post by Giovanni Schiazza
An enrichment event with care-experienced young people
post by Cecily Pepper (2019 cohort)
My research surrounds the exploration of how social media can impact the mental wellbeing of care-experienced young people. In June 2023, I ran an enrichment event for young people in care with the help of my supervisor, Elvira Perez Vallejos. As my doctorate journeys into its final stages, it was important to me to consider how I can maximise the impact of my work. Along with public engagements and presentations, Nottingham City Council and I decided that a broadening horizons event at the university would be the most impactful for the young people. With the help of Mark Ball, who has kindly offered advice and support throughout my research regarding safeguarding, Elvira and I set to work on the organisation of an event that would be both enjoyable and offer the opportunity to discuss higher education and research.
Along with Nottingham City Council, we decided to reach out to the Cobot Maker Space: an innovative space that explores human-robotic interaction at the University of Nottingham (https://cobotmakerspace.org/). While this space is not directly linked to my research, it was thought to be an ideal choice for the visitors as it’s an interactive and fun space that would be enjoyable and inspiring. The Cobot Maker Space kindly agreed to hosting the event and providing fun demonstrations, whilst also generously gifting the young people with a robotics kit.
After liaising with the stakeholders, the enrichment event was organised for June 2023. The event consisted of a tour of the Jubilee campus, interactive demonstrations led by the Cobot Maker Space team, and (crucially) pizza and snacks. The young people were encouraged to ask any questions they had regarding university or higher education, which they did indeed take the opportunity to do so. All of the young people asked questions about college or university, asking about different courses and paths into higher education. It was a pleasure to have these discussions with them and we spoke about how care experience might impact this. I spoke about my research with care-experienced young people who have been to university, showing that it is possible for anyone to go to university if they want to, despite the challenges they face and how unlikely it may seem for them.
The young people and their residential carers thoroughly enjoyed the event, with the cobot demonstrations being incredibly well-received. Feedback received from social workers showed how excited the young people were, with them talking about research and robotics with the other young people and staff when they got home. This feedback was greatly appreciated, and we were very pleased that the event had been impactful for the young people. In addition to this, the event also had an impact on the university staff and researchers, as it triggered discussions surrounding further outreach events such as after-school clubs for care-experienced young people and people from other minority groups.
Overall, the enrichment event was successful, and I’m pleased to say it made a positive impact on the young people. I’d like to extend my thanks to everybody involved, but especially the researchers at the Cobot Maker Space who went the extra mile to ensure the event was fun, interactive and inspiring.
Participatory methods for digital inclusion
post by Oliver Miles (2018 cohort)
Reflections on values orientated ideation as an outreach activity
I previously reflected on my research internship with digital accessibility and mobility start-up ‘CityMaaS’, focussing on the resulting ‘drivers and barriers to digital inclusion’ report and my own experiences of working in the world of start-ups. In this post I’ll focus instead on the leadership and methods I brought to the work – a participatory ideation workshop drawing on principals of values-sensitive design (VSD) [1] – positioning this as a form of outreach to two key stakeholders: CityMaaS as the host organization and corporate professionals as participants.
As an independent researcher embedded with CityMaaS I was asked to critically uncover the drivers and barriers to digital inclusion services across three diverse B2B organizations from financial, healthcare, and higher education sectors that were current or potential clients.
This first entailed understanding the host organization’s perspective on digital inclusion priorities, by listening to CityMaaS software and digital inclusion subject matter experts and building a detailed inventory of their solutions in terms of core features and functions. These would later serve as card-based options and provocations in a collaborative workshop.
Considering participant organizations, I then spoke to heads of web and digital, interviewing them regarding their journeys and priorities regarding digital inclusion, with a view to uncovering core themes which could be positioned as corporate ‘practical values’ [2]. These were presented alongside software features and functions in later ideation workshops for wider web and digital teams to participate in, with a view to articulating speculative use cases.
In the example above, participants reason that the accessibility questionnaire feature of the web-page personalization tool ‘Assist Me’, considering its user data dashboard functionality, might be applied to the everyday internal practice of raising support tickets for the end-users. Conceivably, this might fulfil the chosen practical value of ‘deriving knowledge of end-users through their interaction data’ (Figure 1).
