Progress Against Objectives
Let's start out with the obvious spots - I set myself ten(!) goals this year: how did I do with them?
1. Complete WHISPER - Done!
Well, we completed WHISPER, and fairly successfully. Focus groups were run, a prototype was made and tested with users, and lab studies were conducted. I never did blog the outcomes, did I? Perhaps that's something for the new year. Anyway, as an exploratory exercise, it was very successful: we learned a lot about navigation challenges and the potential for haptic navigation. It's just a question of moving it forwards - which we're doing through an undergraduate project.
Well, we completed WHISPER, and fairly successfully. Focus groups were run, a prototype was made and tested with users, and lab studies were conducted. I never did blog the outcomes, did I? Perhaps that's something for the new year. Anyway, as an exploratory exercise, it was very successful: we learned a lot about navigation challenges and the potential for haptic navigation. It's just a question of moving it forwards - which we're doing through an undergraduate project.
2. Submit five research proposals - Done!
At least, done if you include bids for internal funding. I was attached to four external applications (to EPSRC, one to Occulus' research programme, one to Hello Shenzen to host a maker, and one to Wellcome Trust for a seed award with Stuart Murray). The last of these was successful - which is great news.
Internally, I bid for EPSRC Impact Acceleration Funds to develop the Postural Sway Assessment Tool arising from Ian Flatters' PhD work; and a Sadler Seminar Series to help develop the Augmenting the Body Work with Stuart Murray. Both successful, which was great. Of course, internal bids can still involve as much effort as external ones - especially the Impact Acceleration bid.
And going for my Chartered Status also used a load of time that I had earmarked for proposals. The biggest disappointment, is that I didn't get my Fellowship in - I've been advised to leave it to one side, and focus on the areas that are paying off, but it's hard when you've put that much effort in, and you think "just another little push...".
3. Get research results from FATKAT - Done! Just not in the way expected.
It's been a very mixed year for FATKAT. Firstly, the original and revised builds died the death, and a ground-up rebuild was needed. So FATKAT isn't off gathering data for Will Shaw as I had expected. Instead we've had to invest in high-cost kit to ensure his PhD isn't hostage to FATKAT's development, and to provide a basis for benchmarking FATKAT's performance against.
However, FATKAT did get its first run out as part of Latif Ayzyze's PhD, getting handwriting grip and tip forces, and I have a student working on a revised manipulandum design. I'm also talking to the ingenious Pete Culmer about some of his boss new force sensors that might be a real boon... if we can get them to work. So, it's been a year of ups and downs for FATKAT - but that's the way with development. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy them.
Internally, I bid for EPSRC Impact Acceleration Funds to develop the Postural Sway Assessment Tool arising from Ian Flatters' PhD work; and a Sadler Seminar Series to help develop the Augmenting the Body Work with Stuart Murray. Both successful, which was great. Of course, internal bids can still involve as much effort as external ones - especially the Impact Acceleration bid.
And going for my Chartered Status also used a load of time that I had earmarked for proposals. The biggest disappointment, is that I didn't get my Fellowship in - I've been advised to leave it to one side, and focus on the areas that are paying off, but it's hard when you've put that much effort in, and you think "just another little push...".
3. Get research results from FATKAT - Done! Just not in the way expected.
It's been a very mixed year for FATKAT. Firstly, the original and revised builds died the death, and a ground-up rebuild was needed. So FATKAT isn't off gathering data for Will Shaw as I had expected. Instead we've had to invest in high-cost kit to ensure his PhD isn't hostage to FATKAT's development, and to provide a basis for benchmarking FATKAT's performance against.
However, FATKAT did get its first run out as part of Latif Ayzyze's PhD, getting handwriting grip and tip forces, and I have a student working on a revised manipulandum design. I'm also talking to the ingenious Pete Culmer about some of his boss new force sensors that might be a real boon... if we can get them to work. So, it's been a year of ups and downs for FATKAT - but that's the way with development. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy them.
4. Validate or refute my grip model - Done. Sort of.
I've got to be honest - I'm not entirely sure what I meant by this when I wrote it. I *think* this referred to the third of the papers I've mentioned above, though this is more of a reach-to-grasp model than a grip model. Anyway as far as I'm concerned the model is "validated" in the sense that it's been shown to be a plausible fit to the data, albeit its form has developed significantly from the one I had at the end of 2015. The bigger question now is whether we can use the model to formulate more complex predictions about prehension movements. One for 2017, there...
I've got to be honest - I'm not entirely sure what I meant by this when I wrote it. I *think* this referred to the third of the papers I've mentioned above, though this is more of a reach-to-grasp model than a grip model. Anyway as far as I'm concerned the model is "validated" in the sense that it's been shown to be a plausible fit to the data, albeit its form has developed significantly from the one I had at the end of 2015. The bigger question now is whether we can use the model to formulate more complex predictions about prehension movements. One for 2017, there...
5. Get two high-quality journal papers submitted - Done!
At least - I have three such papers under review (two at the stage of being corrected, the third awaiting reviewers' comments) and one fully accepted. That said, it's only the initial submission that I can control, so as far as I'm concerned, I've done my bit on that one!
6. Use the laser cutter and 3D printer down at Leeds Hackspace - Not Done. ;_;
This is probably my biggest regret of the year - I didn't end up doing as much making as I'd have liked, and I didn't get myself trained up on the laser cutter or 3D printer, my time instead going into software and the Raspberry Pi. Speaking of which...
6. Use the laser cutter and 3D printer down at Leeds Hackspace - Not Done. ;_;
This is probably my biggest regret of the year - I didn't end up doing as much making as I'd have liked, and I didn't get myself trained up on the laser cutter or 3D printer, my time instead going into software and the Raspberry Pi. Speaking of which...
7. Get OpenCV and timelapse video working on my PiCAM - Done!
Albeit not used in anger - which I really must get round to. I've written a little time lapse piece (and yes, I know it's not rocket science, thanks...) for my Raspberry Pi, and got it up and running. I intended to take a time lapse picture of the sky's rotation at night to show my daughter, but having finished it in the summer, I've had it tucked away in a box waiting for the clear nights to get it running. Which we now have - so thanks for the reminder, blog! Must get onto that one ASAP...
Albeit not used in anger - which I really must get round to. I've written a little time lapse piece (and yes, I know it's not rocket science, thanks...) for my Raspberry Pi, and got it up and running. I intended to take a time lapse picture of the sky's rotation at night to show my daughter, but having finished it in the summer, I've had it tucked away in a box waiting for the clear nights to get it running. Which we now have - so thanks for the reminder, blog! Must get onto that one ASAP...
8. Continue weekly(ish) updates on the blog - Done(ish).
Emphasis being on the ish. We had a bit of a gap from February through July, but otherwise I've managed a couple of posts a month. I'll grant you, it's not weekly, but it's good enough for me. I'm mainly trying to avoid the lengthy multi-month gaps between posts. I'll hit 24 posts this year - one less than 2015, but much more than I posted in the first 18 months of the blog combined. So, at least the trend is positive. I think if I can make an average of a post a fortnight next year, I'll be feeling happy.
Emphasis being on the ish. We had a bit of a gap from February through July, but otherwise I've managed a couple of posts a month. I'll grant you, it's not weekly, but it's good enough for me. I'm mainly trying to avoid the lengthy multi-month gaps between posts. I'll hit 24 posts this year - one less than 2015, but much more than I posted in the first 18 months of the blog combined. So, at least the trend is positive. I think if I can make an average of a post a fortnight next year, I'll be feeling happy.
9. Include some non-weekly update posts; Done!
Albeit not quite as many as I intended - I managed three (on Margrit Schildrick, Why Body's Should End at the Skin, and Who are We Engineering For?). Five if you count this and the Year in Preview post! So that's some at any rate, and more than I managed last year.
Albeit not quite as many as I intended - I managed three (on Margrit Schildrick, Why Body's Should End at the Skin, and Who are We Engineering For?). Five if you count this and the Year in Preview post! So that's some at any rate, and more than I managed last year.
10. Use tags and images more on the blog - Done. A bit.
Technically, I did use them more (given that the baseline was almost zero!) - but only for a few posts. It turns out, it's *really* hard to get good images. And to get Blogger to upload photos from my phone, for some reason. I'd end up having to email photos to myself and then upload from my PC. Not ideal, and when it became another barrier to actually posting, I just stopped.
So, not a bad year at all. That's nine out of ten done to my satisfaction - if not always in the way I expected. Speaking of which...
The Unknown Unknowns
Of course, not everything that happened this year was stuff I anticipated. The legendary unknown unknowns always crop up to throw things off-kilter. What were the unexpected turn of events this year?
Well, the biggest has to be getting chartered by the IMechE. This didn't come as that much of a surprise, since I had to put myself forward for the process, and starting the process had been on my To Do list for a while. The surprise came in the form of a Leeds-specific process being organised by our local Young Members so that postgrads could get chartered - and that rather forced my hand. Thereafter, actually getting chartered was more relief than surprise - you look at the criteria, and you're pretty sure that you fit, but it's always a relief when you get confirmation!
Secondly, has been the opportunity to start some potential collaborations with my former PACLab colleague Andrew Wilson (now at Leeds Beckett, and whose blog I have long mined for my understanding of Affordances!) on the affordances of throwing. Apart from offering the opportunity to expand my list of collaborators to include archaeologists (since one of the applications of this work is in evaluating archaeological finds to determine their suitability for throwing). It isn't the throwing that interests me - so much as the actual process of modelling task dynamics and mapping out affordances, which I think has some real potential as an application for design and ergonomics - but that's for the future.
Thirdly, the Augmenting the Body Sadler Seminar series has been paying real dividends, in terms of stimulating thinking and developing new contacts. The Tracking People network (of which I am on the steering group), likewise - lots of interesting thoughts coming together on the whole engineering imagination topic. Again, these aren't surprises, since we actually bid for them, but they're major factors for this year that didn't appear on my Year in Preview post.
Anything else? Well, CWUAAT 2016 was a real highlight. Some very thought provoking articles, even if I didn't quite get round to writing a whole blog post on the event (you can always go back through my Twitter feed for my thoughts at the time - once again, microblogging proves its strength!).
Outside work, I was impressed by the BBC's Microbit when it arrived. I've been enjoying playing round with it, and likewise Pimoroni's Flotilla.
Anyway - it's been a good year, all told. That's it from me for 2016: have a Merry Christmas, enjoy the festive period, and I'll see you in 2017 for my next Year in Preview...
So, not a bad year at all. That's nine out of ten done to my satisfaction - if not always in the way I expected. Speaking of which...
The Unknown Unknowns
Of course, not everything that happened this year was stuff I anticipated. The legendary unknown unknowns always crop up to throw things off-kilter. What were the unexpected turn of events this year?
Well, the biggest has to be getting chartered by the IMechE. This didn't come as that much of a surprise, since I had to put myself forward for the process, and starting the process had been on my To Do list for a while. The surprise came in the form of a Leeds-specific process being organised by our local Young Members so that postgrads could get chartered - and that rather forced my hand. Thereafter, actually getting chartered was more relief than surprise - you look at the criteria, and you're pretty sure that you fit, but it's always a relief when you get confirmation!
Secondly, has been the opportunity to start some potential collaborations with my former PACLab colleague Andrew Wilson (now at Leeds Beckett, and whose blog I have long mined for my understanding of Affordances!) on the affordances of throwing. Apart from offering the opportunity to expand my list of collaborators to include archaeologists (since one of the applications of this work is in evaluating archaeological finds to determine their suitability for throwing). It isn't the throwing that interests me - so much as the actual process of modelling task dynamics and mapping out affordances, which I think has some real potential as an application for design and ergonomics - but that's for the future.
Thirdly, the Augmenting the Body Sadler Seminar series has been paying real dividends, in terms of stimulating thinking and developing new contacts. The Tracking People network (of which I am on the steering group), likewise - lots of interesting thoughts coming together on the whole engineering imagination topic. Again, these aren't surprises, since we actually bid for them, but they're major factors for this year that didn't appear on my Year in Preview post.
Anything else? Well, CWUAAT 2016 was a real highlight. Some very thought provoking articles, even if I didn't quite get round to writing a whole blog post on the event (you can always go back through my Twitter feed for my thoughts at the time - once again, microblogging proves its strength!).
Outside work, I was impressed by the BBC's Microbit when it arrived. I've been enjoying playing round with it, and likewise Pimoroni's Flotilla.
Anyway - it's been a good year, all told. That's it from me for 2016: have a Merry Christmas, enjoy the festive period, and I'll see you in 2017 for my next Year in Preview...
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