Impact case study database

The user experience and educational inclusion of students with learning, physical and sensory impairments have improved via research in accessibility

Through the No One Left Behind project, NTU researchers led by Brown worked with children with learning disabilities to build a detailed understanding of their needs in using the digital game-making app Pocket Code. As well as embedding accessibility features in Pocket Code itself, the educational potential of the Pocket Code platform was exploited by developing a dedicated version for formal learning environments called Create@School. Targeted at children aged 9 to 18, this app was designed to enable teachers to integrate gamification into the classroom, leading to improved academic and behavioural outcomes for students with learning disabilities ( S5, S6). Based on the research findings, Brown’s group developed novel accessibility features for the Create@School app ( S1). These included the option to create bespoke profiles for users with specific needs, including Argus (colour vision impairments), Odin (general vision impairments), Fenrir (motor skills impairments) and Tiro (cognitive impairments), together with a range of other accessibility features: larger text, high contrast, additional icons, large icons, large spacing, drag´n´drop delay and Beginner Mode. Designing for disability commonly improves accessibility for a wider population and Catrobat (the app developer), also embedded the new accessibility features into the main Pocket Code app in 2016 ( S1).

The significance of NTU’s research contribution is captured in a statement from the Catrobat President ( S1): “ Before our joint project, there were no provisions in Catrobat’s Pocket Code app for users with special needs such as learning and physical disabilities. Our partnership … allowed us for the first time to understand the end user requirements of such users” (with a learning, physical or sensory impairment). He said NTU’s evaluation methods “ contributed to a significant degree to the success of the project”, adding: “O ur international partners in India, Thailand, Tanzania, Pakistan, Jordan, and the US, in the US in particular at Google and with the Scratch team at the MIT Media Lab, were highly impressed with these extensive new accessibility features.”

According to Catrobat ( S1), “ The accessibility features have since contributed to the successful deployment of our apps and services in all regions where we are active.” As of 20^th October 2020, the Pocket Code app with NTU’s accessibility features now embedded, had been downloaded over one million times in more than 180 countries ( S1). The app has an average rating of 4.1 stars out of 5 from 18,743 users ( S2). There are also over 10,000 downloads of Create@School - the dedicated version for formal learning environments ( S3). Catrobat’s President said: “ NTU’s research contributions thus have helped tremendously to promote the adoption of our app by schools and have contributed to the apps winning 6 international prizes and awards.” These have included Winner of the 2016 Regional Award Europe at the global Reimagine Education Awards, run by University of Pennsylvania, two Lovie Awards (for ICT) from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, London, and Platinum Award winner in the ‘Best Educational App’ category at the 2017 Best Mobile App Awards. Finally, in December 2020, Pocket Code won Best App Award in Europe in the HMS App Innovation Contest by Huawei ( S4).

Academic and behavioural outcomes for students with learning disabilities have improved, and educational practices have changed via our research in digital game making, serious games, location-based services, robotics, and multimodal affect recognition

Both the Create@School and Pocket Code apps have provided teachers of students of all abilities with support in teaching coding and computational thinking. The No One Left Behind project created a game-making teaching framework comprising a three-step methodology to integrate the apps into classroom practice. Inmark’s Director of Innovation Management ( S5) said: “ NTU’s evaluation methods applied to the ‘No One left Behind’ pilots’ evaluation across Europe had a significant impact to the adoption and sustainability of the create@school App. This resulted in educational benefits, namely improved engagement, persistence, confidence, collaborative behaviours, and deeper understanding of subject knowledge.”

One of the UK schools that participated in No One Left Behind was Oak Field School, a local authority school in Nottingham providing for 160 students with severe, profound and complex, physical and learning disabilities. The school’s head ( S6) said the game-making within Pocket Code had provided “ clear evidence of improved behaviour” and “ deeper understanding of subject knowledge” among students, and that teachers found it had “ developed their (own) awareness of the potential of the pupils at school”.

The provision of personalised learning experiences through NTU’s research contributions in multimodal affect recognition in the MaTHiSiS platform resulted in higher levels of student engagement and improved learning outcomes. To evaluate the impact of the platform, 21 teachers across the UK, Spain and Italy who work with students with special educational needs were interviewed. The Head of Public Administration Market for Atos ( S7) said of the teachers: “ They reported that the system promoted students’ desire to participate, improved achievement and helped with difficult behaviour; and revealed skills, knowledge and abilities in these students that teachers had not otherwise understood or realised”. She also confirmed that, “ The NTU contribution to this project was demonstrably material to the impact”.

In collaboration with Nottingham Schools’ Trust, NTU has identified areas for the improvement of educational outcomes for all pupils by exploring the adoption of alternative and new ways of working using AI-enabled adaptive learning platforms, serious games and social robotics to improve the inclusion, and academic and behavioural outcomes for students with a range of learning disabilities. The Chief Executive Officers of Nottingham Schools Trust confirmed that “ David [Brown] ’s work has impacted the work of Nottingham Schools’ Trust in relation to our work with 36 unique schools across the city that make up the Nottingham Schools Trust”, and added that, “ Teachers from our Trust have reported that Nottingham Trent University’s research has resulted in: A way to engage students with autism via their research in robotics. A specific way of assessing and supporting pupils with Speech and language difficulties … An app to help identify students who are not engaged in learning … Apps that have immediate application in our classrooms” ( S8). They further confirmed that NTU’s research has resulted in, “ an incredibly useful resource in terms of games and apps which are freely available for schools” ( S8).

Our research in multimodal affect recognition has more recently contributed to the innovation and entrepreneurial activity of a world leading IT Services provider. In 2019 Fujitsu, who support 7.5 million end users globally, began to integrate NTU algorithms to infer workplace anxiety into its services to support workers operating in highly stressful situations. The ‘BuddyConnect^TM’ App is under development. This uses Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability sensor data and machine learning to infer anxiety, then launches recommendations for evidence based psychological interventions when the need arises for improved workplace mental wellbeing. Fujitsu has invested £50,000 (31/12/20) in the development of this App ( S9).

NTU’s research on traffic simulation frameworks has been adopted in Sofia Municipality (Bulgaria), in smart traffic management systems and in new Traffic and wider Public Transport Control Centres, and in a Dynamic Routing Traffic Management System in Coventry (UK)

The public transport systems in Sofia, Capital of Bulgaria, are fully integrated and are run by Sofia Urban Mobility Centre EAD (SUMC), which is a company of well over 1,000 employees owned by Sofia Municipality. SUMC has responsibility for the organization, management, supervision and finance of Sofia’s public transport, including the operation of unified automated fare collection systems (ticketing system) and the operation of information-management systems for monitoring and supervision of the traffic, based on GPS-identification ( S1). The Director of Strategies, Sofia Urban Mobility Centre, confirmed that “ the core of the MODUM project was the simulation model accepting real-time data from GPS positions from public transport control systems built by Dr Peytchev as a result of his previous research in wireless systems and traffic simulation frameworks” ( S2). The outcomes of the EU FP7 MODUM project ( G2), including Peytchev’s work, have had beneficial impact on the decision making within the Sofia Urban Mobility Centre in implementing new Intelligent Transportation Systems as part of the company's work to build sustainable city transportation systems. Moreover, the Director of Strategies lists specific new control Centres that “ use the approach of MODUM for identifying traffic demand through simulation using real-time data” ( S2) in the Sofia Municipality, including “ 20 Smart traffic lights intersections”, “ 110 smart traffic lights intersections and a New Traffic Control Centre under EIB Loan for more than EUR 20 million”, and “ A new public transport control system (2016) with overall funding of EUR 1 million” ( S2).

On the Intelligent Variable Message Systems iVMS project, Coventry City Council sub-contracted Infohub Ltd, and through them Peytchev, to deliver a simulation model that merged real-time data into a Coventry traffic model. The iVMS project was funded by the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP). The CEO of Infohub confirmed that “ This work was an implementation and further development of Dr Peytchev's research in wireless systems” ( S3). The Transport Innovation Manager at Coventry City Council confirmed that, “ This task's implementation relied heavily on the outcomes from the MODUM project and Dr Peytchev's research in wireless systems. The results of the iVMS project were incorporated in the Dynamic Routing Traffic Management System in Coventry and in use today” ( S4). A CWLEP press release quotes the portfolio holder for transport and planning with Warwickshire County Council as saying, “ The result of this investment is that traffic flows can be monitored much easier, which will lead to economic and social benefits since commuters will reach their places of work on time and it will lead to better air quality at key junctions since traffic won’t be standing still” ( S5).

NTU’s research has underpinned the creation of a public open transport e-platform, that provides services including, trip planning, ticket reservation, fare calculation and mobile payments. This has been adopted as a standard by the Basque Country (Spain) and Athens and has been adopted and implemented by Transport for West Midlands

The Transport Innovation Manager for Coventry City Council ( S4) credits the collaboration between Nottingham and Coventry Traffic Control Centres, and the NIET research group, with originating the ideas to develop and apply real-time simulation and wireless networking research to improving urban traffic management. These ideas underpinned the successful award of the MODUM EU FP7 funded project ( G2) and were further developed by Peytchev in collaboration with the partners on the subsequent HoPE EU FP7 project (“Holistic Personal public Eco-mobility”, 2014-2017, EU Competitiveness and innovation framework programme) (S3). The HoPE project created an open platform, capable of combining Interoperable Fare Management and Advanced Traveller Information (“Intelligent Transport”) Systems. The open platform utilises the connected vehicles simulation framework documented in Peytchev’s research outputs ( S3). The Transport Innovation Manager for Coventry City Council credits Peytchev’s role in this development, and comments on the subsequent impact of this work as follows: “ This open platform has been developed by NTU and it is based on the connected vehicles (CV) simulation framework. After the project the framework has also been adopted as a standard for IFM [Interoperable Fare Management] in the Basque Country (Spain) and Athens, Greece” ( S4).

Furthermore, based on the connected vehicles simulation framework results, West Midlands is now providing a publicly available route-finding facility and online ticket purchasing through its SWIFT card ( S3). The open platform developed through the HoPE project has heavily influenced the development of the public transport customer service in West Midlands and as a result Transport for West Midlands “ has implemented it into practice by creating publicly available route finding facility and ticket purchasing online (wirelessly) based on the platform created by the HoPE project and reflecting Dr Peytchev's research in wireless systems” ( S4)

New technologies developed using NTU’s research in Car-to-Car Communication Algorithms and Traffic Simulations have been adopted by company Control F1, helping the company to secure £5M in investments and contracts, and supporting IP development leading to the company’s acquisition.

The Innovate UK i-Motors project developed smart technologies for car-car communications between driverless vehicles, as well as with the wider environment, in order to reduce traffic congestion and accidents. The NIET research group made a key contribution to the successful outcomes of the project, incorporating vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicular ad-hoc network algorithms ( R3, R4) and the MODUM simulation model ( G2) into a novel wireless communications framework capable of processing real-time data on road works, congestion, weather conditions and allowing vehicles to autonomously report hazards or vehicle faults. The former Product Development Director at Control F1, who was the lead for the i-Motors project, confirmed that “ Peytchev's research in the area of wireless communications between cars was essential for the successful completion of the project. For his part in the development within the project, his algorithms for collecting traffic data through ad­hoc networking between cars resulted in steps towards a communication framework capable of improving the autonomous car's awareness of the surrounding traffic” ( S6).

The Product Development Director added that the i-Motors project was instrumental for development and economic impact for Control F1, confirming that the company secured around £4M of further investment and new contracts in UK and around Europe with total value above £1M. In August 2018, it was reported in a ‘Yorkshire Post’ article that Control F1 was acquired by autonomous and driverless vehicles specialist Intercept IP, with the article noting that, “ The acquisition comes as a direct result of the successful Control F1-led iMotors project … which resulted in a number of new technologies, including a worldwide patented software system for driver recognition” ( S7).

NTU’s novel wireless networking algorithms were applied to provide real time energy maps in a domestic energy efficiency scheme in Nottingham, in which 400 homes received energy efficiency upgrades.

The REMOURBAN EU H2020 project ( G4) designed and validated a new sustainable ‘Urban Regeneration Model’ in 3 Lighthouse cities (Nottingham in the UK, Valladolid in Spain, and Tepebasi/Eskişehi in Turkey) for initial replication in two EU Follower cities. The project’s new ‘Urban Regeneration Model’ is a methodological guide resulting from the technical innovations developed and implemented during the project. Peytchev was a co-investigator on the project responsible for ICT for city integration.

The NIET research group applied wireless networking algorithms from their research to create a simulation model that could predict domestic energy consumption. This model was used to select homes that would participate in a new scheme in partnership with Nottingham City Council and Nottingham City Homes, based on the Energiesprong initiative, to upgrade the energy efficiency of older, council-owned homes in order to meet low carbon standards set for 2050. Nottingham City was the first UK council to adopt the Energiesprong approach, which demonstrated monthly energy bill reductions from £120 to £60-£70 in the pilot phase of the REMOURBAN project for Nottingham residents ( S8). The Smart City Manager for Nottingham City Council confirmed that, “ Dr Peytchev’s research in wireless systems and home energy use monitoring systems has been instrumental for REMOURBAN”, adding that, “ the monitoring systems in the project are base for two of the four core system services of the REMOURBAN project – real time energy maps core system and serious games core system. Dr Peytchev’s research underpins both of these systems” ( S9). The real time energy map gave citizens access to better knowledge of the energy consumption through visual data, enabling them to make informed decisions. This helped Nottingham City Homes to predict immediate future usage and balance demand of renewable technologies through their Energy Centre to save money and reduce carbon emissions ( S10). By 2020, 400 homes in Sneinton in Nottingham had received energy efficiency upgrades, including the energy use monitoring systems, within the REMOURBAN project ( S9).