Category / Fusion

Fusion project leads to best paper award

BU research, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund

Work by BU researchers examining the human aspects of Digital Rights Management has won a best paper award at the Fourth International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and IP Law. This is joint work carried out by Marcella Favale, Neil McDonald, Shamal Faily, and Christos Gatzidis.

This work, which resulted from research carried out during the FIF funded MADRIGAL project, examines the perspective of DRM from the perspective of content creators using qualitative socio-legal analysis.

In addition to this work, we were also invited to write an extended version of this paper for SCRIPTed, which is currently in press.

Well done Marcella and the rest of the MADRIGAL team!

CMC’s Promotional Cultures and Communication Centre wins prestigious industry research award

Business Engagement, Fusion, Impact

CMC’s Promotional Cultures and Communication Centre (PCCC) is delighted to announce that the recent research project they undertook for Exterion Media won ‘Best Research Initiative’ at last week’s Media Research Group Awards.  The MRG is the industry group for research professionals working in media related roles and is a great showcase for the work we do here.

The project was titled ‘The Mood of the Underground’ and undertaken in partnership with COG Research, a leading independent research agency.  It comprised of a number of elements: a literature review undertaken by PCCC- CMC; a proposed approach recommended by CMC; primary research completed by PCCC-CMC and COG, and delivery of the final debrief written by PCCC-CMC and COG.

Congratulations to Stuart Armon, Rebecca Jenkins, Chris Miles, Georgiana Grigore, Janice Denegri-Knott, Jill Nash and Shenel McLawrence who worked on this project.

Islam and Social Work: Culturally sensitive practice in a diverse world

BU research, Featured academics, Fusion, Women's Academic Network

islam%20and%20social%20work-pbk_qcThe complexities of multiculturalism as a social ontology and as a political discourse have taken a rapid and alarming turn to the right in a political moment of increasing social turbulence on issues that revolve around national identity, ethnicity and religion. It is therefore timely, if regrettably so, that the second edition of Islam and Social Work makes its debut this month.

The first volume went to press in 2008, in my first year at BU, and my co-authors and I were overwhelmed when the book was showered with positive reviews. Regarded as not only the best, but the sole European text on this conspicuously important topic, it was also viewed as having no counterpart in the Global North (where the subject of social work and minority ethnic groups has been a dominant theme in the social work literature for decades). Since then it has been regularly cited and I been privileged to have anonymously reviewed dozens of papers on Islamic interpretations of social work practice. I have learned that Western social work is no longer the epicentre of practice – there are other worlds out there. I feel that this earlier book was, if nothing else, pivotal to opening the door much wider to be able to hear from our Muslim social work colleagues around the world, whose practice can challenge the restrictive, bureaucratised and therefore often inhuman professional processes in the UK

Strangely, however, over the years, despite the world having changed so very much since in terms of the shifting geo-political axes of power, the rise and fall of despotic regimes, the call for accountability of Western leaders implicated in invasion of Gulf nations, the Arab Spring, global terrorism, Al-Qaeda and later the monstrous birth of imploding Daesh – no one has produced a text to supersede the old first edition. And so, reader, we, Fatima Husain, Basia Spalek and I decided to produce the 2nd edition, which has been fully revised and updated, rewritten virtually from scratch, and I believe we have produced a book that is specific in detail, expansive in scope and completely international in outlook.

We hope that this will be a text that is the first port of call for all social work students across the globe who are interested in learning more about competent and sensitive practice with Muslim service user and client groups across the lifespan, as well as discovering the many beauties and wise profundities that are embedded, but often overlooked, in the youngest of the Abrahamic religions, Islam.

Professor Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

Professor of Social & Cultural Diversity

Researching Talbot Campus Biodiversity

Fusion, Student Engagement, student research, Uncategorized

Ever wondered what wildlife we have on campus? Volunteer students and staff from the Dept. of Life & Environmental Science Green team are initiating a series of Student Environment Research Team (SERT) projects to find out and you can join in. We will help monitor the successful use wildlife is making of the habitats, nesting boxes and wild food resources that are being created on campus. The wildlife- friendly work is being spearheaded by the Estates Team, led by Dr Neil Smith and supported by the Biodiversity Action Plan Group.

There is a chance to get involved in a bit of  campus habitat creation yourself this week if you like – join us this Friday at noon to help plant flower bulbs around the Fusion building. The bulbs have been chosen for both their wildlife and aesthetic value. Estates have bought the bulb and the planting design has been developed by a SERT of six students for Ecology & Wildlife Conservation BSc mentored by Damian Evans and Anita Diaz. See which bulbs here – bulbs-for-fusion-building-planting

Join us if you can and if you’d like to get involved with campus biodiversity creation and monitoring in some other way please contact Damian Evans devans@bournemouth.ac.uk

WTM eTourism: Disrupting innovations for Tourism and Hospitality

Events, Fusion, international, Uncategorized

Join Professor Dimitrios Buhalis on Monday 7 November, as part of the World Travel Market 7-9 November, in London.This discussion will take place in our Inspire Theatre, in Fusion, between 10:30am-12:15.

The event will host a series of speakers including: Kevin May, Tnooz.com; Mario Hardy Pacific, Asia Tourism Association, Thailand; Nathaniel Green, DUETTO Research, USA; Richard Hatter Hotel Icon, Hong Kong; Andy Owen-Jones, BD4Travel, Germany; and Matthew Gardiner, UnderTheDoormat, UK.

This session will  discuss how disrupting innovations generate significant market structure changes, modifying the operating practices, industry structure and dominant logic. This structural change is affecting the organisational networks and the services tourism players are supposed to use to perform well in markets. Both opportunities and challenges emerge for the whole tourism and hospitality industry. Relationships between players change as their respective roles change; this is driven by e-commerce / e-business and disruptive innovation. For instance hotels, thanks to e-business technological platforms, can now use algorithms to set yield and revenue management strategies, monitor competition in real time and allow consumers to use mobile devices to access several services. In the tourism industry, many innovations have been initiated from companies in the information technology sector. Generally, Information technology is revolutionizing products, services and markets.

For more information please click here.

The session is free however, to attend you must join the World Travel market, please click here.

CIPPM’s AHRC-funded Project Copyrightuser.org publishes Episode II of the Award-Winning ‘Game is On!’ Film

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Featured academics, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Knowledge Transfer, Post-award, REF Subjects, Research communication, Research news, Research themes, Student Engagement

Copyrightuser.org – is a collaboration between the Law Department’s Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) at Bournemouth University (BU) and CREATe, University of Glasgow, has produced Episode II of the ‘Game is On!’ Series.

The project led by the Principal Investigator for Bournemouth University, Dr. Dinusha Mendis, Associate Professor in Law and Co-Director of CIPPM was initially funded by BU’s Fusion Investment Fund in 2012. Since 2013 the project has been successful in securing AHRC funding under the leadership of Dr. Mendis and in November 2015, won the AHRC Innovation in Film Award.

Game is On! by Copyrightuser.org is a s a series of short animated films that puts copyright and creativity under the magnifying glass of Sherlock Holmes, providing a unique, research-led and open access resource for school-aged learners and other creative users of copyright. Drawing inspiration from well-known copyright and public domain work, as well as recent copyright litigation, these films provide a springboard for exploring key principles and ideas underpinning copyright law, creativity, and the limits of lawful appropriation and reuse.

Episode I of the ‘Game is On!’ Series titled The Adventure of the Girl with the Light Blue Hair  won the AHRC Innovation in Film Award in November 2015 and was shortlisted for a BUFVC Learning on Screen Award in April 2016 and has been recently used by Into Film to develop the educational resource ‘Exploring copyright for clubs’.

The accompanying Case Files – an important feature of the ‘Game is On!’ series – for Episode I was authored by CIPPM’s Co-Director, Dr. Dinusha Mendis and CIPPM PhD Candidate, Ms. Hayleigh Bosher.

