India Trip to United Motorsport College

Our Automotive lecturer Rex Keen, visited India from 18th October to 2nd November 2023.

Rex Keen set up two Race Car Engineer courses that ran for four days each.

The first course was ran in Mumbai at the club rooms of the Mumbai horse racing club for the first three days. The last day being practical exercises at the workshop of a race team after the three days of theory.

Rex then went to Chennai in the south east of India, where he was greeted by the Vice Chancellor and given a full tour of the facilities.

Rex delivered the Race Car Engineering course at the Hindustan Institute of Technology & Science where he was able to use their auditorium for the lectures and their very large and very well equipped Automotive workshop for the practical sessions. Rex was also able to take the students to Madras race track for half a day, as it is in close proximity to the university.

On the final day the Vice Chancellor presented Rex with an award in recognition of him delivering the first race engineering course in India. Rex was delighted to visit India and said:

 

5G-ERA Project Workshop

The Workshop took place at the OTE Academy, Athens, Greece, on 26th October 2023.

In recent years, there has been a significant advancement in wireless communication technologies. Concurrently, the field of robotics has witnessed rapid progress, particularly in the domain of autonomous mobile robots. With progress achieved in both fields, there is a trend to leverage the connectivity into more intelligent and connected robots “beyond the abilities of a single robot in an interconnected environment (such as the internet)”. The 5G-ERA project is designed to demonstrate the latest progress of 5G-Enhanced Robotic Autonomy on accelerating the transformation from the traditional Cloud Robots to 5G/6G enabled Connected Robotics. University of Bedfordshire is the scientific coordinator of the project. The team lead is Professor Renxi Qiu who is leading the development of connected robotics platforms.

 

Grant Success - Innovate UK

A team of Computer Science and Technology researchers, Dr Rohtiha Weerasinghe, Dr Mina Mortazavi, and Professor Vladan Velisavljevic, in collaboration with Bristol University, City University London, a UK company, and a university and a company from Sri Lanka, successfully gained external funding from Innovate UK for their project “Off-Grid Renewable Energy Production and Storage with Organic Rankine Cycle, Solar and Waste” (RESORCS). The total value of this award is £1.4m, of which £200k will come to the University. The project will investigate smart, economic, and efficient ways to produce and store energy in combined ways from various green sources, including solar, wind and waste incineration.

UCAS Event 2023

The UCAS event held at Bedford Campus in June 2023 was attended by over 12,000 students. It was a great opportunity to see so many potential students and tell them about our university and it's courses.

The engineering team's display was in the entrance to the demonstration marquee and was well attended. So much so we didn't stop for a coffee over the two days!. We were given the opportunity to give some talks on engineering that were also well attended. The event was professionally organised and we had plenty of helpers over the two days. Overall a great experience. Looking forward to next year.

 

Computer Science and Technology Poster Day May 2023

The School of Computer Science and Technology’s poster exhibition day held on Friday, 12th May 2023 was a highly anticipated event where our undergraduate students presented their final year works.

The venue within the STEM building was filled with a vibrant atmosphere as students from our various courses ranging from Computing to Engineering set up their posters, hence creating an engaging and visually appealing display. The exhibition attracted a diverse audience, including fellow students, faculty members, industry professionals, and external examiners. Attendees had the opportunity to explore the wide range of topics and disciplines represented in the posters and to engage in discussions with the presenting students.

Prizes were given to exceptional students. Sebastian Sokalski (Telecommunication and Network Engineering) received the first prize for the most commercially viable project about smart devices for home and buildings; Ben Allum (Computer Games Development) was given the first prize for the best academic project: investigating techniques used to create a feeling of unease in horror games; and Kieron Joy-Kimber (Computer Science) was awarded for the best poster: the use of a mobile application to improve the stock management processes in licensed venues.

Jaguar Land Rover Experience - 22^nd February 2023

Mechanical Engineering and Automotive Engineering students of (Level 5 and 6) visited Jaguar Land Rover manufacturing facility in Birmingham also known as Jaguar Land Rover Experience. This guided tour provided a unique opportunity for students to see behind the scenes of JLR car manufacturing, to see the state-of-the-art production facility itself and discover how the technology behind Jaguar and Land Rover cars has developed over the years.

This was a great opportunity to experience different aspects of a challenging but rewarding industrial environment including design, automation, manufacturing, testing and management of JIT(Just In Time) manufacturing.

28 keen and enthusiastic students took part in this one-day visit and accompanied by their lecturers, Dr Rohitha Weerasinghe and Dr Mina Mortazavi.

Aquaculture Sensor Project

Dr Tahmina Ajmal visited South African aquaculture partner, Abagold for REDIA (Developing a Resilience framework using Digital Innovations for the Aquaculture industry in South Africa - GCRF project). During the visit TriLux sensors were installed underwater at the partner’s farm for monitoring water quality parameters to develop a model for forecasting algal blooms. In addition, she also met with other stakeholders in the region which included South African National Space Agency (SANSA) and other aquaculture farms. On 14th February, she delivered a workshop for middle managers working in aquaculture sector on 'Towards a sustainable precision aquaculture in South Africa – The role of Digital Technologies'

Computer Science and Technology Extended Poster Day February 2023

On Friday, 20^th January 2023, we organised an extended Poster Day for our students of February 2022-23 cohort and for our MSc project students. This is the first time that we run such an extended event. Our Research & Innovation Service brought us delegates from Luton Borough Council, local business, including Satisnet Ltd, Manton Engineering, Ardentisys Ltd, Nomura, S-digital and AIsolve.

