Category / PG research

This part of the blog features news and information for postgraduate research students and supervisors

Epidurals PhD researcher wins EPSRC award

BU research, PG research, Research news

Congratulations to SciTech’s Dr Neil Vaughan who has won the EPSRC’s ICT Pioneers ‘Transforming Society’ award. The accolade, which recognises the most exceptional UK PhD students, was awarded to Neil at a ceremony in Westminster last week for his innovative epidural simulator project.

The simulator uses software to replicate the epidural process, thereby assisting in training for this delicate procedure that is performed over 1000 times each day in the UK.

Neil’s supervisor Dr Venky Dubey said: “This is an exceptional achievement for BU and the collaborating partner Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Neil was up against stiff competition from top universities, including the University of Oxford, University College London and the University of Bath.”

The clinical project was proposed by the senior consultant anaesthetist at Poole Hospital, Professor Michael Wee, who also co-supervised the PhD.

Neil’s work was judged by a panel of technical experts from academia and industry. He triumphed through a rigorous selection process over a six month period, which included a written proposal, video and poster presentation. This culminated in a high-profile research showcase, where finalists pitched their project to representatives from the EPSRC, Hewlett Packard, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), BT and an audience of hundreds.

For more information about the project view the news item on the research webpages.

Strong Presence of our Computing Research at RCIS’14 Conference in Morocco

BU research, PG research, Research news

Our research in the area of Human-Centred Software Systems has been presented through three full papers in the IEEE Eighth International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS), which was held on May 28-30 2014 in Marrakesh, Morocco.

http://www.rcis-conf.com/rcis2014/

Our presented papers in RCIS 2014 are:

  • Mahmood Hosseini, Keith Phalp, Jacqui Taylor, Raian Ali. The Four Pillars of Crowdsourcing: A Reference Model.
  • Malik Almaliki, Cornelius Ncube, Raian Ali. The Design of Adaptive Acquisition of Users Feedback: an Empirical Study.
  • Raian Ali, Nan Jiang, Sherry Jeary, Keith Phalp. Consideration in Software-mediated Social Interaction.

The papers were presented by Dr. Nan Jiang, and the PGRs  Mahmood Hosseini and Malik Almaliki. It was a great opportunity for knowledge exchange and to maximize impact and visibility of our research. Interesting ideas as a follow up of our research were discussed and a number of overseas colleagues expressed interest in visiting us to do a joint work.

To get the presentations, please visit our Slideshare at: http://www.slideshare.net/Sociad-BU/

 

 

BU student Jib Acharya presents poster in Ethiopia

BU research, PG research, Research news, Uncategorized

HSC Ph.D. student Mr. Jib Acharya presented a poster in Ethiopia on his thesis research.  His poster accepted by the scientific committee of the Micronutrient Forum Global Conference in Addis Adeba, the capital of Ethiopia.

 

Jib Acharya reported on his Ph.D. research which involves a mixed-methods study of to assess knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about nutritious food amongst rural and urban mothers in one district of Nepal.  The poster highlighted that both knowledge of and attitudes towards nutritious food of rural and urban mothers are still poor in both rural and urban populations.

Jib’s supervisors in the School of Health & Social Care are: Dr. Jane Murphy, Dr. Martin Hind and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.

 

Reference:

Acharya, J., van Teijlingen E., Murphy, J., Hind, M. (2014) A Comparative Study on Nutritional Problems in Preschool Aged Children of Nepal, poster presented at the Micronutrient Forum Global Conference in Addis Adeba, Ethiopia, June 2014.

 

 

Well done!

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, CMMPH

Strong CMMPH presence at ICM conference in Prague!

BU research, Featured academics, PG research, Publishing, Research news, Training, Uncategorized

Dr. Carol Wilkins

In the first week of June members of the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health presented BU’s midwifery research and education at the 30th ICM (International Confederation of Midwives) Congress in Prague (Czech Republic).

There were four oral presentations in total, one workshop and three poster presentations.  The oral presentations comprised:

  1. Dr. Carol Wilkins (see picture) presented from her Ph.D. work ‘Emotional processing in childbirth study: exploration of the relationship between maternal emotions in pregnancy and risk of postnatal depression’.
  2. HSC Professor Vanora Hundley presented her international work on clean birth kits.
  3. Senior Lecturer in Midwifery Alison Taylor gave a paper under the title ‘Letting off steam! Video diaries to share breastfeeding experiences.  Her Ph.D. thesis research uses a novel approach of giving hand-held cameras to make home video diaries about their ‘realities’ of breastfeeding.
  4. HSC student Sheetal Sharma presented her Ph.D. research ‘Getting women to care: mixed–methods evaluation of maternity care intervention in rural Nepal’.

Dr Susan Way led a workshop on escalating concerns in relation to poor clinical practice and disrespectful care.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Furthermore, three HSC posters were displayed as part of a special session on Midwifery in South Asia, all three related to different CMMPH maternity care studies conducted in Nepal.

  1. Sharma, S.  Sicuri, E., Belizan, JM., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Stephens J.,  Hundley, V., Angell, C.,  Getting women to care in Nepal: A Difference in Difference analysis of a health promotion intervention
  2. Milne, L, Hundley, V, van Teijlingen, E, Ireland, J, Simkhada, P, Staff perspectives of barriers to women accessing birthing services in Nepal: A qualitative study,
  3. Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. Simkhada, P., Angell, C. Pregnant & Dirty?

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Bournemouth-Utrecht: Fusion Project Workshop

BU research, Fusion, PG research

We would like to invite you to the workshop of our BUUU project “Bournemouth University and Utrecht University Network on Empowering Software Production by Gamification and Crowdsourcing”. BUUU is funded by the Fusion Investment Fund of Bournemouth University.

   

Date: Thursday, 12 – Jun – 2014

Location: P302 LT, Poole House, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 4BB

Program:

14:00 – 14:15 — Social Software Engineering at Bournemouth University. Raian Ali, Bournemouth University

14:15 – 14:30 — Gamified Software Engineering at Utrecht University. Fabiano Dalpiaz, Utrecht University

14:30 – 14:45 — Crowdsourcing for Requirements Elicitation in Large-scale Dynamic Software Systems. Mahmood Hosseini, Bournemouth University

14:45 – 15:00 — On the Use of Gamification for Obtaining Software Feedback. Mats Hofman, Utrecht University

15:00 – 15:15 — Crowd-driven Evolution for Socio-technical Systems. Alimohammad Shahri, Bournemouth University

15:15 – 15:30 — Development Techniques for Feedback-aware Software. Nick Linakis, Utrecht University

15:30 – 15:45 — Developing Adaptive and Socially-aware Feedback Acquisition. Malik Almaliki, Bournemouth University

15:45 – 16:00 — Crowd-centric Requirements Engineering. Remco Snijders, Utrecht University

 

The room is booked till 17:00. The participants and audience are invited to engage in further discussions and networking.

All are welcome.

 

 

 

BU Nepal health research at international midwifery conference

BU research, PG research, Research news, Uncategorized

Yesterday HSC Ph.D. student Sheetal Sharma presented her key research findings under the title ‘Getting women to care: mixed–methods evaluation of maternity care intervention in rural Nepal’ at the 30th congress of the ICM (International Confederation of Midwives) in Prague.   Sheetal’s Ph.D. evaluates the effectiveness of a health promotion intervention aiming antenatal care attendance in rural Nepal.  Her evaluation suggests that practice should be socio-culturally appropriate and inclusive not only of women but also their families.

This afternoon three HSC posters were displayed as part of a special session on Midwifery in South Asia.  All three posters featured aspects of maternity care research conducted in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health in Nepal.

Poster 1:        Staff perspectives of barriers to women accessing birthing services in Nepal: A qualitative study

Milne, L, Hundley, V, van Teijlingen, E, Ireland, J, Simkhada, P,

Poster 2:        Pregnant & Dirty?

Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. Simkhada, P., Angell, C.

Poster 3:        Getting women to care in Nepal: A Difference in Difference analysis of a health promotion intervention

Sharma, S.  Sicuri, E., Belizan, JM., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Stephens J., Hundley, V., Angell, C.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

PGR Development Fund Activity Report by Nada Sherief: SciTech

BU research, PG research, Uncategorized

About Me

I am Nada Hany Sherief, a 2nd year Part-time PhD Student in Computing at the Faculty of Science and Technology.

