ECS researchers have developed a new e-learning portal for Higher Education. The new portal is powered by semantic wikis, but is also simple enough to be embraced by non-technical users.

The FREMA (e-Framework Reference Model for Assessment) project, part of the Joint Information Systems Committee’s (JISC) e-Learning Framework, is a large inter-connected portal which will house information about e-learning assessment relevant to the education community.

It has been developed by Dr David Millard and Dr Gary Wills of the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), who will launch the new FREMA portal at a JISC e-Learning programme meeting on 11 October. It will be hosted by ECS at: http://frema.ecs.soton.ac.uk/wiki/

FREMA began in 2005 to help people in Higher Education build systems for e-learning. Its goal was to develop a reference model for systems in the Assessment Domain which focus upon the creation, execution and recording of electronic assessments which are accessible across institutions and to the lifelong learner.

According to Dr Millard, FREMA is a type of wiki with all the resources representing various aspects of Assessment in Higher Education such as information on standards and funding, but it can be queried like a Knowledge Base, so that users can find gaps and trends in the domain.

'A huge advantage of this system over any similar ones is its simplicity,' said Dr Millard. 'Although it is a major Knowledge Base, it is simple enough to be accessed by people who are not computer scientists, who can then contribute and run queries on issues such the most popular standards.'

Professor Wendy Hall of ECS opened the academic year at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. Her lecture marked the inauguration of the UAB Year of Computing.

Professor Hall's inaugural lecture was entitled 'Towards a Science of the Web'. Professor Hall is one of the founder directors of the Web Science Research Initiative, a long-term research collaboration between the University of Southampton and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The other directors are Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Professor Nigel Shadbolt, and Daniel J. Weitzner.

Professor Hall was Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science from 2002 to 2007. She is currently Senior Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a member of the Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology and a member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council.She has published over 350 papers on subjects including hypermedia, multimedia, digital libraries and web technologies.

Her lecture is available to view online.

Seventy A-level students from schools and colleges around Southampton visited the University to begin planning for the Student Robotics Competition.

The Competition is being organized by a group of University of Southampton students, many of who are in the School of Electronics and Computer Science. At an event held in the University last week the A-level students came to terms with the reality of what they will be taking part in over the next six months.

Their task will be to design and build a robot that will be able to perform a number of tasks and to see it perform in a grand final against all the other robots. The building and design will include a whole range of skills, and the A-level students will be supported throughout by a University student mentor who will visit them every week.

The first event of the competition gave the A-level students, from schols and colleges in Southampton, Fareham, Brockenhurst and Totton, an opportunity to build a simple machine using cardboard and string, and then in a series of presentations they heard exactly how they will approach the task.

The Competition is sponsored by the Motorola Foundation, the School of Electronics and Computer Science, and the Southampton University Students' Union.

On a Dr Who weekend camp in the New Forest, the 1st Southampton North Brownies were able to build a Tardis with the aid of ECS sonic screwdrivers.

The 'sonic screwdrivers' were made for the Brownies by Dr Matt Swabey, whose wife Claire Swabey is Assistant Leader of the Brownie pack.

'The sonic screwdrivers were cool!,said one of the Brownies. 'They were the best thing at Brownie Camp! We had a great time playing with them.'

Hugh Glaser, Reader in the School of Electronics and Computer Science, has been awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Award 2007 in recognition of his exceptional contribution to diversity issues across the University.

Hugh has been involved in the University’s equal opportunities and diversity strategies over the last 15 years, and was one of the first harassment contacts. Throughout this time he has served on the committees that have taken forward this important agenda across the University, and is currently a Diversity Trainer, helping to ensure that members of the University staff are aware of diversity issues that arise in the work context.

‘I am grateful to have been supported in this work by the School of Electronics and Computer Science,’ said Hugh. ‘I believe it’s vital that as an institution we create a climate which enables everyone to operate to the best of their potential. This is increasingly important as we welcome growing numbers of students and staff from different backgrounds, different cultures, and from many different countries.’

Speaking on behalf of the Council for Science and Technology, Professor Wendy Hall of ECS has called for a 'step change' in the way that early career researchers are seen by employers and funding bodies.

Commenting on proposals just published by the Council for Science and Technology (CST)on how to make research a more attractive career option, Professor Wendy Hall said that a clear career structure was needed for researchers, and they should be given more independence at an early stage in their career.

Professor Hall has been a member of the CST since 2004. She was Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science from 2002 to 2007 and is currently Senior Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

In the news release issued on 9 October 2007 by the DIUS, Professor Hall is quoted as saying:

“The UK’s science base is one of the best in the world and it will be crucial to maintain it for the continuing success of the economy. Research funders and the higher education sector must work together to provide a clear career structure, and give researchers greater independence at the early stages in their careers.

“This is not just about maintaining an excellent research base in the universities. The majority of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers will leave academia and go on to make as great a contribution in business, education, the media or public services. We must make sure they have skills that are required, and that these are duly recognised.

“We are very encouraged that the Research Councils and Universities UK are now leading revision of the Concordat on behalf of the sector to support the career development of researchers, and taking this issue seriously. This is an excellent opportunity for a step change in the way that early career researchers are seen by their employers and funding bodies. CST’s report sets out some proposals that could be adopted as part of this initiative.â€?

Another significant milestone has been reached in the reconstruction of the Mountbatten clean room. The Head of School, Professor Harvey Rutt, has just signed off orders for some key pieces of equipment that will support the research to be carried out in the new complex.

