College of Art & Design, Architecture, Engineering & Physical Sciences

Anne H Anderson, MA, PhD, OBE is Professor of Human Computer Interaction with extensive experience in researching how people communicate, collaborate and solve problems. In September 2006, she moved to Dundee from the University of Glasgow where she was a Deputy Dean and directed the ESRC/EPSRC/DTI People at the Centre of Information and Communication Technologies programme.

Just one month after the University restructure to four Colleges, Professor Anderson took up the post as Vice Principal and Head of the College of Art & Design, Architecture, Engineering and Physical Sciences. She describes her vision of the College.

Bringing Art & Science together
The College of Art & Design, Architecture, Engineering & Physical Sciences may be a bit of a tongue twister as a name but it is a very exciting development within the University of Dundee. The College brings together four schools - Architecture, Computing, Duncan of Jordanstone, and Engineering & Physical Sciences - into a completely new structure. The first few months in CADAEPS have been a very interesting time.

One of the great pleasures of my new role is the opportunity to learn about the many excellent areas of research and teaching that are underway in CADAEPS. Since arriving I have spent fascinating days visiting colleagues and facilities across the College from Fine Art to Physics.

Although at first glance the disciplines within CADAEPS are very different, the new College benefits from existing collaborations across the schools in teaching and research. In teaching there are exciting programmes, such as Interactive Media Design and Innovative Product Design which already involve art/science/engineering collaborations.

The talents of students, and the stimulating learning environment staff foster to allow these to flourish is apparent across CADAEPS. This was brought home to me when I visited the School of Architecture, to see an intriguing exhibition, which was designed, made and installed by 2nd year students, of the work of leading Korean Architect Kyung Kook Woo. I look forward to seeing more of our students' achievements in the coming months, particularly the Duncan of Jordanstone degree show, which has been described by many colleagues as one of the real highlights of the academic year.

Other enterprising student activities I hope to learn more about include DRIVE in Mechanical Engineering, where students have formed a club to enter the 'Formula Student' competition, and are building a single-seater racing car. I only hope it doesn't need a parking space!

Research in CADAEPS
There are many interdisciplinary research collaborations ongoing across Schools in the new College. A memorable exhibition opening I attended showcased one such art-science research collaboration, when Nigel Johnson of Duncan of Jordanstone and Stephen McKenna of Computing displayed their G-Vision project. Stephen, like many others in CADAEPS, is experienced in collaborative research having another project with Fraser Bransby in Civil Engineering and the Scottish Crop Institute.

There are many other past and present research collaborations across schools such as the Light Weight Structures Unit involving Architecture and Civil Engineering. Duncan of Jordanstone and Computing collaborated to bid successfully for substantial external funding to equip a shared Interactive Media Lab which has supported a number of collaborative research projects.

So there are foundations on which to grow to make the College more than the sum of its parts. In addition it is abundantly clear that there are key strengths which must be nurtured within individual disciplines. There are so many of these that it is invidious to pick examples but several striking illustrations of high quality research within Schools stay with me from my initial visits - the Space Technology Centre in Computing, Media Arts & Imaging in Duncan of Jordanstone and in Engineering and Physical Sciences, the development of ultrasound for drug delivery in treating conditions such as cancer, to name a few.

New Initiatives
It is very clear from meeting my new colleagues that research is the life blood of the College, and operates to inform teaching in a stimulating way. The new MSc in Forensic Art, which we hope to launch next year, illustrates this symbiosis. Jointly offered with Life Sciences, the MSc will allow students to learn the modelling and sculptural techniques used in human identification research as well as providing in-depth anatomical understanding of the human form.

One of my aims for the College is to foster these kinds of research collaborations across the College and the University. This is not only because we have such a broad range of disciplines represented within the College, but more importantly because many key research challenges require an interdisciplinary approach.

The rich mix of disciplines within CADAEPS and the breadth of research expertise across the College mean that we have existing cross-cutting areas of research excellence which could be grouped under themes such as imaging, environmental sustainability, health technologies, innovative design, and design and social policy. Within each of these broad areas, we are identifying future research challenges where we will seek to develop innovative interdisciplinary projects, building on existing links across the University and with external partners.

A prime example of this is the Institute of Medical Science and Technology (IMSaT) directed by Professor Andreas Melzer in the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences - a collaboration with Sir Alfred Cuschieri's Surgical Skills unit and the University of St Andrews. The plans for IMSaT's building, at Ninewells, are well-advanced and offer great possibilities for future collaborations with our medical colleagues, building on existing research activities in medical devices, imaging and ultrasound.

Slightly further afield, heading south towards Antarctica, we are investing in Project Atlantis - a 'not for profit' team created to provide environmental resources through digital media, drawing on the unique environment of the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. The Centre for Remote Environments will help to build research collaborations across the University to address some of the pressing environmental and cultural heritage challenges faced in the polar and sub-polar regions.

The College will continue to support initiatives within single disciplines such as Fieldwork in the School of Architecture which undertakes commissioned design projects for cutting-edge buildings and provides a vehicle for practice-led research for staff and PhD students.

A new initiative that will benefit individual disciplines is the Northern Research Partnership, funded by the Scottish Funding Council, which enables us to make a number of additional senior appointments in areas of research excellence in Civil Engineering and Computing.

The College is very active in the commercialisation of research with 16 start-up and spin-out companies since 2000. We have many links with industrial and public sector partners, from sponsoring PhD studentships and funding research, to partnerships in spin-out and start-up companies. The College also supports two business incubator facilities, which house several small start-up businesses including Ink Animations Ltd and Dynamo Games. The University's new Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) Centre has made it easier for colleagues to engage with local industries. 12 'live' KTP projects, most of which are based in this College, are now supported by the Centre.

We strongly believe in the beneficial relationship between teaching and research. The College offers an array of undergraduate programmes, informed by our research expertise, from architecture, art and design to engineering, computing, mathematics and physics. We have plans to expand our range of courses, developing new post-graduate courses including MScs in Medical Technology, Forensic Art, 3D Animation, Advanced Practice Management for Architects and Robotics.

The University of Dundee is rightly ambitious to be recognised as a leading research-intensive University. Since joining in September I am convinced that CADAEPS will play a significant role in achieving this goal. It has been a hectic few months but the opportunities for the new College are tremendous.