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Wanted ! – Researchers for Silicon South

Position: 2 full-time freelance contracts available for 3 months each

Day rate: £100 plus travel expenses

Location: Dorset

Silicon South is working on behalf of the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership to develop a strategy for boosting the digital creative economy in Dorset. Silicon South has committed to undertake a series of research and feasibility studies which together will inform a full-scale investment strategy setting out how this growth can be achieved.

Silicon South is looking for two freelance full-time researchers to assist in the development of the strategy by undertaking research and analysis on a range of projects related to the creative and digital sector. Working to the Director of Silicon South, you will undertake a combination of primary and secondary data analysis and research on a variety of topics relevant to Silicon South’s strategy.

Informal enquires about the post are welcomed. Please contact Anthony Story on 07702 103872.

Please send a CV and covering letter detailing your experience to: paul.webster@siliconsouth.org.uk

Closing date: Noon, 8 December 2014.

Click here for more information including application details.

Changing attitudes: 3 Paralympians’ perspectives on disability

Changing attitudes: 3 Paralympians’ perspectives on disability

Speakers: Kate Grey: Swimmer and Sky Sports Living for Sport Mentor/BBC sports reporter. Ben Rushgrove: Sprinter. Lucy Shuker: Tennis player

12 December 2014 13:30-14:30

Since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, there has been an increasing interest in the Paralympics, which resulted in the highest level of interest so far for London 2012, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The impact of the Paralympics and, in particular, London, suggests the games have had a positive impact and have helped improve public attitude towards disability within Britain.

At this event, three Paralympians, from the disciplines of athletics, swimming and tennis, will share their reflections on disability and reflect on the following questions:

  • Has there been a change of attitude towards disability in their disciplines?
  • Has there been a change of attitude towards disability within society as a whole?
  • What will be the impact on Rio 2016 and beyond?

To book your place please visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/changing-attitudes-3-paralympians-perspectives-on-disability-tickets-14105163925

Social Media and Dementia: Raising Awareness

The use of video within social media (such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter) is providing researchers with novel ways of disseminating the findings of research. This is inspiring researchers to think outside of traditional academic approaches, and enabling research to extend to new and wide-ranging audiences. This paper focuses on the Living Well with Dementia project, which was designed to utilise video to raise awareness and challenge gaps in perceptions and understanding of dementia. The project involved filming and disseminating a video featuring people with dementia and carers talking about what it means to live well with dementia. Obtaining the views of people with dementia and carers was considered crucial in terms of portraying the real-life experiences of living with dementia, and enabling these often marginalised voices to be heard. Participants were asked ‘what is your experience of living with dementia?’ and in their responses drew upon diagnosis, treatment, lifestyle, social activities and family relationships. The finished video was disseminated through YouTube. After viewing the video, members of the public were invited to complete a short survey to establish whether watching the video challenged their understanding of dementia. This paper showcases the Living Well with Dementia video, as well as exploring the ethical and practical challenges of capturing the experiences of people with dementia on video. Preliminary results from the survey are also presented, in order to explore the role of video within social media as a method to raise awareness and challenge gaps in perceptions and understanding of dementia.

Facilitated by: Dr Michelle Heward & Dr James Palfreman-Kay

Wednesday 10th December 2014 10:00-11:00
Student Hall, Talbot House, Talbot Campus

To book your place, please e-mail Organisational Development od@bournemouth.ac.uk

Become a ‘Dementia Friend’

People with dementia get by with a little help from their friends, and anybody can become a Dementia Friend. It’s just about understanding a bit more about dementia and the small things you can do to help people with the condition. People with dementia want to carry on going about their daily lives and feeling included in their local community, but they sometimes need a helping hand to do so. Dementia Friends learn a little bit about what it’s like to live with dementia and turns that understanding into action. This could be helping someone find the right bus or being patient in a till queue if someone with dementia is taking longer to pay. Every action counts. Being a Dementia Friend isn’t about volunteering or fundraising (though you can do that too if you want). Just come along to this session to become a friend and get a simple introduction to Dementia, and how you can help.

Facilitated by: Dr Ahmed Romouzy Ali & Dr Michelle Heward

Tuesday 9th December 2014 10:00-11:00
EB303, Executive Business Centre, Lansdowne Campus

To book your place please visit: https://staffintranet.bournemouth.ac.uk/workingatbu/staffdevelopmentandengagement/staffengagement/disabilityhistorymonth2014/dementiafriendssession/

Bournemouth to Buenos Aires – Pain, Perception and Partnership Institutions

Colleagues from HSC at BU and the AECC delivered their abstract at the 15th World Congress on Pain – hosted by the International Association for the Study of Pain. The pilot study investigated perceptions of movement in the lower back in those with chronic low back pain. The findings in this small sample revealed that those with back pain were more sensitive to movement than those without back pain. Aspects of this study are being continued as part of a match funded PhD project.

The project team consist of:  Dr. Carol Clark (BU),  Dr. Neil Osborne (AECC), Dr. Sharon Docherty (BU), Dr Dave Newell (AECC), Professors Ahmed Khattab (BU), Jeff Bagust (AECC & BU) and PhD student Sara Glithro.

You can access the conference abstract here: https://brian.bournemouth.ac.uk/viewobject.html?id=186189&cid=1

You can access the journal paper here: Clark, C.J., Doherty, S, Osborne, N, Khattab, A 2014.  A pilot study to compare passive lumbar spine re-positioning error in those with chronic low back pain.  International Musculoskeletal Medicine 36 (3) 105-110

Reminder For All Consumer Researchers – December Meeting of Consumer Research @ BU

Just over a month ago we held a very successful meeting bringing together consumer researchers from a wide range of disciplines across the University.  Our ‘Hands-On Information Sharing Session’ made it clear that there was tremendous potential for cross-disciplinary research and that as a united group we could not only act as a forum for research and ideas but also to provide a platform for interaction with industry.

This is a reminder that our next meeting is going to be held on:-

Wednesday, 3rd December in CG01, Christchurch House between 3-5pm.  [Please note the change in venue.]

Anyone who is doing consumer research of any description is welcome (e.g. consumer behaviour, retail, marketing, advertising, psychology, consumer neuroscience …) and there will be coffee and mince pies to help our consumer thinking along.

At this meeting we will be begin to identify groups or clusters of researchers, to discuss potential collaborations, and discuss plans for the future.

So if you think this might be of interest, please do come along next Wednesday.  If you are unable to make this meeting but are interested in being involved please email us to let us know and we will keep you informed about future events.

Jeff Bray (Tourism; jbray@bournemouth.ac.uk)
Juliet Memery (Business School; jmemery@bournemouth.ac.uk)
Janice Denegri-Knott (Media School; JDKnott@bournemouth.ac.uk)
Siné McDougall (SciTech; smcdougall@bournemouth.ac.uk)

 

Title: Nominate your research and impact with adults learners for Adult Learners Week Awards!

Sub title: Have you made your nomination for the 2015 Adult Learners’ Week (ALW) Awards yet?

With three weeks until the closing date of 5pm 17 December 2014, there’s still time to nominate inspirational adult learners, employers, projects, and, tutors.

ALW want to hear the very best stories about adults of every background, age and stage so get in touch with RKEO and we can support your nomination!

Every year, Adult Learners’ Week discovers some fantastic stories from truly inspirational award winners who have experienced life-changing benefits from learning.

Last year they received more than 190 nominations in the South West but very few from BU.

Participating in Adult Learners’ Week is a great way to:

  • celebrate the successes of remarkable learners;
  • enhance the profile of your organisation;
  • showcase learning programmes of which you are particularly proud;
  • highlight the positive effects of learning on people’s health, confidence and future prospects; and
  • become recognised as an excellent provider of learning opportunities.

Nomination Categories:

Individuals who have made a significant difference to their lives through learning, and who would inspire others to do the same.

Tutors who are passionate and dedicated to learning, and make invaluable contributions to the lives of adult learners from all walks of life.

Projects that have made a positive difference to learners’ development and helped people change their lives for the better.

Employers that invest in outstanding staff training, and use learning to develop the skills of their workforce to improve productivity, raise morale and enhance their business performance.

 

For further information please come to the ALW nomination workshop on Monday 1st December at 2pm in P401 or contact Naomi Kay nkay@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

http://www.alw.org.uk/awards/2015

 

National Contact Point

Guidance

 

National Contact Points (NCPs) provide impartial advice regarding EU Funding within their specialist area of Horizon 2020.  The advice is free and confidential and tailored to your needs.  This is an excellent service for drawing on the experience and knowledge of someone who deals exclusively with a particular scheme or work programme.  If you are interested in testing out project ideas, checking scheme eligibility, discussing the direction of travel of a particular funding stream or just asking some questions on the practicalities of applications they are a great source of help.

Ewa Bloch

This week we would like to introduce you to Ewa Bloch, who is the NCP for Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials.  Follow the link for further details on NCPs and Horizon 2020.  

Developing ViRETS – A Virtual Reality Eye-Tracking System

PG research

We would like to invite you to the next research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre that will be delivered by Chris Ramsey.

 

Title: Developing ViRETS – A Virtual Reality Eye-Tracking System

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 3rd December 2014

Room: P335, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract:

This research project aims to develop a Virtual Reality Eye-Tracking System (VIRETS), capable of displaying naturalistic viewing conditions with high ecological validity and large field of view (FOV) in order to investigate the effects on human gaze behaviour (including head movement) and how this could be advantageous when looking at methods for visual cognition experiments. Static, lab-based eye trackers (head-mounted or desk-mounted) are accurate and easy to calibrate. However, they have traditionally made use of single screen setups with a FOV which doesn’t provide realistic viewing conditions. Furthermore, the head of a participant often has to be restricted using a chin rest and/or bite bar, or, in the case of head-mounted eye-trackers, restricted to small movements, which prohibits naturalistic head movements.

While mobile eye-trackers bring eye-tracking research to real world scenarios, allowing for naturalistic head and eye movements and allowing for naturalistic viewing conditions, the method presents a number of limitations, such as lower frequencies and the possibility of dropped frames. Although video footage can be layered with gaze behaviour to show saccadic eye-movement in real scenes, data analysis has to be carried out offline and can be time consuming: Specifically, video footage must be inspected frame by frame, labelled and described in order to analyse what objects in the scene participants attend to. Furthermore using real-world scenarios make it difficult to control all the stimuli presented, making the interpretation of cause and effect relationships difficult.

ViRETS aims to address these concerns by combining realistic and immersive VR, head-mounted eye-tracking, motion tracking and the freedom of naturalistic head movement. By these means we’ll investigate how an increased FOV affects gaze behaviour, head movements and performance specifically in the context of visual search and navigation.       

We hope to see you there.

Nerve radio research feature, get listening!

At 13:30-14:00 today, Tom Cousins will be going onto Nerve Radio to talk for half hour on the nerve news discussion show. He will be talking about his fascinating research which is sure to be an entertaining half hour. His research is in Maritime Archaeology and involves a team of divers around Poole harbour looking for WW1 and WW2 wrecks of tanks and carriers. I don’t want to spoil it for you by telling more, so for those of you with headphones or those on your lunch break, here is the link to tune in to Nerve at 13:30 to listen in either on your computer or by downloading the app on your phone, all instructions on the link below, don’t miss out ont his amazing research feature on nerve!

http://www.nervemedia.org.uk/radio/listen/

 

Eleventh Annual Symposium explores ‘impact’ in healthcare research and education

BU’s Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education’s Eleventh Annual Symposium held on the 14th October was a huge success with around 100 healthcare professionals and academics in attendance.  The symposium explored the important and timely concept of impact in research and education.  A full report can now be found on our website at www.bournemouth.ac.uk/copmre.  We look forward to seeing you all at our next conference in the autumn of 2015 where the topic of Human Factors will be discussed.

Audrey

KTP Advisory Surgery December 2014

KTP Advisory Surgery December 2014

The last Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) Advisory Surgery of 2014 will be on Wednesday 3rd December from 09.30 until 11.30.

The surgery will be divided up into one-to-one slots.  Each slot is 20 minutes long and it is an opportunity for academics to discuss any KTP ideas with the Innovate UK KTP Adviser.

If you require any support from our regional KTP Adviser, please contact Knowledge Exchange Adviser (KTP), Rachel on 01202 961347 or clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk

What is KTP?

 

BUDI talks museums and dementia at AHSW Annual Conference

Last week I was invited to represent Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) at the 9th Arts and Health South West (AHSW) Annual Conference held in Taunton. This was a great opportunity for me to talk about the Museum of Modern Art’s (MOMA’s) approach to involving people affected by dementia within their gallery space, as showcased in the MOMA Workshops held in May 2014 . I also discussed some of the work that local Dorset museums are undertaking to involve people affected by dementia, and ways to evaluate such activities.

The conference showcased a wide variety of innovative arts based projects, including: the therapeutic purposes of creative writing, doodling, and music and health from Live Music Now. The positive health impacts of arts based activities for a range of participants were highlighted in several presentations throughout the day.