Multidisciplinary Research at the University of Southampton- Driving Discovery and Positive Impact

May 14, 2013
by Guy Poppy

See my latest TEDx talk Global Food Security

Multidisciplinary Research at the University of Southampton.
Bringing together adventurous minds to achieve the impossible.

Seminar Series: www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary/mdrseminar/index.page

Research Week: www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary/researchweek/index.page

Blog: http://blog.soton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary

Website: www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary

Email: multidisciplinary@southampton.ac.uk

Follow us on twitter and share your experience with us: @multisoton #MDRweek

Multidisciplinary Research Week 2013- Success

May 7, 2013
by Alison Simmance

The University of Southampton sprang to life during the 17-22nd March when over 1050 attendees joined us for the 3rd annual Multidisciplinary Research Week.

This year’s week long celebration was built on the best cross-disciplinary science and arts from the University of Southampton’s staff and students with a packed programme of talks, hands-on science demonstrations, exhibitions, debates and a film screening. We were also joined by key external speakers who brought insights into policy applications and cutting edge research in relation to our University Strategic Research Groups.

See the full programme here.  The energy and intellectual alchemy of the week certainly inspired ‘ideas worth spreading’ and far exceeded our expectations. Thank you to all our speakers, demonstrators, supporters, volunteers, digital champions, sponsors and attendees for enabling this annual cross-disciplinary event at the University of Southampton to be a huge success.

The week in numbers– see the statistics from MDR Week 2013 below or in the MDRWeek 2013 Final Statistics Flyer.

Blog posts about all our events at #MDRWeek will be coming shortly! Watch this site for news.

Did you miss MDR week 2013?

See all our multimedia outputs online now!

• Full webcasts (videos of all talks).
• Interviews and on the floor views (by ICM Reporting).
• YouTube #MDRWeek (all interviews and videos).
• Blogs from the week.
• See all the power point presentations on slideshare.
• In pictures on pinterest.

Did you miss TEDxSouthamptonUniversity 2013?

• All videos now on YouTube (TedxSotonUni).
• In pictures (Flickr).
• Website for full details.

MDR Week 2013 STATISTICS-

• 23 events (incl. 2 exhibitions and 1 interactive art session) from 17-22^nd March 2013.
• 1057 actual attendees (approx. 10% external).
• First TEDx at the University of Southampton- tickets sold out; new website; IBM sponsorship; 15 speakers; >1000 hits so far on YouTube.
• Prof Mohan Munasinghe– Vice Chair of IPPC/Nobel Prize Winner 2007 (BBC Radio Solent Broadcast & future collaborations).
• First formal celebration of the World Water Day 2013 (150 attendees).
• >70 people attended the ‘Litmus Project: Science & Poetry Exhibition’.
• >120 people attended ‘Question Time: The Brain & Society’, (incl. 40 6^th Formers)
• 15 people created an eco-friendly bag from 60^th Anniversary campaign banner material at ‘Be a Green Shopper’.
• Collaborations: UoS Science & Engineering Festival, WSA, WUN, IBM, Google, Marwell Wildlife, three 6^th Form Colleges.

First year that social media was used!

• 11 blogs (>300 hits in the 1^st week);
• 26 interviews– >500 hits so far on YouTube;
• 17 webcasts from all talks;
• Tedx 15 Videos– >1000 hits so far on YouTube.
• >370 hits to the multidisciplinary website;
• >630 tweets #MDRWeek;
• 3 storifys;
• 3 pinterests.

MDR Week 2014- Your Views

We are now already planning next year’s research week and welcome any suggestions for a possible theme on this. If you have an interesting cross-disciplinary project/initiative or idea and/or wish  to get involved in other ways then please contact us: multidisciplinary@soton.ac.uk

Full details available at: www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary

Share your experience with us on Twitter #MDRWeek @Multisoton

MDR Week: Blog no 11- World Water Day- Can we overcome the global water stress?

March 20, 2013
by Sylvia Szabo

Join Sylvia Szabo for the opening seminar ‘Water quality: addressing global problems at source’ in celebration of World Water Day: Water Cooperation on Friday 22^nd March (9-11am The Science Learning Centre Building 29). An insight into the multifaceted field of water cooperation can be found below.

Can we overcome the global water stress?

By Sylvia Szabo

Water stress has recently become a new global challenge, with many resource poor countries facing the threat of water shortages. By “resource poor countries” I do not mean the UN’s Least Developed Countries. Rather I refer to all nations vulnerable to water stress. This vulnerability can result from a number of factors. The growing demand for water is a consequence of urbanisation, population growth, consumption patterns, and also geographical conditions and climate change. Domestic water usage constitutes the smallest proportion of consumed water, whereas agriculture and industry take the bulk of all water required to satisfy the needs of increasing consumption.

