Interdisciplinary initiatives

Citation

Rudall, B.H. (2003), "Interdisciplinary initiatives", Kybernetes, Vol. 32 No. 9/10. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2003.06732iaa.002

Interdisciplinary initiatives

Keywords: Cybernetics, R&D, Technological innovation

Abstract Gives reports and surveys of selected current research and developments in systems and cybernetics. They include: Interdisciplinary initiatives: biocybernetics; Innovations; Technology and cybernetics; Language systems for robots; Research projects.

Interdisciplinary initiatives

Bioinformatics programme

The need, worldwide, for developments in Bioinformatics to be recognised and backed by established university-led courses is slowly acknowledged. There is an increasing demand for experts skilled in using computers to manipulate and analyse the growing quantities of genetic information available. This information arises in a multitude of research studies and is particularly evident in the medical profession and the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology industries.

We have reported previously that analysing data from the Human Genome project could help in the development of personalised therapies and improve the understanding of many illnesses.

In the United Kingdom, efforts are being made to provide university courses that will provide the future experts in what is a prime example of a multidisciplinary endeavour. The UK-government-backed company UKEU has been set up to provide online degrees from UK Universities for students worldwide and has announced a new course for 2003 – a new masters level programme in Bioinformatics. Two universities are involved – The Universities of Leeds and Manchester – and the programme is being developed through the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN). There is no doubt that this programme will draw on expertise across institutions and will herald an increased range of course provision and a greater world penetration of Bioinformatics. Bioinformatics is one of the most critical areas of development in the Biological Sciences and these initiatives are long overdue. Perhaps they will act as a spur to other disciplines which have for so long, spurned any attempts to collaborate on interdisciplinary programmes, and have dismissed similar ventures by cyberneticians and systemists alike.

For further information about UKeU, contact: Head of Communications. Tel: 020 7932 4430; E-mail: tlambert@ukeu.com

Discovery net

A United Kingdom initiative has enabled a new research project to be funded. Called the Discovery Net the project aims to build what is claimed to be the world0s first e-science platform for scientific discovery. The project is based at the Imperial College, London and it uses data generated by a wide variety of high throughput devices to serve the fields that include biology, combinatorial chemistry, renewable energy and geology.

The interest in interdisciplinary programmes has increased worldwide and although the Discovery net is unique in concept, other programmes are attempting to make researchers aware of the essential need to use transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to problem solving. Cyberneticians have been concerned with such programmes and indeed these approaches have always been paramount in any endeavour in their community.

The project leaders of the Discovery net have reported in the publication Connect No. 11 p. 4, that:

• •

  Discovery Net is a £2.08 million EPSRC-funded multidisciplinary project to build the world's first e-Science platform for scientific discovery. Based at Imperial College, this multidisciplinary project uses data generated by a wide variety of high throughput devices to serve fields including biology, combinatorial chemistry, renewable energy, and geology.

  Discovery Net allows users to connect and use data analysis software as well as data sources that are made available online by third parties. In particular, it defines the standards, architecture, and tools that allow scientists to plan, manage, share and execute complex knowledge discovery and data analysis procedures remotely. Service providers can publish and make available data mining and data analysis software components as services to be used in knowledge discovery procedures, and data owners can provide interfaces and access to scientific databases, data stores, sensors, and experimental results as services so that they can be integrated in knowledge discovery processes.

The UKs EPSRC has reported that this project as part of the e-Science Programme (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council – contact at: www.epsrc.ac.uk).

More details of the initiative are given on: www.discovery-on-the-net

Grand challenges for a research community

It is reported that the UK computing research community has identified ten potential "Challenges for Computing Research". These emerged from a total of 109 submissions to a Grand Challenges workshop held in November 2002. These submissions have been separated into four categories and subjected to further rigorous discussion in a bid to identify a smaller number for further refinement and reduction.

Readers will be interested and possibly surprised, at the result. The following were agreed:

• •

  Panel A: Strong Software EngineeringDependable systems evolutionSoftware engineering for non-standard architectures

  Panel B: Architecture of Ubiquitous ComputingScaleable computing for ubiquitous systemsTheory for ubiquitous data and processes

  Panel C: Humanly Oriented ComputingMemories for life: Information management over a human lifetime

  Panel D: Modelling or Designing a Brain or OrganismArchitecture of the Brain or MindModelling the nematode worm C. Elegans

More detailed descriptions of these Grand Challenges are given and they were made open for refinement and development.

