Cluster Activities: (1st July 2003 – 30 Sep 2004)
Meetings:
The First
(Inaugural) EPSRC Cluster Meeting was held on 11 July 2003 at Stirling University. The agenda
and minutes are available.
The Second
EPSRC Cluster Meeting was held on 22 August 2003 at Stirling University. The agenda
and minutes are available, and there is a research review report (by
the Cluster RFs) for this meeting, which can be sent/emailed upon request.
An additional
sub-Cluster Meeting was held on 20 November 2003 at Strathclyde
University, to review research progress and discuss planning arrangements
for the next (Third) Cluster meeting. One potential Cluster proposal (termed
small-scale proposal) was discussed in the area of modular learning and
co-ordinated control involving Stirling and Strathclyde partners.
The Third
EPSRC Cluster Meeting was held as part of a one-day Workshop
co-sponsored by the IEE, on 23rd January 2004 at Strathclyde University. Further
details on the aims of the Workshop including confirmed Keynote
Speakers, can be found here. About 25 people attended the Workshop, and schedule/programme
is available. Presentations of the Keynote Speakers and the Cluster research
review/progress report presented by the Cluster RFs are available upon
request from the Cluster Co-ordinator. A meeting of the Core Cluster Group
members was also held at the end of the Workshop, in which progress on the
first Cluster proposal (in the area of modular learning and co-ordinated
control) was reviewed by the Strathclyde and Stirling
members. Potential new research areas of interest for developing additional
larger-scale Cluster proposals were also discussed by the Core Cluster
members from Stirling, Strathclyde, Hull, UMIST and Sheffield, and it
was decided that the discussions would continue in subsequent (follow-up)
Cluster meetings.
An additional
(follow-up) core-Cluster Meeting between UMIST, Hull, Strathclyde and Stirling
members was held on 27 February 2004 at UMIST, Manchester to review research progress and further discuss new
ideas for developing large-scale Cluster proposals involving multiple
partners. New research areas were identified for developing one or two
additional Cluster proposals: including, multi-modeling strategies,
learning control, fault-tolerant and holistic control, involving UMIST, Hull, Strathclyde and Stirling.
Other potential partners were also identified, such as Sheffield,
Edinburgh, Birmingham
and Oxford Universities.
Two additional
sub-Cluster meetings between
Strathclyde and Stirling members were held in Strathclyde University, on 11 March and 6 April to review progress on
development of the small-scale Cluster proposal in the area of modular
learning & co-ordinated control of complex systems. It was also decided
to include Dr. Gani from Imperial College as an additional collaborator in the Cluster
proposal, in order to further strengthen the application case study aspects
of the proposal. It was agreed that this FIRST small-scale Cluster proposal
would be completed and submitted by the end of May 2004, and
planning/progress on the other two larger-scale Cluster proposals would be
reviewed and finalized at the next and final Cluster event on 27 May.
The Final/Fourth
EPSRC Cluster Meeting co-sponsored by the Advanced Control Technology
(ACT) Club (ISC Ltd.) and the IEE was held on 27 May 2004 in Glasgow, which additionally served to disseminate the
results of this Cluster project. Further
details can be found here and the invited/keynote presentations are
available upon request.
It was decided at
the Core Cluster Meeting (held at the end of the Workshop) that in addition
to the completed FIRST ‘small-scale’ Cluster proposal (on modular learning
and co-ordination in complex systems), two additional multi-disciplinary
research grant proposals would be finalized and submitted by the Cluster
deadline of 1 July 2004, as follows:
·
A SECOND Cluster
proposal (termed ‘medium-scale’ proposal) in the area of multi-agent based
learning modelling and estimation was discussed and approved for further
development and submission, which would involve Strathclyde, Stirling,
UMIST and Hull Universities, in addition to potential industrial
collaborators.
·
A THIRD Cluster
proposal (termed ‘large-scale’ proposal) draft (developed and distributed
by Dr. Hussain prior to the meeting) was discussed at considerable depth
during the Panel Session led by Prof. Grimble. It was agreed by the various
interested participants that the proposed general area of holistic control
of complex engineering systems through the development of a novel
computational framework would provide a sufficiently rich and complex
challenge to allow the various potential consortium members to collaborate
in a sensible and coherent manner. A total of eight (academic) members for
the consortium were mutually agreed, including Stirling,
Strathclyde, Hull, UMIST, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Sunderland and Brunel Universities.
Shortly after the
Workshop, the writing tasks for both the above proposals were allocated and
a provisional timetable for co-ordinating the writing and submission was
jointly-prepared by the Core Cluster members. The provisional distribution
of resources and potential industrial partners were also identified for
both proposals.
Through extensive
co-ordinated efforts by all the Cluster members,
both the above (SECOND medium and THIRD large-scale) proposals were finally
submitted to meet the 1 July 2004 deadline, with all enjoying significant additional industrial
support and participation. The FIRST ‘small’ Cluster proposal (involving Stirling,
Strathclyde and Imperial College, together with various industrial partners) had
already been submitted earlier, by the first week of June 2004 as planned.
A summary of
ALL THREE submitted Cluster proposals (termed ‘small’, ‘medium’ and ‘large’
proposals), including their aims, objectives, and list of collaborators
can be found here.
For the
reviewers’ convenience, the lists of references for the small,
medium
and large
Cluster Proposals are available on-line (as they could not be included
in their respective Case for Supports due to lack of space). The summary of
the EPSRC Individual Grant Review form for this Cluster project is also
available.
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