e-zine science & engineering

E-ZINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING Issue 12 18763

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E-ZINE – COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

A NEW TERM BEGINS! IN THIS FEBRUARY ISSUE

A Message from the Head of College

As we begin the New Year (in zine terms) and look towards

key goals that meet our three strategic priorities there are

two things at the College level that strike me as critical in

the near term.

Clearly, it is NSS season and we must all concentrate as

ever on the student experience. Working with a number of

departments it is clear that many academics and

professional services staff are grasping the need to

significantly step-up our student experience. It has been

gratifying in informal feedback from the students that they

are noting increased engagement by staff across the piece.

At a recent Offer Holder Day, I had the pleasure of

spending 45 minutes talking to parents. One of the things

that truly came through from that experience is that

parents notice how wonderful our students are and what

great ambassadors they are for our activities here at

Leicester as well as how staff are engaged with the

“Students First” priority across the University. This is a

clear indication of our continuing commitment to the

student experience in the College of Science &

Engineering.

CONTENTS

1. Message from the Head of College 3. Congratulations to ………

4. News from Departments 9. News from the Centre 10. College Inaugural Lectures 11. And finally ………..

E-ZINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING | Issue 12 2

In the mid-term, but particularly across the next 6-9 months we need to increase and accelerate our work on REF.

REF is important to us as it is a once in every ~6 year opportunity to display our research credentials that not only

feeds direct research income into our University that supports facilities and research efforts but also feeds into

national and international rankings which are so important for student recruitment. We have a well-coordinated

structure in place but it is clear now that we have to step up the academic insight in to the quality of our outputs,

the writing of our impact cases and demonstrating the high quality environment that we create for research here

at our University. Can I strongly encourage you all to engage with your REF/UoA leads and the activities across

departments and schools to push this area forward. REF is important to our financial sustainability and the

research-led nature of our endeavor here within the College of Science & Engineering.

Finally, in the upcoming period we have a number of inaugurals from Professor’s here in the College of Science &

Engineering that are clearly listed in the E-zine. These are public lectures and I encourage all staff and students

across the University to attend these lectures. The inaugurals showcase some of the wonderful science and people

that working at our University. They also represent a great opportunity particularly over the next two lectures to

explore our new directions and push behind AI and machine learning with two leading researchers in these areas.

As ever, I have an open door policy so if any members of the College want to discuss anything with me please do

not hesitate to contact me. There will be a College Forum on 13 March 2019 at 1pm in Physics LTB, which I will be

writing to every member of staff about soon. Please add the date to your diary.

Ys -Paul-


Congratulations goes to:

PROFESSOR NIAL TANVIR FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY

On being awarded the Royal Astronomical Society Herchel Medal. The Herschel Medal is awarded by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) for "investigations of outstanding merit in observational astrophysics" and is awarded for a single piece of work.

Nial is a world-leading expert in explosive-universe studies, and he has been at the forefront of searching for explosions created by mergers of extremely dense stars, also known as neutron stars. These events are of particular interest as they create gravitational waves. They are also thought to be the origin of the majority of elements like gold and platinum in the universe.

DR TOM STALLARD FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY

On being awarded the Royal Astronomical Society Chapman Medal. The Chapman Medal is awarded for investigations of outstanding merit in the science of the sun, space and planetary environments or solar-terrestrial physics and is awarded for a single outstanding piece of work. Tom receives the Chapman Medal in Geophysics for his contributions to understanding planetary upper atmospheres and their interactions with their associated magnetospheres. Tom’s observations have led to the detection and characterisation of wind systems in Jupiter and Saturn’s auroral/polar regions. He has also discovered evidence of major energetic processes and events such as signatures of magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, ion vertical profiles, and key temperature and density changes. His latest contribution is the discovery of Jupiter’s magnetic equator signatures. This work is typical of his insight, patience, and the way in which his work contributes to and supports space missions.

GEOLOGY RESEARCH POSTGRADUATE MARTHA PAPADOPOULOU

On being the Judges’ Prize Winner at the Images of Research Competition for her picture – One Picture – Two Worlds. The event showcased 25 images taken by researchers and contextualised with a short description on how the image tells a story about their research. The 25 were shortlisted from over 70 entries.


News from Departments PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY

Lead author Dr Arrate Antunano, together with Dr Leigh Fletcher have had research published in Geophysical Research Letters

Re

High-speed supernova reveals earliest moments of a dying star

Astronomers from Leicester together with those at Bath and Warwick have had their research published in Nature after finding evidence for the existence of a ‘hot cocoon’ of material enveloping a relativistic jet escaping a dying star. A relativistic jet is a very powerful phenomena, which involves plasma jets shooting out of black holes at close to the speed of light, and can extend across millions of light years.

Observations of supernova taken shortly after its onset showed it expanding rapidly, at one third of the speed of light. This is the fastest supernova expansion measured to date. Monitoring of the outflow over many weeks revealed a clear difference between the initial chemical composition and that at later times. Taken together, these are indicators of the presence of the much theorised hot cocoon, filling a gap in our knowledge of how a jet of material escaping a star interacts with the stellar envelop around it and providing a potential link between two previously distinct classes of supernovae. The supernova signals the final demise of a massive star, in which the stellar core collapses and the outer layers are violently blown off.

Ju

Jupiter’s striped appearance of light zones and dark brown belts provides breathtaking views through amateur and professional telescopes alike – but Jupiter’s stripes can change and shift over poorly-understood timescales, sometimes expanding and contracting, sometimes fading away entirely. Using a large database of observations of Jupiter spanning more than four decades, scientists have been working to understand the forces shaping these gargantuan weather changes on the Solar System’s largest planet. The team used data – telescopic infrared observations – to show evidence of unique events at Jupiter’s

Equator when the usual thick, white clouds appeared to be completely missing. Dr Leigh stated that “only by putting these observations together, from a wide variety of instruments over more than 3 Jupiter years – a year on Jupiter last 12 Earth years – did we begin to spot a pattern.”


The current Director of RAL Space and a highly distinguished space Scientist, Dr Chris Mutlow has been appointed Honorary Professor in the Department

Dr Tom Stallard and Dr O’Donaghue who works for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland

Have found that Saturn’s rings are dying at the maximum rate estimated from Voyager 1 and 2 observations made decades ago. The rings of ice are being pulled into Saturn by gravity as particles of ice under the influence of Saturn’s magnetic field. Dr O’Donaghue states, “We estimate that this ‘ring rain’ drains the equivalent of an Olympic-sized swimming pool from Saturn’s rings in half an hour. The entire ring system will be gone in 300 million years” and he actually believes that the rings could even disappear quicker than that! Although this sounds like a long time, it is short compared to Saturn’s age of over 4 billion years.

Dr Mutlow has been a supporter of Space Park Leicester and LISEO during their early development. His advice and support in this new role will be valuable for the further development of Space Park Leicester and the delivery of its programmes.


SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY & THE ENVIRONMENT

School Professor Sue Page’s comments on the Saddleworth Moor Fire

which was raging earlier in July

Sue stated that “The fires are taking place in an area of upland Britain that has extensive

ENGINEERING

Dr Carys Bennett and colleagues in conjunction with Nottingham Trent University, the University of Nottingham and North West University, South Africa

New Research led by Professor Hong Dong will optimise the welding, additive, and manufacturing process Arc welding and additive manufacturing are hugely important for creating large metal components relatively inexpensively and quickly. Hong’s research in collaboration with Delft University of Technology, Diamond Light Source, University College Dublin and TATA Steel Research UK was recently published in Nature Communications and shows how to optimise this process to improve efficiency and cost. The research explores the internal flow behavior in additive manufacturing of metals and arc welding – the most widely used welding process in modern manufacturing and focused on examining the melt pools that are created during the welding process. The results revealed that arc welding could be optimized by controlling the flow of the melt pool and changing the associated active elements on the surface.

Have been researching how modern meat chickens are a defining feature of the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene is the proposed new geological epoch that marks when human impacts on many of the Earth’s geological processes became overwhelmingly evident. This new research suggests that the Anthropocene will be defined by the breeding and consumption of modern broiler chickens and associated future archaeological and geological deposits. The research involved comparing standard supermarket chickens, of which there are now approximately 23 billion in the world at any one time, with the bones of their ancestors dating back to Roman times. The skeleton, bone chemistry and genetics of broiler chickens, which only survive their six-week

Life span due to the highly technologically-controlled conditions of modern farms, are radically different to their ancestors.


The Formal Opening of the newly refurbished Electrical Teaching Laboratory

Was held in the Department of Engineering on 14th December 2018. The project started over two years ago and involved ripping out the interior of the entire second floor of the South Block Annex over the summer of last year, culminating in a grand opening ceremony led by Dr Paul Lefley. Guest of honour, Dr. Jonathan Tudor, Director of Research and Innovation at Centrica plc unveiled the plaque marking the occasion. The event also served to promote the collaborative industrial research between Centrica and the Departments of Engineering and Mathematics. Dr Lefley wishes to take this opportunity to thank all within the University who were engaged and helped on the project, including those who provided the financial support.


MATHEMATICS

Success of Industrial Applications The security systems integrator Visual Management Systems Ltd (VMS) has published very recently that they significantly outperform Microsoft AI system using the Department of Mathematics algorithms. Although it has long been known that detecting and recognizing those from non-white ethnic groups has been an issue with AFR (Automatic Facial Recognition), developments in Advanced Imaging, Artificial Intelligence and Neural Network Technologies may have the answer. An on-going partnership between Glasgow based Visual Management Systems Ltd and the Department of Mathematics has been grappling with this thorny issue for more than a year. With a combination of the University’s Advanced AI based AFR Algorithm development, the employment of neural networks and the vast experience of Video, CCTV and Surveillance from Visual Management Systems Ltd a solution is finally on the horizon.

“Jay Shields Managing Director at Visual Management Systems Ltd stated "Detecting non-white ethnic groups and in particular Afro-Caribbean subjects has always been an issue. This is due to the facial structures and the detectable feature contrast. We believe that we have the solution."

He added "Using our experience in advanced CCTV camera technology and the understanding of wide

range spectral detection, have enabled us to further develop our TITAN AI range of facial detection,

recognition and identification products to cater for this issue".

http://www.titan-vision.com/pages/advanced-imaging/titan-ai-advanced-imaging.html


News from the Centre

The Rt Hon James Brokenshire visited the University on 3 January 2019 The Rt Hon James Brokenshire is Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and is the Ministerial Champion in driving forward the government’s ambitious plans to fire up the Midlands as an engine for growth in the UK. He visited the University as well as the National Space Centre and the Space Park Leicester site to see first-hand how the region is at the cutting edge of space research and innovation. The visit coincided with the announcement that Space Park Leicester had been awarded £50,000 funding as part of the new and innovative East Midlands Manufacturing Zones. The East Midlands Manufacturing Zones aim to reduce planning restrictions to allow land to be used more productively and provide certainty for business investment. The monies will be used to support the design of the Low-Cost Access to Space facility at Space Park Leicester, to ensure it is attractive and accessible to space focused manufacturers in the area and meets their business needs. Space Park Leicester is an initiative to create a global hub and collaborative community for businesses, researchers and academia based on space and space-enabled technologies.


College Inaugural Lecture – Professor Eugene Zhange

On Tuesday 5 February 2019, the Professorial Inaugural Lecture by Professor Eugene Zhange from the Department of Informatics will be taking place in the Ken Edwards Building, Lecture Theatre 1 at 5.30pm. The lecture is entitled:

Providing elderly people a happier life by AI Deep learning is one of the hottest artificial intelligence (AI) techniques used for pattern recognition. It has been applied to analyze health data, and it delivered similar or even better performance than a human expert. In this talk, Eugene will firstly give a brief summary on advances of deep learning, particularly convolutional neural network and afterwards will give several examples of applying deep learning on analysis of elderly health conditions, e.g., Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, alcoholism, etc.

Everyone is welcome to attend. There will be a drinks reception in the Gardendon Room at 6.15pm on completion of the lecture.

College Inaugural Lecture – Professor Jonathon Chambers

On Tuesday 19 February 2019, the Professorial Inaugural Lecture by Professor Jonathon Chambers from the Department of Engineering will be taking place in the Ken Edwards Building, Lecture Theatre 1 at 5.30pm. The lecture is entitled:

A Guided Tour of Signal Processing and its

Applications Jonathon will begin with an introduction to the fascinating field of adaptive signal processing and its applications, culminating in blind source separation as a framework to address the machine cocktail party problem, namely mimicking the ability of a human to follow one conversation within a room when many people are speaking.

As humans, we use our listening and visual senses together with sophisticated signal processing in our brains to solve this problem. In a machine, the ears and eyes of a human are simply replaced by microphones and video cameras; but, the challenge is processing the measured audio-visual signals to extract the conversation of interest and Jonathon will introduce some of the algorithmic solutions his team have proposed in this area.

He will also describe his more recent work applying signal-processing techniques as part of the University Defence Research Collaboration II in Signal Processing for the Networked Battlespace sponsored by Dstl and the EPSRC. In particular, he will show how methods from signal processing and machine learning can be exploited to perform network anomaly detection in the context of cyber security.

Finally, he will describe how signal-processing techniques can be exploited in emerging 5th generation wireless communications, the Internet of Things and massive machine-to-machine networks.


Everyone is welcome to attend. There will be a drinks reception in the Gardendon Room at 6.15pm on completion of the lecture.

And finally

If anyone has any news that they would like putting in the next edition of the College E-zine then please let Sue Howell know at [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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