Stroke rehabilitation technology which patients can operate in their own homes while playing computer games is being developed by academics at the University of Southampton.

Therapists, doctors, engineers and psychologists at the University have come together to set up ARM (Assessment, Rehabilitation, Movement) – a unique initiative that is using ideas from industrial robots to help patients regain and control movement of the arm and hand after a stroke.

‘We felt it was important for people to have fun while they recovered,’ said Professor Jane Burridge of the University of Southampton’s School of Health Sciences. ‘In fact we find it’s often difficult to get them to stop playing the computer games!

‘As far as we know no-one has tried using this technique – Iterative Learning Control – to help people move again after a stroke and much of the research and rehabilitation into the effects of stroke has focussed on walking. We believe ARM is a great example of how state-of-the-art control theory, normally used for industrial robots, can be applied to challenges in rehabilitation.’ Professor Burridge is leading the ARM team, which is the first group to take such a comprehensive approach to upper limb stroke rehabilitation. The pioneering system developed by researchers at the University’s School of Electronics and Computer Science, working with colleagues in Health Sciences, aims to retrain weak or paralysed arm muscles in patients who have suffered brain damage as a result of a stroke.

After initial successful trials at the University, the ARM researchers are now applying the system to retrain hand and arm function using computer games technology. Their research has attracted considerable attention and interest, including national and international awards.

‘We can use state-of-the-art engineering discoveries to make a real difference to people’s lives,’ said Professor Burridge. ‘We are also breaking new ground in understanding how the brain recovers the ability to control movement of the arm and hand after stroke. This is essential knowledge to enable us to develop and test new treatments.’

In collaboration with the ARM team, NHS hospitals and the Universities of Bournemouth and Keele, have already attracted a grant of £2M from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to take rehabilitation technology out of the laboratory and into healthcare practice nationally.

‘By assembling a multidisciplinary team and bringing together their insights and expertise we want to improve people’s quality of life after stroke by helping them regain the use of their arms,’ said Professor Burridge. ‘With this new technique our patients can actually see their progress and work to improve their performance, and have fun at the same time!’

For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44 (0)23 8059 5453

At the opening of the Southampton Nanofabrication Centre this week (9 September), Professor Ian Diamond, Chair of Research Councils UK, described it as a “beautiful buildingâ€?, which will place Southampton as part of an excellent UK network better than anywhere in the world.

Commenting on the Centre, which is housed in the University of Southampton’s new Mountbatten Building, Professor Diamond said:

‘When I was asked to speak at the opening of this facility, it took me all of a nanosecond to say how privileged I felt to be asked ...We have supported the University of Southampton for the past 60 years and feel sure that this new facility will result in the University continuing to win a very high number of grants from the research councils.’

Professor Harvey Rutt, Head of the University’s School of Electronics and Computer Science, welcomed over 200 industrialists to the occasion which was the culmination of a four year journey, and has culminated in a £100M facility - one of Europe's leading multidisciplinary and state-of-the-art clean room complexes. ‘When our clean room facilities in the old Mountbatten Building were lost in a fire in 2005, our Vice-Chancellor made a pledge that we would deliver a facility that was better than anything we had ever had,’ said Professor Rutt. ‘As a result of that pledge, we have a truly fantastic facility that positions us at the cutting edge of nanotechnology.’

The equipment in the new facility, which includes an Orion Microscope and a Focused Ion Beam, will make high-speed, non-volatile and low-power computer memory a reality and make it possible to carry out fast prototyping and to develop smaller, faster and more powerful single electron devices. Research teams are also working on a method of mass producing point-of-care blood testing kits. Other guest speakers at the opening event included: Dr Larry Scipioni, Director of Applications Research, Carl Zeiss SMT Inc.; Dr David Williams, Chief Research Scientist and Lab Manager, Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory; Dr Chris Winter, Partner, New Venture Partners UK and Professor Peter Ashburn, Head of the Nano group at the School of Electronics and Computer Science.

The opening presentations were followed by clean room tours where industrialists viewed the training and research potential afforded by the facility.

For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel. +44(0)23 8059 5453

Professor Neil White of the University of Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer Science received the Callendar Medal of the Institute of Measurement & Control at an awards dinner held this week at the Royal Society, London.

In awarding this year's Callendar Medal to Professor White, the Institute recognized the breadth of contribution to the field of instrumentation and measurement.

The Medal commemorates Professor H L Callendar, FRS, and is presented annually to an engineer or scientist who has, through invention, design or application, or through a series of outstanding papers or articles in the field of measurement, made significant contributions to the art of instruments or measurement.

Commenting on this honour, Professor White said: 'I am delighted, and somewhat flattered, to receive this award. Measurement is an important aspect of modern life and it is very gratifying for my efforts in this field to be recognised by such an esteemed institution.'

During the ceremony, the Institute noted Professor White's extensive research into novel sensor technologies, intelligent instrumentation and alternative energy sources based on electromagnetic and piezoelectric techniques. A desire to explore applications for the latter led to the creation of Perpetuum Ltd, a University spin-out company, of which Professor White is a founder instigator.

Perpetuum was set up to exploit work in the area of energy harvesting and its researchers have developed small, inexpensive wireless sensor systems with RF data transmission. The patented vibration harvesting microgenerator produces sufficient energy from relatively low levels of vibration to power the systems so they require no external power supplies or batteries.

For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel. +44(0)23 8059 5453.

ECS Professors Nigel Shadbolt and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, visited No.10 Downing Street last week to update the Cabinet on progress on making government data more open and accessible.

Work on this project began in June, when the two Professors were asked to advise the UK Government on opening up public data. The initiative is intended to help drive culture change in Whitehall toward an assumption of total publication for anonymous data using open standards.

It will also promote international liaison and global standards-setting as an investment in future international data-sharing. According to the Prime Minister's Office: 'The Government hopes the data project will benefit the UK by creating jobs, driving new economic growth and allowing the re-use of government data to encourage the development of new, innovative information-based businesses and services.'

During the Cabinet meeting Sir Tim Berners-Lee outlined the goal of delivering a single online access point to government information, similar to that introduced by the Obama Administration in the US.

Six students from the School are attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, being held this year in Tucson, Arizona.

The School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton is a major sponsor of the annual event, which is designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront and which attracts participants from around the world. The ECS students attending, led by Professor Dame Wendy Hall, are: Noura Abbas, Asma Ounnas, Anna Asanowicz, Zurina Muda, Salma Noor, Carly Wilson, and Maria Kikelomo Apampa; all have Anita Borg conference scholarships. ECS EngD student Clare Hooper is also attending the conference and giving a presentation. The students are also representing the School’s active ECSWomen group – and are recounting their experiences at GCI in a daily blog.

The Grace Hopper Celebrations are a programme of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. In 2006 Dame Wendy Hall received the Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership at that year’s Celebration. She is currently the President of the Association for Computing Machinery, the world’s largest organization for computing professionals.

For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel. 023 8059 5453

Over 200 new undergraduates are joining the School of Electronics and Computer Science this week.

The new students have been welcomed to the School with a series of events that form the ‘JumpStart’ induction programme, including talks, social events, and a Challenge which introduces them to the City of Southampton.

The students are enrolling in one of 23 programmes in Computer Science, IT in Organisations, Electronics, and Electrical Engineering. Their courses begin formally on Monday 4 October.

Among those queueing at today’s registration (Thursday) were MEng Electronic Engineering students Josef Capindale from Lincoln, Michael Barber from Croydon, and Philip Crump from the USA, who were all positive about the JumpStart experience. ‘It’s been really good to meet lots of new people,’ said Josef. ‘It’s going smoothly so far,’ said Michael, and Philip agreed: ‘There's so much that's new, but it’s good so far!’

The JumpStart event has been organized by a team led by ECS student Alan Huynh, who recruited around 70 students to help. Amongst them is Part 2 Computer Science student Raluca Laic from Romania: ‘It’s been really exciting being in the place of the students who helped me last year,’ she said. ‘It’s been an awesome week – the students have been no trouble at all, and have been really forthright in asking us for help.

‘Last year I enjoyed the City Challenge since it’s a good way to find your way around somewhere new. It’s a great start to the year.’

For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel. 023 3059 5453

Professor Dame Wendy Hall from the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science will celebrate the 125th anniversary of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) next week with a lecture on the progress of the World Wide Web and its future potential.

In a lecture entitled 'Research Sans Frontières', which Professor Hall will deliver at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London on Tuesday 6 October, she will claim that the second phase of the World Wide Web – the era of the Linked Web of Data – will have as much impact on our world as the Web had when it first emerged.

‘Nearly 20 years later, for a variety of reasons, the world is beginning to understand the value of sharing data over the internet,’ she will say. ‘It is our hypothesis that the Linked Web of Data will become the dominant data sharing and integration platform and that its effect on our world will be as profound and unexpected as the impact of the first Web.’

Professor Hall, who has published over 400 papers in areas such as hypermedia, multimedia, digital libraries, and Web technologies, will go on to describe how, in a very short space of time, we have come to live in a web-dependent society within a web-dependent world, facts which make it crucial to understand the current, evolving and potential Web. She will present the important of Web Science, which embraces the study of these phenomena and she will explore the opportunities and challenges posed by the increasing need for interdisciplinary research undertaken by international teams and the role that universities, governments and learned societies can play to facilitate such exciting and necessary developments.

‘We are now at a point when we can study the Web as both a technical and social phenomenon and we can operate an interdisciplinary research agenda which knows no international boundaries in terms of its scope,’ she will say.

