Generally speaking the huge increase in the quantity of published research is a good thing for the global knowledge base, but it can nonetheless be difficult to hone in on the very highest quality papers.

Whilst not the most high profile of domains, this is certainly the case in the world of cyber-physical systems, and so researchers from Vanderbilt University have attempted to rectify matters by building a digital repository of the latest research in the field.

The portal, called the Cyber-Physical Systems Virtual Organization Portal, is created by researchers from Vanderbilt, Arizona State University, University of Pennsylvania, UCLA and University of Arizona.  The project aims to make research more productive by enabling artefacts to be more easily found and reproduced.

“Universities have an incentive structure that rewards the publication of papers, but agencies funding the research are accountable for something more – showing the impact of the result of an investment,” the team say. “They need evidence of results that can be reproduced, transitioned and used to build on science, technology and even industrial applications. This is particularly important in cyber-physical systems research that creates new foundations for developing new generations of engineered systems.”

Humble beginnings

The tool was initially built by Vanderbilt in 2010 as a collaboration platform for researchers, but the scope was considerably expanded after a NSF grant in 2014 to allow research artefacts to be captured and shared.

The latest iteration features a number of tools and design studios to help both researchers and practitioners gain access to the latest thinking on cyber-physical systems.  Anyone can submit a tool to the system, with staff then verifying the quality of the tool before making it available to the community.

“This platform raises the expectation that, if you make commitments for disseminating results in your grant proposal, you can indeed accomplish it,” they explain. “By removing the technical barriers for disseminating and making results, tools and design studios accessible, researchers can have much greater success in achieving tangible impact with their work. We’re in the process of changing a culture.”