At the macro-level water stress can be prevented, in particular in countries which are able to invest in sophisticated methods of water collection and purification, such as water catchment or desalination. The Gulf countries and Singapore are at the forefront of these innovative techniques. These rich states are also able to adequately distribute safe water to their inhabitants. On the other hand, countries suffering from a double burden of resource poverty (water stress and human development deprivation) face severe challenges at both macro and micro-level. In these countries, households are often unable to access safe drinking water, which can result in disease and even death. In addition to water borne diseases, water and sanitation have an important impact on food security.

But can these complex challenges related to water stress be solved? As with other multifaceted phenomena, there isn’t a simple “yes” or “no” answer. An integrated approach and multi-stakeholder engagement is always a good way of tackling problems and a useful advocacy tool. In terms of the role of Science, multi-disciplinary methods of inquiry are likely to enhance applicability of findings. Here, the relevant disciplines include demography, development studies, geography and engineering. Recalling Julian Simon, the power of human capital will ultimately allow to suggest adequate policy and technical solutions. Greater transparency resulting from the use of information technology, including social media, provides hope that innovations will be shared across the globe. If human progress enables the narrowing of the ingenuity gap, water stress can also be eradicated.

This event is in association with the Sustainability Science at Southampton USRG. For full details, please visit: www.southampton.ac.uk/sustainability_science or follow us on Twitter @Sustainscience

Further details about the UN World Water Day, including a water infographic and news of the very first annual Water Usage Survey, can be found at UK bathroom retailer– http://www.bathshop321.com/world-water-day/)

For the latest news and events about the Multidisciplinary Research Week 2013, visit our Multidisciplinary Research website:

www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary

or follow us on   Twitter @MultiSoton #MDRWeek

MDR Week: Blog no 10- World Water Day- Water quality

March 20, 2013
by James Wright

Join Dr Jim Wright for the opening seminar ‘Water quality: addressing global problems at source’ in celebration of World Water Day: Water Cooperation on Friday 22^nd March (9-11am The Science Learning Centre Building 29). An insight into the multifaceted field of water cooperation can be found below.

Water quality: addressing global problems at source

 By Dr Jim Wright

My research involves safe drinking-water access as an international issue, both in terms of its measurement and also in terms of potential solutions.  I began working on drinking-water issues in the year 2000, when I was involved in a project in Zimbabwe, Kenya and South Africa, looking at water contamination between collection from standpipes and wells and subsequent storage in the home.  We also investigated home use of ceramic filters as a possible way of reducing this contamination.  During this time, I was struck by the way that even the remotest bottle store seems well stocked with fizzy drinks, yet providing drinking water to these same locations remained a huge logistical challenge.  More recently, I became involved in the Aquatest initiative, working from my disciplinary background in geography alongside engineers, microbiologists, and public health specialists.  This project aimed to develop a field test for microbiological contamination of drinking-water, suitable for use in remote areas of developing countries.

Last year, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that the Millennium Development Goal on safe drinking-water access had been met, five years ahead of target.  Whilst this was a major milestone in the drive to extend safe drinking-water access, does this mean that we can ease off on efforts to provide safe drinking-water?  This talk looks at some water quality-related issues in measuring safe drinking water access and how this affects estimates of the population without safe water access.  The talk will also explore technological options for microbiological testing of drinking-water in remote settings where conventional laboratory infra-structure is unavailable.  A demonstration of the Aquatest water testing method is planned alongside the presentation.

Safe drinking-water access has many dimensions.  Some are social, such as ensuring that the poorest sectors of society benefit from programmes to provide safe water as well as the wealthier. Others are environmental, such as balancing the need to provide safe drinking-water to millions without unsustainably drawing on ever deeper ground waters or piping water over longer and longer distances to expanding urban centres.  Others yet concern economics, public health, engineering, microbiology, and indeed geography.  Given that drinking-water is such a multi-faceted problem, a multi-disciplinary approach seems the most obvious way to tackle the problem, bringing all these disciplines together.

