As temperatures drop below freezing and demand for energy soars, engineers at the University of Southampton have launched a new iPhone application to monitor the UK electricity grid.

Dr Alex Rogers, Dr Perukrishnen Vytelingum and Professor Nick Jennings at the University’s School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) have developed an application, named ‘GridCarbon’, which when downloaded to an iPhone, enables users to monitor the carbon intensity of the grid – the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere when one unit (1 kWh) of electricity is used by a consumer.

“The app shows people how using appliances and machinery at different times of the day can reduce their carbon footprint; for example, at some times of the year, running washing machines and dishwashers overnight rather than at peak times in the evening, can reduce carbon emissions by as much as 40 per cent,â€? said Dr Rogers. “While developing this app, we were surprised at how much the carbon intensity of the grid varies at different times of the day, and between different days in the week.â€? The application, which can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store by searching for ‘GridCarbon’, is just one initiative being developed by ECS researchers as they develop a vision of the Smart Grid.

They are currently researching the use of computerised agents to operate smart electricity meters in support of the Government’s initiative to have smart meters in all homes by 2020, and are using a new building on the Southampton campus as a test bed. The Ideas Project web site has more information.

“We are developing agents that can ‘learn’ how much energy a building or home uses and which can then make predictions and decisions about cost-effective energy use,â€? Professor Jennings added. “We have already proved that agents can be used to haggle and resolve conflict, trade on the stock market and cope with disasters; our next challenge is to incorporate them into smart electricity meters.â€?

For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel. +44(0)23 8059 5453

IT Innovation Centre, the School's applied research centre, has teamed up with Pinewood Studios to demonstrate the next generation of film and TV production.

In an action-packed day the MUPPITS team showed how a near-live production (the kind of thing produced for a news insert or review) could be shot in various locations, use visual effects from a separate post-house and be edited somewhere else again, with all the content handled as files and the file transfers managed by an automated system under the control of the producer.

Visitors to the demonstration, representing a wide range of professionals from the media industry - from producers and directors to special effects companies and equipment manufacturers - watched as a mock news item was created about the BBC's research facility at Kingswood Warren in Surrey, including a live interview with the former head of technology, animated graphics and other shots edited into a complete piece that they could see delivered over a network connection and played out in the auditorium in Pinewood.

IT Innovation manager Paul Walland says: "Visitor response was ecstatic with comments such as 'This will bring an immense benefit to post-production operators'. There were a lot of questions from the audience, the most common theme being 'When can I start using MUPPITS in my own productions?' and 'How is this going to work commercially?'.

"These are the questions that IT Innovation are setting out to answer in the final phase of the MUPPITS project," Paul added, "continuing their close liaison with industry leaders Pinewood Studios, the BBC, Smoke & Mirrors and Molinare. IT Innovation are aiming to change the face of movie making for ever ... Wow!"

IT Innovation is the lead technology partner in MUPPITS. Their primary role is development of a service-oriented business and lifecycle management architecture, which supports the management of the content production lifecycle of film and television using tapeless workflows. The project is co-ordinated by the Digital TV Group, and other partners are BBC, HDDC, Molinare, Ovation Data Systems, Pinewood Group, Smoke & Mirrors and Sohonet.

MUPPITS is a two-year R&D project supported by the UK Technology Strategy Board.

For further information contact: Joyce Lewis; tel.023 8059 5453

A new kind of information processing technology inspired by chemical processes in living systems is being developed by researchers in the School of Electronics and Computer Science.

Dr Maurits de Planque and Dr Klaus-Peter Zauner at the University of Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) are working on a project which has just received €1.8M from the European Union’s Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Proactive Initiatives, which recognises ground-breaking work which has already demonstrated important potential.

The researchers, Dr de Planque, a biochemist, and Dr Zauner, a computer scientist, will adapt brain processes to a 'wet' information processing scenario by setting up chemicals in a tube which behave like the transistors in a computer chip

“What we are developing here is a very crude, minimal liquid brain and the final computer will be ‘wet’ just like our brain,â€? said Dr Zauner. “People realise now that the best information processes we have are in our heads and as we are increasingly finding that silicon has its limitations in terms of information processing, we need to explore other approaches, which is exactly what we are doing here.â€?

The project, entitled 'Artificial Wet Neuronal Networks from Compartmentalised Excitable Chemical Material', which is being co-ordinated by Friedrich Schiller University Jena with other project partners, the University of the West of England, Bristol and the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, will run for three years and involves three complementary objectives.

The first is to engineer lipid-coated water droplets, inspired by biological cells, containing an excitable chemical medium and then to connect the droplets into networks in which they can communicate through chemical signals. The second objective is to design information-processing architectures based on the droplets and to demonstrate purposeful information processing in droplet architectures. The third objective is to establish and explore the potential and limitations of droplet architectures.

“Our system will copy some key features of neuronal pathways in the brain and will be capable of excitation, self-repair and self-assembly,â€? said Dr de Planque.

For further information, see the article on this story by Jason Palmer on BBC Technology Online.

Posted by Joyce Lewis; tel. +44(0)23 8059 5453.

Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond took time out from filming in the Southampton Nanofabrication Centre (SNC) to visit the School's Computing Lab.

Hundreds of students were in the Lab last Friday (8 January) waiting to see Richard Hammond, and the scale and warmth of his welcome can be seen in this video on YouTube. The presenter was visiting the School of Electronics and Computer Science to film sequences for a new BBC/Discovery Channel series, called "Invisible Worlds", which is scheduled to be aired in March. He filmed in the SNC clean room with Professor Darren Bagnall, Dr Harold Chong, Dr Nic Green, and Dr Stuart Boden, demonstrating the incredible power and precision of the SNC equipment which can etch features in silicon at a scale of 5nm.

While he was visiting the Computing Lab he was presented with an ECSS hoodie by the student committee of the Electronics and Computer Science Society (ECSS). Further pictures are available on the School's web site (ECS login only).

For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.

Thirty-six leading graduate recruiters will be attending the ECS Engineering and Technology Careers Fair on Tuesday 2 February.

Despite the economic downturn, competition among the country's leading technology companies to recruit highly skilled graduates is still hot, and Southampton students have a very strong reputation for the breadth and depth of their knowledge of different technologies, as well as for the strong mix of practical and theoretical understanding gained in their degree programmes.

The ECS Engineering and Technology annual Careers Fair is being held for the third time, in response to demand for our students from business and industry. Over 1000 students attended last year's event, and so this year's Fair, on Tuesday 2 February, is already hotly anticipated.

The event takes place in the Garden Court, Students' Union, on the Highfield Campus, from 11 am to 3.30 pm and is open to all students in the University, with a particular emphasis on engineering and science degrees. As well as graduate recruitment opportunities, the companies will also be offering summer internships and industrial placements. The company representatives will be available at their exhibition stands throughout the day, and there is also a special programme of presentations.

Companies attending include: Accenture, Atmel, ARM, Bloomberg, Centrica, Corefiling, Credit Suisse, Customer Systems, Detica, Dstl, Ernst & Young, FactSet, Flight Data Services, Gradcracker, Graduate Jobs South, IBM, Imagination Technologies, Invensys, JP Morgan, MatchTech, Mendeley, Netcraft, NDS, Orbis UK, PG Drives Technology, QinetiQ GRC, Roke Manor Research, Selex Galileo, Sperry Rail, STR, Symantec, Tandberg, TeachFirst, Thales UK, Waterfall Solutions, and Wolfson Microelectronics

All are welcome.

For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel. +44(0)23 8059 5453.

A toolbar which will enhance accessibility of the World Wide Web has been developed by researchers at the University of Southampton.

Sebastian Skuse, Technical Project Assistant Learning Societies Lab of the School of Electronics and Computer Science, worked with Dr Mike Wald and E.A. Draffan to develop the new JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) TechDis Toolbar, which can be easily installed and is compatible with any platform.

The project is funded by JISC Techdis which "aims to be the leading educational advisory service, working across the UK, in the fields of accessibility and inclusion."

A key feature of the toolbar is that it reads text aloud, spell checks, and offers a dictionary, text enlargement, colour and font changes. It can also be used with Web services such as wikis, blogs, social networks and Twitter, which has not been possible before without specially-installed (and often expensive) assistive technologies. "The toolbar, which is quick and easy to install, will make websites a lot easier for people to use," said Sebastian. "For example, a visually impaired user can switch any webpage into a high contrast mode, increase the text size, or have the page read to them." The toolbar is ready for further beta testing and is available to download free. It is also possible to add the toolbar as a ‘bookmark’ or ‘favourite’ and website owners may also embed the toolbar within their pages, so visitors can load the toolbar instantly.

The researchers are now considering the viability of making the facility available on mobile devices.

Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt have played a key role in the development of the new data.gov.uk web site launched today by the Government.

data.gov.uk contains more than 2500 sets of data from across government about all aspects of our lives, ranging from information about education and traffic, to tax and crime. All of the data is non-personal and has been released in a format that can be reused by any individual or business to create innovative new software tools, such as applications that provide information on house prices, local schools, amenities and services, or access to local hospitals.

