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The Interdisciplinary Cluster(Designing Physical Artefacts from Computational Simulations & Building Computational Simulations of Physical Systems) met for the last time on Monday March 6th (the night before the main Design for the 21st Century scheme held its national meeting).
admin@interdisciplinary.co.uk
Starting with an introduction to the prototype and a summary of the Cluster's work to date, we then launched our Net Work protype of 9 floating and light emmitting buoys.
Venue : The Wapping Project
Wapping Hydraulic Power Station
Wapping Wall
E1W 3ST
Tel : 020 7680 2080 Get Map
Programme Information :
5pm Welcome and Introduction
5.45 Demonstration
6.30 Discussion
7.00 Dinner and Drinks Bar
More about Net Work
As the cluster progresses we will add new information to this page. We can include extracts of email correspondence with the sender's permission, so email us with comments and ideas that you think should be seen here or at any place on our website.
September 14th and 15th
Late Summer school of workshops. The key session in the workshop was lead by Dr Jon McCormack, Dept. of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Monash University. Jon is author of the book Impossible Nature: the art of Jon McCormack.
Researchers from UK were invited to submit brief position papers and to attend the workshop. The workshop focused on designing physical artefacts that connect to a simulation. Spaces were limited and the selection of particpants was made by the four co-ordinating investigators of this cluster. Our intention is that designs developed and shown during the workshop will be freely available from this website and will catalyse the wider dissemination of the results of this event.
Challenges in 21st Century Design – Exploiting Simulation and Visualisation
Workshop
Challenges in 21st Century Design
Exploiting Simulation and Visualisation in Design
To download an application form for the Workshop click here.
Please see the Projects page for design challenges.
September 14th and 15th, 9.30am to 5pm.
Late Summer school of workshops. We are happy to confirm that a key session in the workshop will be lead by Dr Jon McCormack, Dept. of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Monash University. Jon is author of the book Impossible Nature: the art of Jon McCormack.
The workshop will focus on designing physical artefacts that connect to a simulation. Spaces will be limited and the selection of participants will be made by the four co-ordinating investigators of this cluster. Our intention is that subsequently designs developed and shown during the workshop will be freely available from this website and will catalyse the wider dissemination of the results of this event.
Cluster members are invited to submit their own design challenge within the basic scope of this cluster.
In this workshop a certain number of design challenges that have been proposed by cluster members and are focused around the themes of this cluster will be addressed collectively in an interdisciplinary setting. Essentially these will be concerned with how we exploit simulation and visualisation techniques in design and how we design simulation and visualitions of natural systems.
If you wish to propose a design challenge then please send this to "admin@interdisciplinary.co.uk" and we will aim to put it up on the website so that it can be considered. Of course the design challenge will need to investigate ideas relating to this specific cluster. Also if you have any comments on the current design challenges then please write to the address above and we will endeavour to include them.
Cluster Title
Designing Physical Artefacts from Computational Simulations and Building Computational Simulations of Physical Systems - a Designing for the 21st Century Research Cluster
For attendees we can provide overnight accommodation on the 14th September, sustenance for the two days, and return travel to central London.
Venue
Room C 2.15
University of Westminster,
Cavendish School of Computer Science,
115 New Cavendish Street,
London
W1W 6UW Get Map
Interdisciplinary approaches to design using modelling, simulation and visualisation.
Friday June 24th 2005 University of Westminster
Room M421 35 Marylebone Road London NW1 5LS
The workshop was focused on designing real-world physical artefacts that will enhance our lives in some way. This workshop set the agenda for the ongoing activities of the cluster.
Schedule
09.30-10.00 Registration
10.00 Mark d’Inverno and Jane Prophet
Welcome and outline of the day. Introductions round the room. Introduction to the Cluster and summary of our aims. Our collective background working on an interdisciplinary project looking at new theories of stem cells. We will discuss some of the issues that we believe this cluster should address about the relationship between simulating natural systems and exploiting those techniques in the design of physical artefacts. Mark d’Inverno will discuss why Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) would seem appropriate for modelling natural systems, especially stem cells. He will show some of the simulations of stem cells built to date. Jane Prophet will talk on the relationships between simulation, visualisation and physical objects and the viewer/audience perspective. The focus will be on inter-disciplinary collaboration across art, science and design.
11.00 Chris Melhuish
The ability of a group of robots to reliably perform their task collectively employing limited computation, sensing and communication offers many potential advantages. For instance, a collective group has built-in redundancy, in that it can withstand a certain amount of agent loss and still achieve its goal, whereas a solitary complex robot may be disabled by the loss of a single sub-system, making the task impossible. Recently, engineers have drawn on such lessons from nature and developed groups of simple autonomous mobile robots, which use simple (or minimalist) rules to act co-operatively in the pursuit of a shared goal. The roots of this minimalism spring from the study of what are sometimes called ‘lower animals’, where ‘lower’ relates to the degree of behavioural sophistication. Through what we perceive to be simple behaviours, collections of such animals can perform tasks that transcend the capability of the individual. For example, studies of social insects have shown that individuals, ‘limited’ in their ability, can collectively achieve remarkable feats and that this appears to be achieved without recourse to many of the aspects often considered necessary for “intelligent” behaviour. Recently, great interest has arisen in the area of collective systems and many researchers, using these techniques have implemented multiple robotic systems.
11.15 Coffee
Discussion on emerging themes for cluster
11.45 Mark Miodownik
Biological forms are limited to what nature can persuade cells to do through shape change, division and growth. You want a whale? Nature starts from a single cell. You want a petunia? Nature starts from a single cell. The central question is this; is biology’s approach an evolutionary relic, clever, but ultimately to be surpassed by component construction? Or are there hidden advantages to nature’s construction method, tricks that make it superior? Will we end up growing bridges through nanotechnology rather than building them? The aim of our work is to investigate the mechanics and physics of self-assembly mechanisms in biological tissues.
12:00 Rob Saunders
I will present some observations about the use of the Processing development environment in teaching art and design students how to program. Processing is a Java-based programming environment that has been specifically designed for teaching basic programming skills, it is particularly well suited for teaching students that are motivated to explore the creative potential of programming. As well as being a useful teaching tool, Processing provides an excellent introduction to the Java programming language that allows artists and designers that wish to continue their explorations beyond the limits of what can be taught in class to do so without having to learn a new programming language.
12:15 Tim Blackwell
I am developing live, interactive and autonomous computer programs for improvised music. These bio-inspired systems - Swarm Music/Granulator - interact with human performers by mapping the external (sonic) environment onto attractors in the dynamic space of the virtual swarm. The motion of the swarm around these attractors produces an improvisation - the whole process is also animated. A further project with the artist Janis Jefferies explores visual and sonic texture with a map from live sound onto textile designs, and a swarm derived manifestation of these images back into sound. I am very interested in how this cluster might link up with the EPSRC funded Live Algorithms for Music research network (www.livealgorithms.org). A key issue here is the possible embodiment of the live algorithm, and how this might influence human collaborators - we call this "Digital Reciprocity"
12.30 Adrian Bowyer
Open-source Hardware - Distributed Collaborative Design: Open-source software is now mature and established, and the movement for it has collaboratively created some world-class results. Why is there no open-source hardware? If everyone had a versatile computer-controlled manufacturing machine costing just hundreds to put on the table beside their computer, then individuals could collaborate to develop and to distribute physical products independently of industry along the same path that open-source software has already trod. This talk will describe a project that is attempting to make this a realistic proposition. The key idea is a small versatile computer-controlled manufacturing machine that will be capable of making almost all its own component parts in addition to the products mentioned above. The entire machine and all its designs will be distributed free under the GNU General Public Licence, like much open-source software. Such a self-copying machine would have a number of interesting characteristics besides its low cost. http://reprap.org
12.45 More round-table discussion and moving towards themes for discussion in the afternoon session.
13.30 - 14.30 Buffet Lunch.
14.30 - Mette Ramsgard Thomsen
14.45 - Joe Brock
15.00 Round table discussion based on matters arising from morning sessions.
15.30 Tea break
16.00 Round table discussion and setting agenda for Cluster in general and September workshop in particular.
17.00 (or earlier) Finish and drinks at local pub.
Attendees
Michael Bacon (administrator)
Tim Blackwell
Adrian Bowyer
Joe Brock
Mark d’Inverno
Stasha Lauria
Celine Loscos
Ben MacArthur
Chris Melhuish
Mark Miodownik
Jane Prophet
Mette Ramsgard Thomsen
Rob Saunders
Alastair Patterson
Catherine Watling
Interdisciplinary approaches to design using modelling, simulation & visualisation.
Friday June 24th 2005 at University of Westminster
Attendees Biographies
Tim Blackwell is developing live, interactive and autonomous computer programs for improvised music. These bio-inspired systems - Swarm Music/Granulator - interact with human performers by mapping the external (sonic) environment onto attractors in the dynamic space of the virtual swarm. The motion of the swarm around these attractors produces an improvisation - the whole process is also animated. A further project with the artist Janis Jefferies explores visual and sonic texture with a map from live sound onto textile designs, and a swarm derived manifestation of these images back into sound. He is interested in how this cluster might link up with the EPSRC funded Live Algorithms for Music research network (www.livealgorithms.org). A key issue here is the possible embodiment of the live algorithm, and how this might influence human collaborators - we call this "Digital Reciprocity". t.blackwell@gold.ac.uk
Adrian Bowyer is senior lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, at the University of Bath working in the Biomimetics Research Group. His PhD was in tribology at Imperial College in 1979. Since then his primary areas of research have been geometric modelling, geometric computing, and their applications in the design and improvement of CAD systems. His secondary, and more recent, area of research has been biomimetics. He is now primarily engaged in a project to create a von Neumann Universal Constructor using rapid prototyping. Details can be found http://reprap.org on the web. A.Bowyer@bath.ac.uk
Joe Brock is a Phd Researcher at University of Westminster, supervised by Jane Prophet and Mark d’Inverno, and runs the illustration studio at The National Institute for Medical Research. His interest in the Cluster relate to his research into Novel techniques for developing narratives for medical and scientific illustration The primary aim of my research is to investigate the application of animation techniques to the design and production of scientific and medical research visuals, in order to develop a greater theoretical understanding of the methodology involved in producing visualisations for specific audiences, and to develop a model of ‘best practice’. jbrock@nimr.mrc.ac.uk
Mark d’Inverno is Professor and Director of the Centre for Agent Technology at the University of Westminster and has been one of the UKs leading researchers in the formal modelling of agent-based systems for the last 10 years. He is best known for developing the SMART Agent Framework with Michael Luck using formal methods. Much of this research can be found in a book entitled Understanding Agent Systems, which is now in its second edition. He has collaborated with a number of leading agent researchers such as Michael Luck, Michael Wooldridge and Mike Georgeff and has published over 60 papers in this area in the last 10 years. In addition, he has co-authored a further book published in 2004 on agent-based software development. He was one of the founding members of the UK’s special interest group on MAS and was general co-chair of the fourth and fifth UK workshops (UKMAS 2000 and 2001) that were both supported by the EPSRC. He was the general co-chair of the First European Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (EUMAS) held at Oxford University in December 2001, which attracted over 130 people. In addition, University of Westminster is a founding member of the EPSRC funded project entitled AgentCities UK and is an original member of the European Network of Excellence for Agent-Based Computing (AgentLink I, II and III). In the last year or so he has branched from his formal, theoretical work to more practical and cross-disciplinary projects such as a MAS approach to modelling stem cell behaviour and using MAS techniques to build intelligent responsive music installations. dinverm@wmin.ac.uk
Stasha Lauria is a Lecturer at Brunel University. He received a degree (Laurea) in Physics from the University of Naples, and a PhD degree in Cybernetics from the University of Reading. He has been working on robot navigation and on robot-human interactions. His research interests are in the areas of robotics, artificial intelligence, and human-machine interactions. Dr. Lauria has published a number of journal papers on mobile robot training and programming by using natural language. stasha.lauria@brunel.ac.uk
