InfoText

CPRG Approves!

The Central Project Review Group, the organisation which approved the Regional Development Agency funding for InfoLab21, paid a visit in May to view the building and check on progress to date. In a letter from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the visitors declared that they had been very impressed with both the project and the building, which was an important milestone for all concerned.

Pooch Live

.:thePooch:., a digital live arts group made up of researchers from the University's Computing Department, have started a project with Ulverston's Welfare State International titled METAMORPHOSIS.

There is an opportunity for you to see, take part and experience Pooch's masterpieces all at the same time! The spectators influence the art themselves either directly or indirectly, in METAMORPHOSIS' case, through digital means either as individuals or as a group. For example an interactive screen can change its displayed art according to the movement of the audience. METAMORPHOSIS is running at the Lanternhouse, The Ellers, Ulverston Cumbria until July 31st 2005.

'm-football' goes Premier!

A novel mobile application developed by members of the Department of Communication Systems was demonstrated at E3 in Los Angeles by Orange as part of their promotion of novel 3G applications. m-football is a new sports information service that provides live updates from all premiership games on any given match day, together with a live fantasy football game that allows users to see the changing status of their fantasy team as real events unfold.

Communication Systems academics Paul Coulton and Reuben Edwards, who have formed a commercial company - m-ventions - were also invited to present their work at GDC Mobile held in March 2005 in San Francisco. The Game Developers Conference is the premier event for the games industry, attracting attendees from all over the world, and this was the first time academics have been invited to speak to such a gathering.

AOSD Excellence

£3.1 million has been awarded to AOSD-Europe: the European Network of Excellence on Aspect Oriented Software Development. Dr Awais Rashid from the Computing Department is leading this concerted effort of nine leading academic institutions and two major industrial players within Europe to undertake large-scale research and establish Europe as a scientific leader in this area. There will be an opportunity to find out more about AOSD from Awais at the "Talking Technology" event at InfoLab21 in October.

InfoLab21 Events Programme

A new programme of free events for InfoLab21 got off to a flying start with a breakfast networking meeting on Friday 13 May. Any superstitions about the date were put aside and over seventy people from the University, support organisations and local business gathered in Cafe21 to enjoy breakfast and find out more about what goes on inside InfoLab21. Feedback was very positive:

"Many thanks for the opportunity to network at the recent InfoLab21 breakfast meeting. I gained a great insight into the work you are all doing, much of which is quite fascinating! Added to that I spoke to two businesses who seem very keen to use LA Serve - AND one of the academic spinouts - hopefully we can nurture all these to see if we can mutually benefit each other. A most worthwhile occasion for our company!"

Further networking events are planned combined with "Talking Technology" seminars. The programme has been organised by the Knowledge Business Centre in order to give businesses the opportunity to gain more in depth knowledge about areas of technology, talk to others and hopefully spark off some ideas!

September Events:

• Wednesday 7 September - InfoLab21 Networking for Business Breakfast
• Wednesday 28 September - "Talking Technology" - Broadband Technologies by Dr Nick Race and Professor Barry Forde Computing Department/ISS (5.30 - 7.00 pm)

These events are open to all, for further information contact Jane Johnson on 01524 510443 or j.johnson4@lancaster.ac.uk

New Foundation Degrees in Systems & Networking

ICT Focus is the education and training department within InfoLab21. The department currently offers a range of advanced technical training courses in applications development and in systems and network administration. They work with IT Professionals in schools & colleges and with local councils, SMEs or IT teams from larger organisations.

Three new Foundation Degrees in Systems & Networking have recently been approved by the University. The degrees combine academic study with work-based learning and are run part-time over 4 years. They are currently aimed at IT professionals, giving them the opportunity to study whilst working and to apply new knowledge and skills within their own workplace.

The degree programme has been designed in collaboration with the Computing Department and together ICT Focus and Computing will be working on a progression route to allow successful students to complete their studies and achieve a BSc awarded by the Computing department. Students currently studying for ICT Focus certificates will be given the chance to enrol on the Foundation Degree programs this year, with new intakes planned annually from September.

For more information call 01524 510425 or e-mail ictfocus@lancaster.ac.uk

The £15m InfoLab21 building was made possible with funding from Lancaster University, the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA), the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

Project part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund NW Objective 2 Programme 2000-06 NW Knowledge Based Action Plan www.nwua.ac.uk Delivering an Entrepreneurial and Digital Economy in North West Lancs.