Wednesday 11th July
Mobile Application Development
Dr Paul Coulton fromt the Department of Communication Systems gave a talk on developing applications for use on Mobile Phones.
Paul spoke about a few of the projects currently being researched in the department, including Pac-LAN and LocoMash.
Pac-LAN is an augmented reality game, based on the Pac-Man game from the 1970s. The game is played in the real world, using mobile phones equipped with RFID readers, which can sense tags embedded within the environment. These tags are used as both state in the game, but also give context to other players as to their location in the real world. The pac-man player must read the tags using his/her phone to gain points. The 'ghost' players must hunt down pac-man based on their knowledge of his location.
LocoMash is a modern and novel approach to the type of work carried out by Mass-Observation in the early-mid 20th century. It allows its users to take photos using a mobile phone, and through the use of GPS record the user's current location and tag this metadata to the image. This can later be uploaded to a central server using GPRS and is plugged-in to a Google Maps application. People can then see a detailed 'ground-up' view of the world, from the 'top-down' satellite views. The Headstart students were given mobile phones and spent some time photographing the sights around Lancaster University's campus. Click here to see what they found.
Applying to University
Dr Alan Darragh, the Science Partnership Officer from the Faculty of Science and Technology gave an informative talk on the hows, whys, dos and do nots of applying to university. Alan gave some advice on what to expect at university, what to look for when choosing a university, how to apply, and how to be a successful candidate.
Grapevine
Two graduates of Lancaster University gave talks on their experiences of life after university.
Nicolas Vilar is a Ph.D. research student in the department. He spoke about the past research projects he has been involved in and the work he is carrying out for his Ph.D. the Pin & Play / VoodooIO project
Kimball Johnson graduated from Lancaster University in 2005 and has since been working for Bloomberg LP in London. Bloomberg is the largest financial news and data company in the world. Kimball spoke a little about his work at Bloomberg, and his experience as a student at Lancaster University. Kimball was an active member in the student radio station, Bailrigg FM, and he says this helped him greatly in his personal and professional development and to apply his skills in a constrained and real-world situation. Kimball had an internship with Bloomberg during the summer vacation between his second and third years of his degree.
