Engineering Complexity Resilience Network Plus
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Civil and Structural Engineering
Abstract
Our society is increasingly reliant upon engineered systems of unprecedented and growing complexity. As our manufacturing and service industries, and the products that they deliver, continue to complexify and interact, and we continue to extend and integrate our physical and digital infrastructure, we are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the cascading and escalating effects of failure in highly complex and evolving systems of systems. Consequently, it is becoming increasingly critical that we are able to understand and manage the risk and uncertainty in Complex Engineering Systems (CES) to provide reliant and optimal design and control solutions.
Research on natural complex systems is helping us to understand the implications of inter-dependencies within and between complex adaptive systems. However, unlike natural ecosystems, which may become more robust through diversifying, man-made complex systems tend to become more fragile as their complexity increases. If we are to deal with the challenge presented by complex engineered systems, we will need to exploit and synthesise our current understanding of natural and engineered systems, our current theories of complexity more generally.
The ENgineering COmplexity REsilience Network Plus (hereafter called ENCORE) addresses the Grand Challenge area of Risk and Resilience in CES. Our vision is to identify, develop and disseminate new methods to improve the resilience and sustainable long-term performance of complex engineered systems, initially including Cities and National Infrastructure, ICT and Energy Infrastructure, Complex Products: Aerospace (both Jet Engines and Space Launch and Recovery Systems) and later to explore the inclusion of Nuclear Submarines, Power Stations and Battlefield Systems. We have chosen these particular CES domains as they strike a balance between the challenges and opportunities that the UK faces for which complexity science can have a significant impact for our citizens and businesses whilst spanning sufficiently diverse fields to present cross-domain learning opportunities.
Our approach is to create shared learning from [1] the manner in which naturally complex systems cope with risk and uncertainty to deliver resilience (ecosystems, climate, finance, physiology, etc.) and how such strategies can be adapted for engineering systems; [2] how the tools and concepts of complexity science can contribute towards developing a greater understanding of risk, uncertainty and resilience, and [3] distilling world-class activity within individual CES domains to provide new insights for the design and management of other engineering systems.
Examples of the potential for the application of this field and which will be considered for inclusion in the feasibility studies include:
- Predicting equipment failures and their consequences in critical infrastructure systems;
- Developing a management heuristic that plays the same role as a "risk register", but addresses systemic resilience;
- Optimising the deployment of instrumentation required to manage cities and other CES effectively;
- Increasing the resilience of interdependent digital systems;
- Advancing models of cascading failure on networks such that they take account of node heterogeneity and in particular the different failure/recovery modes of different types of node.
- Improving the number of contexts in which CES can be deployed with replicable performance;
- Decreasing the likelihood of human behavioural errors in operating CES.
- Identifying the critical elements that constrain/define system performance most strongly;
- Extending system lifetimes and functionality;
- Mapping the relationship between complex system complexity and fragility;
- Characterising uncertainty and defining the inference process to transition from one phase to the other in the control of CES and in complex decision making processes.
Research on natural complex systems is helping us to understand the implications of inter-dependencies within and between complex adaptive systems. However, unlike natural ecosystems, which may become more robust through diversifying, man-made complex systems tend to become more fragile as their complexity increases. If we are to deal with the challenge presented by complex engineered systems, we will need to exploit and synthesise our current understanding of natural and engineered systems, our current theories of complexity more generally.
The ENgineering COmplexity REsilience Network Plus (hereafter called ENCORE) addresses the Grand Challenge area of Risk and Resilience in CES. Our vision is to identify, develop and disseminate new methods to improve the resilience and sustainable long-term performance of complex engineered systems, initially including Cities and National Infrastructure, ICT and Energy Infrastructure, Complex Products: Aerospace (both Jet Engines and Space Launch and Recovery Systems) and later to explore the inclusion of Nuclear Submarines, Power Stations and Battlefield Systems. We have chosen these particular CES domains as they strike a balance between the challenges and opportunities that the UK faces for which complexity science can have a significant impact for our citizens and businesses whilst spanning sufficiently diverse fields to present cross-domain learning opportunities.
Our approach is to create shared learning from [1] the manner in which naturally complex systems cope with risk and uncertainty to deliver resilience (ecosystems, climate, finance, physiology, etc.) and how such strategies can be adapted for engineering systems; [2] how the tools and concepts of complexity science can contribute towards developing a greater understanding of risk, uncertainty and resilience, and [3] distilling world-class activity within individual CES domains to provide new insights for the design and management of other engineering systems.
Examples of the potential for the application of this field and which will be considered for inclusion in the feasibility studies include:
- Predicting equipment failures and their consequences in critical infrastructure systems;
- Developing a management heuristic that plays the same role as a "risk register", but addresses systemic resilience;
- Optimising the deployment of instrumentation required to manage cities and other CES effectively;
- Increasing the resilience of interdependent digital systems;
- Advancing models of cascading failure on networks such that they take account of node heterogeneity and in particular the different failure/recovery modes of different types of node.
- Improving the number of contexts in which CES can be deployed with replicable performance;
- Decreasing the likelihood of human behavioural errors in operating CES.
- Identifying the critical elements that constrain/define system performance most strongly;
- Extending system lifetimes and functionality;
- Mapping the relationship between complex system complexity and fragility;
- Characterising uncertainty and defining the inference process to transition from one phase to the other in the control of CES and in complex decision making processes.
Planned Impact
The social, environmental and economic importance of reducing risk and the impacts of uncertainty in the design and management of complex engineering systems (CES) would be difficult to overestimate. This Grand Challenge Network will take a comprehensive and coordinated approach to CES research. It will do so in a way which is both general, by working on novel ideas which are applicable across a broad range of applications of whatever scale, and specific by looking at key themes within the identified Domains and Clusters. The beneficiaries from this work will therefore be:
Society because of:
- The impact on carbon emissions, sustainability and the environment
- The lowered disruption to economic infrastructure required to achieve that environmental improvement
- The opportunities for improved security of critical infrastructure such as transport, comms and energy
The UK Economy:
Through cross domain learning and the investigation of new techniques we aim to identify the means to exploit improvements in our understanding of risk and uncertainty in CES to improve their performance for two specific areas of national importance [1] the development of CES to create business opportunities for UK companies in a wide range of fields including Jet Engines, Comms and Data Networks and Space Launch and Recovery Systems. This will be achieved through business opportunities such as improving our understanding of the drivers of failure in complex systems and optimising infrastructure and instrumentation; [2] the optimisation of benefits and reduction of risks in major UK spending activities such as the £375Bn National Infrastructure Plan which includes major investments in National infrastructure and the UK Energy System. Extending the life of the infrastructure that supports our society could reduce the cost of such infrastructure by billions of pounds.
The American Society of Civil Engineers has estimated that the US needs to spend $1.1 trillion on its infrastructure by 2020 if it is to avoid losses of $1trillion a year on lost business and 3.5million jobs. The figures available for the UK vary but are broadly proportional to the US figures. Understanding this infrastructure in sufficient resolution to prioritise spending and establish new predictive techniques to avoid economic losses will require the application of complexity science. This network is focused on precisely this issue.
CES failure although rare can have catastrophic consequences. In the last 40 years there have been notable incidents that could be categorised as CES failures; Three Mile Island, Challenger Shuttle, Fukushima Daiichi and a number of aircraft failures that have led to significant loss of life. The financial crash that became evident in 2007 can also be characterised as a complex system failure.
In addition to the impact upon the design and management of CES, we must also consider the interaction between CES and natural complexity. For instance significant research is being undertaken to understand the impact of climate change upon national infrastructure but we are yet to develop the predictive capability to foresee such impacts. An example of the benefit of this emerging field is the Sandia National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Centre modelling that anticipated and characterised the impact of Hurricane Irene upon infrastructure when it made landfall in the USA in 2011. To address this challenge requires us to build a systemic (rather than reductionist) set of tools to understand and manage risk that will lead to the building of the requisite adaptive capacity to create resilience.
Society because of:
- The impact on carbon emissions, sustainability and the environment
- The lowered disruption to economic infrastructure required to achieve that environmental improvement
- The opportunities for improved security of critical infrastructure such as transport, comms and energy
The UK Economy:
Through cross domain learning and the investigation of new techniques we aim to identify the means to exploit improvements in our understanding of risk and uncertainty in CES to improve their performance for two specific areas of national importance [1] the development of CES to create business opportunities for UK companies in a wide range of fields including Jet Engines, Comms and Data Networks and Space Launch and Recovery Systems. This will be achieved through business opportunities such as improving our understanding of the drivers of failure in complex systems and optimising infrastructure and instrumentation; [2] the optimisation of benefits and reduction of risks in major UK spending activities such as the £375Bn National Infrastructure Plan which includes major investments in National infrastructure and the UK Energy System. Extending the life of the infrastructure that supports our society could reduce the cost of such infrastructure by billions of pounds.
The American Society of Civil Engineers has estimated that the US needs to spend $1.1 trillion on its infrastructure by 2020 if it is to avoid losses of $1trillion a year on lost business and 3.5million jobs. The figures available for the UK vary but are broadly proportional to the US figures. Understanding this infrastructure in sufficient resolution to prioritise spending and establish new predictive techniques to avoid economic losses will require the application of complexity science. This network is focused on precisely this issue.
CES failure although rare can have catastrophic consequences. In the last 40 years there have been notable incidents that could be categorised as CES failures; Three Mile Island, Challenger Shuttle, Fukushima Daiichi and a number of aircraft failures that have led to significant loss of life. The financial crash that became evident in 2007 can also be characterised as a complex system failure.
In addition to the impact upon the design and management of CES, we must also consider the interaction between CES and natural complexity. For instance significant research is being undertaken to understand the impact of climate change upon national infrastructure but we are yet to develop the predictive capability to foresee such impacts. An example of the benefit of this emerging field is the Sandia National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Centre modelling that anticipated and characterised the impact of Hurricane Irene upon infrastructure when it made landfall in the USA in 2011. To address this challenge requires us to build a systemic (rather than reductionist) set of tools to understand and manage risk that will lead to the building of the requisite adaptive capacity to create resilience.
Organisations
- University of Sheffield (Lead Research Organisation)
- Department of Transport (Collaboration)
- Newcastle University (Collaboration)
- LLOYD'S REGISTER FOUNDATION (Collaboration)
- Mway Comms Ltd (Collaboration)
- Rolls Royce Group Plc (Collaboration)
- Sofintsys Limited (Collaboration)
- Fujitsu (United Kingdom) (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- University of Sheffield (Collaboration)
- National Instruments (United States) (Project Partner)
- Sofintsys (Project Partner)
- Deloitte (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Idaho National Laboratory (Project Partner)
- Santa Fe Institute (Project Partner)
- National Physical Laboratory (Project Partner)
- Met Office (Project Partner)
- Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Project Partner)
- Swansea University (Project Partner)
- National Grid (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
Publications
Arbabi H
(2020)
Productivity, Infrastructure and Urban Density-An Allometric Comparison of Three European City Regions Across Scales
in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A: Statistics in Society
Arbabi H
(2019)
On the development logic of city-regions: inter- versus intra-city mobility in England and Wales
in Spatial Economic Analysis
Arbabi H
(2020)
On the use of random graphs in analysing resource utilization in urban systems.
in Royal Society open science
Arbabi H
(2018)
Urban performance at different boundaries in England and Wales through the settlement scaling theory
in Regional Studies
Barter E
(2018)
Manifold Cities: Social variables of urban areas in the UK
Barter E
(2019)
Manifold cities: social variables of urban areas in the UK.
in Proceedings. Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
Borisoglebsky D
(2019)
A Resilience Toolbox and Research Design for Black Sky Hazards to Power Grids
in Complexity
Description | The issue of how complexity relates to resilience was not well understood. Resilience concepts have been developed over a wide spectrum of disciplines and complexity concepts over an even wider spectrum. We have structured this problem and defined a method for enabling individuals and organisations to understand how to approach and pursue resilience for engineering and engineered systems. By proposing a cyclical approach to resilience (ENCORE resilience wheel) we marry the most modern interpretations of resilience and best management practice. At the same time we introduced the importance of complexity science to produce the system understanding necessary to achieve a step change in resilience. We established the main challenges and opportunities to enhance the research in resilience of complex engineered systems and detailed in them in the Challenge Paper. In addition, we have identified the need for new education and training to allow transfer of research output in the practice of engineering. |
Exploitation Route | The Position Paper positions the ENCORE Network through examples of complex systems resilience in the subject areas corresponding to the composition of the network expertise. The ENCORE Methods Paper proposed a review of a limited number of methods currently used in the analysis and design of complex engineered systems. This is currently in preparation and leverages on the expertise of targeted ENCORE Network members. The Challenge Paper was published as a White Paper, with a focus of benefitting the academic and practitioner community. Hard copies were distributed to the Universities in the ENCORE Network and stakeholders identified in the project. An electronic version will also be available on the ENCORE website. The Roadmap (also referred to as the Strategic Research Agenda) was published at the end of the ENCORE project as a freely available publication, similar to the Challenge Paper. The outputs of ENCORE contributed to the National Infrastructure Commission report on national resilience and fed directly in to the proposals of this work in respect of how the UK Government should go about making Infrastructure Systems more resilient. A number of grant proposals are under preparation, the most relevant being: 1] Programme Grant created by the ENCORE Management Team building on the legacy of the ENCORE project 2] Programme Grant supported by the ENCORE Management Team and led by the Automatic Control and Systems Engineering Department at the University of Sheffield focusing on the systemic aspects of complex systems and their resilience with a particular focus on new technologies and cyber-physical systems. |
Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Agriculture Food and Drink Communities and Social Services/Policy Construction Creative Economy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Electronics Energy Environment Financial Services and Management Consultancy Government Democracy and Justice Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Security and Diplomacy Transport |
URL | http://www.encorecomplexity.org |
Description | The findings contributed towards the production of the National Infrastructure Commission report on Resilient Infrastructure Systems (https://nic.org.uk/studies-reports/resilience/). |
First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
Sector | Construction,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Energy,Transport |
Impact Types | Policy & public services |
Description | The Active Building Centre |
Amount | £35,947,427 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/S016627/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2018 |
End | 03/2020 |
Description | UK Collaboratorium for Research in Infrastructure & Cities: Urban Observatories (Strand B) |
Amount | £8,000,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/P016782/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2017 |
End | 03/2022 |
Description | UKCRIC - CORONA: City Observatory Research platfOrm for iNnovation and Analytics |
Amount | £1,011,544 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/R013411/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2018 |
End | 04/2020 |
Description | UKCRIC: National Water Infrastructure Facility: Distributed Water Infrastructure |
Amount | £3,687,512 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/R010420/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2016 |
End | 12/2019 |
Title | ENCORE Network & leadership |
Description | We have identified two novel aspects of the work which we believe are contributing to the outputs of the Network: [1] The organising principles of the Network and the manner in which this brings together disparate disciplines. Taking a systems approach supports this by creating a common platform for dialogue; and [2] The industrial leadership and collaborative processes developed through the production of the Challenge Paper has created a report which is scientifically underpinned but accessible to both industry and policy makers. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | As mentioned above. |
Title | Analytic approaches to cascading failures |
Description | Dr G. Punzo devised an analytical method to meaningfully translate the epidemiological to cascading failures of socio-technical systems, with a simple mechanism of load transfer and user-induced failures. The value of the research is in the analytical nature of the results. |
Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | N/A |
Title | Cascading failures in real systems |
Description | Dr Weisi Guo applied a hierarchical trophic coherence analysis, linking the network coherence and structure to the delay cascading in railway network. The study provides important insights on the health and resilience of the Greater London Rail Transport network, pinpointing the most important stations for resilience. |
Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | N/A |
URL | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.181301 |
Title | Data from: On the use of random graphs in analysing resource utilization in urban systems |
Description | Urban resource models increasingly rely on implicit network formulations. Resource consumption behaviours documented in the existing empirical studies are ultimately by-products of the network abstractions underlying these models. Here we present an analytical formulation and examination of a generic demand-driven network model that accounts for the effectiveness of resource utilisation and its implications for policy levers in addressing resource management in cities. We establish simple limiting boundaries to systems' resource effectiveness. These limits are found not to be a function of system size and to be simply determined by the system's average ability to maintain resource quality through its transformation processes. We also show that resource utilisation in itself does not enjoy considerable size efficiencies with larger and more diverse systems only offering increased chances of finding matching demand and supply between existing sectors in the system. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.kwh70rz0n |
Title | Reduction of complexity |
Description | The nonlinear principal component analysis in the feasibility study by T. Gross et al. highlights how, of the 1400 variables used in the census to describe city fabric, a subset of 12 may be sufficient. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | N/A |
Title | Resilience of cyber-physical social systems |
Description | Dr S. Manfredi applied mixed analytic and numerical approaches to devise the resilience characteristics of systems with strong social components, where opinion dynamics drive the action of individuals and the dynamic of systems such as IT networks |
Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | N/A |
Description | Award of an A*STAR - Sheffield co-supervised PhD |
Organisation | Mway Comms Ltd |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | This PhD project builds on the liaison with MWay Comms Ltd, data collector and analyst for Highways England and aims to investigate the use of predictive analytics to boost the efficiency of the motorway complex system. This will be enhanced by the data currently collected on the UK motorways and will be available to us through the industrial collaboration, thanks also to the work of COMMNET2 and other EPSRC funded Network+. The Student joined Sheffield in September 2018. They will spend the academic years 2019-20 and 2020-21 in Singapore to then complete the project in Sheffield and submit their thesis at the end of the academic year 2021-22. |
Collaborator Contribution | See above |
Impact | This PhD project will help to bridge the ENCORE community and the Singapore A*STAR Institute. |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | ENCORE Challenge Paper Writing Group |
Organisation | Department of Transport |
Department | Highways Agency |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | In August, Prof Martin Mayfield submitted a challenge note to EPSRC with assistance from the ENCORE Challenge Paper Writing Group. The note outlines the main challenges and opportunities identified by the ENCORE Network and elaborates on the main discussion points in complex engineering systems (CES) and their resilience. In addition, it summaries the associated challenges and opportunities on which the UK community should focus on in the future if we are to exploit the fields of complexity in making complex engineering systems more resilient. The draft document was shared with all members of the ENCORE Network prior to submission to EPSRC through a consultation. Their contributions have been extremely valuable in identifying the key challenges and opportunities in the research for resilience in CES. |
Collaborator Contribution | The above organisations were heavily involved in writing and shaping the ENCORE Challenge Paper through a number of workshops and teleconferences over the last year. |
Impact | As mentioned above the Challenge Paper Writing Group produced a Challenge Note submitted to EPSRC last year. This will form the basis of a Challenge Paper which is due to be published early 2018 |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | ENCORE Challenge Paper Writing Group |
Organisation | Fujitsu |
Country | Japan |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | In August, Prof Martin Mayfield submitted a challenge note to EPSRC with assistance from the ENCORE Challenge Paper Writing Group. The note outlines the main challenges and opportunities identified by the ENCORE Network and elaborates on the main discussion points in complex engineering systems (CES) and their resilience. In addition, it summaries the associated challenges and opportunities on which the UK community should focus on in the future if we are to exploit the fields of complexity in making complex engineering systems more resilient. The draft document was shared with all members of the ENCORE Network prior to submission to EPSRC through a consultation. Their contributions have been extremely valuable in identifying the key challenges and opportunities in the research for resilience in CES. |
Collaborator Contribution | The above organisations were heavily involved in writing and shaping the ENCORE Challenge Paper through a number of workshops and teleconferences over the last year. |
Impact | As mentioned above the Challenge Paper Writing Group produced a Challenge Note submitted to EPSRC last year. This will form the basis of a Challenge Paper which is due to be published early 2018 |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | ENCORE Challenge Paper Writing Group |
Organisation | Rolls Royce Group Plc |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | In August, Prof Martin Mayfield submitted a challenge note to EPSRC with assistance from the ENCORE Challenge Paper Writing Group. The note outlines the main challenges and opportunities identified by the ENCORE Network and elaborates on the main discussion points in complex engineering systems (CES) and their resilience. In addition, it summaries the associated challenges and opportunities on which the UK community should focus on in the future if we are to exploit the fields of complexity in making complex engineering systems more resilient. The draft document was shared with all members of the ENCORE Network prior to submission to EPSRC through a consultation. Their contributions have been extremely valuable in identifying the key challenges and opportunities in the research for resilience in CES. |
Collaborator Contribution | The above organisations were heavily involved in writing and shaping the ENCORE Challenge Paper through a number of workshops and teleconferences over the last year. |
Impact | As mentioned above the Challenge Paper Writing Group produced a Challenge Note submitted to EPSRC last year. This will form the basis of a Challenge Paper which is due to be published early 2018 |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | ENCORE Challenge Paper Writing Group |
Organisation | Sofintsys Limited |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | In August, Prof Martin Mayfield submitted a challenge note to EPSRC with assistance from the ENCORE Challenge Paper Writing Group. The note outlines the main challenges and opportunities identified by the ENCORE Network and elaborates on the main discussion points in complex engineering systems (CES) and their resilience. In addition, it summaries the associated challenges and opportunities on which the UK community should focus on in the future if we are to exploit the fields of complexity in making complex engineering systems more resilient. The draft document was shared with all members of the ENCORE Network prior to submission to EPSRC through a consultation. Their contributions have been extremely valuable in identifying the key challenges and opportunities in the research for resilience in CES. |
Collaborator Contribution | The above organisations were heavily involved in writing and shaping the ENCORE Challenge Paper through a number of workshops and teleconferences over the last year. |
Impact | As mentioned above the Challenge Paper Writing Group produced a Challenge Note submitted to EPSRC last year. This will form the basis of a Challenge Paper which is due to be published early 2018 |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Flood Resilience: Consolidating Knowledge Between and Within Critical Infrastructure Sectors |
Organisation | Lloyd's Register Foundation |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Dr Giuliano Punzo (RA) and Prof. Martin Mayfield (PI) are involved with with the Flood Resilience Consortium chaired by Warwick University. The group won £17k funding from LLoyds Registry Foundation in March 2017 with £2k being awarded to Sheffield. |
Collaborator Contribution | Flood resilience has been rising up the political, economic and social agenda's over the last 12+ years with events such as Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and repeat flooding in the UK hitting the headlines. The UNDP estimates that the global cost of natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis and weather) in 2011 was more than $380 Billion [UNDP, 2012]. Even this figure understates the human costs in lives lost and millions losing their homes. This report is a summary of a more detailed scoping study, which has been carried out to review current practice in flood resilience and make recommendations for further work in delivering the Resilience Shift needed by global society. Whilst focussing on the UK context, the consortium's international experience in flood resilience engineering, international research and teaching collaborations is reflected in the key findings. Desk based literature reviews and engagement with key stakeholders, have focussed on the following three themes from the Resilience Shift programme: • Integrated systems approaches as context for major engineering projects (Sheffield) • Dynamic performance based design approaches for resilience (Warwick). • Embedding systems-thinking and resilience into engineering education (Brunel & ICE Blue) The purpose of this is to review the current state-of-the-art (SOTA) of resilience and risk management concepts and methodologies in research, practice and education and investigate how these have evolved in order to establish a baseline upon which to build improved processes and methods that will enhance the SOTA and best practice. We have chosen this focus because we believe these themes are intrinsically linked and are key to delivering flood resilience; take an integrated systems approach, use the right design approaches and ensure the education is in place for all stakeholders so that best practice can be implemented. |
Impact | A report was produced which aimed to review the current state-of-the-art (SOTA) of resilience and risk management concepts and methodologies in research, practice and education and investigate how these have evolved in order to establish a baseline upon which to build improved processes and methods that will enhance the SOTA and best practice. We have chosen this focus because we believe these themes are intrinsically linked and are key to delivering flood resilience; take an integrated systems approach, use the right design approaches and ensure the education is in place for all stakeholders so that best practice can be implemented. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Sheffield Urban Flows Observatory (EPSRC number EP/P016782/1) |
Organisation | University of Sheffield |
Department | Department of Civil and Structural Engineering |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Cities are already enormous laboratories - they provide numerous examples of trial and error, of failures and successes. We shall learn, form and test engineering principles and theories in 'city laboratories', or Integrated Infrastrcuture Observatories (IIOs), to systematically study success, failure and the reasons for it, in real cities. IIOs provide an environment for researchers and users to co-create learning, innovation, sustainable behaviours and resilient agency through real-world urban observation, research and full scale experimentation and demonstrators. They provide a platform to establish a common purpose, vision and set of values for delivering future cities. The IIO (UKCRIC Strand B) will develop observational component of a suite of IIOs and some of the facilities that will enable co-creation and experimentation. The development of full-fledged ULLs will be enabled only the additional financial and co-operation support of the academic partners and their respective university, government, industry and societal partners, and the collective intellectual capability and skills that this creates. To capture the imagination, mobilise and inspire other cities to join we shall begin to form a network of IIOs that will provide a focal point for advocacy of IIO research; knowledge sharing and dissemination; engagement; building capacity; and more generally maximising impact. |
Collaborator Contribution | See above |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | The Sheffield component of the EPSRC project CORONA (EP/R013411/1) |
Organisation | Newcastle University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The CORONA project will provide the research and technical resource needed to support and unlock the research potential of the UKCRIC investment in Urban Observatories. Cities generate the vast majority of the country's wealth and investment in its infrastructure amounts to billions each year. Cities are complex entities, with dynamic and interacting infrastructure, social and environmental aspects. Research typically focuses on single sectors, and limited timeframes and therefore is unable to understand the interwoven processes and systems. The UKRCIC Observatories equipment grant has provided resource for sensors and observation equipment to be deployed at the whole city-scale to monitor over long timeframes an unprecedented range of variables, systems and processes. CORONA uses advances in 'smart city' technologies and the Internet of Things to enable these Observatories. However, we are not just using this data in a 'smart' way to optimise the operation of city functions (e.g. transport systems), rather using this data to build a long term understanding of the complexity of cities and infrastructure in their short and long term. CORONA will achieve this by developing an understanding of how to apply scientific rigour to observation and learning (as one might expect in a typical laboratory) to measure a city and to start to unpick these patterns to enable decision makers, policy setters, citizens and scientists improve their understanding of how cities operate. Ultimately the research foundations put in place by CORONA and the UKCRIC equipment grants will enable us to collectively, make better decisions on investment and have a clear understanding of the potential impacts of our choices within urban areas. To achieve our long term vision we need a solid foundation in the science of urban sensing, the collection, management and governance of the data and to establish working practices that enable local authorities, utilities, scientists, citizens and policy makers to work together. In CORONA key societal challenges facing our cities will be addressed (Air Quality, Energy, Housing) as a means to understand the practical aspects of urban monitoring and to develop a clearer picture of how this new 'urban sciences and engineering' can enable better decisions to be made that will improve quality of life and benefit the economy. |
Collaborator Contribution | See above |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | 2017 Conference for Complex Systems (CCS17) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Dr Giuiliano Punzo attended the 2017 Conference for Complex Systems (CCS17) held in Cancun, Mexico from 17 to 22 September. This is the reference event for the complex systems research community and, in its 2017 edition, gathered more than 500 attendees. The conference opened with Nobel laureate Prof. Mario Molina plenary lecture on climate change and closed with a panel discussion lead by the key figures of the complex systems research field. In between brilliant speakers alternate on the stage for the plenary sessions. Amongst them Raissa D'Souza, Marta C Gonzalez, Alex Arenas, César Hidalgo, Antonio Lazcano just to quote some. The conference developed through parallel sessions in the first 3 days, each opened by a keynote speaker, to then continue with satellite sessions proposed and organised by the same members of the community gathered for the conference. The themes covered range from biological systems to social media, from geophysics to infrastructure systems, human mobility, behaviour and, of course, network science. The annual complex systems society prizes were awarded to Jeff Johnson (Service Award), Samuel V Scarpino and Sandro Meloni (Young Scientific Award) and Albert-László Barabási (Senior Scientific Award). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://ccs17.unam.mx/ |
Description | 2nd Annual Infrastructure & Societal Resilience to Black Sky Hazards Workshop 2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Infrastructure systems provide a platform for societal and economic activity. They generate and enable a continuous flow of emergent desired outcomes (cascades successes) without which civilization, as we know it could not exist. Modern infrastructure systems (MIS) comprise an increasingly interdependent web of infrastructure components (part, unit, sub-system or system), decision making processes (linked to planning, designing, procurement, ownership, operation, maintenance, management priorities, regulation, governance and investment) and the external environment. This interdependent web greatly enhances the scale and scope of outcomes enabled by MIS, whilst simultaneously magnifying the potential for disruption to MIS to trigger far reaching consequences across all infrastructure sectors, society and the economy (cascade failure). Systemic Resilience to this type of cascade failure caused by disruption to MIS is therefore vital for a successful economy and society. The creation of (i) MIS resilient to any form of disruption to normal operations; and (ii) societal, community, institutional structures resilient to the impacts of infrastructure failure, must therefore be strategic priorities at all stages of the resilience cycle. The near universal dependence of MIS on a continuous supply of electricity, typically sourced from a national power grid, and the potential for black sky hazards to cause national scale power outages of indeterminate duration not only greatly strengthen the case for (i) and (ii), they fundamentally change the terms of reference for resilience discourse. There is a fundamental discontinuity between the level of resilience needed during a short term localised event, and the level of resilience required during a black sky event. Resilience to black sky hazards cannot be achieved solely by scaling up plans for short term localised power outages. However, the creation of systemic resilience to Black Sky hazards, will yield significant benefits for short, medium and long term resilience planning. Therefore, an approach focused on ensuring systemic resilience to Black Sky Hazards is required. Building on findings from the first workshop in this series, (event report available). This workshop will bring together representatives from across infrastructure disciplines and related interdisciplinary fields to examine four themes of strategic significance to such an approach. Workshop Themes: Theme 1 - Minimum Service Levels and Recovery Frameworks - will focus on the operational and management challenges of sustaining, restoring and recovering infrastructure assets during a black sky event. Theme 2 - Strategic Resilience Protocols - will focus on the people, plans, processes and procedures required to respond to a black sky event, and to what extent these can be developed prior to an event. Theme 3 - Systemic Resilience a New Normal - will focus on the long term challenge of improving systemic resilience. Theme 4 - Community Resilience and social capital - will focus on the role of community resilience and social capital, as essential complements to the infrastructure focused elements of resilience planning. This workshop took place on 26th February 2018 at the Institute of Civil Engineering, London and was hosted by ENCORE, EIS Council and UKCRIC. There were 68 attendees in total. A follow up report is currently being produced and will be circulated to all interested parties in the coming weeks. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | AI for infrastructure monitoring - a joint workshop with The Alan Turing Institute |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This joint workshop held on 23rd May, sponsored by the Data-Centric Engineering programme at the Alan Turing Institute and funded by the Lloyd's Register Foundation, successfully engaged stakeholders in the utility, telecommunications, transport and water infrastructure sectors and concerned with the recent advances in machine learning and complexity science. Stakeholders discussed the ways in which these methods could be used to develop a greater understanding of interconnected infrastructure complexities and provide early warning capabilities. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ai-for-infrastructure-monitoring-a-joint-workshop-by-alan-turing-inst... |
Description | Annual Event (Sheffield) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | ENCORE hosted an annual event on Thursday 9th February in Sheffield. The aim of this was to provide an overview of the last year with presentations from Feasibility Study Call 1 awardees, our Early Career Network along with a series of talks on the challenges faced by industry in the area of complexity and resilience engineering. We also provided information on next steps including our second call for Feasibility Studies and the papers and proposals we hope to establish from the various workshops we have hosted over the past year. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | CSEI seminar series |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Challenges for engineering resilience need inter-disciplinary approaches based in complexity science to make them tractable. This seminar reflects on three years of findings on the ENCORE project - an EPSRC engineering grand challenge network plus. In particular, it focuses on what we think we need to do next which is about addressing four challenge themes of engineered systems: systems evolution, increasing complexity through connected networks, design for resilience (elegant failure and recovery), and performance resilience tension. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/engineering/civilengineering/systemsce... |
Description | Disaster management conference - Kazakhstan |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Dr Giuliano Punzo from the Management Team attended a conference in Kazakhstan where he provided a presentation on ENCORE's research in complexity and resilience and how it can apply to natural hazards. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Disturbances to complex engineering systems |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This workshop led by Dr Rachel Freeman and pro Liz Varga aimed to review a typology (that had previously been delivered through an ENCORE Feasibility study) of the disturbances that can affect complex engineered systems. Participants were invited to consider the nature of the different disturbances and their interactions over time, ie. the interactions between disturbances and the engineering systems they affect and between multiple simultaneous disturbances. The attendees discussed how different types of disturbances may be included in complexity models, the interactions between exogenous and endogenous disturbances, the definition of resilience with respect to different disturbances and the possible evolution of the set of disturbances affecting CEEs with respect to the nature of the systems evolution. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/encore-workshop-on-disturbances-to-complex-engineering-systems-ticket... |
Description | ENCORE Challenge Paper Writing Group |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | The ENCORE Challenge Paper Writing Group have bi-weekly teleconferences to focus on pulling the Challenge Paper together. The group consists of the following people: Angus Johnson (Thales) John Fitzgerald (Newcastle) Martin Mayfield (ENCORE) Nic Holt (Emeritus Fujitsu Fellow) Richard Dawson (Newcastle) Adam Cartwright (Siemens) Ginny Clarke (Highways England) Michael Batty (UCL) Nigel Gilbert (Surrey University) Nilay Shah (Imperial College London) Richard Beasley (Rolls Royce) Stuart Jobbins (Sofintsys) and Giuliano Punzo (ENCORE). In August, Martin submitted a challenge note to EPSRC with assistance from the ENCORE Challenge Paper Writing Group. The note outlines the main challenges and opportunities identified by the ENCORE Network and elaborates on the main discussion points in complex engineering systems (CES) and their resilience. In addition, it summaries the associated challenges and opportunities on which the UK community should focus on in the future if we are to exploit the fields of complexity in making complex engineering systems more resilient. The draft document was shared with all members of the ENCORE Network prior to submission to EPSRC through a consultation. Their contributions have been extremely valuable in identifying the key challenges and opportunities in the research for resilience in CES. The Challenge Note will provide a basis for the Challenge Paper which the Management Team plan to submit early next year in the form of a White Paper with a final draft agreed by early 2018. The Writing Group recently held a workshop on 31st October in Sheffield to flesh out the 4 key challenge areas below as identified in the Challenge Note: A] System Evolution The emergent behaviour of complex engineering systems is not well understood and poorly articulated in Systems Engineering texts. This might extend to understanding of uncertainty, both in the environment (exogenous) and design (endogenous) within which large Infrastructure systems are developed and how the definition of such boundaries influences our understanding of CES. B] Increasing Complexity Society is experiencing a rapidly accelerating integration of digital (cyber) and physical systems yet we have little real understanding of how these interact. Cyber physical systems (CPS) are "integrations of computation, networking, and physical processes. Embedded computers and networks monitor and control the physical processes, with feedback loops where physical processes affect computations and vice versa". C] Design for Resilience The challenge of design for resilience can be structured as how to design infrastructure systems to adapt to: High impact low frequency events; Cascading and multiple independent failures; Be resilient to their own evolution and that of their environment. D] Whole System Performance Systems over time will tend to create optimised rather than resilient solutions (with little feedback of performance under perturbations). This creates a concentration among a few nodes that serve as central connections. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018 |
Description | ENCORE Final Event 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The event concluded the experience of the ENCORE Network and launches the research activities that it has helped to generate over the past three years. The event features a presentation of the network deliverables and the perspective of our industrial partners on the results of the network beyond the academic environment. The day was used to present the next steps, including the launch of the research roadmap, the submission of a programme grant and the planning for Complexity Engineering Systems Institute. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/do-we-need-a-national-institute-for-the-performance-and-resilience-of... |
Description | ENCORE Launch Event (London) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The aim of this event was to Launch the ENCORE Network+ and provide an on overview of the aims and objectives of the network and the areas of focus for the next three years including challenges we would like to address in the area of complexity and resilience. 37 attended this event including academics and industry contacts. The day included a series of presentations followed by two workshop sessions in the afternoon for discussions on challenges and methodological opportunities. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | ENCORE Programme Grant workshops |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The workshops held on June 6th & 20th aimed to identify the research output and the essential innovations required to solve the challenges identified by ENCORE. This was a chance for the ENCORE Network members to discuss the next steps in CEES research and the proposed large grant which will be led by Prof. Liz Varga (UCL). The grant with provisional name CEESyR (Complex Engineering and Engineered Systems Resilience) will specifically look at the four challenges within three fast developing sectors of particular interest for CEES: Transport, Energy and Communications. The sector-specific challenges will be tackled starting from and adding to the experience of the sector agnostic work developed with ENCORE. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/encore-grant-workshop-1-tickets-45799691109# |
Description | ENCORE Steering Committee Meetings |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | The ENCORE Steering Committee meets 1-2 times a year. This allows us to provide updates on the project objectives and plans for the next few months. The committee provides support on strategic decisions and guidance how we can engage further with our audience. The SC is made up of the following: Prof Brian Collins (Chair), Ruth Boumphrey (Lloyds Register), Adam Cartwright (Siemens), Ginny Clarke (Highways England), Michael Batty (UCL), Seth Bullock (Bristol University), Iain Roche (HS2), and Nick Cooper (EPSRC) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017,2018 |
Description | Engagement Workshop - Multiscale computational models for the study of resilience of complex systems |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Engineering systems are becoming more and more complex where physical properties at various space and time scales need to be integrated together to understand fully the system. In addition the Resilience of such systems has become more and more critical when in operation or during its maintenance. The objective of this workshop was to present and discuss the state of the art modelling techniques that already enable or could enable in the future the integration of such multiscale approach with the transient nature of a system operating over time. The workshop gave delegates the chance to offer their views on the direction of the research and possibly influence the future of the research and funding opportunities in complex engineering system. Delegates at the workshop discussed state-of-the-art modelling techniques for the whole performance of these complex systems. These modelling techniques take into account the multi-scale and transient nature of systems operating over time. The uncertainty in modelling such complex systems was also discussed. The workshop which was attended by 47 people, provided researchers a platform to offer their views on the direction of the research, possibly influence future research and generate ideas for funding opportunities in complex engineering systems. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://multisim-insigneo.org/5820-2/ |
Description | Engineering Applications of Networks workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This workshop was led by Dr Naoki Masuda (Bristol) on 1st November 2017 and focused on engineering applications of networks. The day included presentations ranging from relatively theoretical (related to engineering theory/applications; e.g. control) to practical engineering problems (e.g., project management), and further discussions on the potentials of network science in engineering domains. Speakers included Dr Ginestra Bianconi (Queen Mary University of London) and Dr Christos Ellinas (Bristol). The workshop was advertised through EventBrite and captured the interest of 28 attendees. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Flood Consortium Meeting, Oxford |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Dr Giuliano Punzo attended the Flood Consortium Meeting at HR Wallingford, Oxford in October 2017 to discuss possible future bids. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | IEEE conference on Humanitarian Electronics 2018 Colombo |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Prof Alan (ENCORE CO-I) was invited to attend and provide a key note address on Resilient Systems in collaboration with the GCRF Feasibility Study in resilient satellite communications at the IEEE conference on Humanitarian Electronics 6-8th December, Colombo, Sri Lanka. IEEE conference on Humanitarian Electronics 2018 Colombo is a premier annual cross disciplinary conference that will bring together technologists, engineers, scientists, investors, representatives from NGOs, governments, a |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://r10htc2018.com/ |
Description | ITRC Mistral, Oxford |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Giuliano Punzo visited ITRC Mistral in Oxford on 31st May 2017 to strengthen relationships with Jim Hall and to explore connections with NISMOD. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.itrc.org.uk |
Description | Increasing Climate Resilience of the Urban Infrastructure |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Dr Giuliano Punzo attended this workshop on Increasing Climate Resilience of Urban Infrastructure will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 15-17 January 2018. The workshop focused on setting the foundations for a sustainable, long-term science and technology partnership between Malaysia and the UK on climate change and sustainability with a particular focus on developing climate resilient solutions to the geotechnical elements of urban infrastructure. The workshop aimed to establish links between climate science and engineering practice by involving both climate scientists and engineering practitioners and researchers in the workshop to participate, share and engage knowledge and experiences with one another on incorporating climate risk into project design, taking cognisance of sustainability, affordability and appropriate technology aspects. The workshop aimed also to initiate a process to introduce climate risk management through appropriate design principles into the national planning and funding cycle. The workshop provided a unique opportunity for sharing research expertise and networking. The programme, 'British Council Researcher Links' provides opportunities for early career researchers from the UK and internationally to interact, learn from each other and explore opportunities for building long-lasting research collaborations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://community.dur.ac.uk/icrw/ |
Description | Infrastructure Interdependencies Workshop - |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Understanding interdependencies within critical infrastructures is of crucial importance for understanding resilience, risks and the potential for failure propagation at different levels affecting general populations, economies and possibly national security. Yet our understanding of critical infrastructure independencies is spread across and shaped by different disciplinary frameworks and models. Rinaldi and Peerenboom in 2001 provided arguably the most influential classification structure, pointing to physical, cyber, logical and geographic types of interdependency. Yet understanding between fields such as policy studies, planning, economics and engineering research will not only draw on different examples of which some interdependencies will be treated as more important than others , but will indeed use different models for understanding interdependencies. To address issues of resilience and prevent failures, it is necessary to ensure collaboration and an interdisciplinary, cross-sector framework of understanding at a systemic level involving multiple stakeholders covering energy, telecommunications, transport, waste and water infrastructures. This workshop will bring together practice and research in order to discuss and collaborate on developing an emerging understanding of interdependencies at a systematic level, with a view to constructing a 'common language' for the conceptualisation and management of critical infrastructure interdependencies. The workshop presented thought-provoking ideas which will were discussed at work-shop level and at break-out level allowing attendees from different sectors and disciplines to freely put forward their views and suggest examples demonstrating both success and failure to understand interdependencies. 27 attended this event at Imperial College London. Speakers included Warren Greig, Brian Collins, Liz Varga, Jennifer Whyte, Neil Carhart and Simon Jude. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | International Complexity Conference 2018 Thessalonica |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This Conference was in line with the series of meetings previously held in Cancun, Mexico(2017), Amsterdam, Netherlands(2016), Tempe, Arizona,USA(2015), Lucca, Italy(2014), and more meetings in previous years. All these past meetings have delivered the highest quality of presentations, the most up-to-date findings, have been attended by the pioneers in the field of Complex Systems, as well by young aspiring students. Prof. Alan Purvis presented a poster titled 'Resilient self configuring systems' at the conference on behalf of ENCORE. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://comdig.unam.mx/2018/01/08/conference-on-complex-systems-2018-ccs2018-thessaloniki-greece/ |
Description | KTN Control Systems Working Goup |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Dr Giuliano Punzo attended the KTN (Knowledge Transfer Network) Control Systems Working Group on the 10th May2 2017 at the Business Design Centre London to discuss possible links with ENCORE. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Maths and the City workshop (Bristol) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Hosted by Dr Thilo Gross (Bristol), this workshop aimed to bring researchers in maths, physics and engineering together who have made inroads to this challenge by developing new approaches to modelling and data analysis. The synthesis of these and other approaches will eventually enable the development of mesoscale models of city dynamics. This workshop took place on 19th January with 20 in attendance. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Methods Workshop (London) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A Methods workshop was held in London on 6th October which focused on a number of methods and its relation to a set of challenges to help explore research projects and proposals. The topics included translational methods from economics, bio-inspired approaches and multidisciplinary optimisation. We invited a number of keynote speakers to provide presentations on each method. The afternoon session involved round table discussions with attendees applying the methods to a series of ENCORE challenges in the area of complexity and resilience. 34 people attended this workshop which sparked ideas and collaborations for potential proposals from the conversations they had during the day. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Micro Macro Resilience Workshop (Cranfield) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This event will develop a large research proposal intended to address the question of "can local behaviours explain macro system resilience?" This workshop taking place at Cranfield University was hosted by Prof Liz Varga who is interested in applying agent based models (ABM) because of the method's ability to represent self-organisation at the micro level and emergent phenomena at the macro level. However artificial systems are often designed with an architecture in mind, so we were interested in exploring the value of ABM hybridisation with methods such as Network Theory or Game Theory to deliver greater insight into why micro behaviours and interconnections lead to macro system resilience. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Predicting the behaviour and residual life of buried utility networks |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | This was a proposal submitted by Dr Asaad Faramarzi (Birmingham). Although unsuccessful at the first round of FS funding, the Management Team felt that this workshop would be beneficial to the network and agreed to provide funding of £1500 in support of this.This workshop aimed to create a unique opportunity to discuss and explore ideas from those in industry and academia interested in addressing the above issues in relation to the rapidly- changing expectations and ambitions of the 21st century city. Opportunities were provided to investigate and discuss other common difficulties in modelling and predicting the behaviour of buried utility networks raised by the workshop participants. In addition, the workshop focused on exploring potential methodologies and opportunities to develop advanced models to understand deterioration and predict incipient failure of buried utilities using machine learning techniques and artificial intelligence, identifying constraints, key parameters, modelling space and industrial needs. This workshop took place on 11th May at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham. 21 attended this event. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Standards of resilience engineering workshop (Bristol) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This workshop was hosted at Bristol University by Dr Neil Carhart, who was awarded funds from ENCORE following his successful feasibility study submission. The workshop was attended by 15 people. The workshop was configured as a laboratory class and was delivered by Dr Carhart. The Causal mapping method was explained and was applied to discover some dependencies and influencing factors of some attributes of the concept of resilience. In the second part the relation between innovation and standards proposed by Allen and Sriram (Tech. Forec. and Soc. Changes, 64,2-3, Jun. 2000) was mapped according the causal loop modelling and expanded through an open discussion amongst all the attendees. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Launched a Twitter Feed in March 2016 which we update on a regular basis with latest news on Feasbility Study Calls, events, workshops and other information relating to the Network. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
URL | https://twitter.com/encore_network?lang=en |
Description | Website launch |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | We launched a website in February 2016 for the ENCORE Network which includes information about the Network, upcoming events/workshops, latest calls, and contact details. We are currently in the process of designing and creating a new website which we hope will replace the existing one in the next couple of months. This will create a hub for network members, help with the marketing of events, and increase collaboration amongst the community. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | https://civil-struct.dept.shef.ac.uk/encore/ |