Earlier this year, a committee was given the task of producing a report which, it is hoped, will form a valid reference for challenging long-term research directions for computing science over the next year. This research council committee of the EPSRC Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Programme (ICT Programme – vince.osgood@epsrc.ac.uk) will be chaired by Professor Sir Tony Hoare and the report will have important implications not only for those who are engaged in computing research but also for those who are concerned in a multidisciplinary environment future trend and collaborative research endeavours.

Mathematics research review

In a multidisciplinary field such as cybernetics or systems, mathematics is a discipline that can only be regarded as essential. Virtually, all our great cyberneticians regarded mathematics as an integral part of cybernetics with many being established mathematicians in their own right.

The need for a review of mathematics in the United Kingdom has been prompted by previous reviews in engineering physics, computer science, materials and chemistry. The reviews have been carried out in partnership with the research councils and the relevant professional organisations.

The Council of the Mathematical Sciences, which comprises in the UK, of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the London Mathematical Society (LMS), the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), and the Operational Research Society are working with the EPSRC, a government research council, to conduct an international review of UK Mathematics. The primary purpose of the review is to provide a benchmark of mathematics research in the UK. The review, as in the previous series of reviews, will be conducted by a group of international experts who will spend about a week with a broad cross-section of researchers. Their report will be published and an open meeting of the community arranged to discuss the conclusions. A separate review is contemplated for Operational Research, another discipline closely linked in its origins to Cybernetics and Systems.

Biocybernetics

Mathematical brain

An article published in Mathematics Today Vol. 39 No. 3, 2003, pp. 81-2 examines "How the Human Brain is endowed for Mathematical Reasoning". The authors Drs A.F. Rocha and E. Massad ask a number of questions. For example: Are numbers a product of evolution of brain on earth or have they an existence of their own? In their introduction to the paper they write that:

• •

  Cumulative evidences gathered by neurosciences during the last decades about cerebral organization for number representation and processing, seem to contradict the somewhat widespread platonic view that mathematics exists independent of the concrete universe. As we will try to demonstrate in this paper, at least the arithmetical processes are hardwired in the human brain as a product of the evolution of the human genre.

They continue by citing several experimental studies that have revealed the fact that many animal species are able to quantify and manipulate quantities, even if in a very rudimentary way compared with the capacity of human beings in dealing with numbers. There is, they say, even an observable genetically- determined competence of human babies in simple arithmetic. Other results apparently show that few months old infants can distinguish sets of different small numerosities and more remarkably they can perform simple numerical computation anticipating the numerical outcomes of physical operations such as addition or removal of an object from a small array.

The authors believe that these results make sense from the evolutionary point of view, since even simple qualification of resources and enemies may amplify the odds for survival. This, they say, may imply that quantification and counting is an adaptive character of specific neural circuits.

Further experiments are described and a discussion initiated about Rocha's (1997) proposal: that because of the distributed character of brain processing, a theory of Distributed Intelligent Processing Systems (DIPS) is an adequate tool to formulise our current knowledge about its functioning. The purpose of the published paper was to discuss how counting and arithmetic capabilities may be implemented in a DIPS and how they may evolve from simple systems such as those used by animals, to our complex mathematical knowledge. A number of papers by Dr Rocha and colleagues discuss DIPS (Pedryz et al., 1995; Rocha 1997; Rocha et al., 2001). This presentation describes in its sections the DIPS model to account for cardinality qualification and counting as proposed by neurosciences and then makes some comments on the possible evolution of human mathematical capability.

In their final discussion, readers are told that:

• •

  The history of human numerical competence shows that geographically and timely apart human cultures as Summerians, Egyptians, Greeks and Mayans created similar sets of crisp based numbers. The stress gene expression controlling the neural circuits supporting number processing is determined in humans by the complexity of the social environment in particular the counting necessities generated by commercial transactions.

Their final comment in this context is a proposal that an "Animal Mathematical World" is a product of the interaction between genes and their habits, and by the same token the "Human Mathematical World" is determined by the interplay between his/her brain (genes) and culture (habitat). The full paper provides an interesting and profound analysis which contributes to the many ongoing discussions on this subject in Biocybernetics.

US scientists produce 3D tubes of living tissue

The journal New Scientist reports that US scientists are now using their desktop printers to produce 3D tubes of living tissue and possibly entire organs. This innovative production system means that instead of using degradable scaffold and covering it with cells to produce the required tissue these scientists have turned to modifying ink jet printers designed for computer output and using cells to create the 3D structures. This means that actual arrays of DNA, proteins and cells are printed. They believe that, for example, printing with different colours, and placing different types of cells in the ink cartridge should make it possible to recreate complex structures consisting of multiple cells.

The scientists do admit, however, that producing organs is not an early prospect. To do this, they will need to resolve how to create circulatory networks which would be able to provide oxygen and nutrients to the cells of the structures they have so ingeniously created.

The report is based on the research initiatives of the Medical University of the South Carolina's Shared Tissue Engineering Laboratory. Dr Vladimir Mironov, who is the head of the laboratory when asked about the potential of tissue and organ-producing printers said that:

• •

  This could have the same kind of impact that Gutenberg's press did.

Biocyberneticians will be fascinated at this innovative and creative way of producing such structures, whilst computer professionals will wonder at the possible applications of other conventional output devices to scientific research.

Genetics secret

A report from a team of researchers, at The Harvard Medical School, USA, suggests that a gene that can lengthen an organism's lifespan has been discovered for the first time in experiments on yeast. If this is confirmed, the discovery will obviously offer new insights into the understanding of ageing in humans and animals. The Harvard team believe that the research has revealed that yeast strains with versions of a gene known as PNC1 is the first genetic regulator of lifespan to be discovered. As similar genes probably exist in humans, the researchers hope that it may in the future, be possible to manipulate or stimulate them to extend life and protect health against the onset of ageing. This gene, we are told, has its effect because it responds to environmental factors that are known to influence the lifespan of many organisms.

Research experiments have already shown over the years that restricting the food intake of yeast, in fruit flies, worms and rats, so that many fewer calories are consumed, can significantly lengthen these organisms lives and PCC1 appears to play a vital role in this process in yeast.

Dr David Sinclair of the Harvard Medical School, who has led this study, reports in the journal Nature (May, 2003) that:

• •

  The gene is required if yeast is to derive any benefit from calorific restriction. Strains with five copies generally live 70 percent longer than wild strains, which have only one copy, which is the longest lifespan extension seen in yeast.

The reported results show that lifespan is not determined solely it seems, by accumulated wear and tear on the body, or the rate of metabolism, as some researchers have suggested. It appears that genetic factors are intimately involved as well, and these may explain whether and how environmental factors can affect longevity. In his report, Dr Sinclair says that:

• •

  In contrast to the current model, we show that the lifespan extension from calorie restriction is the result of an active cellular defence involving the up-regulation of a single gene.

Further, levels of the protein produced by PNC1 are also raised when yeast is exposed to high temperatures. The strain of yeast used will be of interest to biocyberneticians involved in similar researchers. It is known as Saccharomyces cerevisae and has been used in these experiments by the Harvard Team who are now engaged in their search of the human genome for genes that may play a similar role in longevity to PNC1. Dr Sinclair does, however, suggest the PNC1 protein has its effect in yeast by affecting levels of Sir2, which is another protein that helps cells to survive by keeping DNA stable. We are told that whilst yeast has only one Sir protein, Sir2, humans have seven and this is likely to mean that the genetic levers that influence human ageing will be harder to understand. When this is finally achieved, it will be harder to harness the knowledge in any search for ways of manipulating it.

The research is ongoing and results that will directly affect humans and provide the secret to longer life in humans is likely to be well into the future. Evenso, biocyberneticians are ever hopeful and the Harvard team well content with their current progress.

Innovations

Smart cloth

This section has on a number of occasions included reports of advances in the uses of "smart cloth", that is a textile that consists of electrical conductive material. Add to this the necessary electronic circuits, perhaps printed on the material, and we are told that we have making of a wearable "smart system". New reports suggest that such electrically conductive cloth, called electrotextiles, are to be used for military and civilian clothing.

The cloth is fashioned from synthetic or metallic fibres that can be linked to processors and batteries. The New York Times newspaper quotes the physicist Dr Michael Shur as predicting that:

• •

  Electronic functions will be designed into all kinds of clothing in the next decade and they will be solar powered.

We are told that some of the early designs will include a T-shirt equipped to monitor the wearer's health; an MP3 player woven into a jacket and hood: a lightweight electronic blanket which has stainless steel conductive fibre interwoven into it; and antenna incorporated into military personnel's clothing.

There are no limits to the potential of such electrotextile when it is realised that if it is perfected, it will be able to have sophisticated systems embedded into it that will be able to store and process information that can be used for virtually any purpose. The matter of innovative input and output systems will soon be tackled and communication between the wearers of such clothing a real possibility. The old-fashion "wearable computer" may then become obsolete as new and multi-functional electrotextiles are introduced.

DNA computer

Research reported from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes a DNA computing machine. The machine is composed solely of DNA molecules and enzymes and is described as being the world's smallest biological computer, so small we are told that:

• •

  Around 60 trillion of these devices could fit in a teardrop.

Indeed it reported that the machine has been recognised by the Guinness World Records as the smallest biological computer.

Professor Ehud Shapiro of the Weizmann Institute is already well-known for his work in this area and sometime back devised a programmable molecular computing machine that was composed of enzymes and DNA molecules. Professor Weizmann's long-term goal, we are told, is:

• •

  to make molecular computing devices that can work inside the body and operate as "doctors in a cell" with the ability to detect disease and direct drug manufacture.

There have been hopes that biological computers would replace and probably surpass the performance of computers that use silicon chips. DNA computers currently seem to offer the best future prospects with obvious uses in medicine, but with a potential for use in many other applications.

New computer screen

The journal Nature (May 2003) provides details of the development of a new computer screen that, it is claimed, is "paper thin".

The new display is being developed by the E Ink Corporation, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Dr Yu Chen of the Corporation says that:

• •

  The liquid crystal display is less than 0.3 mm (0.01 in.) thick and can be bent up to 15 mm (0.6 in.) without distorting the picture or reducing its contrast. It can be viewed from almost any angle, and the screen can even survive being rolled into a cylinder just 4 mm wide.

Such a computer screen is therefore as thin as a piece of paper and will signify an advance in the development of a true: "e-paper" for electronic books, journals, newspapers etc. The developers say that although the current prototype is not a "true e-paper", since it cannot be bent or folded through any angle without destroying it, it is still an advance in the technology. Eventually, we are told, it may allow the creation of even thinner and more flexible screens for use in wearable computers and electronic newspapers and notepads.

Dr Chen writes that:

• •

  The technology works using a thin array of transistors connected to millions of tiny capsules of charge-sensitive white and black pigment. Negative voltage causes the white particles to move to the surface while positive voltage brings black to the top to create text.

  The pixel density is high with 160 pixel on the horizontal axis and 240 on the vertical, as is the resolution to 96 pixels per inch. The display can be updated in a quarter of a second making it fast enough for electronic newspapers, but not for video film.

  The use of electronic ink technology on such an ultra-thin, and flexible substrate should greatly extend the range of display applications.

The importance of this development and the trend to "e-paper" cannot be over emphasised. Such new initiatives will continue to influence the way in which we obtain our information and, in particular, such a flexible medium will indeed revolutionise publishing. It will be of particular interest to both systemists and cyberneticians that since the announcement of this advance, Dr Chen and his colleagues at the E Ink Corporation have discussed further developments and applications of their innovative display. They say that:

• •

  Newspapers and books can be displayed by the user at a flick of the switch on a wearable computer screen. It is already possible to create a credit card that when swiped displays a signature and other personal information which will allow banks and retail outlets to check the identity of their customers. Such a flexible display would be good to publish a newspaper which could easily be updated by a wireless signal and the system could be available within 2 years. The display would be updated in a quarter of a second.

The future of academic journals will change from electronic publishing on the Internet, for example, to one where their contents will be available on a wearable screen. The electronically printed book, which is available at some retail outlets, will become accessible on the ultra-thin flexible electronic ink screen that promises to revolutionise the way in which we deal with information.