The Conference (EASE 2014)

EASE’14, the International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, is one of the top conferences in the area Software Engineering (CORE Rank: A).  This year, EASE was held on 12-14 May, in London, UK.

The Papers

I have submitted two papers to EASE’14. The first is titled by “Crowdsourced Software Evaluation”, and was accepted in the New Ideas track. The second is titled by “Software Evaluation via Users’ Feedback at Runtime” and it was accepted in the Doctoral Symposium of the conference.

The Benefits

The PGR Development Funds from BU enabled me to attend EASE’14, which was an ideal place to launch the new idea of my research and have it discussed with colleagues and experts in the empirical software engineering community.

The research idea of a socialized software evaluation was found very interesting. Both presentations discussed the preliminary results of my research. Also, I presented several research challenges that are not yet addressed in the literature, and could be a starting point for future work not only in my research but also in the wider scope of the community.

This participation has added several skills to me. On the personal side it gave me a good motivation and confidence to continue my work in that area. It also gave our research more visibility in the research community. On the research side, I have gained much feedback about how to enhance and better frame my work which will certainly consolidate my PhD experience.

 

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the Graduate School at Bournemouth University for their PGR Development Fund which sponsored this activity which had very positive impact on my PhD journey.

PGR Development Fund Activity Report by Malik Almaliki: SciTech

BU research, PG research

The International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality (REFSQ) is one of the leading international forums in the area of Requirement Engineering for software systems. My main activity was to present a full research paper at this conference which was held in Essen, Germany, April 7-10, 2014. The paper was titled “Requirements-driven Social Adaptation: Expert Survey” and was collaboratively written with colleagues from University of Birmingham.

In this research paper I disseminated a part of my findings of the first year of my PhD. It reports on the results of a two-phase Expert Opinion study that was conducted to identify core benefits, domain areas, styles of use and challenges for the socially-adaptive software and users’ feedback acquisition. The study involved around 30 experts in Requirement Engineering and Adaptive Systems which also helped us to know how our vision in the area is perceived by the wider community.

The Graduate School PGR Fund provided me with a great opportunity to attend the REFSQ’14 conference and get my work published and recognized. Being able to participate in REFSQ’14 was one of the distinguished events in my PhD journey. It played a significant role in increasing my motivations and confidence and giving my research a visibility in such a well reputed venue. The  reviews of the paper and the feedback given by REFSQ’14 attendees were invaluable and, together with the constructive feedback and critiques,  helped me preparing well for the transfer exam which went very well.  This activity consolidated my presentation and communication skills.

I would like to thank the Graduate School for this PGR Development Fund which enabled me to have this great opportunity.  Participation at REFSQ’14 was a huge motive that pushed me step further towards a successful PhD journey.

PG Researcher Development Workshops

PG research

WHAT’S ON in June 2014

  • Introduction to Bournemouth Research Information & Network (BRIAN) – 4 June
  • Managing Pressure Positively – 10 June
  • Nvivo (Day 1) Introduction – 16 June
  • Nvivo (Day 2) Advanced – 17 June (attendance Day 1 is mandatory – to register your interest in this workshop – please email pgrskillsdevelopment@bournemouth.ac.uk).  Numbers are restricted
  • Importance of Publishing – 18 June
  • Introduction to Case Studies – 24 June

Full details and sign up lists are available via myBU (Graduate School PGR Community).

Don’t forget that if you have both staff and student email accounts, you’ll need to log on with your student username and password.  Please check your student email account for email reminders.

HSC postgraduate student speaks at Canadian Conference

BU research, PG research, Uncategorized

 

Pratik Adhikary spoke about his Ph.D. research at the American Canadian Conference for Academic Disciplines (Toronto: 19-22 May 2014).  Pratik presented the key findings from his thesis under the title ‘Health status and health risks to Nepalese migrant workers in the Middle East and Malaysia’.

Pratik is originally from Nepal and he conducted his research with male migrant workers who were returning to Nepal for definite or for a holiday/break.  He is supervised by Dr. Steve Keen and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen both in HSC.