This process was repeated for three practical values chosen as priority issues across three existing software solutions using a card-based framework inspired by VSD, presented in Miro[1] (Figure 2). This resulted in a final ‘wildcard’ digital inclusion software solution being incrementally articulated, tailored to the needs of the participant. Aside from these research output, I would outline the following two benefits of the approach I took as relevant to outreach objectives.
Sharing a replicable, inclusive methodology: The VSD ideation workshop is inclusive as a practice, and in terms of the method, and can easily be reappropriated in future projects requiring participatory or deliberative approaches.
Advocating for an important equality, diversity, and inclusion issue: I was able to participate in CityMaaS’ broad stated agenda of improving ‘…the way the disabled community consumes accessibility data and services’ by contributing to raising corporate awareness of the challenges of web-accessibility, digital mapping and real-world navigation, and alignment to global web-accessibility standards [3]. As participatory methods emphasise the importance of all stakeholders working toward a shared objective, which in this case was ‘journeys to digital inclusion’, I felt this enabled constructive interactions that did not conflict with my ability to critically reflect on strengths and weaknesses in either the participant’s responses, or CityMaaS’ offering more broadly.
References
[1] T. Winkler and S. Spiekermann, “Twenty years of value sensitive design: a review of methodological practices in VSD projects,” Ethics Inf Technol, vol. 23, no. 1, 2021, doi: 10.1007/s10676-018-9476-2.
[2] T. Nilsson, J. E. Fischer, A. Crabtree, M. Goulden, J. Spence, and E. Costanza, “Visions, Values, and Videos: Revisiting Envisionings in Service of UbiComp Design for the Home,” 2020, doi: 10.1145/3357236.3395476.
[3] CityMaaS, “Homepage,” https://www.citymaas.io/, Jun. 03, 2022.
Call for Participants – Biometric Recognition of the Hand in Uncontrolled Images
post by Gabrielle Hornshaw (2021 cohort)
Hello
My name is Gabrielle and I am a second-year PhD candidate at the Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT). I am looking for participants to contribute data to a new hand image dataset and earn a £10 Amazon voucher in return (first 50 respondents).
We are aiming to collect a wide variety of images of each participant’s hands, under different lighting conditions and performing different poses and gestures. To do this, we will be asking for 8 short videos (like these: https://youtu.be/Z5OPjIjQwi4) to be self-recorded and uploaded by participants. These recordings should take no more than 5 minutes in total but be done across a period of at least 1 day.
This data will be used to develop techniques for hand matching (deciding whether two hands are the same or not) with the aim to improve investigative processes in cases of abuse with perpetrator-recorded images, where hands can feature more often than faces. Automation of this analysis can improve the efficiency of investigations and reduce some of the human burden of viewing harmful material.
For more information on the project please see the information sheet below. For more detailed recording instructions, and to confirm your participation and submit your videos, please visit this survey:
https://forms.office.com/e/TnRStTT97z
If you do not have a University of Nottingham email address to complete the survey and would still like to participate, please email me directly at gabrielle.hornshaw@nottingham.ac.uk.
Please feel free to contact me with any further questions.
Best regards,
Gabrielle Hornshaw
Reflecting on my placement with RSSB
post by Sam Smith (2021 cohort)
In Autumn 2022, I spent 3 months completing a placement in the Human Factors team at RSSB (Rail Safety and Standards Board). The placement was remote, but I was invited to come and see the office before I started. The office is in London and has a very modern but welcoming atmosphere. I enjoyed a morning being shown around the office and meeting new colleagues, followed by a couple of briefings to chat about the project and what my contributions would be.
The project that I was working on was looking at the Safety Management Intelligence System (SMIS). SMIS is a system that is designed to be a central data hub for reporting safety incidents within the rail industry. Specifically, we were interested in encouraging Train Operating Companies (TOCs) to engage more actively with SMIS. Initially, given my background in mathematics, I was tasked with delving into the data and uncovering insights that would encourage TOCs to invest more time into inputting all their incidents.