Technology and cybernetics

New techlology predicted for 2004. "Grain-sized" chip to revolutionise technology. At the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference in Denver USA, held in February 2003 we were told that a microscopic computer chip so tiny that 400 could fit on a grain of salt will revolutionise electronics in 2004. Whilst claims have been made before about "revolutionising" computer technology there is no reason not to believe scientists even when predictions are made at international meetings. We were confidently promised a memory device that is due to be produced at the end of 2004 that is the size of a human cell. This would make it the most compact electronic chip ever produced. The promise came from Dr James Ellenbogen who is a physicist at the Mitre Corporation, Virginia, USA. He said that it would be a working memory of the size of a human cell that would be the densest memory ever. He "is quoted in his" address to the Association as saying that:

When they introduced the IBM personal computer it came with 16 kilobytes of memory – eight times this. You would have shrunk the memory of an old IBM PC into the space of about eight human cells. It's awfully small.

Dr Ellenbogen also indicated that by stacking the chips on top of each other it should be possible to store a gigabyte of information on a device with the size of a grain of salt.

The project is being funded by the US Pentagon Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the researchers are also developing a nano-sized computer processor for use with the new memory.

Predicted applications include nano-robots and biological aids. Such a revolutionary device will be used in numerous applications and when finally marketed, as the scientists indicated at the Association's meeting, in some unusual ones. They outlined the following as some probable uses:

Nano-robots:

• •

  Nano-robots made from these chips could be injected into the body to seek out and cure disease. They could also be used to make intelligent bridges, buildings and even armoured vehicles that repair themselves.

Biological functions:

• •

  Consider the possibility of putting a chip the size of a grain of salt under your skin and it would be able to detect biological functions. This, it is suggested, would be used in many different kinds of therapies.

Time-scale for production. In 2003, the researches involved in this project have developed, it is reported, techniques allowing the cheap production of billions or even it is suggested, trillions of molecule-sized switches on a microchip smaller than fingernail.

It is hoped that the next meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science scientists from the Mitre Corporation will see their predictions fulfilled

Robot versatility

A report from ATI Industrial Automation describes how the versatility of robots has been enhanced by the use of what are described as "quick-change tool changers". It says that:

• •

  A key to what a robot can do is the end-effector; the inaction tool at the robot arm. For a robot designed to perform just one specific task, the end-effector may bolt directly to the arm; in fact, it may actually be a part of the arm. However, a programmable robot capable of performing a variety of tasks usually requires a quick means to change the end-effector.

  Robotic tool changers give robots the flexibility to automatically change the end-effectors or other peripheral tooling. They are designed to function for millions of cycles at rated loads, while helping to maintain extremely high repeatability.

Citing the robot population growth, it says that more and more robots are finding their way into manufacturing plants. In the US, the Robotics Industries Association has estimated that the current robot population is more than 50,000 with some 53 percent devoted to welding operations. Another 24 percent loading and unloading activities, 10 percent do assembly work and 8.5 percent dispense paint and adhesive. The remaining 4.5 percent of the population perform operations that include testing, measurement and inspection. Enabling a single robot to exchange end-effectors during a manufacturing process, much as a human is capable of packaging up and operating different tools, it is believed, will increase robot flexibility. The report gives a number of examples of automatic tool changing applications and gives the opinion that these and a multitude of others show that a significant reduction in non-productive tool changing is achieved.

Language systems for robots

A report from researchers at the University of Maryland-Baltimore, USA, summarises the advances being made by scientists in developing language systems for talking to robots. We are all aware that it is now becoming possible to have a dialogue with a computer system so that, in consequence, we should be able to communicate using a language with a suitably computerised machine. The language lessons given to computer systems by artificial intelligence (AI) experts and computer scientists could equally be given to robots so that they too can respond reasonably intelligently using speech. These are the skills we need to embed in our robots if they are indeed, to reach their ultimate potential as humanoid helpers, whether in the industrial areas or in domestic applications.

We also know that over the last decade robots have often been claimed to be "intelligent". Certainly they have advanced beyond our earlier predictions. They can walk on their own legs, climb stairs, traverse unknown environments and carry out numerous other activities, many of which have been recorded in this section.

Robotic systems are still, however, restricted in their abilities in both movement, and particularly in their response to humans and, indeed, their fellow robots. Designing robots that can respond has proved extremely difficult and progress has been slow. It is not too difficult to build systems that respond to stored commands when these commands are identified. Carrying out a dialogue, as Turing soon realised, is very much another matter. Dr Tim Oates of the Marylan-Baltimore University says that:

• •

  Teaching them is very hard. Imagine you are in a foreign country and don't know the language. You can't even tell where a word begins and ends, much less the meaning of the word.

Aware of these serious difficulties. Dr Oates has set his goal as being able to make a robot follow him around the university campus, gathering and processing information. He has hopes that in, say, a year from now, he will be able to tell the robot – "look out for that trash can" or "let's go through that door". In 5 years time, he aims to be able to say – Could you go into the room we were just in and bring me the red ball". He considers this to be a very ambitious, but not an unreasonable goal.

Many of the problems Dr Oates will have to solve are those already being tackled by researchers in AI. There must obviously be a transfer of research information from the human-machine dialogue studies to robotic systems. We are told by Dr Luc Steels, an AI researcher at Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris that, it is:

• •

  now becoming possible to have open-ended dialogues with physically embedded robots

Researchers are now experimenting with a variety of techniques to enable robots to use language. In some experiments, we are told, robots are even at the stage where instead of copying their human instructors they have invented their own words and grammatical structures in the same way as human- computer conversations have been developed. In both techniques, the methods used resemble the way a parent or older sibling teaches a child to associate a spoken word with an object. Dr Steels says that in an experiment the method used resembles:

• •

  the way a parent teaches a child, the "pupil" was an enhanced version of AIBO, a popular robotic toy dog marketed by Sony, the Japanese electronics company, which is supporting this work.

  The little robot was equipped with eyes (a video camera), ears (a microphone), a voice box and a computer programable to recognize and pronounce human words. We pre-programmed AIBO to recognize a few spoken words like "look" "listen" "what is it?," "good,"

He has published an account of this study on the Internet where he has described a typical learning session involving AIBO. To accomplish a given task, the robot had to connect two very different electronic patterns – one from the sound waves coming to "his ears" and the other coming from "his eyes". Dr Steels says that:

• •

  We have carried out a realistic robotic experiment in the sense that the robot is not only ignorant about the words in the language, but also about the concepts underlying these words.

Dr Tim Oates has also conducted experiments where there is no direct instruction by a human teacher. Instead the robot must learn the language on its own by observing what people do and say. In one experiment, he arranged a set of coloured blocks in various patterns, while volunteers described what he was doing in simple sentences. The robot watched and listened. He reports that after hearing 50 statements describing the same scene over and over again, the robot was able to associate certain sound patterns with specific objects such as "blue block", store them in its computer memory, and repeat them when asked. He writes that:

• •

  The system successfully discovered words and their denotations in three different languages – English, German, and Mandarin Chinese.

Further experiments have been carried out by researchers to study an approach where two robots teach each other languages with virtually no human intervention. In this example of "unsupervised learning" it was shown that gradually the two robots built up a common vocabulary of about 100 words which although basic expressed concepts such as up, down, left, right, red, green, large and small.

To many AI specialists, this mimics their own experiments of computers that learn from one another. In-these cases, confirmation is accorded to the belief that robots/computers can learn the meaning of words in a number of different ways.

It is to be hoped that all scientists working on this form of interactive communication will interact themselves and share their endeavours and findings for the sake of the common purpose of advancing technology.

Research projects

3D to nD Computer modelling

At the University of Salford, UK researchers are expanding the concept of three-dimensional (3D) modelling to an unlimited number of dimensions. The 3D to nD project combines:

• •

  computer modelling;

• •

  simulation techniques; and

• •

  visualisation

with the use of virtual reality to enable building designs, not only to be seen, but also to be actively tried. This is achieved by systems that allow the users to virtually walk through and also around the designs displayed. In addition, we are told that the design tool that has been developed is called the "nD tool" and will portray not only the design of the building, but also its future.

Earlier this year, an international workshop was held at Mottram Hall, Manchester to discuss the developments in 3D to nD modelling. It is reported that over 50 experts from world-leading industrial and academic organisations in the field took part. This workshop, which was co-chaired by Stanford University USA, discussed a number of relevant topics and in particular, discussed multi-design perspective product modelling.

It considered that nD modelling is an interactive process that allows the flexible choice of accessibility, crime, maintenance, sustainability, energy, acoustics, and other design features which should be viewed against construction costs and project schedules. In addition, the discussions examined some of the barriers and enablers for an industry-wide implementation of nD modeling, and the strategies for a way forward were identified.

