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Asked by Alan to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 14 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by rpeltz, jess98, madski.
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Rhys Phillips answered on 11 Jun 2011:
If you ever fly on a plane then yes indeed it will – my research is looking into methods of protecting aircraft against lightning strikes. If this wasn’t done, the results could be disastrous!
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David Corne answered on 11 Jun 2011:
I notice that Alan wants to be a bus driver when he grows up. When I first became a researcher I met a Professor from Leeds, who was the first guy to produce computer generated train and bus driver timetables – that is, he developed some computational methods (that are still used a LOT now) to automatically figure out good ways to arrange who drives what bus, when their shift starts and ends, and all that sort of thing. At the time I was an expert in different types of problem solving method, and I discussed with him how mine and his methods might be combined to produce even better schedules. Actually this never panned out (not yet, anyway), although the guy who ‘took over’ Tony’s group when he retired is now using my types of methods in his ongoing research – so maybe I will have had an influence in future bus driver schedule systems that will dictate when you can have lunch.
And while you’re eating your tomato ketchup, you will possibly be benefiting from it being quite cheap, because the tomatoes it was made from were able to stay fresh for a long time and were grown with efficient use of energy. That’s all down to me of course 🙂 (though perhaps with help from many many others …) Some of my work on multiobjective optimisation has influenced people who write the controllers for large-scale greenhouses that grow tomatoes and other things, while some of my other work has been used in optimising the setup details of machines that analyse biological samples, making them able to assess more samples more efficiently, hence improving our ability to do things like figure out what chemicals help tomatoes stay fresh. Yeh, I know, what a glamorous life I have. My point is, I work mainly on certain kinds of techniques, but these techniques can be applied in almost any area of iindustry or science,so it’s possible I will have had a small influence (along with many others) on a few things. I’d like to say ‘huge’ influence, but am much too modest to suggest such a thing. -
Helen Fletcher answered on 12 Jun 2011:
A third of the worlds population is infected with TB and 2 million people die of TB each year. We have antibiotics but you have to take 3 lots of antibiotics for up to 6 months. A lot of people can’t get a regular supply of antibiotics (for example clinic has run out, no money that week to buy them, road blocked due to heavy rain). If they don’t take the full course of antibiotics their TB never really goes away and can come back again, and may be resistant to antibiotics. Giving people a vaccine to prevent them getting sick in the first place is the best way to reduce the number of people getting sick with TB. Does it effect your life? Yes, they have just started vaccinating all babies in London with BCG as there is so many people in London who have been travelling overseas, coming back to London infected with TB then passing it on to others when they get back.
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Sarah Cook answered on 13 Jun 2011:
My work is important to help prevent environmental disasters such as the blow out from the BP Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. By having a better understanding of oil spill modelling we can put in necessary control measures.
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Ian van der Linde answered on 14 Jun 2011:
My research is important, but its main focus is discovering how the brain processes visual information. Applications for the future include helping to plan surgery, developing programmes to help rehabilitate those who have a brain injury (like a stroke or tumour) or degenerate disease (like Alzheimer’s disease), and developing tests for the early diagnosis of degenerative conditions. Because we don’t have a very detailed picture of how the brain processes information, there is a lot of work just finding that out!
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