Project

AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION OVER ATN/IPS (ATMACA)

Nicola Wilkinson

Grant awarded:  1,965,583.75 EUR (Total EU Grant Awarded); DMU to receive 353,396.25 EUR

Funder: EU – HORIZON-SESAR-2023-DES-ER2-WA2-2

Project Leads: Raouf Hamzaoui (PI) and Feng Chen (Co-I)

The ATMACA (Air Traffic Management and Communication over ATN/IPS) project proposes an innovative solution that enables effective, seamless, interoperable air-to-ground datalink communication and digital flight monitoring and management through aeronautical telecommunication (ATN) based on the Internet Protocol Suite (IPS) within all domains of flight. ATMACA aims at supporting the “air-ground integration and autonomy” initiative in the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), which presents strategic roadmaps to achieve SESAR phase D “Digital European Sky” in the European ATM Master Plan 2020 edition. ATMACA proposes a beyond the state-of-the-art IP-based datalink communication solution by introducing an application-layer mobility management for ATN and enabling commercial of-the-shelf equipment. It will also provide a next generation human-machine interface (HMI) that will process higher quality data, enable interactions with existing and future aeronautical applications and services, and meet the needs of end-users. The ATMACA solution will be validated through real-time simulations and real-time monitoring tests by considering relevant applicable SESAR key performance areas and indicators, as well as industry standards. The consortium consists of a balanced mixed of universities and industrial partners (an air navigation service provider, an airline, and a research and consultancy firm specialized in HMI design) to ensure the project meets its objectives.

Philleted Phish – detecting phishing emails using sentiment analysis

Nicola Wilkinson

Grant awarded: £31,000

PI: Trevor Wood, supported by Iryna Yevseyeva, Vitor Basto Fernandes, and Eerke Boiten

Funder: CyberASAP, Innovate UK

It is estimated that cyber-attacks cost UK businesses £37bn per year, most of which ends up in the hands of organised crime. It is also estimated that around 90% of these attacks start with a phishing email.

Many phishing emails have been relatively easy to spot in the past as they contain poor spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. However, with generative AI now being more accessible, it is easier to make phishing emails more realistic and remove these obvious markers. Moreover, these phishing emails are designed to bypass spam filters without being detected.

Philleted Phish will detect phishing emails, whether they attempt to trick victims into visiting a phishing website or perform some other action, such as transferring money to the attacker’s bank account or providing information useful to a larger social engineering attack. Unlike current phishing email detection software, it can be used by domestic users, micro-businesses, and SMEs without requiring expensive and specialised hardware.

Development of Advanced Elderly Care Robot in Home Environments

Monica Chudasama

The UK is an ageing society. Currently, more than one-fifth of its population is over 60. The number of people aged 85 will double by 2041 and treble by 2066. Research shows that 82% of 85-year-olds suffer from at least one long-term condition. Robots have the great potential to mitigate the upcoming elderly care challenges. However, existing robots are still far away from delivering satisfactory care services. One of the main reasons lies in the lack of intelligence in understanding human behaviour. In this proposal, we aim to address this challenge by developing advanced human action recognition algorithms to help the robot understand the intention of human subjects and further provide instant assistance in home-based environments. Despite active research and significant progress in the last few decades, human action recognition in home-based environments remains challenging due to the occlusion, viewpoint and biometric variation, various execution rates etc. This project will develop a smart sensing platform which consists of a humanoid robot and several RGBD sensors mounted in different locations to cover the human activity areas. Advanced multi- sensor-based human action recognition algorithms will be developed to recognize human intention in various home-based environments. The system will be able to simultaneously conduct action detection and recognition in a real-time performance so that the robot can provide an instant response.

Evolving Innovation In The British Film Industry Through Mental Health And Disability Equality: Meeting The Skills Gap In Screenwriting.

Nicola Wilkinson

Grant awarded: £149,865.40

PI: Jason Lee

Funder: British Academy

This higher education (HE) and industry collaboration tackles a dual need through meeting the UK film industry’s screenwriting skills gap by enabling those with mental ill-health and/or disabilities to join the industry. The UK film industry is booming. New Sky Studios in Elstree alone will create 3,000 jobs. Inward investment in the industry is £3 billion with the domestic industry matching this figure. The industry is struggling to find employees who have the necessary skills in screenwriting. This project analyses this opportunity by expanding the knowledge of mental health and disability in HE and the film industry advancing screenwriting quality and employment. Those with disabilities are the most discriminated against group in the industry; almost nine out of 10 in the industry have poor mental health. The reasons for this are addressed with solutions implemented through critical and creative outputs meeting this urgent two-fold need for equality and skills.

