The endless fascination of hands, hand movement and functionality are the enduring research interest of Dr Cheryl Metcalf of the ECS Electronic Systems and Devices research group.

Cheryl's interest in hands developed from her PhD in which she studied dynamic hand movement.

'Up until recently, it has not been possible to study dynamic hand movements,' she says. 'Now, with improvements in 3D movement analysis systems, we have developed a model which makes it possible for the first time to assess true hand function and record it.'

Cheryl became fascinated by the possibility of measuring something as interesting as hand functions, particularly as the complexity of functional hand movements makes them historically very difficult to measure.

'The hand is how we interact with the world,' she said. 'It provides us with many of our communication skills, yet it tends to be overlooked in terms of health funding.'

Cheryl's research, carried out with other members of the School of Electronics and Computer Science and clinicians at local hospitals, is making real advances in the assessment and treatment of different impairments of the human hand.

Read more in our profile of Cheryl and her research.

Research led by Dr Jo Adams on silver ring splints carried out by an interdisciplinary group including ECS academic Dr Cheryl Metcalf has shown that they have significant value.

The research led by Dr Jo Adams of the School of Health Professions and Rehabilitations Sciences at the University of Soutahmpton, was undertaken by academics in the University's School of Health Professions and Rehabilitation Sciences and the School of Electronics and Computer Science in conjunction with Occupational Therapy at Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester, found that silver ring splints are effective in controlling hyperextension deformity of finger joints, which is common in individuals with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

These silver ring splints are elegant rings, which have replaced bulky, plastic ones and are worn to give joints back their stability. They look much better than the plastic ones and are also stronger and more durable.

The findings were published in a paper, 'Three dimensional function motion analysis of silver ring splints in Rheumatoid Arthritis', and co-author Dr Jo Adams was awarded the Arthritis Research Campaign Silver Medal at the British Society of Rheumatology's annual meeting.

The research work was funded by a grant awarded by Wessex Medical Research. The research team consisted of Dr Cheryl Metcalf, an engineer at the University of Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer Science; Caroline Spicka studying for her MSc at the University, and Dr Jo Adams, Professional Lead for Occupational Therapy at the University, and a clinical occupational therapist from Royal Hampshire County Hospital.

According to the researchers, the team has worked efficiently together to ensure that the project has fulfilled its remit to carry out innovative scientific research that is applied directly to real issues and concerns that are affecting patients' daily lives. The project has been an excellent example of clinically applied academic research.

'This award demonstrates what can be done when people work across disciplines,' said Dr Metcalf. 'These silver ring splints have been commercially available in different parts of the world for a while. Men and women wear them and they look a lot nicer than the plastic alternatives currently available - which means people are more likely to wear them.'

An occupational therapist at Royal Hampshire County Hampshire added: 'In fact I saw two patients this week who really do appreciate these splints. One is ordering three more for her little finger and both thumbs after having seven silver splints for at least five years for her other fingers. Unfortunately, the other patient can't because her skin is too delicate, but both can see the benefit.'

An abstract of 'Three dimensional function motion analysis of silver ring splints in Rheumatoid Arthritis' is available.

The arc prize in rheumatology is presented annually by medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign to five healthcare professionals working with people with arthritis in the fields of physiotherapy, occupational therapy, nursing, podiatry and other related areas.

Winners receive £500 and a silver medal.

Professor Wendy Hall has been elected as President of the Association for Computing Machinery, the first person from outside North America to hold this position in the ACM’s prestigious 60-year history.

In an announcement made today (3 June) from the ACM’s headquarters in the United States, Wendy Hall, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, said her goal as president is to help ACM reach its full potential by expanding international initiatives and increasing gender diversity in all aspects of computing.

The ACM is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, with over 90,000 members around the world, representing business and the professions, education, and research and development.

As a Past-President of the British Computer Society (2003-2004), and a researcher with many international connections, Professor Hall expressed her commitment to guiding ACM toward more initiatives in India and China. She also indicated her interest in rethinking the society’s relationship with Europe, and exploring relevant opportunities in South America and other parts of the world.

Her current research includes applications of the Semantic Web and exploring the interface between the life sciences and the physical sciences. She is a Founding Director, along with Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Professor Nigel Shadbolt and Daniel J. Weitzner, of the Web Science Research Initiative, which was launched in 2006 as a long-term research collaboration between the University of Southampton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Professor Hall is a member of the UK Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology and a founding member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council. An active member of the Special Interest Group on Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Web (SIGWEB) as well as the Special Interest Group on Multimedia (SIGMM), she chaired WWW2006, the World Wide Web conference, which was co-sponsored by ACM. She previously served as ACM Vice-President.

She is currently Senior Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering in London, where she is also a Fellow. Her other honours include Fellow of the British Computer Society and of the UK’s Institution of Engineering and Technology, and the Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership 2006 from the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. She was awarded a CBE in 2000.

Professor Hall is the first person from outside North America to serve as ACM President in the association’s 60-year history. A full list of election results for the ACM includes the new Vice-President Alain Chesnais and the new Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Ryder.

Professor David Delpy, Chief Executive of the EPSRC, visited ECS to see progress on the new Mountbatten Building which is due for completion next month.

Professor Delpy was leading an EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) delegation to the University, to discuss areas of strategic importance for the future of the UK’s science and technology research.

As part of his visit he was able to tour the Mountbatten Building, a £55 million interdisciplinary clean room complex, which provides a purpose-built facility for the University’s research in nanoelectronics and photonics. The facilities in the Mountbatten Building and the research to be carried out there is central to key strategic areas of EPSRC funding programmes.