This event is in association with the Sustainability Science at Southampton USRG. For full details, please visit: www.southampton.ac.uk/sustainability_science or follow us on Twitter @Sustainscience

Further details about the UN World Water Day, including a water infographic and news of the very first annual Water Usage Survey, can be found at UK bathroom retailer– http://www.bathshop321.com/world-water-day/)

Aquatest Project websites:

University of Southampton- http://www.southampton.ac.uk/geography/research/projects/aquatest.page

University of Bristol- http://www.bristol.ac.uk/aquatest

For the latest news and events about the Multidisciplinary Research Week 2013, visit our Multidisciplinary Research website:

www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary

or follow us on   Twitter @MultiSoton #MDRWeek

MDR Week: Blog no 9- Be a Green Shopper

March 15, 2013
by Alison Simmance

Join Alison Simmance and members of the Green Academy, WSA and the Sustainability Science at Southampton USRG to create your own eco-friendly shopping bag from recycled material (the University 60th Anniversary ‘Changing the world’ campaign banners) at the drop in session ‘Be a Green Shopper’ on Thursday 21^st March. Further details about this fun drop-in session can be found below.

Be a Green Shopper

In 2011, I had the privilege to volunteer with a small charity to provide disadvantaged communities in the slums of Nakuru, Kenya with humanitarian support, resources and assistance to help educate vulnerable school children in the community.

During my time spent in Nakuru, I visited the Gioto Garbage Slum which is home to an estimated 600 people (50% children) whose lives are balanced on more than 50 years of waste deposited from the local region. Here, I witnessed the inspiring work of local women. To help alleviate the inhabitants from poverty, an innovative business – the Nakuru Women’s Plastic Recycling Business – was developed with the local community which provides women with an ingenious way to earn money by creating purses and handbags from recycled plastics.

Inspired by this innovation, I created the ‘Be a Green Shopper’ initiative which I will be launching during the Multidisciplinary Research Week 2013. Working in association with the University’s Winchester School of Art and the Green Academy; the event will allow you to create your own eco-friendly shopping bag from recycled material. The University 60th Anniversary ‘Changing the world’ campaign banners will be used as the material and will create a long-lasting legacy of sustainability within the University.

This is a fantastic opportunity for you to become a Green Shopper and help minimise your environmental impact.

All are welcome to this dynamic fun drop-in session!

RSVP: http://multidisciplinaryweekgreenshopper-eorg.eventbrite.com

Further details can be found on the Sustainability Science at Southampton USRG website: www.southampton.ac.uk/sustainability_science

For the latest news and events about the Multidisciplinary Research Week 2013, visit our Multidisciplinary Research website:

www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary

or follow us on Twitter @MultiSoton #MDRWeek

MDR Week: Blog no 8- 3DBARE, 3D Binaural Audio Rendering Engine

March 15, 2013
by Benjamin Mawson

Join Benjamin Mawson and colleagues to explore how virtual sound is used from the perspective of music, computer programming, immunology and social science at the event ‘3DBARE, 3D Binaural Audio Rendering Engine’ on Tuesday 19th March. An insight into this exciting and multidisciplinary research field can be found below.

3DBARE, 3D Binaural Audio Rendering Engine

By Benjamin Mawson,

In collaboration with Professor Tim Elliott,  Associate Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Dr Godfrey Brandt, Chairman of DAACA, Iyad Assaf, Audio systems developer.

3DBARE is a collaboration between Music and ISVR to build an engine allowing listeners to walk inside a piece of music as though it were a physical structure. The 3DBARE team are collaborating with senior academics from the fields of Medicine and Social Science both to explore new forms of public outreach through sound of bio-medical research and the calibration of theatrical or performative space engendered by emerging forms of cultural interaction

We will be explaining the origins of 3DBARE from the perspective of a composer seeking a way for creations in the digital studio to be possible to explore as though elements in the physical world:  how these explorations have led to collaboration with co-developers of the platform and an exciting cross-disciplinary project with researchers in medicine and social science.

Four presenters will explain the 3D Binaural Audio Rendering Engine and what it means from their own perspective to be using virtual sound to explore their particular field of enquiry: Music and Computer Programming, Immunology and Social Science.

Multidisciplinary approaches in Music are essential to the discovery of new means of communicating to audiences whose modes of listening are rapidly changing with technology: my research is about how to speak to audiences. As a composer I seek forms and means by which to use my art and craft in as practical a form as the church and court composers of former centuries. Collaborations as interesting and potentially effective as this – in terms of altering public understanding come along infrequently. This is a fantastic opportunity for our respective skills and knowledge to serve a common purpose towards greater good and we are enthusiastic to present and discuss our early findings.

