Yiannis Papadopoulos

The DEIS Research Group environment as an Academic Garden

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The DEIS RG operates as an inclusive, collaborative research environment which we like to think of as our Academic Garden. The metaphor of the Academic Garden derives from two of the first “research environments” in history, the Academy of Plato and the Garden of Epicurus. The metaphorical term signifies our goal of combining the intellectual pursuit of knowledge (the Academy) with the fruits of impactful research for society (the Garden). The concept of the Academic Garden chimes with our activities that are inspired by an ethical and green agenda for computing and embodies our passion for research that can make a difference, i.e. have positive social and environmental impact.  

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The DEIS RG values research integrity highly; thus, as an academic garden, we think of it as being ‘fenced’ by epistemology and ethics  ̶  a strong framework for cultivating scientific ethos and research integrity as well as professionalism to staff and students. Within the garden, one can imagine the fundamental science that we pursue in software engineering, dependable AI, autonomous systems and virtual environments, as “trees” representing long-term research projects that have clear continuity and branching over long periods.  The “fruits” born by these ‘’trees’’ are the results of research for society which are evident in our long-standing technological, industrial and societal impact.

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With this vision, we produce innovative techniques that can improve the dependability of complex systems, including the intelligent, autonomous, connected and open cyber-physical systems of systems emerging in many areas of life. The results of this work formed the BIOLOGIC impact case study on a synthesis of Bio-inspired and Logic-based techniques for the design of Dependable Intelligent Systems that we submitted in REF2021.  We have also helped to produce novel virtual environments for training professionals that improve public health and emergency services. The results of this work formed part of the REF2021 VETA impact case study on Vertual Environments for Training in medical and emergency services Applications which we co-authored. The impact documented in these two impact case studies is both local and global in several dimensions: generation of wealth, employment, improvement of dependability of technological systems, and enhancement of public medical and emergency services. It includes the transfer of research globally to the automotive, aerospace and other safety-critical industries, the green energy sector, UK wind energy, in particular, over 150 hospitals worldwide, and a third of the UK’s fire service.

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The transformation of the research produced by our Academic Garden into enterprise is facilitated through the Innovation Centres of the University. They include Knowledge Exchange, through which two spinouts have been created to commercialise our research (Vertual and Lampada), and the AURA Innovation Centre. Through AURA, we have access to the offshore wind energy industry thus contributing to large initiatives for green regional development in the Humberside. Transformation of research to enterprise is also facilitated through links to C4DI, a Hull-based technology incubator creating much-needed high-tech, high-value employment and business in the region.

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That local innovation setup that we have carefully created has become a nexus in an international network of universities, hospitals, fire services, software houses, SMEs and large engineering companies through which we transfer our research globally.

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Our academic garden has its metaphorical seedlings  ̶  our research students. The goal of our research training is to nurture them as good scientists who have a good grasp of epistemology  ̶  the theory of the nature of knowledge and its justification. We take the view that students who have thought about the fundamentals of science find it easier to complete a PhD and write a quality thesis. We, therefore, supplement our PhD programme with epistemological seminars. In a series of tutorial-style seminars, we convey a historical perspective starting from a Platonic definition of knowledge as justified true belief, and cover topics on the nature of knowledge and truth, on scepticism, logic and proof, empiricism and induction, as well as falsification and the hypothetico-deductive method. To foster scientific ethos, we focus on the importance of research ethics and the importance of testing contrary to predictions of a hypothesis.  This training helps to form sceptical researchers who challenge their own prejudices and develop a good understanding of what constitutes a rational basis for belief in a scientific hypothesis. Students understand how to put forward credible scientific hypotheses and how to use the scientific method to either disprove them (falsification) or, through evidence, increase the Bayesian belief in their validity.

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All our PhD students are funded to at least EPSRC levels including using University and Faculty PhD scholarships. An increasing number of students are funded through the China Scholarship Council and the AURA CDT - an EPSRC-NERC funded Centre for Doctoral Training, led by Hull, with partner universities Sheffield, Durham and Newcastle. A research student is supported by a supervisory team of at least three academics including a primary supervisor. The supervisory team offers advice and focus, checks on progress, and ensures that training requirements are met.  To foster a dynamic international environment, we actively promote student exchange. We are annually hosting students from the University of Angers in France and vice versa. 

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A major challenge for doctoral students is maintaining consistently good mental health - something that our Academic Garden takes very seriously. The university provides dedicated services; however, in our department, supervisors are also encouraged to be extra vigilant and proactive. The PhD can be an isolating and difficult experience, and the pressures to perform, compete and excel can be too high. To help students deal with these pressures, reflect on their own expectations, anxiety and stress, and build resilience, we also introduce them, through seminars, to the timeless wisdom of ancient Stoicism and encourage them to study the writings of Seneca and Epictetus as well as modern stoics such as scientist-turned-philosopher Massimo Pigliucci. The informal feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive. Our students thrive in this benign and supporting environment. Several of our PhD students have received distinctions and awards:

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• Koorosh Aslansefat, supervised by Papadopoulos, has received the  "Best Poster Award at Global Offshore Wind 2019" from RenewableUK, and the prestigious “Leslie H. Paddle Scholarship” in the international IET Postgraduate Student Award competition in 2020 for his PhD work which is funded by EDF Research London.​

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• Declan Whiting, supervised by Papadopoulos, is part-time PhD and software engineer in local company APD. He won the “Young Engineer of the Year” in the Int’l Critical Communications Awards 2019 thanks to his work on automating analysis of security threats in HiP-HOPS.

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• Joyjit Chatterjie, supervised by Dethlefs, was sponsored by Microsoft Research and Deep-Mind to present research at the “Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning” workshop at the 33rd Int’l Conf. on Neural Information Processing Systems in Vancouver. He received the IEEE “Young Researcher Award” during the Int’l Conf. on Automation, Computation and Technology Management (ICACTM), London, April 2019.

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• Annika Schoene, supervised by Dethlefs, was selected for a competitive internship programme at IBM Research UK in 2017. She has received travel grants from NeurIPS and AAAI and has been sponsored to attend the Machine Learning Summer School in 2019, and the Brains, Minds and Machines Summer Course at MIT in 2020. 

 

More than 50% of student research output is the result of collaboration with industry. Many research students work on projects that contribute to developments with the European and global industry, e.g. on HiP-HOPS and the design languages AADL and EAST-ADL, and they proceed to pursue high-flying careers in academia and industry.

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The figure shows a physical academic garden in the University of Hull with a cherry blossom in full bloom.

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