Episode II titled The Adventure of the Six Detectives is also accompanied by a number of Case Files, authored by CREATe researchers Megan Rae Blakely and Andrea Wallace and offer points of discussion around many of the most pressing copyright questions and concerns faced by screenwriters: http://copyrightuser.org/the-game-is-on/episode-2/

The short films are written, directed and produced by Professor Ronan Deazley (Queen’s University Belfast) and CREATe producer Bartolomeo Meletti (currently seconded to the British Film Institute) with Art Direction / Design by Marco Bagni, illustrations by Davide Bonazzi and music by SFX:Sarco.

game-is-on

13th Asian Confederation of Physical Therapists – Kuala Lumpur

BU research, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund

Physical activity is one of the five priority interventions for the prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). NCDs include; cardio vascular diseases (strokes, dementia, heart disease), diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases and some Cancers. NCDs account for almost two thirds of deaths globally and are major contributors to ill-health in the elderly. Physiotherapists are well placed to enable and empower people to initiate and sustain adequate levels of physical activity as they are aware of the challenges and opportunities throughout the life span. As an invited speaker this is one of the key messages that will be conveyed at the 13th Asian Confederation of Physical Therapists in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 7th-8th October.

 

I will also have an opportunity to attend an academic conference at INTI International University aimed at strengthening ties between INTI and BU. Professor Narasimman Swaminathan (Deputy Dean – faculty of Health) and I will collaborate in a joint session for physiotherapy students to inspire their interest in public health initiatives. Professor Narasimman Swaminathan is a visiting professor in the FHSS at BU and is leading research initiatives at INTI which link closely to those in the Department of Human Sciences and Public Health at BU.

Fusion funding and HSS faculty conference funding has contributed to making this trip possible.

FMC-CMC’s Journal of Promotional of Communications Publishes New Volume

BU research, Fusion, student research

 

The editorial board of the Journal of Promotional Communications would like to announce that Volume 4 Number 1 is now available for download at: http://www.promotionalcommunications.org/index.php/pc/index.

Stephen Waddington, Partner and Chief Engagement Officer at Ketchum, writes the introductory commentary on the future of Public Relations. Seven papers follow, tackling pressing issues in promotional and political communication. The journal was launched in 2013 and is the first open-access, peer-review journal for the study of promotional cultures and communication to publish outstanding undergraduate and postgraduate work. This number includes seven outstanding papers penned by FMC-CMC students that had presented their research at CMC’s 6th Annual Promotional Communications Conference.

CMC students can choose to write a traditional dissertation of 10,000 words or write a research paper in the style of an 8,000-word journal article and deliver a 20-minute paper at the student conference.

Dr.Dan Jackson, Dr Richard Scullion, Dr Carrie Hodges, and Dr Janice Denegri-Knott received BU Fusion Funding to launch both the conference and the journal.

Fusion Investment Fund – BU research collaboration with the University of Utah

BU research, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, international, PG research, Uncategorized

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This year, I was awarded the Fusion Investment Funding which sponsored me and my research team to establish the collaboration between National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA, BU) and Simulation & Electronic Animation Lab (SEALAB, the University of Utah). The purpose of this collaboration is to publish high quality papers, exchange innovative ideas and explore the potential of improvement and commercialization of our surgery simulator.

Throughout the year, the collaboration progressed smoothly and obtained significant results. We kept in touch regularly with our partners, shared various interesting and inspiring ideas on the topic of physically based soft tissue simulation, collision detection and the development of surgery simulator. Inspired by the insightful discussion with our partners, we have published two journal papers and two conference papers. My PhD student Kun Qian, as the main participant of this project, has benefited a lot from it. His work was awarded the winner of British Computer Society Animation and Games Development 2016 Competition. We have also exchanged ideas on funding application, teaching and research team management. The most impressing experience was the attending of their internal computer graphic research seminars which aims to promote the idea exchange and potential cooperation between different research groups. It is quite useful for us to improve the efficiency and quality of the similar seminar we held at BU. Besides SEALAB, we also visited the world leading medical visualization research group of the University of Utah: Scientific Centre of Visualization (SCI) and University of Utah Medical Centre. Those two organizations demonstrated the state of art of medical visualization and simulation, provided practical and valuable suggestion on the future direction of surgery simulator.

Although this fusion project finished, our collaboration has never stopped. We are continuing working on the topic of biomechanical based soft tissue simulation and exploring potential opportunities for joint research funding application. The following are selections of some pictures of the beautiful view of the state of Utah, main campus of University of Utah and the award we achieved.

Dr. Xiaosong Yang

National Centre for Computer Animation, Faculty of Media and Communication

bcsaward img_20160830_145313 img_20160816_085632 img_20160815_091353