Researchers from Electronics and Computer Science have developed a new app to help share world-class research and to find out the latest research news through your phone or tablet.

One of the biggest problems facing researchers is the best way to share their research. In fact, it’s this important part of research impact, or how academic research makes a contribution to wider society, that is used as one of the yardsticks to judge the success of a research project.

The Software Sustainability Institute, a collaboration between the Universities of Southampton, Oxford, Edinburgh and Manchester, aims to spread the word about its work in promoting greater use of software in research.

The Institute’s website, features regular blogs written by researchers from across a wide range of disciplines, all of whom have used software to enhance and develop their work. To make all this fascinating material and the researchers’ output even more accessible, the Institute’s Software Consultant - Devasena Inupakutika, ECS researcher within the Web and Internet Science group - has developed an Android phone app, which is available to download free from Google Play.

Content available includes blogs about making dinosaurs and ancient spiders walk again, Google Glass in the operating theatre, tracking the spread of epidemics through social media, artificial intelligence and simulating the brains of bees, and even treating blindness in the developing world with a smartphone.

Four Academics within the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering have been named in the prestigious Debrett’s 500. Published in association with The Sunday Times, the Debrett’s 500 recognises the most influential and inspiring people living and working in Britain today.

Digital: Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee

Inventor of the World Wide Web and president of the Open Data Institute, Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee features in the list’s Digital category. He is noted for his work as leading the Alliance for Affordable Internet which aims to make it more accessible to the developing world.

Engineering and Technology: Professor Dame Wendy Hall, Professor Sir David Payne, Liam Maxwell

Professor Dame Wendy Hall is one of the most respected computer science academics in the UK; last summer she was also named as the most influential woman in UK IT by Computer Weekly. A Professor of Computer Science within Electronics and Computer Science, Dame Wendy is a fellow of the Royal Society and recognised in the list as ‘a leading light in the development of web services’.

Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre, Professor Sir David Payne is described in the Debrett’s 500 list as ‘a colossus in the science behind internet development’. A world class pioneer of technology, his work has had a great impact on telecommunications and laser technology over the last forty years.

A Visiting Professor within Electronics and Computer Science, Liam Maxwell is HM Government’s Chief Technology Officer. He is recognised within the Engineering and Technology category of the Debrett’s 500 list for his work in leading innovation in digital public services.

"It is a tremendous recognition of the influence of Engineering at the University of Southampton that so many of our academics are included in this distinguished list," said Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi, Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering. "Our success in the recent Research Excellence Framework system gave a clear indication of the industrial and societal impact of research in the faculty; the Debrett’s 500 list further indicates the influence our extraordinary team has in inspiring others."

Compiled in consultation with independent expert practitioners and commentators in each of the categories, The Debrett’s 500 is published in association with The Sunday Times to identify and celebrate the most influential people in British society. All the people in the Debrett’s 500 were scrutinised for their level of influence in shaping the lives, choices and ideas of others.

The Engineering and Technology category also features Andrew Wolstenholme OBE, chief executive, Crossrail. Former army officer and now in charge of one of the most ambitious engineering projects of any age, Wolstenholme will deliver a Distinguished Lecture at the University of Southampton in February around Moving the Construction Industry Forward.

Academics at the University of Southampton are collaborating on a multidisciplinary project that could see a major advance in environmental sensing.

Dr Kirk Martinez, from Electronics and Computer Science, and Professor Jane Hart, from Geography and Environment, will be using innovative combinations of technologies from the Internet of Things (IoT) – smart Internet connected devices – in a sensor network system to develop a concept for environmental sensing in remote mountain settings.

The project is being funded through a £174,000 technology proof of concept grant from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

Kirk and Jane will be working with colleagues at the University of Dundee on the two year project set in the Cairngorm Mountains and aims to use cutting-edge technology to observe hydrological, peatland and frozen ground processes.

Mountain environments are among the most sensitive to climate change and the Cairngorm Mountains contain some of Britain’s most vulnerable habitats.

The trials will be carried out in an area that is already being monitored by researchers from the University of Dundee and provides an ideal combination of scientists and challenges to test the new technology.

Kirk said: “IoT inspired sensor networks offer a revolutionary new way of investigating the environment. By embedding sensors into the landscape, many remote or hazardous environments can be measured live for the first time throughout the whole year.”

Wireless sensor networks have already been used for environmental science and over the last few years a number of small-scale sensor network projects have focused on a range of environments. These have shown that systems tailored specifically to earth and environmental sciences needs generate the most useful data. However, traditionally these have been very research based and difficult to manage.

Jane said: “The next phase in sensor network research is to revolutionise their user-friendliness to increase their use by environmental scientists. We will be carrying out research into turning this new technology into a sensor network that is robust and reliable enough to be used in environmental monitoring.”

This latest projects builds on a ten-year history of wireless sensor networking that has been carried out by the University of Southampton.

Previous projects have seen researchers from ECS and Geography and Environment exploring the use of these sensor networks in Norway and Iceland. For more information see the http://mountainsensing.org website.

Joulo, a spin-out from the University of Southampton, has been acquired by Quby, Europe’s leading developer of smart thermostats and energy displays.

Joulo, co-founded by Dr Reuben Wilcock and Professor Alex Rogers from Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, develops smart energy monitoring technology that delivers insight into heating systems, allowing customers to save money on their energy bills and make their homes more comfortable. Joulo was tipped as the UK’s brightest home tech startup when it won first place at the 2013 British Gas Connecting Homes competition.

Through the acquisition of Joulo, Quby adds advanced algorithms, developed by world experts in artificial intelligence, to its portfolio. At the same time Quby acquires a simple and elegant hardware product, the Joulo USB temperature logger. The Joulo logger enables utility companies to engage both existing and new customers in discussions about heating, energy savings, insulation and comfort.

Dr Reuben Wilcock said: "Quby is a great match for Joulo and I am delighted about this acquisition. I am confident that Quby will have great success taking Joulo to international markets whilst continuing to develop the underlying algorithms. In Quby’s hands, I have no doubt that Joulo will soon make an appearance in millions of homes across the world."

Professor Alex Rogers added: "It’s very exciting to see our fundamental research being developed into a consumer product. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how Quby grows Joulo in the home energy market over the coming years."

Joris Jonker, CEO of Quby, commented on the deal: “We are excited to announce this acquisition. The founders of Joulo have developed a great product, and we are proud to have the opportunity to bring it to market. At the same time, this is a great opportunity for Quby to become more active in the UK by using Joulo as a springboard for our smart thermostat offering.â€?

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

A professional skier will battle against two online gamers in the world’s first interactive ‘mixed reality’ downhill ski race using technology pioneered by European researchers.

Hitting speeds of up to 100 kilometres an hour, the top-class skier will hurtle down the world cup ski course in Schladming, Austria, in a bid to reach the finish line before his two competitors – virtual reality gamers based in Thessaloniki, in Greece, and Munich, in Germany.

The race will be broadcast live at 11.10 and 13:35 CET / 10.10 and 12.35 GMT on 2 and 3 February during the world-leading Wearable Technologies Conference, in Munich. Watch the live stream here - http://ustre.am/1lwE4.

The racers will use a 3D tele-immersion platform and wear new virtual reality technology - Oculus Rift - that allows them to compete against each other by racing down the same ski slope at the same time. The competition is the culmination of research by the European Commission funded 3D LIVE project. The project’s technical lead, Michael Boniface, Technical Director at the University of Southampton IT Innovation Centre - an applied research group with Electronics and Computer Science, said: “The competitors will interact in real-time sharing their experience in a 3D virtual environment delivered over the Internet to wearable immersive devices.

“The professional skier will wear Smart Ski Goggles with a heads up display that allows them to see the virtual world alongside the real slope. The indoor competitors will play fully immersed in a virtual world using Oculus Rift. By using advanced sensor and gaming technologies to create and manipulate 3D information in real-time, the platform can deliver truly interactive experiences closely linked to real world activities.â€? Project coordinator Marco Conte, at Collaborative Engineering in Italy, said: “This innovative technology will open up the opportunity for new types of live games that combine digital and real interaction in many different competitive sports. 3D LIVE experiences have been developed for Golf, Jogging and now skiing, transforming the way people play, compete and socialise.â€?

The consortium, which is made up of Collaborative Engineering, in Italy; University of Southampton IT Innovation Centre, in UK; the CERTH Information Technologies Institute, in Greece; Arts et Metiers ParisTech Laval, in France; Sportscurve, in Germany; and Cyberlighting, in Finland, has worked on the 3D LIVE project to deliver a mixed reality, immersive 3D platform where users can experience, feel and interact with real environments and distant users in real-time.