The event was well attended by our students, staff and externals.Students discussed their projects and demonstrated their artefacts with staff and external delegates. The projects covered wide ranges of research and development topics, such as AI enabled number plate reader and door locker; intelligent home gateway; simulation and optimization of aerodynamic effects for a racing car; infographic climate change app; IoT supported farming; security framework for SEMs, and interactive game for language learning. At the end of the event, prizes (evaluated by a panel of both internal and external members) were given to students under three categories: best poster, projects with best academic contribution, and project with the best commercial potential.

The external delegates were impressed by the quality of the projects, and they asked some students for their CV's and invited some students for interview to their companies.

Construction Course Team November 2022

The Construction Course team have seen some interesting industry engagement on the courses with a recent guest speaker session on ‘Construction Contracting’ from Andre Martins, Commercial Director at JRL Group, and a site visit to a £140M commercial project in London, hosted by one of our course alumni, Josh Peach who is the Site Manager on the project. In terms of research, the team have been successful in securing a second grant in partnership with Luton Borough Council as part of their Net Zero Innovation Programme project looking at energy consumption and efficiency in the home. The research team for this project ran a dissemination event in November for the first stage of this project to share some of the early findings.

Attendees at the event included local authority professionals, councillors, local charities, youth groups, and students from Barnfield College, Luton Sixth Form College and University of Bedfordshire.

Graduation Ceremony 15th November 2022

We are proud to say on Tuesday 15th November at 1:30pm the School of Computer Science and Technology had a graduation ceremony for our Institute of Research and Applicable Computing (IRAC) and Computer Science students.

Associate Dean leads the way for the graduates passing through Computer Science and Technology staff, joined with Deputy Vice Chancellor, (Education) and the Dean.

TechEx global

University of Bedfordshire BSc (Hons) Cybersecurity students, attended TechEx Global on Friday 2nd December 2022, to learn about the latest security trends and technologies.

(from left) Lecturer, Rebecca Harrop, Students, Ivan Bonchev, and Charalampos Andreou.

Outreach and Nuffield Research Projects

Over the summer, the school of Computer Science and Technology, will be hosting five Nuffield Research Projects. These projects, supervised by Dr Maina Korir, Dr Mina Mortazavi and Dr Paul Sant will allow talented year 12 students from across the local region to engage with skills development projects that will be showcased at an end of summer event.

All three supervisors are offering a range of exciting projects from across computer science and engineering, with projects taking place during July and August 2022.

Maina Korir will specifically be hosting a student for a 3-week placement, focusing on supporting research into information-seeking practices on social media platforms.

Dr Ghazanfar Ali Safdar

The school of Computer Science and Technology is pleased to announce Dr Ghazanfar Ali Safdar (Senior Lecturer in Computer Networking) has recently had a book published with Wiley on the important topic of D2D Interference mitigation. D2D is an integral part of 5G and is also an important aspect of Intelligent transportation systems (ITS), as well as V2X (Vehicle to everything).

Friday 12th February 2021

The construction teaching team were pleased to welcome Alys Bishop to the University in February 2021, to deliver a virtual seminar on sustainable drainage systems for the construction management students.

Alys is the Principal Drainage Engineer and Flood Risk Team Leader for Central Bedfordshire Council, and gave an overview of best practice and cutting edge approaches.

Following the session, Alys said:

International Women’s Day

Monday 8th March 2021

International Women's Day is a world-wide day that celebrates the achievements of women.

This day has been celebrated by the National Environment Research Council (NERC).

Senior Lecturer Dr Tahmina Ajmal has been recognised and included in their celebrations.

To read the full story please see:

engage.nerc.ac.uk/2021/03/08/celebrating-international-womens-day

IRAC Seminar

IRAC Seminar Wednesday 27th January 2021

Speaker: Tristan Bacon, Zenzic

Online: MS Teams 

Date & Time: Wednesday 27th January, 11.00

 

Title: The UK Connected and Automated Mobility Roadmap to 2030: CAM Creators Update

 

About Tristan Bacon

Tristan Bacon is a Research Associate at Zenzic having joined in 2019. He has a MEng in General Engineering, Electronics, from Durham University, where he undertook a research project in connected vehicle communication technologies. Since joining Zenzic, Tristan has worked on multiple technical projects, with a primary focus on roadmapping the UK’s development and deployment of connected and automated mobility (CAM).

 

Tristan Bacon from Zenzic spoke in the IRAC Research Seminar series on activities his company is championing in order to set a national UK roadmap for developing the technologies needed for automated vehicle transportation until 2030.  In this interesting talk, Tristan reported on recent developments of the CAM Roadmap that includes a number of partners from industry and academia and that is also supported by the Government.  Various channels are open for interested parties to join the collaborative work and find their own avenues within the CAM Roadmap in order to contribute to this exciting field that is expected to fundamentally change our future experience in traffic of both people and goods.

The UK Connected and Automated Mobility Roadmap Gallary

 

H2020 MSCA Exchange Programme “MNR4SCell” Extended to 2021

The MSCA (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions) enable research-focused organisations (universities, research centres, and companies) to host talented foreign researchers and to create strategic partnerships with leading institutions worldwide.

MNR4SCell (Micro/Nano Robotics for Single Cancer Cells) is a MSCA Research and Innovation Staff Exchange project lead by the University of Warwick and participated by the school of Computer Science and Technology, University of Bedfordshire.

It focuses on building blocks of the micro/nano robotics and biomedical applications; and developing methodologies that improve understanding of the disease condition and progression.

The MSCA has awarded to Dr Renxi Qiu and Prof Dayou Li of Computer Science and Technology a €153K grant to extend the project until December 2021.

H2020 MSCA Exchange Programme “MNR4SCell”

The H2020 MSCA Exchange Programme “MNR4SCell” Extended to 2021. The H2020 MSCA Exchange Programme enables research-focused organisations to host talented international researchers and to create strategic partnerships with leading institutions worldwide.

The MNR4SCell Overview

MNR4SCell (Micro/Nano Robotics for Single Cancer Cells) is a MSCA project led by the University of Warwick and participated by 11 universities, research centres, and companies across the world. Dr Renxi Qiu and Professor Dayou Li are local coordinators of the project in Bedfordshire. They have received a €153K grant to extend the project until December 2021. The project is focused on building blocks of the micro/nano robotics and biomedical applications; and developing methodologies that improve understanding of the disease condition and progression.

For further information please see: warwick.ac.uk

5G-ERA

H2020 Research Grant Award, entitled “5G-ERA”

A £6 million H2020 project with 13 partners from 7 different countries to study 5G enhanced robot autonomy. The EU Research and Innovation programme - H2020, has awarded to Dr Renxi Qiu, Prof Dayou Li and Dr Enjie Liu from the School of Computer Science and Technology, University of Bedfordshire, a €700K grant as part of a 6 million research project entitled “5G-ERA”. Robot autonomy is essential for many 5G vertical sectors and can provide multiple benefits in automated mobility, Industry 4.0 and healthcare.

The project will accelerate the ongoing convergence of robotics, AI & cloud computing; and to unlock a next level of autonomy through 5G based learning in general. The 5G-ERA project is led by RobotNik Automation SLL who is a leading provider of service robots in Europe.

Dr Renxi Qiu from the University of Bedfordshire is the scientific coordinator of the 5G-ERA project.

 

H2020 Research Grant

H2020 Research Grant Award, entitled “5G-ERA”

A £6 million H2020 project with 13 partners from 7 different countries to study 5G enhanced robot autonomy.

The EU Research and Innovation programme - H2020, has awarded to Dr Renxi Qiu, Professor Dayou Li and Dr Enjie Liu from the School of Computer Science and Technology, University of Bedfordshire, a €700K grant as part of a 6 million research project entitled “5G-ERA”.

Dr Renxi Qiu is also the scientific co-ordinator of the entire 5G-ERA project. The project is oriented towards a user-centric paradigm of integrating Robot Autonomy into the existing standardised 5G testing framework under cloud native architecture to improve Quality of Experience (QoE). 

Robot autonomy can provide multiple benefits in automated mobility, Industry 4.0 and healthcare and 5G technology has the great potential to enhance robot autonomy.

Internet of Humans

Dr Ghazanfar Safdar is a guest editor on a special issue flyer of Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks
which focusses on Internet of Humans (IoH) in the Perspective of the Next Generation of the Internet (NGI). NGI will involve all sorts of new protocols, to the point where it might entirely reshape the stack and existenceof the dominant TCP/IP stack.

For futher details please see: www.mdpi.com/journal/jsan/special_issues/IoH_NGI

The fifth (5th) generation, while leveraging from the benefits of SARC, will allow humans to communicate with each other as part of the Internet of Humans (IoH). IoH is indeed imminent and undeniably a prominent and essential part of NGI.

Games Development Student Wins Award 2020

1st Year BSc Computer Games Develpment Student Wins Design Award

Congratulations to James Arnold on winning the “Humanity” award for his short game, “Reasons” which was developed as part of the Games Jobs Live Game Parade Jam.

The game jam took place over one week in October, giving students a chance to showcase their talents directly to companies hiring in the gaming sector.

This year’s topic was “seize the day”. James’ game highlighted struggles that people with depression can face in daily activities.

The game involves controlling an unnamed character during their morning routine. Difficult challenges become easier when the player gives the character “reasons” for carrying out the tasks. 'Reasons' can be downloaded for free here

International Symposium on Water Ecology and Environment

Tools for Precison Aquaculture

Dr Tahmina Ajmal was invited to present her research at the International Symposium on Water Ecology and Environment www.confiswee.com/#/aboutIsweeKeynoteSpeakers on 8^th December 2020. Her talk entitled ‘Tools for Precision Aquaculture’ was based on her ongoing research projects in aquaculture.

Unlink the link between Covid-19 and 5G Networks

IEEE Publication

Dr Ghazanfar Safdar, Senior Lecturer in Computer Networking, co-authored a paper, titled ‘Unlink
the link between Covid-19 and 5G Networks: an NLP and SNA based Approach’ which has been published in IEEE Access. For the paper please see here

KTP Project

Knowledge Transfer Partnership

Welcome to Cem Ekin Sunal who has joined our team as KTP Associate to work on a KTP project with Deckpro Pumps /Uptime Systems from October 2020. Cem will be working on development and implementation of machine learning algorithms that will predict and classify failures of electric pump motors
based on readings of electric current in real-time.

The project topic is tightly coupled with the concept of Internet-of-Things (IoT) and with the popular deep learning paradigm. The expected project outcomes will greatly improve efficiency and quality of service and maintenance delivered by our industrial partner and will enable them to open a whole new palette of products with a potential step into other markets, such as monitoring and failure prediction of electric vehicles.

The project will last for 2 years with a total value of £160k and is led by Dr Vladan Velisavljevic and Dr Vladimir Dyo from School CST & IRAC. Congratulations to Cem on a successful start of the project.

ACE-2020 Workshop

Held in conjunction with The 5th IEEE Int’l Congress on Cyber Science and Technology (CyberSciTech 2020)

Hosted in Calgary, Canada, 22-26 June 2020

cyber-science.org/2020

The 4th International Workshop on Applications of AI, Cyber Security and Economics Big Data (ACE-2020) was hosted by Athabasca University in Calgary, Canada, from the 22-26 June 2020.

For further details of the workshop please see:

www.beds.ac.uk/irac/workshop

BCS Search Solutions

BCS Search Solutions Event

Dr Haiming Liu and Dr Ingo Frommholz co-organised the annual BCS Search Solutions event held by the Information Retrieval Specialist Group of the Chartered Institute for IT (BCS).

Search Solutions is the premier UK forum for the presentation of the latest innovations in search and information retrieval. The programme includes presentations, panels and keynote talks by influential industry leaders on novel and emerging applications in search and information retrieval. Traditionally, Search Solutions consists of a tutorial day and the main conference. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Search Solutions was held online this year with the opportunity to be more geographically inclusive.

Search Solutions 2020 attracted students (also from UoB), academics and practitioners from different time zones as speakers and delegates. The first day saw a well-received tutorial about Reinforcement Learning and Information Retrieval by tutors from Blue Prism AI Labs.

The main event was attended by 74 delegates at peak time and saw talks by speakers from different world-leading and prestigious institutes and companies on different topics such as user-centric search, machine learning/artificial intelligence and bias in search. All in all, two very successful events that will hopefully take place in person again next year.

Smart Food Factory Online Conference

Dr Tahmina Ajmal senior lecturer in Engineering was invited as speaker and chair of a panel discussion on the ‘The Food factory of the Future, Smart & Collaborative’ at the Smart Food Factory Online Conference & Exhibition on 10th of September 2020

Tahmina's talk was on: 'Using digital Technology in Reducing Food Waste' and relates to her Interreg project REAMIT.

REAMIT is an NW Europe Interreg project and stands for Improving Resources Efficiency of Agribusiness supply chains by Minimising waste using Internet of Things sensors (IoT).

REAMIT capitalises on the power of IoT sensors and Big Data technologies for reducing food waste in the agri supply chains. It focusses on fresh produce (fruits, vegetables, fish and meat).

For further information please see: www.reamit.eu

From left to right, top row: Tahmina Ajmal, Senior Lecturer, University of Bedfordshire, Mike Wilson, Chief Automation Officer, Technology Strategy, Manufacturing Technology Centre, Liverpool, Daniel Perez Martins, Postdoctoral Researcher, Mobile Ecosystem & Pervasive Sensing, TSSG, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland. Lower row: Ed Keenan, Head of Process, Integrated Food Projects Ltd, Derbyshire, Ankur Jain, Founder & CEO, Udyogyantra, India.

Rebecca Harrop Thanked by Cisco

Celebrating Cisco Networking Academy Instructor Rebecca Harrop on International Teachers Day

This article is from Cisco Networking Academy, written by Sarah Hurd

If you have worked with Rebecca, you can leave her a congratulatory comment on the original post - see Cisco Networking Academy

This International Teachers Day, we would like to highlight someone very exceptional – Cisco Networking Academy instructor Rebecca Harrop. Rebecca is a specialist in computer networking and security, and senior lecturer of cybersecurity at the University of Bedfordshire. She is also an associate lecturer in computer networking, cybersecurity micro credential consultant, and co-author with the Open University.

Rebecca Harrop teaching hands-on IT Skills,
Photo Credit: Mark Phillips

This year shecelebrates her 20th year as a Cisco Networking Academy instructor. Rebecca was a long-standing manager of a Cisco Networking Academy and Cybersecurity lab at Barnet and Southgate College. She’s also a loving mom of two young children – and in her spare time continues to up-skill, most recently obtaining CCNA Security and CyberOps certifications.

Throughout Rebecca’s career, she has successfully trained thousands of students in professional computing skills and inspired many from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds to pursue a career in IT. The diversity of the students she teaches is apparent – from a 59-year-old grandmother working to complete her bachelor of science degree to students with disabilities who learn to create LAN cables and configure networks independently. Always an advocate for teaching real-world skills that translate directly to the workplace, Rebecca was voted “Role Model of the Year” in the 2019 Women in IT Excellence Awards.

As a Cisco Networking Academy instructor, Rebecca teaches the following courses: CyberOps Associate, CCNA Security, Cybersecurity Essentials, IT Essentials, CCNA, and many more. She has taught in the classroom, online, and in a hybrid learning model, and is accredited for teaching with acknowledgements and awards by professional bodies for professional certifications.

Even at its very worst, teaching is helping someone who is lost to take steps forward. At its best, it is running alongside them on a path of discovery, pointing out all the cool and useful stuff along the way.

Rebecca is well-respected in the field and on occasion appears as a technical guest speaker at professional conferences to share her expertise at parliamentary groups for the national cyber strategy and CompTIA events. Prior to teaching, Rebecca completed a psychology degree at the University of St. Andrews, specializing in cognitive thinking and computing, cyber-psychology, neural networks, and artificial intelligence. She also gained a first class master’s degree, on an ESRC scholarship, in cognitive science at the University of Dundee.

Highly experienced in cybersecurity, Rebecca explains what makes it so relevant today:

“In today’s world, where every aspect of our lives involves the exchange of digital data, there is more than just a chronic lack of cybersecurity professionals – there is an absolute need for every person to be responsible for information security. Cybersecurity protects the most valuable asset we have – ourselves. If data is now the currency of our world, then everyone needs to keep a hand on their wallet, because cyber-pickpockets operate in all areas.”

Rebecca has been rated consistently as an excellent instructor in lesson observations and course feedback. Also, she has been granted an Instructor Excellence Award in recognition of her lasting contribution to the Cisco Networking Academy program. We can’t thank her enough for her passion, contribution and commitment to the field.

Lockdown Labs 2020

Beds Computing Students Take to Remote Methods to Learn Practical Employability Skills from Home.

One of the advantages of being a Cisco Local Academy meant that University of Bedfordshire computing students already had access to high-quality distance-learning materials in place from the start of the COVID-19 lockdown.

Our lecturers immediately took to conducting online lectures, as a replacement for seminars, and for practical classes learners have been able to continue their studies in Computer Networking, Wireless Technologies, Internet of Things and Cybersecurity using online resources and network simulation tools - like Packet Tracer – so learners are still gaining valuable practical employability skills (such as configuring and securing network devices) even from their own home.

Students report that although they miss the classroom computing lab, they are delighted to be able to continue learning and engaging in practical training remotely.

Rebecca Harrop Senior Lecturer

University of Bedfordshire’s instructors were able to quickly convert to online teaching and keep everyone on-track, using the Cisco Academy materials as support.Our Regional Academy Support Centre reports that the Beds Uni dashboard has suddenly ‘lit up’ with numbers showing a significant increase of about 700%.

Next week, many of our first and second-year students will sit their final assessments in these subjects.

British Science Week - March 2020

As part of British Science week, the School of CST took part in setting up a stall in the Luton Mall on Tuesday March 10th, 2020. We participated in hosting some live workshops demonstrating the following technologies:

• Lego Mindstorms Robot Kits,
• Arduino Robots and VR (Virtual Reality) Technologies.

During the Schools Event on Wednesday 11th March, 2020 the following workshops were held to accommodate the visitors from the various schools and colleges:

• 3D Printing Workshop (D009)
• Computer Networking Workshop
• Lego Mindstorms Robots
• Forensics Session Autocad Workshop
• Arduino Workshop

Also, a Software Development, Robocode workshop. Robocode is a programming game, where the goal is to develop a robot battle tank to battle against other tanks in Java or .NET. The robot battles are running in real-time and onscreen.

Thursday 12 March, 2020

Dr Paul Sant presented a lecture on the subject: ‘What does Artificial Intelligence hold for our future?’

Dr Sant discussed the increasing use of artificial intelligence in the commercial and research world and looked at how computer systems can perform tasks that normally require human intelligence.

University of Bedfordshire Formula Student – Luton Gears© Team

Formula Student is a student engineering competition organised by IMechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers) annually, with aim to (1) develop students’ knowledge on vehicle technology, design and development and (2) enhance students’ skills of project management, team working, business development, racing car driving and competition. Through the project, a team need to design and build a small Formula style racing car which can be thermal, electrical or autonomous then to compete with other teams from other universities around the world.

Since February 2020, UoB FS team of fourteen (14) students, as shown in Figure 1 below, was formed to start the University of Bedfordshire Formula Student project. The team, named as “Luton Gears©” is entirely managed by the students with the support of Mechanical, Automotive and Electronics Engineering staff and the School.