 

Pratik’s study has been supported by Bournemouth University, the PGR Development Fund and the Open Society Foundations.

 

Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

SciTech postgraduate conference and poster presentation

BU research, PG research, Research news

Yesterday the postgraduate researchers in the Faculty of Science and Technology (SciTech) held their annual showcase of their research projects. For the applied sciences students this took the form of 15 minutes presentations and the design, engineering and computing students presented posters.

Former PhD student Kathryn Ross opened the presentations in the Lawrence Lecture Theatre and likened the process of studying for a doctorate to taking part in a 100 mile walk. Kathryn was an inspiration to her peers, showing how hard work and persistence can get results. Her own PhD project investigating the effects of sea-level rise on the avocet population in Poole Harbour yielded new and interesting findings about the birds’ diet.

The subsequent presentations were outstanding, covering a wide variety of topics including how parasites impact eco-systems, volunteer engagement, the process of ageing fish and the spread of the domestic chicken through Europe.

The posters were equally impressive, featuring rescue robots, intelligent call routing and lie detector technology among others.

The work of the Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) postgraduate researchers was strongly represented, including a remarkable project looking at adapted home environments for people living with dementia.

It was wonderful to see the amazing research being carried out by BU’s postgraduate community, with the support of their dedicated supervisors. I have no doubt many of them will make valuable contributions to their field in the future.

And to any postgraduate researchers reading this… If you would like to share your research more widely via the BU website or other channels, please do email me. I’d love to help you with that. Additionally, if you are interested in taking part in any public engagement activity, we have some great opportunities including a tent at Camp Bestival. If you like to find out more please email our Public Engagement Manager Barry Squires.

PGR Development Fund Activity Report by Gail Ollis, SciTech

PG research

ACCU 2014

(ACCU 2014: The conference for developers. Bristol, April 2014. accu.org/index.php/conferences)

Introduction

ACCU is an organisation for software developers which champions professionalism in programming. Its members and conference delegates are exactly the kind of audience my research must reach to be relevant in influencing professional software development practice.

Funding from the Graduate School enabled me to attend the ACCU annual conference, an ideal place to discuss my research findings and their practical applications. I reached an even larger audience than I had hoped: to date, more than 50 have attended my presentations and I have talked to many others informally. Speaking for ACCU also generated an unforeseen bonus: a new student placement relationship.

Engagement and impact

In my session entitled “What programmers want” I presented themes that have emerged, in my research interviews, about how actions taken by peers make a software developer’s job harder or easier. I also included an audience activity to let people try for themselves a card-sorting technique I developed for use in the interviews.

The ‘buzz’ in the room during the activity was extraordinary; everyone engaged with discussing just how much they are affected by the various good or bad peer behaviours listed on the cards. In my research I used the cards to prompt individual participants to talk about a wide range of activities that their job involves. It was evident from the audience response that the cards also function very well as a catalyst for group discussion; several people have asked for a copy to use in this way at their workplace.

Research project benefits

The session finished with a discussion and the audience was keen to contribute by sharing thoughts and questions inspired by my presentation and the activity. It is encouraging to find that my work is meaningful, interesting and useful to the people whose profession it concerns. Their feedback will play an important role in shaping how the research proceeds from here.

Personal development

 

Being a speaker at ACCU 2014 also led to invitations to speak to the local ACCU groups in Oxford (February 2014) and Bath/Bristol (planned for June 2014).  Presenting the material a second time has been a fantastic opportunity to refine my presentation skills by exploring different approaches to the same material.

Other benefits

As a direct consequence of the Oxford talk, a new student placement relationship has been set up between BU’s computing department and a company in Abingdon.

Conclusion

This was a great opportunity to share my research with the professional community. Many software developers are now aware of this work at BU and find it relevant and useful to their workplace. It is a tremendous encouragement to have established that my research makes sense to the people it is for.

Photos – courtesy of Anna-Jayne Metcalfe, @annajayne

GS Santander Mobility Activity Report by Jonny Branney – HSC

PG research

BRITSPINE 2014

Introduction

I was delighted to present the results of my PhD work in a presentation entitled “Does spinal manipulation change cervical inter-vertebral motion?” at BritSpine 2014. BritSpine is the largest and most prestigious spine research conference in the UK so it was a privilege to have had my abstract accepted for oral presentation. This provided the opportunity to experience presenting my work to some of the main spine researchers from around the world and promote myself as a researcher, and Bournemouth University.

