research vessel Oceanus off nw africa to study african holocene climate

Tom Wagner

28.6.07
On July 5th R/V Oceanus from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, USA) will sail with a group of climate researchers from WHOI, Lamont (USA) and Newcastle from Lisbon, Portugal, and return to Praia, Cape Verdes on July 28th aiming to collect new study material off the coasts of Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, and Senegal.

This cruise is funded by an NSF/MG&G proposal awarded to DeMenocal (Lamont), Eglinton (WHOI), Wagner (Newcastle) and was given the acronym CHEETA: Changing Holocene Environments of the Eastern Equatorial Atlantic. The primary activities of the cruise are to recover Holocene gravity and multicores at approximately 40 sites in a transect along the Portuguese and west African margin, as well as a smaller number of CTD and in situ water pumping stations. The general research plan is to reconstruct Holocene changes in subtropical-tropical SSTs and African monsoonal climate and vegetation.

Track the ship's position

ICE creative construction competition

Tom Bramald

18.6.07
On the 16th June, Newcastle University was host to the ‘ICE Creative Construction’ competition final. The Creative Construction Competition involved CEG students organising and conducting workshops for over 500 school pupils within North East England. A selection of 60 promising school pupils attended the final on Saturday that was hosted on the Newcastle University campus. The event saw school pupils competing against each other to design and build a model bridge. Judging criteria was complex, introducing the pupils to economics, sustainability, strength, teamwork and time management. Congratulations are in order for the team from Hexham Middle School who were overall winners of the competition.

The competition was organised by CEG students Phil Renforth and Kate Palmer and former CEG students Kris Hird, Caterina Walsh and Alison Mee. A total of 18 other CEG students participated in the competition, acting as ambassadors for the ICE and the school, they were:

Cela Gallagher; Nicola Corrigan; Gordon Chiu; Hayley Smith; Maude Barrow; Andrew Robinson; Daniel Jones; James Barber; John-Paul Price; Helen Russell; Ruth Kennedy-Walker; Kieran Cooke; Mark Poolman; Kathryn Hancock; Holly Cottrell; Andrew Deans; James Farnell-Smith; Peter Dixon.

researcher wins moving-on conference 'best paper' award

Jurgen Wagner

8.6.07
Jurgen Wagner, one of our researchers in transport, has won the 2007 Moving-On 'best paper' award, for his paper and presentation in Cardiff earlier this week.

The conference is a major UK event which broadly covers public transport, information systems and smart ticketing themes - with high levels of participation from both industry, government and local authorities.

energy project showcased to parliament

Paul Younger

7.6.07
A University project to harness geothermal energy from warm rocks beneath the UK has been featured on the front cover (pictured) of an influential parliamentary journal.

An article written by Professor Paul Younger, HSBC Professor of Energy & Environment, features in the current (Whitsun 2007) edition of Science in Parliament, the journal of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee.

In his article, Professor Younger explains how useful amounts of warm or hot water may be generated from rocks beneath the surface in many parts of the UK.
An experimental borehole has been drilled at Eastgate in County Durham, producing warm water. There is evidence that by drilling further, there may be enough hot water to drive electrical power generation.

This not only suggests that a sustainable source of energy is available but also promises a wealth of new, sustainable economic activity, says Professor Younger.
The journal, which is distributed to all members of the Houses of Parliament and Lords, illustrates Professor Younger's article on the front cover with a picture of a hot rock being touched by a hand. Beneath the image is the University's logo and the words: Hot rocks: the UK's untapped energy reservoir.

Access to the journal is by subscription but NewsLink has reproduced Professor Younger's article in full, with permission, for readers who are interested.

it's a sticky business

Bryn Jones

7.6.07
John Morton (on behalf of his organisation) is undertaking a field scale, bioremediation trial in partnership with Newcastle University at a former industrial site in Huddersfield,West Yorkshire. The trial is focusing on the use of molasses as a catalyst for hydrocarbon degradation in soil. Jamie Jeffes, a postgraduate student undertaking his Masters project, is on site with the Remediation team in order to help with the trials,which is set to take four weeks to complete. He will then use the data he has collated to form his final thesis.