Figure 1: Presentation of the University of Bedfordshire Formula Student team (2019/2020)

The team is composed of five working groups for which each member works on a specific task to achieve the expected goal. The working groups are as shown in the table below.

Working Group

Engine

• Styliano Antemi
• Taha Khan
• Abdelwahab Elaagib

Chassis

• Bicheng Zheng
• Qiming Yang
• Yongjun He

Body

• Milap Amin
• Bhargav Parbatbhai
• Hardikkumar Patel

Steering System and Brakes

• Vladut-Costel Botezatu
• Joshua Ogunbiyi

Electronics

• Suman Naz
• Jude Ekechukwu

Sponsorship

Sponsorship is sought and always welcomed to support the students’ work. The team has defined five different donation packages. The sponsorship can be either financial, material, discount or service donations. The different donation packages a company or individual can make are:

1. The Bronze donation (equivalent of £1,000 or less)
2. The Silver donation (between £1,000 and £2,000)
3. The Gold donation (between £2,000 and £5,000)
4. The Diamond donation (between £5,000 and £10,000)
5. The Supreme donation (above £10,000)

In return of a company sponsorship and depending on the donation package, the team develops various communication support to extend the company’s advertisement through allocated space logo on the built car, space logo on the team’s banner displayed in the lab and on the campus, presentation of the company in the team’s progress newsletters, space logo on the team’s printed T-shirts and clothes and also a recognition in the team social media networks.

The Luton Gears© are mainly characterised by their high motivation and enthusiasm for the Formula Student competition. No doubt they have done such a considerable progress in a short amount of time. You can start following them on Instagram, please look for “lutongears”.

Catalyst Partnership

The University of Bedfordshire has been working closely with Catalyst, one of the country’s largest housing associations, to develop a sector-leading research initiative to help solve key issues faced by housing associations. Two members of the Catalyst team will complete Masters by Research projects, which will be supervised by Dr James Bishop, Senior Lecturer, at the University in Construction Management and Building Technology and Dr Andrew Clements, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Psychology.

Catalyst’s Policy and Insight Manager, Zoe Cox, will be researching the viability of housing associations generating their own energy through renewable and sustainable sources to help benefit residents living with fuel poverty. Katie Prowse, Project Manager at Catalyst, will be investigating the level of preparation that registered providers have in place to meet tough government targets on carbon emissions.

Read the full press release here

From left to right; Katie Prowse, James Bishop and Zoe Cox.

Visit to Majan University March 2020

The School of Computer Science and Technology Visit Majan University

From left to right; Ray Brown, Jon Hitchcock, Paul Sant, Tess Crosbie, Khaled El-Husseine and Enjie Liu. Just over Khaled’s left shoulder, with a horizontal red light, is the new PG Centre at Majan College which was only formally occupied last week.

Another successful Computer Science and Technology School visit took place at Majan University College in Oman, just ahead of the University of Bedfordshire's coronavirus travel ban.

Students at Majan undertake three post graduate units over five computer science schools. The first of these is delivered over four intense days by University of Bedfordshire staff and the remainder are taught by the Majan staff. University of Bedfordshire staff additionally provide two 'BREO Collaborate' sessions.

One Thames City Project in Central London

Event Hosted by Yuanda Europe and R&F Properties Group

Construction Management degree students on a recent site visit to the One Thames City project in Central London.

This 5.5 acre mixed use residential scheme forms a key part of the Nine Elms Regeneration masterplan in Vauxhall. On completion the scheme will provide in the region of 1500 high quality apartments and retail units located around a large centralised park. The visit was hosted by Yuanda Europe and R&F Properties Group and was focused particularly on the cladding system being used for one of high rise apartment buildings, which is a key aspect of the students’ coursework assignments. The visit included presentations from senior professionals from both Yuanda Europe and R&F Properties Group.

Institute for Research in Applicable Computing (IRAC)

Research on Artificial Intelligence and Data Mining Helps Marketing Managers

To be competitive, businesses need to attract customers with new products and services by using an efficient marketing campaign. There are many products for marketing management, developed in recent years by using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Mining (DM) technologies.

Businesses are interested in understanding and modelling customers’ behaviour patterns which could bring new insights into the marketing campaign. AI and DM technologies help the campaign manager to discover the interesting patterns in data, required for improving the accuracy of predicting the customers’ behaviour.

Researchers, including Duke TJ Ludera, together with Torubein Fawei (pictured), have been engaged by the unit coordinator Dr Schetinin to extend a decision model so as to use customers’ behavioural data stored in previous campaigns. In computational experiments they showed that the AI-based decision models improve the accuracy of customer’s predictions in the case of a real bank marketing dataset including thousands of customers’ profiles.

The extended work has been accepted for publication in Springer series “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing” and will be presented at the International Conference held at Amsterdam in September 2020.

From left to right; Duke TJ Ludera and Torubein Fawei.