The total value of the equipment purchased is £6.6M (including VAT) and includes 11 items of equipment. The most significant equipment is the Jeol JBX 9300 FS electron beam lithography system, which cost £3.3M. It is used to write very small patterns in resist, with an ultimate resolution below 10nm, making it a very important tool for top-down nanotechnology research.

The equipment order also includes a package of deposition and etch equipment, which is used to deposit thin layers of semiconductors and insulators and to etch patterns that have been written by the e-beam lithography system. The etchers include two ICP etchers, one for metals and one for oxides, and two RIE etchers.

The two most interesting deposition systems are an OPT Nanofab 1000 and an OPT FlexAl. The Nanofab 1000 grows carbon nanotubes and silicon/germanium nanowires and is an important tool for bottom-up nanotechnology research. Since the existing technologies are about to hit fundamental limits – nanostructures like these may be the way round these limits. The FlexAl is an atomic layer deposition system that is used to deposit very thin layers of material, with thicknesses down to a few angstrom (1 angstrom = 0.1nm).

‘Construction of the new building is continuing apace,’ said Professor Harvey Rutt, ‘but of course it’s the equipment inside it that will enable the research to be carried out under truly state-of-the-art conditions. Professor Peter Ashburn and his team have done an excellent job in specifying these equipment needs and negotiating with the suppliers and we look forward to seeing the equipment in place next spring.’

It is an essential feature of the construction of the new Mountbatten Building that it provides the incredibly clean and ultra-low vibration environment needed for these cutting-edge machines to function.

ECS was strongly represented at the Micromechanics and Microengineering Europe (MME) 2007 conference at the University of Minho, Guimaraes, Portugal. Five papers were presented, mainly in fabrication:

Fabrication of Fully Functional AC-Electroosmosis Micropump with 3D High Aspect Ratio Electrodes Using Only SU-8, presented by Hamza A Rouabah; Fabrication of Lab-on-Chip Devices from Fluoropolymers, presented by Alan Taberham; Fabrication of Patterned Pyramidal Micromirrors and Current Carrying Wires for Atom Chips, presented by Gareth N Lewis; Fabrication of Macroporous Polysilicon by Using Nanosphere Lithography presented by Chien F Chau; Performance Analysis of a Micromachined Electrostatically Suspended Gyroscop employing a Sigma-Delta Force Feedback,presented by Badin Damrongsak.

The ECS contingent are photographed here at the conference.

MailScanner is being used by Novell as their anti-spam tool of choice in their new 'Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition' software package.

The Novell Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition is a Linux-based desktop-to-server solution tailored to meet the needs of small businesses. It provides productivity tools and a networking infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of alternative, proprietary-only software bundles.

To further help customers reduce cost and improve security, Novell's suite also includes Novell-supported open source components, including MailScanner for spam filtering, Amanda for backup and archiving, the ClamAV anti-virus toolkit, HylaFAX fax server, iptables for firewall, the OpenVPN virtual private network and TightVNC for remote control of network clients. The suite is also supported by popular business software applications certified to work with SUSE Linux Enterprise.

MailScanner is a free anti-virus and anti-spam filter, developed by Julian Field, Postmaster in the School of Electronics and Computer Science. MailScanner protects over 1 billion emails every day and has been downloaded over 1 million times. Version 4.64 of MailScanner was released on 1 October 2007.

Perpetuum, the leading manufacturer of vibration energy harvesting devices, has completed a £5 million funding round backed by Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF), Quester, and Top Technology. The investment is to be used to support Perpetuum in commercialising its vibration energy-harvesting generator.

Perpetuum’s micro power generator is the world’s first truly practical vibration-harvesting device capable of generating enough power to enable wireless transmission of large amounts of data. Energy harvesting is considered a key enabler for wireless sensor networks, which are becoming increasingly important in a variety of areas including industrial monitoring and control, rail transport, and shipping. Perpetuum’s novel energy source generates electric current from the energy of low levels of vibrations as they are present, for example, on standard electric motors common at industrial sites. Harvesting power locally makes the sensor nodes independent of the use of batteries or mains power and drastically reduces installation and maintenance cost.

The current round of investment has been led by ETF. It will be the second investment from ETF’s new fund, which was launched last year with a target size of 150 million euro. Both Quester and Top Technology were previous shareholders of Perpetuum and have taken up pre-emption rights.

Mike McTighe, Chairman of Perpetuum said, ‘Our generator is already being built into sensor node designs by some of the world’s leading industrial condition monitoring companies. There is no comparable device on the market today and we have a great opportunity to position Perpetuum as the global leader in this fast-growing market. We are very pleased to have ETF as an investor, and to welcome Henrik Olsen of ETF to the board.’

Henrik Olsen, a founding Partner of ETF added, ‘Perpetuum has developed a novel alternative energy source that harvests energy otherwise wasted and renders batteries unnecessary. By enabling wireless sensing it will significantly improve industrial efficiency. Perpetuum is a great example of the type of company we would like to support – it has a market-ready, universally applicable product that can make a real difference in a rapidly growing market. It has an excellent management team, enjoys great customer interest and is poised for significant growth.’

The original research behind the Perpetuum products was carried out in the School of Electronics and Computer Science, by Professor Neil White and colleagues in the Electronic Systems Design Group.