In the 2002 sci-fi movie Minority Report, Tom Cruise's policeman character is able to see crimes before they are committed and arrest murderers before anyone gets killed. For Winvic, the future is using artificial intelligence (AI) to spot construction site accidents before anyone gets hurt. Winvic is working on the government-funded project with the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) Big Data Enterprise & Artificial Intelligence Lab (Big-DEAL) and Bristol industrial intelligent video specialists One Big Circle. Their project uses real-time images and machine learning technologies to detect, recognise and track hazards on a construction site, which will then alert nearby operatives via Internet of Things enabled, global positioning system (GPS) devices. Dubbed as Computer-Vision-SMART, the'Computer Vision and IoT for Personalised Site Monitoring Analytics in Real Time' project will run for two years thanks to a £600,000 grant from Innovate UK.

It might not be the most glamorous area of research but the way creditors collect the money owed to them can affect us all at some point in our lives. At the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) Future Space innovation hub, fintech company Flexys is using advice from academics at Bristol University's Personal Finance Research Centre (PFRC) and working with UWE Bristol's Computer Science and Creative Technologies Department to change the way customers in debt can manage their arrears. Guidance from the Financial Conduct Authority and other regulators requires creditors to identify vulnerable consumers and ensure they are treated fairly. Flexys has consulted with experts at the PFRC on how to best identify and engage with customers in difficulties, bringing a more collaborative approach to debt repayment via its Collaborate digital solution. Jamie Evans of the Personal Finance Research Centre says "We've really enjoyed and benefited from our informal collaboration with Flexys. Their team has shown a real thirst for our research. We feel this demonstrates that they are eager to use such knowledge to design systems focused on the needs of a wide range of people, not just'typical' consumers."

VENTURER is the first Connected and Autonomous Vehicle project to start in the UK. The results of VENTURER preliminary trials show that the handover process is a safety critical issue in the development of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs). The first VENTURER trials set out to investigate'takeover' (time taken to reengage with vehicle controls) and'handover' (time taken to regain a baseline/normal level of driving behaviour and performance) when switching frequently between automated and manual driving modes within urban and extra-urban settings. This trial is believed to be the first to directly compare handover to human driver-control from autonomous mode in both simulator and autonomous road vehicle platforms. The handover process is important from a legal and insurance perspective – the length of time it takes people to regain full control of the vehicle represents a meaningful risk to insurers and understanding when control is transferred between the vehicle and the driver has liability implications.

A researcher at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) is developing a bio-inspired'smart' knee joint for prosthetic lower limbs. Dr Appolinaire Etoundi, based at Bristol Robotics Laboratory, is leading the research and will analyse the functions, features and mechanisms of the human knee in order to translate this information into a new bio-inspired procedure for designing prosthetics. Dr Etoundi gained his PhD in bio-inspired technologies from the University of Bristol where he developed a design procedure for humanoid robotic knee joints. He is now turning his attention to nature, a growing area in robotics known as Bio-mimicry, combining curiosity about how biological systems work with solving complex engineering problems, in order to develop a prototype smart knee joint for prosthetics. Andy Lewis, a Paralympic Triathlon Gold Medallist (Rio 2016), who wears a lower limb prosthetic, will try out the new joint once developed, to compare its energy consumption and gait efficiency to current prosthetics.

The University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) is part of a consortium which has received a £4.6 million grant to build a new generation of robots for use in nuclear sites. The funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council will help develop smaller robotics technologies that will be able to operate autonomously and effectively in hazardous environments. The cost of cleaning up the UK's existing nuclear facilities has been estimated to be between £95 billion and £219 billion over the next 120 years. The harsh conditions within these facilities means human access is highly restricted and much of the work will need to be completed by robots. Present robotics technology is not capable of completing many of the tasks that will be required.

The use of a range of Machine Learning algorithms to help people make sense of large complex unstructured data sources is increasing rapidly. As a provider of solutions addressing major challenges in the area of defence and national security, Montvieux is involved in a number of projects applying state-of-the-art techniques such as Deep Belief networks to model significant patterns in data and predict future events. Their clients' needs are by nature fast-moving, and they have identified a need for intelligent visualisation and support tools to assist in their work. UWE's Artificial Intelligence group has a long history of theoretical and applied work creating and applying Machine Learning systems, with an emphasis on the use of intelligent interactive systems to facilitate this process. The student's time will be equally split between UWE and Montvieux's offices in Tewkesbury, to provide a valuable range of experiences and environments.