A fast-evolving strand of modelling and visualisation research at Abertay involves both masters and PhD students as well as established researchers in the area of computer games technology. Frequently carried out in collaboration with industry, this strand includes highly complex modelling projects such as improving the on-screen simulation of hair and fur, or making on-screen objects move through time and space more realistically.
Abertay researchers have already succeeded in getting computer-animated characters to display more believable facial expressions and emotions in reaction to changing circumstances, rather than to a pre-ordained script.
Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms and fuzzy logic are also being researched at Abertay, not just for their potential in computer games, but in simulation technologies more generally, such as flight training simulators or power station control systems.
Modern society relies increasingly heavily on ever more complex systems and data networks to govern telecommunications, transport, healthcare delivery, energy production and distribution, water and sewage systems and so on. The sheer scale of these networks makes centralised control less and less effective.
Abertay researchers are working with other universities around the UK to explore ways in which soil-dwelling fungal organisms could be used as models for decentralised control networks in critical infrastructures. Large-scale fungal organisms are among the oldest living entities on the planet, and are capable of distributing nutrients efficiently around a network of filaments, re-routing and repairing filaments in the event of damage, and even redistributing parts of the organism to areas of high resource within the soil.
Meanwhile, Dr Nat Jack is working with colleagues in other universities and within industry on modelling more cost-effective approaches to the servicing of two-dimensional warranties offered with many products such as new cars (for example, three years or 60,000 miles). Manufacturers incur additional costs as soon as consumers claim against a warranty, and two-dimensional warranties can be costly and tricky to manage. Dr Jack is modelling strategies for determining whether to repair or replace components so as to better control these costs.
Elsewhere in Abertay, Professor Heather Tarbert is modelling the factors underlying the financial crisis that broke in late 2008. This is a subtle and complex mesh of psychology, technology (computer-moderated trading), macro-economic policy drivers, and trends in global demand for essentials such as energy versus supply patterns. The results of this modelling promise new insights into how to prevent or ameliorate global financial crises in the future.
Abertay’s expertise in physical modelling and measurement is making a significant contribution to various national and international advanced engineering projects. These include the UK Linear Collider Collaboration, the RCUK Basic Technology Programme-funded Alpha-X project, and both the Energy Recovery Linac Prototype and the 4th Generation Light Source (4GLS) at Daresbury Laboratory, as well as the Felix Project and the International Linear Collider.
Abertay researchers are contributing their electro-optic diagnostic techniques for the electron bunch profile measurements vital to enable these major new devices to give, for example, chemists and biomedical researchers new insights into how complex molecules work. Large devices producing highly tunable and very bright light at very short wavelengths allow us to ‘see’ chemical bonds forming, but to understand what is happening we need to be able to measure accurately the characteristics of very short pulses of electrons.
Abertay’s experts are devising ways of making those measurements in the extremely short timescale of femto-seconds (where one femto-second is a millionth of a nano-second). Accurate measurement enables more precise control of the process, helping researchers using the devices to see dynamically what’s going on when chemical bonds form, and eventually exploiting the new knowledge to, for instance, see how drugs actually work in real-time, thus optimising their beneficial effects.
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