RSVP:  http://mdrw_3dbare-eorg.eventbrite.com/

For the latest news and events about the Multidisciplinary Research Week 2013, visit our Multidisciplinary Research website:

www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary

or follow us on Twitter @MultiSoton #MDRWeek

MDR Week: Blog no 7- Insights into ‘Imaging technologies for analysing ancient documentary artefacts’

March 14, 2013
by Graeme Earl

Join Dr Graeme Earl for the seminar: New horizons in imaging on Tuesday 21st March to hear how extraordinary advances in Imaging lies at the heart of our current research activity. An insight into this exciting and multidisciplinary research field can be found below.

Insights into ‘Imaging technologies for analysing ancient documentary artefacts’

I spend a lot of time looking at and making, hopefully, pretty pictures. Archaeology has a firm grounding in the visual – we categorise archaeological materials on the basis of colour, we interpret human interactions with space on the basis of patterns of light and shade, and we also simplify complex analytical data by using data visualisation. That’s not to say that archaeology isn’t a multisensory discipline – again my own interests extend to simulation of acoustic properties of spaces and of touch or haptics – but visual interactions and representations are all pervasive. My colleague Stephanie Moser emphasised this at her inaugural, and in a recent blog post on the beauty of ancient objects she discusses the relationship between expressing layers of meaning and appreciation of the visual and other qualities of artefacts.

In my own work on archaeological imaging I have concentrated on the capture of object detail and the creation of virtual, or mixed virtual and real, spaces within which to critique those objects. The passage of time and the archaeological process both generate a ‘patina’ on the material record we study. So, in creating imaging datasets like the Roman coin hoard to be discussed in my talk we must be aware of the impact of technology on the interpretations that can result. So for example in the talk I will describe some of our many collaborations with the μ-VIS multidisciplinary, multiscale, microtomographic volume imaging centre, and also talk about other imaging approaches to cultural heritage material, including ancient document artefacts. I will also share some thoughts on the possibilities of computer simulation to augment and share these data in visually engaging ways.

Multidisciplinary collaborations are at the heart of all of my research and teaching and so I am particularly pleased that I can participate in Multidisciplinary Research Week and make some new contacts. The Computationally Intensive Imaging USRG has already stimulated some new archaeological work.

 You can read some other blog posts by me here: http://blog.soton.ac.uk/archaeology/people/graeme-earl/#posts

RSVP: multidisciplinaryweekimaging-eorg.eventbrite.com

For the latest news and events about the Multidisciplinary Research Week 2013, visit our Multidisciplinary Research website:

www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary

or follow us on Twitter @MultiSoton #MDRWeek

MDR Week: Blog no 6- Your Brain at the Cocktail Party

March 14, 2013
by Jessica Monaghan

Join Dr Jessica Monaghan to discover how innovative research can improve performance of hearing aids and automatic speech recognition in challenging environments at the event ‘Your Brain at the Cocktail Party’ on Tuesday 19th March. An insight into this exciting and multidisciplinary research field can be found below.

Your Brain at the Cocktail Party

  Dr Jessica Monaghan

I am a postdoctoral researcher working with Dr Stefan Bleeck at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research and Dr Matthew Wright from the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment.

(ISVR). I am interested in how the brain enables us to understand speech in challenging environments such as cocktail parties, restaurants and bars, how this ability breaks down when you lose your hearing, and how we can apply our knowledge of the healthy auditory system to enhance speech processing and speech understanding by machines.

I will be talking about the brain’s remarkable ability to segregate different sounds from each other, presenting some of our research on how we can use computer models of the auditory brain to de-noise speech automatically. Using examples of everyday listening tasks, I will discuss which features of sounds are most important for separating speech sounds that originate from different sources.

Hearing and communication are fundamental aspects of our humanity. Hearing research is a multidisciplinary field, combining expertise from anatomy, audiology, signal processing, acoustics and neuroscience. Understanding how the brain processes complex sounds is important if we are to restore communication abilities in those with impaired hearing, and this requires collaboration across a range of scientific disciplines. This knowledge will also benefit our understanding of how to improve automatic speech recognition by computer software, especially in challenging listening conditions.

RSVP: http://mdrw_braincocktail-eorg.eventbrite.com

For the latest news and events about the Multidisciplinary Research Week 2013, visit our Multidisciplinary Research website:

www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary

or follow us on Twitter @MultiSoton #MDRWeek

MDR Week: Blog no 5- Poetry and Science: The Litmus Project

March 13, 2013
by Luke Goater

Join Rough Guide travel writer James McConnachie, transport engineer Dr Ben Waterson, and English Professor Peter Middleton to discover how innovative research can link literature and science at the exhibition ‘Poetry and Science: The Litmus Project’ on Monday 18th March. An insight into this exciting and multidisciplinary research field can be found below.