Despite finding some surface-level insights, it was clear that without some guidance from the TOCs themselves, I was searching blindly through the data. I made the decision that it was crucial to speak to TOCs to understand why they weren’t already engaging with SMIS and what their expectations were. I communicated with my team at RSSB, and we set up some meetings with TOCs. Over the next period, I conducted a series of interviews which were useful in understanding the perspectives of the different companies.
Each week my team and I had a catch-up meeting to discuss the work we had done and plan the next steps. It was useful to discuss the findings of my meetings and what other parts of the team had found so that I could improve for the upcoming interviews. Over a period of a month or so, I completed several meetings and made copious notes about the different perspectives. I then collated my findings and created a final presentation I shared with my team at RSSB.
During my placement, I used several different skills that will be useful during my PhD. I conducted some basic data analysis before identifying a fundamental problem with the task briefing. After identifying the problem, I communicated it with my team and proposed a solution that was feasible and sensible. In order to do this, I had to present the problem in a digestible and comprehensive way. I found that this was a daunting task to start with because I hadn’t been involved in an industry project before and I was unsure whether it was my place to suggest changes. Of course, the team was hugely receptive to my suggestions and that gave me confidence moving forward.
Another challenge was conducting interviews with industry professionals because it was my first time doing anything like that. Judging the tone of the interviews was difficult but I improved over the course of the placement. In the end, I felt more confident communicating with stakeholders, which is something that will be immensely helpful in my PhD. Something that I learned during this process was that each stakeholder had very contrasting views, despite their similar standpoint, so it is important to not assume any perspectives.
Overall, the placement was incredibly useful for me to see how industry works and to be exposed to new challenges. While the content of the work wasn’t directly comparable to my PhD, the skills I developed and the challenges I faced will help me complete the PhD. I am very grateful to the Human Factors team at RSSB for their support and guidance throughout the PhD. I would recommend anyone to get involved in projects where they have a good amount of creative license and responsibility as it can really help develop you as a researcher.
Call for Participants – Sustainable Food Study
post by Milly Clover (2021 cohort)
Interested in shaping the future of sustainable food systems in the UK?
The Sensory Science Centre is seeking participants for an online survey as part of the Sustainable Food Study and we would love for you to get involved!
To participate in the survey, you will need to meet the following criteria:
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- Be aged 18 years or older
- Be a UK resident
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If you meet the criteria and would like to take part in the survey, please click on the link below. The survey will begin with the participant information sheet and consent form. Please read them for full details of the study. Providing you meet the eligibility criteria and consent to partaking, you will be asked a series of questions relating to the sustainability of our food in the UK. The survey should take approximately 20 minutes to complete. As a thank you for your time and participation, you have the option to be entered into a prize draw at the end of the survey by submitting your email address. This is to be in with a chance of winning 1 of 5 £20 Amazon vouchers.
Study Link:
https://nottingham.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/food-sustainability-in-the-uk-survey-2
If the link to the survey is not working, please copy and paste the link into the browser.
Please feel free to forward this onto others who are interested in participating in this survey. Alternatively, you can pass on the research team details if they would like to contact us directly:
(Milly Clover, Survey Coordinator: sb-sustfood@nottingham.ac.uk)
Many thanks in advance,
Milly
Milly Clover
PhD Student in Sustainable Food Systems
Horizon CDT 2021 Cohort
The Intersection of AI and Animal Welfare in Cat Royale: A Reflection on Public Engagement as a Computer Vision Expert
post by Keerthy Kusumam (2017 cohort)
Recently, I had the chance to be a part of an interview video that focused on my role as a computer vision expert in the upcoming project, Cat Royale, developed by Blast Theory. This project aims to explore the impact of AI on animals and specifically, cats. As a computer vision expert, I was thrilled to share my work and knowledge with the audience.
Reflecting back on the experience, I realize that my main aim for the video was to educate the public about the use of computer vision technology in animal welfare. The field of animal welfare has always been close to my heart, and I saw this opportunity as a way to demonstrate the impact that technology can have in this area. The Cat Royale project is a unique and creative way to showcase the application of computer vision technology in animal welfare, and I wanted to highlight this aspect of the project in the video.
The target audience for the video was the general public with an interest in technology, AI, and animal welfare. To reach this audience, I had to consider and adapt my language and presentation to suit their level of understanding and interest. I broke down the concept of computer vision technology and its application in the Cat Royale project into simple terms that could be easily understood by everyone. I also emphasized the importance of involving experts in animal welfare in the design of the project to ensure the comfort and safety of the cats.
In the video, I discussed how the computer vision system in Cat Royale measures the happiness of the cats and learns how to improve it. I highlighted the unique design of the utopia created for the cats, where their every need is catered for, and how the computer vision system understands the activities to make the cats happier. I explained that the ultimate goal of the project was to demonstrate the potential of computer vision technology in improving animal welfare.
One of the biggest challenges I faced in the video was ensuring that I provided enough technical detail for the audience to understand the concept of computer vision technology, while also keeping it simple enough for a general audience to grasp. To achieve this balance, I used analogies and examples that related to the audience’s everyday lives, making it easier for them to understand the concept.
It is important to note that people often assume that the computer vision system makes decisions about the happiness state of the cats. However, this is not the case. In fact, it is the cat experts who identify a list of behaviours that show the happiness state of the cats. The computer vision system can then reliably detect these behaviours, which inform the happy or not happy state of the cat.
In conclusion, the interview video was a great opportunity for me to share my work and knowledge with a wider audience and to spread awareness about the exciting possibilities of computer vision technology in the field of animal welfare. The Cat Royale project is a unique and creative way to showcase the application of computer vision technology in animal welfare, and I was thrilled to be a part of it. The experience has also given me a new perspective on the importance of adapting my presentation to suit my audience and ensuring that my message is effectively communicated.
Publishing Conference Paper – A valuable experience
post by Keerthy Kusumam (2017 cohort)
I published my conference paper, ”Unsupervised face manipulation via hallucination” in the International Conference on Pattern Recognition. The paper focused on a generative computer vision method to alter the pose and expression of a facial image in an unsupervised manner. I spent several months conducting experiments, analyzing the results, and discussing our findings. I received valuable feedback from my supervisors, which helped us to improve the quality of our work.
After the initial submission, I received comments from reviewers who provided suggestions for revisions. I took these comments into consideration and worked hard to make the necessary changes. This process was challenging as well as rewarding in the end. The paper was accepted to be presented as an oral presentation at the conference. The reception of our paper was quite positive and received several questions and comments from attendees. This was a valuable opportunity for me to network and receive feedback.
The motivation behind writing my conference paper was to explore the current state of face manipulation technology and to identify potential future directions for research in this area. As a 2nd year PhD student, I wanted to demonstrate my knowledge and understanding of the field, as well as contribute to the use of generative AI in face manipulation tasks. My main objective was to present a comprehensive overview of the current state of the field and to identify areas that could benefit from further research, especially behavioural monitoring in affective computing. In these areas, data is limited, and the use of generative AI can synthesize realistic data for further analysis.
I approached the research process by first conducting a thorough literature review to understand the current state of face manipulation technology and to identify gaps in the current research. I then used various research methods, such as conducting interviews with experts in the field and collecting data from various sources, such as academic journals, conference proceedings, and online forums. I also conducted experiments to validate some of my findings.
My key findings showed that the field of face manipulation is rapidly advancing and that there are many promising areas for future research. I discovered that there are various technical and ethical challenges that must be addressed to ensure that face manipulation technology is used responsibly. These findings impacted my original objectives by reinforcing the need for further research in this area and by highlighting the importance of responsible development and use of face manipulation technology.
I presented my research in the conference paper using a clear and concise writing style, and by using various visual aids, such as diagrams, graphs, and tables, to help illustrate my points. I also used a logical structure, with clear introductions, conclusions, and recommendations, to ensure that my ideas were easily understood by the conference audience. I also made sure to clearly state my findings and to provide context for each of the points I was making. The contributions were accompanied by experimental evidence.
