Previous events
Modelling Urban Dynamics
6-7 April 2005
Nigel Gilbert, University of Surrey
Elizabeth Bruch, UCLA
Understanding the way that cities develop is of major importance worldwide, and of great interest to geographers, sociologists, economics and political scientists, as well as to policy makers. However, conventional methods of understanding urban development have not been very successful in dealing with the complexities of urban social dynamics. Recently, new forms of computational modelling, including agent-based modelling, have begun to be used, but as yet there is no agreement about how such models should be constructed or the kinds of task for which they are best suited. This inter-disciplinary workshop will provide a forum for current work in this area, bringing together the leading social scientists, computer scientists, physicists and policy specialists to discuss these exciting developments.
The seminar was also sponsored by EXYSTENCE, the EU Complex Systems Network of Excellence.
Microbial Systems Biology
14 - 15 JULY 2005
Johnjoe McFadden, University of Surrey
Claudio Avignone-Rossa, University of Surrey
Twentieth century biology has been a triumph of the reductionist scientific approach as the organism was dissected into cells and then into biomolecules. The terminus of reductionist biology was however reached in the late 1990's with the publication of the complete genome sequence of many organisms and particularly the publication of the human genome in 2001.
However, the genome only provides the genetic code., It doesn't tell us how to read the code nor how the genes work together to generate a living breathing organisms. The next step, the task for the 21st century biology, is to reverse the reductionist path and reconstruct the whole organism from the genome. That is the task of Systems Biology. This international seminar will bring together the leading scientists developing Systems Biology to plot its future path and major research challenges.
Theoretical Aspects Of Pattern Formation
20 SEPTEMBER 2005
Ian Melbourne,University of Surrey
Alastair Rucklidge, University of Leeds
Bjorn Sandstede, University of Surrey
In association with a Newton Institute programme entitled Pattern Formation in Large Domains.
Pattern formation is a wide-ranging subject encompassing areas from fluid mechanics to solid-state physics, and from chemical to biological systems. Pattern formation is also a rich source of mathematical problems, providing interesting mathematical challenges in the field of applied partial differential equations, nonlinear dynamics and bifurcation theory. The formation of patterns in small domains can be studied near onset by a bifurcation-theorectic approach, but the range of validity of the normal form equations shrinks to zero as the domain size increases. The resolution of this issue is to employ a continuum description of bifurcating patterns in unbounded domains. In one space dimension, the reduction to an amplitude equation has been put on a rigorous mathematical foundation. However, similar progress on two dimensional pattern formation is prevented by a fundamental mathematical difficulty: the orientational degeneracy of the plane. This workshop addressed aspects of this problem, and brought together leading pure and applied mathematicians and experimentalists to examine the issues common to a wide variety of pattern-forming problems when these are posed in domains that are large compared to the intrinsic characteristic length scales of the pattern.
Agent-based models of market dynamics and consumer behaviour
17-18 January 2006
Nigel Gilbert, University of
Surrey
Iqbal Adjali, Unilever Corporate Research
Traditional marketing models have usually employed equilibrium statistical techniques and have tended to focus on aggregate variables, such as market share or price elasticity. However the top-down, static and aggregate approach of traditional methods cannot deal with key factors influencing buying behaviour such as the heterogeneity of the consumer population and the role of social networks in propagating word of mouth. As a result, current models in marketing science sometimes use unvalidated assumptions about consumer behaviour and have limited explanatory and predictive powers. The potential of agent-based models for providing better explanations of the dynamics of consumer markets is still, however, in its infancy. The workshop surveyed current work and explored the most promising directions for future research.
Spatial Audio and Sensory Evaluation Techniques
6-7 April 2006
Francis Rumsey, University of Surrey
The first international workshop on 'Spatial audio and sensory evaluation techniques' was run at the University of Surrey on 6-7 April 2006, organised by Francis Rumsey and Slawomir Zielinski of the Institute of Sound Recording, in association with the Audio Engineering Society's British Section. There were 35 participants, including five PhD students from Surrey and a further five from other institutions. Delegates were drawn from a wide range of countries including USA and Canada (4) and Continental Europe (11).
As a result of the workshop, delegates identified the major issues to be addressed in forthcoming work on the sensory evaluation of spatial audio, in particular the need for broader agreement about attribute definitions and reference stimuli, the importance of separating hedonic and descriptive judgments, the need to take account of listening context and the importance of valid physical metrics for spatial audio quality evaluation. One of the most important academic outcomes of the seminar was the development of a greater degree of interdisciplinary understanding between those 'hard' scientists who might have wished that human variables could be minimised or eliminated, and those who felt such factors were really the key issues of future research. There was an overall plea arising from some delegates for a pragmatic approach to future research that avoided too much obsession with the finer points of methodology, that could be summarised in the words "Let's get on and do it".
Definition of Best Indicators for Land Use Impacts for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
12 - 13 June 2006
Dr Llorenç Milà i Canals, Dr Sarah J. Cowell, Professor Roland Clift, and Professor Jim Lynch
Modelling the impacts derived from land use into a meaningful set of indicators is of paramount importance in order to guide our actions to reduce these impacts. Despite significant efforts to derive land use impact indicators over the last two decades, there is still no consensus on how to include these indicators in LCA — an increasingly used analytical tool for the environmental assessment of a product or service throughout its entire life cycle.
This workshop, hosted by the Centre for Environmental Strategy, will bring together experts on biodiversity and soil quality impact indicators from all over the world, as well as LCA model developers and practitioners from different sectors, with the aim of defining the best land use impact indicators for LCA. The workshop continues the work developed under the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative within the Taskforce 2 of the impact assessment programme.
Globalizing Retail — Transnational Retail, Supply Chains & the Global Economy
17 - 18 July 2006
Michelle Lowe, University of
Surrey
Neil Wrigley, University of Southampton
The scale and rapidity of the internationalization of retailing, and the emergence of an elite group of retail transnational corporations (TNCs) since the mid 1990s have been surprisingly neglected topics in the social sciences. Yet the impacts of a deluge of retail FDI in the emerging markets of East Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America have been profound, and transnational retailers have also put into place extensive international supply networks of considerable consequence for the global economy.
The interdisciplinary seminar will provide a forum for current research in this area, documenting and debating the rise of transnational retail since the mid 1990s and assessing its broader impacts on global and local supply chains, on labour standards, on the nature of consumer society in emerging markets, and so on. It will pose questions of considerable importance to a range of social science disciplines concerning the organisational challenges retail TNC's face in operating across national and institutional divides, and the developmental consequences of these firms and their supply networks on host economies in emerging markets.
Biologically Inspired Information Fusion
22 - 23 August 2006
Dr Matthew Casey, Dr Antony Browne, Dr Paul Sowden and Dr Hujun Yin
Our understanding of both natural and artificial cognitive systems is an area of research that is developing into a multi-disciplinary subject with the potential for significant impact. There is considerable interest in how our understanding of natural systems may help us to apply biological strategies to artificial systems, and vice versa. A workshop is to be held at Surrey to bring together researchers from the different disciplines interested in natural and artificial multi-sensory processing. The workshop will focus on how we can improve our understanding of sensory fusion within the context of computational systems that can learn to integrate information.
Advanced Space Vehicle Control
1 September 2006
Dr Vaios Lappas, Professor Sir Martin Sweeting (both of Surrey Space Centre), Christian Philippe (European Space Agency)
Attitude Control for Space Vehicles has evolved significantly in the past decade. Recent advances in microelectronics, control theory and new space missions have created a new set of requirements, applications and challenges for the control of space vehicles. New space missions, especially those using small satellite will require novel, low cost and low complexity algorithms and hardware for successful control of space vehicles. The seminar will bring international leading scientists from industry, academia and government agencies to discuss and debate different approaches for the design of future, low cost control systems for space vehicles.
HOX genes in development and disease
23 April 2007
Prof. Hardev Pandha and Dr Richard Morgan (Dept. of Oncology, PGMS)
This will be the first international meeting to focus specifically on this intriguing and rapidly expanding field. Classically studied as determinates of embryonic identity, the HOX genes are also known to play key roles in adult processes such as stem cell determination, and their miss expression is associated with disease states including leukaemia and other cancers. The meeting will provide a forum for experts in these different fields to present their work and to discuss the regulatory and mechanistic overlaps that exist between different HOX functions.
Audio Description for Visually Impaired People
28 - 29 June 2007
Margaret Rogers and Sabine Braun (Centre for Translation Studies, University of Surrey)
Audio Description is a means of helping visually impaired people to follow TV programmes, films and theatre performances by using quiet moments in the original to provide a description of the actions, the scenery, body language, and other relevant details. AD is the key to improving access to audiovisual material for VIP.
In AD, visual images are 'translated' into text i.e. transferred between 'modes', raising challenging new questions for translation studies, a discipline which has traditionally been concerned with translating messages between languages. This seminar aimed to map out a research agenda for this emergent area that identified key research questions and methodologies, drawing on multimodal discourse analysis, film and media studies, and creative writing as well as analysis of visual content.
Young People, New Technologies and Political Engagement
24-25 July 2007
Dr Rachel Brooks (Dept. of Political and Policy Studies) and Dr Paul Hodkinson (Sociology)
Against the backdrop of increasing concern about the disengagement of youth from politics and the public sphere, the relationship between new technologies and young people's political engagement and participation is a cross-disciplinary issue of considerable importance not only to academics but to practitioners and policymakers across the world. This seminar contributed to the development of research and theory in this crucial area by providing a forum for scholars from across the world to share the findings of empirical and theoretical work, discuss the policy implications of their research, and strengthen their international and inter-disciplinary ties.
Sleep, circadian rhythms and cognition: bridging the genotype-phenotype gap
28 – 30 November 2007
Dr Malcolm von Schantz, Dr Simon Archer, Prof. John A Groeger, Prof. Derk-Jan Dijk (Surrey Sleep Research Centre)
Sleep and circadian rhythms have a profound impact on physiology, health and brain function including cognition, learning and memory. Within the Surrey Sleep Research Centre, we have successfully initiated a multidisciplinary collaboration between scientists from different disciplines. We believe that a systems biology approach is needed to further our understanding of how events at the molecular and cellular level can influence complex biological mechanisms such as sleep and cognition. In a meeting of international leaders from key disciplines, we aim to identify the best ways forward for future research towards understanding the interactions between sleep, circadian rhythms and cognition.
Recovery After Work
31 March – 1 April 2008
Dr Mark Cropley (Psychology) and Dr. Jason Devereux (PGMS)
The workshop brought together international researchers in the broad areas of psychology, biology, medicine and ergonomics.The workshop addressed the following topics:
- Antecedents (resources involved, work relatedness, and individual diversity);
- Processes (biological and psychological pathways);
- Activities (recovery/coping activities);
- Environments (physical and social environments);
- Outcomes (Cognitive, physiological, and behavioural).
An edited special journal issue or book based on the presentations and discussions at the meeting will be published. The workshop will hopefully lay the foundations for an international network dedicated to the study of recovery at work.
From Production to Consumption — Legal and Policy Challenges for a New Approach to Climate Change
30 May 2008
Sustainable consumption has become not just an option, but an imperative for a successful climate strategy. Production focused policies are not enough and they must be complemented by approaches that take into account the role of consumption in climate change. A consumption based approach implies a move towards allocating national responsibility for emissions and emissions reduction based on the supply chains of goods consumed within a country, rather than the emissions occurring within that country's own borders. This workshop explored possible legal and policy challenges moving towards consumption as the basis for responsibility for emissions and their reduction. Three main issues were debated:
- Sustainable Consumption, Policy and Regulation
- Sustainable Consumption and Trade Law
- Sustainable Consumption and Emissions Trading
The workshop was organised by the Surrey European Law Unit, the Environmental Regulatory Research Group and the Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES), including some CES members of the RESOLVE consortium
Investigating the Theory and Practice of Gender and Sexuality in the Workplace
12 – 13 June, 2008
Dr Ann Cronin and Dr Paul Johnson (Sociology), Trevor Welland (Centre for Learning Development) and Dr Helen Allan (Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences)
Empirical and theoretical work around gender and sexualities is an important feature of intellectual labour within and across academic communities, both nationally and internationally. However, despite the diversity and volume of research on gender and sexuality in the workplace, disciplinary boundaries and conventions often result in connections remaining unacknowledged, or unexplored. Likewise, discussions between academics and policy makers and practitioners are important for the formation of policy and research agendas that address many of the challenges within this area and can encourage knowledge transfer between academics and practitioners.
The seminar aims to provide an inter-disciplinary forum within which both academics and practitioners a re able to explore the often complex and contested relationships between work, gender and sexualities.
Sustainable Practice in Universities: Leading and Improving
4 September 2008
Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES) and Estates & Facilities Department of the University of Surrey
Universities are major players in regional, state, and local economies, and are responsible for educating the next generation of decision-makers in government and business. Over the past two decades, universities have experienced unprecedented growth to accommodate increasing numbers of young people entering higher education. Broadening access to higher education means increased services and activities that require new ways of managing land use, waste and recycling, transportation and parking facilities. It also means realising the role universities play in the wider community and exploring opportunities for adding value to local and regional economies. Perhaps more critically, any growth will have to take place within a carbon constrained world where tougher legislations and regulations are expected to define the margins for practice. Waiting for these regulations to arrive is no longer a viable option. Universities need to innovate on many fronts with a view to translating the concept of sustainability to the day-to-day running of university-wide operations and promote smart growth. A higher education sustainability conference will be held at Surrey that will bring together facilities managers, university decision makers, sustainability managers, and higher education professionals from around the UK and beyond.
This conference has four inter-related objectives:
- To share experiences of sustainability practices and strategies between universities;
- To appreciate the legislative and regulatory field with regard to sustainability and their effect on managing universities;
- To explore the potential for integrating environmental and social considerations into planning processes;
- To identify ways to raise the profile of sustainability and to improve links with the wider off-campus community.
Her Make is Perfect: A Seminar Interrogating Women's Dramatic Writing, Text and Performance (1600-1830)
5 – 6 September 2008
Professor Rachel Fensham (Dance Studies) and Professor Marion Wynne-Davies (CMC)
'Her Make is Perfect': a seminar interrogating women’s dramatic writing, text and performance (1600-1830) is the first event of a new collaboration between the Departments of Dance, Film and Theatre and English at the University of Surrey and the Guildford School of Acting. The first day of the seminar will be held at Chawton House Library, which opened in 2003 and holds a unique collection of women's writing. At the University of Surrey the establishment of new degree programmes in English and Theatre Studies, together with the expertise in drama and women's writing of Professor Marion Wynne-Davies and Professor Rachel Fensham, has served to initiate research expansion in this area. Students from the Guildford School of Acting, directed by Kate Napier, will contribute to the performance aspect of the programme at Chawton. As such, the seminar offers an exciting opportunity to promote regional, national and international research on women's dramatic writing of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Creating Infrastructure For Canonical Typology
January 9—10, 2009
Dr Dunstan Brown, Dr Marina Chumakina and Dr Anna Kibort (Surrey Morphology Group)
There is a growing movement within Linguistics to promote the use of ontologies for linguistic description. However, differences in terminology and the underlying logic assumed are major stumbling blocks. One way of addressing these problems is to adopt the canonical approach to typology by taking defining properties and placing them in a multidimensional space. In this way we can treat, for example, issues of whether particular constructions fit under the rubric 'agreement' or 'case' as a matter of greater or lesser proximity to a canonical ideal.
A two-day international seminar was held at Surrey in January 2009, addressing the issues relevant for the creation of an ontology for Canonical Typology in the form of a Community of Practice Extension (COPE) within the General Ontology for Linguistic Description (GOLD). It brought together computational linguists, fieldworkers and typologists, as well as researchers working specifically on ontologies.
Mobility and Creativity: Narrative, Representation and Performance
July 3 - 4, 2009
Dr Sarah Gibson and Dr Churnjeet Mahn (Department of English)
Mobilities has increasingly become central to the analysis of social relations in contemporary society where it often appears that 'all the world is on the move', from the movement of diasporas, tourists, migrants and refugees. While the emergence of this new 'mobility paradigm' (Sheller and Urry, 2006; Urry 2002, 2007) originated within the social sciences, this conference focuses on how such a 'mobility turn' has been narrated, represented and performed within the arts and humanities. The two-day international conference aims to explore creative responses to these diverse mobilities in literature, art, film, and theatre for example. How have these complex mobilities been negotiated and critiqued through creative practice? Is creativity dependent upon mobility?
The Mother War: Current Trends and Critical Discources
June 25 - 26, 2009
Dr Roberta Guerrina (Department of Politics), Dr Helen Allen (Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences), Dr Ann Cronin (Department of Sociology) and Dr Lynne Millward Purvis (Department of Psychology)
Can women/mothers have it all? This workshop will explore current trends and debates about the changing role of women in society. Reports of changing attitudes towards working mothers have made headline news in the last few months. In the last three decades there have been numerous reports about the impact of working mothers on child's health, psychological wellbeing, educational success, and socialisation. It seems that either working mothers are the root cause of all social ills or have become the scapegoat for the failings of social and welfare policies. This workshop will survey scholarly debates on gender and the social construction of mothering, thus unpacking the relationship between the theory and practice of mothering.
From Animals to Humans: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Zoonotic Diseases
May 21 - 22, 2009
Dr Lisa Roberts (Biosciences), Dr Roberto La Ragione (Veterinary Laboratories Agency) and Prof. Prema Arasu (North Carolina State University)
descriptive Zoonotic diseases threaten our health, food safety and livestock industry and also have global consequences impacting trade, economics and security. The increasing importance of zoonotic diseases makes multi-disciplinary studies at the interface between human and veterinary medicine important and timely. This workshop will focus on combining the areas of human and animal health, to develop an integrated approach to the study of zoonotic diseases and to explore ideas for strategic development of veterinary/public health education. It will be run jointly by the University and colleagues from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, the Institute for Animal Health and North Carolina State University