Research
Virtual teaching
Chimera, the Institute for Social and Technical Research, and the
Department of Computing and Electronic Systems has received funding to
develop virtual learning technology with a university in China.
The project, Mixed Reality Teaching and Learning Environment (MiRTLE)
has been funded by Sun Microsystems, and aims to build a virtual lecture
room based on Sun’s Darkstar gaming platform. It will create a mixed
reality environment, combining real and virtual lecture rooms, for local
and remote students in a traditional higher education setting. The project
aims to support existing teaching practice with the ability to foster a
sense of community amongst remote students, and locations.
A MiRTLE testbed will initially be developed at Essex. The system will
then be used in the Network Education College, which is part of Shanghai
Jiao Tong University (SJTU). This is part of a long-standing research
collaboration between Essex and SJTU and builds on a recent visit to Essex
by a delegation from SJTU aiming to build stronger teaching and research
links between the two universities.
Bookshelf
Nets, puzzles and postmen
Peter Higgins
Oxford University Press .
Professor Peter Higgins, Head of the Department of Mathematical
Sciences, is renowned for writing accessible books about mathematics, and
his latest publication, which explores mathematical connections, follows
in the same vein.
From age-old examples such as family trees, through traffic systems to
the internet, networks are everywhere. Beginning with simple mathematical
puzzles, like Sudoku, Professor Higgins explains the mathematics of how
networks are represented, how they work, and how mathematicians decipher
and understand them.
Also in the printed December edition of Wyvern:
