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The University of Surrey has established the International Guitar Research Centre, led by Prof. Steve Goss and Dr. Milton Mermikides, a central strand of which experiments with the innovative use of acoustic resonance.
Practice-based research outcomes (compositions) have created impact as artworks, having been recorded on Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Telarc, Naxos, and Virgin Classics. CD sales emerging from the project are in excess of 200,000. The compositions have been performed internationally by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Barcelona Symphony Orchestra.
The new techniques developed at Surrey are utilised by renowned musicians, such as John Williams, Xuefei Yang, Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Russell, and Miloš Karadaglić.
The University of Surrey has developed a set of tools that is enabling us to develop innovative web-based information systems with much lower resources than has formerly been possible.
These tools and techniques are being exploited by a University of Surrey spinout, Rulemotion.
The underlying platform has now been used to develop eight distinct business systems. A key feature of our approach is that it enables the business domain to be modelled in structured natural language (using the Object Management Group (OMG) supported standard SBVR [for Semantics of Business Vocabularies and Rules]). The server side functionality is then generated from the business model. Rulemotion is the first organisation to offer such extensive support of SBVR. This is a key fusion of the Business Analysis (Business Rules) and Information Technology domains — the gulf between these two communities has been an area of tension for the past 30 years.
The University of Surrey created the first international satellite constellation dedicated to monitoring natural and man-made disasters worldwide. The Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) comprises 6 advanced small Earth Observation satellites built at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) for China, Algeria, Nigeria, Turkey, Spain and the UK that can image worldwide within 24 hours to provide critical and timely information to international disaster assessment and relief agencies. The DMC has responded to over 200 major disasters and, the UN estimates, aided over 250,000 disaster victims. SSTL's subsidiary company, DMCii, has created commercial applications and services generating sales of over £130M and ~100 high-technology jobs.
Corruption research in the University of Surrey, has focused on analysing the gaps in anti-corruption strategies and suggestions for improvements have impacted in two ways:
(1) a contribution to discussions at the policy-making level of international organisations (the OECD and the UN) resulting in recommendations for changes, and
(2) the transfer of the experience and expertise gained in survey methodology adopted in the Surrey `Corruption in International Business' project to the questionnaire design and content of three projects — Bribery in the UK, National Integrity Survey and Integrity in the Defence Sector — conducted by the UK chapter of Transparency International (TI), the globally influential anti-corruption policy-influencing Civil Society Organisation.
Since surveys play a central role in informing and driving policy making to combat corruption, they need to be founded on a robust methodology.
Meningococcal meningitis is a life-threatening acute disease affecting 1.2 million people every year. Accurate and rapid diagnosis is essential for optimal patient response; however, bacterial culture tests are slow and undermined by the immediate administration of antibiotics, resulting in sterile cultures.
The Surrey team developed a rapid, non-culture-based diagnostic test for meningitis and septicaemia: this test is now routinely used for diagnosis of meningococcal disease worldwide, and was also instrumental in the implementation and monitoring of control measures for the disease, such as life-saving vaccination campaigns. Together these have contributed to the halving of adult mortality rates from meningitis worldwide.
The condition of aging cast iron infrastructure is a major challenge for the water industry. Our research has improved understanding of the deterioration, residual strength and failure mechanisms of buried cast iron pipes. Thames Water Utilities Ltd (TWUL) have used Surrey's findings for small diameter (distribution) mains, to support their case with the regulator for increased funding for pipe lining and replacement programmes resulting in more than 100 M£ of additional investment being made available. Surrey's work on large diameter (trunk) main is being used by TWUL to shape new approaches to the assessment and management of water networks both within their own area and at a national level through UKWIR.
Research in biometrics carried out at Surrey since 1995 has generated IP relating to a number of aspects of automatic face recognition, which resulted in significant performance improvement, rendering this biometric technology commercially exploitable.
The advances made at Surrey include illumination invariant imaging, face detection/localisation using robust correlation, innovative face skin texture representation using a multiscale local binary pattern descriptor, a patented (and exceptionally compact) person specific discriminant analysis, facial component based matching, and patented multi-algorithmic fusion.
Through an IP agreement, these innovations have been commercially exploited by the University spinout company OmniPerception, which has developed products for various security applications.
The association between incomes across generations is known as `intergenerational mobility'. Knowledge of this is important for understanding the extent of inequality within society and can measure equality of opportunity. Improving such mobility has been central to current (and previous) Government policy.
Research carried out at Surrey, along with the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP), has contributed significantly to policy and public debate on the extent and drivers of intergenerational mobility in Britain. It has featured in UK Government and OECD outputs; and contributed directly to Government policy on intergenerational mobility.
Related policies directly influenced by the research include Family Nurse Partnerships (costing £17.5m), free nursery provision for disadvantaged 2-year olds (costing £760m by 2014-15) and the funding of a new 2012 cohort study (£33.5m). The research has also attracted considerable national media attention.
Developing sustainable consumption and production policies and practices in industry requires analysis of technical, environmental, economic and social performance of supply chains delivering goods and services. In a programme covering the 20 years since its foundation, the University of Surrey's Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES) has played a major role in developing a systematic "whole system" approach to assessing and managing supply chains, starting from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Management (LCM) and progressing to sustainability analysis.
This approach underpins current national and international standards and policy and is embodied in the corporate strategies of a number of major companies (for example Unilever and M&S); the approach is also starting to be adopted in guiding the development of new consumer products.
Lyme borrelliosis (LB) is on the increase with over 3000 clinically or serologically diagnosed cases/pa in the UK. Alerting the public to LB risk has to be balanced against encouraging or undermining countryside use for health and recreational benefits.
The reach and significance of impact was initially built into the research with end-user stakeholders involved in the study design, interpretation and application of the results to change public and organisations' risk communication practices.
End-user impact has been acknowledged in an independent Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) evaluation as well as a local authority tick awareness campaign.