Science Current Events | Science News | Brightsurf.com
 
Email a Friend Send to a friend
Printer Friendly Print Sunderland wins national AI award

Sunderland wins national AI award

January 15, 2004

A team of scientists from the University of Sunderland have won a major national award for their breakthrough in artificial intelligence.

The team beat off stiff competition from the UK and abroad to win the British Computer Society's (BSC) Machine Intelligence Award, which recognises substantial developments in computational intelligence.

The academics impressed judges with a live demonstration of a visually and verbally guided grasping robot at the BSC conference in Cambridge.

The award is all the more rewarding for the team as very strict guidelines were set down to establish to what extent the robots represented a genuine advance in artificial intelligence.

The team, led by Professor Stefan Wermter, focused on the practical use of visual recognition and navigation, which is generally difficult when working on machine intelligence.

Innovative techniques from neural networks - a network of electronic components designed to mimic the human brain - were integrated into the MIrror-neuron Robot Agent (MIRA) robot.(ALL CORRECT)

Professor Wermter says: "We are extremely pleased to have won this award. It is recognition for our research, the field of intelligent systems and for the University of Sunderland. The whole team did an excellent job.

"One novel aspect was that the robot was controlled by artificial computational neural networks. The robot had been trained through the use of neural networks to approach and grasp an object.

"There are a lot of very restricted industrial robots, but it is important to have ones which can talk, see, grasp, imitate and learn in everyday situations. We are working on the next generation of intelligent robots and we believe that learning and neural networks will be a key technology to make them smarter and more robust."

The winning team included Dr Cornelius Weber, Chris Rowan, Alex Zochios and Mark Elshaw.

The University's School of Computing and Technology set up one of the first masters in artificial intelligence last year.

Sunderland, University of




Science Research Departments



Earth Science

Alternative Energy  |   Anthropology and Archaeology  |   Earthquakes and Volcanoes  |   Environment and Nature News  |   Global Warming  |   High-Energy and Particle Physics  |   Ozone Hole  |   Scientists Slow Light  |   Tsunami


Space Science

Astronomy and Space News  |   Black Holes  |   Chandra X-Ray Observatory  |   Extrasolar Planets  |   Hubble Telescope  |   International Space Station  |   Jupiter Galileo Mission  |   Jupiter Cassini Mission Flyby  |   Mars Exploration  |   Mars Odyssey 2001  |   Mars Global Surveyor  |   Mars Polar Lander  |   Mars Climate Orbiter  |   Mars Pathfinder  |   Meteors and Asteroids  |   Mir Space Station  |   NEAR Asteroid Probe Mission  |   Pluto Planet Debate |   Search for Extraterrestrial Life  |   Space Shuttle Program  |   Space Shuttle Mission: STS-102  |   Space Weather


Life Science

Animal News  |   Biotechnology and Genetics  |   Brain Research  |   Human Cloning  |   Dinosaur and Fossil Discoveries  |   Endangered Species  |   Gene Therapy  |   Genetically Modified Food  |   Stem Cell Research  |   Whales and Whaling


The Everything Kids' Science Experiments Book: Boil Ice, Float Water, Measure Gravity-Challenge the World Around You! (Everything Kids Series)
by Tom Robinson

The Everything "RM" Kids' series is being relaunched at a phenomenal new price! They're the same great quality you've come to expect, still packed with tons of activities and puzzles in two-color -- now with a lower price that everyone can appreciate! Stock up on these perennial bestsellers that keep your kids active and engaged. The wide scope of subject material -- from jokes to science...



Science Fair
by Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson

Grdankl the Strong, president of Kprshtskan, is plotting to take over the American government. His plan is to infiltrate the science fair at Hubble Middle School, located in a Maryland suburb just outside Washington. The rich kids at Hubble cheat by buying their projects every year, and Grdankl's cronies should have no problem selling them his government-corrupting software. But this year, Toby...



The Science of Good Food: The Ultimate Reference on How Cooking Works
by David Joachim, Andrew Schloss, A. Philip Handel

The science of cooking is the most fascinating and influential development in cuisine. Award-winning chefs and cutting-edge restaurants around the world are famous for using the principles of chemistry and physics to create exciting new taste sensations. From Ferrán Adrià of El Bulli restaurant in Spain to Homaro Cantu of Moto in Chicago, great chefs combine unexpected textures and flavors...



Pop Bottle Science
by Lynn Brunelle

It's pure bottled magic! A complete kit that ingeniously marries science and fun in the breakthrough vein of The Bug Book & Bug Bottle (1.7 million copies in print) and The Bones Book & Skeleton (1.65 million copies in print), Pop Bottle Science presents 79 easy, hands-on experiments that probe the worlds of chemistry, physics, biology, geology, weather, the human body, and even astronomy.The Pop...



The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science: 64 Daring Experiments for Young Scientists
by Sean Connolly

What could be more fun for kids than to have the kind of rip-roaring good time that harkens back to pre-video game, pre-computer days? Introducing 64 valuable science experiments that snap, crackle, pop, ooze, crash, boom, and stink! From Marshmallows on Steroids to Home-Made Lightning, the Sandwich Bag Bomb to Giant Air Cannon, The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science awakens kids' curiosity...



On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
by Harold McGee

Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is a kitchen classic. Hailed by Time magazine as "a minor masterpiece" when it first appeared in 1984, On Food and Cooking is the bible to which food lovers and professional chefs worldwide turn for an understanding of where our foods come from, what exactly they're made of, and how cooking transforms them into something new and delicious.Now, for its twentieth...



365 Simple Science Experiments with Everyday Materials
by E. Richard Churchill, Louis V. Loeschnig, Muriel Mandell

Illustrated by Frances Zweifel. The fundamentals of science are brought to life in a year's worth of fun and educational hands-on experiments that can be performed easily and inexpensively at...



The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2008 (The Best American Series)

"The articles . . . draw the reader more tightly into the web of the world. They forge links in unexpected ways. They connect us to nature and to each other, and those connections nourish the intellect and uplift the spirit."—Jerome Groopman, M.D., editorThis year's Best American Science and Nature Writing offers another rich assortment of "fascinating science and impressive journalism" (New...



Everything Kids’ Magical Science Experiments Book: Dazzle your friends and family by making magical things happen! (Everything Kids Series)
by Tom Robinson

Want to make things disappear? Change salt to sugar? Create slime using items found in your kitchen? Well, with The Everything Kids' Magical Science Experiments Book, you can do just that--and more! Filled with more than 50 science experiments that bend the rules of time, space, and logic, The Everything Kids' Magical Science Experiments Book shows you how to unlock the mysteries of...



Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting (Spanish Edition)
by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver, Paul Fuqua

An amazing (and some would say magical) resource on photographic lighting that has been talked about in the community and recommended for years. This highly respected guide has been thoroughly updated and revised for content and design - it is now produced in full color! It introduces a logical theory of photographic lighting so if you are starting out in photography you will learn how to...

© 2008 BrightSurf.com