Dr Ruth E Falconer

Ruth E FalconerLecturer in Modelling and Visualization

E: r.falconer@abertay.ac.uk
T: +44 (0)1382 308459

General Information

Research Interests

  • Generally modelling and visualization of complex sytsems. Specific projects outlined below:
    • Modelling community dynamics of fungi in soil and wood
      • Visualization of model output of fungal interactions in a CT scanned soil;
    • Modelling urban and regional sustainability
      • Visualization of sustainability assessment information overlay on 3D virtual representation of proposed urban development;
    • Application of biological metaphors in enginneered systems
  • All of the above research projects have a core visualization element. Where a suitable visualization package does not exist I am interested in bespoke visualization tools. The images above were produced using the latest GPU techniques in order to render large dataset at interactive framerates.

    • Groups associated with:

    • SAGES
    • EmergeNET http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/emergenet/whatisemergenet/
    • Institute of Physics
    • Information Visualisation society

    Current PhD Students

    • John Isaacs - Urban Sustainability see http://www.scityvt.co.uk/index.php
    • Hao Xu - Applications of fungal networks to telecommunication networks
    • Chris Mcreadie - SimSAGES
    • Eilidh McAdams - Application of biological principles to critical infrastructures
    • Jennifer Gilford - Visualising complex soil spatial data

    Current MSc Students

    • Christopher Nater - SMIVE: SIMBIOS CT scan visualisations in the HIVE
    • Sean Donnelly - Evaluation and implementation of atmospheric light scattering in a real time application of fungal networks to telecommunication networks

    Teaching Interests

    • 3D graphics programming and scientific visualisation
    • Programming
    • Numerical methods and statistics

    Top of page

    Videos

    Deadlock: A simulation of two fungi competing in a 3D soil structure. Due to the limitations on the physical architecture of soil (not shown) the movement of the fungi becomes deadlocked. Watch Video

    Poro033: A simulation of two competing fungi on a 2D environment. Watch Video

    Top of page

    Published Papers

    1. Ruth E. Falconer, James L. Bown, Nia A. White & John W. Crawford (2008). Fungal Interactions in Fungi; The Royal Society Interface. 5(23).
    2. Ruth E. Falconer, James L. Bown, Nia A. White & John W. Crawford (2007). Biomass Recycling: a key to efficient foraging; Oikos, 116 ( 9): 1558-1568.
    3. J. M. Blair, R. E. Falconer, A. C. Milne, I.M. Young, and J. W. Crawford (2007) Modeling Three-Dimensional Microstructure in Heterogeneous Media. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J; 71: 1807-1812.
    4. Ruth E. Falconer, James L. Bown, Nia A. White & John W. Crawford , 2005. Biomass Recycling and the origin of phenotype in fungal mycelia. - Proc. Roy. Soc B. Lond. 272: 1727-1734.
    5. John Isaacs, Dr David Blackwood, Dr Ruth Falconer, Mr Daniel Gilmour. (2007) The Role of Modelling and Visualisation in Effective Sustainability Assessment. – Refereed Paper at Sue – Mot Conference, Caledonia University, Glasgow 2007.
    6. John Isaacs, Ruth Falconer and David Blackwood (2008) "A Unique Approach to Visualising Sustainability in the Built Environment," VIS International Conference Visualisation. pp. 3-10.
    7. Ruth E. Falconer, J. Bown. E. Hart and J. Timmis (2008). A New Paradigm for SpeckNets: Inspiration from Fungal Colonies Second IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems Workshops p 90-95.

    Invited talks

  • Centre for Emergent Computing. Edinburgh Napier University. 11th Feb 2009.
  • European Geoscience Union in Soils Complex and Non Linear Systems theme. Modelling fungal growth in heterogeneous soil: analyses of the effect of soil physical structure on fungal community dynamics. 22nd April 2009.
  • Perada summer school. Bio-inspired Models Ruth E Falconer, University of Abertay Dundee, UK Emma Hart, Centre for Emergent Computing, Edinburgh Napier University, UK Ben Paechter, Centre for Emergent Computing, Edinburgh Napier University, UK. September 2008.

    • Top of page

    Grantsmanship

    • BBSRC Public engagement with Science Award, 2004, “Inside Nature”, £1200
    • Scottish International Educational Trust, 2004, “Modelling 2-dimensional fungal growth through porous silicone ”, £1450
    • Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, 2005, “ Towards a framework investigating the ecology of fungal communities ”, Travel grant, £640
    • Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, 2007, “Relating soil metrics to function of termite mounds”, £1100
    • Norman Fraser Design Trust, 2007, “Development of a fungal-inspired information network protocol”, Feasibility Study, £4,500

    Top of page

    Back to list of team members