Log in
Research on the theory and design of faceted classifications as exemplified in the Bliss Bibliographic Classification 2nd edition (BC2) has influenced the recent development of two out of the three internationally important library classification schemes, the Universal Decimal Classification, and the Dewey Decimal Classification. Collectively these are used in over 350,000 libraries worldwide, and thousands of new publications in the relevant subject classes are now classified using systems based on research undertaken in UCL Information Studies.
Database and URL hijacking is a very real and damaging threat for businesses and their brands. Professor David Duce and Dr Faye Mitchell successfully partnered with Nominet, a leading internet domain registry, to help detect abuse of their WHOIS system and develop tools to better understand and deal with typosquatting. Their approach enabled improvements to Nominet's information services and practices, whilst also influencing the wider technical community. These benefits included better policing of systems, securing brands, reducing fraud and starting to get people thinking about what can be done with data to gain insights and understanding of behaviours.
The Great Britain Historical Geographical Information System (GBHGIS) has computerised geographical surveys of Britain, including Ordnance Survey mapping and all censuses 1801-1971, integrating them into a consistent, innovative geo-spatial and geo-semantic information architecture, and disseminated data via many channels including the UK Data Service, direct work for government agencies (e.g. DEFRA, National Archives), and our own very popular web sites that are used extensively by genealogists and the general public with over 1.8 million unique users per annum. Impact of the technical innovation is mainly on non-UK academics, but within the UK we have made it vastly easier to place modern local issues in long-run perspective — and lots of people and organisations have.
The University of Glasgow has a strong research base in place-names. Our research has supported local organisations develop and make funding bids to Heritage Landscape Partnerships in Scotland for funds in excess of £4 million. These and related projects included a variety of research-led educational activities around place-names, which gave communities a sense of ownership of their landscape and created local history resources that are widely available both to academics and the general public.
The Northern Ireland Place-Name Project was designed to have a range of public impacts since its inception and this case study focuses especially on the following three overlapping impacts: 1) It has enriched cultural life by recording, preserving and publishing free online the corpus of local place-names, and 2) has enhanced public understanding of aspects of language and history as preserved in these names. In particular, 3) it has impacted on civil society by creating space in which linguistic and cultural diversity can be encountered in an inclusive manner, and by illuminating the depth of connection between place and people across the range of historically diverse ethnic groups.
Research by the Social and Spatial Inequalities (SASI) research group, led by Prof Danny Dorling, has for more than a decade been at the forefront of analysis and visualisation of social inequalities. SASI's research is global in scope and focuses on the statistical analysis of trends, causes and consequences of inequality and on methodological innovations in the effective visualisation and communication of those inequalities. Reaching beyond the academic community to effect real change in society is a core objective for the SASI group, leading to significant impacts in three different ways:
At Edinburgh Napier University Professor Kennedy's research on modelling processes and results of biological classification has had, and continues to have, a major impact on the infrastructure for storing and exchanging biodiversity data worldwide. It led to the Taxonomic Concept Schema (TCS), a biodiversity data standard ratified by the International Biodiversity Standards Group (TDWG), now the basis of systems worldwide for referencing biodiversity data, including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and the International Plant Names Index. The TCS fed into the design of the Darwin Core standard subsequently ratified by TDWG, and now the exchange format for data in the major biodiversity infrastructures globally.
The social enterprise Mapping for Change (MfC) was established to make use of participatory mapping knowledge and software created through research at UCL. Since 2009, MfC has secured more than 20 contracts worth in excess of £435,000, and has delivered over 30 projects in many communities, directly engaging more than 5,000 people and reaching far more online and indirectly. Its projects have increased community engagement in the local environment, led to new environmental monitoring by local authorities and stimulated policy debate about noise and air pollution.
The loss of biodiversity is an issue of global concern. This has prompted intergovernmental aims and global campaigns, administered by organisations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, to halt the rate of species extinction. A major hurdle in these initiatives was the lack of any form of definitive list of the World's species. Species data was scattered across hundreds of local databases, created and interpreted differently by many scientists. No uniform, agreed catalogue existed. However, research produced at the School of Computer Science, at Cardiff University, resolved this. The use of data modelling, constraint checking techniques, protocols and processes to amend conflicts have enabled Species2000/ITIS to produce the Catalogue of Life: www.catalogueoflife.org. This federated database is the most complete set of species data anywhere in the world, comprised of 1.4 million entries. It is accessed by approximately 30,000 users worldwide, each month, and utilised by governments across the globe for nature conservation, import control and predicting the effects of climate change. Other users include charities, specialists, scientists, publishers, students and members of the public worldwide. Therefore the categories of impact claimed are threefold - environmental, economic and impact on society, culture and creativity.
Targeted Projection Pursuit (TPP) — developed at Northumbria University — is a novel method for interactive exploration of high-dimension data sets without loss of information. The TPP method performs better than current dimension-reduction methods since it finds projections that best approximate a target view enhanced by certain prior knowledge about the data. "Valley Care" provides a Telecare service to over 5,000 customers as part of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, and delivers a core service for vulnerable and elderly people (receiving an estimated 129,000 calls per annum) that allows them to live independently and remain in their homes longer. The service informs a wider UK ageing community as part of the NHS Foundation Trust.
Applying our research enabled the managers of Valley Care to establish the volume, type and frequency of calls, identify users at high risk, and to inform the manufacturers of the equipment how to update the database software. This enabled Valley Care managers and staff to analyse the information quickly in order to plan efficiently the work of call operators and social care workers. Our study also provided knowledge about usage patterns of the technology and valuably identified clients at high risk of falls. This is the first time that mathematical and statistical analysis of data sets of this type has been done in the UK and Europe.
As a result of applying the TPP method to its Call Centre multivariate data, Valley Care has been able to transform the quality and efficiency of its service, while operating within the same budget.