Some are familiar with the ability to programme computers such as PCs or laptops. However many individuals that do not engage in programming will purchase and use such applications. In contrast to these visible boxes , embedded computers hidden within appliances such as fridges and washing machines traditionally cannot be programmed by users. They are also used extensively in cars for engine control and supplementing breaking and steering. They are essentially invisible. However as computers become more powerful and cheaper we are witnessing a merging of these philosophies . Mobile phones contain computers which are both hidden and programmable with downloadable apps . There is now the potential to go further and make computers embedded in (say) appliances programmable after they are in place.Advances in communications now allow such computers to be linked together. They become networked computers . So screens on fridges can show web pages, cars can communicate speed and speed history to each other, and a mobile phone can control the lights in your home.In addition small cheap sensors, often with their own small computers are being developed. Small cheap actuators are also appearing. Actuators might simply switch lights on and off, but they can also control the flow of fuel to an engine. They too can communicate with each other. So in addition to sensing the environment, computer systems can use actuators to control and change it. But how is this control exercised? It may be manual so a user on a wireless PDA might set the temperature of the home central heating. However there is much excitement in the research community in how an array of networked small computers can cooperate to automatically alter the behaviour of a system. A simple example would be positional information on family mobile phones controlling their home environment.The integration of these technologies also offers the advent of new applications; in the home for homecare and healthcare; in the hospital for patient monitoring and support; and in the office to boost productivity. This project proposes to inform the public about this potent mix of technologies and explain the importance of their integration. We will develop a highly interactive show in partnership with the Glasgow Science Centre to be presented to large audiences through its Science Show programme. We want to describe the technologies, and use recent research work to show the audience the potential possibilities of their integration, and how this will radically alter the way we think about and use computers. To support the show we will provide additional, more detailed material for educational use and for those who wish to explore the topic further. While conventional web based interfaces will be used, we expect to have a presence in YouTube and also to explore newer virtual worlds such as Second Life. The project is being carried out by two universities, Glasgow and Stirling and each brings essential and compatible aspects to the project. Glasgow offers experience in effective public engagement, and evaluation, while Stirling will bring the research drive and technological expertise. The two groups have already collaborated together and with Glasgow Science Centre on successful PE and research projects.We plan to carry out the work in three phases. In the first three month phase we will design the show in detail. Once this is in place, the equipment will be assembled and the necessary software developed. This second phase will last just 9 months as existing research prototypes can be used as a base. In the final 4 month phase the show will be evaluated and refined using the Science Centre Theatre with audiences. Training of Science Centre staff will also take place in this phase. It is also at this stage that the Science Centre will take over the regular delivery of the show for both their regular in-house shows and to their external outreach programme

Some are familiar with the ability to programme computers such as PCs or laptops. However many individuals that do not engage in programming will purchase and use such applications. In contrast to these visible boxes , embedded computers hidden within appliances such as fridges and washing machines traditionally cannot be programmed by users. They are also used extensively in cars for engine control and supplementing breaking and steering. They are essentially invisible. However as computers become more powerful and cheaper we are witnessing a merging of these philosophies . Mobile phones contain computers which are both hidden and programmable with downloadable apps . There is now the potential to go further and make computers embedded in (say) appliances programmable after they are in place.Advances in communications now allow such computers to be linked together. They become networked computers . So screens on fridges can show web pages, cars can communicate speed and speed history to each other, and a mobile phone can control the lights in your home.In addition small cheap sensors, often with their own small computers are being developed. Small cheap actuators are also appearing. Actuators might simply switch lights on and off, but they can also control the flow of fuel to an engine. They too can communicate with each other. So in addition to sensing the environment, computer systems can use actuators to control and change it. But how is this control exercised? It may be manual so a user on a wireless PDA might set the temperature of the home central heating. However there is much excitement in the research community in how an array of networked small computers can cooperate to automatically alter the behaviour of a system. A simple example would be positional information on family mobile phones controlling their home environment.The integration of these technologies also offers the advent of new applications; in the home for homecare and