CEPS RESEARCH SEMINARS
Archive 2021 - 23
Embedded Files
ARCHIVED SEMINARS
Seminars that have were presented in 2021 to 2023 are listed here.
Tuesday 8th June 2021
12:00 - 13:00
Phoenix instinct Wheelchair KTP development
Dr Tony Leslie and Dr Jakub Rycerz
(Division of Engineering)
In December 2020 Phoenix Instinct won the Toyota Mobility Challenge and associated $1m prize. This was awarded for the design and development of the Phoenix i, an intelligently monitoring/adjusting centre of gravity wheelchair. The rationale for the design was to negate the normal trade-off between wheelchair stability and agility. Wheelchairs which are highly stable have the combined user and wheelchair’s Centre of Gravity (CoG) further forward, this however leads to less agility and more pushing effort. Countering this, wheelchairs which are more agile are prone to rearward tipping. The Phoenix i has been developed to continually monitor and adjust the CoG position to increase agility whilst adjusting itself to provide stability when required. The mechanical and electronic components which were needed to achieve this resulted in additional weight and therefore a single piece carbon-fibre/epoxy chassis was designed/developed to ensure the wheelchair remained highly portable. The design of this has allowed the team to create a full-size chassis of around 1kg, around 1/3 of the weight of the lightest chassis currently on the market. This presentation will provide more of the technical details and the challenges of this recently completed KTP project.
Tuesday 15 June 2021
12:00 - 13:00
How Virtual Reality can be used to Train, Educate, and Support Trainees Anywhere in the World
Scott Howie
(Division of Computing)
Training and education are a global practice, yet are performed in local domains, requiring trainees and assessors to travel, often to other cities or countries to undertake assessment to gain certifications. Virtual Reality (VR) simulations are touted as a viable alternative, however, without suitable means to monitor and assess trainee performances in remote VR simulations, the effectiveness of trainee participation and engagement cannot be determined. By embedding novel digital recording techniques into VR simulations, assessors can observe, assess, and conduct feedback of remote trainees anywhere in the world, circumventing international travel restrictions, and reducing carbon footprint for training and education.
Tuesday 29th June 2021
12:00 - 13:00
Natural products as a treasure trove against Covid-19
Dr Mostafa Rateb
(Division of Physical Sciences)
According to FDA, about 65% of the approved new chemical entities as antiviral agents are from different marine and terrestrial natural sources. Our ongoing UWS lab collaboration with Egypt and Saudi Arabia over the last 18 months has revealed some important natural hits with potential effect against either the SARS-CoV-2 or its main protease to be taken as an initial step for the discovery of anti-COVID-19 natural medication. In this short meeting, I will highlight the steps taken since the start of the pandemic and all published outcomes for our studies and the ways forward to help stopping this crisis from natural product chemistry perspective.
Thursday 15 July 2021
(Note the date - this seminar is not in the usual Tuesday timeslot)
12:00 - 13:00
Researcher Development at UWS: support from PGRs to Profs
Dr Stephanie Zihms
(UWS Academy)
Researchers can become pre-occupied with their research and forget about the range of support available at UWS and beyond to support their development. In this short presentation I’m going to share with you the wide variety of Researcher Development available at UWS and beyond. I’m also going to give a brief introduction to the Researcher Development Framework and the Concordat to support the Career development of researchers, including how to use these to help you plan your own development
Tuesday 27th July 2021
12:00 - 13:00
Inter/multidisciplinary collaborative product and process development
Dr Parag Vichare
(Division of Engineering)
This seminar will present technological and economic impact achieved through innovative inter/multidisciplinary collaborative product and process development research carried out at UWS. This will be presented through a portfolio of projects. The presentation will be focused on the complexity of the collaborative product design process, design data management and corresponding impacts on realising innovative inter/multidisciplinary products and processes. Revolutionary product design and data management concepts such as unite technology for multi-CAD environments, flexible modelling for agile product revision and to manage legacy product data will be discussed. Specific KTP, research, and collaborative product development case studies from aerospace, optical, medical, mechanical disciplines will be incorporated in the presentation.
Tuesday 10th August 2021
12:00 - 13:00
Remote learning in the context of Covid-19: reviewing the effectiveness of synchronous online delivery at UWS
Dr Thomas Hainey
(Division of Computing)
Covid-19 has changed the pedagogical landscape in the way that education is being delivered. Remote learning has become the “new norm” with an emphasis on the concept of hybrid delivery. Amid Covid-19, higher educational institutions are having to reflect upon and initiate forward thinking strategies to ensure that the student learning experience off-campus remains intact. Teaching and learning approaches in the domain of synchronous and asynchronous delivery have been accentuated. This talk explores student views from a UK higher educational institution (UWS) about these educational delivery approaches. The research adopted a mixed methods approach via survey-based research. 894 students completed the survey. Students were asked about their views towards working remotely and the psychological impact this had on their studies. The research identified some interesting findings, namely that certain participants considered that learning remotely online was beneficial for instant feedback, supported motivation and fostered communities of practice. Negative perspectives related to feeling isolated, unmotivated and a preference towards face-to-face delivery. The results of this study reinforce for educators the benefits of synchronous online delivery as well as potential drawbacks. One of the main areas of conflict identified from this study is that the aspect of engagement can impact students’ online learning both positively and negatively. With the continued onset of hybrid educational delivery resulting from Covid-19, the dilemma facing educators is how to facilitate and support student engagement whilst continuing to sustain and enhance the student learning experience.
Tuesday 24th August 2021
12:00 - 13:00
A novel method for measuring the lifetimes of short-lived atomic nuclei
Dr Nara Singh Bondili
(Division of Physical Sciences)
Much like electron interaction with a nucleus in an atom, the interaction between nucleons in a nucleus is understood to be responsible for shell structure. It gives orbital-addresses to nucleons and determines properties of the nucleus, for example, the lifetime of a nucleus in the ground or excited states. One big difference between the two systems is that the interaction between an electron and nucleus is rather well defined while the interaction between two nucleons is not, to date. This lack of knowledge provides motivation for studies of nuclei and an opportunity to establish methods to study properties of nuclei and sow seeds for technological developments for society. In this presentation, a new method led by UWS will be discussed for lifetime measurements of highly unstable short-lived nuclei using advanced nuclear mass separators, radiation detectors, and complex data analysis combined with computer simulations.
Tuesday 7th September 2021
12:00 - 13:00
Ethics for Research: Principles and Processes
Dr John Hughes
(Division of Engineering)
Consideration of the ethical issues related to your research activities is mandatory. It is particularly important if that research involves human participants or subjects, the use of personal data, animals, or risk to the investigator. In this session general principles of ethical conduct in research and the university’s approach to this will be discussed in addition to issues relevant to the technical subjects researched in our school. We will also look at the online Ethical Review Manager system, through which applications for approval are made, clarify what sort of work needs formal approval, and discuss what a successful application normally requires.
Tuesday 21st September 2021
12:00 - 13:00
Requirements Elicitation and Specification - Using Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) to Develop User Stories
Dr Daune West
(Division of Computing)
Capturing appropriate ‘user requirements’ as the basis for information systems development continues to be one of the main challenges reported in the Information Systems (IS) literature. Since the early 1990’s, some IS researchers and practitioners have been interested in exploring how soft systems concepts and models, using Soft Systems Methodology, might be used to explore and capture context dependent user requirements. Whilst SSM does seem to enable this process, a challenge has always been how we can use the outcome of the process (i.e., SSM models and the understanding they generate) with traditional/popular computer systems development approaches. In the past, research has explored linking SSM practice to Structured Systems Analysis approaches and to Unified Modelling Language (UML). This presentation will discuss how SSM models can be used to support and direct the development of User Stories, a seemingly popular ‘model’ using during agile systems development. The presentation will give a practical example of a study undertaken in the School to provide a set of User Stories (as a basis for a MSc Project Management System) that was delivered to ITDS.
Tuesday 5th October 2021
12:00 - 13:00
Musically Inspired Ultrasonic Transducers
Dr Alan Walker
(Division of Physical Sciences)
Around 20% of medical scans are performed using ultrasound. The scanner creates images by transmitting and receiving sound waves with a frequency that lies above the range of human hearing. The scanner operates at a single frequency and this accounts in part for the relatively poor resolution that one sees in ultrasound images. Musical instruments have a wide variety of designs but mostly have one thing in common - they emit sound across a range of (audible) frequencies. If we had a scanner that could operate across a range of ultrasonic frequencies, this could provide a marked improvement in the imaging capability. This presentation will provide a short tour around the design, modelling, and preliminary results of a prototype ultrasonic transducer which is inspired by pipe-organs.
Tuesday 19th October 2021
12:00 - 13:00
Utilising Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games’ Qualities as an Alternative and Entertaining Learning System for Higher Level Mathematics
Evgenia-Caran Anagnostopoulu
(University of Sussex)
Following a finding which identifies a gap in maths e-games, the current research is a study in progress on game-based learning systems, aiming at investigating constructionist ways of learning, with which higher level mathematics can be seamlessly embedded into multiplayer online role-playing games (MORPGs) mechanics creating an immersive academic learning environment, such that players are enjoying first and learning simultaneously by default
Tuesday 2nd November 2021
12:00 - 13:00
Process Integration for Energy Efficiency Improvement in manufacturing industries
Dr Li Sun
(Division of Engineering)
Process integration technologies as a holistic approach, including process simulation, heat integration and mathematical optimization, have been developed in both academic research and industrial applications for energy recovery in chemical, petrochemical, and biochemical processes. This presentation will focus on industrial case studies to demonstrate the whole-site system design, retrofit, and operational optimization to improve the energy efficiency and waste recovery of the processes, and the utility system operational optimization under uncertainty to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emission.
Tuesday 16th November 2021
12:00 - 13:00
Performance Optimization of RF Energy Harvesting WSN Using Prediction Modelling and Energy Management
Bikrant Koirala
(Division of Computing)
Recently, radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting technology has been gaining attention for powering wireless sensor networks (WSNs) by scavenging energy from ambient RF sources. Various works have focused on improving energy utilization for conventional energy harvesting networks. However, limited effort has been put to address energy management issues for RF powered WSNs. In this regard, our work encompasses development of an energy management system coupled with a novel energy prediction approach, designed specifically for RF energy harvesting WSNs. Results show that our work contributes in optimizing the network’s performance in terms of life time, energy buffer size and data loss.
Tuesday 30th November 2021
(Postponed)
Tuesday 14th December 2021
12:00 - 13:00
DCAD’s Digital Playground
Professor Sam Nolan and Dr Mark Childs
(University of Durham)
One of the research elements of DCAD’s Education Lab is the Digital Playground. This is an online and physical space where participants can explore Immersive Learning, Digital Play, Mixed Realities and Actionable Insights (using data to improve learning design). This seminar will introduce the lab and focus on immersive Learning, specifically the comparison of screen based and headset based virtual reality, and will be presented by Professor Sam Nolan, Assistant Director of DCAD and Dr. Mark Childs, a senior learning designer in DCAD’s new digital learning team. Sam will be looking at the evolution and development of virtual laboratories from screen based to headset based VR. Mark will be presenting the findings of a series of focus groups he conducted last year, one in a physical setting, one in a web-conferencing platform, one in screen-based VR and one in headset-VR. These explored the different advantages and disadvantages of each for communication and learning.
Tuesday 11th January 2021
12:00 - 13:00
New pigment products involving novel flop tone performance: a cautionary tale of setting realistic technical targets
Dr Alastair Marr
(Division of Physical Sciences)
Chair: Dr Callum McHugh
Attractive visual effects in modern automotive paints are affected by various physical processes. These will be briefly described an applied to their impact on flop tone and angle dependent colour shift of car coatings. Based on actual experience of customer driven new product targets, the need for an effective relationship between technical colleagues in research and the technical/marketing team at the customer’s end will be explored.
Tuesday 25th January 2022
Successful project completion during the covid-19 pandemic - a lesson learnt
Md Shakil Ahmed
(Division of Computing)
Chair: Dr Joanna Olszewska
The covid-19 pandemic has taught us how to continue with day-to-day activities, interacting and working from remote locations. The positive approach necessary to complete a project with success under this constraint by interacting regularly with the relevant stakeholders keeping focus on the final project deliverables will be highlighted in the presentation. A typical project management role on behalf of a project manager (PM) who faces the different events of the project stages and continue to give the best effort will also be highlighted so that the other PMs doing similar type of projects can learn some lessons.
Tuesday 8th February 2022
Overview of the Institute of Thin Films, Sensors & Imaging previous and current KTP projects – lessons learnt for successful outcomes
Professor Des Gibson
(Division of Physical Sciences)
Chair: Dr Gregory Morozov
The institute of Thin Films, Sensors and Imaging (ITFSI) – https://www.linkedin.com/company/itfs - has progressed four KTP`s directly and supported two others within the School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences, specifically covering subject areas in both engineering and physical sciences. This seminar will describe ITFSI experience in what is required to secure the various KTP projects, relating to effective marketing of research capabilities and effective engagement with industry partners. Also lessons learnt for successful delivery and maximising outcomes which benefit the university in relation to future collaborations, research excellence framework case studies and other commercial opportunities.
