Computing scientists at the University of Aberdeen are involved in a unique partnership with America to research technology which could help with future rescue and humanitarian relief operations around the world.
Aberdeen is part of a consortium of 24 world-leading universities and companies, led by IBM, and is the only Scottish institution to have secured part of the overall £72M ($135.8M) package. The £2.9M ($5.3M) being awarded to Aberdeen is the highest-ever award of funding to have been given to the University’s College of Physical Sciences.
The institution is to receive the funding as part of the UK Ministry of Defence and US Army Research Laboratory’s International Technology Alliance (ITA) programme in Network and Information Sciences.
A simultaneous UK/US launch for the project was held yesterday (September 18) at IBM sites in London and New York.
The funding has been awarded to computing scientists at Aberdeen - Dr Alun Preece, Reader and Principal Investigator, Dr Timothy Norman, Senior Lecturer and Head of Computing Science, and Professor Derek Sleeman, Director of the Advanced Knowledge Technologies Project.
The successful bid was in response to the International Technology Alliance call, which was open to industry-led consortia consisting of equal partnerships between UK and US industry and academia.
Potential applications for the fundamental research include rescue and humanitarian relief, peacekeeping, and other 21st-century military operations. The team from the University will provide basic research in technologies for knowledge management, communication, and co-ordination among members of multinational coalitions.
The Department of Computing Science (part of the University’s College of Physical Sciences) specialises in Intelligent Systems and is internationally recognised for its research in both Intelligent Agents and Knowledge Technology.
Dr Alun Preece, Principal Investigator, is delighted that Aberdeen’s bid has been supported by the unique ITA programme. He explains: “Imagine future versions of web-style tools like Google Maps being used to provide up-to-date and to-the-point information to emergency services involved in trying to cope with a humanitarian relief operation in response to a major earthquake in a developing country.
“Aberdeen’s Intelligent Agent technologies will help people to keep in contact by co-ordinating all their activities, and interacting and negotiating with the right people, whether this may be in military, governmental and non-governmental organisations.”
The ITA funding will enable the University to help individuals who are faced with very challenging decision-making tasks under extremely difficult field environments where effective collaboration with others is crucial to the success of an operation.
Dr Preece added: “As information is fed to coalition partners via sensor networks in the field, our Knowledge Technologies will intelligently reconfigure the network to provide the best coverage for the tasks at hand, and to cope with sensor failures. The aim is to make operations more effective and efficient - saving lives, saving time, and saving money.”
Professor Albert Rodger, Head of the College of Physical Sciences at the University added: “We are delighted at the announcement that the University of Aberdeen is to share part of this international funding package from the ITA.
“The funding is for 10 years and will ultimately fund 60 person-years’ of research effort at the institution. It will enable us to continue to build upon Aberdeen’s international strengths and research in Knowledge Technologies and Intelligent Agents.”
Other UK universities involved in the consortium include Cambridge, Imperial, Southampton, and York; US partners include Columbia, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Maryland, and University of California, Los Angeles. In addition to IBM, industry partners include Boeing, Honeywell, and Logica CMG.
The formation of the ITA creates an innovative new model for collaborative technology research where projects will be undertaken by transatlantic virtual teams comprising US and UK researchers.
“With the ITA, the US and UK are pioneering a ground-breaking new model, drawing upon academia and industry for a world-class research and technology partnership,” said Paul Horn, Senior Vice President, IBM Research. “The ITA program is designed to break down the barriers between different technical areas and define synergistic projects that promote co-operation across international and organisational boundaries.”