Students across the UK will get the chance to be part of a residential summer course launched by the University of Southampton that aims to inspire the next generation of electronic engineers and computer scientists.

The lucky participants will have the opportunity to gain an insight into life at one of the UK’s top universities as well as find out about the careers they could aspire to once they graduate.

The week-long course is being run by Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University in July 2015 and builds on summer schools previously held there.

Electrical and Electronic Engineering Senior Admissions Tutor Dr Geoff Merrett said: “Last summer we hosted a summer school in electronics and it was a fantastic success.

“This year we want to expand on this and offer something even better. Our week-long residential will cover all areas of Electronics and Computer Science, from computer science and software engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, to information technology in organisations, and web science. We hope that by taking part in the summer school we will engage the students in the subjects, inspire them to apply for a university place and open their eyes to the exciting breadth of careers that a degree in ECS can lead to,â€? he added.

A-Level students who sign up to the course will take part in activities in the undergraduate laboratories, meet current and former pupils, network with potential employers, visit a commercial or research facility in the UK, and hear about the latest teaching and research from the University’s team of globally-renowned lecturers.

They will also get the chance to live in halls of residence for a week and enjoy a range of social activities.

The summer school will build on ECS’s continuing commitment to encourage more women to go into science and engineering subjects at university and as a career.

Co-organiser Dr Reena Pau, a PhD alumna from the University of Southampton, said: “We hope that by giving young women the opportunity to experience what life is like studying science at university we will dispel many of the myths and misconceptions they may have.â€?

Students from last year’s electronics summer school hosted by ECS say they really enjoyed the experience.

Megan, from Wiltshire, said: “It was really worthwhile and helped me know that I wanted to do electronics at university.â€? Ricki, from Cambridgeshire, added: “A great taster of what electronics is like, and made me certain on choosing electronic engineering at university.â€?

The ECS summer school will run from 27 to 31 July, 2015 and is open to the top students in Year 12 studying A-Levels in Maths and one of Physics, Further Maths, Computing or Electronics. To find out more about what is on offer and how to apply visit www.summerschool.ecs.soton.ac.uk.

A professional skier battled against two online gamers in the world’s first interactive mixed reality downhill ski race using technology pioneered by the IT Innovation Centre – an applied research group within Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton.

Hitting speeds of up to 100 kilometres an hour, the top class skier hurtled down the world cup ski course in Schladming, Austria, in a bid to reach the finish line before his two competitors – virtual reality gamers based in Thessaloniki, in Greece, and Munich, in Germany.

The four-stage race was broadcast live over two days from the Wearable Technologies Conference, in Munich, at the beginning of February.

Despite the skier on the real slope picking up an early win in the first race, the two online gamers went on to battle back and win the successive races, with the racer in Greece gaining the lead and finishing with the best overall time.

The racers used a 3D tele-immersion platform and wore new virtual reality technology that allowed them to compete against each other by racing down the same ski slope at the same time. The competition was the culmination of research by the European Commission funded 3D LIVE project. The project’s technical lead, Michael Boniface, Technical Director at the IT Innovation Centre said: “The race was a huge success and demonstrated that mixed reality can deliver unique and truly exciting experiences.

“The competitors interacted in real-time sharing their experience in a 3D virtual environment delivered over the Internet to wearable immersive devices. The professional skier wore Smart Ski Goggles with a heads up display that allowed them to see the virtual world alongside the real slope. The indoor competitors were fully immersed in a virtual world using Oculus Rift. By using advanced sensor and gaming technologies to create and manipulate 3D information in real-time, the platform delivered truly interactive experiences closely linked to real world activities. “Mixed reality can deliver experiences that have never happened before for people online and people on location. We envisage opportunities for new types of live games that combine digital and real interaction in many different competitive sports but also serious applications. For example, if you are watching a live sports event at home, maybe a championship ski race, you can actually compete against the real pros.â€?

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India’s first Web Observatory has been launched by Professor Dame Wendy Hall of Electronics and Computer Science and by Indian scholar Professor Sowmyanarayanan Sadagopan at the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B).

The Web Observatory, set up in partnership with the Web Science Trust, the University of Southampton and other global Web Science laboratories, provides a global, distributed analytics platform that not only provides access to datasets of various sizes but also in helping analyse the web.

