BU Research Blog

June 21, 2018

Festival of Learning Nepal & India focus

Festival of Learning, international, Public engagement Edwin van Teijlingen

Last Saturday Festival of Learning highlighted BU’s research in the fields of health and migration in South Asia. BU Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) presented selected studies with Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Create lecture theatre. Their work covers some of the recent research conducted in Nepal by staff from the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences. They highlighted two very interesting, but different, projects in particular.

The first one relates to Nepali migrant workers, since some 3.5 million Nepalese (14% of total population) are working abroad; primarily in Malaysia, the Middle East and India. One recent project is focusing on Nepali migrant workers in India. Working abroad is considered a livelihood strategy for many poor people and most Nepalese migrants are involved in semi/unskilled labour, mainly on building sites, in factories, and in domestic work.

The second project focuses on the health and social issue of transgender and the use of hormones. To date there is little literature on hormone use experiences in transgender populations in Nepal, focusing on a study of male-to-female transgender (MTF) populations and the experiences of people using hormone therapy (oral or injection or other replacement therapies).

June 13, 2018

Would you like to know how AI works? Want to see it in practice and learn about the legal implications? Do join us at our Festival of Learning Event

Festival of Learning, Fusion themes, innovation, Public engagement, REF Subjects cippm

Date: Monday 18^th June 2018

Time: 6-8 pm

Venue: Fusion Building (F109)

Can an Artificial Intelligence (AI) bot ‘create’ a new work or invention, with the human creator, simply being a facilitator? If so, who owns the creative work or invention? As we move to the next stage of computing and AI, it raises a number of challenges in relation to intellectual property, data, privacy and ethics. Enter the world of robots, conversational human-computer interaction and AI with us.

We will be using devices such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home and AI based gaming and computer vision, powered by Twitter chatbots, to explore these important questions for the future, through interactive activities.

The event will be hosted by Professor Dinusha Mendis, Professor of Intellectual Property & Innovation Law and Co-Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property, Policy and Management (CIPPM) together with Mr. Nikolaos Maniatis, Managing Director of Catobot Ltd.

Do come and join us; the event promises to be exciting for technology, intellectual property and big data enthusiasts!

June 13, 2018

Demystifying Research – BUCRU Festival of Learning Event

Festival of Learning, Public engagement Louise Ward

Demystifying Research – helping us make a difference

Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit are running an interactive session to help de-mystify the idea of clinical research and illustrate how the public can get involved. It’s not all lab coats and scary machinery!

Come and join us on Monday 18th June 16.00-17.30 as part of BU’s Festival of Learning event and find out a bit more about the research process in a fun & friendly way. Book here

BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) are based on the 5th floor of Royal London House. Feel free to pop in and see us, call us on 61939 or send us an email.

June 12, 2018

Health & migration research in Nepal & India #BUFoL18

Festival of Learning, international, PG research, Public engagement Edwin van Teijlingen

Festival of Learning event 2018 with an international flavour: exploring recent research projects undertaken in Nepal by staff from the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences. The event focuses on Nepali migrant workers in India, women and migration and explores the health and social issues of transgender and the use of hormone therapy in male-to-female transitioning populations in Nepal.

Fusion Building: Create Lecture Theatre, Bournemouth University on Saturday 16 June 2018 from 5.00-6.00PM

Free tickets can be found here!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, Dr Pramod Regmi & Prof Padam Simkhada (BU Visiting Faculty)

June 10, 2018

Let’s Talk Tax!

Festival of Learning, Fusion palexander

Ever puzzled over tax? Wondered about the politics or personal impact of international tax news? This session with BU researchers, students and the Chartered Institute of Taxation will give you a greater understanding and appreciation for tax and help you become more tax-savvy.

During this session, we have five star students presenting 5-minute ‘tax’ talks:

Martinas Prazauskas on the tax avoidance of Apple, Google and Amazon
Timothy Buck on tax arbitrage
Sesil Bou on thin capitalisation
Clémentine Saulnier on non-discrimination in the EU
Lucy Butler on the Robin Hood tax

Taking second billing in this session are BU’s tax academics: Dr Phyllis Alexander, Dr Alan Kirkpatrick and Richard Teather. We will be joined by Mr Andy Brodrick of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT), the organisation funding Dr Alexander’s research on tax morale.