One of the main challenges I faced while writing the conference paper was ensuring that my research was comprehensive and up-to-date. To overcome this, I made sure to regularly consult with my supervisors and to gather feedback from my peers. I also took the time to review relevant literature and to stay informed about the latest developments in the field.
As a result of writing the conference paper, my understanding of the topic of generative computer vision methods has deepened, and I have gained a better appreciation for the complex and rapidly evolving nature of this field. I have also gained a deeper understanding of the technical and ethical challenges that must be addressed to ensure responsible development and use of face manipulation technology.
The feedback I received from the conference audience was quite positive. Many attendees commented on the comprehensiveness of the research. Some attendees suggested areas for further research, which I have since incorporated into my future plans, especially in using this method to anonymize face datasets.
Overall, my conference paper on unsupervised face manipulation via hallucination was a valuable experience that allowed me to contribute to the field of generative computer vision and gain valuable insights into the complex nature of this field. The research process allowed me to deepen my understanding of the technical and ethical challenges that must be addressed in order to ensure responsible development and use of face manipulation technology.
Rising Spring – Awakening and Arrivals
post by Pavlos Panagiotidis (2022 cohort)
The Rising Spring: Awakening and Arrivals interactive installation is Makers of Imaginary Worlds (MOIW) latest project and will be presented at Lakeside Arts until May 2023. It is a compelling example of how multisensory interactive art can create a fun and playful experience for children and family audiences. MOIW and Lakeside Arts are the industry partners of my Horizon CDT PhD project, where I explore mixed reality performance-making methods. My task was to identify elements of the event’s narrative design and its impact on the audience’s engagement, with the aim of exploring the potential applications of digitally enhanced narratives in mixed reality theatre production.
The inspiration for the installation was the theme of spring and the feeling of transition to the blossoming season. It was designed to evoke the feeling of rejuvenation. The designers were also inspired by the beautiful landscape of Lakeside Arts, and incorporated aspects of the natural environment into the installation. MOIW designed the installation to engage the audience’s senses beyond sight, with an additional focus on touch and sound.
One of the most exciting parts of the installation is the stepping stones, where children can jump around stone-looking fabric shapes in an imaginary lake. The stones respond to people stepping on them with sounds, allowing participants to cooperate and create small symphonies and encouraging children to work together. The installation also contains giant flowers, some of which are robotic and open when approached by participants. Matt Little, the creative technologist who supported the creation of the installation, focused on ensuring that the event was safe for children and would operate continuously with minimum service. Tom Hartman from the School of Life Sciences of the University provided some 3D anaglyph images of bugs made up of red and cyan filters. By using 3D glasses, the audience could see bugs from a unique perspective, providing more layers of unique sensory engagement.
Another interesting aspect of the installation is the use of scale. The large-scale flowers and objects create an unfamiliar and aesthetically pleasing environment for children to immerse themselves. Additionally, the installation encourages visitors to leave their own mark by sharing their spring drawings. This adds a personal touch to the event and makes visitors feel part of the experience.
A critical consideration in designing interactive installations for children is promoting agency and playfulness while finding the right balance regarding the instructions provided. Too little information may leave some participants without experiencing the full extent of the event, while too much information may strip away the joy of exploration and discovery. The Rising Spring installation strikes the right balance, allowing children to explore and discover at their own pace while still providing enough information to guide them.
Overall, the event allows children and family audiences to engage with interactive art in a fun and playful environment. It encourages exploration and discovery. As the installation evolves over time with new material and activities added, repeat visits offer surprises and discoveries for participants. “Rising Spring” at Lakeside Arts is an example of how interactive installations can offer a memorable experience for young children.
Podcast: Christine Li reflects on Placement
Christine Li, a fourth-year Horizon CDT Phd candidate, is focusing on the design and study of VR prototypes for at-home bodily training, such as performance arts or sports.
Christine’s industry placement took place at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm at the Media Technology and Interaction Design (MID) department. Christine reflects on her time at KTH, the lessons she gained there and how it has influenced her research.
Listen to Christine’s podcast: