Jisc will be showcasing a number of futuristic projects at its inaugural Digital Festival. The purpose-built Technology Garden will display the latest innovations in education and research through a series of live demonstration and talks.
The Jisc Digital Festival is a two day event that will take place at the ICC Birmingham from March 11-12, 2014, designed to celebrate the best in digital technologies and explore the future trends that will impact education and research.
In the Technology Garden, visitors will experience a variety of presentations including a 3D printing and scanning demonstration from The British Geological Survey (BGS) of the world's first 3D virtual fossil collection.
The GB3D Type Fossils Online project, funded by Jisc, has developed a single database of macrofossil species and subspecies specimens found in the UK. This includes links to photographs and laser scans to produce a selection of 3D digital models. The collection aims to provide an incredible insight into the history of life on Earth, providing a record of the evolution of creatures, how continents were once connected, and how environments across the globe have transformed.
Visitors will also have the chance to view the specialist collection of Digitised Diseases, a web-searchable 3D record of chronic diseases that affect the skeleton, using archaeological and historical exemplars from world-renowned collections housed in the Biological Anthropology Research Centre, at the University of Bradford and the Museum of London Archaeology and Royal College of Surgeons of England. These digitised records combined with current clinical knowledge will make it easier to view, manipulate and safeguard these valuable type-specimens, as well as develop a more detailed understanding of the progression of diseases.
Working closely with the academic community to foster innovation, Microsoft Research will also be in the Technology Garden demonstrating their Kinect sign-language translator which enables communication between signer and non-signer, as well as translation between different sign languages. Visitors will also have the chance to hear about the team's Windows Azure for Research programme which is helping researchers discover how cloud computing can expand their work in environmental science, humanities, research data management and infrastructure.
Also on show in the Technology Garden will be the SCARLET project, an initiative which enhances the experience of studying first-hand medieval manuscripts, landmark editions and modern literary archives using augmented reality, 'surrounding' the pages with digitised content; images, texts, online learning resources and related information. Matt Ramirez, technical lead on The SCARLET project will be delivering an interactive presentation on this.
With demand for open data growing, delegates visiting the Technology Garden will also have the chance to listen to a presentation from Chris Gutteridge, linked open data architect at the University of Southampton and creator of Data.ac.uk. He will speak about how the higher education community can best use the wealth of data it has access to.
In addition, visitors will be able to learn more about BatMobile, an ambitious new project which identifies bats from their ultrasonic calls using a smartphone and an external microphone. Using the GPS signal from a smartphone, the information gathered will provide researchers with accurate information about species distributions which can be used to support national research programmes and inform conservation policy.
The Technology Garden will also showcase Leaf Watch, a citizen science app which enables the public to help academics at the universities of Bristol and Hull to identify the UK horse chestnut trees damaged by a species of moth.
