News
Dr David Grace elected chair of IEEE Technical Committee on Cognitive Networks.
February 2013 : Dr David Grace, Head of the Department of Electronics Communications Research Group, has been elected chair of an influential technical committee on Cognitive Networks, organised by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. With over 1500 members worldwide, the committee is responsible for helping shape the technical agenda in the rapidly emerging fields of cognitive radio and cognitive networks, which promise to revolutionise the way wireless systems operate and use the radio spectrum. During his two year term he hopes to broaden the constituency of membership to include members from artificial intelligence community, and strengthen linkages with the WUN Cognitive Communications Consortium, which originated at York in January 2009, now with members from over 90 organisations worldwide.
York Electronics Academic Particiaptes in Parliamentary Engineering Debate.
February 2013 : Dr Adar Pelah, Reader in the Department of Electronics and Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellow, participated in a The House of Commons All Parliamentary Engineering Group's special debate on "Engineering for Growth", chaired by Lord Broers. The session was sponsored by the Royal Academy of Engineering, and was attended by engineering graduates, parliamenterians and members of the engineering community, focusing ways by which engineers and the engineering profession can more effectively drive innovation as an engine for future economic growth and enterpreneurialism. The event was held on the 16th of January in Commitee Room 9 and the Churchill Room, House of Commons, Westminster Palace.
Medical device from Electronics wins First Prize in NHS Innovation Awards.
January 2013 : KidzEyez, a novel visual field analyser that enables the earlier detection of eye and brain disorders in children, potentially saving lives and preventing blindness, has won First Prize in MedTech in the National Health Service Innovation Awards. The device was developed in the Department of Electronics by Dr Adar Pelah, Reader in Electronics and Enterprise Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, with former MEng student Michael Slater, and in clinical collaboration with Dr Louise Allen of Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge. KidzEyez has successfully undergone clinical trials, significantly outperforming the prevailing 'gold standard' method, and is likely to be used widely in hospitals and community services in the UK and worldwide.
Pictured : 7 year old patient Ella White is being tested in the clinic alongside KidzEyez inventor Dr Adar Pelah
Recording industry legends debate engineering in the studio.
July 2012 : Jez Wells hosted a debate at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London last week on the nature of studio recording and the extent to which it embodies engineering.
The round-table discussion, which was recorded and will form part of Jez's Is Recording Engineering? project, involved four leading figures from the recording industry: the Grammy and Gramophone award winning classical engineer Tony Faulkner; former executive director of the Association of Professional Recording Studios Peter Filleul; pop/rock engineer and producer Ben Hillier whose production credits include Blur, Elbow and Depeche Mode and Tony Platt who has worked as producer and engineer with acts ranging from Bob Marley and The Wailers to Iron Maiden and AC/DC.
Is Recording Engineering? is an eleven month project, funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering's Ingenious scheme, which aims to provide an up to date picture of the skills required for sound recording, how they match with public perceptions and aspirations and where these embody engineering. The project also involves David Beer from the Department of Sociology.
Quote: It was a fascinating discussion which went everywhere from accreditation of sound recording and engineering courses to some of the apparent disconnects that exist between those who work in recording studios
and those who design the equipment that they use. To have these four people together, sharing their ideas on what sound recording and engineering are, was a unique opportunity to hear from the very cream of those working in the industry today.
Picture caption: Jez (far left) at the Royal Academy of Engineering with (from left to right) Tony Platt, Ben Hillier, Tony Faulkner and Peter Filleul.
Biologically inspired algorithms help to diagnose and monitor neurodegenerative diseases.
July 2012 :
Dr Stephen Smith and Dr Michael Lones recently installed new equipment to measure patients at the University of California San Francisco and the VA Medical Centers.
The ongoing collaboration with Dr. Katherine Possin and colleagues uses biologically inspired algorithms to diagnose and monitor neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
The technique is quick and easy to apply and has an accuracy exceeding 90%.
Prof. Martin Haardt has been appointed Honorary Visiting Professor
June 2012 : Prof. Martin Haardt, head of the Communications Research Laboratory at Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany, has been appointed Honorary Visiting Professor in the Department of Electronics, University of York.
Prof. Haardt is an internationally renowned expert in the fields of Signal Processing and Wireless Communications, who has pioneered a number of key techniques for multiple antenna systems such as precoding algorithms for multi-user MIMO communications as well as efficient multidimensional high-resolution parameter estimation techniques.
This appointment will strengthen the collaboration between York and Ilmenau University of Technology in Germany and the research undertaken in the Communications Research Group. Prof. Haardt will spend time doing research in the department, collaborating with international projects, and will continue to visit us on a regular basis.
Dr. Rodrigo de Lamare appointed visiting Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
June 2012 : Dr. Rodrigo de Lamare is now Visiting Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO), one of the top universities in Brazil.
The position is funded by the programme Science without Borders of the Brazilian Federal Government, and is part of the project entitled Multiuser and Massive MIMO Techniques for Future Wireless Communications: Design, Algorithms and Applications in collaboration with Prof. Raimundo Sampaio-Neto from PUC-RIO.
Dr de Lamare will spend time doing research and teaching short courses at the Centre for Telecommunications Studies of PUC-RIO. The project will fund collaboration between PUC-RIO and York researchers, and scholarships for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers might be requested from the Science without Borders programme.
Recording of Molly's Soliloquy released on Audiobook
June 2012 : A recording of Molly's Soliloquy from James Joyce's Ulysses, recorded in the Department's studios, has just been reissued by Naxos Audiobooks.
It was originally recorded and edited in 2003 by Jez Wells as part of a 23 CD box set which was the first unabridged audio recording of this classic text. It was released to celebrate 100 years since the book's publication and was nominated for a 'talkie' award.
Work by Jez Wells released on CD
June 2012 : Jez Wells has just completed post production work on Songs Now, a recording of new songs for baritone and piano made at the National Centre for Early Music last Summer. The CD will be released on Meridian Records, famed for their 'natural sound' recording philosophy, in July.
The One hundred Under 50
May 2012 : The University of York has been ranked eighth in the world and number one in the UK in new Times Higher Education world rankings of universities less than 50 years old. read more...
York Grand Tour 2012
Running from 31st May to 31st August 2012, free : The Audio Lab has two boards up in the City of York as part of the Grand Tour. Board 28 is about Damian Murphy's work on acoustic modelling. Board 50 is about David Howard's work on human voice synthesis based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data.
IET Accreditation
May 2012 : The Department is pleased and proud to report that it continues to be fully accredited by our professional body, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), up to the end of 2014 in all its taught programmes (except the MSc in Engineering Management for which it is not appropriate) following recent confirmation from the IET.
This means that the education part for Chartered Engineer (CEng) for BEng and MEng graduates and Incorporated Engineer (IEng) for BSc graduates is a simple tick box.
Professor David Howard on Channel 4 Series 'Hidden Talent'
Tuesdays at 9pm on Channel 4
How far can natural talent really go and what if it could change your life? Hidden Talent discovers people with extraordinary hidden talents they never dreamed they had.
Hundreds of randomly selected people are put through a series of tests to identify those with hidden abilities and nine participants discover if they can go from being a total novice to a top-class performer in record time.
Presenter Richard Bacon follows their progress, uncovering the amazing science that enables these individuals to achieve what others can only dream of.
For more information, please visit: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/hidden-talent/
Dr Steven Johnson joins the Department of Electronics
April 2012 : Dr Steven Johnson has joined the Department as a Lecturer in Electronic Engineering.
His research is focussed on the integration, detection and manipulation of biological materials, such as DNA and proteins, with nanoelectronic devices.
The ultimate goal is new hybrid technology that merges the functions and properties of biological systems, such as chemical synthesis, mechanical motion and molecular recognition with the abiotic world of electronics.
This highly inter-disciplinary research will be housed in the newly refurbished Biomolecular Electronics research laboratory located within the department that contains molecular biology facilities and state-of-the-art electronic characterisation tools.
PAnDA: Programmable Analogue and Digital Array
April 2012 : Dr Martin Trefzer and Dr James Walker along with Prof Andy Tyrrell are members of the EPSRC funded project PAnDA: Programmable Analogue and Digital Array which focuses on novel mechanisms and techniques to reconfigure devices and to produce variability tolerant architectures.
Initial architecture designs are now being finalised and the project is receiving interest from a number of external sources.
One example of this is the recent article published in 'New Electronics' in April this year.
As the article points out, the design of the new architecture is progressing well and the first silicon should be available in October of this year.
York Academics Co-organise International Conference on Information Processing in Cells and Tissues
March/April 2012 : Members of the Intelligent Systems Research Group recently co-organised the 9th International Conference on Information Processing in Cells and Tissues (IPCAT 2012), held in Trinity College, Cambridge from 31st March to 2nd April 2012.
This unique event brings together researchers from biology, physics, computer science and engineering who are interested in modelling the processes that take place within biological cells and tissues.
Dr. Steve Smith was General Co-chair, Dr. Michael Lones was Programme Chair, and Dr. Martin Trefzer and Dr. James Walker were Publicity Chairs.
For more information, please visit www.ipcat2012.org
Managing variability - making good chip designs even better
February 2012 : ngenics, a University spin-out company, launched its new MOTIVATEDtm automated and scalable, multi-objective cell design technology platform.
Chip designers are always looking for ways to improve power, speed, density and yield. This has never been easy but now that integrated circuits are approaching the atomistic level, intrinsic variations are becoming more abundant, leading to lower production yields and higher failure rates. It's getting harder all the time.
The ngenics team (Prof Andy Tyrrell, Dr James Walker, Simon Bale and Dr James Hilder) integrates state of the art evolutionary design methodologies with intimate knowledge of the challenges of the semiconductor industry, to help make good designs even better.
MOTIVATEDtm optimises standard performance measures such as speed and power, as well as addressing the issues of variability. Built on multi-objective bio-inspired algorithms, variability models, circuit simulators and high performance computing, MOTIVATEDtm generates multiple designs that are optimal across a number of parameters (e.g. best for delay and best for power, all variability aware, in one design execution). MOTIVATEDtm is automated and highly scalable, the degree of optimisation is determined by the number of design generations explored and driven solely by the CPU hours applied.
Anniversary Research Lectureships
March 2012 : Following the success of our recent 50th Anniversary Chair and Reader appointments, the University intends to create up to twenty new Anniversary Research Lectureships. These posts are aimed at providing outstanding post-doctoral researchers with an opportunity for an extended period of research and a permanent career path.
Anniversary Research Lecturers will spend a three year period establishing a strong personal research profile, followed by a transfer to an established academic post, comprising teaching and research.
Applications to the Department of Electronics are welcomed from candidates whose interests are aligned with one of the Department's research groups, details of which can be found at: http://www.elec.york.ac.uk/research/research.html
Prospective applicants are welcome to contact the Head of Department, Professor David Howard.
Application Deadline: 22nd March 2012. - For more information, and how to apply, please visit: https://jobs.york.ac.uk/
Professor Mohamed El-Gomati award OBE in Bew Years Honours List
January 2012 : Professor Mohamed El-Gomati was made Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen in the 2012 New Year's Honours List for Services to Science.
The Department is extremely proud that Mohamed's achievements in Surface Science and Electron Optics have been recognised in this way.
This honour follows Mohamed's award of the Fazlur Rahman Khan award for Excellence in Engineering, Science and Technology in 2009 and the Cosslett Award for 2008 from the Microbeam Analysis Society, USA.
Many many congratulations Mohamed.
Dr David Grace made Guest Professor at Zhejiang University
October 2011: Dr David Grace, Head of the Communications Research Group, has been made a Guest Professor at Zhejiang University, China, which is similar to the Honorary Visiting Professor that is awarded at York. This was awarded to him recently in a simple ceremony at Zhejiang by the Dean of Faculty, having been signed into force by the Zhejiang President. With this position it should enable him to further strengthen the deep collaboration we have with Zhejiang University via the joint lab on 'Cognitive Radio and Green Communications'. Professor Honggang Zhang, his opposite number at Zhejiang, was made Honorary Visiting Professor at York last year.
For more details, contact David Grace at dg6@ohm.york.ac.uk
Andy Marvin is Elected a Fellow of the RAE
July 2011: Professor Andy Marvin, leader of the Physical Layer Research Group and one of the first academics appointed to the Department of Electronics at York has been elected to receive the prestigious honour of a fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering. The citation in particular mentioned his distinguished academic career; his founding and directorship of the world-renowned EMC company, York EMC Services Ltd; his commitment to continuing professional education initiatives, and leadership in international standardisation activities.
This award is the second honour Andy Marvin has received recently, following his election to the rank of fellow of the IEEE in November last year. For more details, contact Andy Marvin at acm4@ohm.york.ac.ukYork hosts International Research Symposium on Magnetic Materials and Spintronics
June 2011: This month we are proud to co-host the JSPS York-Tohoku Research Symposium on Magnetic Materials and Spintronics, with the keynote Cantor Nanoscience Lecture given by Prof. Hideo Ohno of Tohoku University. The symposium has been jointly organised by Atsufumi Hirohata of York and Prof. Koki Takanashi of Tohoku. Spintronics is one of the most important emerging fields in condensed matter physics and the technology has been extensively applied to magnetic recording in hard disk drives. In spintronics, Japan has a leading position in device fabrication, whereas the UK leads in characterisation and modelling. The symposium will offer an opportunity for U.K. and Japanese researchers to access the latest research results, and discuss their work with other world-leading workers. For more details, contact Atsufumi Hirohata at ah566@ohm.york.ac.uk
Award-winning student wins Best Paper Award at IEEE VTC-Spring Conference
June 2011: The best paper award of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference 2011-Spring (VTC 2011-Spring) in the area of Signal Processing for Wireless Communications was awarded to Sheng Li and Rodrigo de Lamare from the Communications Research Group at York, for their paper entitled "Blind Reduced-Rank Receiver with Column Adaptation for DS-UWB Systems Based on Joint Iterative Optimization and the CCM Criterion". VTC is the foremost event in the area of mobile and wireless communications of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and attracted over 1200 submission this year. This paper is part of the PhD dissertation of Sheng Li who was also awarded the Kathleen M. Stott Prize for excellence in research in 2010. The dissertation was supervised by Rodrigo de Lamare. For more details, contact Rodrigo de Lamare at rcdl500@ohm.york.ac.uk
Royal Academy of Engineering Ingenious Public Engagement Fellowship awarded to Jez Wells
May 2011: Jez Wells from the Audio Lab at York has recently won a fellowship to study the role of engineering in music production. The research will be funded by a grant from the Royal Academy of Engineering under their Ingenious scheme, which has been designed to make engineering more accessible to the public. In a unique collaboration, Jez will be working with sociologist David Beer to discover how people relate to the sound recording industry, and explore the relationship between music technology, audio engineering in particular as applied to music, and other forms of engineering. For more details, contact Jez Wells at jjw100@ohm.york.ac.uk
Julian Miller wins European Award in Evolutionary Computing
May 2011: The Evostar award, given for Outstanding Contribution to Evolutionary Computation in Europe, has been awarded to Julian Miller of the Intelligent Systems Research Group at the Department of Electronics at York. The Evostar group of conferences and workshops is held annually, and is the main event in European research in evolutionary computation. The annual award has been presented since 2005, and is decided by vote of the Evostar organising board. This year's conference was held in Turin, Italy, on 27-29th April. For more details, contact Julian Miller at jfm7@ohm.york.ac.uk
2010 Guardian League Tables Published: Department in the Top Ten in the UK
May 2011: This month, the Guardian newspaper published its annual guide to universities in the UK, including league tables for each subject. Once again, the Department of Electronics at York was ranked in the top ten, this year rated 8th out of the 62 departments listed under "Engineering: Electronic and Electrical". In the important category "satisfied with teaching" the department did even better, being rated as number four in the country. We are very pleased with this result, it is another validation of the work we put into all of our courses.
Excellence in the Department or Electronics recognised in Vice-Chancellors Awards
May 2011: The Department of Electronics has recently been recognised by the award of three Silver Awards in the new Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Outstanding Achievement at the University of York. These awards are a new initiative by the University to encourage and recognise some of the outstanding individuals working here.
The award winners from the department are David Grace, who received his award for his work in the establishment of sustained research partnerships notably the WUN Cognitive Communications Consortium and the York-Zhejiang Lab for Cognitive Communications and Green Radio; Yongbing Xu, in recognition of his promotion of York internationally and forming strategic partnerships including initiating the Nanjing-York Joint Center and the WUN spintronics consortium; and Helen Ayre, Tim Clarke, Andy Hunt and Paul Mitchell for instigating, championing, and realizing policies, processes and relationships that have allowed the Department of Electronics to achieve sustained excellence in student experience. For more details, contact: Tim Clarke at tc2@ohm.york.ac.uk , David Grace at dg6@ohm.york.ac.uk or Yongbing Xu at yx2@ohm.york.ac.ukYork Student Presents Work at the House of Commons
February 2011: Aglaia Foteinou, a PhD researcher in the Audio Lab, has been selected to present a poster related to her research at the Set for Britain Awards at the House of Commons on Monday 14th March. Her work is entitled 'Virtual Acoustic Reconstruction of Heritage Sites', and attempts to answer such questions as: what did it sound like to stand within Stonehenge when it had just been built?
Various methods can be applied for measuring and reproducing the sound of existing spaces, and these methods can also be used to predict the behaviour of modern buildings at the design stage. However, when a space no longer exists or exists only in part, the accuracy of these techniques cannot be verified. The aim of Aglaia's work is to explore how the accurate virtual reconstruction of the acoustics of a historical space might be attempted. The initial stages of this project involved taking acoustic measurements in an actual medieval English church - St. Patrick’s in Patrington, Humberside - and comparing the results with those obtained from an acoustic reconstruction of the building using a 3D computer model. Based on these results recommendations can be made for optimizing these computer models. For more details, contact Damian Murphy at dtm3@ohm.york.ac.ukDepartment of Electronics wins new European Project on Swarm Robotic Systems
February 2011: We are pleased to announce that a team from the Intelligent Systems group is part of a new European funded project focussed on the development of cognitive swarm robotic systems. The project, CoCoRo (Cognitive Collective Robotics) aims at creating a swarm of interacting, cognitive, autonomous robots. It will develop a swarm of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that are able to interact with each other and which can balance tasks (interactions between/within swarms).
These tasks are: ecological monitoring, searching, maintaining, exploring and harvesting resources in underwater habitats. The project is led by the Artificial Life laboratory at the University of Graz in Austria, with other members of the consortium being the University of York, University of Stuttgart (Germany), Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Italy. The York team is led by Prof Jon Timmis and Prof Andy Tyrrell and will begin in April 2011 and last for 3 years. For more details, contact Jon Timmis at jt517@ohm.york.ac.ukJon Timmis wins Prestigious Wolfson Research Merit Award
December 2010: Professor Jon Timmis of the University of York has been awarded one of the thirty annual Wolfson Research Merit Awards, given each year to "respected scientists of outstanding achievement and potential" in any area of the life and physical sciences including engineering.
Jon's work proposes to bring together three areas: swarm robotics, immunology and computational modelling. He aims to develop immune-inspired engineering solutions to identify individual and collectively failing robots, diagnose what is wrong, and then take corrective action to help alleviate the failure. An exciting aspect of this work is that benefits will not only be seen in swarm robotics but also in immunology. Two important areas of immunology will be examined: regulatory networks involved in the spontaneous recovery from a mouse disease equivalent to multiple sclerosis, and the formation of protective structures called granulomas which are created by a complex process in the immune system to control the spread of various diseases, such as Leishmania. These models will then be used to help derive immune-inspired solutions for the self-healing process in swarm robotic systems. For more details, contact Jon Timmis at jt517@ohm.york.ac.ukYorkshire to get New High-Resolution Lithography System
December 2010: As a result of a £2.7 million grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), one of the highest resolution electron-beam lithography systems in Europe will soon be available to York academics and research students.
The instrument will be supplied by world-leading electron microscope manufacturer JEOL, and will be shared by the Universities of York, Leeds and Sheffield. It will be capable of fabricating electronic and spintronic structures with less than 10 nm resolution. Dr Atsufumi Hirohata of York was part of the team that led the successful bid, and will be using the instrument to make multiple-process spintronic devices that will essentially be a full spintronic computer on a single chip. For more details, contact Atsufumi Hirohata at ah566@ohm.york.ac.ukYork Academics Contribute to Prize-Winning Microelectronics Project
November 2010: At the recent National Microelectronics Institute awards dinner, the UK e-Science pilot project Meeting the Design Challenges of Nano-CMOS Electronics and Gold Standard Simulations Ltd (GSS), a spin-out company from the project, were awarded the prestigious R & D Achievement Award recognising the importance of the project to UK industry. The project addresses the challenges facing the semiconductor industry caused by the decreasing dimensions of CMOS transistors, and the resultant variability in performance of individual devices. Coping with this variability has been identified by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) as one of the major challenges facing the semiconductor industry.
As part of this project, Professor Andy Tyrrell and members of the Intelligent Systems Group in the Department of Electronics at York developed a technology modelling framework, called MOTIVATED, which uses novel biologically inspired algorithms in conjunction with statistical transistor simulations to automatically optimise standard cell libraries for performance (e.g. minimising delay and power consumption) and also to achieve tolerance to the effects of intrinsic variability. For more details, contact James Walker at jaw500@ohm.york.ac.ukProfessor Andy Marvin elevated to Fellow of the IEEE
November 2010: In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of metrology techniques for electromagnetic compatibility, Professor Andy Marvin has been honoured by the IEEE Board of Directors and elevated to the grade of Fellow of the IEEE. Amongst his other appointments Professor Marvin has served as associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility, vice-chairman of the IEEE Standard 299 (shielding effectiveness measurement) working group, and as vice-chair of faculty for the IEEE EMC Society Global EMC University.
IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honour and an important career achievement. 321 individuals have been elevated to IEEE Fellow for 2011. For more details, contact Andy Marvin at acm4@ohm.york.ac.ukYork-Zhejiang Summer School on Cognitive Communications takes place in Zhejiang
October 2010: Academics from York, including David Grace, Paul Mitchell and Tim Clarke, have given lectures in a summer school on cognitive communications held at Zhejiang University in China. Their visit was supported by a grant of £12000 from Research Councils UK. This joint University of York - Zhejiang University initiative forms part of a strengthening collaboration between the two institutions in the field of cognitive communications, facilitated by their membership of the WUN Cognitive Communications Consortium (www.wun-cogcom.org), a grouping of over 45 member organisations. The School will bring together 100 researchers, mainly from UK and China, with the aim of sharing knowledge, and deepening technical and cultural links. For more details, contact David Grace at dg6@ohm.york.ac.uk
Department of Electronics at York to Host the Europe EMC 2011 Conference
October 2010: Europe's leading EMC conference will be coming to York in 2011, after its successful running in previous years in Wroclaw, Athens, Paris, Brugge, Eindhoven, Barcelona and Rome. The conference provides an international forum for the exchange of technical information, as well as workshops, tutorials, and experimental and practical demonstrations in the field of electromagnetic compatibility. York has a long-standing reputation for excellence in this field, and an active research group led by Professor Andy Marvin. For more details, contact Andy Marvin at acm4@ohm.york.ac.uk
York Electronics is Number One in the Sunday Times Subject League Table
September 2010: The Sunday Times University Guide 2011, published on the 12 September, puts the Department of Electronics at York first in its subject league table for Electronic and Electrical Engineering. The Department again scored very highly in the National Student Survey, and when combined with other measures of quality including teaching quality, research quality, student/staff ratio, employment statistics and peer assessment, this yielded our top ranking. For more details, contact John Robinson at jar11@ohm.york.ac.uk
York Academics Contribute to Digital Audio Effects Conference
September 2010: Members of the Department's Audiolab research recently attended the 13th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx10). The conference was hosted by The Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM) at Graz in Austria. Aglaia Foteinou presented work undertaken by her and Damian Murphy, along with Anthony Masinton of the Department of Archaeology, into computer-generated auralisations of historic spaces. Jez Wells described a new approach to selectively removing amplitude and frequency change in the Fourier domain and demonstrated how this could improve cross-synthesis of audio signals. Next year's conference will be held at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in Paris and in 2012 it will be hosted by the AudioLab, here at York.
For more details, contact Jez Wells at jjw100@ohm.york.ac.ukIntelligent Systems Research Group Wins £1.1 Million Research Grant
July 2010: As integrated circuits use smaller and smaller transistors to pack more and more functionality into the same silicon area, the behaviour of the individual circuit elements becomes less predictable; and yet traditional electronic design techniques assume that circuit elements behave in an exactly predictable and consistent way. Developing new design techniques that can accommodate the unpredictable behaviour of the smallest transistors is one of the major challenges facing the design of the next generation of integrated circuits.
Prof. Tyrrell and his team are using biologically-inspired techniques to approach this problem for analogue and digital field programmable gate arrays, producing circuits that can still operate successfully even when the behaviour of individual elements within the circuits cannot be exactly predicted. The project is called PAnDa (Programmable Analogue and Digital Array) and will start in October. For more details, contact Andy Tyrrell at amt2@ohm.york.ac.ukYork Appoints Honorary Visiting Professor in Radio Technology
July 2010: The appointment of Prof Honggang Zhang of Zhejiang University, China as an Honorary Visiting Professor to the University of York has recently been confirmed by the University's Senate. Prof Zhang has a worldwide reputation in cognitive radio, green communications and Ultra-WideBand (UWB) systems, including being the Vice Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Cognitive Networks, making his appointment of direct relevance to the Communications Research Group in the Department of Electronics. His 5-year appointment will commence formally on 1st August 2010.
Prof Zhang is also Co-Director of the York-Zhejiang Lab on Cognitive Radio and Green Communications, which was established by both universities in April. His first visit to York is planned to take place in September, where he will attend the ISWCS 2010 conference and the WUN CogCom workshop and meeting. For more details, contact David Grace at dg6@ohm.york.ac.ukTimes League Tables Published: Department Rises Two Places to Seventh in the UK
May 2010: In the latest annual Times Good University Guide, the department's ranking improved to seventh place in the country overall. The University of York is ranked ninth in the UK, also an improvement of two places since last year, regaining its position in the top ten. The results reflect the excellence of our teaching in particular: in terms of our student's opinion of our courses, Electronics students at York are the most satisfied in the UK with their courses and teaching.
The full leagues tables are available on-line at Times Electronics League Tables (note that a registration is required to view this site).
York helps to Organise the Audio Engineeing Society's London Convention.
May 2010: Staff and students from the Audio Lab in the Department of Electronics will make their presence felt at the forthcoming AES convention in London later this month. There will be five papers presented relating to Audio Lab research and representing collaborations with international colleagues from Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland; University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal; and the Universities of Jaén, Linares, San Antonio's Catholic University of Murcia, and the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia, all in Spain.
In addition Damian Murphy from York has been on the committee co-chairing the workshop and tutorial sessions with one of the Audio Lab's ex-PhD students, Dr Michael Kelly, now working for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Matt Speed, Audio Lab PhD student and chair of the York AES Student Section has also been working as part of the convention committee, organising the student-focused events that form an important part of these regular international conventions. In addition, York AES Student members will be working at the show, providing technical support in the paper and workshop/tutorial sessions. Dr Murphy said, "This is the first time the annual European AES convention has been held in the UK in 23 years and it is really important that the Department of Electronics has a strong representation so that we can let the audio engineering world know of the research going on here in York in the Audio Lab, and about the successful Music Technology courses we run that result in our graduates becoming the next generation of audio engineers". More details available at http://www.aes.org/events/128/, or contact Damian Murphy at dtm3@ohm.york.ac.ukYork Academic Judges Regional Young Enterprise Award
May 2010: The finals of the Company Programme, one of the most prestigious business competitions in Yorkshire, were held in May this year in Harrogate. To take part in this competition, teams of schoolchildren must set up and run companies for a year, and prizes are awarded for marketing, customer service, accounts and management. The overall winner was Bee-Dazzled, from Harrogate High School, who made and sold beeswax candles.
The chairman of the judging panel was Tony Ward, who leads the management and education research group in the Department of Electronics. Tony has a particular research interest in encouraging entrepreneurship in students. For more details, contact Tony Ward at aew6@ohm.york.ac.ukSeventh IEEE Symposium on Wireless Communications Systems to be Held in York
April 2010: This year, York has been chosen as the venue for the IEEE Symposium on Wireless Communications Systems and the Department of Electronics will be acting as the host institution, welcoming visitors from around the world. The symposium attracts researchers from all areas of wireless communications, and is being co-chaired by Rodrigo de Lamere and Paul Mitchell, both members of the Communications Research Group at York.
For more details, contact iswcs2010@elec.york.ac.ukInternational Conference on Evolvable Systems to be Held in York in September
April 2010: Also being held in York later this year, the ninth International Conference on Evolvable Systems (ICES 2010) is being hosted by members of the Intelligent Systems Research Group, with Gianluca Tempesti acting as general chair. ICES is the leading conference in the field of evolvable hardware and systems, and brings together researchers investigating the use of biologically-inspired concepts in hardware design. This is a rapidly-expanding research field, and one in which York has developed world-leading expertise.
For more details, contact Gianluca Tempesti at gt512@ohm.york.ac.ukMajor Exhibition at the National Science Museum Promoted by Professor El-Gomati
February 2010: Professor Mohamed El-Gomati has been quoted widely by local, national and international media (including the BBC, The Times newspaper and Alarabiya) promoting a newly launched exhibition at the Science Museum in South Kensington, London. The "1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World" exhibition traces the forgotten story of a thousand years of science from the Muslim world, from the 7th century onwards. The free exhibition runs from the 21 January to 25 April 2010, and looks at the social, scientific and technical achievements credited to the Muslim world, whilst celebrating the shared scientific heritage of other cultures. Featuring a diverse range of exhibits, interactive displays and dramatisation, the exhibition shows how many modern inventions, spanning fields such as engineering, medicine and design, can trace their roots back to Muslim civilisation.
1001 Inventions was created by the academic Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC), of which Professor El-Gomati is a trustee and deputy Chair, with support and funding from the Jameel Foundation. For more details, contact Mohamed El-Gomati at me1@ohm.york.ac.ukGrant Approved for Next Generation Mobile Networks Project
December 2009: This month the European Commission has formally signed the grant agreement for a major new research project: BuNGee - Beyond Next Generation mobile broadband, in which York is a partner. The vision of the project is to develop a new architecture for broadband wireless networks in the next generation and beyond, capable of supplying an order of magnitude greater capacity density than current fourth generation proposals, approaching 1 Gbit/s/km2. The proposed architecture is based on a hierarchical structure using advanced wireless backhaul systems, using new high-gain antennas along with novel MIMO and virtual MIMO techniques. The project is led by Alvarion, and includes four other companies and two other universities from seven countries. For more details, contact Alister Burr at agb1@ohm.york.ac.uk
Microbeam Analysis Society Awards Cosslett Award to Professor Mohamed El-Gomati
November 2009: The Microbeam Analysis Society has awarded Professor Mohamed El-Gomati the prestigious Cosslett Award for the best invited paper for his work on measurement and calculations of secondary, backscattered and low energy loss electrons in scanning electron microscopes, which led to a new theory in secondary electron emission. In receiving the award, Mohamed said "this award is in recognition of many colleagues and students who worked with me over the years, and also to the craftsmanship of our technical staff at York; without their professionalism and dedication I would not have been able to carry out these studies." For more details, contact Mohamed El-Gomati at me1@ohm.york.ac.uk
Unique Work on Insect Noise is Featured on National Radio
October 2009: Dr David Chesmore appeared on BBC Radio 4's Nature Programme on 6 October. The programme, entitled "Insect Soundings", explored the ways in which insects make sounds, and some unusual applications of insect acoustics including insect-inspired music and the detection of alien invasive insect larvae in imported timber goods and trees. David discussed aspects of sound production and his work on alien invasive insect detection.
His work was also recently discussed at a European COST (Co-Operation in the field of Scientific and Technical research) meeting on "Hot Topics in Soundscapes", where he gave an invited presentation on his work in insect acoustics. COST action TD0804 on "Soundscapes of European Cities and Landscapes" aims to bring together a wide range of disciplines to advance soundscape concepts in urban environments. For more details, contact David Chesmore at edc1@ohm.york.ac.ukAndy Marvin elected to the IEEE EMC Board of Directors
October 2009: Professor Andy Marvin has been elected to serve a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society, the world's largest society dedicated to the development and distribution of information, tools and techniques for reducing electromagnetic interference. Andy was elected by the worldwide membership of over 4000 engineers in the IEEE EMC Society. For more details, contact Andy Marvin at acm4@ohm.york.ac.uk
York Students' Success at 2009 SET Awards
September 2009: Richard Smith and Jonathan Andrews of the Department of Electronics won the Leadership Forum Award for the Best Electronic Engineering Student(s) at the 2009 SET Awards (Science, Engineering and Technology Student of the Year) held at the InterContinental Hotel, London on 24 September. The SET Awards are based principally on performance in final year projects. In their projects supervised by Dr Steve Smith, Richard and Jonathan designed and built systems that take photographs of museum visitors then meld them automatically into exhibits around the museum to provide a personalised and engaging experience.
Prof John Robinson, Head of Department, on hand to see Richard and Jonathan take the award, commented "The SET Awards showcase the talent, enthusiasm and achievement of science and engineering students from all over the UK. The very best of these win the awards, so we are extremely proud of Richard and Jonathan's success."York Electronics Department Retains #1 Position for Student Satisfaction
September 2009: The Department of Electronics at York has topped the table in the National Student Survey for the second year running. The Sunday Times' summary scores, published in the University Guide 2010 supplement on 12 September put York on 87.4% - the highest score for Electronic and Electrical Engineering in the UK. The full results are available on the HEFCE Teaching Quality website.
York Minster to Echo to the Sound of Heritage
September 2009: On the 7th October 2009, the dramatic setting of York Minster will host a unique exploration of the ways in which audio technology can enhance the appreciation of heritage venues. The concert is the culmination of the I Hear Too Research Cluster, funded by the Science and Heritage programme sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
The initiative involved researchers, artists and scientists, as well as partners from industry, museums and heritage venues, working together to explore the role that acoustics, audio, music and sound-art have in our understanding and experience of heritage. The concert will feature seven specially-commissioned music, performance and sound-art installation works in various locations in the Minster.
The I Hear Too project is led by Damian Murphy from the University of York; more details about their activities can be found at http://iheartoo.blogspot.com/. For more details, contact Jude Brereton at jb64@ohm.york.ac.uk.
Tony Ward Re-elected President of EAEEIE
August 2009: Tony Ward has been reappointed for a second 3-year term as President of the European Association for Education in Electrical and Information Engineering. In its 21st year the EAEEIE is the oldest association in Europe dedicated to the enhancement of teaching and learning in Higher Education, and now has members in almost every European Country. The EAEEIE holds an annual conference, presided over by the Association's President, which this year was held in Valencia, Spain. The 2010 Conference will be in Lithuania.
