Celebrating Glasgow's dizzying array of research
The Industrial Revolution was sparked by James Watt's improvements to the Newcomen steam engine, helping to create the world we live in now.
Joseph Lister's pioneering use of antiseptics in surgery during the 19th century helped lay the path to modern medicine, while Ian Donald's development of ultrasound in the 1950s revolutionised prenatal care.
Chemist Frederick Soddy's development of the concept of isotopes, which changed the way we understand atoms and helped underpin the development of nuclear energy, won him the Nobel Prize in 1921.
As director of the Glasgow Science Festival since its inception, I've been playing my part in celebrating the city every year by helping academics working today provide visitors with insights into the past, present and future of research in Glasgow.
This year's festival is our 19th event. Over the course of the last two decades, I've had the privilege of watching the city's researchers achieve new breakthroughs, as universities invested in their campuses to enable new developments and industries including life sciences and the space sector grew and developed in and around Glasgow.
During my time as director of the festival, researchers from the University of Glasgow played a key role in the historic first detection of gravitational waves – ripples in spacetime caused by massive cosmic events like the collisions of black holes.
City researchers have pioneered new methods of personalising medicine to help achieve better care for people affected by diseases like cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. They have developed cutting-edge new materials to create flexible sensors for applications including healthcare monitoring. They are working to establish the ultrafast 6G communications networks of the future, and to harness advanced photonics for use in quantum technologies, sensing, security and more.
Through the University of Glasgow-led GALLANT project, they are also working to use the city as a living lab to find new ways for urban environments to adapt to the climate crisis.
There's a dizzying array of other research going on across Glasgow, covering everything from AI to zoology. The city's future as a leader in science seems certain.
As we complete our preparations for this year's festival in June, I'm excited to be showcasing depth and breadth of the city's research in this historic year. But, I'm just as excited for the festivals to come, where we'll be continue to bring people together to celebrate new developments as well as reflect on past achievements.
Dr Deborah McNeill of the University of Glasgow is director of the Glasgow Science Festival. This year's festival runs from June 5-15 at venues across the city.
Agenda is a column for outside contributors. Contact: agenda@theherald.co.uk
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STV News
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- STV News
Whale and dolphin strandings have increased 'exponentially' on Scottish coasts
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Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Scientists are baffled by an ‘exponential' increase in whale and dolphin strandings in Britain – as they reveal the surprising potential causes
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The Herald Scotland
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- The Herald Scotland
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The system, called Augmenting Zoomorphic Robotics with Affect (AZRA), aims to address the shortcomings of the current generation of these 'zoomorphic' robots, which often have very limited options for interactivity. In the future, AZRA-based systems could enable older robot pets, and even previously non-interactive toys like plush dolls, to provide experiences which are much closer to those provided by real animal companions. The richer experiences AZRA enables could help provide more pet-like experiences for people who are unable to keep real animals for reasons of health, cost or restrictions on rental properties. When users of the AZRA system wear augmented reality devices like Meta's Quest headset around their robot pets and toys, it projects a sophisticated overlay of virtual facial expressions, light, sound and thought bubbles onto the toy's surfaces and surroundings. 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'I was a bit disappointed to realise that, despite all the major developments in technology over the last 25 years, zoomorphic robots haven't developed much at all since I was a child. It's all but impossible to build a relationship with a robot pet in the way you might with a real animal, because they have so few behaviours and they become over-familiar very quickly. 'As a researcher in human-computer interaction, I started to wonder whether I could build a system which could overlay much more complex behaviours and interactions on the toy using augmented reality. Being able to imbue older robots and pets with new life could also help reduce the carbon footprint of unwanted devices by keeping them from landfill for longer.' Headsets are required to bring the 'pet' to life (Image: UofG) Dr Macdonald used a simple off-the-shelf zoomorphic pet, the Petit Qoobo, as the basic real-world platform on which to overlay the augmented reality elements during the development of the system. Guided by previous research into the emotional needs of dogs, Dr Macdonald developed Zoomorphic Robot Affect and Agency Mind Architecture, or ZAMA. ZAMA provides the AZRA system with a kind of artificial emotional intelligence, giving it a series of simulated emotional states which can change in response to its environment. Rather than simple stimulus-response patterns, the system provides the augmented reality pet with an ongoing temperament based around combinations of nine personality traits including 'gloomy', 'relaxed' or 'irritable'. It has daily moods that fluctuate naturally, and a long-term personality which develops over time through interactions with its owner. It simulates desires for touch, rest, food, and socialisation which are subtly randomised each day. When its needs aren't met, the AR robot will actively seek interaction, displaying emojis and thought bubbles to communicate what it wants. The researchers are already working to explore the future potential of the technology, including participatory studies where volunteers can interact with the robot and then adjust its emotional parameters in real-time to explore what feels natural versus artificial in robot behaviour. Dr Macdonald added: "AZRA turns a robot from being a device that I almost entirely choose to interact with into a device which can engage me in interaction itself. It feels more like me and another entity attempting to interact and communicate, rather than me make-believing almost all of that interaction myself. "One of the main advantages of this system is that we don't have a fixed 'this is how this should work' approach. What we have is a really great development test bed where we can try different ideas quickly and see what works. As AR glasses become more mainstream, this could become a way to breathe new life into existing robots without having to replace them entirely." Dr Salma ElSayed of Abertay University and Dr Mark McGill of the University of Glasgow are co-authors of the paper. The team's paper, titled 'AZRA: Extending the Affective Capabilities of Zoomorphic Robots using Augmented Reality', will be presented at the IEEE RO-MAN 2025 conference at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands on Tuesday 26th August.