Personal Development

I received valuable feedback on my presentation from the President of the Society for Back Pain research, and fielded audience questions from none less than the President of the British Association of Spine Surgeons, and the Chair of the United Kingdom Spine Societies Board who is Professor of Spinal Surgery, University of Oxford. My supervisor, who attended with me, was very pleased with how the presentation went and my competent answering of audience questions. This being my first large professional conference presentation, I feel much more confident in my presenting skills and in presenting at future conferences, an important part of being a researcher. The peer-review provided by this experience will also help as I finalise the writing-up of my thesis.

After finishing my presentation I was pleased to relax and enjoy the rest of the conference, attending presentations on the latest approaches to diagnosing and treating spinal problems. This allowed me to learn about (and critically evaluate) the methodologies used by other researchers, as well as staying up-to-date with developments in the spine research field.

Summary

The experience has been hugely worthwhile as I prepare to submit my thesis and embark on the next stage in my career. Many thanks to the Graduate School and Santander Universities for enabling me to attend BritSpine and gain this valuable experience.

 

Jonny Branney
PhD student, School of Health and Social Care
http://staffprofiles.bournemouth.ac.uk/display/jbranney

 

Facebook User Interface to suit Saudi Arabian culture

BU research, PG research, Research news

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

 

Title: Facebook User Interface to suit Saudi Arabian culture

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 28th May 2014

Room: P302 (Poole House, Talbot Campus)

 

Abstract: Social media has continued growing in Saudi Arabia. Millions of businesses and trades are now using social media for entertainment, advertisement and promoting themselves internationally. Social networking sites, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc., have gained huge popularity at personal as well as professional scale. Therefore, work is being done to evolve the modes of communication over these platforms, extensively. My research explores the effect of Saudi cultures on the design of social media site of Facebook. The expected outcome of this research will be a theoretical framework that guides the design of a user interface for Facebook to meet the Saudi’s expectations.

We hope to see you there,

 

Dr. David John

 

Dragons’ Den: Pitch to the Editors

BU research, PG research, Research news

Do you have a science news story worthy of appearing in Nature, The Times or Research Fortnight?

Organisers of the UK Conference of Science Journalists are running a ‘Dragons’ Den: Pitch to the Editors’ session, open to students, recent graduates or scientists with a great story.

This is your chance to stand up in front of top journalists and ‘sell’ your story idea. It can be about any aspect of science, as long as it is suitable for Nature, the Times or Research Fortnight. (Do make sure you research the publications before submitting)!

Successful applicants will pitch their story idea to Helen Pearson (Nature), Ehsan Masood (Research Fortnight) and Hannah Devlin (The Times) in front of a live audience at the conference on Wednesday 18th June in London.  

For more information and details of how to apply, visit http://www.ukcsj.org/dragons-den.html. Applications are open until 23rd May.

If you would like to discuss your pitch, email Sally Gates (Research Communications Manager).

Delivering healthcare in prisons

BU research, PG research, Research Ethics

A special event has been arranged at BU that will focus on health care within prisons. The session to be held on 28th May will be led by Jane Senior from the University of Manchester. Jane is a clinician-researcher and Research Project Manager for the Offender Health Research Network. Jane is a qualified mental health nurse with over 20 years of post qualification experience of working in prison and secure mental health settings.

Jane’s session will be of great value to anyone :

  • thinking about undertaking research within UK prisons
  • wanting to know more about health care delivery in prisons
  • thinking of working with or in a prison health care team

During the session Jane will outline findings from her recent prison research projects. These include studies into how to manage the health and wellbeing of older prisoners and her recent work in developing the Older Prisoner Health and Social Care Assessment and Plan (OHSCAP). She will also highlight some of the specific issues that can arise when undertaking research within a prison environment.

Staff and students are welcome to attend the session. If you would like to attend please email Holly Crossen-White (hcrossen@Bournemouth.ac.uk).