Tuesday 22nd February 2022
Funding opportunities/support from Research Services
Alistair Morrison
(Research Services)
Chair: Professor John F. Smith
In this presentation, Alastair Morrison will outline the support on offer from Research Services UWS and will outline the present funding opportunities that are of relevance to staff in CEPS.
Tuesday 8th March 2022
Aspects of optimization and uncertainties in geotechnics
Djamalddine Boumezerane
(Division of Engineering)
Chair: Dr Mojtaba Mirzaeian
Optimization in geotechnics is related to different aspects such as soundings density for geotechnical investigations, which is in perpetual evolution. For optimization of soundings density, we considered qualitative information and engineering judgement for geotechnical investigations [1]. Optimization can also be encountered in problems of soil reinforcement in which the number of reinforcements, spacing, and length are key elements [2]. I am also interested in uncertainty using fuzzy sets and possibility distributions which were applied for parameter uncertainty in consolidation problems [3][4].
[1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10706-014-9733-z
[2] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12517-021-08280-z
[3] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10706-020-01465-5
Tuesday 22nd March 2022
An investigation of employability skill sets required by graduates in Scotland’s Creative Industries sector
Dr Gavin Baxter
(Division of Computing)
Chair: Dr Marco Gilardi
The aim of this study was to investigate the employability skill sets required by graduates in Scotland’s Creative Industries sector. A case study ‘mixed methods’ approach utilised questionnaires that were disseminated to undergraduate Creative Industry students at the University of the West of Scotland and to professionals working in the Creative Industries. The purpose of the research was to ascertain views from students and industry professionals regarding employability and portfolio development. The study identified that portfolio development is something that should be communicated to Creative Industries undergraduates from an early stage of their educational journey. The findings of this research aid towards furthering the enigma of embedding employability into course curriculum with an emphasis upon pedagogy associated with social media use.
Tuesday 5th April 2022
A new modality for the simultaneous imaging and treatment of cancer using high-energy electrons and positronium
Dr David O'Donnell
(Division of Physical Sciences)
Chair: Professor John F. Smith
There are around 375,000 newly diagnosed cancer cases every year in the UK meaning a person is diagnosed with cancer once every two minutes. Many tumours present in a state of hypoxia in that they have significantly less oxygen than the surrounding healthy cells. Hypoxia can indicate a tendency for the tumour to metastasise as well as increasing resistance to radiotherapy. This talk will present a novel method of using the hypoxic nature of the tumour to simultaneously image the cancer while it is being treated with ionising radiation. This technique exploits the lifetime of positronium, an interesting form of matter involving an electron and its anti-matter counterpart the positron, and the sensitivity of this lifetime to the hypoxic nature of its environment.
Tuesday 19th April 2022
Designing with Uncertainty
Prof. Seyed Hossein Haeri
(IOHK and University of Bergen)
Chair: Dr Joanna Olszewska
Physics proceeds by performing experiments in carefully controlled conditions to test mathematical models of matter and fields. Structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers then use these models to ensure that the systems they design will perform correctly, with appropriate safety margins to accommodate uncertainties. Developing distributed computer systems, however, to meet strict performance criteria remains a challenge.
We present a new paradigm called ∆QSD for capturing and analysing the performance implications of the system design at any level of detail throughout the SDLC, where performance encompasses timeliness, resource consumption and the effect of load as the system scales. ∆QSD is highly inspired by the engineering methods for dealing with uncertainty. It also takes inspiration from Physics in dealing with non-linearity of systems. We will present the ∆QSD approach with reference to a case study of the CERN ATLAS data-capture system, relating to Computer Science, Physics, and Engineering.
Tuesday 3rd May 2022
Research commercialization
Johnny Mone
(Enterprise Services)
Chair: Dr Marco Gilardi
This seminar covers the basics of Intellectual Property (IP) protection. You’ll learn about the different types of IP protection available and some of the most common pitfalls to avoid. Learn about the resources available to you at the UWS, including the internally and externally funded programmes. Hear how IP is commercialized through licensing or start-up creation. Included is a brief discussion on “Are You an Inventor?”, this highlights some key points for consideration as this issue has come up when there may be a misunderstanding between faculty and post-grad students. Also included are some helpful tips for those interested in creating a start-up.
