Category / REF Subjects

CIPPM Spring Lecture Series 2013

The annual series of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management’s (CIPPM) http://www.cippm.org.uk/ Spring Lectures starts on Thursday 21 February 2013 at 6 pm.

Professor Hector MacQueen, Professor of Private Law at the University of Edinburgh will deliver the first lecture, titled “Ae fond kiss: A Private Matter?” on Thursday 21 February 2013.

Professor MacQueen has written extensively on Intellectual Property law and is author, co-author and editor of a number of books on Intellectual Property law. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Edinburgh (1999-2003) and Director of the AHRC Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law (SCRIPT) (2002-2007). In 2010 Professor MacQueen took up an appointment as Scottish Law Commissioner (2010-2014).

CIPPM Spring Lectures take place at 18:00, in the Executive Business Centre, close to the Bournemouth Travel Interchange (89 Holdenhurst Road, BH8 8EB). The lectures are free to attend, but places are limited, and admission to the building closes at 18:15. If you wish to reserve a place, please contact Mandy Lenihan at ALenihan@bournemouth.ac.uk

For further information on forthcoming CIPPM Spring Lectures and for booking information see http://business.bournemouth.ac.uk/news/2013/jan/ne001-cippm-lectures-2013.html

RDU Small Grant Fund Winner- Update

In November 2011 I (Joanne Mayoh) was the recipient of one of the first BU Research Development Fund (RDF) Small Grant Scheme prizes. This award gave me the opportunity to travel to Champaign (Illinois) in May 2012 to present a paper at the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. The budget covered my travel to Illinois, hotel accommodation, conference fees for the five day event, and sustenance costs during this time. As an early career researcher, who has only started publishing within the last few years, this was an excellent chance for me to receive support to present internationally, and engage in essential networking and profile building.

In addition to the conference paper, this opportunity resulted in targeting networking with a number of influential methodologists, and the submission of two journal articles, and a further (accepted) conference abstract in collaboration with a newly formed contact. This new associate is one of the most experienced mixed methodologists currently publishing within my target journals, and is therefore an invaluable connection for at this stage in my career.

The process of applying for RDF funding was extremely simple and one that I would recommend my colleagues engaging with if they have any need for a small grant. I would definitely apply to this fund in the future to support conference attendance, research support or general networking.  Overall it was a wonderful experience, and I am very grateful for the support from BU and the Research Development Unit.

Ant Colony Optimization for Dynamic Optimization Problems

This interesting talk will take place next Wednesday the 5th of December, 16:00-17:00 at P302.
Our external guest is Dr Michalis Mavrovouniotis from the University of Leicester, an specialists in evolutionary algorithms, ant colony optimization, memetic computation and dynamic optimization.

Dr Mavrovouniotis will discuss very recent advances in nature-inspired computational intelligence. These ideas have also relevant implications for optimization problems, knowledge transfer and meta-learning; thus I think may be of great interest of many students, PhD candidates and senior researchers of the three centres in our school.
Abstract: In the last decade, there is a growing interest to apply nature-inspired metaheuristics in optimization problems with dynamic environments. Usually, dynamic optimization problems (DOPs) are addressed using evolutionary algorithms. Recently, ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms proved that they are also good methods to address DOPs.

However, conventional ACO algorithms have difficulty in addressing DOPs. This is because once the algorithm converges to a solution and a dynamic change occurs, it is difficult for the population to adapt to a new environment since high levels of pheromone will be generated to a single trail and force the ants to follow it even after a dynamic change. A good solution to address this problem is to increase the diversity of solutions via transferring knowledge from previous environments to the pheromone trails of the new environment.

Best wishes, Emili

Emili Balaguer-Ballester, PhD

School of Engineering & Computing, Bournemouth University

Center for Computational Neuroscience, University of Heidelberg

Sustainable Design Research Centre Research Seminar # 2

Date: 10/12/2012

Time: 15:30 (usually 40 minutes presentation followed by 20 informal discussions)

Venue: Coyne Lecture Theatre

 Topic: Water and Sediment Flow Simulations through Reservoirs and Tunnels

Abstract:

Tarbela dam is one of the largest earth filled dams in the world. It is used for water storage and electric power generation. It comprises of six tunnels, three of which are used for power generation and three for irrigation purposes. Sediments inflow in Tarbela reservoir has resulted in reduction in water storage capacity and damage to the tunnels and plant equipment. It is also the backbone of Pakistan (water, food and energy). In this presentation, results of numerical simulations carried out for the very first time to study sediment and cavitation erosion rate through reservoir and tunnels for different seasons (summer, winter and average), for different outflow combinations and sediment delta movement in the reservoir. In addition, studies regarding velocity and pressure profiles vary with and without sediments. Sediment and cavitation erosion with one way and two way coupling at all heads, for different turbulence models (K-ε and RSM) and injection techniques with two way coupling are carried out. More results will be in the presentation.

The above seminar will be delivered by Professor M. Abid who is visiting the School of Design, Engineering & Computing at BU on Monday 10th and Tuesday 11th December. His visit to BU is externally funded by the British Council Knowledge Exchange Grants for International Strategic Partnerships in Research and Education. Prof. M. Abid received his PhD degree from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and presently working as Dean Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, GIK Institute, Pakistan. His research interests are in the areas of Renewable Energy Systems, Structural Mechanics, Welding Mechanics and Computational Fluid Dynamics. During his two day visit he will be meeting several staff to identify opportunities of research collaborations and exchanges, staff/students mobility in education related activities and will be participating in teaching activities within the Design & Engineering Framework at Level C, I and H.

Dr Andrew Mayers’ research on children’s sleep receives excellent media coverage

Throughout November, the work that Dr Andrew Mayers (a Senior Lecturer in Psychology, in the school of Design, Engineering and Computing) has been doing with children’s sleep has been receiving a great deal of attention on national television and on national and local radio. Over the last few years, Andrew has been running a series of sleep workshops with parents, in a unique partnership with Winton Primary School and Barnardo’s Bournemouth Children’s Centres. Over that time, there have been several reports in the local press about the work, but it is only in the last six months that this has received national attention, starting in July with articles in the Times Educational Supplement (TES: http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6264998) and Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2180003/Parents-offered-child-sleep-classes-pupils-turn-lessons-tired.html) and a live interview with Talk Radio Europe (http://www.talkradioeurope.com/clients/amayers.mp3). However, it is this last month that the attention has become more intense, with two features on national television and four live interviews on BBC radio (including one session at 12.30am!).

ITV Daybreak, November 1st: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd_OaMieSks

BBC Radio 5 Live, Drive show, November 16th http://www.andrewmayers.info/Radio5Nov162012.mp3

BBC Radio 5 Live, Tony Livesey late night show, November 21st http://www.andrewmayers.info/Radio5Nov212012.mp3

BBC1 Breakfast/BBC News Channel, November 21st http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20423289

BBC Radio Sheffield, November 21st http://www.andrewmayers.info/RadioSheffieldNov212012.mp3

BBC Radio Solent, November 21st http://www.andrewmayers.info/RadioSolentNov212012.mp3

Andrew has been reflecting on these experiences. He said “I am extremely grateful for the incredibly hard work put in to these workshops by Pat Bate at Winton Primary School and Patrick Ives at Barnardo’s – without them this would not have happened. It is also testimony to the effectiveness of a good personal web page. Much of the initial media attention came about because a journalist was conducting research online about children’s sleep, and found my web page. The rest is history!”

Andrew’s website can be found at: www.andrewmayers.info

Andrew also said “Once a website like this is established, it is important to keep it updated, especially when there is a chance of media attention. A few days after the BBC features, I noticed that visits to my website increased six-fold in the first day, and is still well above normal levels of traffic. As a result of the media attention and increased web site visits, I have established several potentially very lucrative new partnerships with leading academics in the field, some with a very high profile media presence. I also received support and requests for collaboration with several educational psychologists and other professionals across the UK”.

Working with the European Media Management Association

At the recent BU EU Funding day, I was asked if I would write a short blog post reflecting on my first 6 months working as the Deputy President of the European Media Management Association (EMMA). So here it is!

My first observation is that over the past few years BU has become more aware of the need to become more externally focussed and integrated into a range of high quality networks. As far as my field of Media Management is concerned, EMMA provides a great platform. It also provides an excellent network to develop a range of collaborative activities at institutional and individual level, and to gain different cultural perspectives on the subject domain.  

Being active in such an organisation requires commitment, but the rewards have been excellent in terms of working with European Board members, getting access to a new network and the ‘local’ knowledge that each person brings to the table. BU also bid for and won the right to host the EMMA Annual Conference, which has traditionally been held in major European or capital cities. Being a part of a European association has now moved the conversation from “where is Bournemouth…is it near London?” to “we’re looking forward to working with BU”. From my perspective that’s a quantum leap in our profile!

BU now has an EU Network Fund and I’d encourage you to use this as a springboard to engage with a range of European stakeholders.

My term as Deputy President has another 18 months to run and I’m looking forward to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead!

Engaging students: The Research Apprenticeship Summer Scheme in the Psychology Research Centre

In the last round of applications to the Fusion Investment Fund Dr Ben Parris, Dr Sarah Bate and Professor Sine McDougall from the Psychology Research Centre applied for, and were awarded, funds to pay for five summer placement positions that enabled our most promising students to gain a greater insight into life as researchers on a full-time basis. For a period of 9 weeks the students became part of one of the research laboratories in Psychology.  The students were responsible for experiment preparation, data collection, and data preparation and joined in lab discussions. Three RA positions were open calls; two were allied to REF impact case studies. All 2nd year students were invited to apply for the positions. Linking in with the employability strand on the undergraduate course the students were asked to provide an up-to-date CV and a 500-word summary on how the summer placement scheme would benefit them in their future career. The five selected candidates were housed in P106, which was converted into dedicated office space where the RAs could base themselves over the summer period and interact with each other and with postgraduate students and members of staff.

The scheme had a large impact on research. The five students on the scheme contributed to literature reviews, data collection, experiment programming and lab discussions for several members of staff in the Psychology Research Centre. Whilst they were each allied to a particular member of staff, others in the Centre sought their help when there was a bit of down time on the main project on which they were working. Whilst it is too early to list research outputs that have benefitted from this scheme, clearly the data collected, the literature reviewed, and the experiments programmed have all contributed towards the research goals of members of the Psychology Research Centre. Overall, data from over 200 participants were collected at a time when it is particularly difficult to recruit and test participants. Moreover, given that the scheme represents effective training for those seeking a career in academia, the full-time positions gave students the opportunity to engage in professional practice. Furthermore, by allying two positions with impact case studies the scheme involved their engagement with bodies external to the university (e.g. Poole Hospital).

Feedback from the students themselves provides useful insight into the utility of the scheme to them. All students reported great satisfaction with the scheme, having learned how to conduct a piece of research properly. They report having learned useful technical skills that they can apply to their final year projects. Most importantly they report direct benefits for their final year of study. Not only have they used their time wisely in thinking about the project which forms a large part of their final year (and degree as a whole) but the students reported that one of the biggest benefits was improvements in article reading skills.  Two of the students commented how extra reading for lectures now seems a lot easier; they can now read and extract important information in half the time.  This has enabled them to explore a much broader range of papers, which has increased their understanding of Psychology.  One student wrote ‘My general understanding of Psychology has been greatly improved, igniting a much stronger passion for the subject than I have ever felt before and the impact that this has had on my University work is extremely valuable to me’. Another wrote ‘Since starting back in term one, I have found that reading journal articles has become an easier process for me. I am now able to look at any article from any topic area and understand more fully what I’m reading, and where to go to find the information that is relevant for the task at hand’. As a final example, one of this year’s RAs wrote ‘The opportunity to continue to study, conduct research and become more familiar with programs such as SPSS throughout the summer means that the return to the final year is considerably less daunting and I feel more confident about designing and conducting my own study’.

A final important consequence of this scheme neatly highlights one of the benefits of fusion.  Admittedly an unintended consequence of the scheme, engaging potential researchers of the future had the consequence of making researchers of the present feeling somewhat trapped in the past. One of the apprentices took it upon himself to introduce us to the potential of Twitter and Facebook for participant recruitment. This has now been incorporated into our participant recruitment strategy. The Facebook site attracted 80 ‘likes’ within a few days (I believe that number is now much higher) and has since been used to recruit participants.  This will increase the efficiency with which all members of the Psychology Research Centre complete research. In short, the masters became the apprentices.

Preparation commences for the BU REF Final Mock in Spring 2013.

blog.onlineclock.net

With almost a year to go before the submission deadline of 29 November 2013 for REF2014, lots of ‘behind the scene preparations’ is currently underway. This  includes the  launch of the BU REF Final Mock Exercise for Spring 2013. This follows on from our previous Summer 2012 mock exercise which primarily focused on outputs. This final mock REF exercise will be a complete dry run, giving a realistic and authentic feel for the actual REF2014 submission. This latest exercise will be the fifth and the final in a series of different preparation exercises that have been held at BU ahead of the REF2014 submission deadline.

As in the Summer 2012 mock exercise, this final mock will be open to all academic staff. However, unlike all previous mock exercises, BRIAN will play the centre role in this final mock. All outputs will be nominated by staff on BRIAN, to be submitted to external reviewers. An official guidance on making your nominated research output selection on BRIAN has been produced. If you are unable to access the guidance attached to this blog post, please talk to your UOA leaders who will be able to help you. Although the deadline for nomination is not until 15 February 2013, now would be a good time to start thinking about which outputs you’re likely to put forward, and to prepare justification statements where applicable. Although REF2014 requires a maximum of four outputs, we’re giving you the opportunity to get feedback from the reviewers on up to six outputs, so make the most of this chance to really shape your outputs submission.

If you need any more information about the REF, have a look at all the previous blog posts that we’ve included here, or visit the REF website. Alternatively, you can contact myself or Julie Northam in the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development and Operations Team, or leave a comment below.

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

 

 

 

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.

Qualitative Research in Sport and Physical Activity

A new research methods textbook in sport and physical activity, authored by three academics at Bournemouth University, is published this month. Published by Sage, “Qualitative Research in Sport and Physical Activity” has been written by Ian Jones, Lorraine Brown and Immy Holloway. The text builds on growing interest in qualitative methods within the discipline, and uses a growing body of literature based on qualitative research in Sport and Physical Activity . This is the second sport-related research methods textbook to emerge from Bournemouth University, following Research Methods for Sport Studies, also co-authored by Ian Jones. Published by Routledge, that text recently sold its 20,000th copy worldwide.

Designed especially for students in sport and physical activity, this book provides a detailed guide to planning, undertaking, and writing up qualitative research. Opening with a discussion of the main traits of qualitative inquiry and its use in Sport and Physical Activity, the text provides an accessible overview of qualitative research, using numerous examples to bring the text alive. The book is designed to be essential reading for undergraduate and Masters students carrying out a qualitative research project in sport and physical activity and for PhD students looking to refresh their knowledge.

Latest BU REF Highlight Report now available

The latest BU REF Highlight Report (#13) is now available for BU staff to download. It covers the period from August to October 2012.

Features in this report include information about:

  • The Review Panel Meeting cycle for the Summer Mock 2012 and the feedback from it;
  • The dissemination of the BU REF Code of Practice, the BU REF FAQs and BU staff circumstances disclosure form, which is also closely linked to the staff circumstances disclosure exercise with an initial deadline of the 31 October 2012
  • The development of BRIAN in line with testing the REF Submission Pilot System;
  • Links to the latest official REF documents.                                                                                                                                                                                      

You can access your copy of the report from the following location on the I-drive (just copy and paste the following into Windows Explorer): I:\R&KEO\Public\RDU\REF\REF preparations\REF highlight reports

New wave of PhD students in the Psychology Research Centre

The postgraduate research community in Psychology has been growing over recent years in line with our expansion of staff and undergraduate students. We now have 17 PhD students in the research centre as we recently welcomed seven new students. We are pleased that our new PhD students have all received either studentships or scholarships to fund their work. These new research projects represent the disciplines of the psychology of health, cognition, and education, and highlight the varied application of psychology to advance both science and issues encountered in everyday life. We are really pleased to have these students join us and add to the research going on in Psychology. We have listed the students and their research interests below in case other members of staff have interests in common. If you do, and would like to find out more, please do contact the students or their supervisors.

 

 

Student Supervisors Funding Title
Natalia Adamczewska Dr Samuel Nyman

Prof Jonathan Parker (HSC)

Prof Peter Coleman (University of Southampton)

 

BU Vice-Chancellor fee-waive scholarship Psychological adjustment to accidental falls.
Anna Bobak Dr Sarah Bate

Dr Ben Parris

BU fully-funded studentship Face facts: Why face processing skills should be improved in forensic and national security settings. 
Simon Ferneyhough Dr Jane Elsley

Dr Andy Johnson

BU fully-funded studentship How does our ability to integrate objects and events change as we age?  
Abbey Laishley  Dr Julie Kirkby

Prof Simon Liversedge

(UniversityofSouthampton)

 

BU fully-funded studentship Quantifying the role of working memory in efficient classroom performance 
Jessica Miller Dr Jan Wiener

Prof Siné McDougall

 

BU Vice-Chancellor fee-waive scholarship & funding from Army of Angels PTSD and Navigation.
Sophie Nicholls Dr Sarah Bate

Dr Ben Parris

BU Vice-Chancellor fee-waive scholarship Effects of Stochastic Sub-sensory Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation on Speed and Accuracy of Face Recognition: An Application to National Security and Forensic Settings. 
Michele Salvagno A/Prof Jacqui Taylor

Dr Milena Bobeva (BS)

Dr Maggie Hutchings (HSC)

BU fully-funded studentship (online education) The Highs and Lows of Ubiquitous Mobile Connectivity: towards a model for pedagogical delivery that supports the well-being of learners 

 

Make this month, your Royal Society month!

To celebrate the ‘Open Access Week’, the Royal Society Publishing content will be free for all to access until the 29th November 2012!!

So if there is an article you have been meaning to read, now is the time to read it; if you have recently published an article in a Royal Society journal, now is the time to share that research with your peers.

The Royal Society is a Fellowship of the world’s most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. Apart from promoting science and its benefits, recognising excellence in science and supporting outstanding science, their other priorities include providing scientific advice for policy, fostering international and global cooperation and education and public engagement, clearly spanning their collective scope wider than just science.

The Royal Society publishes nine journals covering the broad spectrum of the life sciences, physical sciences and cross-disciplinary sciences. These journals have great impact and are becoming increasingly powerful within the sector.

So make full use of this month and get as much as you can by visiting these journals.

1. Open Biology

2. Biology Letters

3. Journal of the Royal Society Interface

4. Interface Focus

5. Notes and Records

6. Proceedings A

7. Proceedings B

8. Philosophical Transactions A

9. Philosophical Transactions B