Celine Loscos is a lecturer at UCL and has been part of the project Equator since September 2000. I was previously doing a PhD at iMAGIS-GRAVIR/IMAG in Grenoble, France. I am part of the Virtual Environments and Computer Graphics group. My research interests are on real-time rendering for virtual environment. The The central goal of the Equator IRC is to promote the integration of the physical with the digital. In particular, we are concerned with uncovering and supporting the variety of possible relationships between physical and digital worlds. Our objective in doing this is to improve the quality of everyday life by building and adapting technologies for a range of user groups and application domains. Examples include: combining physical and digital cities to promote people's understanding of the world within which they live, and to enhance wayfinding and access to physical and digital artefacts, information and people. creating new forms of play, performance and entertainment that combine the physical and digital so as to promote learning, participation and creativity. exploring how new technologies that merge the physical and the digital can support activities outside of the workplace, including maintaining family and social relationships in the home, and supporting work in the open air. My current research topic is to make virtual cities looking realistic. I am involved in two IST European projects, CREATE and PUREFORM. C.Loscos@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Ben MacArthur is Post Doctoral Fellow in the Bone & Joint Research Group at Southampton General Hospital. He studied mathematics at the University of Southampton, obtaining an M.Math degree in 1999, with particular emphasis on applied mathematical modeling, and mathematical biology. He subsequently went on to study for a PhD at University of Southampton on mathematical modeling of malignant growth and invasion, which was concerned with the influence of growth induced stresses and the chemical environment on evolution of structure in avascular multi-cell tumour spheroids, as well as the effect of host-tumour interactions on cell invasion. His current research interests are in applying mathematical modeling techniques to understanding complex biochemical and mechanical mechanisms in tissue formation, and applying this understanding to the design of more effective tissue engineering protocols. bdm@soton.ac.uk
Chris Melhuish is Professor and Director, and co-founder, of IAS, the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Engineering Lab(www.ias.uwe.ac.uk) in the Computing, Engineering & Mathematical Sciences (CEMS) Faculty at the University of West of England, Bristol, and has 15 years experience in designing and constructing robot equipment. The last 10 years have been spent working on autonomous robot systems. He has recently led a project involving the accumulation of low energy solar power input to provide the power for a group of submersible robots. He is a co-investigator exploring how microbial fuel cells can generate energy from foodstuffs and has implemented a system with the Ecobot robot. He is currently also working on collective energy management in a robot swarm with a Visiting Researcher sponsored by the Japanese Defence Academy. He has experience in running large scale collaborative multi-disciplinary research projects working with neuroscientists, psychologists, aero engineers, chemists, biologists and microbiologists. chris.melhuish@uwe.ac.uk
Mark Miodownik received his BA in Materials Science from St Catherine's College, Oxford in 1992 and his PhD in turbine jet engine alloys from Oxford University in 1996. In 1997 he was employed in the USA as a research scientist at Sandia National Laboratories. Mark won a Newman research fellowship at University College Dublin in 1999 and the following year was appointed a lecturer at Kings College London. In 2003 he was awarded a NESTA fellowship to develop an Engineering Art Lab. His main research expertise is Materials Science, specifically in the areas of self-assembly of microstructure, nanomaterials and biological systems. He is a member of the Materials Research Group at King's, has current research contracts with Sandia National Laboratories and the BBSRC. He won a grant for a 24 processor Beowulf cluster, which has processing capability of 81 GigaFlops. In 2005 he organised and chaired a seminar series at the Tate Modern on the influence of new materials on the arts. He is actively engaged in a number of collaborative Art/Science projects including; a NESTA project to build a new materials archive for artists and designers; the development of a EngineeringArt undergraduate teaching module and the organisation of a EngineeringArt network dedicated to the Art and Science of Materials funded by the EPSRC. He has published 37 research papers, and writes a regular column on the arts and science of material for the journal Materials Today. mark.miodownik@kcl.ac.uk