There will be at least 15 minutes reserved for Q&A and an open discussion with this diverse panel on anything and everything to do with tax. This will be a fast paced, interesting hour in which BU’s Fusion philosophy comes to light!

Please do join us and book your free tickets here.

February 18, 2018

Sociology graduate published this month

BRIAN, Festival of Learning, international, open access, Publishing, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Just before the start of Bournemouth University’s Global Festival of Learning India (12-16 February) the Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences published Michelle Vickery’s paper ‘Female infanticide in India and its relevance to Nepal’ [1]. This article developed out of Michelle’s undergraduate Sociology thesis which she completed as part of her undergraduate degree in 2016. The Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences is an Open Access journal which means its content is freely available to any reader with internet access across the globe.

Over the last few years Bournemouth University academic have published papers on a range of topics related to India, for example on Media Studies [2-3], English literature [4] , Sociology [5], Public Health [6] , and environmental science and conservation [7-9].

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

References:

Vickery, M., van Teijlingen, E., (2017) Female infanticide in India and its relevance to Nepal.Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (JMMIHS) 3(1): 79-85.
Sudbury, S. (2016) Locating a “third voice”: participatory filmmaking and the everyday in rural India. Journal of Media Practice, 17 (2-3): 213-231.
Sudbury, S., 2017. Glocalizing the ‘other’: British factual television and documentary practices in global media cultures. In: Srinivas, M., ed. Glocalization: Media Beyond Borders. Mumbai, India: Department of Mass Media, Kishinchand Chellaram College.
Goodman, S. (2018) ‘Ain’t it a Ripping Night’: Alcoholism and the Legacies of Empire in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. English Studies, (forthcoming).
Sahay, G., Devkota, B., van Teijlingen, E.R. (2016) Rebel Health Services in South Asia: Comparing Maoist-led Conflicts in India & Nepal, Sociological Bulletin 65(1):19-39.
Sathian, B. , De, A. ,van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. , Banerjee, I. , Roy, B. , Supram, H. , Devkota, S. , E, R. (2015). Time Trend of the Suicide Incidence in India: a Statistical Modelling. American Journal of Public Health Research, 3(5A), 80-87. http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajphr/3/5A/17/index.html
Bower, S. D., Danylchuk, A. J., Raghavan, R., Danylchuk, S. C., Pinder, A. C., Alter, A. M., Cooke, S. J. (2017) Involving recreational fisheries stakeholders in development of research and conservation priorities for mahseer (Tor spp.) of India through collaborative workshops. Fisheries Research, 186, 665-671.
Bower S.D., Danylchuk A.J., Raghavan R., Clark-Danylchuck S.E., Pinder A.C., Cooke S.J. (2016) Rapid assessment of the physiological impacts caused by catch-and-release angling on blue-finned mahseer (Tor sp.) of the Cauvery River, India. Fisheries Management and Ecology DOI: 10.1111/fme.12135
Pinder, A.C., Raghavan, R., Britton, J.R. (2015) Efficacy of angler catch data as a population and conservation monitoring tool for the flagship Mahseer fishes (Tor spp.) of Southern India. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, DOI: 10.1002/aqc.2543

November 9, 2017

Nuffield Celebration Event at BU

Coffee Morning, Festival of Learning Francesco Ferraro

The Nuffield Research Placement (NRP) provides students each year with the opportunity to work alongside professional scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians.
It aims to enable students to experience authentic research in a real scientific environment and is available across the UK, in universities, commercial companies, voluntary organisations and research institutions.

NRP is now celebrating its 20 years and last Wednesday at the Fusion Building, the students who took part in the placement, presented their posters.

As in the past year, also this year under the supervision Alison McConnell, James Gavin, Tom Wainwright and mine we hosted a student Holly Combes, who in a month not only collaborate in setting up research protocols but also wrote a dissertation about the Time-Up-and-Go, which was submitted to the Young Scientific Journal for publication.

Personally, I was inspired by all the fascinating research that the students have done, and I was glad to have the opportunity to give a small speech:

To my colleagues that are thinking to apply for next year placement, I will say do it. There is nothing more pleasing than help young minds, full of motivation and curiosity. You and your research will gain a lot from this experience.

Thank you for reading,

Francesco

October 16, 2017

HE policy update for the w/e 13th October 2017

Business Engagement, Festival of Learning, Funding opportunities, Fusion, innovation, international, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Public engagement, Research assessment, Student Engagement jforster

Well, anyone who thought the Minister would have less to do in this session of Parliament, other than oversee the implementation of the Higher Education and Research Act, was underestimating him. Rather unexpectedly he demonstrated yesterday that he had fully embraced the Fusion model (he calls it a three legged stool) by announcing a new excellence framework for knowledge exchange to sit alongside REF and TEF. We have a bit on each, along with an update on that funding review (what funding review) and some other news.

New Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF)

REF, TEF (even when it’s TESOF, see below) and now the KEF….a new excellence framework has been announced by the Minister at the annual HEFCE conference.

Described by the Minster (apparently) as the “third leg of the HE stool” this new framework will be run by Research England (under its head (designate), David Sweeney, and also responsible for the REF). Like the REF, the KEF will have a clear cash “carrot” for participation and to motivate high performance – it will provide a new method for allocating Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF).

The story was all about the UK’s competitiveness. The Minister celebrated the quality of UK research but challenged the sector to have more connection to the wider world and impact on the economy, to justify the “outsize role” that universities play in Research and Development in the UK – compared to industry. He said:

“…the system needs to find a new gear. University income from business engagement is growing more slowly than the economy as a whole, with British universities producing fewer spin-outs and less licensing income per pound of research resource than US counterparts. As a greater proportion of R&D takes place in universities in the UK than in other countries, it’s especially important that we get this right.”
“Over half of the money the UK taxpayer provides for R&D goes to the Higher Education sector – £4.8bn out of £8.8bn in 2015.
The result is that a far greater proportion of R&D – 26% – takes place in our universities – than in comparable countries, with 20% in France, 17% in Germany, 13% in the US and 12% in Japan.
This funding arrangement has helped ensure the excellence of British universities and their strong performance in international league tables, which give a heavy weighting to research.
But the fact that by international standards an unusually large proportion of our R&D activity takes place within our universities brings with it increased responsibilities.”

(more…)

October 7, 2017

My personal experience at Café Scientific

Coffee Morning, Festival of Learning Francesco Ferraro

Café scientific was one of the best public engagement activities that I have done in the past years, and I do recommend going there and deliver your talk to the public.

In all my past experiences (including pint of science, the festival of learning, U3A, the Air Show and others) I have always met great people who were interested to know and learn more about what we are doing here at BU, and at Café Scientific, it was no different.

I arrived there 1h before the talk, the café (vintage/steampunk style), was already set up for the event, thanks to the great work of the Public Engagement Team. So I had all the time to calm down and get ready.

At about 19:30 the place was packed, and few people had to listen to the talk standing up.

A sample of the presentation is available on Youtube:

Even if the room was fully booked, the audience was very quiet and focused on listening to the 40 minutes presentation.

However, the best part was at the end, and I am not referring to the delicious brownie cake that Boscanova Café made for celebrating the 5^th birthday of Café Scientific, but for the questions.

I was happily surprised to have so many interesting questions, which made me think again about my projects.

There were questions about: the effect of singing and yoga exercises on balance; why not make a POWERbreathe that instead of a mouthpiece has a nosepiece; how much the improvement in balance was due to the strength of the muscles trained and not just the ability to breathe deeper; why not test the effects of meditation, and others very intelligent questions.

Finally, it was challenging and I hope that all the audience received the right message: research can be fascinating and fun, especially if you can share it with others.

If you are interested in know more about how to breathe your way into balance, contact me at fferraro@bournemouth.ac.uk

Thank you for reading.

Francesco.

August 7, 2017

Research Impact – a new toolkit developed by the Health Foundation

Festival of Learning ckillingback

I just wanted to draw attention to the following new toolkit developed by the Health Foundation.

—————————————————-

Communicating your research – a toolkit

The Health Foundation’s new communications toolkit for research helps researchers to increase the influence and impact of their findings in health and health care. It includes guidance, templates, support materials and links to help develop a communication strategy, package findings for different audiences and engage stakeholders to extend influence and widen impact.

—————————————————-

Many thanks

Clare Killingback

FHSS Impact Champion

July 24, 2017

Modern Creative Technologies and Their Applications in VR Based Laparoscopic Surgery Simulation

BRIAN, Festival of Learning, Fusion, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, open access, PG research, Public engagement, Publishing, Student Engagement, student research xyang

Kun Qian is a PhD candidate in the National Centre for Computer Animation, Faculty of Media and Communication. He has been working on computer graphics, game, vfx and virtual reality technologies for more than 10 years. He will deliver a talk on his research of surgery simulation at 7pm, 25th July at K103, as part of the BCS Animation and Game Development SG event. The detail can be found at http://www.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/58181 . It is free for all the attendees, everybody is welcome. Please register at the link above, because we will bring some refreshment based on the number of registrations.

Abstract: With the development of computer graphic and haptic devices, training surgeons with virtual reality technology has proven to be very effective in surgery simulation. Due to the various unsolved technical issues, the laparoscopic surgery simulation has not been widely used. Such issues include modelling of complex anatomy structure, large soft tissue deformation, frequent surgical tools interactions, and the rendering of complex material under the illumination. A successful laparoscopic surgery simulator should integrate all these required components in a balanced and efficient manner to achieve both visual/haptic quality and a satisfactory refreshing rate. In this talk, we propose an efficient framework integrating a set of specially tailored and designed techniques, ranging from deformation simulation, collision detection, soft tissue dissection and rendering. This framework can be used as a low level engine for surgery simulation by integrating and optimizing modern creative technologies.

Dr. Xiaosong Yang, MBCS

Associate Professor of Computer Animation
National Centre for Computer Animation
Faculty of Media and Communication
Bournemouth University
http://staffprofiles.bournemouth.ac.uk/display/xyang

July 17, 2017

Dr Elvira Bolat is awarded Academy of Marketing Research Fund 2017

Awarded & submitted bids, Festival of Learning ebolat

Dr Elvira Bolat from the Department of Marketing at the Faculty of Management has been awarded the prestigious Academy of Marketing Research Fund.

Her research titled ‘From Compassion to Defence: Exploring Service Brands’ Trust Repair Mechanisms across Traditional and Digital Media’ is the sub-project of the Faculty of Management’s QR-funded project on Trust Repair in the service sectors, led by Dr Julie Robson.

Using integrative content analysis and emotional text analysis, Dr Bolat’s project will explore the trust repair process and trust repair mechanisms used in the context of traditional and digital media, within selected high profile trust erosion cases in the service sectors. Dr Robson (Department of Marketing, FM), Professor Juliet Memery (Department of Marketing, FM) and Dr Caroline Jackson (Department of Leisure and Events, FM) are acting as mentors for the project and advising on the contextual setting of the study.

Moreover, this project supports Dr Bolat in acquiring new skills in quantitative analysis of qualitative data and deepening understanding and use of language processing software.

Dr Bolat comments: “Academy of Marketing is one of the biggest international organisations to support marketing scholars and to be one of the few recipients of this prestigious funding scheme is an absolute honour. This also helps our QR project to extend its impact and reach.”

To find out what other projects are recipients of this year’s Academy of Marketing Research funding scheme, access: https://www.academyofmarketing.org/research/amrc-research-funding/

Trust Repair team has delivered a successful Festival of Learning 2017 event on 11 July titled ‘Lies and Scandals: Whatever happened to Trust?’ and received an overwhelmingly positive feedback from the audience. Once of things that came out of this interactive event is a powerful impact media has on stakeholders’ interpretation of organisational transgressions and, therefore, on ability of brands to repair trust damage. Hence, this sub-project will help in extending scholar’s and practitioners’ understanding on role of both traditional and digital media play in repairing trust towards brands.

This grant is a very positive recognition of BU’s standing internationally and nationally within marketing and consumer behaviour research and contributes towards a growing impact generated by Influences on Consumer Behaviour research centre.

To connect with Dr Bolat, email at ebolat@bournemouth.ac.uk or tweet at @Elvira_MLady

To follow Trust Repair project, tweet at @TrustRepairBU

July 9, 2017

Successful Breastfeeding Debate in 2017 Festival of Learning

Festival of Learning, Public engagement Edwin van Teijlingen

Yesterday, on the first day of BU’s Festival of Learning, we organised a debate on breastfeeding in society. The debate was structured around the motion “This house believes that: Breastfeeding is over-rated and unpopular.”

In favour of the motion argued Dr. Ann Luce from the Faculty of Media and Communication (FMC) and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen from the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS).

Against the motion argued Dr. Catherine Angell (CMMPH) and Ms. Sue Hurst midwife and lactation advisor at St Mary’s Maternity Hospital which is part of Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Before the debate started Prof. Vanora Hundley (CMMPH) asked the audience to vote on the motion. At this first vote the audience overwhelmingly voted against the motion (86%). After the presentations of the four debaters the audience was asked to vote again and this time the against vote had dropped to 71%. Prof. Hundley then opened up the debate to the wider audience and, after an occasionally heated debate, the audience were asked for their final vote. On this final occasion 85% voted against.

There was a general agreement that breastfeeding beneficial for both mother and baby and hence that it was not over-rated. There appeared to be sympathy for the view that breastfeeding was not popular, or at least not as popular as it should be, considering how good it is!

July 7, 2017

CDE Research Showcase – BU Festival of Learning 2017

Festival of Learning zleonard

Join us at the CDE Showcase – a free drop in event taking place in the Fusion Building, 307 – 309 as part of the Festival of Learning.

The Centre for Digital Entertainment, is an EPSRC doctoral training centre, funding researchers in games, visual effects, animation and other industries that use digital visualisation skills. It is a joint venture between Bournemouth University and the University of Bath offering a four year Engineering Doctorate.

Our showcase will highlight the diverse range of research currently taking place.

CDE Research Engineer Thomas Matthews, will showcase the Virtual Reality world of ‘Mayan Adventure’, courtesy of his host company AiSolve. Visitors will have the opportunity to explore a virtual world filled with twists and tunnels, traveling further into an action adventure.

Zack Lyons, one of our Research Engineers based at the University of Bath, will have a demo of his ‘Virtual Reality Experiences for Brain Injury Rehabilitation’. Zack recently showcased this demo during the 50^th anniversary festival in Bath and it proved to be extremely popular. Walk through streets, give instructions and react to the situations you’re presented with. This technology is being used in the rehabilitation of brain injuries, analysing how people behave and predicting problems that they may experience in real life to develop new therapeutic opportunities. This demo is in collaboration with the University of Bath’s Dr Leon Watts and Zack’s host company designability UK.

Dr Hongchuan Yu, will be joining us to showcase his current research. Hongchuan along with PhD student Yunfei Fu will demo “From brush paintings to bas-reliefs”,

“Relief is a kind of sculpture in which 3D models are carved into a relatively flat surface. In essence, it creates a bridge between a full 3D sculpture and a 2D painting.

We present a new approach for generating bas-reliefs from brush paintings. Our approach exploits the concept of brush strokes, making strokes possible to generate 3D proxies separately suitable for recomposing in art design. We apply layer decomposition by imposing boundary constraints. The resulting 3D proxies of brush strokes are sufficient to evoke the impression of the consistent 3D shapes, so that they may be further edited in 3D space. This fulfils the request of recomposition in bas-relief design.”

We will also be joined by Soumya Chinnachamy Barathi, FIRE Fellow PhD at the University of Bath, showcasing her research on ‘Affective Ludology in VR Exergames. Simone Barbieri CDE Research Engineer for Bournemouth University, with his demo on ‘2D characters in a Virtual Reality environment’ and Daniel Finnegan – CDE Research Engineer from the University of Bath who has recently successfully defended his thesis, ‘Compensating for Distance Compression in Virtual Audiovisual Environments’. Daniel will demo ‘Dungeon Escape’, a compendium of realities (Real, Virtual, Mixed).

We hope you are able to pop in to see us on Saturday 8^th July in the Fusion Building 307 – 309

July 1, 2017

Festival of learning 2017: “Human Psychology: When your mind is in my mind”.

Festival of Learning javendanodiaz

Evolutionarily, human beings are shaped as social animals and often engage in interpersonal interactions. Recent findings in psychology suggest that one person’s cognition and behaviour could be shaped by another person who performs similar tasks along with that person. The influenced cognitive abilities include memory, attention, face cognition, and action. During this talk, we will introduce some of these scientific findings and the theories behind, along with their potential implications for our everyday life. You will also have the chance to see psychological experiments in action, and to try some of them on-site (if you are willing to volunteer for that :P).

If you are curious about it and want to come along, please try the link below, where you book the tickets for the event and join as on the talk.

Date: Saturday 8 July
Time: 2pm – 3pm
Location: Talbot Campus

https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/festival-of-learning/events/human-psychology-when-your-mind-is-in-my-mind/

June 28, 2017

Festival of Learning event – Making a difference: BU research in our community – 11th of July

Festival of Learning jlopezblanco

RKEO and the LLS Academic Liaison team have organised an event for the Festival of Learning. The details are below.

Making a difference: BU research in our community

Where: Bournemouth Library, 22 the Triangle, Bournemouth, BH2 5RQ

When: 11^th of July, 3pm to 7pm.

What are BU researchers working on, how is it making a difference and how can you access it? Have you ever wondered what research BU undertakes and how it’s shaping our community? Join a team of academics, librarians and research experts to explore some of their projects and how you can access their publicly funded research.

Some of the many exciting topics Bournemouth University academics have been researching include the psychology of sport performance, the development of material culture and social networking in ancient civilisations, community based exercise interventions in older people and advertising.

The event will comprise:

Inspirational talks by Bournemouth University academics
Practical workshops on how to access quality research papers
Exhibition of static materials

All welcome. We look forward to seeing you (and friends and family) on this exciting event!

More information here: https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/festival-of-learning/events/making-a-difference-bu-research-in-our-community/

June 15, 2017

Festival of Learning: Test your maths skills in Magic Land

Festival of Learning wen

Pedagogy and the way children learn are changing rapidly with the introduction of widely accessible computer technologies, from mobile apps to interactive educational games. Digital games have the direct impact on how children learn. By embedding learning supports through the widely accredited visual, auditory, reading, and kinesthetic (VARK) model, digital games can offer a flexible learning environment for large-scale education that is beyond classrooms.

Professor Wen Tang and her team at the Centre for Games and Music Technology Research have developed three fun maths games to test your maths skills in the magic game land.

Come join our math game competitions with other families and children of similar age on Saturday 8th July, 11am-4pm to indulge your gaming skills.

1 MathRun is an infinite runner game to challenge your skills in dodging pumpkins, navigating rivers, collecting treasures and earning virtual currency. With the ‘money’ in hand, you can dress up your character and make her your favorite avatar. 2 Magic Land is a farming game that gives you chances to sell your magic potions brewed from your own fruits and vegetables to the wizard of oz. You must be clever, resourceful, and most of all BE PATIENT.

3 Game number three is our mystery game to keep you in suspense.

All images are creations of the Centre for Games and Music Technology & copyright to BU.

May 29, 2017

BU Staff appointed as Entrepreneurial Mentors at the Academy for Innovation and Sustainable Development, Beijing Normal University Zhuhai as part of the BU China Innovation Hub

Festival of Learning, international vrenaud

During the Global Festival of Learning China, BU staff members Rebecca Hindley, Parissa Gilani and Elvira Bolat from the Faculty of Management, and Vianna Renaud from the Faculty of Media and Communication were appointed Entrepreneurial Mentors for the Academy of Innovation and Sustainable Development at Beijing Normal University Zhuhai.

Dr. Lucy Lu, the Associate Dean of Global Engagement for the Faculty of Management, who has led on the project, knows the background of the links between the two institutions. The Beijing Normal University Zhuhai (BNUZ) has been a long-standing collaboration partner of BU for more than 10 years through programme cooperation, staff mobility and joint research. The recent Festival of Learning held in BNUZ with more than 80 staff and over 300 students from both BU and BNUZ further enhanced knowledge exchange, staff and students as well as research collaborations between the two institutions.

The Academy for Innovation and Sustainable Development was established by Beijing Normal University Zhuhai as part of the university vision to developing future global entrepreneurs and innovative talent. The Academy will work closely with both government and industry at regional, national and international levels to create an innovation space for co-creation and co-developing innovation and entrepreneurial programmes. The Academy also aims to enhance the employability of students at BNUZ through joint research with international partners, Executive Development and training, and entrepreneurial camp / exchange programmes.

The appointment of BU staff as Entrepreneurial Mentors within the AISD is part of the BU China Innovation Hub initiative designed and developed by Dr Lucy Lu, Principal Investigator of the CIH. Developing future talent and full-fledged global leaders whilst enhancing students’ employability is also a key priority of Global BU. Therefore it is expected that the Entrepreneurial Mentors from BU will help to promote BU’s knowledge and expertise in China and enhance the global mobility and employability of BU students through potential collaborations with the ASID.

Rebecca Hindley, Lecturer in Human Resource Management, Faculty of Management

“The BU Global Festival of Learning trip to China was a fascinating, illuminating and inspiring experience. I particularly enjoyed learning how BNUZ incorporate entrepreneurial education into their curricula and hearing about the support provided for student startups and therefore, was humbled and honoured to be selected as an entrepreneurial mentor.

Since our visit I have been in contact with BNUZ HRM lecturers to explore how our employability radar can be adopted to underpin BNUZ students’ professional development activities and am looking forward to future collaboration between our two institutions.”

Parisa Gilani, Lecturer in HR and Organisational Behaviour, Faculty of Management

“I am honoured to have been invited to become an Entrepreneurial Mentor for the new and exciting Innovation Academy at Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai. I have been very lucky with the supportive and inspiring mentors I’ve had throughout my own career so far, and I only hope that this role will help me to support others in the same way. During our stay in Zhuhai I was impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit of many of the students, and I not only look forward to working with them, but also learning from them!”

Dr Elvira Bolat, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Faculty of Management

“I am truly honoured to be appointed as Entrepreneurial Mentor. I am passionate about applied business and marketing education and this is what BU is known for, hence, bringing in together my knowledge and passion will help me to mentor young generation of start-up owners and ideas’ generators – changelers who wants to make difference via technological transformations and consumer demand-driven solutions. BUNZ is an amazing place located in this border where Western and Asian mindsets meet and work collectively to benefit all. Under the leadership of Professor Li Hua we will be able to support BU, BUNZ and other young global talent in bring their visions to live, executing their business plans and framing propositions in ways that will attract investments and interest of the markets.”

Vianna Renaud, Placement Development Advisor, Faculty of Media and Communication

“Our time at BUNZ was both enlightening and inspiring given the incredible range of potential collaboration between the two institutions. After presenting to both BU and BUNZ students on the necessity of adaptability for today’s global graduates, it became clear that both groups of students can greatly learn from each other. I am so very pleased and honoured to have been chosen to represent BU in this wonderful project. I look forward to working with my fellow Entrepreneurial Mentors in helping mentor young talent and to raise the awareness of Eastern and Western expectations regarding employability and entrepreneurship. As I’ve been in contact with BUNZ staff since our visit, all I can say is let the discussions and fun begin!”

Category / Festival of Learning

Would you like to know how AI works? Want to see it in practice and learn about the legal implications? Do join us at our Festival of Learning Event

Let’s Talk Tax!

HE policy update for the w/e 13th October 2017

New Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF)

Research Impact – a new toolkit developed by the Health Foundation

Modern Creative Technologies and Their Applications in VR Based Laparoscopic Surgery Simulation

Dr Elvira Bolat is awarded Academy of Marketing Research Fund 2017

Successful Breastfeeding Debate in 2017 Festival of Learning

CDE Research Showcase – BU Festival of Learning 2017

Festival of learning 2017: “Human Psychology: When your mind is in my mind”.

Festival of Learning event – Making a difference: BU research in our community – 11th of July

Festival of Learning: Test your maths skills in Magic Land

BU Staff appointed as Entrepreneurial Mentors at the Academy for Innovation and Sustainable Development, Beijing Normal University Zhuhai as part of the BU China Innovation Hub

Other services

Don’t miss a post!

Recent posts

Search by Category

Research Information Network

UKRI

Category / Festival of Learning

New Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF)

Other services

Don’t miss a post!

Recent posts

Search by Category

Search by popular post topics