Contact John Morton on +44 (0) 7796 315 357 if you want to know
more.

sustainable schools mark world environment day

Geoff Parkin and Paul Sallis

7.6.07
Children from across Newcastle visited the University’s Devonshire Building on World Environment Day (5th June) to share their sustainability projects with staff from the Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability (IRES) and the Developing Areas Research Network (DARN).

The aim was to give schools an opportunity to talk about developing their environmental projects, and for them to learn more about other sustainability projects - both locally and around the world. The schools are keen to build upon this initiative to develop long-term projects and international links.

Each school gave a presentation and various initiatives were outlined including waste recycling; water saving; energy efficiency; renewable energy; visits by groups from Africa; and food, garden and pond projects.

Geoff Parkin, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences (CeG) and representing DARN, said: ‘This is an exciting collaborative initiative with local schools. We intend to build upon the activities of the day to strengthen our existing local and international links and promote sustainable development both in the North East and around the world.’

Andy Haddon, Energy Systems Analysis Group, and Paul Sallis (CeG) also helped to organise the event. ‘The range of projects and knowledge of the pupils was tremendous and left us with a feeling of optimism for the future, and we learnt a lot from them,’ added Mr Haddon. ‘There were lots of potential links identified, including projects in Guyana, Haiti, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Palestine, South Africa and Botswana.’

The event was supported by the University’s Education for Sustainable Development project and the Enviroschools team at Newcastle City Council.

World Environment Day aims to promote worldwide awareness of the environment, and to stimulate local and international action.

climate change debate: an inconvenient truth

Chris Kilsby

7.6.07
Chris Kilsby took part as a panel member in the debate, 'An Inconvenient Truth' following the free showing of Al Gores Oscar winning Climate Change documentary.

The debate was lively and well attended. Topics addressed ranged from
regional to global and included:

• advice on individual actions on reducing personal carbon footprint as
  prompted by the film, such as recycling and avoiding high air-mile
  produce
• regional policy and the difficulty of reconciling economic growth and
  sustainability
• implications of climate change for health and economic migration
• the need for strategic initiatives in ensuring energy and water
  security
• sources of objective and rigorous information on climate change
  science

major new research project funded under the future intelligent transport systems programme

Phil Blythe and Neil Thorpe

15.5.07
The Transport Operations Research Group is delighted to announce the award of the FOOT-LITE project under the Future Intelligent Transport Systems (FITS) Research Programme. The FITS programme is a joint research initiative of the EPSRC, DfT and DTI to take forward innovative ‘risky’ research in the area of Intelligent Transport Systems.

The £3.5 million project will join the suite of projects at the university that are investigating novel techniques and approaches to better understanding and thus mitigating the CO2 emissions associated with transport. The aim of the Foot-LITE project is to create a revolutionary driver information system designed to educate and encourage safer and greener driving and longer term behavioural changes.
The Foot-LITE project will deliver innovative driver/vehicle interface systems and services to encourage sustained changes to driving styles and behaviours which are safer, reduce congestion, enhance sustainability, help reduce traffic pollution emissions, and reduce other social and environmental impacts. Fundamental research will be used to support the strong industry base in the project through prototype systems development and design, impact assessments and the further development of research tools and processes, including instrumented vehicle to deliver a credible evidence-based validation of the system through to real-world operational experiences with user feedback and evaluation. The Foot-LITE system is seen as a tool to encourage and challenge drivers to achieve very real benefits that are already available in the current vehicle fleet but whose benefits cannot be readily maximised without an advisory interface to the driver. The approach has the ultimate choice and control still resting with the individual. This is seen to be crucial to the public and commercial acceptability of Foot-LITE.

The project is formed by a consortium of automotive industries, service providers and road operators, fleet operators and underpinned by leading academic research organisations. The project partners are:
MIRA (project leader), TRW Conekt, TRG, University of Southampton (academic leader), TORG, Newcastle, Hampshire County Council, IAM, Nissan Motors, RDM
Ricardo, Sussex Police, ERG, Brunel , Transport for London, Zettlex Ltd.

