Grants

Holidaying on one of those glorious 70's summer days!

Holidaying on one of those glorious 70′s summer days!

I have been involved in novel independent research for a number of years and I am principle investigator on a diverse portfolio of funded, and pilot research projects:

  • MSO: Multiple Screen Orchestration: One Research Associate – 01 April 2011 to 31 July 2012; EPSRC Knowledge Transfer Award (EP/H500154/1–R114060); £29,986 (Research Body Contribution) / £7,668 (BBC Contribution); Knowledge Transfer Awards Program; Principle Investigator. Answers the question ‘How would we orchestrate to best effect multiple information streams over individual devices, which are all participating in a single unified presentation?’
  • OSS: Online Social Support for Cancer Patients and their Families: One Research Associate (CompSci) / One Research Associate (Nursing, Midwifery & Social Work) – 01 Jan 2012 to 30 June 2012; EPSRC Windfall (EP/K005294/1–R114041); £34,035 (Research Body Contribution); EPS Windfall Awards Pro- gram; Principle Investigator. This cross-disciplinary feasibility study will investigate the potential benefits and pitfalls of the proposed technology from a user-centred perspective, assessing issues of security, ethics, and confidentiality in a social setting, and will deliver a requirements analysis and report detailing how a full-scale project would be accomplished.
  • TEOA: Text Entry For Older Adults: One Research Associate – 01 Oct 2011 to 30 June 2012; EPSRC Knowledge Transfer Award (EP/H500154/1–R113685); £29,205 (Research Body Contribution) / £6,000 (Buttercup Telecoms Contribution) / £8,700 (CTIC Contribution) / £4,779 (Age Concern Contribution); Knowledge Transfer Awards Program; Principle Investigator. Proposes an assessment of the feasibility of moving prototypical user input (users supplied via Age Concern) error correction technology from the mobile Web to the MyMobileWeb platform initiated by Telefonica/O2, with development continued by CTIC with Buttercups Business Cases, thereby enabling all mobile applications can take advantage of reduced error rates.
  • COPE: Coping Strategies for Improving Blind Users’ Interaction with the World Wide Web: One Research Associate – 01 Jan 2011 to 01 Jan 2014; Basque Government (Grant Scheme); e105,000 (Research Body Contribution); Research Awards Program; Simon Harper, Supervisor – Markel Vigo, Researcher Associate – Julio Abascal, University of the Basque Country. To develop a deep understanding of how visually disabled users cope with inaccessible Web pages to facilitate more effective accessibility interventions such that the need to cope is removed;
  • ACup: Accessibility Catch-Up – Techniques for Disseminating Accessibility Research: One Research Associate – 01 Jan 2010 to 01 Jan 2013; Google (Grant Scheme); $70,000 (Research Body Contribution); Research Awards Program; Principle Investigator. To investigate the possibility of using scripting technology, as used by AxsJAX, to bring developments in accessibility research to users more quickly;
  • SCWeb2: Senior Citizens and the Web 2.0: One Research Associate – 01 Jan 2009 to 01 Jan 2011; Leverhulme Trust (F/00 120/BL); £112,187 (Research Body Contribution); Standard Research Scheme; Principle Investiga- tor. Aims to create a cognitive model of ageing users’ Web 2.0 interactivity and suggest interventions, realised as an experimental ‘assistive–advisor’, to lessen cognitive load and encourage confidence in the interaction; measured by a reduction in stress levels;
  • SASWAT: Structured Accessibility Stream for Web 2.0 Access Technologies: Two Research Associates – 01 July 2007 to 30 March 2010; EPSRC (EP/E062954/1); £337,814 (Research Council Contribution); Standard Research Scheme; Principle Investigator; EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: Cognitive Science Applications in ICT, Human-Computer Interactions, Multimedia, & User Interface Technologies; EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: Media, & Software. Aims to investigate, design, and build a homogeneous mapping framework to support the transformation of competing Web 2.0 data into a single coherent and mediated data stream for visually disabled users;
  • RIAM: Reciprocal Interoperability between the Accessible and Mobile Webs: One Research Associate & One PhD Studentship – 01 October 2006 to 30 December 2009; EPSRC (EP/E002218/1); £205,678 (Research Council Contribution); First Grant Scheme; Principle Investigator; EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: Multimedia, & User Interface Technologies. Investigates ways in which to integrate, to mutual advantage, research into the Accessible and Mobile Webs, to develop a common infrastructure, and to validate this infrastructure using existing Web documents; and
  • Pilots funded by the University of Manchester / SADIe, ViCRAM, & EIVAA Pilot Studies to Apr 2011: Three PhD Studentships – Three interlocking projects investigating the relationship between human behaviour, accessibility, visual complexity, and visual aesthetics.