The site has been developed in just six months, after the two Professors from the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton were given a special role by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to help transform public access to Government information. The initiative was intended to drive cultural change in Whitehall towards the publication of all non-personal data held by Government departments and agencies.

Commenting in June 2009, Professor Shadbolt said: "The vision is that citizens, consumers and government can create, re-use and distribute public information in ways that add value, support transparency, facilitate new services and increase efficiency. We believe we can achieve this with the emergence of a new generation of Web techniques and standards."

Over the last six months Professor Berners-Lee and Professor Shadbolt have worked closely with a panel of technical and delivery experts to oversee the development and implementation of data.gov.uk, in conjunction with the Minister for Digital Britain, Stephen Timms, who will be launching the new single access-point web site today (21 January).

The beta version of the site was released in September and since then developers have been testing it and using the data to create applications that bring together information from different sources. According to Professor Shadbolt, this is only the beginning: “It is a job that is never going to be entirely finished," he told the BBC today. “Government is always collecting data.â€?

He added: "Making more public sector information and data available is crucial if we are to exploit the innovative talent available to us in this country to produce really outstanding applications that have social and economic value."

Sir Tim Berners-Lee has long been an advocate of the release of raw data from public sources that can then be linked in imaginative ways for re-use by citizens. He commented: “Making public data available for re-use is about increasing accountability and transparency and letting people create new, innovative ways of using it. Government data should be a public resource. By releasing it, we can unlock new ideas for delivering public services, help communities and society work better, and let talented entrepreneurs and engineers create new businesses and services.â€?

The significance of today’s launch was highlighted by Professor Shadbolt: “Today marks an important step forward in the work the Prime Minister asked us to lead. It gives data to the public and sets the groundwork for further progress. Over the next few weeks and months we will build on this by adding more functions. We are already working with departments, agencies and local authorities to release even more data all the time, and we want the release of public data to be ‘business as usual’ across public bodies as outlined in Putting the Frontline First: Smarter Government.â€?

In December 2009 Professor Shadbolt was asked by the Prime Minister to lead a panel of experts who will oversee the release of local public data, ensuring that it is linked effectively across relevant agencies, authorities and government departments.

See also: Datablog by Tim Berners-Lee and Nigel Shadbolt in The Guardian and BBC Online.

Round-up of news coverage

For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.

Professor Jan Sykulski of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton has been named a Fellow of the IEEE. He is honoured for his contributions to methods and applications of computational electromagnetics.

As an IEEE Fellow Professor Sykulski joins an elite group of engineers and researchers from around the world who are recognized by the IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) for their unusual distinction and outstanding contributions to the electrical and information technologies and sciences for the benefit of humanity and the profession. Elevation to Fellowship of the IEEE follows a rigorous evaluation procedure.

Professor Sykulski has been a member of staff in the University since 1980 and was appointed Professor of Applied Electromagnetics in 1995. He led the Electrical Power Engineering research group from 2000 to 2009. He has received numerous honours from universities and learned societies in many parts of the world, and in 2004 he received the title of Professor from the President of the Polish Republic, after nomination from the Universities of Lodz, Poznan, and Szczecin.

His research interests and contributions have been focused on the application of high temperature superconductivity to power devices; the development of fundamental methods of computational electromagnetics (including software development); and advances in design and optimization methods which involve electromagnetic aspects but are aimed at developing real devices.

He has also played a very prominent role in a number of professional communities and societies. This has included running the International Compumag Society and chairing the Electromagnetics Professional Network of the IEE, both of which work towards coordination of the worldwide effort in this field. As Editor of COMPEL: The International Journal for Computation and Mathematics in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, he has been able to promote research activities around the world.

‘I am obviously thrilled’ – says Jan – ‘especially since computational electromagnetics tends to frighten people off, so it is good to see the field recognised and my efforts noticed. I have found simulating fields and designing electromagnetic devices enormously gratifying over the years and have been privileged to work with many distinguished colleagues around the world. Teaching the subject to students is stimulating and a continuous challenge, while working in ECS inspirational.’

The IEEE is the world’s leading professional association for the advancement of technology. Through its global membership, IEEE is a leading authority on areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics.

The Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science, Professor Harvey Rutt, commented: ‘Not only is this a notable individual recognition of the research contributions of one of the School’s most distinguished professors, but it is an excellent endorsement of the strength of the School’s research and its international reputation in a fundamental area of technology.’

Described by reviewers as ‘2010's First Must-Have iPhone Game’ and released this week by Rockstar Games in an iPhone edition, Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest-selling games of all time.