The Association has successfully bid for and managed EU Thematic Network projects continuously for the past 10 years. The latest project, code named ELLEIEC (Enhancing Lifelong Learning within the Electrical and Information Engineering Community) will establish a European Virtual Centre for Enterprise competence development. The Centre is novel in that it simultaneously develops language skills as well as the technicalities of the bite-sized enterprise competence learners choose to study. For more details, contact Tony Ward at aew6@ohm.york.ac.uk.
Sir Robin Saxby and Prof. Kel Fidler Awarded Honorary Degrees by University of York
July 2009: At the 2009 graduation ceremony, the University of York awarded honorary degrees to Sir Robin Saxby and Professor Kel Fidler. Sir Robin Saxby (shown here with final-year student Max Hastings playing a musical instrument based on the Wiimote remote control interface) was for many years the CEO of ARM Holdings Ltd, the market-leader in the design embedded processors, with products found in just about every mobile phone in the world, as well as cars, digital cameras, game consoles and many other consumer electronic devices. He is an ex-President of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), and is currently the chairman of the media production company Arolla Partners. Kel Fidler was an ex-head of department of the Electronics Department at York, and is current chairman of the Engineering Council UK, the regulatory authority for Chartered Engineering in the UK, and which also inspects universities and accredits degrees. Both have had very distinguished careers in engineering, and we're looking forward to their greater involvement in our teaching and research over the coming years.
Prof. David Howard Contributes to a New Book on Musicology
July 2009: Publishers Ashgate have recently announced "Modern Methods of Musicology", a review of the state-of-the-art in applying computing technology to the study of music. David Howard has contributed the chapter on "The Computer and the Singing Voice". Prof. Howard is a leading expert in the development of the singing voice, and the use of technology both to aid the development of individual singer's techniques, and to analyse the characteristics of the voice as an instrument. For more details, contact Prof. David Howard at dhm8ohm.york.ac.uk
Music Technology Students Record National Choral Composition Competition
June 2009: Music Technology Students from the Department of Electronics brought their recording skills to a national competition recently held at the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM), run in association with BBC Radio 3 and the Tallis Scholars. Second Year students Philip Day, Adam Lister and Dean O'Brien seized the opportunity to get some top class performances for their Recording Studio Techniques coursework. They planned the recording session to ensure these one-off performances were captured with the highest possible quality. There was additional pressure in that the winning composition had to be recorded, edited and posted on the NCEM's website as an mp3 within an hour of the result being announced! Both the organisers of the event at the NCEM and their tutor, Dr Damian Murphy, were very impressed with their professionalism and their ability to get the job done under considerable pressure and to a very high standard.
The results are available to listen to at the NCEM's website:www.ncem.co.uk. For more details, contact Damian Murphy at dtm3@ohm.york.ac.uk.
2010 Times League Tables Published: Department in the Top Ten in the UK
June 2009: On June 3rd, the Times newspaper published its influential Good Universities Guide for 2010. The Department of Electronics at York was rated 9th out of the 64 Electrical and Electronic Departments considered in the survey,confirming the place of York as one of the top ten departments in the UK. (Last month, the Guardian newspaper rated York as 8th in the country). Once again, the University of York itself was rated 11th in the country, confirming our rating as one of the top 100 universities in the world.
Electronic Students' Business Plan a Finalist in Global Competition
May 2009: Waverun, an innovative business service enabling bars to promote special offers to students on a night out in York using SMS text messaging, has won through to the finals of the Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship challenge run by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The team comprises electronics students David Furey and Michael Slater, along with two other colleagues from the University of York: Joseph Pearce and James Hambleton. The service is already being used by about 10% of the students at York. Sadly, due to the current influenza pandemic, the finals in Hong Kong have been postponed for a year. For more details, contact David Furey at df513@york.ac.uk.
York Academics Play Key Role in Success of IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation
May 2009: Prof Andy Tyrrell and other members of the Intelligent Systems research group from the Department of Electronics, played key roles in the 11th IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation held between the 18th and 21st May 2009 in Trondheim, Norway.
This is the largest annual IEEE event in the area of evolutionary computation. This year CEC attracted 398 registrants with 300 oral presentations, 5 poster sessions, 12 tutorials given by world leaders, and three keynotes. Andy Tyrrell was the conference general chair, while Prof Jon Timmis and Steve Smith had key roles on the organising committee. Gianluca Tempesti, David Halliday, Christina Santini and Andy Greensted, all from York, were also heavily involved in running the conference. Andy comments: "CEC 2009 provided a stimulating forum for scientists, engineers, educators, and students from all over the world to disseminate the latest research findings and exchange information on emerging areas of research in the field." York's latest contributions in evolutionary hardware were reported at the conference, as previewed in IEEE Spectrum Online: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/may09/9108. For more details, contact Andy Tyrrell at amt2@ohm.york.ac.uk.
2010 Guardian League Tables Published: Department in the Top Ten in the UK
May 2009: On May 12th, the Guardian newspaper published its annual guide to universities in the UK, including league tables for each subject. The Department of Electronics at York was rated 8th out of the 61 departments listed under "Engineering: Electronic and Electrical". The University of York itself was rated 11th in the country, confirming our rating as one of the top 100 universities in the world.
Prof. Mohamed El-Gomati wins Muslim News award for Excellence
April 2009: Professor Mohamed El-Gomati of the Physical Layer group at York was recently presented with the 2009 Fazlur Rahman Khan award for Excellence in Engineering, Science and Technology at the ninth annual Muslim News awards. The award recognises Prof El-Gomati's contribution to the field of electron microscopy, including the world's first parallel electron energy analyser, his role as referee for the British Government and UNESCO, his more than 180 technical papers, patents and books, and his work as deputy-chairman of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation. For more details, contact Mohamed El-Gomati at me1@ohm.york.ac.uk
'Real Virtuality' helmet featured at EPSRC Pioneers Exhibition
March 2009: Professor David Howard is taking part in Pioneers-09 at Olympia, London on Wednesday 4th March, an exhibition organised by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to showcase pioneering research. Attendees are expected to include members of government, UK research councils, academic colleagues and the general public. David is principal investigator on a grant "... towards real virtuality", working with Jude Brereton at York, and with co-investigators Professor Alan Chalmers and Mr Christopher Moir from the University of Warwick as well as colleagues from the Universities of Bangor, Bradford and Brighton.
