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Notice to All Academic Staff: 2013 PhD Studentship Competition – Deadline for submission:10th December 2012

PG research

Studentship proposal forms are currently been invited for the 2013 BU PhD Studentship Competition for projects starting in Sept/Oct 2013, as part of the Fusion Investment Fund.

There will be 50 studentships available across two parallel strands:

(1)   Matched Funded projects

(2)   Fully Funded.

All proposals should match clearly to one of the eight BU Research Themes

Staff are asked to check the eligibility criteria carefully before applying

Strand 1 – Matched Funded Studentships

  • A total of 45 matched funded studentships are available.
  • Matched-funding – The stipend for 2013/14 is going to be £14,000 but this is likely to increase in line with the Research Council stipends over the course of the studentship.  As such, the external funder would need to provide a minimum of 50% of the costs, for example:
    • 3 x £7.5K = £22.5K towards the stipend
    • 1 x £1.5K = £1.5K research costs (@ £3K over 3 years – or £2.5K where research costs are likely to be up to £5K)
    • Total = £24K over 36 months
  •  Any additional contribution from the matched funder helps to offset the cost of the school.
  • Matched Funders may come from:
    • Industry/business partners,
    • Government and non-government organisations,
    • Other academic institutions
    • NHS,
    • Research Councils, or
    • Other external bodies. 
  • Priority may be given to applications that involve supervisors from two or more Schools and/or those from early career researchers.
  • Applicants are encouraged to discuss potential applications to this funding strand with Deputy Dean for Research or equivalent within their School.

Strand 2 – Fully-Funded Studentships

  • A total of 5 fully funded studentships are available.
  • These are exceptional awards for highly original, timely and non-applied or “blue-sky” research projects where there is no potential for match funding.  Priority will be given to those areas where there is a clear strategic driver for a particular REF Unit of Assessment and/or the applicant can demonstrate an immense societal impact.
  • Applicants are encouraged to discuss potential applications to this funding strand with Professor Matthew Bennett or Professor Tiantian Zhang in advance.

The studentships will be awarded to supervisory teams on the basis of a competitive process across the whole of BU led by Professor Matthew Bennett (PVC) and managed by the Graduate School.  Applications will be reviewed internally and assessed with awards made by a cross University Panel. In selecting proposals for funding emphasis will be placed on the excellence of the research and quality of proposal.  Strategic fit with one of the relevant UoA and potential for societal impact are key criteria.

Only the best projects in each strand will be funded and proceed to advert.  Full details and criteria are set out in the policy document BU Studentship Competition 2013 Policy 

Applications on the Studentship Proposal form which can be downloaded here: Studentship Project Proposal 2013 should be submitted to the Dr Fiona Knight (Graduate School Academic Manager) via email to PhDStudentshipCompetition@bournemouth.ac.uk  no later than 5pm on 10th December 2012.  Decisions will be made in early January 2013.

All general enquiries can be addressed to Dr Fiona Knight (Graduate School Academic Manager) via email to PhDStudentshipCompetition@bournemouth.ac.uk

Santander PGR Grants – Apply Now!

PG research

The Graduate School and the Development Office are pleased to announce the launch of a number of Santander Grants.

BU works closely with Santander, who are committed to supporting higher education and as such, are offering 25 x £1,000 grants for BU Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs).  These grants are specifically designed to allow PGRs to travel to at least one university from either the UK Santander Universities Network or to one of the Overseas Santander Partner Universities, to undertake a specific piece of work and build or develop links with international Researchers.

Successful applicants will be expected to participate in general PR activities about their research. This may involve attending events and promoting the benefits of the funding.  *Unsuccessful submissions from the last round of the Santander Scholarship funding (run by the Research & Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO)) cannot be resubmitted to this round. Previous unsuccessful applicants can submit new projects/ideas to this round.

For further information, please read the GS Santander Travel Grants – Policy

To apply, please complete the GS Santander Travel Grants – Application Form and submit it by email to the Graduate School (email: graduateschool@bournemouth.ac.uk) by 5 pm, Monday 14 January 2013.

 

Grade Grubbing – survey open

Steph Allen in the Media School is starting the UK pilot on the topic of Grade Grubbing (grade enhancement) and is looking for academic colleagues (both at BU and external to BU) to complete a survey on the topic. Is this has happened to you in the past, or if you think it might happen in the future bearing in mind that students are now seeing themselves as customers, then she’d appreciate you spending a few moments completing a short, anonymous pilot survey.

You can access the survey here:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZCJD7BG

New PhD at HSC!

BU Challenges

Colleen Deane has recently joined the School of Health and Social Care to commence a BU matched funded PhD studentship investigating novel mechanisms regulating muscle mass in the elderly. Colleen has just successfully completed her Masters (with distinction) in Physical Activity, Nutrition and Health Promotion, where she investigated the effects of specific hormones (Testosterone) and polyphenols (Resveratrol) on artificially aged skeletal muscle cells, extracted from rodent mice. This PhD aims to enhance current understanding of the mechanisms regulating age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass (termed ‘sarcopenia’) and the associated reductions in mobility, general health and quality of life. Whilst exercise and nutritional interventions improve muscle size and function in young individuals, this response is attenuated in elderly muscle. Thus, using a combination of physiological and metabolic/molecular techniques these studies will investigate novel mechanisms underlying the blunted response of ageing muscle to exercise and nutritional growth stimuli. For further information contact Colleen on cdeane@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Last chance to book on our ‘How to Network’ session

Networking is crucial in academic life and critical for participation in EU funding. In today’s world, to develop a strong academic career, publications aren’t enough; network relations can play a huge role.  Being well connected and carrying out research in cooperative partnerships significantly increases your chances of attaining a professorship and will allow you to grow your research career by participating in a range of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary projects.

Networking can be daunting and exhausting. To help you identify key players and how best to approach them as well as learning  how to network effectively with a range of stakeholders, expert Dr Martin Pickard of Grantcraft will deliver 3 hours of  fantastic guidance in this session on Talbot campus.  Booking is essential through the Staff Development website.

Report from the ESRC Festival of Social Science

Bournemouth University was host to an ESRC Festival of Social Science event on 8 November 2012.  The one-day conference, organized by Professor Martin Kretschmer and colleagues from the Law School, sought to explore the complexities of developing empirical research to support public policy in domains such as copyright law.   In attendance at the conference were stakeholders from the Intellectual Property Office UK, the Cabinet Office, law professionals and academics from around Europe.  The day was structured around a series of panel discussions by representatives from policy, the media industry, and law, prompting lively debate around questions such as: ‘What is the status of qualitative research in policy decision making?’ and ‘How can we reconcile the differing legal and academic standards for evidence?’.

The conference was video recorded with the help of research assistants from the Media School and will be made available in full as a series of digital conference proceedings.

The conference was also an opportunity for Professor Kretschmer, Dr. Kris Erickson and Dr. Dinusha Mendis to present the findings of research they carried out during the IPO consultation on the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property.  The research seeks to evaluate possible economic impacts of any future change to UK copyright law to permit parody, caricature and pastiche of existing works.  Currently, parody is not explicitly permitted under UK copyright law.  The authors hope that this type of empirical research will help to illuminate complex public policy questions and strengthen the role of academic research in the policy process.

Below you may view a detailed presentation of the research from the ESRC event.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWbgZ63Ug9k

 

 

 

Art and Science: a common core?

News from the PVC

A friend forwarded a couple of links to me recently about the relationship of science and art and particularly the dynamic that exists between them.  The pieces, one inspired by the other, set a number of thoughts running.  The first was the importance for many scientists/researchers of the scribbled conceptual diagram – in fact I have note books full of them.  Cartoons of reality that help researchers articulate arguments, scope concepts and summarise complex ideas.  In this sense art is a route to clarity of thought which is essential for good science writing, or at least in my humble opinion.  I can hear you questioning whether such cartoons are actual art – scribbled on the back of meeting agendas, squeezed into the margins of note books, on the back of drafts of papers – but I would argue that they are and their elegance in conveying ideas and thoughts process is as real and striking as any painting.

The pieces also made me think about how in the last 18 months I myself have embraced art as a painter.  Until recently I had never painted before in my life but took it up after turning out a half decent picture while painting one day with my boys.  Self-taught through the use of you-tube video clips, websites and a lot of trial and error I have advanced rapidly and exhibited a couple of my pictures last summer for the first time and have got to the stage where I am now brave enough to hang them on my office wall.  It provides me with what a colleague recently described as ‘flow’ relaxation and an hours painting of an evening has done wonders at placing life in better focus.  In fact I would go as far as to say ‘a painting a week keeps the doctor away!’  My art is inspired by my love of landscapes – mountains, hills, ice, snow, the artic and mountaineering in general – the same things which inspires my science and for me the linkage is clear and my art is simply an extension of my love of imagination, ideas and innovation the life blood of good research.  I would be interested to hear what you make of the blog posts in the two links below as well.

 

http://geology.about.com/b/2012/11/23/geologists-should-expose-themselves-to-art.htm

http://blogs.plos.org/attheinterface/2012/11/22/why-scientists-should-care-about-art/

Buildings for Fusion?

News from the PVC

It is a while since I last posted mainly due to travel, a short trip to South Africa and then a week in Colombia promoting BU’s research and international agenda.  While to some the travel may seem interesting the schedule of meetings and travel logistics has been punishing.  But the reason for writing is not to excuse my lack of diligence with posting on the blog, but more to tell of an amazing building on the EAFIT campus in the city of Medellin.

Outside of the design engineering building at EAFIT

The exterior of this building is far from inspiring three floors of conventional offices sitting above five floors behind an open grill of vertical concrete pillars.  But the content of the five stories are inspired!  They consist of deck of concrete floors and mezzanines open in part to the outside expect for a green wall of vines and creepers between the concrete pillars!  The specification is basic, unlike the over specified buildings one finds at UK HEI’s, but beautifully elegant in design and function.  The floors house part of the Design Engineering School and embody the concept of Fusion, co-creation and put our plush living learning zones to shame!

Living and learning

Staff and students designed the building’s layout and did so around the concept of design function.  On the top floor, of the stack of five, there is a bare concrete level enclosed with glass, with staff offices (glass cubicles) and work stations for staff and students around and lecture theatres to the side.  All structures are modular with low movable white-wipe or glass partitions giving maximum flexibility and preventing expensive refit costs every time something changes.  This is where students co-create their design concepts with staff in a free and interactive environment with few formal barriers or obvious hierarchy.  This floor is also a true learning, living zone with X-Box play stations, TV’s, comfy sofas and refreshments to hand allowing students to rest and play between bouts of work and study.  The aim is to retain students on site and in the design environment.  In fact the provision of table tennis and pool tables, TV’s in most communal spaces was a feature of many of the Colombian Universities we visited, blending living and learning in one space.

Green Walls!

Co-creation in action

The floor or deck below is again enclosed by glass and is full of work stations and higher specification computers turning the designs from the floor above into realistic concepts.  The floor below contains materials testing laboratory and an amazing wall of sample materials – in fact a library of materials samples that students can examine and touch each with a web link to further information.  The floor below is full of robotics and electronics turning designs in to moving objects; students, academic staff, demonstrators and technicians use these spaces freely and together.  Below that on the ground floor is a floor of heavy machinery similar to that found in Tolpuddle House but laid out on one factory floor with staff offices – more flexible glass partitions – on a mezzanine floor above the shop floor.  The ground floor had no walls and is open to the outside, except for a growing wall of climbers; possible because of the climate and creating an elegant integration of indoor and outdoor space.

Material Wall at EAFIT

All the floors connect easily with one another and while the building specification is basic it is in keeping with the design environment and almost certainly much cheaper than the over specified HE buildings which are the norm in the UK.  For me however the inspiring bit is the co-habitation of a space by staff and students committed to the co-creation of innovative design and to the creation of new products at the core of the student experience.  An inspirational building demonstrating and living the principles we aspire to in BU2018 in the form of co-creation in a common and shared learning community within a functional, rather than flash space, with student’s at the core – the epitome of Fusion!

 

I was also extremely impressed by the Research Centre at Universidad de Antioquia.  A 50,000 metre square building housing all the Universities’ top research groups; only those highly rated in something akin to the REF are provided with space in this cross-disciplinary centre.  The space was completely modular with research groups inhabiting either one or two modules depending on their size.  Most of it was wet labs with postgraduate and staff offices in each module, although some modules contained just offices.  The beauty of a modular structure is that it allows groups to move without expensive refits and provides an equity of space for all groups.  While the modules are in themselves quite claustrophobic on each corner of the building where communal spaces – kitchens and meeting rooms used by all the research groups encouraging inter-disciplinary interaction and collaboration.  Again an inspiring use of space to encourage innovation and collaboration between research groups, built around an efficient and equitable use of space.  It set me thinking about what BU could do around the cross-disciplinary research themes and our need for more space for Postgraduate Research students.  It is worth noting that staff had offices and labs in the Research Centre, but were still grounded in their home Schools and Departments reflecting the fact that all researchers still had to teach and live the research-education duality.  It just struck me that such buildings were inspired ways of breaking down the cellular structure which sometimes inhibits our drive at BU toward collaborative and inter-disciplinary research.

Both these building are inspiring examples of how architecture can support and encourage inter-disciplinary research and in my view at least provides potential role models for BU future estate.

Second call to the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund

Funding opportunities

£80 million to develop research facilities across the UK will encourage collaboration and support excellent research.

Following on from the success of the first round of the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF), HEFCE is inviting proposals from UK universities for large-scale projects (minimum £10 million from UKRPIF) that can lever twice as much funding from private sources (businesses, charities, individual donations).

Proposals are to be submitted to HEFCE by 11 February 2013 and will be assessed by the UKRPIF panel in March. The successful projects will be announced in May 2013.

To read this item in full visit: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2012/name,76057,en.html

 The RKE Operations team can help you with your application. Please direct any enquiries to RKE Ops in the first instance.

Fusion Investment Fund – One week to get your applications in!

Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance

Please be aware of the upcoming deadline for submitting your application to the Fusion Investment Fund!

The upcoming round of funding has a deadline of 1st December – committees will then meet in January to decide which proposals get funding, with decisions going out to applicants in mid-January.

I will be posting specific details about some of the proposals throughout 2013, I hope these will be useful to help illustrate what the funds can be used for and why certain applications were successful in a particular strand.

We have already planned interventions to take place in the Spring leading up the next round of funding which has a 1st June deadline. Feel free to drop me an email about these.

To apply to fund please see the intranet pages here.

 

Good luck!

Sam Furr

FusionFund@bournemouth.ac.uk

Launch of our new Research Council Application Guidance webpages!

Guidance

We have recently launched a new section on the Blog that focuses specifically on providing guidance and information about writing applications to Research Councils – you can access the information here: Research Council Application Guidance. The pages contain information about the different sections required when writing a proposal to a Research Council, including guidance on writing: the impact sections, the data management plan, and the justification of resources documents. Where possible examples of good practice are also provided. We really hope this will be a useful resource 🙂

We aim to develop this into a comprehensive suite of information for academic colleagues writing proposals to Research Councils. If you have any feedback on the pages or if there is anything you’d like to see that isn’t there yet then please let us know so it can be added.

You can access the information from the Research Toolkit link in the top menu bar of the Blog (just beneath the picture of the books) or from this handy link – Research Council Application Guidance.

RCUK success rates published! Exciting news!

RCUK logoLast week the Research Councils published their success rates for the period April 2011 to March 2012. The key message seems to be that demand management measures are working; most Councils have seem a decline in the number of applications and a rise in success rates, despite a decrease in the amount of funding allocated.

Demand management, the term given to the steps taken by RCUK and the Research Councils to reduce the amount of applications they receive, now features in the plans of all of the Research Councils. This is because the Research Councils are receiving more applications that they are able to support and research institutions currently submit more applications than are likely to be funded. The costs of administering such large quantities of applications is a huge burden for the Research Councils and reduces the amount of money available to fund research. Large quantities of applications also place a heavy burden on the peer reviewers, thus increasing the risk that the quality of decision-making could be compromised. RCUK note that “there are some proposals submitted which have little or no chance of success” and that steps should be taken at both applicant and institution level to pre-sift these proposals prior to submission, therefore reducing the volume of applications submitted to Research Councils.

Read more about the demand management measures that the Research Councils have put in place here: Demand Management

The table on the right shows the success rates over the past three years for the four main Research Councils to which BU makes applications – AHRC, EPSRC, ESRC and NERC. For all Councils, bar the ESRC, the success rate has increased year on year although it is worth noting that the ESRC claim that since they started requiring institutions to sift applications prior to submission (June 2011) it has recorded an overall success rate of 24%. We will have to wait until the 2012-13 success rates are published to see if this trend follows through into the statistics for the year, but the early signs are promising.

In 2010-11 BU’s success rate with Research Councils was 0%, despite 16 applications being submitted. This year we have submitted less applications (10) and our success rate has increased to 10% – which is excellent news! The successful application was written with advice and guidance from Dr Martin Pickard who facilitates our Grants Academy workshops. Whilst there are many reasons why grants are awarded this is a good sign that the advice given during these workshops and on individual proposals is beneficial and can help make your proposal a success. BU has had more grants awarded from the Research Councils over the past year, however the stats only show against the lead institution so successful bids where BU is the collaborating institution are not shown against BU in the data.

The key message here is to spend time writing and refining fewer applications, making use of the support available (such as the internal peer review and the Grants Academy), and making sure your applications are of as high a quality as possible prior to submission.

BU is especially keen to reduce the number of bids submitted to Research Councils whilst significantly increasing the quality of those which are submitted. BU initiatives, such as the internal peer review scheme (RPRS) and the Grants Academy, have been specifically established to support academics to design, write and structure competitive, fundable research proposals and to maximise their chances of being awarded funding. It is excellent to see that these initiatives are so popular amongst academic colleagues and I would encourage you to make use of the support available.

Read more about the 2011-12 success rates on the Times Higher website: Limit on demand lifts grant award success rates and Hard line pays dividends (but not hard cash

 

PGR Development Scheme – Round 2 Applications for Funding now open!

PG research

The Graduate School is pleased to announce that applications are now invited for Round 2 of the competition.

PGRs eligible to apply must submit an application form (below)  to the Graduate School by:

  • 28 February 2013 – for activity taking place between March 2013 and July 2013 (and exceptionally up to and including September 2013)

PGRs awarded funding under Round 1 will not be eligible to apply for further funding in Round 2.

The PGR Development Scheme is open to BU postgraduate researchers (PGRs) irrespective of the mode of study (full-time/part-time) or funding status (BU studentships/externally funded/self funded).

Individual awards will provide financial support of normally up to £2,000 (and exceptionally £5,000) for research activities related to an individual PGR’s research project or personal development.  It is envisaged that this year approximately 15 awards will be made.

Examples of research activities covered by the Scheme include:

  • Research Activities
    • Conference attendance
    • Additional fieldwork
    • Other activities required to advance research e.g. visiting major libraries, museums, other research institutions (UK, EU or International)
    • Preparation of specialist material or data
    • In exceptional circumstances, research consumables and equipment (providing it is clear these would not normally be purchased by the School as part of the research degree)
  • Developmental Activities
    • Research development e.g. attending external training events specific to research activity
    • Personal development e.g. attending external personal development training events
  • Networking
    • Organisation of an academic conference at BU with external participants
    • Attendance at external networking events leading to advance of the research
    • Publications or dissemination of research

You should also map the proposed activity onto the relevant sub-domains of the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF):

Knowledge & Intellectual Abilities A1 – Knowledge base A2 – Cognitive abilities A3 – Creativity
Personal Effectiveness B1 – Personal qualities B2 – Self-management B3 – Professional & career development
Research Governance C1 – Professional conduct C2 – Research management C3 – Finance, funding & resources
Engagement, Influence & Impact D1 – Working with others D2 – Communication & dissemination D3 – Engagement & impact

 Awards will only cover direct costs including travel, subsistence, training or development costs and all applications will need to include a precise breakdown of costs.  Applications should be supported by the Supervisory Team and the relevant Deputy Dean (Research & Enterprise) of the relevant Academic School.

PGRs wishing to apply must submit a completed GS PGR Development Fund Scheme – Application Form to the Graduate School (graduateschool@bournemouth.ac.uk) by Thursday 28th February 2013

Applications to the Scheme will be reviewed independently and all decisions on funding will be made by the Graduate School.

For further information please read the GS Researcher Scholarships Scheme – Policy (2)

British Academy session – slides now available

Funding opportunities

The British Academy visit, led by Ken Emond (Head of Research Awards) and Kate Kenyon (International Officer) gave a comprehensive overview of the work of the British Academy, the funding schemes they offer.

The slides are available here:

British Academy – November 2012 visit – slides

As part of the presentation, Ken Emond gave some insights into what applicants need to think about when they are writing a proposal.  Please bear his advice in mind when writing your proposal!

  • Is the project feasible? (both in terms of methodology and time-frame)
  • Is the project defined, specific, focused and clearly expressed?  (applications will be assessed by non-experts in the field, so keep jargon and unexplained terms to an absolute minimum)
  • Is there a defined outcome? (ie:  what will you be producing at the end of your research:  publication, database etc).

 

Interested in applying for British Academy funding?

If you are interested in applying to the British Academy (or to any other research funder), please contact me, and I will put you in touch with the range of support that is available to you.  You will also need to contact the RKEO operations team, as they will be working with you on costing your project.

 

 

 

SDRC Seminar Series # 1 – ‘Tribological Aspects and Applications of Metal Matrix Composites’

Please consider attending the second research seminar of the Sustainable Design Research Centre Seminar Series entitled ‘Tribological Aspects and Applications of Metal Matrix Composites’ and delivered by Prof. Chinnakurli S. Ramesh from the PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore, to be held  today at 4pm in P335. Attendance is free and all are very welcome to attend!

 

Prof. Chinnakurli S. Ramesh

Prof. Chinnakurli S. Ramesh received his PhD in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and also holds a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently working as a Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore. His main interests are in the processing and characterization of metal matrix composites, nanotechnology and their tribological applications, and the finite element analysis of bio-implants.

Professor Ramesh has also successfully completed several Govt. agencies funded projects, published over 50 journal and 75 conference papers, and has successfully supervised several PhDs projects. He is on the review panel of many leading International Journals  and is a recipient of the prestigious Prof. Satish Dhawan Award for the outstanding Contributions in Engineering Sciences, Awarded by the Govt. of Karnataka. He is also the recipient of Sudharshan Bhat Award from IIT Madras for the best PhD thesis.

 

Sustainable Design Research Centre (SDRC)

The Sustainable Design Research Centre coordinates research into sustainability related subjects within the school of Design, Engineering and Computing and this seminar series is intended to highlight some of this ongoing research at Bournemouth University and to showcase the related research of guest speakers and visiting lecturers.

Code of Ethical Fundraising & Donors’ Charter

Guidance

A new university-wide policy has been implemented; the Code of Ethical Fundraising & Donors’ Charter.

All staff who have any involvement in fundraising, dealing with corporate sponsors, negotiating with suppliers and other organisations, and managing relationships with external organisations should be aware of and adhere to this procedure.

To spread the word to staff about the Code the Alumni and Development Office will be holding four coffee mornings in December, open to all staff. These will include a short presentation from Claire House-Norman, Director of Development and Alumni Relations (as well as cake!) and staff will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the Code further with Claire and her team.

The coffee mornings will be held from 10.30am-11.30am on:

  • 3rd December, 21 Lansdowne Rd
  • 4th December, The Retreat, Talbot Campus
  • 5th December, 21 Lansdowne Rd
  • 6th December, The Retreat, Talbot Campus

If you would like to attend please register using the form at: https://bournemouthuniversity.wufoo.com/forms/k7p8r5/

The policy can be found the Policies and Procedures Section of the BU Intranet.

If you have any queries about the policy please contact Claire House-Norman or for queries about the events please contact Tom Galpin.

BU FIF SUCCESS AND ACTIVITIES

BU visiting professor Chinnakurli Ramesh has been visiting Sustainable Design Research Centre within the School of Design, Engineering & Computing from 5th November ‘til 8th December 2012. His visit is funded by the BU FIF initiative awarded to Dr Zulfiqar Khan.  Prof Ramesh is a senior academic at PES IT Bangalore. His research interests are Surface Engineering, Tribology and Nanotechnology.

He has been actively involved in collaborative academic activities with the School. He is participating in level C & H Design Engineering education through Design Methods & Projects and Advanced Technology & Innovation units.

BU (Zulfiqar Khan, Mark Hadfield) and PES IT (Prof. Ramesh) and Visvesvaraya Technological University (Prof. Kori & Prof. Rangappa) have jointly submitted an EPSRC – DST  research funding application in collaboration with industrial partners such as Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited & Ingersoll Rand and  research partners Gas Turbine Research & Establishment  &  National Aerospace Laboratories  from India.

Prof. Ramesh and Dr. Zulfiqar Khan have jointly contributed seven papers to International Conferences in STLE 2012, the upcoming STLE 2013, recently concluded AMPT-2012, and Contact and Surface 2013 in the area of coatings, tribology and material processing. Prof. Ramesh & Dr. Khan are participating in joint journal publication as well.

Prof. Ramesh had useful meetings with the School Execs including Prof. Jim Roach, DDRE&I Prof. Mark Hadfield, DDE Dr. Xavier Velay and AD Dr. Tania Humphries-Smith in terms of furthering the existing collaboration in education, research and professional practice.

Mobile eye-tracking in freely moving participants

In July, Dr. Julie Kirkby and Dr. Jan Wiener were awarded a small grant from the Research Development Fund entitled: Mobile eye-tracking in freely moving participants. The aims of the project were (i.) to develop an in-depth understanding of the potential of the state-of-the-art mobile eye-tracker system that the Psychology Group purchased earlier in the year; (ii) to develop new experimental paradigms to use alongside mobile eye-tracking; (iii) to collect first data that will be published in international peer reviewed journals and that is essential for preparing future research proposals; (iv) to establish Psychology Group’s expertise in the emerging field of mobile eye-tracking.

In order to achieve these goals two mobile eye-tracking scenarios was used:

Working memory in the classroom: Poor working memory skills are relatively common in childhood and have a substantial impact on children’s learning. We have developed a novel experimental paradigm combining the mobile eye-tracker with a large field of view virtual reality setup to test the impact of working memory skills on viewing and search behaviour. We have tested a group of young adults at BU and then moved the setup to Avonbourne School in Bournemouth to test a group of school students.

 

Wayfinding: In a pilot study in Poole hospital, people’s gaze behaviour was recorded while they were asked tofind their way through this complex real-world settings. This was the first experiment in which the mobile eye-tracker was used in an actual navigation experiment. The experience and expertise gained through this work has been crucial to develop follow up studies that are currently been carried out in Poole hospital.

 

The small grant allowed us:-

  • … to establish novel experimental paradigms with mobile eye-tracking
  • … to record first data using mobile eye-tracking. In order to publish results from the experiments carried out in this project, we are currently completing the data sets
  • … to develop in-depth knowledge about the mobile eye-tracker which has helped us to develop further mobile eye-tracking projects, for example in Poole hospital
  • … to establish close contact with Avonbourne School in Bournemouth. This contact is now also used for other projects.
  • … to establish a close and ongoing collaboration between JK and JW.
  • … to establish a formal collaboration between the Centre for Visual Cognition at Southampton University and the Psychology Research Group at BU

For further information, please contact Dr. Julie Kirkby or Dr. Jan Wiener in the Psychology Research Group.