At ICIM 2020, London - Online March 2020

Modelling User Interaction for Image Search using Information Foraging Theory and a bit of Quantum Theory

Dr Haiming Liu gave a keynote speech at ICIM 2020 on 29th March 2020 www.icim.org/keynote
Haiming talked about her research and the H2020 ITN project called QUARTZ www.quartz-itn.eu that she is working on.

The talk was very well received. It explained one way to make search systems (web search or enterprise search) more user-centric is to bring users into search loop. Dr Liu focused on making interactive image search systems more user centred through bridging semantic gaps between users and images and between users and search models. Information Foraging Theory is applied to explain and model user interactions during search, and Quantum Theory is applied to integrate the user interaction models with the search models.

This is a dissemination event for both the University and QUARTZ.

Computer Science and Technology Careers Event at Bedford Academy

The School of Computer Science and Technology presented an IT careers event in the Bedford Academy, Bedford on Thursday 5th March. The event included Bedford Academy school children from Year 7 to Year 13.

Dr Carlos Jacome Fernandez, Dr Marc Conrad and Dr Tahmina Ajmal of The School of Computer Science and Technology represented the University, where they answered student queries and showed them interesting artefacts.

The organisers at Bedford Academy applauded the table presentation; they appreciated our enthusiastic participation, as it was very useful to the children in making career choices in STEM subjects.

From left to right; Tahmina Ajmal, Marc Conrad and Carlos Jacome.

Robotics and AI

First year Robotics and AI Students get stuck in to the models, 3D

printers, equipment and facilities in our new STEM building.  

Makers Lab

The Machine Workshop and Product Design lab is also known as a Makers lab. The lab provides both traditional subtractive manufacturing, that is machines that cut material to produce a component, e.g.

• Lathes
• Mills
• Drills
• Saws

This Makers Lab also has additive manufacturing, that is machines that add material to produce a component, e.g.

• 3D printers

  

Facilities

All of our Computer Science and

Technology students enjoy an extensive range of faciliteis and equipment available to them within our:

• CST Labs
• STEM builiding.

For futher details on the new STEM building please see: STEM Building

Construction Site Visits 2019 - 2020

Construction Management Students

From left to right; Project Director, Andy Fox and James Bishiop

Since the start of their new academic term, our construction management students have had the opportunity to visit a range of construction sites both locally and further afield. The projects have ranged in size from smaller residential projects through to huge commercial projects worth hundreds of millions of pounds. The visits have generally included presentations from project directors, site managers and planners, with the students able to pick their brains on the approaches to construction and the project challenges.

The course team have worked with some of these construction companies to plan a series of visits over course of the academic year, so that the students can see the development of those projects over an extended period of time. Working with these companies with this approach has also led to a number of placement opportunities with them for our students over the summer.

The images show our construction management students on a recent site project hosted by Toureen Group at one of their large commercial projects in the heart of London. We were able to visit this project twice during the year, giving students from different cohorts the benefit of seeing and hearing from leading construction professionals working on this type of large complex project.

What the Hack is the Mainframe?

• Presentation on Wednesday 4 December 2019
• Presenters: Dr Ali Mansour, Duke Ludera, Vincent Goldman, and Graham Winchester
  

A large group of enthusiastic students and members of the Cybersecurity Club@UoB from the School of Computer Science and Technology attended this Major League Hacking (MLH) hands-on workshop in collaboration with the Cybersecurity Club@UoB in the new STEM building on 4 December 2019.

From left to right: Dr Ali Mansour, Duke Ludera, Vincent Goldman, and Graham Winchester

Students learned about IBM Z, the powerful enterprise-computing platform that 71% of Fortune 500 companies depend on for their success. This workshop focused on z/OS, the operating system favoured by businesses with high requirements for availability, accuracy, and security. z/OS is the home of enterprise software, including CICS, which serves up 30 billion transactions a day.

Students logged into a live IBM Mainframe system, explored its environment, performed exercises on data processing, and accessed a UNIX subsystem for performing some basic tasks. This hands-on experience set the students up with the educational foundation needed to excel on this platform built specifically for business.

This Hands-on workshop was sponsored by IBM Z and arranged by the Cybersecurity Club@UoB and Major League Hacking (MLH), USA. Special acknowledgement goes to Mr Paul Fairbairn, Z Client Skills Leader Europe, IBM Z Ecosystem, IBM UK, for his support with this workshop.

Tranzfuser 2019 - UK Games Fund National Project

A team composed of three graduates from the BSc Computer Games Development course and one post-graduate researcher from the School of Computer Science and Technology have been selected as one of 13 teams to participate in Tranzfuser a national competition for graduate games talent. Its an excellent opportunity for our graduates to work on a games project and pitch to a national audience. Well done to the team on their proposal, and good luck for the project!

The School of Computer Science and Technology will host the team as a ‘Local Hub’ for the Tranzfuser project.

