6 IST STREP)
HealthAgents plans to create a multi-agent distributed Decision Support System, to help in the early diagnosis and prognosis of brain tumours.
HealthAgents addresses two main complementary and equally important sets of objectives: Scientific and Technological Scientific
* Improve the classification of brain tumours by using a distributed network of local databases or Data Marts. * Develop new pattern recognition methods for a distributed classification and analysis of HR MAS and microarray data. * Define a method to check the quality and usability of a new candidate local database with a set of new cases, based on a quality score. * Compile evaluate and use parameters to audit classifiers and improve them periodically (First level of ââ¬Åself learning.ââ¬?) * Create a ââ¬Åtrustââ¬? framework to increase the amount of collaborating centres that after classifying some new cases will possibly provide new brain tumour cases for the distributed data warehouse * Publish scientific articles featuring most relevant achievements.
Technological
* Build the worldââ¬â¢s largest distributed data warehouse of brain tumour cases data. * Set up a multi-agent system based on a distributed architecture. * Design a new ontology of brain tumour data. * Define a process to convert brain tumour data. * Devise a new data exchange protocol, to send and retrieve brain tumour data through a multi-agent based network. * Develop tumour classifiers using the distributed data warehouse. * Compare and analyse similitude and differences between Data Marts. * Formulate a protocol to produce improved classifiers from new data. * Enforce security policies (anonymity, authentication, authorisation, and consistency) of all information system wide.
Primary investigators
Secondary investigators
- mc3
- lx
- dpd
- bh
Partners
- University of Birmingham
- University of Edinburgh
- ITACA
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
- MicroArt
- Pharma Quality Europe
- Universitat de Valencia
- Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
Associated research group
- Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group
- Date:
- 2008-2016
- Themes:
- System design and RF, Nanoelectronics
- Funding:
- EPSRC
Semi-insulating silicon substrates are very attractive as handle wafers in Silicon On Insulator (SOI) technologies because they would provide very low-absorption substrates for radio frequency (RF) and monolithic microwave integrated circuits. We have shown both theoretically and experimentally that deep level doping with transition metals is an excellent method to create this semi-insulating Si. This work aims to study the science and engineering of high resistivity silicon substrates for high frequency integrated circuits such that it can be applied industrially. The project aims to better understand the diffusion and doping versus resistivity relations of appropriate deep level impurities (including Mn), and hence to maximise the resistivity of the silicon handle wafer. Contamination issues arising from the deep level impurities will be addressed by investigating diffusion barriers and also by developing a back-end processing approach that takes advantage of the high diffusivity of some deep level impurities. SOI wafers will be fabricated on semi-insulating silicon substrates and detailed high frequency characterisation will be carried out.
Primary investigator
Secondary investigators
- pa
- km2
- aa08r
- Dr Peter Wilshaw (Oxford)
Partners
- University of Oxford
- MEMC Electronic Materials
- MHS-Electronics/ Plus Semi
Associated research group
- Sustainable Electronic Technologies
- Date:
- 2007-2009
- Themes:
- Digital Libraries, Semantic Web
- Funding:
- JISC
The JISC Preserv2 project is investigating and developing digital preservation and interoperability services for repositories, to help repository managers plan for longer-term data management. It is developing the work begun in the first phase of the Preserv project.
The approach recognises that effective preservation is founded on three fundamental actions to data: copy, move, monitor. This includes movement of data between different repositories, and between online and open storage services. Monitoring involves the application of online knowledge tools to identify technical information about data objects, and based on that information to assess and calibrate the risks to accessing these objects, and decision-based tools to act on identified risks. Interoperability is designed to ensure that repositories, storage services and knowledge tools can communicate and share information and data. In this way the project is creating and testing a flexible framework for an emerging range of services and tools, to ensure support for long-term access to the data deposited in repositories.
From April 2009 the work will be extended to a series of exemplar repositories in a follow-on project, KeepIt.