The project will undertake all the necessary research and development to produce a prototype system which will be evaluated by fleets of drivers in normal driving conditions. The necessary data collection/data base systems for the vehicle fleet will also be developed so that robust evidence of the effectiveness (or otherwise) of the system will be collected, analysed and published to better the overall knowledge in this area. Additional surveys of other user groups to determine long term effects will be undertaken to better determine market opportunities and implementation strategies to deliver future intelligent vehicles and associated infrastructure. The system to be developed in the project comprises an aftermarket, standalone vehicle interface (although installation during vehicle build will not be excluded) giving moment-to-moment feedback during a drive (similar to SatNav), plus a back office support tool for off-line analysis of journeys and retrospective feedback.
TORG will provide expertise on transport futures, requirements capture, field trial design, wireless systems research, trial operation, evaluation and behavioural analysis. The project will formally start in June 2007.

transport students win top 2 prizes in ICE wales papers competition

Hannah Bryan

Hannah Bryan (right) and Suweidu Jehanfo (left)

15.5.07
Two of our former students have won 1st and 2nd place at the ICE Wales Transportation Engineering Group Annual Papers Competition. The final round of the competition was a papers presentation event, which took place on Thursday 26th April, in Cardiff, at which the 3 finalists had to present their work to the judges and a well attended audience of professionals in Wales.

Hannah Bryan, an Meng Student who graduated last summer and now works on ITS Research Projects in TORG, won the 1st prize for her work on smartcards in transport, and Suweidu Jehanfo, an MSc Student who also graduated last summer, won the 2nd prize for his work on Modelling air - passenger access to airports.
The judges were very impressed with their papers and subsequent presentations, highlighting the talents of our graduates, which reflects well on the university and the quality of the courses we run.

achieving the millennium development goals for africa

John Nelson

14.5.07
Prof John Nelson was among an invited group of senior academics and policy makers from Africa, North America and Europe who gathered at Cornell University, May 5-6, 2007, for a workshop on "Achieving the Millennium Development Goals for Africa: The Role of Transport." The core text for the workshop was the recent AU-AfDB-ECA-WB-EU document, "Transport and the Millennium Development Goals in Africa,"

The overall objective was to take a fresh look at this document (i) to take stock of whether policy is indeed moving in the direction proposed in that document, (ii) to reconsider what can be done to accelerate the role of Transport in achieving the economic and social dimensions of the MDGs, and (iii) to identify key research that is neglected in the document, or new research that is called for by the policy issues raised in the document.

bio-fuels - the solution or the problem?

14.5.07
CLUWRR team: Ian Calder, Jaime Amezaga, Jennifer Harrison, James Garratt, Omar Al-Janabi

Bio-fuels have been touted as the solution to the World's energy and climate change problems but could they, in certain situations, be doing more harm than good?

To address this question CLUWRR is leading a multi million euro, 40 month project, funded by EU-AidCo, to investigate the water resource, societal, biodiversity and carbon sequestration impacts of bio-fuel plantations. The Rural Energy (Re)-Impact project, involves host country partners in South Africa (CSIR), India (IIT and Winrock India), China (CMES), Uganda (FIS) as well as Joanneum Research (Austria). The project will aim to provide regulatory and impact assessment frameworks, furthering sustainable biomass production policies and reducing the associated risks. This week has seen the signing of the contract with EU-AidCo for the project, and the official starting date.

CLUWRR will be co-ordinating and managing the project and partners along with Knowledge House, the University's Business Consultancy Service, and the host School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences.

Rural Energy (RE)-Impact project page

research council PhD studentships for 2007

14.5.07
We have now awarded the majority of our Research Council studentships available for 2007 entry, although a few "tied" (project-specific) places remain for eligible students (UK nationals and UK-resident EU nationals)

We look forward to welcoming the following in September:

• Nykky Allen, to work with Geoff Abbott and Greg Cowie (Edinburgh)
  on "Climate change and peat decay" (tied)
  
• David Booker, to work with David Lavallée and Peter Clarke on
  " Using GPS geodesy to observe tectonics, post-glacial rebound and long-term changes in the water cycle" (tied)
  
• Emma Clark, to work with Paul Quinn and David Rimmer on "Proactive
  diffuse pollution mitigation strategies to protect surface and groundwater systems on UK farms"
  
• Alex Leathard, to work with Chris Kilsby and Hayley Fowler on
  " National Water Grid: developing a robust strategy for future water resources in the UK"
  
• Romy Matthies, to work with Andy Aplin and Adam Jarvis on
  " Biogeochemical processes involved in the remediation of acid-mine drainage"
  
• Aengus McCullough, to work with Phil James and Stuart Barr on
  " Sensor web and GRID middleware for real-time monitoring and prediction"
  
• Stylianos Panayides, to work with Mo Rouainia and Barry Clarke on
  " Design procedures for pile-assisted rafts"
  
• Philip Renforth, to work with David Manning and Ann Borland
  (Biology) on "Soil inorganic carbon sequestration"

As usual, it was difficult for the panel to make decisions between a strong shortlist of applicants. Several of the candidates who missed out on "quota" funding are still under consideration for "tied" studentships in related topics.

ceg to feature in The Late Shows

Tom Bramald

21.5.07
On Saturday 19th May, thirteen outstanding cultural venues across Tyne and Wear will be opening their doors well into the night as part of NewcastleGateshead's annual "Museums at Night" event.

The School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences will be participating in events at Newcastle University's Hatton Gallery. The Gallery is currently hosting the Aggregate exhibition, part of which is focussed on all 204 maps in the Ordnance Survey Landranger series. School staff members will be on hand during the evening to introduce and demonstrate modern mapping technologies as well as run a cultural experiment called "Where on Earth are we?".

Further information:
The Late Shows
Hatton Gallery

newcastle researcher wins prestigious prize from ITS UK

Hannah Bryan

14.5.07
The Transport Operations Research Group (TORG) is proud to announce that Ms Hannah Bryan, currently a Researcher in the Transport Group was awarded the prize for best student paper in ITS research vision. The annual competition is jointly held by ITS UK and the Traffic Engineering and Control Magazine with the prize presented at the Smart Moving Conference, held at the NEC in Birmingham on 17th – 19th April 2007. The paper written by Hannah, summarised the research she undertook for her undergraduate MEng dissertation in 2006, on the spatial analysis of data generated from public transport smartcard systems, and how this data could be used to improve the operation of smart ticketing systems in the future. The research was supervised by Prof Phil Blythe and was supported financially and logistically by the DfT and Nottinghamshire County Council. Hannah received a certificate and cash prize at a dinner at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham on the 18th April, from Stephen Norris who is the President of ITS UK.

TORG also won the student papers competition in 2004, with a paper submitted by MSc student Ashley Curtis. Hannah’s paper appears in Traffic Engineering and Control in June.

citizen's jury investigates transport problems

Neil Thorpe

14.5.07
The University's Citizens' Jury is currently turning its attention to
transport issues and the University's role in promoting more sustainable patterns of mobility. As part of their investigation, Dr Neil Thorpe was 'summonsed' as an expert witness to provide an insight into current transport research at the University and to highlight the key challenges facing the transport sector now and in the future. The jury then quizzed Dr Thorpe about various aspects of national and local transport policy and the University's travel plan. Issues raised included the
introduction of congestion charging schemes, workplace parking supply
and pricing, and measures to promote sustainable transport modes such as
walking and cycling.

Further information on the Citizens' Jury

Royal Academy of Engineering launch round table on climate change and energy

Phil Blythe

30.4.07
Prof Phil Blythe, Professor of Transport has joined the newly formed Royal Academy of Engineering Round Table on Climate Change and Energy, to provide the transport expertise to the group. The round table is chaired by Lord Browne, the President of the Royal Academy and intends to provide a view to Government on how the Professional Engineering Institutes can contribute engineering solutions to tackle climate change and future energy issues. It is intended that the Royal Academy will submit its recommendations to Government by the end of April 2007.

Further details on the round table

geomatics students return from fieldcourse

Henny Mills

30.4.07
The Stage 1 Geomatics and Physical Geography students undertook the surveying fieldcourse in April in the Lake District. During the fieldcourse, Seathwaite valley was mapped at a scale of 1:1000. The students undertook surveying exercises everyday, followed by a lecture in the evening. This year’s fieldcourse was blessed by outstanding weather in the Lake District. Temperatures around 20 degrees let to a few sunburned students. Also the social side played a major role during the 10 day fieldcourse, as allowed students to get to know their peers better and improve on their team building skills.

