Wessex Institute of Technology

Wessex Institute of Technology

Location	Ashurst, New Forest, England, United Kingdom
Website	http://www.wessex.ac.uk/

WIT New Forest Campus

Overview

The Wessex Institute of Technology (usually referred to as just Wessex Institute or WIT) is an educational institute offering higher degrees validated by the University of Wales,^[1] located at Ashurst Lodge in the New Forest National Park, in the South of England.^[2]

Professor Carlos Brebbia established the Wessex Institute of Technology in 1986 which succeeded the Computational Mechanics Institute formed in 1981.^[3]

Professor Carlos Brebbia is Chairman of the Wessex Institute. The board of Directors are as follows:^[4]

• Professor Geoffrey Broadbent
• Professor Alex Cheng^[5]
• Professor Jerry J Connor
• Professor Patrick de Wilde
• Professor Daniele de Wrachien
• Professor Santiago Hernandez
• Professor Ted Hromadka^[6]
• Professor Stefano Mambretti
• Professor George Pinder^[7]
• Professor Dragan Poljak
• Professor Matiur Rahman^[8][9]
• Professor Eckart Schnack^[10]
• Professor Stavros Syngellakis
• Professor Antonio Tadeu

The Wessex Institute’s activities are divided into 3 core areas; Research, Conferences and Publishing.^[11]

Research

The Wessex Institute of Technology research programmes have been and continue to be funded by the EU, NATO and industry.^[12][13][14]

Some recent research projects include:

• Food and Fecundity: Pharmaceutical Products as high risk effectors - European Commission, Framework Programme VI (FP6), Food Quality and Safety^[12]
• Low risk disposal technology (LOWRISKDT) - European Commission, Framework Programme V (FP5), Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Programme^[13]
• CHILL-ON - European Commission, Framework Programme VI (FP6) - Food Quality and Safety^[14]

The Wessex Institute of Technology offers Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) postgraduate programmes.^[1] Many of the postgraduate programmes completed at the Wessex Institute of Technology have been in collaboration with institutions in the form of academic exchanges.

Collaboration agreements have included:

• Universita Degli Studi di Siena, Italy^[15]
• Universidad De Granada, Spain^[16]
• Universita di Pisa, Italy^[17]
• University of Castilla-La Mancha^[18]
• UNICAMP, Brazil^[19]
• Universita Degli Studi di Milano, Italy^[20]

Conferences

WIT Conference

The Wessex Institute of Technology organises a programme of around 25 conferences each year held in many different locations and in association with other organisations and universities.^[3][4]

An annual event during the Wessex Institute of Technology conference programme is the awarding of the Prigogine Medal. The Prigogine Medal, established in memory of Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, has been awarded annually since 2004 in collaboration with the University of Siena.^[21][4][22]

Prigogine Medal Winners:

• 2004 Sven Jorgensen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark – Link to his wiki
• 2005 Enzo Tiezzi, Italy^[23]
• 2006 Bernard Patten, USA
• 2007 Robert Ulanowicz, USA^[24]
• 2008 Ioannis Antoniou, Greece
• 2009 Emilio del Giudice, Italy^[25]
• 2010 Felix Müller, Germany^[26]
• 2011 Larissa Brizhik, Ukraine^[27]
• 2012 Gerald Pollack, USA^[28]
• 2013 Vladimir Voeikov, Russia
• 2014 Mae-Wan Ho, UK^[29]

Publishing - WIT Press

WIT Press is the publishing service of the Wessex Institute of Technology. It publishes conference proceedings, journals and a number of specialised research monographs and edited works.^[30][31]

Conference Proceedings are published within one of 6 Transaction series and are archived online in the WIT Press eLibrary. The eLibrary contains over 20,000 peer reviewed papers of which all from 1993 – 2009 are open access.^[32][33][34]

The Transaction Series titles are:

• WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment^[35]
• WIT Transactions on the Built Environment^[36]
• WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences^[37]
• WIT Transactions on Information and Communication Technologies^[38]
• WIT Transactions on Modelling and Simulation^[39]
• WIT Transactions on Biomedicine and Health^[40]

WIT Press currently produces 4 Journals:

• International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning^[41]
• International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics^[42]
• International Journal of Safety and Security Engineering^[43]
• International Journal of Computational Methods and Experimental Measurements^[44]

Design and Nature

The Wessex Institute of Technology organises a conference on Design and Nature,^[45] whilst WIT Press publishes the International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics,^[42] both of which have attracted attention for the subject matter of some of the papers presented and published.

As a result of reaction to previous papers presented on the subject the editors added this statement to papers published by A.C. McIntosh in Volume 4 of the International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics in 2009.^{[46] [47]}

“This paper presents a different paradigm than the traditional view. It is, in the view of the Journal, an exploratory paper that does not give a complete justification for the alternative view. The reader should not assume that the Journal or the reviewers agree with the conclusions of the paper. It is a valuable contribution that challenges the conventional vision that systems can design and organise themselves. The Journal hopes that the paper will promote the exchange of ideas in this important topic. Comments are invited in the form of ‘Letters to the Editor.”

Contributions to its International conference programme have included papers promoting intelligent design and creationism from Dominic Hassler, Dean of the College of Science and Engineering at Oral Roberts University, and a joint paper by Scott A. Minnich and Stephen C. Meyer reiterating claims disputing evolution of the bacterial flagellum.^[48] The latter paper was cited in the landmark Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District legal case, being the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of intelligent design.

Doubts have been raised as to whether proper peer review has been followed for these conferences, this issue was, in particular, tested for the VIDEA conference in 1995, where several nonsensical abstracts were provisionally accepted for publication.^{[49] [50]}

References

External links

• Wessex Institute of Technology Website - wessex.ac.uk
• WIT Press Publishing Website - witpress.com
• WIT eLibrary Website - library.witpress.com
• WIT Press Journals Website - journals.witpress.com

Coordinates: 50°52′44″N 1°31′33″W / 50.8789°N 1.5259°W / 50.8789; -1.5259