About AETN The workshop is organised by the EPSRC funded Airport Energy Technologies Network (AETN), which was founded in 2008 to develop the low carbon energy research community and its links with the key industrial and commercial players in the Airport, Airline and Aeronautical industries. The Network participants are conducting research projects which represent high value to commerce and industry in terms of energy efficiency, reduced emissions, and compliance with future operating practices and legislation.
AGENDA
Day 1 – 8th September 2011
Current research activity in the AETN Network
10.30 Arrival and coffee
11.00-11.30 Introduction and welcome – Prof Paul Stewart
11.30-12.00 Energy and indoor environmental control of airport buildings
12.00-12.30 Environmental investment toolkit
12.30-13.00 Surface access and environmental change
Lunch and networking
14.00-14.30 Changing airflow over the airfield (baffles)
14.30-15.00 Energy recovery from landing aircraft
15.00-15.30 EU FP7 Multibody Advanced Airship for Transport MAAT Project – Prof Paul Stewart
Coffee and networking
16.00-17.00 AETN meeting roundup
Transportation Research Board paper/Energies Journal special issue
Website/Blog/JiscMail – Dr Tim Ryley/Prof Paul Stewart
Day 2 – 9th September 2011
Forming Future Collaborative Research
10.00-10.30 Arrival and coffee
10.30-11.00 Roundup and intro – Dr Tim Ryley/Prof Paul Stewart
11.00-11.30 Integrating and automating airport operations
11.30-12.30 Improvements in Airport Operations by Enhanced Runway Sequencing and Pushback Time Allocation– Professor Edmund Burke, University of Nottingham
Lunch and networking
13.30-14.00 Social network research – Prof Shaun Lawson, University of Lincoln
14.00-15.30 EU FP7 Transport (Including avionics) Call – Prof Paul Stewart
Coffee and networking
15.45-close Collaborative Research Round Table – Paul/Tim
Sandpits are an increasingly popular choice for the distribution of Research funding by RCUK. I have just been part of an EPSRC evaluation exercise on Sandpits, so I thought I would dig some photos out of the archive and give an idea of what goes on, which I hope is helpful to those unfamiliar to this process.
PIC1: Participants at the 'Low Carbon Airports' Sandpit putting together the mind map at the end of day 1
I’ll deal with the application process in another blog, as it requires a different approach to conventional grant applications. My experience is with EPSRC sandpits, which are held in country hotels with large function facilities.
PIC1 illustrates the state of play towards the end of day 1 of the EPSRC ‘LowCarbon Airports’ Sandpit which was held towards the end of 2008. At this point, we had checked in, completed some ice-breakers, and in groups had started to brainstorm the issues associated with the theme. The yellow cards on the floor are the outputs of this process which are now being moved around and coalescing into challenges (PIC2).
PIC2: Part of the mind map relating to environmental issues
The process is one of the most intensive and tiring experiences. Starting at 9.00, the activities run generally until 18.00, however that’s when the hard work really starts, with clusters working long into the night. Actually in some cases, all night!.
Be prepared to do a lot of presenting! The ideas, as they coalesce are repeatedly presented by their champions and honed by criticism (both positive and negative) from the floor. It’s at these points that clear projects and project groupings start to emerge (PIC3).
Who’s there?
PIC3: A project definition and grouping starting to emerge at the Sandpit
There are generally three groups of attendees:
Academics who are the focus of the Sandpit
Facilitators – a professional team which runs the Sandpit and guides the process through its stages to fruition
Stakeholders – Industry and commercial interest groups are represented to maintain the applicability of the outcomes
Interestingly, in the background of PIC3 is a poster which I put up with points which are highly salient golden rules for Sandpit participants on all sides:
Stakeholders – ‘suspend disbelief’ in impracticalities
Issues – problems rather than solutions
Academics – ‘forget’ initial preferences and objectives – think outside the box
PIC4: L-R Prof Qing-Chang Zhong, Prof Edmund Burke and Prof Paul Stewart present on 'Integrating and Automating Airport Operations' which was successfully funded
All of which is intended to facilitate the creative process. By day 3, a number of projects have started to emerge, with a core set of champions, loose ‘memberships’ and plenty of ‘floating voters’. Essentially, there is a fixed budget for each sandpit, and open competition for funding, so the process is both collaborative and highly competitive. In this case, there was a budget of £3.4M, with 10 strong contenders emerging….
Roger Gardner, Sandpit Director and Director of the Omega Partnership addresses a project presentation session
Now the strategic ‘haggling’ between individuals and groups begins, as the competition increases to produce credible,fundable projects, and also to maximise individual involvement. A word of caution here is credibility. There is no difference between this part of the process and any other proposal procedure. Not only is a well thought out project plan with credible partnerships an absolute necessity, but also the crucial aspects of adventure, risk and most importantly ‘risk mitigation strategies’.
Unique to this process is that funding is allocated on the final day of the Sandpit, so all potential projects must be fully costed, with finalised members, objectives and project plans.
Prof Paul Stewart presenting the costed version of 'Airport Energy Technologies Network' which was successfully funded
There is no limit to the number of projects which you can propose, or the number of projects in which you can be involved. However there is generally a strong steer from the Stakeholders as to the preferred projects and groupings as they develop. Finally, the projects are ranked in preferential order, and a steer is given as to what adjustments need to be made to costings on the individual projects.
Roger Gardner, Sandpit director, giving out the good and bad news
In this Sandpit, 10 projects were proposed, with 7 being funded to a total of £3.4M. Three of the projects are currently running here at the University of Lincoln in the School of Engineering.
Most importantly, 19 out of the 22 participants came away with something to show for all the effort, ranging from studentships up to PI of large multi-centre projects.
Winners and losers: 7 successful and 3 unsuccessful proposals
All in all a very positive experience on the whole. In particular, the sandpit sparked multi-disciplinary, inter university collaboration which has acted as gearing for subsequent collaborative projects. all that’s left to do after the event is to make sure you get your full proposal in through the JeS system in time!
You can find out more about the funded projects via the Airport Energy Technologies Network (AETN) which is hosted in the School of Engineering at the University of Lincoln:
A one day workshop organised by the EPSRC Airport Energy Technologies Network.
18th May 2011, University of Lincoln.
Online social media sites, such as Facebook, give us hitherto unachievable insight in to what our friends collectively think and do – it is perhaps unsurprising that social media has been suggested as a powerful platform to deliver behaviour change interventions based on social norms and peer pressure. Emerging research has demonstrated this potential in applications such as domestic energy consumption, fitness and diet.
This workshop aims to summarise the state-of-the-art in using OSNs and social media to facilitate behaviour change and will explore the potential of using such technology to deliver sustainable behaviour change in the context of the air-travel industry. The seminar will reveal research already in progress aimed at using OSNs to deliver behaviour change interventions in both domestic and organisational settings and explore issues pertinent to the air-travel industry such as transport to and from airports, passenger attitudes to air travel, airlines and destinations, public attitudes to air freight and sustainable food consumption, energy usage in airports and international and multi-cultural agendas.
The seminar will be hosted by the School of Engineering at the University of Lincoln and co-organised by members of the Lincoln Social Computing (LiSC) Research Centre who are research leaders in the design of social media interventions for positive behaviour change. Speakers at the workshop will include those already engaged in delivering behaviour change interventions using ICT and social media across a number of societal issues. Confirmed speakers include Prof Mark Blythe, Professor of Interdisciplinary Design from Northumbria University, Dr Tim Ryley from Loughborough University and co- investigator on the Airport Energy Technologies Network, Dr Parisa Eslambolchilar from Swansea University and co-investigator on the EPSRC CHARM project, and Dr Charles Musselwhite from the Centre of Transport and Society at the University of the West of England.
For further details please contact:
Denise Bateman dbateman@lincoln.ac.uk or Prof Shaun Lawson slawson@lincoln.ac.uk
This event is organised by the Airport Energy Technology Network (www.aeroenergytech.co.uk), which is an EPSRC funded network hosted in the School of Engineering at the University of Lincoln, and co-hosted at the University of Loughborough in the School of Civil Engineering.
