SOUNDSCALE is an ambitious research project aimed at transforming urban planning in smart cities through the innovative use of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technologies, leveraing legacy optical fibre cables that lie unused underground or undersea. DAS is currently used to sense vibration/sounds in its surroundings to detect events like earthquakes or monitor oil rigs. Recently, it has been proposed as a cheap and effective alternative to other monitoring systems in urban environments, such as to monitor traffic, crowds, buildings' integrity, and transportation networks in general, which could influence how cities are planned in the future. However, there are important concerns around how this technology develops such as data privacy, AI ethics, equitable technology access, sustainability, climate impact, inequality, and citizen participation in decision-making processes. In an age where technological advancements rapidly alter the urban landscape, there is a growing disconnect between citizens, policymakers and these transformative changes. The vision of SOUNDSCALE is to enable cities to become truly 'smart' by integrating citizens directly into the development and implementation of emerging technologies, so that they can prioritise and anticipate issues before it is too late to change the direction of research and development. This approach not only aims to mitigate potential ethical, privacy, and accessibility issues but also to ensure that technology deployment is sustainable, inclusive, and beneficial to all segments of society. To realise this vision, SOUNDSCALE adopts an interdisciplinary research strategy, integrating insights from the physical sciences, political science, human geography, humanities, environmental sciences, arts-based research, computer science and public health, intertwined with an ambitious knowledge exchange and engagement strategy. The project will be divided into three phases. In Phase 1, a diverse citizen panel from London and Southampton will be convened to identify research priorities based on learning about the technology's opportunities and risks. These cities have an extensive optical fibre network connected through the National Dark Fibre Facility (NDFF), which will be used to obtain preliminary measurements of 'the sound of the cites'. Phase 2 involves interdisciplinary workshops to translate these priorities into actionable research areas, fostering innovative methodologies and novel interdisciplinary knowledge. Phase 3 focuses on synthesising findings for impact with policymakers and the public, ensuring that the research benefits are tangible and aligned with societal needs. SOUNDSCALE emphasises the importance of co-creation with non-academics, including practitioners, activists, artists, policymakers, and citizens. This collaborative philosophy is designed to produce research that is not only academically rigorous but also socially relevant and responsive to the needs and concerns of the wider community. Through this process, SOUNDSCALE seeks to create interdisciplinary research projects involving researchers from different disciplines to tackle problems like: disentangling urban background noise from dynamic events, exploring the link between noise exposure and public health across sections of society, developing ethical frameworks for DAS deployment or examining how DAS can redefine urban spaces and influence social inequalities and surveillance. Our knowledge exchange and engagement strategy is innovative, featuring a citizen panel, policy activities, artistic exhibitions, an art- and activism-led grant program, and a sustained digital and local presence. By partnering with a wide range of stakeholders, including universities, research centres, art galleries, industry partners, and city councils, SOUNDSCALE aims to ensure that its findings and technologies are widely disseminated and adopted, leading to more inclusive, equitable, and smart urban development.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

This application is for collaborative research on an area of cooling of great industrial and social significance by three teams with expertise in heat transfer, system simulation and component design. The lead team will be based at Newcastle University with the support teams at Oxford and South Bank UniversitiesIf the performance of electronic chips follow current trends and double every 18 months (Moore's Law), then it will soon not be possible to effectively cool them using conventional passive cooling and an alternative technique/devices must be found. This proposal is concerned with developing such a device. In particular it is concerned with a theoretical analysis and experimental evaluation of a miniature vapour compression refrigeration cycle optimised for the cooling of future electronic systems. The proposed work will consist of three distinct but interrelated activities that will be conducted at three centres by personnel with recognised skills, expertise, resources and experience to undertake this work. The proposed work is innovative in that it will examine issues associated with miniature refrigeration systems that have not been studied hitherto. It is intended to explore design criteria related to system stability and develop design codes to assist designers and manufacturers of such systems. The heat transfer performance of phase change in porous materials and the technology transfer associated with the compressor development all contribute to making this a very innovative project. The groups already have experience of working together and arrangements will be put in place to facilitate the exchange of ideas and expertise on a larger scale. The integrated approach will provide significant advantages compared to three unlinked projects and produce a significant step forward in electronic cooling technology. The work will be supported by several industrial partners and collaborators namely Thermacore, Panasonic and Honeywell who will all contribute technical and in kind resources to the project. Letters of support have been obtained from Panasonic, Thermacore, Honeywell-Hymatic and Hexag.

