Matthew

Jan 14, 2008

At Aberystwyth University, located in Aberystwyth, Wales, we were given a tour of the computer science department of the campus and shown some of the research projects that students are working on.  They have four major sections.  We were able to see the workings and projects of a couple sections, mainly visual imaging and automated robotics.  I am quite impressed with the advanced algorithms they have been able to produce.

In the visual imaging section, we saw how they were using 2D radio imaging to create a 3D model of the organ they were screening (mainly prostate).  They then used ECE graphs, which measure the sharpness of the separation between the prostate and the surrounding tissue.  From this data they could determine if a patient had prostate cancer.  The other imaging they did was based on breast cancer risk.  They used imaging and modeling to determine what risk category a woman should be placed in based on the tissues in the breast.  This new technology could be quite beneficial to the medical field and could give us a better way of catching cancer in early stages. 

In automated robotics, they were working with many different projects, such as adaptive learning much like that of a human baby, and a response to surroundings based on human neurology and endocrine systems.  They have fully automated boats that can run indefinitely using solar power.  They only run the operating systems occasionally to make sure the boat is staying on track and using the best possible path. 

The time we were able to spend at the university and with the research students was quite enlightening and really amazed me.  When I originally saw the campus I was thinking that it was a large public university, but I was quite surprised to learn that it only has about 7,000 undergrads.  Even at that, though, the university is much larger than our little Whitworth, but it seemed to have some similar qualities.  Quite to the contrary, though, were the large buildings with multiple floors, which make Weyerhaeuser seem small.