3D model of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Taken from http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/students-present-their-3d-model-of-the-hanging-gardens-of-babylon-to-research-expert/

Dr Stephanie Dalley, author of The Mystery of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon: An Elusive World Wonder Traced visited the University of Northampton to talk to students about her research and to feedback on their 3D virtual reality model of the gardens.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon have been described as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and are believed to have been built around 600 BC, but there is no evidence that the gardens ever existed. Through her research Dr Dalley has suggested that the gardens weren’t actually located in Babylon, but in Nineveh, which is located around 350 miles north of the ancient city of Babylon.

For the last two years, students studying for the BA (Hons) in Games Art have been developing the 3D visualisation of the gardens based on how various researchers have described it. The students presented their work to Dr Dalley, who was able to critique it and give feedback on the representation.

Martyn Simmons, Senior Lecturer in Games Design, commented: “The virtual reality model that the students have been working on is a conversation piece based on various research and ideas and is an on-going project. It was great to have Dr Dalley’s input and for her to see what the students have created so far.

“We are proud that the model will also be on display on the Dutch National Museum from October 2016 until March 2017.”

Ali Al Sherbaz, Senior Lecturer in Computing, commented: “We are encouraging people around the world to participate in this project. I have met many people in both Babylon and the UK who are interested to be part of it. Part of Dr Dalley’s talk was about utilising technology and virtual reality to rebuild the heritages to be available worldwide in museums, schools or colleagues.”

If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with

Safaa defends his PhD

Congratulations to Safaa H Shwail who recently successfully defended his PhD at the University of Babylon around optimal methods for path-planning with multi-robots. The work was rated 'excellent' and was supervised in Iraq by Dr Alia Karim.

Part the research was carried out at the University of Northampton with Dr Scott Turner (University of Northampton) for six months in 2013. During this time the work focussed on looking at two path-finding techniques within a multi-robot simulation. Details of this part of the work can be found below. 

Probabilistic Multi Robot Path Planning in Dynamic Environments: A Comparison between A* and DFS

Safaa H Shwail, Alia Karim and Scott Turner.
International Journal of Computer Applications

Abstract

In this paper, a probabilistic roadmap planner algorithm with the multi robot path planning problem have been proposed by using the A* search algorithm in a dynamic environment. The whole process consists of two phases. In the first phase: Preprocessing phase, the work space is converted into the configuration space, constructing a probabilistic roadmap graph in the free space, and finding the optimal path for each robot using a global planner that avoids the collision with thestatic obstacles. The second phase: Moving phase, moves each robot in a prioritized manner from its starting point to its ending point through a near optimal path with avoiding collision with the moving obstacles and the other robots. A comparison has been done with the depth first algorithm to see the difference. The simulation results shows that choosing A* search algorithm affect positively the speed of the two phases together in comparison to the depth first search algorithm. 

Full paper is available at: http://research.ijcaonline.org/volume82/number7/pxc3892251.pdf

Citation

Safaa H Shwail, Alia Karim and Scott Turner. Article: Probabilistic Multi Robot Path Planning in Dynamic Environments: A Comparison between A* and DFS. International Journal of Computer Applications 82(7):29-34, November 2013. Published by Foundation of Computer Science, New York, USA

DOI: 

10.5120/14130-2251

If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with

Chaos based cryptography for voice encryption in wireless communication

Chaos based cryptography for voice encryption in wireless communication

Sadkhan, S., Al-Sherbaz, A. and Mohammed, R. 

International Conference on Electrical, Communication, Computer, Power, and Control Engineering (ICECCPCE).

 Iraq: IEEE. 

pp. 191-197

Abstract

The vast growths in mobile and wireless applications would contain lacks of using suitable security concepts during the development process which worries the information security research community. This paper reviews most of the encryption techniques which adopt chaos based cryptography, and illustrates the used of chaos based voice encryption techniques in wireless communication as well. The review in this paper summarized the traditional and modern techniques of voice/speech encryption and demonstrated the feasibility of adopting chaos based cryptography for in wireless communications.

citation: Sadkhan, S., Al-Sherbaz, A. and Mohammed, R. (2015) Chaos based cryptography for voice encryption in wireless communication. In: International Conference on Electrical, Communication, Computer, Power, and Control Engineering (ICECCPCE). Iraq: IEEE. pp. 191-197

DOI: 10.1109/ICECCPCE.2013.6998760

If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with

Evaluate and Analysis of MAC Protocols for VANET

Work presented Mina Alaa Hussien at Department of Computing and Immersive Technologies, School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton on 11th September 2014. Part of the on-going collaborative activities between the Department of Computing and Immersive Technologies and Iraqi universities.

The project aims to evaluate and analyse of Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol for Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) to achieve high reliability and low delay delivery of safety related messages as well as provide QoS requirements for non-safety messages.

Supervisors:Assist. Prof. Dr. Mohammed A. Abdala
Dr. Ali Al-Sherbaz

Robots link Northampton, Babylon and Baghdad

A paper has recently being published on a collaboration between University of Northampton; University of Babylon; and University of Technology, Baghdad on path-finding using multiple robots in a dynamic environment.

Probabilistic Multi Robot Path Planning in Dynamic Environments: A Comparison between A* and DFS

Safaa H Shwail, Alia Karim and Scott Turner.
International Journal of Computer Applications

Abstract

In this paper, a probabilistic roadmap planner algorithm with the multi robot path planning problem have been proposed by using the A* search algorithm in a dynamic environment. The whole process consists of two phases. In the first phase: Preprocessing phase, the work space is converted into the configuration space, constructing a probabilistic roadmap graph in the free space, and finding the optimal path for each robot using a global planner that avoids the collision with thestatic obstacles. The second phase: Moving phase, moves each robot in a prioritized manner from its starting point to its ending point through a near optimal path with avoiding collision with the moving obstacles and the other robots. A comparison has been done with the depth first algorithm to see the difference. The simulation results shows that choosing A* search algorithm affect positively the speed of the two phases together in comparison to the depth first search algorithm. 

Full paper is available at: http://research.ijcaonline.org/volume82/number7/pxc3892251.pdf

Citation

Safaa H Shwail, Alia Karim and Scott Turner. Article: Probabilistic Multi Robot Path Planning in Dynamic Environments: A Comparison between A* and DFS. International Journal of Computer Applications 82(7):29-34, November 2013. Published by Foundation of Computer Science, New York, USA

DOI: 

10.5120/14130-2251

Sallama Athab - Detect Objects from a moving platform

 Sallama Athab joined the School of Science and Technology University of Northampton as a PhD research visitor from University of Babylon on a six-moth visit. The purpose of her visit is to develop her PhD research further whilst at Northampton. 

Recent paper:

Moving Area Filter to Detect Object in Video Sequence from Moving Platform

Sallama Athab ,Hala Bahjat

International Conference on Computer, Communication and Information Sciences and Engineering. 5-6 September 2013.

Abstract
Detecting object in video sequence is a challenging mission for identifying, tracking moving objects. Background removal considered as a basic step in detected moving objects tasks. Dual static cameras placed in front and rear moving platform gathered information which is used to detect objects. Background change regarding with speed and direction moving platform, so moving objects distinguished become complicated. In this paper, we propose framework allows detection moving object with variety of speed and direction dynamically. Object detection technique built on two levels the first level apply background removal and edge detection to generate moving areas. The second level apply Moving Areas Filter (MAF) then calculate Correlation Score (CS) for adjusted moving area. Merging moving areas with closer CS and marked as moving object. Experiment result is prepared on real scene acquired by dual static cameras without overlap in sense. Results showing accuracy in detecting objects compared with optical flow and Mixture Module Gaussian (MMG), Accurate ratio produced to measure accurate detection moving object.


Future paper:

1 Sallama Athab ,Hala Bahja, Yinghui Zhang (2013) "Parallel Priority Region Approach to Detect Background" Oral Presentation ICCCISE 2013: International Conference on Computer, Communication and Information Sciences and Engineering. Paris, France, 7-8 October 2013

Wafaa Al-Hameed - Segmentation of Radiographic Images of Weld Defect

Wafaa joined the School of Science and Technology University of Northampton as a PhD research visitor from University of Babylon on a six-moth visit. The purpose of her visit is to develop her PhD research further whilst at Northampton. 

Her research project was in the general area of machine recognition, in particular the automatic labelling of images using learning vector machines. After six month she has managed to present her work in the Graduate School Conference on May and then published her work in the Journal of Global Research in Computing.

SEGMENTATION OF RADIOGRAPHIC IMAGES OF WELD DEFECT

Wafaa Al-Hameed[1], Yahya Mayali[2], and Phil Picton[3]

[1]Computer science, University of Babylon / College of Science, Babylon, Iraq

wafaa2013saeed@yahoo.com

[2] Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Kufa, Kufa, Iraq

yahya.almayali@uokufa.edu.iq

[3] University of Northampton, Northampton, Uk

Phil.Picton@northampton.ac.uk

Journal of Global Research in Computer Science

Volume 4, No. 7, July 2013

ISSN 2229-371X

Abstract

The first stage in the classification or identification of defects in gray-level x-ray images of welds is the segmentation of the defects. The gray levels in weld images depend on the density and thickness of the material being tested. This causes the relative contrast of the defect area to vary with its position. As a consequence, it is difficult to carry out the process of segmentation. As a result, the subsequent stages of operations such as classification or recognition are affected. In this paper, different segmentation methods are introduced which are known as “data-driven”. In this approach, only the gray-level data is used to identify an area of interest, i.e. an area of the image that contains a defect, and hence extract it. The comparison of results show that using the morphology process with local thresholding yields better results than using edge detection method such as Sobel and Canny filters.

Full text of the article can be found at: http://www.jgrcs.info/index.php/jgrcs/article/view/743/525

Northampton - Babylon strategic partnership potential

Taken from: The University of Northampton lays down the foundations of a strategic partnership with the University of Babylon  http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/article/446/the-university-of-northampton-lays-down-the-foundations-of-a-strategic-partnership-with-the-university-of-babylon

The University of Northampton’s School of Science and Technology was pleased to welcome visitors from the University of Babylon in Iraq.

Led by Professor Dhirgham Alkhafaji, Director of Scientific Affairs & Cultural Relations, the visit, which took place on 19 February, is the culmination of several months of discussions between colleagues in the School of Science and Technology and their counterparts in Babylon.

During the visit, discussions took place, and agreements were reached on several initiatives, including a package for PhD supervision, 2+2 (two years at Babylon, two years at Northampton) in Computing, staff exchange, consultancy and knowledge transfer in the area of solid wastes management.

Professor Kamal Bechkoum, Executive Dean of the School of Science and Technology, commented: “This is a significant partnership that fits in with the School’s internationalisation plan and we are delighted about progress thus far.”

More news stories can be found at: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news

Computing Courses

BSc and HND Computing Provision (click on the links below for more details of the courses)

• BSc (Hons) Computing (also available part-time)
• BSc (Hons) Computing (Computer Networks Engineering)
• BSc (Hons) Computing (Computer Systems Engineering)
• BSc (Hons) Computing (Graphics and Visualisation)
• BSc (Hons) Computing (Internet Technology and Security)
• BSc (Hons) Computing (Mobile Computing)
• BSc (Hons) Computing (Software Engineering)
• BSc (Hons) Computing - One Year Top-up
• BSc  Computer Games Development
• HNC Computing (part-time)
• HND Computing (Computer Networks Engineering)
• HND Computing (Computer Systems Engineering)
• HND Computing (Graphics and Visualisation)
• HND Computing (Internet Technology and Security)
• HND Computing (Mobile Computing)
• HND Computing (Software Engineering) 
• HND Computing
• HND Computer Games Development

The University of Northampton's, Department of Computing and Immersive Technologies offers five courses within the MSc Computing postgraduate provision (shown below) all available either part-time or full-time. 

• MSc Computing
• MSc Computing (Internet Technology and Security)
• MSc Computing (Computer Networks Engineering)
• MSc Computing (Software Engineering)
• MSc Computing (Immersive Technologies)