Dr Alastair Allen
Senior Lecturer
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+44 (0)1224 272501
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+44 (0)1224 553195
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fax
+44 1224 272497
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a.allen@abdn.ac.uk
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/piprg/wiki/index.php?title=Alastair_Allen
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Fraser Noble Building
Aberdeen
AB24 3UE
Senior Lecturer
BSc DPhil PgCertEd CPhys MInstP MIET
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Personal Details
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Biography
Alastair Allen graduated BSc, DPhil in physics, and has lectured in physics and information technology. He has a wide knowledge of a range of computational techniques and interdisciplinary applications. He is an expert in embedded instrumentation (including Wireless Sensor Networks), distributed computing, and image processing. His research has been supported by research council, European and industrial funding. For example, his group was involved in a recent EC FP6 project, working on aspects of Wireless Sensor Networking. His research group is currently working on the development of wireless sensor applications for physiological, industrial, and environmental monitoring.
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Research Interests
My research centres around imaging, sensing and communication in embedded systems. As my research group has developed, a number of strands of work have been pursued, with the overall aim of researching computational implementations which will facilitate the embedding of imaging and other computational intelligence into very small, portable devices. I am interested in design techniques for concurrent systems such as Wireless Sensor Networks.
My research group is currently concentrating on two areas:
Wireless Sensor Networks
- Algorithms and communications for power minimisation
- Dynamic mobile sensor clusters
- Security in WSN
- Adaptive learning and signal integrity in WSN
- Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks
- Formal Methods for interfaces and communications
- Application areas: Medical, environmental, oil/gas engineering
Image processing and analysis
- Image comparison/quality metrics
- Digital watermarking
- Application areas: Medical, video codecs
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Current Research
- Adaptive Learning and Reconfiguration in Wireless Sensor Actuator Networks for Control Applications
- Energy efficient data routing in Wireless Sensor Networks
- Security Techniques for Wireless Sensor Networks
- Dynamically Reconfigurable Underwater Wireless Sensor Networking
- Image Quality Assessment Using Algorithmic and Machine Learning Techniques
- Digital Watermarking of Precision Imagery
- Communicating Process Networks on micro-Operating System
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Collaborations
External collaborations:
Academic institutions. Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain; Universitat fur Bodenkultur, Vienna, Austria; University of Bristol (Depts of Computer Science, Veterinary Science); University of Geneva, Switzerland (Dept of Informatics); University of Kent (Computing Laboratory); Loughborough University (Dept of Computer Science); Lviv Polytechnic, Ukraine (Dept of Radio Engineering); NgeeAnn Polytechnic, Singapore (School of Engineering); University of Oxford (Computing Laboratory); Robert Gordon University (Schools of Applied Sciences, Engineering); St Petersburg University, Russia; Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria (Refrigeration Science & Technology Division); Politechnika Warszawska, Poland; University of Warwick (WMG).
Research institutes. GEUS (Denmark & Greenland Geological Survey); ID-DLO, Netherlands; Institute of Electron Technology, Warsaw, Poland; NERSC, Bergen, Norway; VUPP (Food Research Institute, Prague), Czech Republic.
Industrial. 4i2i Ltd.; AXEON Ltd; Baxters of Speyside Ltd; Digital Copyright Technologies, Switzerland; Fugro-UDI; London Underground Ltd; Remote Measurement Systems Ltd; Robertson Research International; SonaVision; SGS-Thomson Microelectronics Ltd; SYSTEA, Italy; Target Well Control Ltd; YSI Hydrodata.
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Research Grants
Selected recent funding
- £190,920 from Teaching Company Directorate with Target Well Control Ltd. NMR and other instrumentation for Measurement While Drilling.
- £8000. AXEON Ltd. Roadsign recognition demonstrator.
- £1500. Cerebra. Microsensors for Untethered Physiological Monitoring
- £150,216. DTI KTP, 4i2i Communications Ltd. Image processing core for communications.
- Euro 250,500 (total Euro 2,402,484). EU FP6. WARMER: WAter Risk Management in EuRope.
- £51000 from University of Aberdeen. College PhD Studentship. Digital watermarking of precision imagery.
- £51000. National Subsea Research Institute. PhD studentship. Dynamically Reconfigurable Underwater Wireless Sensor Networking. (With M Wiercigroch.)
- £600,000. Scottish Funding Council. Scottish Sensor Systems Centre. (With RD Neilson, N Renton, DC Hendry, J Kiefer.)
- £1818. NSRI Ltd. Scoping Study – Intelligent condition monitoring and controls.
- £128,654. KTP, Zenith Oilfield Technology Ltd. (With DC Hendry.)
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Teaching Responsibilities
BEng, MEng; MSc Medical Physics Computing
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External Responsibilities
CPhys MInstP (Institute of Physics) MIET, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), British Machine Vision Association, Communicating Process Architectures Group (Committee member).
Involved in the organisation, refereeing, and chairing of more than 20 technical conferences.
Grant proposals referee for Research Councils (UK, Ireland, Switzerland). Expert Evaluator for EC DGXII, FP5, FP6, FP7.
Associate Editor (Editorial Board) of the International Journal of Computers and Applications. Advisory Board and Faculty (Bioinformatics), WebmedCentral.
Reviewer of papers for the following journals:
Electronics Letters, Embedded Systems Letters, EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, IEEE Parallel & Distributed Technology, IEEE Software, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, IET Software, IET Wireless Sensor Systems, International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing, Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Journal of Optics, Journal of Real-Time Image Processing, Optics and Laser Technology, Pattern Recognition Letters, Sensors, Ultrasonics.
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Admin Responsibilities
University
University of Aberdeen Computer Users Committee. (1985-89).
Convener, University of Aberdeen Microsystems Users Group. (1988-90).
Convener, Working Group on Microsystems Provision for Research (1990-91).
Board of Studies in Science. (1993-1995).
Academic Standards Committee (Postgraduate). (2008-2010).
University of Aberdeen European Advisory Group. (2011- ).
Faculty/College
Engineering Mathematical and Physical Sciences Faculty Planning Committee. (1993-1995).
Organiser, Faculty Imaging seminar. (1999)
College of Physical Sciences Postgraduate Committee. (2003-2008)
College of Physical Sciences Computing & IT Committee. (2004-2005)
College of Physical Sciences Postgraduate Officer. (2008- ).
Department of Bio-Medical Physics / School of Medical Sciences
Coordinator, Information Technology teaching for Phase 2 of MSc courses. (1992- ).
Organiser, Information Technology (Medical Physics) MSc course. (2002-2005).
Organiser, Medical Physics Computing MSc course. (2005- ).
Mentor of MSc students. (2003- ).
AUT/UCU Representative (2004- ).
Department of Engineering / School of Engineering and Physical Sciences / School of Engineering
Regent of undergraduate students. (1989-1992).
Electronics Group. (1989- ).
Leader, Parallel and Image Processing Research Group. (1990-2010).
Leader, Embedded Sensing and Imaging Research Group. (2011- ).
Electronics & Optical Engineering Research Group. (2003- ).
Engineering Physics Group. (1989-2004).
Research Committee. (1993-6, 2003-2008).
Computer Policy Committee. (1993-1994).
Organiser, Electronics Seminars. (1999-2003).
Overseas Admissions Working Group. (2000-2003).
Mentor of research students. (2000- ).
Progress assessor of research students. (2000- ).
Coordinator for Postgraduate Research Students. (2003-2008).
Postgraduate Student Staff Liaison Committee (2003-2008).
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Research supervision
Research students
Matthew Wells: An expert system for the visualization of medical image data. October 1986-December 1989. PhD 1993.
Norval Strachan: Automatic fish species grading using image processing and pattern recognition techniques. January 1987-October 1990. PhD 1990.
Dalan Wang: Parallel architectures for signal processing. October 1987-March 1991. PhD 1991.
James Carson: Neural networks in medical image processing. October 1992-September 1995.
Neil Lightowler: Modular maps: an implementation strategy for the Kohonen feature map. October 1993-September 1996. PhD 1997.
Timothy Sheen: Tools for portable parallel image processing. October 1994-September 1997. PhD 1999.
Andreas Ripke: Parallel Integrated Methodology for Calibrated Colour Machine Vision with Industrial Applications. February 1997-January 2000.
Feng Yibing: Integration of parallel computing and the web environment with distributed object technology: an experimental development. June 1997-November 1998. MSc 1999.
Stewart Fraser: Multiresolutional techniques for digital image filtering and watermarking. October 1998-September 2001. PhD 2005.
Michael Goh: Rule extraction from artificial neural networks. October 1998-September 2001.
Eugenio Ballini: Compression techniques for deep ocean imaging, with special reference to wavelets and JPEG2000. October 2000-September 2001. MSc 2002.
Muhamad Kamal Amin: Multiple Self-Organised Spiking Neural Networks. 2000-2007. PhD 2009.
Miguel Segui Prieto: A system for embedded machine vision using FPGAs and neural networks. February 2001-2004. PhD 2005.
Ong Siow Cheng: Distributed computing for image processing. 2002-.
Praveena Malempati: Implementation of down conversion algorithms for software defined radio. 2002-2004. MSc 2005.
Bernhard Sputh: Software Defined Process Networks. 2002-2005. PhD 2007.
Oliver Faust: A Self-Reconfigurable System for Software Defined Radio. 2002-2005. PhD 2006.
Andreas Weisensee: Real-time-reconfigurable SDR architecture. 2003-2005.
Yang Liu: Cluster computing. 2003-2004. MSc 2006.
Stuart MacBeath: ANNs and image compression. 2003-2005.
Li Cui: Image Quality Assessment Using Algorithmic and Machine Learning Techniques. 2005-2008. PhD 2009.
Golam Murshed: Energy Efficient Design and Implementation of Wireless Sensor Networks. 2006-.
Andrew Mason: Chaotic signal processing. 2006-2008.
Sebastian Iyere: Wireless Sensor Network protocol development for position-aware and actively mobile sensors. 2007- .
Celestine Iwendi: Security Techniques and Appropriate Implementation for Wireless Sensor Network Nodes. 2009- .
Daniel Nkwogu: Adaptive Learning in Wireless Sensor Networks. 2009- .
Andrew Lock: Digital watermarking of precision imagery. 2009- .
Chee Yun Yang: Communicating Process Networks on micro-Operating System. 2010- .
Beenish Ayaz: Dynamically Reconfigurable Underwater Wireless Sensor Networking. 2011- .
Other research supervision
Dr Dalan Wang, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (SERC funded), February 1992-January 1995.
Mr Beng Koon Chua, Honorary Visiting Research Assistant, January-June 1993.
Dr Man Liu, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (CEC funded), October 1994-May 1997.
Dr Rui Yu, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (EPSRC funded), December 1994-December 1997.
Dr Neil Lightowler, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (CEC funded), January-June 1998.
Dr Lin Shang, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (CEC funded), February 1998-August 1999.
Dr Andrew Duncan, TCS Associate, February 1999-January 2001.
Dr Douglas Collie, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (CEC funded), September 1999-April 2000.
Mr Jieqiu Yang, TCS Associate, May 2003-August 2004.
Mr Osman Ahmed, TCS Associate, October 2004-December 2005.
Dr Stewart Fraser, KTP Associate, February 2006-February 2009.
Dr Oliver Faust, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (CEC funded), September 2006-June 2008.
Dr Bernhard Sputh, Research Assistant (CEC funded), September 2006-June 2008.
Mr James MacDonald, Research Assistant (KTP funded), March-September 2007.
Mr Golam Murshed, Research Assistant (CEC funded), January-August 2009.
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Publications
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