Superkingdom is the third part of 'Hibernator', a trilogy of works connecting myth and science, environmental cues and technological control, the virtual worlds we imagine and the real world we cannot escape. \n\nThe Superkingdom proposal draws on the natural woodland environment of King's Wood, Kent to inspire a series of animal 'Show Homes' that will provide a platform to observe and study animal behaviour over the winter months.\n\nConsidered as an enclave, a protected area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, King's Wood is an environment surrounded by encroaching urban development. This contention will provide the context for research into the changing habitat and consequent animal displacement and migration within the region of King's Wood. The fellow will develop a narrative of urban-rural / animal-human intersection. \n\nThe fellow will research the architecture of animals in particular their achievements in structural form and strength, use of locally resourced materials, ventilation and pest management. These methods will be contrasted to the architecture created by humankind.\n\nThis research will inform the design of a series of 'Show Homes' to encourage animals to take up residence. The 'Show Homes' will reflect human authoritarian architecture, fantastical architecture and the architecture created by animals. The structures will correspond with different sites of habitation - the canopy, floor and underground spaces of the forest. \n\nDrawing on existing research into the patterns of animals that hibernate, migrate or forage all winter, the forest installation will become a site for the study of animal habitation and behaviour. This study will provide content for a digital moving image work that will reflect the winter ecology of the forest. In contrast there will be a fictional element to the film to suggest changing environmental cues through an influx of non-native species taking up residence.\n\nThe 'Show Homes' will be filmed in situ with footage of both their external and internal spaces. The film will combine fictional utopias, dystopias, and dream worlds with architectural follies and notions of the 'new town'. \n\nTo further express ideas of displacement and non-locality, the fellow will collaborate with New Zealand based composer Dugal McKinnon who will develop a sound track for the moving image work, using sound recordings from forests in New Zealand, juxtaposing sound and image both geographically and seasonally.\n\n\n\n

Hibernator is a body of work that attempts to unite the practice of artists, scientists, technologists and ecologists and make sure unusual connections between nature, popular culture and medical science. The human race has long been inspired by nature's processes, putting animals, plants and climatic change under the microscope to inform technological development. Learning to harness nature has helped man to survive on the planet for centuries.\n\nAt a time when the human habitat is increasingly changing and the future existence of animal and humankind is int he balance, it is perhaps an irony that there are current scientific researchers looking for methods of extending human life. When we fail as the custodians of this planet there is always the promise that through space exploration a future planet may be available for our habitation.\n\nWalt Disney presents us with a point of departure for this research. As founder of the animation and entertainment empire that still bears his name he is a figurehead embedded within popular culture and mythologised through the sensational claims made around his death that he was the first human to be cryogenically frozen. Cryonics is a speculative life support technology that seeks to preserve human life in a state that will be viable and treatable by future medicine; therefore the Disney myth suggests that the great animator is awaiting reanimation on the day when science can bring his frozen body back to life.\n\nThe Walt Disney myth exemplifies mankind's misplaced faith, the dreams, hopes and fears we project onto technology. Within the proposed programme of research, connections will be made between notions of multimedia (Disney was thw world's first multimedia corporation) and current scientific experiments aiming to induce hibernatory states in non-hiberbatory species including humans. Linking to the forest-animal iconography of Disney and state of the art animation techniques a work for a gallery context will be developed to incorporate an animatronic 'chimera' (or monstrous hybrid). An immersive installation based on hibernatory environments will also be constructed for the public to experience within the context of a world space conference; and a series of 21st century animal habitats will be constructed in the ancient forest of King's Wood in Kent.\n\nThe audience will have the opportunity to engage in the research in a number of ways via the diverse outputs. The unifying narrative will emerge via the production of a publication via a collaborative publishing effort.\n\nThe various outputs to be produced will reflect a change in the recieved notions of the defintions of life and death; an intellectual/philosophical shift elicited by technological advance, connecting myth and science, environmental cues and technological control, the virtual worlds we imagine and the real world we cannot escape. This research draws together relevant and parallel areas of research that are contributing to significant developments and debates in science, art, technology and ecology. It is hoped that the bringing together of these ideas will encourage us to consider how the more radical advancements in science and technology could impact on popular culture and human life. Linking these areas of interest will also provide further opportunities to disseminate the creative process involved in such interdisciplinary ideas to a wide audience.\n\nThe outcomes of this proposal should particulalry appeal to the art-going public; art, ecology and science communities; academics, curators, writers, students studying engineering, media, art, science, film and animation and those concerned with the growing ecology debate.\n\nThe international context for this research is work that is taking place at the art-science, art-ecology and art-engineering interfaces; there are a growing number of symposia,