The latest game in the series, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, incorporates a different presentation and a range of new high-tech features. It also includes an ‘homage’ to MailScanner, the world-leading email security and anti-spam system, developed in the School of Electronics and Computer Science by Julian Field.

‘I’m used to seeing MailScanner break records,’ says Julian, ‘but with this appearance in Grand Theft Auto I can truly say that the software has now gone where no other similar package has gone before.’

In the game play, players have an in-game PDA (electronic personal organiser) and can receive emails from characters in the game to help their play. As the game begins, the in-game ‘Email Inbox’ already contains some messages - one of which is spam, tagged with MailScanner's familiar "(SPAM?)" tag in its subject-line.

‘These subject tags are unique to MailScanner,’ says Julian. ‘They first appeared as a feature of MailScanner in 2000 and since then have appeared in emails around the world in every country and in many billions of mailboxes.’

Julian began developing MailScanner in 2000 and Version 4.78 was launched in October 2009. It has been downloaded over 1.3 million times. Its success can be judged from the fact that it is used in some of the world’s leading organizations in 226 countries, for example: the US Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, Harvard, MIT, and Cambridge universities, Vodafone Europe, Amnesty International, Friends Of The Earth and the British Antarctic Survey. The technology is fast becoming the standard email solution at many ISP sites for virus protection and spam filtering.

Julian commented: 'MailScanner's appearance in Grand Theft Auto: China Wars is the latest sign of MailScanner's acceptance into the general world of email, demonstrating that even game authors are aware of its widespread use, and can rely on the fact that game players will recognise the tags added by MailScanner to email recognised as spam.’

For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.

The National Microelectronics Institute (NMI)has announced the creation of the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF) to address the threat of diminishing skills in the UK electronics sector. The Foundation, of which the University of Southampton is a founder partner, aims to increase and sustain the supply of industry-ready graduate engineers and boost the number of graduates who take up careers in the sector.

NMI CEO Derek Boyd said: "The dramatic decline in the numbers of Electronic Engineering graduates will present the country with a long-term issue if left unchecked. We’ve identified the underlying problems in the existing skills pipeline which undermine the future prospects of the industry and UKESF has been created to tackle the major issues. Its goal is to ensure that the sector is supplied with the quality of talent to enable it to continue to be innovative, competitive and able to provide high-value jobs to support the wider economy."

UKESF is a collaboration of public bodies, private companies and leading UK universities, and has been launched with initial start-up funding from founder partners NMI, BIS (Department for Business Innovation and Skills), SEMTA (The Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies), ARM, Cambridge Silicon Radio, Dialog Semiconductor and Imagination Technologies. Founder university partners are Bristol, Edinburgh, Imperial College, Southampton and Surrey.

Indro Mukerjee, Chairman and CEO of C-MAC MicroTechnology and Chair of SEMTA’s Electronics Sector Strategy Group, said: "It has taken a lot of hard work and collaboration to get UKESF off the ground and I now look forward to it becoming an integral part of the UK electronics scene. The foundation has set itself realistic goals yet to achieve them more private enterprises need to support it. Forward-looking electronics companies need to sign-up to the UKESF programme and help address what is a national concern of strategic importance."

UKESF will initially focus on: • Encouraging electronics employers to engage with schools in order to raise awareness of the sector and the variety of career opportunities it offers. • Electronics summer schools to attract school students towards studying for electronics engineering degrees and careers in Electronic Engineering. • A scholarship scheme, accessible to small and large companies, to link undergraduate students with electronics companies for work experience and to encourage progression into careers within the sector.

Minister for Higher Education David Lammy said, "It is essential that we raise awareness of the rewarding careers available to young people in our growth industries, such as those in the electronics sector and this new foundation will help provide the high quality industry-ready graduates we need for economic success."

The UKESF operational plan aims to have achieved the following levels of engagement with school and undergraduate students, companies and universities within 5 years: • 80 participants p.a. (16-17 year olds) on summer schools. • 1600 pupils p.a. (all ages) reached through employers engaging with schools. • 160 new undergraduate scholarships p.a. • Over 100 sponsoring companies. • Over 50 companies engaging with schools. • 10 partner universities across England, Scotland and Wales.

Professor Alun Vaughan, Deputy Head of School (Enterprise) in Electronics and Computer Science, commented: "We very much welcome this initiative, particularly the broad partnership of organizations we will be working with to encourage increased numbers of students to enter courses in electronic engineering. Our degree courses here in ECS cover a whole range of disciplines which affect us all, every day of our lives. It's essential that we produce graduates with the skills and understanding to play an effective role in developing these important technologies in the future, and in order to do that we need a really good flow of applicants to study electronics at university."