Professor Delpy was accompanied on his tour of the new Building by Professor Peter Ashburn (pictured right), Head of the Nano Group in the School of Electronics and Computer Science, and Professor David Payne, Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre.

The Mountbatten Building will contain research labs and facilities for the School of Electronics and Computer Science and the Optoelectronics Research Centre. It is due for completion on 15 July, but fitting-out of the building for research is likely to take another six months.

Southampton lost one of its temporary landmarks over the weekend as the huge tower crane on the Mountbatten construction site was dismantled.

The huge crane had been a feature of the Mountbatten site since last April. Its removal on Saturday (7 June) is another indication of the approaching completion of the building. It is scheduled to be handed over to the University in mid-July.

Staff from the School of Electronics and Computer Science and the Optoelectronics Research Centre will move into the new building in August and the fit-out of labs and clean rooms will begin at the same time.

The Mountbatten Building will provide a flexible interdisciplinary facility for a wide range of nano-and bio-nano technologies.

A community-based wireless network developed by a group of ECS students is providing wireless Internet access to Southampton residents.

The Southampton Open Wireless Project (SOWN) is a community and research project led by students and staff in the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS). SOWN is investigating the technologies and infrastructure needed to deploy effective city-wide WiFi network coverage in a domestic area(currently Portswood, Highfield, and beyond) using hot-spots placed strategically to link up to a full-scale network.

In order to create the network SOWN has deployed wireless nodes in student houses around the Highfield Campus. Whilst sharing student’s bandwidth in each house, there is enough left over to allow other people to access the network and therefore the Internet.

‘Relying on community involvement has allowed SOWN to deploy its network in hard to reach places, as well as giving internet access to large swathes of student areas around the city,’ said ECS student Stuart Harland.

Members of the public can gain access to the wireless network by obtaining an account from SOWN (through the SOWN website) for which there is no charge. In addition to providing a high level of uptime and capability for its users in Southampton, SOWN is a test bed for new technology. The SOWN team are currently working on research on several key areas of wireless technology, including the development of multicasting audio and video streams, 802.1x Authentication, Transparent Mobility, Wireless VoIP, Wireless Location Tracking and deploying IPv6.

According to David Tarrant, SOWN team member and an ECS postgraduate student, SOWN is unique in that it is the only "non commercial, research network, student led, wide scale wireless network" around.

Since it began several years ago, SOWN has amassed a large amount of information on testing wireless devices, implementation of hardware and software solutions, and a whole volume of technical knowledge.

ECS researcher Mischa Tuffield is building an electronic log of everything he does, as part of the Memories for Life project co-ordinated in the School.

In a long article in the Daily Telegraph, Mischa explains that he archives all the data he gathers, both personally and from the Web, into a searchable format.

Dr Kieron O’Hara, a Senior Research Fellow in ECS, is quoted as saying: ‘Why should I bother to remember a boring work conversation when I could record it, have it automatically annotated and render it searchable with clever language recognition technologies?’And Professor Wendy Hall suggests that in future people will have wearable ‘memory aids’.

The Memories for Life project (M4L) brings together psychologists, neuroscientists, sociologists and computer scientists will lead to a more effective use and management of both the human and computerised memory. It will place the technology in the context. M4L aims to produce an understanding of what is common in memory systems and use that knowledge to improve efficiency, recall and information management across human, personal, social and work domains.

The ECS student branch of the IEEE has won the 'best web site' for the second year running beating 38 other contenders across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The branch (which is funded by both the IEEE and ECS) is one of the most active branches in the UK, and last year received an award for the fastest growing branch in its region.

It has had a very successful year since then with an active programme of speakers, attracting large audiences to each event.

The web site now goes forward to the international competition, competing against the rest of the world.

The IEEE (Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) is one of the world's leading professional organizations, supporting education and the professions.

Gaming is already pointing the way towards learning technologies of the future, according to ECS Professor Nigel Shadbolt.

In a futuristic report on learning technologies published today (17 June) by the Ufi, it is predicted that in the future we will all have all have digital personal assistants, learning will take place on the move, and palm held, and artificial intelligence and machines will have a greater influence in training.

The technology is all there already, led by the world of gaming, according to Professor Nigel Shadbolt. ‘A Holy Grail will be to convert the energy and time devoted to immersive virtual environments (Second Life) and Massive Multiplayer Games (Word of Warcraft) into learning environments and outcomes,’ he says.

The report, entitled 'Skills Evolution: A vision of the future of workplace skills', will be launched at the British Museum in London, with a keynote address by one of the report’s authors, Professor Lord Robert Winston.

The report was commissioned by Ufi, which provides skills and learning through technology, and brought together world-renowned futurologists and scientists, including Professor Shadbolt and Professor Wendy Hall of ECS, to predict the impact of emerging technologies on the way people learn, and the effect this will have on society and the workplace by 2020.

ECS has been placed 2nd in the UK for Electrical and Electronic Engineering and 5th for Computer Science in the Times Good University Guide 2009.

In a table which remains broadly the same as last year, ECS has retained its position for both Electrical & Electronic Engineering and for Computer Science.

The Times ranking is calculated on the following factors: Student Satisfaction (NSS); Research Quality; Entry Standards; Staff-Student Ratio; Services and Facilities Spending; Completion; Percentage of Good Honours Degrees Awarded; and Employment Prospects.

The University of Southampton was placed 16th in the UK. You can read the Times's official profile of the University, as well as a student profile.