Tuesday 17th May 2022
Building Trustworthy Intelligent Systems
Dr Joanna Olszewska
(Division of Computing)
Nowadays, the development of smart cities and smart manufacturing boosts the development of innovative IT technologies based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), such as intelligent agents (IA), which themselves use new algorithms, complex software, or advanced embedded systems. However, due to their expanding number and range of applications as well as their growing autonomy, there are concerns of citizens about their data privacy and security, and on the other hand, about the behaviour of such surrounding intelligent agents. Therefore, there is an increased expectation for cutting-edge intelligent technologies to be efficient as well as ethical. Hence, this seminar covers both societal challenges and technical solutions, including emerging standards, to build trustworthy intelligent systems to be deployed in real-time and in real-world, constrained and unconstrained environments, in the context of smart cities and smart manufacturing.
Tuesday 31st May 2022
Quantum Backflow
Maxililien Barbier
(Division of Physical Sciences)
Chair: Dr Gregory Morozov
Quantum backflow is a peculiar, classically forbidden phenomenon pertaining to the fact that the probability current associated with a quantum particle may be negative even though the particle has, with certainty, a positive momentum. This talk is divided into two main parts. I begin with a general introduction to this fundamentally quantum phenomenon (which remains relatively unknown), focusing on the simplest case of a nonrelativistic quantum particle that moves freely at one dimension. Then, I give an outline of some of my recent work on this topic, whose main aim is to provide some answers to the following question: how can we formulate quantum backflow beyond the case of a single particle that moves at one dimension? I discuss for instance my recent formulation of this effect for a system formed of N > 1 free nonrelativistic structureless quantum particles, either bosons or fermions, moving along the x-axis. In particular, I discuss how this formulation considerably simplifies in the case of a bosonic system where N identical bosons are all in the same single-particle state. This allows to analytically show that quantum backflow then becomes arbitrarily small in the limit of a very large number N of bosons.
Tuesday 28th June 2022
12:00 - 13:00
Energy Storage and Carbon Sequestration
Dr Mojtaba Mirzaeian
(Division of Engineering)
Unrestrained CO2 emissions and global warming are of the most important problems facing the world today. Despite all the promises made by governments to take action, the world is still on course to heat up to dangerous levels. Scientists recently confirmed that “to avoid the worst impacts of hotter conditions, global carbon emissions are needed to be cut by 45% by 2030”. However, according to the United Nations' recent report: "the current commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions, leave us with the level of CO2 emissions raised by 16% globally during this period, and continue of this will put the planet on track for an average 2.7 degrees Celsius temperature rise this century1. This shows that the impact of the emissions we are pumping into the atmosphere is even greater than what we expected, which is a huge cause for concern. Therefore, to stabilize the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases, significant steps are required to reduce the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. Carbon capture and storage technology (CCS), and also development of more efficient energy storage technologies combined with the use of renewable energies are considered as two main options for mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emissions to global warming. This talk will focus on: i) the development of functional materials for different engineering applications including materials for energy storage technologies such as Li/O2 batteries and supercapacitors to respond to our future energy demands and ii) understanding the high-pressure interactions of coal and CO2 for carbon sequestration in un-minable coal seams to mitigate global CO2 emission problems.
Tuesday 6th September 2022
12:00 - 13:00
Virtual Reality Gamification for Computer Science Teaching
Raymond Holder
(Division of Computing)
Gamifying learning experiences have been shown to improve learning outcomes, student engagement and knowledge retention. However, computer programming is quite abstract and can put off many the sector. New technologies, which are better suited to computer science teaching, are being employed such as web and mobile applications that visualise code using ‘building blocks’ games. Technologies such as virtual reality are the ideal framework to deliver the next level of immersion, visualization, and gamification for these teaching applications. My PhD research aims to investigate beyond the current batch of VR applications to explore computer science teaching in the Metaverse.
Tuesday 4th October 2022
12:00 - 13:00
Multihazard Design and Retrofit of Structures
George Papavasileiou
(Division of Engineering)
Dr Papavasileiou conducts research in the field of sustainable structural design and retrofit. His research combines the fields of structural and computational engineering with emphasis on sustainability through resilience and resource optimisation. This presentation will provide an insight on the design and retrofit of structures against multiple hazards. Climate change has led to an increase of natural hazards many of which were not previously considered in different areas. Hence, multihazard design is important in order to ensure the sustainability of our built environment. In this presentation, design and retrofit approaches of structures against earthquake and progressive collapse will be discussed.
Tuesday 18th October 2022
12:00 - 13:00
Smart Switchable Solvent for Microalgae Lipid Extraction
Callum Russell
(Division of Engineering)
Abstract
Smart switchable hydrophilicity solvents (SHS) have the unique ability to change their polarity under exposure to CO2, which makes them an attractive alternative to traditional solvent extraction, which involves the use of toxic compounds such as chloroform, methanol, and hexane. The extractability of lipids and other high-value compounds in both intracellular and extracellular lipid producing algae is being investigated, to determine the suitability of a non-destructive, repetitive extraction process known as milking. This process enhances the carbon capture capabilities of microalgae cultivation, making it an attractive route for further investigation.
Bio
Callum Russell is a chemical engineering PhD student and newly appointed lecturer at UWS. His primary research is looking at the development of a non-destructive, repetitive, lipid and high-value biochemical compound extraction from microalgae using smart switchable hydrophilicity solvents. He is also looking at the development of a fully autonomous “milking” reactor, with integrated AI technology to optimise the production of targeted compounds.
Tuesday 1st November 2022
12:00 - 13:00
Teaching from VR: Virtual Realities in Higher Education
Marco Gilardi
(Division of Computing)
The COVID pandemic in 2020 and 2021 forced higher education institutions to change the way they operate, with many institutions adopting online approaches during the pandemic and hybrid approaches in the year after it. These approaches mainly involved videoconferencing tools such as MS Teams and Zoom to deliver lectures, seminars, and labs. Although these methods are viable, engagement from students and peer-to-peer interaction suffered. Emerging technologies such as extended realities (XR), an umbrella term that covers virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality, have the potential to create immersion and presence for students, thus bringing them in the same three-dimensional virtual space. Such immersion and presence are potentially more effective in inducing concentration and presence when students attend lectures and workshops than traditional videoconferencing tools. In this talk, Dr Gilardi will discuss how XR technologies can be used both online and in-person teaching scenarios in higher education, what the limitations are, and their accessibility issues. During the talk case-studies of applications of XR technologies in mathematics, business informatics, computing, and nursing will be presented.
Tuesday 29th November 2022
12:00 - 13:00
High-Performance Hybrid Supercapacitor Based on N-doped Carbon Nanospheres and N-S Doped Co3O4 Nano-rods
Dr Qaisar Abbas (External Speaker)
(Division of Engineering)
Biography: Dr Qaisar Abbas is an electrochemist/materials scientist. He holds an MSc degree in Physics from university of the Punjab Pakistan followed by another MSc degree in Energy and Environmental Management from Glasgow Caledonian. He successfully completed his PhD in electrochemistry/materials
science under the supervision of Dr Mirzaeian from University of the West of Scotland in 2019. After completing his PhD, he joined the Department of Physics at Durham University as a postdoctoral research associated where he worked on graphene-based supercapacitors. He then joined the Research Institute of Science and Engineering (RISE) at the University of Sharjah as postdoctoral research associated in September 2021. Where he is currently involved in research on high energy density hybrid supercapacitors.
Tuesday 13th December 2022
Advanced materials based energy systems and self-powered sensing platforms
Dr Carlos Garcia Nunez
Current human’s lifestyle strongly depends on electric energy. The number of electronic devices operating thanks to the electric energy in houses, offices, supermarkets, banks, hospitals, stadiums, streets, etc. is increasing over time, as the technology rapidly evolves. A good example of that technology is known as Internet of Things (IoT) devices used in personal & pet monitoring, health care/monitoring, environmental monitoring, smart homes & cities, security & surveillance, building management, industrial, retail, agriculture, and transportation. The forecast for 2030 predicts around 30 billion of IoT electronic devices and sensors interconnected worldwide. That will involve a great electric energy demand to power that vast number of small and large devices and a huge dependence on current Li-batteries. Moreover, electric cars and unmanned aerial vehicles (also known as drones) further contribute to the need of electric energy for realising the idea of autonomous vehicles. All these small and large devices powered by electric energy will contribute to reduce the use of fossil fuels leading to a more sustainable planet, reducing the carbon footprint, and preventing air pollution. But before that happens, there is an urgent need for a small and portable electric energy solution, releasing some pressure on the use of batteries, or offering an alternative to prevent their utilisation.
Tuesday 24th January 2023
Dr Bill Ward
A review of the technical facilities within CEPS
(TBC)
A review of the technical facilities in CEPS will be presented.
Tuesday 21st February 2023
Determination of Br and Sb in e-waste using p-XRF
Cecelia Chaine
Division of PhysicalSciences
WEEE is the fastest growing waste stream, composed of 30% in weight of mixed plastics with very low recyclability rates. A fraction of these plastics contains hazardous components including brominated flame retardants (BFRs) some of which have been classified as Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). According to regulations, waste containing POPs requires special management to prevent them remaining in the recycling loop. The aim of this project is to develop and validate an in-situ methodology for detection and monitoring of total bromine content in whole Flat Panel Display Equipment (FPD) plastic casings, using portable-XRF.
Thursday 9th March 2023
12:00 - 13:00
Skillsforge and PGR Regulations
UWS Doctoral College
In this session staff from the Doctoral College will go over the new Skillsforge platform as well as changes in rules and regulations for PGR Students and VIVA setup.
Tuesday 21st March 2023
Thin film optical coatings research within The Institute of Thin Films, Sensors & Imaging and application to next generation gravitational-wave detection and associated astronomy and astrophysics
Dr Lewis Fleming
In September 2015, signals propagating through the medium of spacetime were detected for the first time by arguably one of the most precise instruments ever manufactured by humankind. Such signals constitute oscillating waves, analogous to electromagnetic waves (X-rays, UV light, visible light, microwaves etc) that travel through the fabric of space-time.
This marvel of engineering pulls together forefront research in astrophysics, seismic isolation, precision electronics, computation, data collection and optical physics and is currently in the process of revolutionising our understanding of astrophysics, nuclear physics, cosmology and particle physics. The instrument in question is called the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (aLIGO) and relies heavily upon the use of precision dielectric optical thin film mirror coatings, a discipline in which UWS ITFSI has worldclass capabilities and a wealth of expertise. In this talk I will discuss some of the optics used in aLIGO, and how recent optical coatings research at UWS Institute of Thin Films, Sensors & Imaging (ITFSI www.itfsi.com ) is contributing to the development of future iterations of this ground-breaking astronomical tool. The gravitational wave research conducted within UWS ITFSI is in partnership with Glasgow, Strathclyde and Lancaster universities, funded by the Science & Technology Facilities Council.
Tuesday 4th April 2023
Thermal infrared survey of Ardrossan Castle
Dr Michael Bowry
The use of non-destructive remote-sensing technologies may help further our understanding of tangible cultural heritage: this includes many non-scheduled and scheduled monuments and buildings. Such techniques enable the characterisation of surface and interior features and composition without affecting the heritage asset, preserving it for future generations. In the current work, images were captured using a thermal-infrared (TIR) camera at a ruined 14th century castle at Ardrossan (North Ayrshire, Scotland) and used to create heat maps of the exterior of the castle. TIR image processing methods will be discussed. The data are interpreted in terms of the micro-structure of historic lime mortars and the retention of moisture within the fabric of the castle. This work was supported by the UWS Crucible grant, volunteers from the Ardrossan Castle Heritage Society (ACHS) and North-Ayrshire Council (NAC).
Tuesday 18th April 2023
Teamwork and leadership training in the Computer Animation Arts programme and approaches to peer review and peer evaluation
Dr John McQuillan
The Computer Animation Arts programme at UWS provides varied teamworking experience across all years, and has now started to integrate explicit leadership training into this. Primary motivation has been the success the programme has had in placing graduates in to junior and senior studio production roles, and feedback from Level 10 students and industry. Along with this, reflection and peer review and evaluation are seen as vital components and are now uniformly applied across the teamworking components.
Tuesday 30th May 2023
Overview of Institute of Thin Films, Sensors & Imaging company spinout Albasense Ltd
Professor Des Gibson
Division of Physical Sciences
An overview of the company Albasense Ltd will be presented
Tuesday 13th June 2023
Thin Film Deposition Techniques (TBC)
Sam Ahmadzadeh and Greig Oliver
Division of Physical Sciences
This seminar will address the approach taken in these areas and look at how it could be integrated into other disciplines.
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