Scientific Theatre

International Workshop

 

Multidisciplinary Approach to Designing Intelligent Environments (SciT’11)

Nottingham Trent University, UK

25th-26th of July 2011

Scientific
Theatre

         about...   

The story behind:

 

“I reproduced many experiments from various branches of physics when I was 7 and 8 years old. By providing me with the book called ‘Physics for children’, I guess my parents were partially guilty for that I spent my childhood soldering electronic circuits rather than playing with dolls. Physics seemed to be easy and fun.

 

Later in my life, I was performing as a dancer and musician. We staged the “Red hat” story using mathematical objects such as numbers and arithmetic operations (e.g., how would you dance the equation      x=(2+2)/4)?). Choreographers often borrow concepts from various sciences to create their work, for example, chaos theory, fractals, manifold, symmetry, reflection, mirroring etc. Musicians use algorithmic composition    to create music. Bell ringing also won’t be possible without applying mathematical patterns.

 

As a researcher now, I wonder why there are two separate sections in grant application forms: ‘description of your project’ and ‘description to lay audience’. I also wonder why many scientific books and articles are written in such a complicated manner. Often just dry formulas without any (or poor) explanation what they actually mean, how they work and what is behind them.

 

It seems like a competition among academics: the more mathematical symbols and the more sophisticated representation, the better. If the majority don’t understand your work then it might be highly technical and intelligent. Perhaps. Or perhaps it’s just inability to explain your science to a 7-years old child? I wish I could remember now the authors of my ‘Physics for children’ book!”

 
Home | About | Participation | Registration | Key Dates | Committee | Keynote Speaker

Technology is becoming increasingly people centric. Intelligent environments, pervasive and ubiquitous computing, sensing and mobile technology etc are all about people interacting with technology. It is more crucial nowadays, than ever, to open up research in these areas to a broader audience, to explain (often sophisticated) research advances to non-scientists, as well as to get contributions and feedback from experts outside the IT field.

This workshop is an attempt to set up an ‘intelligent environment’ where everyone can understand everything despite their background, culture, professional language or field of expertise. To achieve this, the most ancient form of communication, namely creative art (along with the more conventional methods, such as academic writing), will be used as means to convey scientific achievements related to the topic of Intelligent Environments to as wide an audience as is possible.

The primary goal of the workshops is to explore:

·     What various disciplines have to say about, and can contribute, to the future development of Intelligent Environments.

·      How concepts used in non-technical research fields could be used to advance the technological development of Intelligent Environments.

·   In what way various disciplines outside science and technology can benefit from the latest achievements in IT in order to establish the environments people would like to work and live in.

·       How achievements in various research and development fields could be effectively communicated to a multidisciplinary audience.

 

The event will include presentations from participants, a keynote talk, and a panel led discussion involving the audience.

 

The workshop is part of the 7th International Conference on Intelligent Environments (IE’11), which will be held at the Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom, 25-28 July, 2011 (with workshops scheduled on 25-26 July 2011). Please visit the conference web-site for more details (dates, venue, registration, events etc).

 

The SciT'11 schedule, with times of presentations, can be downloaded from here. The overall IE'11 workshops schedule is available here (the schedule for the combined conference and workshops is available here).