Simon Maddison

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I am a retired engineer, focused on Communication Systems.
I have been actively engaged in Archaeology for the past 15 years, commencing with study at Birkbeck, followed by a Masters in GIS in Archaeology from UCL. My dissertation was on the distribution of Hillforts in Britain and Ireland. This has led to presentations and publications on the subject.
I have extensive excavation experience, starting at the Birkbeck field school, and following 7 years on a settlement site in Orkney. More recently I have been digging on Hillforts in Wales.
Supervisors: Mark Lake and Gary Lock

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Fontana Giacomo

Texas Tech University

Université Rennes 2

Universiteit Leiden

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Oula Seitsonen

University of Oulu

Wouter Verschoof-van der Vaart

Universiteit Leiden

Hendrik Rohland

Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

Edisa Lozić

Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Jan Zachar

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Papers by Simon Maddison

Site detection across Europe and the HillfortFinderApp – latest results from a Deep Learning based hillfort search

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Jun 2, 2023

The widely increasing availability and improving resolution of LiDAR data are revolutionising lan... more The widely increasing availability and improving resolution of LiDAR data are revolutionising landscape archaeology, allowing the identification of previously unknown archaeological features and thus aiding research as well as heritage protection strategies. This can be achieved even on a countrywide scale by using effective automation techniques. Our work aims at developing an approach to automatically detect hillfort sites cross-regionally, using Britain to train a neural network tool and Italy and Germany to test its transferability to different regions and landscapes. Hillforts are amongst the most evident and iconic archaeological sites in Europe. Usually associated with the Iron Age, they can date from the Neolithic to early Medieval times. The Atlas of Hillforts (Lock and Ralston 2017) provides a comprehensive and up-to-date record of these sites, over 4000 in total, and an invaluable database for further research (e.g., Maddison 2022). The large number of hillforts known in Britain constitutes the best training dataset available to date for developing effective automation for recognising hillforts in remotely sensed data. The variety of landscapes present in Italy and Germany, on the other hand, makes these areas an optimal case study for testing the transferability of this type of automation in different regions.

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Percolation Package - From script sharing to package publication

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), May 24, 2023

Software as an engineering discipline

Electronics and Power, 1980

The term ‘software’ to many is an enigma. It is not tangible. But it is a product that needs to b... more

An extensible framework architecture for wireless condition monitoring applications for railway rolling stock

Modern railway vehicles incorporate a significant level of built-in condition monitoring. Interfa... more Modern railway vehicles incorporate a significant level of built-in condition monitoring. Interfacing these systems to vehicle management units supports powerful fault detection and decision support facilities for the vehicle operators and maintainers. The benefits of such systems are attained through close incorporation of the component systems with the vehicle infrastructure including core data communication busses, train management units and remote communications equipment. Retrofitting condition monitoring systems to existing rolling stock introduces potential equivalent benefits, but installing such systems is prohibited by the cost and complexity of installing power and communications cabling to support the monitoring equipment. Recent advancements in wireless communication, localised processing capacity and energy harvesting technology present an opportunity to address this challenge and test the market potential. This paper describes the development of a multi-hop mesh network as a standardised framework for railway rolling stock monitoring. The network uses localised processing elements for user configurable sensing applications to provide temporary and semi-permanent monitoring functions. The system is made fully wireless through the provision of energy harvesting power management functionality.

Enhancing Wireless Remote Condition Monitoring with Photographic Imaging

Book review: Software Design for Electronic Switching Systems

IEE Proceedings F Communications, Radar and Signal Processing, Jun 1, 1980

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The Spatial distribution of Hillforts in Britain and Ireland

Offa’s Dyke: A Continuing Journey of Discovery

The prime focus here is upon Offa's Dyke in west Gloucestershire and in Flintshire, in both of wh... more The prime focus here is upon Offa's Dyke in west Gloucestershire and in Flintshire, in both of which areas fieldwork is adding incrementally to our stock of knowledge about the extent and nature of the monument. However, observations elsewhere on its course, such as in west-central Herefordshire, at Hem (Montgomeryshire), and near Trefonen (Shropshire) are also noted in brief descriptive sections. The identification of 'new' lengths of Offa's Dyke in Tutshill (near Chepstow) and between Lower Redbrook and Lower Lydbrook southeast of Monmouth indicates that the linear earthwork was built as a near-continuous or continuous monument in these southerly areas. Meanwhile, the discovery of lengths of linear earthwork in Flintshire that could have formed part of a continuous course reaching the sea near Gronant east of Prestatyn has also raised important questions about the relationship of Wat's Dyke to Offa's Dyke.

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Percolation Analysis

Perkolationsanalyse – Archäologische Anwendungen auf unterschiedlichen räumlichen Maßstäben

Vortragsfolien des Vortrags: <strong>Perkolationsanalyse – Archäologische Anwendungen auf u... more Vortragsfolien des Vortrags: <strong>Perkolationsanalyse – Archäologische Anwendungen auf unterschiedlichen räumlichen Ebenen</strong> Maddison, Simon , Schmidt, Sophie C. Dieser Beitrag hat zum Ziel, den räumlichen Cluster-Algorithmus der Perkolationsanalyse vorzustellen und anhand von zwei Fallstudien auf sehr unterschiedlichem Maßstab mögliche Nutzungsbereiche für die Archäologie aufzuzeigen. Dem auf Perkolationstheorie und euklidischer Distanz basierenden Cluster-Algorithmus liegt der von Arcaute et al (2016) adaptierte City Clustering Algorithm zugrunde, der in der freien Programmiersprache R umgesetzt wurde. Gegenüber anderen Clusteralgorithmen zeichnen ihn seine geringe mathematische Komplexität und seine Robustheit aus. Die archäologischen Fallstudien behandeln einerseits eine Clusteranalyse auf nationaler, andererseits die Berechnung von Befundabständen auf sub-regionaler Ebene. Im ersten Fall handelt es sich um die Analyse befestigter Höhensiedlung in Großbrita...

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An observational approach to railway tunnel voids grouting

Proceedings of the ICE - Geotechnical Engineering, 2015

Water and fine sand ingressed into a section of running tunnels on the Jubilee line of the UK's L... more Water and fine sand ingressed into a section of running tunnels on the Jubilee line of the UK's London Underground railway in 2010. Concern arose that voids around the tunnel would lead to tunnel instability due to a reduction of lateral confining pressure from the soil. Ground investigation works identified that the running tunnel passed through a very large buried sand channel in the Lambeth Group. Initial attempts to arrest the ingress using an expanding grout were unsuccessful, and manual monitoring showed a slow but continuing deformation of the tunnel. A detailed tunnel investigation revealed that intermittent voiding was present over a wide area. A more comprehensive tunnel investigation and grouting solution was procured and carried out successfully by a group of specialists working together with London Underground. An important aspect of the design was the use of an observational approach, a key component of which was an innovative wireless monitoring system with trigger levels linked to the grouting injection system. Geotechnical Engineering An observational approach to railway tunnel voids grouting Wright, Skipper, Maddison, Brookfield and Moss Geotechnical Engineering An observational approach to railway tunnel voids grouting Wright, Skipper, Maddison, Brookfield and Moss Geotechnical Engineering An observational approach to railway tunnel voids grouting Wright, Skipper, Maddison, Brookfield and Moss Geotechnical Engineering An observational approach to railway tunnel voids grouting Wright, Skipper, Maddison, Brookfield and Moss Geotechnical Engineering An observational approach to railway tunnel voids grouting Wright, Skipper, Maddison, Brookfield and Moss Geotechnical Engineering An observational approach to railway tunnel voids grouting Wright, Skipper, Maddison, Brookfield and Moss

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Reducing the cost of monitoring signalling assets using wireless technology

Wireless sensor networks are an important recent development in Railway Condition Monitoring and ... more Wireless sensor networks are an important recent development in Railway Condition Monitoring and are now being used for monitoring a range of civil structures. Signalling assets, particularly where they are in clusters around junctions, are also suitable for wireless condition monitoring; this saves on wiring and large numbers of data loggers. It opens up the potential for widening the monitoring of assets through the use of low cost self contained, self configuring wireless sensors which can be readily installed with a minimum of effort, and with a significant cost reduction through elimination of wiring. (3 pages)

Telecoms: Present Knowledge, Future Trends

Remote-controlled switching device

Percolation Analysis – Archaeological Applications at Widely Different Spatial Scales

Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology, 2020

This paper provides a summary of the percolation method of cluster analysis, and then describes t... more This paper provides a summary of the percolation method of cluster analysis, and then describes two detailed archaeological case studies where the technique is applied at significantly different geographical scales. This demonstrates not only the potential for the technique within archaeology, but also how it can be applied at different spatial scales with different objectives appropriate to the specific problem in question. The technique, originally developed in physics and more recently adopted in geography, is a way of identifying groupings or clusters, purely based on spatial separation using Euclidian distance. The paper includes a discussion comparing percolation analysis with other clustering techniques already established within archaeology. The first case study uses percolation analysis as an exploratory tool for investigating the distribution of hillforts in Britain, identifying clusters and groupings at a national scale. The purpose is to identify possible socio-political...

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Using Atlas data

Hillforts: Britain, Ireland and the Nearer Continent, 2019

New advances for wireless remote condition monitoring in tunnel deformation and track tilt

6th IET Conference on Railway Condition Monitoring (RCM 2014), 2014

Wireless sensor network systems as supplied by Senceive are now totally accepted as a cost effect... more Wireless sensor network systems as supplied by Senceive are now totally accepted as a cost effective, precise and reliable tool for the condition monitoring of rail, geo-technical and structural assets. They are providing for remote monitoring of assets through the use of low cost, battery powered, high precision, self-configuring wireless sensor systems which can be readily installed with a minimum of effort. They also, of course, avoid the need for wiring or indeed, in the case of optical systems, the need for frequent cleaning and extensive set-up and configuration. Far reaching development over the past 2-3 years, part funded by the TSB (Technology Strategy Board) has led to a highly significant step change in functionality by Senceive in wireless RCM including: battery life extended to over 10 years and the provision of industrial levels of network robustness and data stability. Additionally, and as a direct reflection of this success over recent years, Senceive's wireless systems alone have also been approved and extended into two new important and challenging asset classes: Rail Tunnels and Track Bed.

Remotely controlled power switching unit

Site detection across Europe and the HillfortFinderApp – latest results from a Deep Learning based hillfort search

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Jun 2, 2023

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Percolation Package - From script sharing to package publication

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), May 24, 2023

Software as an engineering discipline

Electronics and Power, 1980

The term ‘software’ to many is an enigma. It is not tangible. But it is a product that needs to b... more

An extensible framework architecture for wireless condition monitoring applications for railway rolling stock