Announced by news@ukgamesfund on June 25th, 2019:

“Graduate teams from across the UK have today been announced as participants in this year’s Tranzfuser competition. Based at Tranzfuser Local Hubs across the length and breadth of the country…

Participating teams will work on their individual games over the course of the summer, getting a playable demo for a large consumer games show in the Autumn. There they will vie for the attention of the playing public, standing alongside the AAA games of 2019. This year’s competition also sees the teams attend a bootcamp-style Practice Pitch event in Dundee; in preparation for the full pitch to the UK Games Fund team at the Autumn consumer show for support of up to £25,000 for the development of their project, the teams will practice their pitching skills to a range of industry professionals. The Practice Pitch event will determine which teams go on to exhibit at the consumer games show later this year.”

tranzfuser.com/tranzfuser-teams-2019

Fusebox Inc.
Team Leader: Vlad Viziteu,
Mihăiţă-Iulian Vlad, Deepaseem Gurung, Amy Hoang.

About the Project

We would like to thank UK Games Talent for the opportunity to participate in the Tranzfuser competition. Fusebox.Inc is ready to bring this VR experience to the world! So grab your headset and get ready to fly!Take to the skies in Wings of Reality; a virtual reality flight sim arcade game. Grab your controllers and battle it out with your friends in this intense PVP multiplayer game! Aim to become top dog by destroying your friends in an action-packed jet fighter combat. Only one person can survive. Only one person can become victorious. Are you ready to become the number one pilot?

Guardian League Tables

The School of Computer Science and Technology is proud to announce we are ranked 7th (out of 62) in the most recent Guardian League Tables for 2019 in the 'Electronic and Electrical' subject area.

Focusing on providing authentic learning experience, effective student inclusion and consistent high-quality academic support has brought the CST School a fantastic achievement! The most recent 2019 Guardian University League Tables has ranked the University of Bedfordshire 7^thout of 62 institutions in the country in the subject of electronic and electrical engineering, placing the UoB and CST School in a group of several leading UK institutions in this subject. The success is even greater having noted that the UoB is the only university in the country with the maximal score of 10 in the category of added value. We are remaining committed to the highest quality of teaching, academic support and student inclusion and we are aiming at retaining such a high rank in the competitive academic world.

Congratulations to our Electronic Engineering staff!

From left to right: Dr Vladan Velisavljevic, Dr Tahmina Ajmal,
Dr Carlos Jacome Fernandez and Head of School, Dr Paul Sant.

• View the Guardian 2019 University League Tables

Please see our Electronics courses below:

• BEng (Hons) Computer Systems Engineering (sandwich year)
• BEng (Hons) Computer Systems Engineering
• BEng (Hons) Computer Systems Engineering (foundation year)
• BEng (Hons) Electronic Engineering (foundation year)
• BEng (Hons) Electronic Engineering (sandwich year)
• BEng (Hons) Electronic Engineering
• BEng (Hons) Telecommunications & Network Engineering (foundation year)
• BEng (Hons) Telecommunications & Network Engineering (sandwich year)
• BEng (Hons) Telecommunications & Network Engineering

View a full list of our courses

Biztech Event 'Engineering Your Future'

Some of the engineering team from the School of Computer Science and Technology participated in the Biztech event 'Engineering Your Future'. This included interactive presentations as well as lecture talks and a panel Q&A session. The all day event, held at MK College, was attended by GCSE, A-level and college students providing an opportunity to learn about the diversity of engineering and career pathways.

Companies also Attending

• Routeco
• Rockwell Automation
• Starship Technologies
• Dynamic Imaging Analytics
• Transport Systems Catapult
• McLaren Applied Technologies

More information on the event can be found here:

• www.biztech.org.uk/engineering-your-future-event

About Biztech

BIZTECH Technology Forum is a peer to peer group of ICT leaders and professionals from the worlds of business, education and public sectors in Milton Keynes and South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP). Biztech organises meetings, lectures and events of interest to Biztech members and the wider community to foster greater engagement within the community and support the growth of service provision within North Buckinghamshire, recognising that the vast majority of services required by those having business and domestic requirements in the area are all capable of being supplied by Biztech members locally. www.biztech.org.uk

International Games Competition - IPSim Game software

Congratulations to Vlad Viziteu, a Year 2 BSc Games Development student who won last Friday’s IPSim Game event against stiff completion from the rest of his class.

The photo shows Vlad being presented with his prize by Wesley Randle, Director of Tacit Sim and developer of the IPSim educational game.

Friday 6 October was an action packed day for students studying on the Year 2 Mobile Application Development. With a 9.00am students were first introduced to the basics of Intellectual Property (IP), patents, design, copyright and trademarks. The talk was delivered by Wesley who was supported by Kerry Rees, Patent Attorney, WP Thompson (Intellectual Property).

• Wesley's powerpoint presentation [PDF]

This was followed later on by an introduction to commercialisation of IP and to the basics of the IPSim game. The day was rounded off by an exciting competition between groups of students.

IPSim Version 1 is installed on all PCs in Room A310 and is free to use if you want to have a go.

There’s a ‘’How to Play’’ video if you want to watch this before you start: www.youtube.com

There is also a set of PDF instructions if you’re really keen to know how to play and win: www.tacitsims.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/IPSim-Instructions.pdf

Director of Google's Self-Driving Cars Project at Google(x), USA,

Dr Chris Urmson, talks to staff and students at University of Bedfordshire

• View the full story