Robert Lloyd - a Sir Gar Blog of random news . . . and some Clecs!

Aberystwyth University computer scientist and Advanced Reasoning expert Professor Chris Price will speak at India’s biggest knowledge and technology conference which is being held in New Delhi 7-9 November 2016. The India-UK Tech Summit has been organised as part of the 2016 UK-India Year of Education, Research & Innovation and will be addressed by UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India. The event is described by the organisers as “bringing together the most exciting thought leaders, businesses, educational institutions and innovators to connect and explore the future of India-UK collaboration”. Professor Price will be discussing the ‘Goals of Intelligent Robotics’ in a session on Robotics and Autonomy. He will share the stage with the UK Government’s Chief Technical Officer Liam Maxwell and researchers from Leeds and Edinburgh universities. Robotics research at Aberystwyth University will also be represented at one of the summit’s six Exper...

Students from QE High School in Carmarthen are making a ‘big bang’ in the world of science and engineering. Staff from the council’s Property Design team have been working with Year 12 pupils on their Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) projects. It is part of the Engineering Education Scheme Wales (EESW) which encourages sixth form students to study engineering courses in further or higher education. The students work with local companies and organisations and are given research and development briefs related to real industrial problems. QE High students were asked ‘to create an educational environment fit for the 21st century in Wales, where it will meet the needs of the community and provide the best learning provision for the area’. The brief was developed by the Property Design team to reflect the objectives of the 21st Century Schools and Education Programme. Officers worked closely with the students on two projects – one to investigate methods of chlorine r...

Aberystwyth University has been shortlisted for the Technology, Innovation and Application award in this year’s Association of Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA) Awards. Celebrating innovation and success in research management and administration, the ARMA awards are open to all UK higher education institutions and celebrate the best examples and successes in seven categories, including; technology & innovation, impact and collaboration within Universities. Recognition for this award came as a result of the recently launched Online Research Ethics Assessment and Application Smart Form; ensuring research activities across the University achieve the highest standards of ethics and integrity, whilst reducing the administrative burden on our research colleagues. It has also been a useful tool developing the research skills of our staff and students alike. Commenting on the shortlisting, Gary Reed, Director of Research, Business and Innovation at Aberystwyth University sai...

Aberystwyth University students living in University seafront residences will be able to enjoy super-fast internet access following the installation of a new Dark Fibre Network. Working with Pinacl Solutions, the University has invested over a quarter of a million pounds in the new network that connects the Penglais Campus with the seafront residences which provide accommodation for 450 students. The new Dark Fibre Network connects eight University buildings covering a total distance of 3,400m and consisting of over 58,000m of singlemode fibre and is operational from 30 April. The new development means students will be able to access multimedia material and video on the internet much quicker than previously. Initially this wide area network will run at 1 Gigabyte per second, facilitating download speeds that are much quicker than those experienced by most people through their home broadband. For the longer term it has the capacity to deliver speeds of 10 Gigabytes per second and beyo...

Aberystwyth Technocamps is set to run another calendar of fascinating two-day bootcamps during 2013 to inspire young people to use Rasberry Pi, Minecraft and LEGO Mindstorm. The first bootcamp Rasberry Pi – Networked Adventure’ will be held during February half-term (11-12 February) at Aberystwyth Arts Centre and will offer young people the chance to explore the potential of the credit card sized computer. The sessions will be run by one of the Technocamps’ team at Aberystwyth University. Dr Mark Neal, one of the academics involved is aware of the huge interest in the small and accessible Raspberry Pi now being manufactured in Sony’s UK factory in Pencoed, South Wales. He said, “The Raspberry Pi Foundation, based in Cambridge, is keen to drive down the unit cost of manufacturing the robust Pi and UK-based production costs are fortunately competitive. The founders of the Pi want to ensure that computing is accessible to so that young people can develop their skills in programming and el...

HPC Wales – the high performance computer project which will speed up innovation and give Welsh businesses a cutting edge – has appointed its chief executive. David Craddock, 60, has been director of enterprise and collaborative projects at Aberystwyth University since 2009. Mr Craddock is already a director of HPC Wales. He has been acting CEO of HPC Wales, the £40million project which will provide a world-class super computing network, a research and innovation institute and a skills academy. The project now enters a key phase following the announcement that global technology giant Fujitsu is the successful bidder to partner with the universities in Wales to create the computer project, which will stretch to the four corners of Wales and have a reach across the rest of the globe. The contract is worth £15 million over four years to Fujitsu, who will provide infrastructure and services along with subcontractors Microsoft and Intel It represents a quantum leap forward in high performan...