BVI Camouflage Workshop 2012

17 April 2012

The aim of the first BVI Camouflage Section Workshop was to bring all the people involved or interested in camouflage research and provide postgraduate students an opportunity to present their projects to enhance interdepartmental collaborations. We are pleased to report that the workshop was highly successful and students were able to get highly valuable comments from leading scientists in various disciplines. An introduction was given by Prof Innes Cuthill, Head of School of Biological Sciences. We had attending academics from various departments: Dr Nicholas Roberts, Dr Shelby Temple and Dr Juliette McGregor representing the Ecology of Vision group from the School of Biological Sciences, psychologists Dr Nicholas Scott-Samuel and Dr Roland Baddeley involved in vision research, computer scientists Dr Tilo Burghardt and Dr David Gibson pursuing artificial vision and engineering mathematician Dr Jonathan Rossiter interested in biomimetic colour-changing smart materials.

An unexpected bonus was the presence of Dr Adam Shohet, head of the Stealth Technologies section of QinetiQ, the defense research company. The fact that he was wiling to come all day for a graduate symposium is a testimony to the potential his company sees in Bristol for graduate training in this specialist sector. QinetiQ is funding two studentships in camouflage from October 2012 and, as a result of his positive experience here, thus bodes well for future funding. He also made very helpful suggestions to the students after their talks, in terms of cutting edge techniques and applications.

Feedback from attendees was very positive: people had a great time and enjoyed the interdisciplinary atmosphere. The workshop showed the greatness of such interdepartmental forums: academics separated in different departments, yet all interested in camouflage often deal with rather similar problems and by bridging the gaps between fields research can be substantially enhanced. We hope that we are able to lay down the first cornerstone of a special interest group of camouflage in BVI, a group of scientists at Bristol dedicated in the art of deception.

We are once again very thankful to the Institute of Advanced Studies for providing space and funding for this workshop.

As the picture illustrates, we had a full attendance of rather successful camoufleurs.

Presentations given: