Sensor systems: a hierarchical approach

The concept of a reference model has been well known in the communications industry for many years. This has provided clearly defined layers and interface standards which allow different organisations and across the industry to develop products independent of each other in the knowledge that their products will function correctly within the greater system. With the move towards massively parallel sensor systems networks, a similar approach needs to be adopted in order to permit concurrent developments in sensor networks. This paper summarises the need for such a reference model, and proposes a reference model applicable to sensor system

On the new Kenyan sovereign wealth fund

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have been established in several countries to manage the revenues arising from exhaustible natural resources. SWFs allow consumption to be spread between generations, and between periods of high and low natural resource prices. In this paper the arguments for and against establishing an SWF in Kenya are considered. A first section considers the argument that Kenya is too poor to allocate oil revenues to such a fund. A second section discusses the principles underlying such a fund. A final section concludes by considering the steps that are being taken to establish a Kenyan SWF

Analysing the IoT Ecosystem: the Barriers to Commercial Traction

The Internet of Things (IoT) has come to mean all things to all people. Combined with the huge amount of interest and investment into this emerging opportunity, there is a real possibility that the arising confusion will hamper adoption by the mass market. This paper proposes a phased model of the IoT ecosystem development, starting with infrastructure establishment, and culminating in exploitation through the creation of new companies and business models. It does not attempt to quantify the emerging opportunities, relying instead on the many publications dedicated to detailed market analysis. The focus is to place the opportunities in context, demonstrate the importance of sensor system technology underpinning the emerging IoT revolution, and suggests areas where Europe can establish a leadership position. Throughout the paper, examples of the likely protagonists have been used by way of illustration

The Lisbon Treaty: a constitutional document, not a constitution–a British perspective

The European Union has undergone a constitutional transformation in the past half century. It has evolved from its origins as the European Economic Community, promoting economic integration, into a supranational polity that has come to be perceived in constitutional and even federal terms. This paper will explore the extent to which the modern-day EU can be said to possess some sort of constitution. In doing this, it will be necessary to decouple such a constitution from the notion of state constitutionalism and instead define it as a unique transnational constitution. Despite this, useful comparisons can be drawn between state constitutions and that of the EU, in order to ascertain the form the latter may take. Particularly useful in this regard is the analogy between the British constitutional model and the EU constitution. This paper concludes that the EU possesses a composite constitution more akin to that of the United Kingdom rather than a formal written text, as is typical in continental Europe. As such, in the present writer’s view, the Lisbon Treaty would feature, along with the other treaties, as a constitutional document within the constitutional arrangements of the EU, without it becoming a formal constitution itsel

The IoT Tree of Life

The Internet of Things (IoT) has come to mean all things to all people. Combined with the huge amount of interest and investment into this emerging opportunity, there is a real possibility that the arising confusion will hamper adoption by the mass market. The SILC team have used their extensive Sensor Systems market and technical knowledge in an attempt to clarify the situation for individuals interested in understanding IoT, and the underpinning role of Sensor Systems. This paper proposes a phased model of the IoT ecosystem, starting with infrastructure establishment, and culminating in exploitation through the creation of new companies and business models. It does not attempt to quantify the emerging opportunities, relying instead on the many publications dedicated to detailed market analysis. The focus is to place the opportunities in context, demonstrate the importance of sensor system technology underpinning the emerging IoT revolution, and suggests areas where the UK could establish leadership positions. Throughout the paper, examples of the likely protagonists have been used by way of illustration

Dissident Water

Published for the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, 201

Thinking Architecture with an Indian Ocean Aquapelago

This article takes up the charge of thinking architecture with one of the Indian Ocean’s central coral atoll formations, the Maldives archipelago. It is undertaken as a critique of the concept of the archipelago as deployed in architecture since the 1970’s. Architects have used the archipelago as a metaphoric metageographical concept based on a land/sea binary, to conceive of architecture as autonomous from its environments. This permits the discipline exemption from its contexts and frames its engagement with the diverse mobilities of contemporary globalization. To counter this, the article draws from a broad body of literature familiar to readers of GeoHumanities, namely island studies, urban island studies, political ecology and thinking with water to undertake a reading of the Maldives as an oceanic aquapelago, as an alternative metageographical concept for architecture in today’s globalized world

Introduction: Thinking with the Monsoon

This GeoHumanities forum arose out of three symposia convened by the European Research Council funded project, Monsoon Assemblages over a three-year period: Monsoon [+ other] Airs, held in April 2017, Monsoon [+ other] Waters in April 2018, and Monsoon [+ other] Grounds in March 2019. The ambitions of the symposia were to develop new intersectional understandings of monsoonal esthetics, agencies, epistemologies and ontologies, and to engender monsoonal ways of thinking. The papers in this Forum are an outcome of these gatherings, whose full proceedings are available on the Monsoon Assemblages website: http://monass.org/outputs/