The key objective is to provide a fully immersive experience to users, such that they do not know whether it is real or not; hence the title "... towards real virtuality". The initial mock-up is the Virtual Cocoon (pictured) which will stimulate hearing, vision, taste and smell and is complemented by a glove for touch. Applications include fully experiencing what it was like to live in the past, training for dangerous situations, remote medicine, travel-free tourism, travel-free meetings, sport and other activity training and new ways of learning subjects such as history, languages and geography. For more details, contact Prof David Howard at dmh8@ohm.york.ac.uk
York Academic Leads Development of Virtual Centre for Enterprise Education
February 2009: The University of York is very pleased to be a leading part of a new £600,000 thematic network ELLEIEC (Enhancing Lifelong Learning for the Electrical and Information Engineering Community) funded by the European Commission for a three-year period until September 2011. ELLEIEC aims to establish a virtual centre for the development of enterprise skills and competencies, and investigate the impact of Lifelong Learning on the employability of graduates. Tony Ward of the Department of Electronics is leading the work package on the development of the virtual centre, which will provide bite-sized learning in enterprise with the novel option of learning in a language other than the learner's native tongue: each learner will have a mentor who will coach them in both their understanding of the module content and in their ability to communicate in their chosen language. The University will bring experience of enterprise education from the White Rose Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in Enterprise to the project as well as experience in linking student skills development needs with training courses using the Skillsforge software tool. For more details, contact Tony Ward at aew6@ohm.york.ac.uk
Developing the Next Generation of Radars
February 2009: The next generation of radar systems are being designed to provide substantially better performance for the detection and tracking of targets. These advances will be made possible by using the extra degrees of freedom provided by multi-input multi-output (MIMO) antenna technology. A project starting at York will investigate highly innovative ways of designing space-time adaptive processing (STAP) algorithms for MIMO radar systems. These algorithms will be based on world-leading reduced-rank signal processing techniques developed in the Communications Research Group in the team led by Dr. Rodrigo de Lamare. The project is supported by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD). For more details, contact Rodrigo de Lamare at rcdl500@ohm.york.ac.uk
Industrial Sponsor for the new MSc in Digital Signal Processing
January 2009: In October this year, a new one-year full-time taught MSc programme in Digital Signal Processing (DSP) is starting at York. This programme will teach the theoretical foundations of DSP methods and develop skills in practical implementation techniques such as FPGA design. The programme uses the expertise of all the research groups in the Department of Electronics to cover state-of-the-art applications of DSP techniques to the fields of communications, instrumentation, bio-engineering, medical sensing, imaging and multimedia, amongst others. The MSc in DSP is designed for graduates in mathematics, engineering, physics or computer science, and will provide a good route to a career in any of the varied industries that use DSP technology for students with any of these backgrounds.
The programme has just attracted industrial sponsorship from RF Engines Ltd (RFEL) who have established two special awards for the best students in the programme: "For Excellence in Theoretical Signal Processing" and "For Excellence in Signal Processing Design". One University Masters Studentship is also available for this programme. For more details, visit the MSc in Digital Signal Processing web-pages
Launch of New Research Consortium in Cognitive Communications
January 2009 The Department of Electronics hosted the first meeting of the Worldwide Universities Network Cognitive Communications Consortium on the 8th and 9th of January 2009. Over thirty delegates from sixteen academic and industrial partners from around the world came together to discuss collaboration on future research that aims to apply cognition techniques to communications systems and networks. The multi-disciplinary activity incorporates the fields of wireless communications, distributed artificial intelligence, applied electromagnetics and implementation. At York, the Communications, Intelligent Systems, and Physical Layer research groups are all involved. The Consortium is led by Dr David Grace from the Communications Research Group at York, with logistical and financial support coming from the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), a grouping of 18 universities worldwide that has been established to help foster research collaboration. The next meeting is scheduled for June, in Hannover, Germany. For more details, contact David Grace at dg6@ohm.york.ac.uk
Research Assessment Exercise Confirms World-Leading Research Quality at York
December 2008: The Department of Electronics shared in the University of York's success in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). A majority of the research submitted by the department was judged world-leading or internationally excellent by the Electrical and Electronic Engineering RAE panel. Overall, the University of York was ranked 8th in the UK for research quality. For more details, contact John Robinson at jar11@ohm.york.ac.uk
Muslim Heritage Seminar Co-Chaired by Prof El-Gomati from Electronics Department
December 2008: Professor El-Gomati was the co-chair of a one-day symposium held at the Church House, Westminster, sponsored by the Schools Minister, the Rt Hon Jim Knight. The symposium follows the successful "1001 inventions" exhibition at the House of Commons in October this year, organised by the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC) of which Professor El-Gomati is a trustee and deputy Chair. The exhibition has been touring major UK cities for the last 18 months as part of a community cohesion project. FSTC is a non-political non-religious voluntary organisation which has been working with schools and local communities in the UK promoting dialogue amongst the various communities by revisiting inventions that we still use today. The exhibition has recently received a major sponsorship for its extension and to allow it to tour the USA, Europe and the Middle East. Amongst the publication of FSTC is the award winning web site, www.muslimheritage.com, of which Professor El-Gomati was the Chief Editor from 2005 to 2007. For more details, contact Mohamed El-Gomati at me1@ohm.york.ac.uk
York Provides Expertise for New European Project on Future Aerospace Systems
December 2008: The increasing use of "fly-by-wire" systems in aircraft, together with the use of advanced electronic devices by passengers has led to increasing concerns about the safety of electronic flight control systems. A 28 million euro research project has recently started to help ensure reliable operation of flight-critical systems. York is the biggest University partner in the project, with a budget of over 1 million euros to support our work. The project aims to produce tools to enable aircraft designers to consider the effects of electronic interference and lightning at the design stage, reducing the time required for certifying a new aircraft for flight. York will provide expertise in modelling the electromagnetic interaction between systems in complex systems, and develop training programs for aircraft designers. For more details, contact Andy Marvin at acm4@ohm.york.ac.uk
Novel Antenna Developed at York for Railway Internet Access
November 2008: A major milestone was passed when a new lens antenna developed at York was shown working with satellite TV at the end of November 2008. The mechanical tracking system, also developed in the Department of Electronics, allows the antenna to communicate simultaneously with two satellites. It is intended for use on trains where there is limited headroom, and conventional dish antennas cannot be used. For more details, contact John Thornton at jt21@ohm.york.ac.uk
Prize-Winning Video Game uses Advanced Image Compression Technology from York
November 2008: The new N-Gage game "ONE" from Nokia and Digital Legends has been awarded the Pocket Gamer Gold Award. The game delivers "stunning, cleverly handled 3D visuals" including "detailed urban environment backgrounds" within a very small memory footprint. This compactness is achieved by using APT, the advanced image compression method developed by Professor John Robinson here at York. The method was published in IEEE Transactions on Image Processing in August 2006, and John's implementation of APT is freely available for people to use and extend. APT has been used in medical image coding, high definition video systems and image archives. John is delighted it is now appearing in mobile games, but is completely hopeless at ONE. For more details, contact John Robinson at jar11@ohm.york.ac.uk
Nobel Laureate Prof Peter Gruenberg gives the 2008 Cantor Lecture
October 2008: Prof Peter Gruenberg gave the Cantor Lecture on Wednesday 19 October. Organised this year by the Department of Electronics, the Cantor Lecture is a high-profile event in nanoscience. Prof Gruenberg was joint winner of the 2007 Nobel prize in Physics for his discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR). His lecture, titled "A short history of the electron: from amber to GMR", covered the fundamentals of electronics, from the 1600s to the present, with a special emphasis on electronic spin.
