CoMManDO Research Workshops 2024
The end of June saw the Computational Mechanics, Manufacturing Simulation Design and Optimisation (CoMManDO) Research Centre Workshop take place at Wrexham University. Professor in Aerospace Technology, Alison McMillan, headed up proceedings over the two days. The event saw attendees from various higher education institutions and organisations across different disciplines, including computing, art and engineering. A hybrid format enabled attendees from across the world to join proceeding, including delegates from Europe and India.
Day One: Earth Observation Community Knowledge Share (EOCKS)
Welsh university researchers have been provided with the opportunity to access satellite imagery earth observation data by Welsh Government in partnership with Planet Labs. Day one of the CoMManDO workshops brought researchers and PhD students together from across Wales with various providers in order to share knowledge of the platform and explore potential research uses / opportunities.
Environment Platform Wales
Andy Schofield, Director of Environment Platform Wales, introduced the platform and explored some of the barriers affecting those in academia when conversing with Welsh Government and vice versa. Environment Platform Wales helps to bridge the gap between researchers, evidence providers and policy makers by:
- Developing research communities in various areas including better water quality for Wales, blue carbon, reservoir management and coal tip safety
- Facilitating expert advice and evidence
- Sharing knowledge
- Enabling collaborations via a database of researchers and areas of research interests
The collaboration between Environment Platform Wales and Planet was discussed, including licence uptake, registration processes and data applications. Conversations explored shared opportunities and some current collaborations such as the current Ecological Citizen(s) research project with the Royal College of Art, Stockholm Institute York, and Wrexham University.
Experience from Natural Resources Wales
The next session was led by Dr Helena Sykes, Lead Specialist Advisor, Remote Sensing. Helena shared that Natural Resources Wales, a Welsh Government sponsored body, have used Planet for a number of years to aid flood risk management, tackling of waste crime and landfill disposal tax management.
Current case studies were shared including the National Peatland Action Programme 2020-2025 which uses the Planet earth observation data to map previously unmapped Peatland drainage systems. Other applications include tidal tasking and sheep counting!
Helena noted that the data are often required for looking at before and after events for ‘evidence’ of what has taken place and year on year seasonal change reviews which led into discussions around potential research applications.
Lunch break and a tour of campus for the visitors brought the morning proceedings to a close.
Planet: Flood Recovery Project
Professor Alison McMillan then guided attendees through the first of the afternoon sessions, exploring how best to make use of the Planet licence. A food recovery project with cross disciplinary collaboration was explored, touching on Computer Science & Engineering, Ecology, Forensics, Archaeology, Civic Mission and Art.
So why Flood Recovery as a project? Discussions included the increased frequency of flooding, the threats to life and environment and the financial impact to individuals and companies. The Planet data provides research opportunities such as flood site recovery, indication of forensic or archaeological remains and mitigation design.
The next steps to enable progression of the project were then talked through, with the group planning to ‘dip a toe in the water’ with a small project that will form the basis of a larger scale funding bid, with each disciplinary collaborator having a distinct role and contribution.
Knowledge Sharing Session
The final session of the day was for Knowledge Sharing. The session was opened with a presentation from Claire Horton, Welsh Government, who presented on the knowledge gained during her work in the pilot stage of using Planet, and the rationale around expanding the userbase to include the Welsh universities. She noted that the benefits of using Planet compared with other Earth observation data providers lay in the quality and extent of the observation satellite constellation: high resolution imagery, and high frequency of data observation.
Priority projects for Claire’s use cases included coal tip safety observation, forest observation and protection of trees, and mapping of land use. The Earth observation data provided a means to identify potentially illegal activities. The capability has also been used in support of a tree planting project in Uganda, mapping flood events, discovery of archaeological sites, and monitoring of over-grazing damage to a salt marsh.
The session then became a round table discussion forum, and a number of topics were raised. These included a discussion of sites for safe bathing. Sites that are established as bathing sites are tested for water quality, but the problem lies in establishing that a site is used for bathing. Earth observation imagery would not identify individual people, but potentially could identify the presence of multiple people bathing.
There was discussion about the detection of invasive plants such as Japanese Knotweed and Himalayan Balsam, and about the protection of raptor birds and endangered mammals such as water voles and red squirrels.
Questions were asked about how the Earth observation data could be used effectively in conservation use, given what could be seen directly, and what might need to be inferred. For example, using other expertise like tracking how objects move in water, could suggest locations for identifying litter in water after flooding. Another question was about measuring how the changes in traffic management speed limits has improved air quality. This could be identified in terms of tree health, and Earth observation data could be cross-referenced with dendrochronology measurement.
A really insightful and thought provoking day then drew to a close.
Day Two: Workshops
How to improve our paper citations and other research metrics?
The second day was launched by Professor Alison McMillan, looking at ‘doing better with research’ and how to improve research metrics.
Alison talked though:
- H indices and what they mean
- Registering for an ORCID number
- Journal choices, what ‘good’ looks like and what to avoid
- Research Excellence Framework and publications and how to support each other
- Tips when writing a paper including co-authors, citations, peer review etc…
Great sharing of best practice and a good re-focus to start the day, with the objective of supporting each other to publish more effectively for the benefit of both the individual and collective.
Y Bawen
Y BAWEN, the new Mid and North Wales initiative, is made up of the Physics department of Aberystwyth University, the Nuclear Futures institute of Bangor University, and the CoMManDO research centre of Wrexham University. Detailed as “Seeking to offer a greater breadth of cutting-edge techniques and technologies to better understand the larger problems of today and to form more robust solutions than previously plausible”, the session started with a round table exercise for attendees to talk though areas of research interests to enable scoping of potential collaborative projects.
This exercise garnered interesting conversations both online and in the room, with crossover between Art and Engineering being a substantial talking point. Attendees talked through how some people are scared/ intimidated by engineers but working with artists can help provide an easier interface, leading to greater acceptance. Connectivity is key.
MOVE-IT Project
The focus of the MOVE-IT session, led by Professor Alison McMillan, was a call to action to bid for an up-coming funding call. Research related to electric vehicles would form the basis of the bid and Alison presented various considerations to the group to start things off:
• Initial motivations
• Manufacturing and supply chains
• Research and technology issues
Post lunch, round table discussions then focused on down-selecting based on the group’s enthusiasm/interests, which sparked varied conversations with lots of potential. Possible project contributions, budgets, and methodologies were also considered alongside the operational requirements of submitting the bid.
Fellowship of Advance HE and other professional memberships, and charterships
Our new Faculty of Arts, Computing and Engineering Dean, Professor Anne Nortcliffe, brought proceedings to a close with a session on professional memberships; Anne covered Fellowship of Higher Education Academy, Membership of Professional Bodies and Chartered Status and the ‘how’ and ‘why’ and the influence on your professional standing. Providing real life supporting examples from personal experience helped bring the guidance together and led onto diverse conversations around experiences.
This was a wonderful couple of days covering great research topics and providing a worthwhile networking opportunity. Thank you to all contributors and to Professor Alison McMillan for putting it all together, we look forward to the next CoMManDO conference. In the meantime, if you’re interested in becoming a member of the CoMManDO Research Centre, please email your interest area to Alison: a.mcmillan@wrexham.ac.uk.