14th April 2008

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Aidan Higgins with Iain Greenway, CEO Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland, Mark Bennett , DFP and Séamus Gilroy,1Spatial

Photo Credit: Down Photography

A University of Ulster student could help identify accident black spots on Northern Ireland’s roads and lower accident rates around public buildings such as schools and hospitals. 

Aidan Higgins, from Maghera, an MSc student in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), School of Environmental Sciences, has combined road collision data from the Police Service of Northern Ireland with the road network of Northern Ireland to highlight the most dangerous areas on our roads.

His idea has been chosen as the winning design in a competition run by the Department of Finance and Personnel in conjunction with the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland. ‘Geo-Mashup’ was open to all students in Northern Ireland who were able to merge geographic information with other data. The winning idea needed to benefit the public and be potentially marketable.  

Aidan combined road collision data from the Police Service of Northern Ireland with the road network of Northern Ireland to show accident black spots across Northern Ireland. Using address information it was possible to highlight dangerous areas around public buildings, such as schools and hospitals.

“Every week we hear of collisions on our roads and I was very interested in using GIS with the collision data to analyse and view trends across Northern Ireland. I would like to develop the idea as lives could be saved if people know about dangerous roads,” said Aidan. 

He will now undertake a week’s consultancy with 1Spatial, an international GIS consultancy, to develop his idea further. Aidan presented his idea alongside two other finalists, also from the University of Ulster. He also won a laptop as part of his prize. 

Dr Paul McKenzie, lecturer in GIS, School of Environmental Sciences said: “GIS plays a pivotal role in many areas of society today. The ability to combine geographic information into a common framework allows many important questions to be answered.

“Winning this competition highlights the excellent work that is ongoing in GIS at the University of Ulster.”

 

For further information, please contact:

Press Office, Department of Communication and Development
Tel: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk