Dr Kieron O'Hara, Senior Research Fellow in ECS, has written a book which will be of particular interest to the UK's political parties as a general election looms on the horizon. Dr O'Hara, a computer scientist who works on the AKT (Advanced Knowledge Technologies) Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration, has taken his expertise in knowledge management for organisations and looked at how it might apply to a government, a country, or a political party. He comments: ‘We have seen in organisations, for example in the NHS, how a lack of information can lead to poorly conceived decisions with unanticipated effects. I wondered if the same was true in the wider world. Perhaps our lack of understanding of complex, dynamic societies should lead to careful conservatism.’ The end result is his book, After Blair: Conservatism Beyond Thatcher, published this month by Icon Books, in which he embarks on a quest for an ideological answer to the Conservatives’ difficulties. He begins by redefining conservatism as a philosophy of knowledge, then on that basis he describes an effective Conservative manifesto which, he believes, would need to be much more liberal than current Tory policies, and lastly, he explores the extent to which the current party is still influenced by Thatcherite principles and how such allegiances block any real inclinations towards change. He concludes: ‘Most of the senior figures in the Conservative party reached political maturity under Thatcher. I am saying that they need to go beyond Thatcher and create a post-Thatcher, post-Blair Tory party.’ After Blair: Conservatism Beyond Thatcher is Dr O’Hara’s third book; his previous books: Plato and the Internet, and Trust: From Socrates to Spin also focused on knowledge and society.

A workshop which will investigate the learning power of machines and report advances in this field will be hosted by the University of Southampton from 11 to 13 April 2005. According to Professor John Shawe-Taylor from the University’s School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) and organiser of the event, machine learning first became popular in the 1960s, but there has been a resurgence of interest in the last 10 years due to the quality of the new algorithms available. The range of problems that can now be solved using the approach has increased very significantly. Professor Shawe-Taylor showed last year how the complex and individual performance styles of concert pianists such as Glenn Gould and Vladimir Horowitz could be modelled in unique ‘performance alphabets’, providing a method of recognizing their performance styles by computer, and also, possibly, reconstructing them. Now at the Southampton Challenges Workshop, PASCAL – Pattern Analysis, Statistical Modelling and Computation Learning, further examples of machine learning will be demonstrated as the results are presented of four challenge projects set over the last year. The best relevant contributions will be presented from challenges such as asking the machine to recognise and categorise objects; and to decide, given two text fragments whether the meaning of one text can be inferred from another. There will also be feedback on the current situation concerning machine-learning algorithms for information extraction from documents. Professor Shawe-Taylor commented: ‘PASCAL seeks to generate challenges and those who attend the workshop can expect to see state-of-the art machine learning and to get an impression of what these advances can do for them.’

In an initiative that will be of great value to electronics students, Philips Semiconductors Southampton have provided a set of hardware development tools to the School of Electronics and Computer Science. The equipment will be used by undergraduate students in project work. ‘This is a very generous donation to our students,’ said Tim Forcer, who runs the School’s Electronics Teaching Labs. ‘It will extend the range of work that can be undertaken in our labs, and offer new opportunities for development projects.’

Simon Quin, Software Systems Specialist from Philips Semiconductors, visited ECS to hand over the equipment: ‘As an engineer I can tell you that there is no substitute for using the real tools. Philips is keen to encourage students and help broaden and deepen their learning opportunities.’

MEng Computer Engineering student Nick Dance is especially grateful for the donation: ‘I’m building a Secure HTTP server that runs independently of the host computer over USB,’ he said. ‘The microcontroller it uses to run the web server and SSL layer is an 8051 clone for which Philips have donated eight In-Circuit Emulation (ICE) units with fully-integrated Keil C compilers. The ICE equipment will be used primarily for debugging and hardware testing although it can be used to replace the processor altogether if the hardware is unavailable. I will use the compiler to program all the software for the system.

Dr Denis Nicole, Reader in the School’s Declarative Systems and Software Engineering research group, also intends making use of the equipment in his Real Time Computing and Embedded Systems course. ‘The 8051 is a very versatile microprocessor. These high-quality development tools will give our students valuable experience, adding to their portfolio of transferable skills.’

Pictured are (l-r) Dr Denis Nicole, Tim Forcer, Simon Quin, and Nick Dance (seated) viewing applications of the new equipment in the School's Electronics Labs.

New middleware from the OMII (Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute) is released today (Monday 21 March) with the latest version of OMII_1.2. For the first time OMII_1 is available for Redhat Enterprise Linux. OMII is based in the School of Electronics and Computer Science. This latest release follows the successful public launch of OMII_1.0 in December 2004 and continues the OMII mission to become the UK source for reliable, open-source Grid Middleware. The OMII was launched in 2004. It is a £6.5m project, funded by the UK e-science programme and led by Professor Peter Henderson and Professor David De Roure OMII_1.2.0 has been extensively tested and is now available to the community. This release offers increased platform support, improved performance, easier installation, easier testing and improved functionality. The OMII provides an open source grid infrastructure that addresses user requirements of combining usability within a secure environment. The Institute believe that emphasis on usability and a low entry cost is the key to enabling collaborative e-science. OMII has taken the middleware that exists on the market and refined the code so that it is packaged in a way that meets users’ needs. The OMII Grid infrastructure does this by providing a number of common services, such as accounting and data, within a secure environment, available to all deployed applications, and which as a result benefit from a consistent security policy. Users can develop their own web services, making use of the common services, and hosted by the OMII secure infrastructure. OMII_1 is a professional grid infrastructure to support collaborative computing in a secure and accountable manner. It addresses the needs of service and resource providers by providing a detailed accounting model linked to the authorisation system. It addresses the needs of users by providing secure yet easy access to resources and services. It addresses the needs of administrators by providing a simple to install and manage infrastructure without the usual security worries.

The Brochure includes an introduction by Professor Nick Jennings, Deputy Head of School (Research), in which he says: 'One of the keynotes of our success has been the constant evolution of our research in response to opportunities created by new technology and new methods. 'We continue to form new research groupings, for example BIO@ECS, and Grid and Pervasive Computing, to ensure that we remain at the forefront. 'One of our major strengths is the ability to combine research expertise across the School. We also work closely with many networks of researchers in universities and business. Among our research collaborators are some of the world's leading companies and agencies, and we recognize that it is through such partnerships that the greatest advances will be made.'

A research team at the University of Southampton has been awarded over £400,000 to develop future applications of nanomaterials in silicon-based devices.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has awarded a prestigious Platform Grant to Professor Peter Ashburn, Dr Darren Bagnall and Dr Kees de Groot of the Nanoscale Systems Integration Group in the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) to enable them to explore new device applications of silicon-based nanomaterials.

Professor Ashburn commented: 'Devices are getting smaller all the time and are reaching sizes where new nanomaterials concepts can increasingly be applied. As silicon technology approaches the nanometer era, remarkable opportunities will exist to combine nanomaterials, quantum phenomena and microelectronics technology in creative ways to produce new types of silicon devices for a wide range of applications. We look forward to exploring these further.'

EPSRC Platform Grants are intended to help maintain and develop a strong UK science base. They provide world-leading groups with continuity for key staff in order to undertake longer term research with enhanced national and international networking.

Professor Ashburn has a strong track record in high-frequency silicon-based devices for wireless applications; Dr Bagnall, who has undertaken considerable research into planar chiral nanostructures, has just been appointed Senior Lecturer; and Dr de Groot holds a Research Lectureship at the University in the field of spintronic devices. This is a unique combination of experience in silicon devices and nanotechnology and a major factor in the award of the grant.

The Platform Grant runs for a five-year period, and enables experienced Research Fellows to carry out feasibility studies on new research ideas, and then, if successful, to apply for further funding to develop the ideas into new devices. Intended areas of research at Southampton are metal catalyst-free growth of carbon nanotubes for electronic devices, and integration of self assembled optical and magnetic dots with Si processing for on-chip lasers and non volatile memory storage.

A chip has been developed which will measure the levels and types of algae in the sea.

Professor Hywel Morgan and his team at the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton have developed a sensor which, when dropped into the sea, can record information about the types and quantities of algae present, providing valuable information for climate studies.

Algae flow through the device one at a time and at high speed. When the device shines light at the algae, they will respond by emitting light at different wavelengths, allowing them to be characterised. The device also records data about the electrical properties of the algae.

Professor Morgan commented: 'There is very little known about the electrical properties of algae and it is these properties which tell us about the size of particles and the types of membranes. As they go through the chip, one by one, at high speed, these properties can be recorded.'

The ECS team is working with Professor Peter Burkill, Head of the George Deacon Division (GDD) at the Southampton Oceanography Centre, whose mission is to gain a better understanding of the key issues concerning the ocean and climate change. This chip will help Professor Burkill and his team in their quest to identify the algal populations in the sea. Professor Burkill commented: 'Algae are now known to influence the climate in various ways. All algae use carbon dioxide (a major climatically active gas): while some lock up this gas in their calcified skeletons, others do not do so. Other groups of algae produce compounds such as dimethyl sulphonioproprionate (DMSP) that can become climatically active. To understand this we need to be able to differentiate the different algal types and enumerate them using equipment that is precise but cheap enough that very many can be used. That is the real strength of this development.'

The chip also has applications in DNA identification and diagnostics. Its development to date has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the University's Life Sciences Interface. Ends

The future of intelligent sensor networks will be a key theme for University of Southampton researchers when they deliver papers at Nanotech 2005 next month.

Seven researchers from the University’s School of Electronics & Computer Science have been invited to present at this, the largest international nanotechnology conference and trade show in the world, which will take place at the Anaheim Marriott & Convention Centre, Anaheim from 8-12 May 2005 and will bring together specialists from a wide range of fields of science, technology and business and over 2,500 attendees.

Intelligent sensors and the challenges posed by incorporating them into sensor networks will be the theme of Professor Neil White’s plenary lecture on Intelligent Sensors: Systems or Components. The theme of wireless sensor networks will be continued with a paper from Geoff Merrett on the subject; Dr Nick Harris will present on Modelling of microfluidic ultrasonic separators, Dr Peter Boltryk on Optimal signal extraction from smart sensors, Hamza Rouabah on Design and modelling of novel micropumps , and Daniele Malleo on Design of an electrostatic MEMS actuator.

Dr Michael Kraft is also presenting an invited talk on Higher-order Sigma-Delta Modulator Interfaces for MEMS.

Professor Wendy Hall CBE, FREng, Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, will give the sixth annual Athena Lecture at Imperial College London, on Wednesday 4 May. In her lecture, Professor Hall will draw on her own experience and her personal research journey, to emphasize the powerful role that networks can play, both in computing, but also in tackling issues and problems in research and academic life more generally. Professor Hall comments: ‘The Semantic Web is Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the next generation of the Web. In this talk I plan to describe my personal research journey, from my early days of hypermedia and multimedia research, through Web-based link services, to the Semantic Web technologies we are building today, in the context of my career as a woman in engineering. ‘As we design and build complex knowledge-based systems to help us make sense of the vast amounts of information available to us on an everyday basis via the WWW, I am constantly aware of how we increasingly use networks of machines, systems and people to solve the research problems that face us. ‘I have found in my career that the power of networks is the best way to overcome some of the issues that arise from the still overwhelming gender imbalance in SET. I will conclude the lecture with a look to the future, using my current research interests at the interface of computer science and the life sciences to paint a picture of a world in which there are as many women computer scientists as there are men.’ Professor Wendy Hall is one of the world’s leading computer scientists. She is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, immediate Past President of the British Computer Society, and the only UK council member of the US Association for Computing Machinery.

Southampton inaugurals to address advances in photonics

The ‘magical’ qualities of technology and its potential to transform our lives will be addressed this month at the University of Southampton.

Inaugural lectures by Professor Greg Parker and Professor James Wilkinson from the University’s School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) and Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), which will take place on Wednesday 18 May, will address how technological advances in the worlds of photonics and nanoscale systems are making far-reaching new developments possible.

Professor James Wilkinson will deliver a lecture entitled Photonics in Transition, during which he will describe how, following the transformation of information and communications technologies by optical devices over the past 20 years, photonics is now making rapid advances in other fields including biology.

Professor Wilkinson commented: ‘Photonics is now playing a key analytical role in the life sciences and the knowledge gained is leading to new chemical and biologically-inspired techniques to provide low-cost devices for future telecommunications systems.’

In his lecture entitled Indistinguishable from Magic, Greg Parker who is Professor of Photonics at the University, will describe advances in the study of light, optical instruments, optical micro-devices and photography. He will also demystify current technology in terms of how it deals with fractals, chaos, complexity and symmetry.

Professor Parker commented: ‘One of the main aims of this lecture is to show how current technology, much of which we take very much for granted, comes pretty close to what you might consider “magicalâ€? when you realise what’s going on under the lid of the box. There are other themes that tangle and interweave and the final outcome, if I have been successful, is to make you question that indefinable thing we call reality.’

The lectures take place in the Turner Sims Concert Hall, at 3.30 pm and 5 pm, on Wednesday 18 May.