Poetry and Science: The Litmus Project

By James McConnachie and Professor Peter Middleton

  James McConnachie-

I’m one of the university’s Royal Literary Fund Fellows. We’re here to help all students with their academic writing, offering one-to-one consultations. I am a travel writer and have also written a biography of the Kamasutra, The Book of Love (Atlantic, 2007) The Rough Guide to Sex (Rough Guides, 2009) and the co-authored, Conspiracy Theories (Rough Guides, 2008). Our co-leader, Will May (who is on sabbatical this semester) convenes the MA in Creative Writing and is committed to projects that use writing to bring different communities together supporting  interdisciplinary research on twentieth-century issues.

Details of the Litmus Project can be found at: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/english/news/events/2013/03/18_poetry_and_science.page.

I’ve been participating in the Litmus Project as a writer, working on my poetic response to the Southampton University scientist, Dr Ben Waterson, a transport research engineer based in Engineering. The challenge is considerable – come and see how I did! Fresh ideas do not grow from stale soil. That’s as true of writing as anything else. And when writers meet scientists, they often find they have to lift their game.

  Professor Peter Middleton-

I’m a professor in English.  My research interests include science and literature, modern and contemporary poetry, poetry performance, ecology and climate change, critical theory, gender studies, and philosophy and literature. I’ve published books on gender, memory, poetics and teaching poetry. I have also published a book of poetry, and short works of creative non-fiction.

People will enjoy the event because it is bound to surprise them – in a good way. To discover how science can be communicated through poetry is a very stimulating experience and gives people an unexpected viewpoint which is very refreshing. The Litmus project is inspiring and that is why the audience will like it.

Litmus is a team effort. Will May, James McConnachie, and myself, share a belief that creative writers benefit from direct encounters with scientists. Creative Writing is a significant part of what we do in English, attracting students at all levels. This project gives us a chance to offer them a multidisciplinary element and the students who have volunteered their research time to collaborate with science graduate researchers for the project, clearly appreciate that. Will May is a prize-winning author of a study of the writer Stevie Smith and he also has a keen interest in science, James McConnachie you now know from this blog! And I am one of a group of researchers in English who are investigating the interrelations between literature and the sciences. How have writers been influenced by the sciences, and how have they investigated, in novels, plays and poems, the social consequences of scientific ideas and discoveries? How might discoveries in the literary arts of relevance to questions being asked by current scientific researchers be made more accessible to them? How can we encourage researchers in the humanities and the sciences to improve their communications with each other? This is why multidisciplinary research is vital and this is what Litmus is all about.

RSVP:  http://multidisciplinaryweeklitmus-eorg.eventbrite.com/

For the latest news and events about the Multidisciplinary Research Week 2013, visit our Multidisciplinary Research website:

www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary

or follow us on Twitter @MultiSoton #MDRWeek

MDR Week: Blog no 4- New Horizons in Imaging

March 13, 2013
by Ian Sinclair

Join Professor Ian Sinclair for the seminar: ‘New Horizons in Imaging’ on Tuesday 19th March to hear how extraordinary advances in imaging lies at the heart of our current research activity. An insight into this exciting and multidisciplinary research field can be found below.

New Horizons in Imaging

By Professor Ian Sinclair

Our perspectives on the universe, to the structure of a molecule, are all brought graphically home by images.  The power of imaging lies in the development of new instrumentation and critical computational approaches.  Combined, we’ve seen new horizons, borrowed approaches from multiple disciplines, and opened up fresh fields for study.  In imaging, Southampton excels, but in novel and unique ways.  New Horizons in Imaging Science will demonstrate some of the exciting and different approaches to imaging being developed, and used for diverse purposes, within the Southampton community.

It’s become clear that many critical questions in contemporary science and engineering require a broader perspective than traditional disciplines can muster.  This may be a reflection of changes in fidelity of understanding, the emergence of new tools for manipulation of the world around us, the vastly increased availability of data, or simply a greater appreciation of the interconnected nature of the natural and manmade systems that we exist within.

Events such as the Multidisciplinary Research Week at the University of Southampton are a vital component in creating the links between research communities.

RSVP:http://multidisciplinaryweekimaging-eorg.eventbrite.com

For the latest news and events about the Multidisciplinary Research Week 2013, visit our Multidisciplinary Research website:

www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary

or follow us on Twitter @MultiSoton #MDRWeek