Profesor Dame Wendy Hall, Executive Director of the Web Science Institute at the University, said:

“I’m really excited about the launch of the Web Observatory in India at IIIT-Bangalore. The web has changed our lives irrevocably and it is so important that we understand how this is happening, so that we can better forecast what might happen in the future. The Web Observatory is crucial to providing the data and data analytics to support evidence based policy making and business intelligence in the future.

"It is also crucial that this is a global effort and it is wonderful to see the development of the Observatory at IIIT-Bangalore as the first step of the evolution of a network of Web Observatories throughout India. Similar Web Observatories exist in European, SE Asia and US universities.�

Further information about the Web Observatory’s launch can be found on the Gov.uk website.

Researchers from Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton will play a major role in establishing a European Data Science Academy (EDSA) – a new online platform for training data scientists across Europe.

The Academy will help organisations and businesses across the EU to benefit from the global explosion and availability of large and complex data sets – known as ‘big data’. Possessing the ability to generate insights from these huge data sets, data scientists can discover stories and trends that may otherwise remain hidden, creating opportunities for an organisation to improve, economise or investigate further.

As the data-driven economy continues to grow, increasing numbers of organisations require skilled professionals who are capable of handling big data. To help meet this urgent demand, the EDSA will create a supply of data scientists with the knowledge and skills to help organisations of all sizes manage and make use of such quantities of data, allowing them to remain competitive in an increasingly expanding data-based economy.

It is estimated that in the UK, demand for professionals with the skills to manage large amounts of data is expected to grow by 160 per cent by 2020, creating nearly 56,000 jobs per year .

Dr Elena Simperl, Associate Professor in the Web and Internet Science Group at the University of Southampton, is the technical lead for the EDSA project. She says: “Big data analysis can provide an unparalleled level of insight into what is happening around a particular issue, by revealing trends that may have never been noticed before.

“The EDSA project offers a great opportunity for Southampton to strengthen its position in the data science industry. This complements the launch of our new MSc program on the same topic later this year.â€?

The project will be funded by a €2.9m (£2.2m) investment through the EU Horizon 2020 program. It will use e-learning technologies to create courses and training for data science professionals across key EU industrial sectors.

The EDSA project involves nine partners from higher education, professional training organisations and technology innovators, from the UK and the rest of Europe. Educational institutions involved are: the Open University (who are leading the EDSA project), the Jozef Stefan Institute (Slovenia), Kungiga Tekniska Hoegskolan (Sweden), the University of Southampton, and the Technisce Universiteit Eindhoven (Netherlands).

Other organisations involved are: the Open Data Institute (ODI), which was founded by University of Southampton Professors Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt; Fraunhofer IAIS, a leading German applied research institute; Idexlab, a French open innovation company; and Persontyle, a UK social enterprise focused on numeracy and data science.

Registration for courses from the European Data Science will open later in 2015.

For further information on The European Data Science Academy, please visit: edsa-project.eu.

The University of Southampton will be represented among the keynote speakers at the launch of Innovation is GREAT in Tokyo this Friday.

The GREAT campaign, which is aimed at building British prosperity through innovation and creative business partnerships, will be launched by HRH The Duke of Cambridge during his visit to Japan.

Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Chairman and Co-Founder of the Open Data Institute and Professor of Artificial Intelligence within Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, is among the six speakers who will share their experiences of embracing innovation as a driver for product development, business growth and collaboration, to help launch the year-long campaign. Professor Sir Shadbolt's speech will cover how data is changing society. He said:

“We live in an age of superabundant information. The Internet and World Wide Web have been the agents of this revolution. Data science is emerging as an area of competitive advantage for individuals, companies, universities, public and private sector organisations and nation states. “It is a privilege to be showcasing the UK’s world-leading work in this area. At the Open Data Institute, which I co-founded with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, we are showing how open data published on the Web is improving the efficiency of our public services and giving rise to open innovation. Whilst at the University of Southampton our research in Web Science helps us understand how we can use the Web to solve problems beyond any individual or single organisation.â€? Tim Hitchens, HM Ambassador for Japan said: “I’m delighted to confirm that Prince William will join us at this event. We will formally launch our Innovation is GREAT campaign, which is a year-long programme of activities and events designed to celebrate and promote partnership between the United Kingdom and Japan. “The campaign will showcase and stimulate UK-Japan business, research and education collaborations that tackle global problems and improve lives through innovation.â€?

For more information about the University’s Open Data and Web Science research visit: www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/researchimpact.