The IEEE 125th Anniversary London Event will take place on Tuesday 6 October at the Royal Institution of Great Britain at 21 Albemarle Street W1S 4BS from 4-6.30pm.

IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional society with more than 375,000 members in 160 countries. Its United Kingdom/Republic of Ireland Section is the 2nd largest among 329 Sections worldwide with 11,000 members. IEEE technical interests range from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics.

For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel.023 8059 5453

A record number of 300 students have enrolled on the School’s MSc courses. Professor Darren Bagnall, Director of the MSc Programme, welcomed the new students warmly, saying that increased demand both from overseas and the UK meant that the School had raised its admissions criteria. ‘We are very pleased to welcome such a high-achieving cohort of MSc students,’ he said, ‘and look forward to what will undoubtedly be a strong contribution to the life of the School.’

Professor Bagnall also paid tribute to the work of the School’s Postgraduate Admissions Office in processing and converting the large number of applications.

The largest programme is Wireless Communications, which has 69 students this year, but Software Engineering and Web Technologies have also attracted significant numbers of students. Twenty-one students are taking the new 4-year PhDs in Complex Systems Simulation introduced by the EPSRC this year. The degree programme includes an initial year of MSc study, followed by three years of PhD research.

Queueing up to register for their courses last week was Ruizhe Wang from China, taking the MSc in Microelectronics Systems Design. ‘It’s very exciting to come here. I chose ECS because it’s very famous, has very prestigious teachers and microelectronics here is very good.’

The students had their induction programme last week, including a boat trip around the Port of Southampton. However, courses began in earnest today with the first day of term.

For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel. +44(0)23 8059 5453.

Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi, Co-Director of the ECS Pervasive Systems Centre, is leading a new £1.6M project, funded by the EPSRC, which will develop ultra energy-efficient electronic systems for emerging applications including mobile digital health and autonomous wireless monitoring in environmental and industrial settings.

Southampton is one of four universities (the others are Bristol, Newcastle, and Imperial College) which will undertake this three-year collaborative research project in partnership with five industrial companies: QinetiQ, Zetex, ARM, NXP and Mentor Graphics.

‘There is now a consensus that we are entering the era of electronics powered, or at least augmented by, energy harvesters,’ said Professor Al-Hashimi. ‘Future self-powered applications will require electronic systems that are more complex and more compact but also intelligent, adaptive and able to perform more computation with less energy.’

The new research programme will take a holistic design approach to the complex issues surrounding the development of next-generation energy-harvesting systems and the research partners aim to exploit the interactions between the micro-generator, power conditioning circuitry and computational electronics in order to make efficient use of the energy generated.

The new design methodology will be incorporated into a novel mixed-technology domain modelling and performance optimization design toolkit. This design approach is fundamental to ultra energy-efficient design and to the miniaturisation of next-generation wireless electronics.

‘The research joins up three different research fields,’ said Professor Al-Hashimi, ‘including energy harvesting and MEMS processing methods, low-power embedded computing systems, and electronic design automation. This requires interdisciplinary collaboration which the Pervasive Systems Centre is in a unique position to facilitate.’

For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+(0)23 8059 5453

The challenges which face the World Wide Web in its next phase and the need for academics to embrace its further development will be outlined by Professor Dame Wendy Hall next week.

Professor Hall, who is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) will receive the Duncan Davies Medal and deliver the 2009 Duncan Davies Lecture on the topic of 'Research 2.0: The Age of Networks' at a Research & Development Society event at the Royal Society on Monday 12 October at 6.30pm.

The Duncan Davies Medal is awarded annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution toward making the UK the best-performing research and development environment in the world.

In her lecture Professor Hall will describe how since its inception the Web has changed the ways we communicate, collaborate, and educate and how the next generation of Web technology will increasingly facilitate interdisciplinary research by international teams to tackle the major problems faced by the world today.

‘The role of government is crucial in setting policies to create an environment in which such research can flourish but in the age of networks, universities may also have to radically change in order to facilitate such exciting and necessary developments and better train people to meet the needs of businesses in the future,’ she will say.

‘In a very short space of time we have come to live in a web-dependent society within a web-dependent world,’ she will go on to say. ‘There is a growing realization that a clear research agenda aimed at understanding the current, evolving, and potential Web is needed.’

She will illustrate this by discussing the importance of Web Science, the new research discipline which embraces the study of these phenomena and she will explore the opportunities and challenges posed by the increasing need for interdisciplinary research undertaken by international teams and the role that universities, governments and learned societies can play to facilitate such exciting and necessary developments.

The 2009 Duncan Davies lecture on the topic of 'Research 2.0: The Age of Networks' will take place at the Royal Society on Monday 12 October at 6.30pm at 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG.

For further information contact: Joyce Lewis; tel.023 8059 5453.