York Academic wins Runner-Up Prize in Business Competition
October 2008: Strokes are the biggest single cause of disability in the developed world, and helping patients recover is a key focus of Dr Adar Pelah's research, Yorkshire Enterprise Fellow and Reader in the Department of Electronics. His team has developed a unique machine 'StroMoHab' that can accelerate the rate of recovery of stroke victims by immersing them in a virtual world, allowing them to regain their confidence in movement without risk of injury. Dr Pelah's project was runner-up in the 2007/08 Research Councils' Business Plan Competition, winning £10,000 for further business development. For more details, contact Adar Pelah at ap23@ohm.york.ac.uk
York Student wins Audio Engineering Society Award
October 2008: It was recently announced that Ally Moore, a PhD student at York, has won the AES 125th Convention Student Technical Papers Award. Ally's paper, "An Initial Validation of Individualised Crosstalk Cancellation Filters for Binaural Perceptual Experiments" was written as part of his PhD project, being undertaken with the Audio Lab at York (part of the Intelligent Systems research group). The work is sponsored by France Telecom.
Ally received the award after delivering his paper at the AES Convention in San Francisco. For more details, contact Ally's supervisor Tony Tew on ait1@ohm.york.ac.uk
Electronics Students Rate York's Courses as the Best in the UK
September 2008: The results of the annual National Student Survey were announced this month. This annual nationwide survey asks graduating students throughout the UK to rate their degree course in 22 different categories, including the quality of the lecturing, how useful students have found the feedback on their work, levels of support provided by the department, and how well the course has supported their personal development. The average ratings given by York students were the highest of any university in the majority of the 22 questions including "overall satisfaction", and the highest overall.
This outstanding performance has been recognised by the Sunday Times newspaper who have awarded York first place in their results table: Sunday Times NSS Results (PDF).
Full results are available on the Unistats Website.
New MSc in Digital Systems Engineering
September 2008: The MSc in Digital Systems Engineering is a one-year full-time taught programme, starting in October 2009, that makes extensive use of the knowledge and expertise from our well established Intelligent Systems Research Group.
It is intended to provide students with a good theoretical background and solid hands-on experience of the techniques used in modern digital systems design. Using FPGAs as a hardware platform and VHDL as a design language.
The World's Only High-performance, Compact, Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscope developed at York
August 2008: Researchers at the University of York, led by Professor Mohamed El-Gomati, have developed the electron cathode for the world's only high-performance portable, personal scanning electron microscope. Professor El-Gomati is a world leader in the design of novel electron cathodes. The new microscope is being marketed as the MySEM by Novelx, and is being launched this month at the Microscopy and Microanalysis Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Professor El-Gomati is a guest speaker. This microscope will dramatically cut the costs of owning an electron microscope, and allow many more researchers unlimited access to their own microscope for the first time.
Challenging Talented Pupils to Build an iPod Amplifier
July 2008: Professor David Howard, an EPSRC Media Fellow working in the field of music technology, recently led a very successful workshop day for talented year 8-10 pupils from Yorkshire schools in partnership with the Regional Partnership for Gifted and Talented pupils. 28 students from Yorkshire schools spent a day in the department, talking to current undergraduates and postgraduate students, touring our facilities, and then built their own iPod amplifier with the help of the support staff from the Department of Electronics. Feedback from the pupils was excellent, and we hope to run more events like this in future, to help convey how interesting and exciting electronics can be.
EPSRC awards £400,000 for New Research on Self-healing Cellular Architectures
July 2008: Professor Andy Tyrrell, Dr. Gianluca Tempesti and Dr. Jon Timmis have been awarded £400,000 to carry out novel research on biologically-motivated approaches for designing highly reliable electronic systems. The research will build upon the Intelligent Systems research group's current leading position in biologically-inspired fault tolerance and artificial immune systems to develop VLSI systems with self-diagnostic and self-healing properties. This research will pave the way for the biologically-inspired design of reliable electronic systems across a wide range of applications; from communication, through computing and control, to systems operating in hostile environments. This research will be carried out in collaboration with the University of the West of England and members of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory.
Dr. Jon Timmis introduces Artificial Immune Systems to Performance Evaluation Professionals
June 2008: Dr. Jon Timmis was invited to present a tutorial on Artificial Immune Systems at the 2008 IEEE International Symposium on Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems, a leading international conference for professionals involved in performance evaluation of computer and telecommunication systems. The tutorial covered aspects of modelling, tools and methodologies, and engineering actual artificial immune systems. This is the first time that a tutorial on bio-inspired engineering has been presented at this symposium, and reflects a growing interest in the role of biologically-motivated approaches across the spectrum of engineering applications.
Dr. Chesmore speaks at the UN Conference on Biological Diversity
May 2008: Dr David Chesmore gave an invited talk at the United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity, making him probably the only electronic engineer to speak at the event. His work focuses on automatic methods to detect invasive insect species by analysing the sounds they make - providing valuable information used to track and monitor insect pests and monitor the effects of climate change on insect distributions. The method is much more efficient than traditional labour-intensive methods involving manual identification, and can provide continual monitoring of any location, day and night.
PLAZZMID project receives £816,661 grant from EPSRC
April 2008: Tim Clarke, together with researchers from the Departments of Biology and Computer Science, has been awarded £816,661 for PLAZZMID: a novel flexible and extensible computational framework and toolset inspired by sophisticated models of complex biological evolutionary processes that occur in bacteria and in bees. The tools will be able to be used both to build and analyse testable models of biological evolutionary processes, and to build and analyse powerful novel computational metaphors and algorithms based on these more sophisticated biological models. Within the research project, the tools will be used in a series of theoretical biological experiments on the relationship between genome structure and evolvability, and used to evolve computational systems exhibiting complex homeostatic control in a changing environment.
EPSRC funds new research on Artificial Biochemical Networks with £648,286 grant
March 2008: The Intelligent Systems Group has been awarded £648,286 for 5 years funding to research novel computational architectures motivated by the structure and organisation of biochemical networks. Project number EP/F060041/1. Biochemical networks are one of the most complex sets of structures found in biological systems. These structures are fundamental to the development, function and evolution of biological organisms, and are the main factor underlying the complexity seen within higher organisms. This work will promote the development and understanding of artificial biochemical network models and show how how they may be applied to complex real world computational tasks.
EPSRC funds new Artificial Ribosome research with £170,325 grant
March 2008: The Intelligent Systems Group has been awarded £170,325 for 3 years funding. Project number EP/F055951/1. We intend to design a nanoscale chemical factory in which the machines, like the products, are molecules. The factory will not only build molecules but will be capable of evolving them to have desirable properties. The products will be linear molecules produced by linking together smaller building blocks in a defined sequence - at each stage the molecular machinery will be capable of choosing the correct building block from a range of possibilities. The system will be capable of synthesizing a library of molecules with different sequences and selecting 'successful' molecules for their fitness to perform a specified task. We will also develop designs for more powerful systems in which the molecular machinery responsible for chemical synthesis has internal computing power and can direct its own operation.
Professor David Howard on the BBC
January 2008: Professor David Howard, who specialises in the field of Music Technology, presents a one hour television programme on 'The Voice' this Sunday. David explores what humans can do with their voice, how the voice works and why replicating it is such a challenge. As well as working with singers, there are contributions by Rory Bremner, Jeremy Hardy.
Dr. Jon Timmis appointed Visiting Professor at Helsinki University
Dr Jon Timmis has been appointed a Visiting Professor at the Helsinki University of Technology (HUT). This position will strengthen on-going collaborations in the area of immune-inspired engineering between Dr Timmis and the Department of Electrical Engineering at Helsinki University of Technology.