Social Media Narratives: Addressing Extremism In MiDdle AGE

Nicola Wilkinson

Grant Awarded: £555,598.52

PI: Sara Wilford

Funder: EU – Horizon Research and Innovation Programme

SMIDGE is a project dedicated to exploring the impact of extremist narratives on the middle-aged population. As part of an EU-funded Horizon research project, we are investigating the attraction of extremist content on social media and how it influences this group. Our goal is to provide policy-makers with valuable insights and recommendations through our reports, policy briefs and counter-narrative videos. Stay up-to-date with our latest findings, news and upcoming events such as webinars, roundtables and conferences.

Misinformation, conspiracy theories and extremism online are growing concerns for governments and society at large. The way social media algorithms work often incentivizes the spread of such ideas, as they generate more engagement and revenue. This phenomenon can have a direct impact on perceptions of democratic institutions, trust in science and calls for direct action to overthrow or disrupt democratically elected governments. Middle-aged individuals (45-65) are particularly susceptible to extremist narratives, and their involvement in such content could have significant consequences for political discourse, democratic processes and institutions.

Website: https://www.smidgeproject.eu/

Improving environmental performance of solid fuel heating system

Monica Chudasama

Grant Awarded: £57,739.88

Funder: Innovate-UK, Defra-Small Business Research Initiative (2023)

Key researchers: Abhishek Tiwary, Neil Brown and Dani Harmanto

This Innovate-UK funded project developed an integrated solution to reduce pollutants resulting from domestic wood burning in indoor space (mainly particulate matter, PM and volatile organic carbons VOCs). The main highlight of our research is that it offers stove makers means of retrofitting current technology with minimal modification requirements. The project’s key objectives were to conduct the feasibility of two improvements to existing wood stoves, respectively for better heat distribution in the combustion chamber and heat recovery from the flue.

Throughout, the approach incorporated seamless co-operation with two UK solid fuel stove makers (sharing real-world experience and features of their products currently circulating in the market). While so doing, the technical design is meant to be adaptable to ensure future evolution of its beta-version to accommodate for lateral developments in sensor-based automation to improve its operability.

The following are the most significant outcomes of this project:

Solar-powered Mobility-as-a-Service for Africa (Solar MaaS)

Nicola Wilkinson

Dr Rupert Gammon, De Montfort University and OX Global Ltd

Wealth creation in emerging markets may be catalysed through a symbiotic relationship between solar energy and electric vehicles. This project combines international development, solar-powered minigrids and electric vehicles with learning from OX Global’s pilot of mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) in Rwanda using its purpose-designed electric truck.

RAEng Industrial Fellowships 2021

ENabling Hybrid Autonomous Nonconventional system for Clean Environment

Monica Chudasama

Grant awarded: £63,888.05

PI: Abhisheck Tiwary

Funder: RA Eng

This 2-year industry fellowship project, awarded to Dr Abhishek Tiwary at DMU in partnership with JenAct Ltd – Jenton Group, conceptualised and evaluated a nonconventional air warming and cleaning system (EnHANCE), combining features of indoor air handling with pathogen removal and thermal management capabilities. It mainly focused on product development and lab-scale parameterisation, involving technology scoping and alignment of the key operating parameters to achieve the earmarked novel features.  

Key outcomes:

•             A conceptual design and prototype of the EnHANCE unit

•             Performance data for key parameters from model and lab-scale evaluations (warm air circulation, pollution/pathogen reduction efficacy)

•             Techno-economic feasibility on operational costs (electricity demand) and component maintenance

•             A focus group for seeking consumer opinion/feedback and a tangible market exploitation plan

•             Follow-on-funding via a proof-of-concept grant leading to further market exploitation.

Follow on results to academic practice. The project:

•             enabled establishing an ongoing collaborative relationship to extend academic research into real-world application.

•             helped incorporate more industry-facing content and UG/PG dissertation project topics on DMU engineering programmes.

Funder: Royal Academy of Engineering, Industrial Fellowship (2021-23)

Key researchers: Abhishek Tiwary (School of Engineering and Sustainable Development)

Bioadditives to support Net Zero in agriculture

Nicola Wilkinson

Professor Raffaella Villa and Ogemdi Anika

Yeast-based additives are have shown to have a positive effect on biogas production in anaerobic digestion treating agricultural waste. The project will provide the scientific explanation of the process and inform the correct use at full-scale.

SAVES/SAVES2 and Smartspaces/EDI-Net projects

Nicola Wilkinson

Urban Analytics for energy management and awareness in European public authorities and universities.

Two distinct software systems were developed in the SAVES/SAVES2 and smartspaces/EDI-Net projects based on automated modelling, analysis and visualisation. Though initially envisaged for energy managers, the user-friendly interfaces subsequently evolved to facilitate communication and engagement with non-technical audiences.

The systems have improved energy management operations and sustainability communications behaviour in more than 40 organisations across Europe resulting in significant carbon emissions reductions of around 3,600t of CO2 between 2014 and 2019 (6.6% average annual reduction from baseline emissions).

Funded by