Hi Ken,
Apologies for the delay in replying to your post.
It's given me time to think a bit more. I've realised there are at least two
broad and different paths to taking on the insights offered by evidence
from cognitive neuro-science.
1. The first approach focuses on adding findings from cognitive
neuro-science onto existing ways of thinking and theorising. The assumption
on this path is that the current way of theorising is correct, complete,
over-arching and in no need of change. On this path neuro-science offers a
sort of icing on the cake. For example, in working with design and emotion,
the pathway is to find out how neuro-science can offer ways of adding
supplementary aspects to existing theories, research agendas and
professional practices. On this path, there is very little need to have
technical expertise in cognitive neuro-science and technical/scientific
skills to apply its insights to existing knowledge in for example
psychology.
2. The second approach first explores whether the findings of cognitive
neuroscience challenge and/or invalidate existing concepts and theories, and
if necessary how existing concepts and theories might be replaced by
better ones. The assumption on this path is concepts and theories relating
to human thinking and emotion to date have been based mostly on speculative
guesswork about how humans function, and the high levels of contradiction in
many existing concepts and theories (e.g., thinking, feeling, emotion,
creativity, intuition, reasoning etc.) suggests they do not fit the
underlying physiological reality of human functioning. On this second path,
cognitive neuro-science provides evidence at a more basic empirical level
than has been used so far and hence potentially challenges existing concepts
and theories. The implication is research therefore must be open to
critically reviewing existing concept's and theories in e.g. psychology, in
relation to concepts such as emotion, knowledge, thinking, reasoning,
judgement, intuition etc. This requires critique and new theory building in
an epistemological and ontologically foundational manner related directly
to the underlying scientific data and modelling. In practical terms, doing
this depends on deep access to appropriate scientific and mathematical
expertise. On this path, the requirement for current expertise in design,
visual art, aesthetics classic psychology, knowledge management, design and
emotion becomes rather less.
My feeling is your work, and the work of many design researchers, typically
aligns with the first path. In contrast my research in this area has aligned
more with researchers involved with the second path.
When you first explained about Project UMA, I looked up the details of your
staff involved in the Swinburne neuro-affective design group and read their
publications. When you revealed other researchers involved, I checked their
backgrounds, research profiles and publications. My conclusion remained that
the weight of the research expertise in Project UMA is in design, art and
psychology rather than science and mathematical modelling (though I enjoyed
reading papers of Prof. Kieu Nhi Ngo). So far, in the available info on
Project Uma, I haven't seen a deep resource in specialised scientific
expertise in neuro-science, mathematical modelling and critical theoretical
review I would expect in the second path. In the case of Swinburne, this
seems odd as you appear have that kind of expertise in the Swinburne
Cognitive Neurosciences and Brain Dynamics Flagship research centre - yet
none of those researchers appear to be connected to Project UMA.
The 'two paths' above seem to provide an explanation of the differences of
view.
Best wishes,
Terry
==
Dr Terence Love, FDRS, AMIMechE, PMACM, MISI
PhD, B.A. (Hons) Eng, P.G.C.E
School of Design and Art, Curtin University, Western Australia
Psychology and Social Science, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia
PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks, Western Australia 6030
[log in to unmask] +61 (0)4 3497 5848
==
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ken
Friedman
Sent: Thursday, 22 November 2012 4:47 PM
To: Dr Terence Love
Subject: Project UMA
Friends,
Yesterday, Terry Love posted a comment to the list, stating, "The personnel
on the project though doesn't seem to have any scientists / mathematical
modelers in there with expertise in neuroscience." I asked why Terry
believes this. There has been no reply to my query. This brief note
describing the project will outline our expertise.
A project such as this involves massive investments in staffing, research
fellowships, andlaboratories. This project represents millions of dollars
and Euros in university and external funding. Terry is mistaken in the
belief that the senior management of four leading research universities
would make the kind of investment without proper staff expertise. I was dean
at Swinburne Design when we launched this project, so I will outline staff
expertise on one of the best-staffed research projects in the field of
design research.
The four partner universities in Project UMA are Technological University of
Delft, Cambridge University, University of Vienna, and Swinburne University
of Technology, all highly ranked research universities. The core research
metrics used to compile the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) at
Shanghai Jiao Tong University show Cambridge at 5 worldwide, with Vienna in
the top 200 research universities,Delft in the top 300, and Swinburne in the
top 400. Major research projects require approval by the faculty and the
university, with careful review by the dean and the deputy vice chancellor
for research with ultimate oversight by the vicechancellor.
At the Technological University of Delft, the project is located in the
Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. At Swinburne University of
Technology, UMA is in Design. At Cambridge University, UMA is in
Engineering. At the University of Vienna, UMA is in Psychology.
The principal investigator in Delft is Prof. Paul Hekkert, psychologist and
professor of form theory at Technological University of Delft. Paul is also
founding president of the Design and Emotion Society. The Dutch major
funding for this project is theVici grant, a high-level expert grant of
1,500,000 Euros from NWO, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.
This project is basic research in the traditional sense of the term. This is
the largest funding ever allocated to a basic research program in the design
field.
At Swinburne, the principal investigator is Prof. Allan Whitfield, a
psychologist who helped to develop the concept of neuroaffective design. We
also have Prof. Gitte Lindgaard, former Distinguished Professor and Cognos
Chair in User-Centred Product Design at Carleton University and Director of
the Human Oriented Technology Lab; and Associate Professor John Patterson,
the former director of Swinburne's sensory neuroscience lab. Our investments
include staffing, full-funded doctoral research fellowships, and building a
neuroscience lab at the Faculty of Design.
Dr. Clementine Thurgood is our post-doctoral research fellow on this
project. As a PhD student at Swinburne Design, she invented and patented
some of the computer systemsthat allow us to test perceptions and perception
time at far faster speeds than was thought possible before her work - her
LED-Tachistoscope can accurately display visual material down to one
millisecond, a level of exposure no other instrument can achieve.
Swinburne's Gitte Lindgaard had actually achieved the fastest times until
then. Clementine published her instrumentation in the Review of Scientific
Instruments from the American Institute of Physics and she published her
research outcomes in the journal Vision Research from Elsevier.
The principal investigator at the University of Vienna is Prof. Helmut
Leder, head of psychology and deputy director of cognitive science. At
Cambridge University, the principal investigator is Dr. Nathan Crilly,
Burrell Fellow in Engineering at Clare College. We also work with Prof. Kieu
Nhi Ngo on neural networks. She is one of Vietnam's top scientists, and a
leading expert in the field.
Our staff and researchers come from artificial neuro-networks, biophysics,
brain measurement, cognitive science, design, engineering, engineering
design, HCI, philosophy, psychology, psychophysiology, statistics. All of
our research students won full-funded research fellowships following first
class honors degrees in their undergraduate fields. Our team has significant
and sophisticated skills in mathematics, mathematical modeling, and
statistics.
There have been research projects in neuroscience, cognitive science, and
design dating back well over a decade. This involves more than "drawing
attention to the potential role of neuro-cognition in design research." It
is a long-term commitment to serious research in the field. This work
enabled us to develop the massive funding this project represents.
With respect to funding, Terry got it backward. This was not a case of money
"being allocated by funding bodies" with universities "following up." In the
Netherlands, Project UMA bid for the highly competitive Vici program funding
against top quality projects in the full range of research fields. The NWO
states that the Vicigrant "is directed at senior researchers who have shown
that they have the ability successfully to develop their own innovative
lines of research and to act as coaches for young researchers." The Vici
grant required a serious research proposal supported by strong track records
of scientific and scholarly research. In Australia, Austria, and the UK, we
are funding our own projects while seeking additional resources.
It's clear that Project UMA has expertise in neuroscience and mathematical
modeling.
Yours,
Ken
Professor Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished
Professor | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia |
[log in to unmask] | Phone +61 3 9214 6102 |
http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design
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