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This case study describes the innovative 3D Head and Neck learning tool and its impact on teaching in both academic and clinical settings. Since its inception, the 3D Head and Neck project has developed an innovative and rigorous workflow and a learning tool which has had immediate impact on education and training within the NHS and academic sectors in Scotland, directly benefitting dentists, doctors, nurses, surgeons and the full range of allied health professionals underpinning high quality, safe clinical care. This innovative learning technology continues to be vigorously adopted within Scotland and the research methodology developed has led to significant follow-on research.
A permanent museum display has been set up at House for an Art Lover, Bellahouston Park, Glasgow as a direct result of the AHRC-funded "British Empire Exhibition" project undertaken at the Digital Design Studio. The display includes workstations with project outputs such as 3D interactive virtual models of the non-extant architecture of the 1938 Exhibition (which itself was situated in Bellahouston Park), large format images of the architecture, interviews and interpretation, the full digitised project archive, and a selection of the physical project archive materials (a collection which was significantly enhanced by multiple donations from members of the public thanks to engaging and effective project publicity). The display has contributed intellectually, artistically, and economically to the House's assets.
Research into 3D visualisation of shipwreck sites with historical significance or that pose a threat to the environment e.g. Costa Concordia, Deepwater Horizon, has led to multiple impacts:
The research also led to the formation of a University spin-out company (ADUS) which surveys and visualises shipwrecks with great detail and accuracy. This informs critical decision-making during salvage, wreck removal and environmental clean-up operations.
Virtual Worlds are challenging to develop and deploy in small community settings. Our research into their measurement, design, and usability has allowed us to radically reduce the cost and footprint of a platform needed to support the collaborative creation of content, letting communities share their histories with both local and global audiences. Integrating this platform with an approach to virtual fieldwork lets communities explore authentic recreations of historical scenes, giving new perspectives on cultural heritage that stimulate reflection and understanding across the generations and enhancing the visitor experience by making new modes of interaction available for museums. This has enabled educational and cultural heritage bodies in Scotland to connect with new audiences and increase public participation in local heritage.
The Newport Ship Project is a collaborative project with the University of Wales Trinity Saint David as the academic lead, working with the Newport Museum and Heritage Service (Newport City Council) and the Friends of the Newport Ship, to protect, understand and display the most substantial medieval ship found in Britain in modern times. Impacts are demonstrated through a) significant developments in professional practice in the museum sector and b) in community engagement and educational outreach spheres which have seen substantial public collaboration and learning clustered around a major heritage project.
Enhanced structural geology models of complex fractured reservoirs, utilising new virtual- and field-based techniques developed at Durham, have been applied by industry in the Faroe- Shetland region, N Britain and helped sanction development of the 8 billion barrel Clair Ridge project, a £4.5 billion investment by the Clair Joint Venture Group (BP, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Chevron). Geospatial Research Ltd (a spin-out launched in 2004) has additionally used Durham structural geology research methodologies and expertise to provide > £1.3 million of consultancy services to the global hydrocarbon industry creating, since 2008, 12 new highly skilled jobs.
In 2006 Professor David Walker and his team at the University of St Andrews launched a fully searchable, free, online database that has transformed the ways in which anyone interested in Scottish architecture from 1840 onwards engages with the subject. The Dictionary is widely used by archivists, family historians, house owners, estate agencies, independent conservation campaigners, architects, planners and heritage bodies, schoolchildren and teachers, students and scholars. Its worldwide impact is attested by the organisers of related Canadian and South African websites, as well as by feedback from international users and a current hit rate of more than 3.8 million per year.
Robert Lorimer and his work: the gatehouse at Earlshall, Fife, 1900
Research by the Jewellery Industry Innovation Centre (JIIC) has been influential in taking curation beyond normal museum practice. The work has led to the development of novel applications of digital scanning, CAD processes and rapid prototyping. These have enabled the creation of detailed replicas of damaged and deformed precious and fragile objects of cultural heritage. Coupled with the craft design expertise of the researchers these processes have shed new light on the techniques used to produce the original pieces. The handleable replicas that these processes generate are transforming the way museum curators are balancing the competing demands of preservation, restoration and interpretation of objects with those of public access to them. JIIC has assisted museum and heritage professionals at several venues with these transformative approaches, e.g. Black Country Living Museum, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (BMAG), the Museum of London and National Museums Liverpool.
Founded in York in 1996, the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) has transformed how archaeological research is communicated in the UK, and impacted digital archiving throughout the world. Without the ADS, much of the fragile digital data (often the primary record of sites now destroyed) would have been lost. Instead, they are freely available to all. This impact extends across national heritage agencies, local government, commercial archaeology, and the public. Our resources are widely used with over two million page requests per month; almost half from beyond the HE sector. A recent study has concluded that the ADS is worth £5m per annum to the UK economy (Beagrie & Houghton 2013). The ADS has helped shape the digital preservation policy of English Heritage and informed practice in the United States, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany.
Southampton researchers have developed, commercialised and applied an array of new technological methods and interpretative approaches for managing the seabed through novel near surface geophysical imaging. This fundamental research has had demonstrable major impacts on areas as diverse as: improving the preservation and management of underwater cultural heritage (through providing direct UK government guidance and advice); enabling the sustainable use of the marine environment for the largest offshore infrastructure developments (including providers of nuclear power, wind power and trans-national energy connectors); enhanced mineral resource exploitation (for The Crown Estate — owners of the marine estate and regulators of the companies that exploit it); providing object detection service and training for the UK armed forces; assisting national and international law enforcement agencies in underwater search; and finally, disseminating these skills through postgraduate education to the UK and overseas marine survey sector.