Primary investigator
Secondary investigators
- sh94r
- dt2
Partners
- The National Archives
- University of Oxford
- The British Library
Associated research group
- Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group
- Date:
- 2008-2009
- Themes:
- Agent Based Computing, Decentralised Information Systems, E-Business Technologies, Business Process Modelling, Artificial Intelligence
- Funding:
- EPSRC
This project will develop techniques and methods that enable the automatic establishment, maintenance and operation of supply chains in highly dynamic, multi-stakeholder environments. It will also focus on the associated supply chain business models for such agile and dynamic environments. In more detail, the various actors within the system, each with their own aims and objectives, will be represented as autonomous software agents that interact in a number of on-line markets in order to procure the goods and services they require in a timely fashion. The markets will also be represented as autonomous agents and so will adapt their offerings and their terms and conditions in order to attract traders and better differentiate themselves from similar competing markets. Given this, the ensuing supply chains will need to be autonomic ââ¬â self-organizing, self-healing, and self-optimizing ââ¬â in order to cope with the high degrees of dynamism and uncertainty that are present in the system. Moreover, through its continual adaptation in response to change, the resulting computational economy will offer significant advantages to all its participants in terms of agility, lead-times, and profitability. To provide a specific illustration of this vision, this feasibility study will examine the supply chain associated with engine aircraft repair and overhaul in conjunction with end-users at Rolls-Royce.
Primary investigator
Secondary investigators
- acr
- Professor Douglas MacBeth (School of Management)
- pv
- Sebastian Stein
Partner
- Rolls-Royce
Associated research group
- Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group
- Date:
- 2008-2011
- Themes:
- Dependable Systems, Software Engineering
The goal of this project is to solve the problem of systematically and reliably modifying source code that has automatically been generated from high-level models. This problem is common in model-based software development because the output of a generator is typically different from the actual requirements for code deployment. Research questions include:
- How can we build code generators that support the customization of generated code, without the need to manually change either the code generator or the generated code?
- How can we integrate generated code, either as whole or in fragments, with custom application code written in a common high-level programming language
- How can we guarantee that the integration is correct or at least safe? What sort of assurance can we achieve?
Primary investigator
Secondary investigator
- gre
Partners
- Ewen Denney, NASA Ames Research Center
- Krzysztof Czarnecki, University of Waterloo
- Eelco Visser,Technical University Delft
Associated research group
- Dependable Systems & Software Engineering
- Date:
- 2008-2010
- Themes:
- Assessment, Wireless Sensing and Sensor Networks, Semantic Web, Virtual Communities and Social Systems, Web Science
- Funding:
- NCeSS, EPSRC
For more information on the LifeGuide project please see the
Project Website
Interventions designed to influence people's behaviour ('behavioural interventions') are a fundamental part of daily life, whether in the form of personal advice, support and skills-training from professionals (e.g. educators, doctors) or general information disseminated through the media. However, personal advice and support are very costly, and it is impossible to provide everyone with 24 hour access to personal guidance on managing all their problems. General information provided through the media may not be seen as relevant to the particular problems of individuals, and provides no support to help people make desired changes to their behaviour. For the first time, the internet provides a cost-effective opportunity to provide open 24 hour access to extensive information and advice on any problem. Interactive technology means that the advice can now be specifically 'tailored' to address the particular situation, concerns, beliefs and preferences of each individual, and intensive daily support can be provided for behaviour change in the form of reminders, personalised feedback regarding progress and overcoming obstacles, help with planning, and opportunities for communication with peers.
In view of this huge potential, internet-based behavioural interventions are starting to be developed in the public and private sector. However, currently each intervention is programmed from scratch individually, with the result that the initial development costs are greater for internet-based than for traditionally delivered interventions, and once programmed they cannot easily be modified. This seriously limits the number of interventions that can be developed and evaluated, and acts as a barrier to innovation and enhancement of interventions by researchers.
The aim of this project is to develop, evaluate and disseminate an internet-based set of resources (the BI-Grid / Behavioural Intervention Grid) that will allow researchers to flexibly create and modify two fundamental dimensions of behavioural interventions: a) providing tailored advice; b) supporting sustained behaviour. The BI-Grid will eliminate the costly waste of resources involved in programming every intervention individually, and will allow researchers to easily test components of interventions and immediately modify and improve the interventions based on their findings. The BI-Grid will increase the number of researchers who can engage in this type of research, opening it up to those with limited funding (e.g. junior researchers and research students). The practical benefit will be more rapid development of better interventions, while the scientific benefit will be a much faster accumulation of knowledge about the effects of different elements of interventions than at present, which will improve our basic understanding of the influences on behaviour.
In this project social scientists and computer scientists will work closely together to develop the software needed, using extensive consultation through workshops and the internet to obtain researchers' views of how to make the BI-Grid fit for all requirements. We will test and demonstrate the value of the BI-Grid by involving a network of researchers in collaboratively applying it to two very different problems that have relevance to everyone. First, we will evaluate how effectively the BI-Grid can be used to provide people suffering from colds and 'flu with tailored advice that enables them to cope with their symptoms without consulting their GP. Second, we will evaluate how effectively the BI-Grid can provide support to increase physical activity over a sustained period. We will interview 48 users to gain insights into how their experiences of using the BI-Grid can be improved, and will use the BI-Grid to collect detailed data on the use of the interventions by over 3000 people, enabling us to carry out powerful analyses of which ingredients of each intervention work best for whom, in what circumstances.
Primary investigators
- Gary Wills
- Prof Lucy Yarley (Health Psychology)
- David De Roure
- Mark Weal
Secondary investigators
- Jonathon Stephen Hare
- Judith Joseph
- aco
- xc2
- pz2g12
Partner
- Centre for Clinical Applications of Health Psychology
Associated research group
- Electronic and Software Systems
- Date:
- 2008-2008
- Themes:
- Assessment, Interaction, Learning Technologies
- Funding:
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS) society
Fatigue is a common, distressing and disabling symptom associated with multiple sclerosis (MS). Up to 97% of people with MS experience fatigue as part of their illness. We have recently completed a 3 year randomised controlled trial using 8 sessions of manualised cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to treat fatigue in MS. The treatment appeared to be very effective. At 6 months post treatment, not only had fatigue substantially reduced, but people with MS reported levels of fatigue that were significantly lower than those of a matched healthy, non-fatigued comparison group. However, a limitation of this therapy package is that skilled CBT therapists are not available to many people with MS due to lack of available resources and difficulty of access. There is now a growing body of literature demonstrating that internet delivered CBT together with minimal therapist time (around a 100 minutes of either face-to-face, telephone or email contact) can be as effective as CBT where people meet with a therapist for weekly or fortnightly sessions. The purpose of this innovation grant is to develop and pilot an Internet based version of this CBT package, which if shown to be successful has the potential to be rolled out across the UK as an approach for people with MS to manage and treat their fatigue. The study will incorporate a collaborative approach between health and clinical psychologists, people with MS, information technologists and a health economist.
Primary investigators
- Gary Wills
- Prof Rona Moss-Morris (Health Psychology)
- Prof Lucy Yardley (Health Psychology)
Associated research groups
- Learning Societies Lab
- Electronic and Software Systems
- Date:
- 2007-2010
- Themes:
- Accessible Technologies, Learning Technologies
- Funding:
- EU
The Net4Voice project aims at promoting comprehensive schemes to assess the impact of SR technologies in education, by focusing on various learning settings and aspects related to the interaction between learners, professors/teachers and the educational environment. The SR technologies we want to adopt, transform speech in real time digital text, by generating electronic transcriptions synchronised with the audio or video. The transcriptions are saved in open and portable formats that enable to be delivered through different channels/devices, such as Braille text only, audio only, accessible HTML interface with audio synchronised with text, and so on. More concretely, the project aims at raising awareness and deepening knowledge about the impact of the SR technology in school, higher and adult education classrooms promoting testing and evaluation measures in various settings. In particular, it considers the impact of SR technology in classes held in three of the main European languages such as Italian, English and German. In addition, testing and impact evaluation will be conducted in classes attended also by people with disabilities that could specifically benefit from the adoption of learning methodologies based on multiple and accessible ICT tools. Finally, the project aims at evaluating the scalability of the SR testing results and at defining a strategy for transferring them to other EU partners.
Primary investigator
Partners
- University of Bologna
- University of Ulm
- Totton College
- Cesena High School I. Versari
Associated research group
- Learning Societies Lab
- Date:
- 2008-2010
- Themes:
- Machine Learning, Image Processing
- Funding:
- EU
The EU funded framework 7 research project entitled ââ¬ËPersonal Information Navigator Adapting Through Viewing (PinView)' aims to develop new principles, methods, and prototypes for the next generation of interfaces to data; which will specifically include the use of eye-tracking equipment on computer monitors.
The project will develop a variety of methods for dealing with implicit feedback from eye movement data and exploring the development of on-line and feature extraction algorithms for ranking search results.
Primary investigators
- cjs
- Steve Gunn
Secondary investigators
- kp2
- ss03v
- im
- Sasan Mahmoodi
Partners
- Xerox Research Centre Europe
- Helsinki University of Technology
- Univesity of Leoben
- University College London
- Celum GmbH
Associated research group
- Information: Signals, Images, Systems Research Group