healthcare; in the hospital for patient monitoring and support; and in the office to boost productivity. This project proposes to inform the public about this potent mix of technologies and explain the importance of their integration. We will develop a highly interactive show in partnership with the Glasgow Science Centre to be presented to large audiences through its Science Show programme. We want to describe the technologies, and use recent research work to show the audience the potential possibilities of their integration, and how this will radically alter the way we think about and use computers. To support the show we will provide additional, more detailed material for educational use and for those who wish to explore the topic further. While conventional web based interfaces will be used, we expect to have a presence in YouTube and also to explore newer virtual worlds such as Second Life. The project is being carried out by two universities, Glasgow and Stirling and each brings essential and compatible aspects to the project. Glasgow offers experience in effective public engagement, and evaluation, while Stirling will bring the research drive and technological expertise. The two groups have already collaborated together and with Glasgow Science Centre on successful PE and research projects.We plan to carry out the work in three phases. In the first three month phase we will design the show in detail. Once this is in place, the equipment will be assembled and the necessary software developed. This second phase will last just 9 months as existing research prototypes can be used as a base. In the final 4 month phase the show will be evaluated and refined using the Science Centre Theatre with audiences. Training of Science Centre staff will also take place in this phase. It is also at this stage that the Science Centre will take over the regular delivery of the show for both their regular in-house shows and to their external outreach programme

In a consortium led by Heriot-Watt with St Andrews, Glasgow, Strathclyde and Dundee, this proposal is for an EPSRC CDT in Applied Photonics and responds to the Integrative Technologies priority area, but also impacts on the Measurement and Sensing, Photonic Materials and Innovative Production Processes priorities. Technologies integrating photonics and electronics pervade products and services in any modern economy, enabling vital activities in manufacturing, security, telecommunications, healthcare, retail, entertainment and transport. The success of UK companies in this technology space is threatened by a lack of doctoral-level researchers with a grasp of photonic- / electronic-engineering design, fabrication and systems integration, coupled with high-level business, management and communication skills. By ensuring a supply of these individuals, our CDT will deliver broad-ranging impacts on the UK industrial knowledge base, driving the high-growth export-led sectors of the UK economy whose photonics-enabled products and services have far-reaching impacts on society, from consumer technology and mobile computing devices to healthcare and security. Building on the success of our current IDC in Optics and Photonics Technologies, the proposed CDT will again be configured as an IDC but will enhance our existing programme to meet industry's need for engineers able to integrate photonic and electronic devices, circuits and systems to deliver high value products and processes. Our proposal was developed in partnership with industry, whose letters of support show a commitment to sponsoring 71-74 EngD and 14-17 PhD projects -- 40% more than the minimum required -- demonstrating exceptional industrial engagement. Major stakeholders include Fraunhofer UK, NPL, Renishaw, Thales, BAE Systems, Gooch and Housego and Selex ES, who are joined by a number of SMEs. The CDT follows a model in which (annually) EPSRC funds 7 EngD students, with 3 more supported by industrial / university contributions. In a progressive strategy supported by our industrial partners, we will, where appropriate, align university-funded PhD projects to the programme to leverage greater industry engagement with PhD research in the consortium. The focus of the CDT corresponds to areas of research excellence in the consortium, which comprises 89 academic supervisors, whose papers since 2008 total 584 in all optics journals , with 111 in Science / Nature / PRL, and whose active EPSRC PI photonics funding is £40.9M. All academics are experienced supervisors, having each supervised on average >6 doctoral students, with many previously acting as IDC supervisors. The strategic commitment by the participating universities is evidenced by their recruitment since 2008 of 29 new academic staff in relevant areas (including 9 professors). An 8-month frontloaded residential phase in St Andrews and Glasgow will ensure the cohort strongly gels together, and will equip students with the technical knowledge and skills they need before they begin their industrial research project. Business modules (x3) will bring each cohort back to Heriot-Watt for 1-week periods, and weekend skills workshops will be used to regularly reunite the cohort, further consolidating it to create opportunities for peer-to-peer interactions. Taught courses will total 120 credits, and will be supplemented by new Computational Methods, Systems Integration and Research Skills workshops delivered by our industry partners, as well as public-engagement training led by Glasgow Science Centre. Another innovation is an International Advisory Board, comprising leading academics / industrialists , who will benchmark and advise on our performance. The requested EPSRC support of £4.5M is complemented by £2.8M of industrial / academic cash, covering the cost of 3 students in each cohort of 10. In-kind industrial / academic contributions are worth a further £5.4M, providing exceptional value.

Polar Zero aims to make an innovative cultural contribution to COP26 through an academic research and public science-art partnership that includes leading institutions - British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Arup, the Royal College of Art - in collaboration with artist Wayne Binitie, a PhD Fine Arts student funded by AHRC - http://waynebinitie.com/research. For the last 5 years Wayne has collaborated on the Data as Art project Aesthetics of Water with ice core scientists, the creative team and public engagement specialists at BAS. This project has led to public exhibitions, and the involvement of engineering expertise from Arup. The project is a critical element of Wayne's PhD research. Working with UKRI, UKRI-NERC and the UK Govt Cabinet Office Chief Events Officer for COP26, BAS has brokered a collaboration with the official COP26 venue partner - the internationally acclaimed Glasgow Science Centre. A programme of public engagement, intergovernmental science diplomacy, media and social media engagement will stimulate new ways of thinking, and new ways to express the impact of climate change on humanity. Polar Zero emerges just as the idea of rethinking the human and non-human history of the Polar Regions is more urgent than ever before. Polar Zero is a science-art collaborative partnership proposal that will: - Support the UK Government's COP26 plans - Celebrate UK research and innovation in the fields of science, art and engineering - Highlight UK's role in climate action - Inspire action at all levels of society from high-level intergovernmental policy to local communities - Generate positive media, stakeholder and public engagement - Further develop a science-art collaboration that brings personal and professional benefit to early career artist Wayne Binitie - Celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion

We propose building several novel optical instruments that extend the possibilities of conventional ray optics designs by utilising pixellated ray optics. The Glasgow team has pioneered micro-structured sheets called telescope windows (TWs), currently at the early demonstrator stage, that can perform very general light-ray-direction changes. They consist of arrays of micro-telescopes and can be understood as pixellated optical components (each telescope being a pixel) which introduce, at the boundaries between neighbouring pixels, discontinuities in the transmitted light beams. TWs therefore remove the global continuity of wave fronts, which in turn is assumed in the derivation of a number of properties (and therefore limitations) of light-ray fields. If the pixel size is chosen appropriately, the pixellation can be almost unnoticeable. The vision of this work is that, by replacing globally continuous wave fronts with piecewise continuous wave fronts, the possibilities offered by optics, specifically ray optics, can be significantly extended. The first applications of this technology form the focus of this proposal: * TWs can form pixellated transformation-optics (PTO) devices that work across the entire visible wavelength range. * TWs can distort the view as if the observer was moving at relativistic speed. *TWs form the basis of novel, low-cost, high-comfort, low-vision aids. Together, the applicants have the expertise to realise this wide-ranging project: DR is a world leader in micro-machining, enabling us to manufacture TW devices. GL and JG's ophthalmology and commercialisation expertise places us ideally to develop novel low-vision aids. We are also experts in pixellated ray optics (JC), relativity (MH, NG), mathematical physics (CW), and outreach (MH). We are applying for funding now to enable us to produce demonstrators of TW devices, illustrating the wide applicability of our technology, evaluating the limitations and quality of such devices, and investigating the production methods required for this new class of optical instrumentation.