Alastair Patterson is course leader of M.Sc. Computer Games Programming and teach computational simulation of physical and (non-physical) systems. The central theme in this is design of soft physical artefacts (e.g. Cars for racing games) within a multi-disciplinary environment of software engineers, games designers and graphic artists. pattera1@westminster.ac.uk
Jane Prophet is Professor and Co-Director of CARTE (Centre for Art Research Technology and Education), an interdisciplinary research centre based at University of Westtminster. Her research (as evidenced by both exhibitions and publications) addresses how creative collaborations between different disciplines take place. She is a visual artist whose artworks include the award-winning website, TechnoSphere, which used artificial life to simulate the behaviour of up to 70,000 Alife agents living in a dynamic 3D graphic environment. TechnoSphere was nominated for a BAFTA in interactive arts (2001). The website won a Distinction in Prix Ars Electronica and was part of the DTI and British Council international touring show High Definition: British Design for a Digital Future, launched in Hong Kong (1998). In 1999 it won a Special Mention for Innovation in Alife research and was recognised by the international jury for Life 2, and as ”one of the first examples of an online Alife ecosystem . . . pioneering work in the area.” A real time 3D version is permanently exhibited at the National Museum of Photography, Film and TV, Bradford. Many of her artworks are produced in collaboration with computer programmers and engineers. For example, TechnoSphere with the graphics and Alife programmer Dr Gordon Selley, and Distinctions and Counterposes, which used 3D rapid prototyped models with a nano-coating of silver made from MRI’s of human hearts, with Dr Adrian Bowyer. The latter was undertaken as part of a Leverhulme residency at Bath University in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. In 2004, she was nominated as one of thirty international innovators and mentors in digital design for the lab.3000 Digital Design Biennale. She has recently been awarded a NESTA Dream Time Fellowship. jane@janeprophet.com
Mette Ramsgard Thomsen is an architect working with interactive technologies. Her research centres on the design and development embodied interfaces for dynamic interactive environments. Exploring the question of behaving technologies, she is engaged in a spatial practice creating new performative environments defined by physical as well as digital dimensions. m.thomsen@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Rob Saunders has lectured in a number of related subjects including computer science, videogame technology, digital art and architecture. Rob works as a consultant with artists, designers, scientists and mathematicians to develop intelligent artworks, computational design systems, and simulations of biological processes. By working with creative individuals from many fields, Rob is continuing his long-term interest into the research and development of advanced computational systems to model creative processes and support human creativity. Prior to becoming a consultant, Rob studied Artificial Intelligence at Edinburgh University where he developed an award-winning project using interactive evolutionary computing systems to explore of novel design spaces. Rob went on to complete a Ph.D. at Sydney University where he developed a computational model of curiosity to investigate its role in individual and social creative processes. Since leaving Sydney, Rob has applied the findings from his doctoral research to his professional work, enabling him to develop innovative computational systems including an intelligent logo design system for an international design firm and a curious artwork distributed across several galleries in the south of England. rob@robsaunders.net
Catherine Watling specialises in inter-disciplinary work with a special interest in art/science based research. Her work predominantly focuses on the alternative use of digital tools to create interactive experiential environments. Research continues on ‘Minutiae’, a project which explores theories of evolution and climate change through the analysis of microscopic organisms using the Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope. Her interest in the Cluster focuses on the following questions: ‘Virtual’ v’s ‘real’ immersion – what is real and what is a simulation? What is the role of an artist within a scientific/technological/computational environment? How is a virtual experience valid to our experience of the world around us? Is our experience of the physical world changing because of our exposure to created or simulated experiences? What does ‘virtual’ mean when our entire experience of the world could be seen as ‘virtual’? contact@catherinewatling.com |