Thomas Tongs wins Leica yellow jersey

30.4.07
Thomas Tongs, first year student of the Surveying and Mapping Science degree program, has won the Leica yellow jersey in the setting up a total station competition. Tom set up and levelled a total station over a nail in 2:33 minutes, which beat last year's record of 2:48 minutes. Robert Hardie, first year Physical Geography student, achieved the second quickest time with 2:38 minutes. Leica representatives Tim Bradley handed over the Leica yellow jersey (black fleece) to Tom back at the Newcastle University on the 2nd May 2007.

drivers face 'spy in the sky' monitoring

Phil Blythe

23.4.07
Spies in the sky may track motorists within a decade if the government goes ahead with controversial plans to introduce road user charging schemes, according to a panel of scientists headed by Phil Blythe, Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems in the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences.

The plans, which were unveiled in a report on future transport policy in November as a way of cutting congestion, prompted 1.8 million people to sign an electronic protest petition.

Monitoring would be via a combination of static cameras to capture licence plate details, electronic tags in vehicles that would be read by roadside monitoring stations and global positioning system satellites to read on-board transponders.

Speaking at a press conference at the Science Media Centre, in London, Professor Blythe said it would take a minimum of ten years for a national roll-out of road pricing schemes, and added: 'I do not see many other options available to us to manage our transport system.'
Professor Blythe, who heads a panel of transport experts from the Institution of Engineering and Technology, said the technology was already available and had been tried and tested in various countries including Australia and Brazil.

The London congestion charge zone uses static cameras and will bring in electronic tags from 2010. Cities such as Singapore have been operating electronic tagging for years and Stockholm's pilot scheme becomes permanent in July.

There are 30 million vehicles on the roads of Britain, a figure forecast to surge by one-third within 15 years, increasing journey times that industry complains are hurting their competitiveness.

Professor Blythe said the government had to explain clearly to people what was at stake in terms of personal benefits from faster journeys, and global gains from reduced greenhouse gas emissions due to fewer traffic jams.

ceg students in energy challenge 2007

25.4.07
RWE npower recently launched their Energy Challenge 2007, calling for the finest minds in engineering, science and business to present their solutions to the impending energy gap to a panel of industry experts and academics. A team of CEG Stage 2 Civil Engineering students (Alex Colman, Ed Byers, Adam Snowball and Martin Prest) took the initiative to enter this competition, and were selected for the northern regional heat. On Wednesday 18th April, they made their presentation in front of the panel and TV cameras. One of the students' lecturers, Dr Charlotte Paterson, was in the audience, and reports that the team were excellent ambassadors for CEG, with professional presentation skills, and a holistic approach to the problem, including diversification of energy sources and cultural change. The team impressed the judges with their vision of the future 'npower experience', but unfortunately were beaten to the winning post by other excellent presentations from across the region. The students came away with a positive experience, a DVD of their presentation, and are keen to return next year for a chance to win £1250 each and £5000 for the School.

ceramic filters - CeramFilt

Paul Sallis

23.4.07
Dr Paul Sallis (Civil Engineering & Geosciences, Newcastle University) and Dr Pratap Raval (Centre for Environment and Sustainable Infrastructure Development, Pune, India) will collaborate on a project to evaluate a sustainable water treatment technology for rural communities in developing countries.

A simple type of ceramic filter, CERAMFILT, featured recently on the ITV programme “Around the House”, has been developed at Newcastle University through an extensive programme of laboratory research. Initial production trials carried out with the help of small community potteries in Kenya and Bangladesh have confirmed the effectiveness of filters that are manufactured using simple sustainable materials and techniques which are available in even the poorest rural communities. The CERAMFILT filters allow a selectively permeable ceramic filter to be created using modified clay which removes over 99.9% of the harmful pathogenic bacteria present in contaminated drinking water supplies such as wells and surface waters. These organisms are responsible for the diarrhoeal diseases that can kill up to 20% of children in the under five group in developing countries, and their removal by CERAMFIL water treatment can greatly reduce the risk of infection.

The project, which is funded through the British Council UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI), will involve extended production trials in villages of the Pune district involving local potters, community groups and schools. The main focus will be to combine sustainable production methods with a school education programme so that local production of filters can easily be set up and subsequently passed on by knowledge and skill transfer, providing the scope for unlimited expansion to the scale of production throughout the wider community at regional and national levels. If successful, the programme will demonstrate that ceramic filters, a well proven water treatment technology, can be manufactured very cheaply (sustainably) in vast numbers and made more widely available to the poorest and most vulnerable members of the community.