The Director of the Research Institute for the Built and Human Environment at Salford University, Professor Ghossan Aouad, summed up the discussions of this high-profile meeting:

• •

  The outcome of the workshop will not only have a profound effect on construction projects of the future, but will also provide the opportunity to combine research efforts and collaborate new ideas with other organizations from across the world.

A report of the workshop proceedings is being published. The project is in receipt of funding from the UKs Engineering, and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) at the level of £0.5 million over 4 years.

For further information, contact: g.aouad@salford.ac.uk, and see also: http:// ndmodelling.scpm.salford.ac.uk

Collaborative materials research in the UK

It is reported that an alternative to steel, zirconia, suffers from one major weakness and that a current UK funded research project is changing that. The overall leader of the research is Professor Mark Rainforth of Sheffield University's Department of Engineering Materials, UK. The research has received two grants from the UK's funding body for engineering, and the physical sciences (For further details, contact: m.rainforth@sheffield.ac.uk), with the total amount of support reaching £530,000. Describing the progress of the work, researchers write that:

• •

  Improved cutting tools, stronger hip joints, and better medical instruments should result from research looking at ceramic alternatives to steel.

  Zirconia, a ceramic with steel-like strength and hardness and a high resistance to wear and chemical corrosion, is potentially well suited to industrial, medical and other uses. It produces blades which are much sharper and smoother than steel, and which last up to 50 times longer.

  To date, the use of zirconia has been limited by its loss of strength and its subsequent cracking when subjected to temperatures of 100-600°C in the presence of water – a process known as hydrothermal degradation. The research team has inhibited this process without compromising the toughness of zirconia by adding trace quantities of materials such as alumina.

The research work is carried out as a collaborative effort with the UK Universities of Sheffield, Glasgow, and Leeds, and with Dynamic Ceramic, a small UK company. The scientific underpinning for the company is provided by Sheffield University which has allowed it to develop a production route for a zirconia that is resistant to hydrothermal degradation.

Professor Rainforth says that:

• •

  Increased industrial productivity and improved comfort for hip replacements patients are just two of the many benefits that could result from overcoming zirconia's Achilles heel

The techniques used in the work include field emission gun TEM and high- energy resolution XPS (at Daresbury UK). These techniques we are informed, allow the researchers to probe microstructure at the atomic scale, allowing the determination of atom type, position and bonding between atoms.

Innovative research centres

The UKs Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's publication Connect (Issue 10,4/2003) reports that the Innovative Manufacturing Programme has made significant progress in supporting research to help the UK's industrial competitiveness. Innovation in manufacturing has been a mainstay since the earlier days of the Industrial Revolution and remains a key feature of this sector today. The report continues:

• •

  The Innovative Manufacturing Initiave (IMI) started in 1994 as part of the Engineering for Manufacturing Programme and terminated in 2001, to be succeeded by the Innovative Manufacturing Programme. The IMI set out to encourage collaboration between industry and academia, and to support high quality strategic and applied research aimed at enhancing the UK's industrial competitiveness.

A report was made in January 2003 to assess the impact of IMI and to evaluate the value of the work that has been supported. We are told that:

• •

  The news was encouraging 230 projects have been supported, with total public and private investment of £125 million. Although many of these are not yet complete, over three-quarters of partners said that the projects had wholly or largely satisfied their objectives. 88 percent said that the quality of the research was excellent or good, and 84 percent said that the projects were extremely or very relevant to British industry. Tellingly, the programme resulted in almost no displacement of similar research activity. Opportunities for commercialisation have been identified by 63 percent while 93 percent said they would definitely or probably participate again if the opportunity arose.

Grants totaling £60 million have funded 12 Innovative Manufacturing Research Centres (IMARCs) since the programme's inception. Two major 5-year research programmes have also been funded on catalysist and metals processing. Two further IMRCs have been approved to commence this year. Three priorities have been recognised for future developments. They are: healthcare, process and electronics. In the future, the funding of more radical research agendas in smaller groups to operate along side the existing centres is promised.

For further information about this innovative programme contact: phil.burnell@epsrc.ac.uk

B.H. RudallNorbert Wiener Institute and University of Wales, UK