Orchid Project

The ORCHID project held its third Industry Day on July 24th 2014 at the British Computer Society in London. The event was attended by a mix of ORCHID researchers and external attendees from industry (BAE Systems, QinetiQ, IBM, Envitia, Blue Bear, Selex, British Gas, Toshiba, Kiwi Power, Secure Meters), local and national government (Avon Fire & Rescue Service, Dstl, DECC), and charity (Rescue Global). This resulted in some lively interaction and discussion around presentations of ORCHID application case studies, posters & technology demonstrations, and industry-led discussion themes in the areas of flexible UAV autonomy, rescue response cordination, and smart energy systems in the home. As a result of this a number of follow-up meetings and activities are now being pursued to explore opportunities for collaboration and technology transfer.
   

The multi-UAV controller developed by ORCHID researchers was demonstrated to David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, and Don Nutbeam, Vice Chancellor of the University of Southampton. The demo was  part of the Autonomy and Advanced Systems showcase event at the University of Southampton where key representatives from industry were invited to get a flavour of the latest research outputs of the University and discuss potential tie-ups with research groups.

Dr Gopal Ramchurn gave an energy webinar on human-agent collective in the smart grid on 10 December 2013.

The theme was Nature’s fury. Students had to program Lego mindstorm robots to perform tasks that replicate those that arise in disaster settings. Pupils from around Hampshire from 9-16 were involved and were commended for their great programming and team working skills as well as project management. I gave a talk on Orchid technology for disaster response which will hopefully inspire them to become the next generation of HAC developers.

The New Forest Cicada Project hands on activities were presented at the BBC Summer of Wildlife Event in Birmingham on 14 September 2013. There were over 4,000 visitors to this event.

The British Science Festival is one of Europe’s largest celebrations of science, engineering and technology, with over 250 events, activities, exhibitions and trips taking place over a week in September. Over 5,000 school children attended this year’s Festival in Newcastle upon Tyne, where we presented the ‘Hunt a Cicada’ game and other hands on activities.

Links:

https://www.britishscienceassociation.org/british-science-festival

For two weeks in June this year, I participated in the national public engagement competition known as in “I’m a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here”. This is an X-factor style competition where primary school students get to meet and interact with scientists. Thus, in the Cadmium Zone (which I was involved in), more than 400 students from several schools asked over 17,000 questions, with over 9000 answers being given. I had the highest number of page views (over 1000 in two weeks!) and answered lots of questions on robots, apps, and technology (all relevant to ORCHID) but also questions such as ‘Will AI become complex enough to become self aware?’, ‘why doesn’t the world fall down?’, ‘why can’t dogs and cats breed?’ and ‘why is mercury poisonous?’. I and other scientists participated in live half-hour sessions and offline over a number of days. Every day of the final week, there were the dreaded evictions… which I managed to avoid till the last day! I eventually came second in my zone and thoroughly enjoyed the experience! — Gopal Ramchurn.

Links:

https://imascientist.org.uk

https://cadmiumj13.imascientist.org.uk/2013/06/17/will-ai-become-complex-enough-to-become-self-aware/

THe ORCHID Industry Day 2013 was held in Farnborough on 25 July. This event brought together ORCHID researchers and industry/end-user organisations such as: BAE Systems, Toshiba Research Lab, Rescue Global, Dstl, Blue Bear, UK Energy Research Centre and Hampshire County Council (Emergency response).

A seminar given by Maria Polukarov at Microsoft Research Cambridge.