UCL: Collaboration - MSc Research Projects

Invitation to collaborate
UCL welcomes the involvement of external organisations (public, private and voluntary sectors) in MSc research dissertations. Such collaborations promote a strong problem-orientated focus to the dissertations, with applied research providing tangible benefit in research areas of strategic importance defined by the partner. They also benefit the organisation involved, providing an opportunity to undertake a small piece of research in collaboration with students and academics.

Benefits
- The opportunity to test the research idea at low cost and low risk.
- Academic engagement with a world-class research university; all projects are supervised by leading academics with expertise that may not exist within your company, or which may not be cost effective to develop in-house.
- Access to a wide range of UCL’s research facilities for the study; including software, hardware and data sets that might not be accessible within the organisation.
- Leverage access to a high-quality researcher, for a short-term project (c. three months) at low-cost.
- Advanced access to postgraduate researchers as a potential recruitment opportunity.

Master of Science research projects
A wide range of Masters of Science (MSc) are delivered by UCL Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (CEGE) (www.cege.ucl.ac.uk/teaching/Pages/Postgraduate-Taught-Courses.aspx). These
include:
- Civil Engineering
- Earthquake Engineering with Disaster Management
- Environmental Systems Engineering
- Geographical Information Science
- GeoSpatial Analysis
- Hydrographic Surveying
- Surveying

Each of these programmes involves students undertaking an individual research project, which runs from late May to September each year. Over 100 students take these programmes every year, many of whom are looking for final dissertation projects.

Expectations
There are many different ways in which organisations can become involved in MSc dissertations. No strict guidelines are necessary, and collaboration can be customised to suit the partner organisation requirements.
Typically, the role of a collaborator might include:
- Identifying and discussing research objectives for the dissertation and the nature of the deliverables
- Acting as a mentor and facilitator as appropriate (full academic supervision is provided at UCL)
- Assisting with management and organisational issues affecting the dissertation
- Providing some exposure to applied research problems within a commercial setting

Logistics
Timescales –students are encouraged to start their Research Project after the allocation is complete (around March) but many, due to other deadlines start in earnest at the end of May. It should be expected that the bulk of the work is carried out in June and July, with final submission of a 10-12,000 word dissertation by the end of August. Collaborative research projects should be identified and discussed with UCL as soon as possible but in any case by the 20 December 2012. Please kindly submit your research topics by completing in the attached form. For each research topic, a separate form should be submitted. Your proposal will appear online for the students to view on 7 January 2013. Please send electronic versions of your proposals to your UCL CEGE contact or Mark Fairweather at mark.fairweather@ucl.ac.uk.

Optional Pitch Day: The pitch day, which is organised for the MSc in GIS and MSc in Geospatial Analysis courses, is an opportunity for students to ask Industrial collaborators questions about the projects before they make their choices. We would also like to take the opportunity to show you around the department. It is
anticipated that there will be a short tour 12-1pm followed by a buffet lunch and then the pitch session from 2-4pm. We would appreciate it if you could let Mark Fairweather mark.fairweather@ucl.ac.uk know if you are able to attend.

Timetable for MSc Projects
Submission of proposals 20 December 2012
Proposals online for students to review 7 January 2013
Pitch Day (Industrial collaborators, not all courses) 31 January 2013
Submission of choices (student) 15 February 2013
Projects allocated 1 March 2013
Initial student presentation (not all courses) 7 June 2013
Submission of Dissertation and Poster 6 September 2013
Poster Exhibition Day 13 September 2013

Financial support for students engaged on company sponsored dissertations can optionally be allocated. This should include expenses associated with the dissertation and could include some form of award paid directly to the researcher (suggested sum of £500). Such support should add value both for the student and partner
organisation.

You may also wish to familiarise yourself with UCL’s guidance to students on Intellectual Property Rights, which can be found at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/current-students/guidelines/intel_prop_rights As can be seen, the approach is flexible and depends on the project.

Project Proposal Form

Please feel free to contact our MSc research project coordinators to discuss your requirements and full range of collaborative opportunities:
Dr Claire Ellul
MSc Project Coordinator - Geographical Information Science, Geospatial Analysis, Hydrographic Surveying,
Surveying
Email: c.ellul@ucl.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7679 4118

Envitia & OpenGeo Announce Partnership

Envitia has announced the UK’s first Solution Provider Partnership with OpenGeo. This partnership reinforces Envitia’s position at the forefront of delivery and support of the OpenGeo Suite (which includes GeoServer, PostGIS and OpenLayers) in the UK market.

Envitia helps organisations to make use of geospatial intelligence in critical operational environments. Following an open systems approach, Envitia has been complementing its high performance, specialist software with open source products for over five years.   “OpenGeo are the world’s leader in developing and supporting open source geospatial software and we are delighted to be partnering with them”, says Dr. Matt Perrin, Director, Envitia.  “This relationship enhances our ability to provide open, flexible and cost effective solutions.”

The OpenGeo Suite combines the power of open source plus the reliability and support of a single, stable vendor behind a full stack of software.  Envitia provide flexible levels of support and training on the OpenGeo Suite Enterprise Edition with a range of packages that can be tailored to cover all of the OpenGeo Suite components (PostGIS, GeoServer, GeoWebCache, OpenLayers, and GeoExt).

Ken Bossung, OpenGeo's SVP of Sales and Marketing added "Envitia is a leading geospatial solutions provider and we are delighted that they've joined the diverse group of businesses who bring value to the OpenGeo partner program.

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Welsh Local Authorities in Money Saving Consortium

London, 16^th November 2012 – Eight local authorities encompassing the whole of North and mid-Wales have generated savings of over £850,000 by utilising Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) from Local Land and Property Gazetteers (LLPGs).

Focusing on the verification of single person discount claims, which entitles those living alone to a discount on the amount they are required to pay for their council tax, the authorities (Wrexham, Flintshire, Denbighshire, Conwy, Gwynedd, Anglesey, Ceredigion and Powys) commissioned a large project that saw all 135,000 claims checked.

UPRNs, which are the de facto property identifiers used across the public sector, were provided by five of the authorities in order to create linkages to other datasets including revenues and benefits records and the register of electors.  Additionally, the accuracy and standardisation of the address data contained in their LLPGs provided consistency for the geographical area, irrespective of council boundaries.

Because of the great deal of change which occurs with single person discounts due to people divorcing, students and other transient residents, calculation of actual numbers was difficult and very resource intensive.  Working together to gain better economies of scale, the authorities went through a formal tender process that saw an external organisation brought in to manage the process for sending out letters to residents, managing the queries that came back and also managing the matching of records with key external credit referencing data and the councils’ internal data sources to provide verification of the results.

Costing approximately £145,000 to run and returning savings, based on additional revenue, of £1 million, the average return across the eight authorities was £7 for every £1 spent.  Importantly, this was achieved without any extra pressure on existing staff and ultimately helped toward making the savings that all councils were required to achieve.

Speaking of the success, Phil Round, Revenues and Benefits Manager at Wrexham County Borough Council explained that, “Working within a consortium has had major benefits.  In addition to securing economies of scale, members were able to provide mutual support to each other, and create one tender document and one contract for all eight authorities.”

“The whole project was underpinned by the UPRNs, which made the linking of all datasets much easier and quicker, and facilitated the ability to work together.”

LLPGs are address datasets created by each local authority in England and Wales.  They conform to British Standard BS7666 and contain every property within a council’s boundaries.  Each record is assigned a UPRN and there are a growing number of examples of significant savings being created by councils utilising this data to reduce errors, avoid duplication of work and enable joint working.

For more information, visit www.geoplace.co.uk

GeoPlace contact:

Gayle Gander

Head of Marketing

+44(0)20 7630 4600

gayle.gander@geoplace.co.uk

www.geoplace.co.uk

The publication of AGI member press releases is a member service. The AGI neither approves or endorses the contents of member's press releases, nor makes any assurance of their factual accuracy.

Benefits of Maritime Information Infrastructure is Key Message in London and Rio

Understanding and implementing effective data management principles and processes to improve operational and business efficiencies was the key message delivered by OceanWise in London and Rio de Janeiro during November.  In each case, the message was backed up by papers from industry leaders, case studies by sector practitioners and discussion amongst delegates. 

Schematic of a Typical Maritime Information Infrastructure (Source: OceanWise)

Over fifty people from across the maritime sector, including ports, engineering and environmental consultants, energy companies and government, attended a Maritime Workshop in London hosted by GIS vendor, Cadcorp, and marine data management specialist, OceanWise.  Presentations included the UK’s Ports Policy: A Framework for Future Development and Management by Philip Grindrod from the Department for Transport and Marine Spatial Planning Developments in England and Wales by Alan Storer from Welsh Government.  Both presentations highlighted the importance of fit for purpose data and information, robustly managed and easily accessible, to deliver successful outcomes.  This message was central to Dr Anne Kemp’s (Atkins Ltd) presentation on how ‘Building Information Modelling’ or BIM is now a key requirement for all Government infrastructure projects. 

Also at the Workshop, Cadcorp and OceanWise demonstrated how location, GIS and OceanWise’s marine data management software can be used to make the sharing of spatial data between people and between systems much easier.  Dr Mike Osborne then explained how these tools can be used to deliver efficiencies by setting up a ‘Maritime Information Infrastructure’ using open standards and systems (Figure 1).  Use cases included implementations of these systems within the Port of Southampton and at Clydeport by Tom Broomfield and Douglas Hoad, respectively, and by Subsea Asset Location Technology by Lisa Symes.   Discussion centred on the many primarily organisational challenges that still exist and how, in practical terms, these can be overcome, utilising the expertise available.

The message then travelled to the southern hemisphere where OceanWise delivered the first course to be held by the South West Atlantic Hydrographic Commission on 'Marine Data Management, Database Design and Marine SDI'.  This time the message was delivered with the help of Canadian GIS specialist, Caris. 

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GeoPlace Opens Up Streetworks Information

13 December 2012 - GeoPlace has launched a new service, designed to assist the Department for Transport (DfT) to fulfil a requirement to make streetworks information more accessible for the general public and other interested parties.

The new Streetworks Signposting Service is available through the NSG website, www.thensg.org.uk.  It enables users to search for streetworks via a map or free text search function and then directly link to the relevant highway authority streetworks register. 

Under the New Roads and Streetworks Act 1991, English local authorities are required to make their streetworks register available to the general public.

However, for people wanting to access streetworks information across the country from a number of different highway authorities, visiting numerous websites is a time consuming and unwieldy exercise.  The new GeoPlace service provides a portal to access this information from one place.

Government is committed to making it easier to access public data, easier for data publishers to release data in standardised, open formats; and engraining a ‘presumption to publish’ unless specific reasons, such as privacy or national security, can be clearly articulated.

In line with this desire to enable the potential of Open Data, the Streetworks Signposting Service was created in response to the Department for Transport’s Open Data Strategy.  This stated that the DfT will work with others to deliver a range of highways and traffic data, including streetworks, to help reduce congestion and enable businesses to make more predictable travel and logistics decisions. 

Local Transport Minister Norman Baker said: “Streetworks are necessary but understandably can be incredibly frustrating for motorists.

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