Category / PG research

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

PG Researcher Development Workshops – New Addition for March

PG research

WHAT’S ON in March 2014

Another workshop on Preparing for your First Review has been added to the list of  workshops this month:

  • Preparing for your Viva – 5 March 2014
  • Statistics: Regression Analysis – 6 March 2014
  • Introduction to Focus Groups – 14 March 2014
  • Looking for sources of Funding & How to Write a Research Proposal (for funding) – 17 March 2014
  • Preparing for your First Review – 19 March 2014 (AM)
  • Statistics: Factor Analysis – 19 March 2014 (PM)
  • Time Management – 24th March 2014 (AM)
  • How to Manage your Research Project – 24th March 2014 (PM)
  • Writing for Marketing – 26th March 2014

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 to myBU with your student username and regularly check your student email account for email reminders.

Why English Football Player Fail in Penalty Shootouts: German Sport Psychology Researcher Visiting BU

PG research

Recently, the Sport Academic Group hosted researcher Dr Philip Furley from its Erasmus partner institution German Sport University Cologne. Philip works for the Institute of Cognitive and Team/Racket Sport Research and has recently published studies in a number of fields like inattentional blindness and creativity, many of which funded by the prestigious German Research Foundation.

As part of his visit he discussed his work with a selected group of sport academics and postgraduate researchers in a workshop-style format. One of the studies looked into how non-verbal behaviour of athletes is a function of the current score, how this can be reliably interpreted by others – especially opponents who register this which in turn influences their confidence levels.

By extending this research into what Philip calls ‘pop science’, it can be explained why English footballers are more likely to fail in penalty shootouts based on empirical data. ‘Hastening and hiding’ behaviour as a consequence of psychological stress in the penalty situation leads, for example, to submissive non-verbal behaviour like turning your back to the goalkeeper after dropping the ball on the penalty spot and taking little time for the shot after the referee blows the whistle.

Further studies and discussions were around the dangers of coaching instructions to induce an attentional set that controls the focus of attention of athletes. It can lead to structured awareness not adaptive to dynamic situations – for example during on-field decision making which can lead to important information being overseen, like an opponent who ‘unexpectedly’ enters the space of a defender. It was discussed if there were parallels to the way university tutors may be used to structure and present material to students and how this forms their thinking.

“Bringing highly dedicated researchers from internationally leading institutions to BU is an important part of inspiring and guiding research at our university. Philip’s presentations were a fantastic example of work that is driven by deep academic curiosity and high process quality, and his visit has provoked much inspiration and discussion” says Dr Tim Breitbarth, Senior Lecturer and Coordinator Internationalisation in Sport.

eBU: Online Journal – Reminder to Publish your Posters or Abstracts from the recent PG Annual Conference

PG research

Don’t forget that a great opportunity exists for those who submitted abstracts (oral or poster) to get them published in BU’s online journal –  eBU.

Andy Harding, current PGR and eBU Journal Manager, Editor & Section Editor invites PGRs:

“ who presented work at the 2014 PGR conference to make submissions to eBU, including those that presented posters and abstracts. In addition, PGRs who delivered a presentation may also wish to consider writing up their presentation as a conference paper or even as another type of paper (e.g. a review paper). Regular eBU protocol is immediate internal publication and open peer review. However, a series of deadlines have been set for submission associated with the PGR conference, and on this occasion only conference papers will be reviewed. Authors of paper submissions are encouraged to use the feedback in order to increase their chances of publication in an external journal.

However, publishing abstracts and posters is also beneficial. Publishing abstracts and posters on eBU will open up the focus of your work to the whole university, and in the process make the BU community aware of the focus of your research. Should you choose, poster and abstract submissions, alongside papers that are not published externally, will be among the first publications on the external eBU site”

Further details can be found on the Graduate School website and myBU (Graduate School PGR Community)

Towards Platform Agnostic Software Development for Games

PG research

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

 

Title: Towards Platform Agnostic Software Development for Games

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM                

Date: Wednesday 5th March 2014

Room: P302 (Poole House, Talbot Campus)

 

Abstract: With the rapid introduction and deprecation of mobile platforms it is becoming increasingly necessary to develop games in a portable manner so that as much work as possible is transferable between them. This talk looks towards changes which can be made to the development pipeline that can help create a game in a more platform agnostic manner, whilst still being able to utilize any unique features native to a device that the players will want to take advantage of. An explanation is provided of what DeepThought, the main tool facilitating all this, is and how it can be used to develop games in a modular and portable manner. The handling and inlining of different languages with a tool called Iffe will also be covered. Together, these two technologies can greatly simplify the development process by not just simply providing a cross platform game engine for existing platforms but also by providing a generic solution that can be adapted to any future technology.

 

We hope to see you there.

Networking opportunity with expert in Behaviour Change

PG research

To remind, we have Dr Falko Sniehotta from Newcastle University visiting on Tuesday 4th March (http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/?s=falko).

There are spaces left on the workshop for those that would like to sign up for this free workshop (plus free lunch).

For those that cannot attend the workshop (10am – 12pm), but would like to informally talk with Falko during our networking lunch (12pm – 1pm), then you are most welcome to join us in PG146, Talbot campus (though lunch will only be provided for those on the workshop).

Falko is keen to discuss potential research collaborations with BU staff and so would welcome the opportunity to meet with colleagues.

PGR Development Fund

PG research

Don’t forget that the PGR Development Fund is OPEN for applications and is available to support all BU postgraduate researchers (PGRs) irrespective of the mode of study (full-time/part-time) or funding status (BU studentship/externally funded/self-funded/ VC PhD Scholarship).

Individual awards will provide financial support of normally up to £1,000 for research activities related to an individual PGR’s research project or personal development.  Examples of research activities covered by the Scheme include:

  • Conferences (to present – either poster or oral and you must provide evidence that you have submitted either a poster or oral abstract for consideration);
  • Research development e.g. attending external training events specific to your research project;
  • Personal development e.g. attending external personal development training events;
  • Organisation of an academic conference at BU with external participants;
  • Attendance at external networking events leading to advance of the research;
  • Meetings or networking events linking to publications or dissemination of research.

The closing date for applications is 17:00 hrs on 31st March 2014

Full details can be found on myBU – Graduate School PGR Community (Funding – Development & Mobility Awards Section)

If you have any questions about the PGR Development Fund, then please get in touch with the Graduate School Team.

 

Health, Well-Being & Society: New Wordle

PG research

The members of the Health, Wellbeing & Society theme have responded enthusiastically to the call to provide the five keys word reflecting their research interests and expertise.  The new Wordle above was created Feb. 13th from all of those key words.  Apart from presenting a pretty picture of colourful words, the Wordle provides a quick overview of the kind of research conducted by BU staff and PhD students affiliated with the theme.

 

Prof. Heather Hartwell leading the Health, Wellbeing & Society theme highlighted: “Our theme welcomes new members from across BU. This Wordle is, of course, snapshot in time.  We shall up-date the Wordle regularly to accommodate new members joining and existing members developing new research interests!”

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health

CEMP Bulletin Feb 2014

Funding opportunities, PG research, Publishing

    CEMP bulletin Feb 2014

Here’s the updated CEMP Research, Innovation and Funding Bulletin.

To follow up any of these funding opportunities, or to talk about working with CEMP on research / innovation in other ways, please contact Julian McDougall or:

Media School – the CEMP Fellow in your academic group (Anna Feignbaum, Richard Wallis, Neal White or Ashley Woodfall)

Non Media School – Milena Bobeva (the CEL / CEMP Fellow)

 

 

BU Graduate School Santander Scholarship awarded to SciTech PhD Student – Mahmood Hosseini

PG research

Mahmood Hosseini, a first-year SciTec PhD student, was recently successful in securing a BU Graduate School Santander Scholarship Award with a total value of £2,500.

This Santander grant will provide Mahmood with the unique opportunity to visit four research groups in Software Engineering across Europe: the Open University in the UK, Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain, IT University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and Utrecht University in Netherlands​.

 
Mahmood is currently working on setting up a framework for acquiring and studying users’ feedback in software systems with an eye on the quality of the obtained information. These four visits will allow Mahmood to present his work and interact with scholars in these four groups and do joint work especially in the areas of requirements engineering, model-driven development, and utilizing crowdsourcing to involve a broader assembly of users to play an active role in contributing knowledge useful to evolve software.

Mahmood’s research is part of the SOCIAD project, funded by an FP7 Marie Curie CIG grant and Bournemouth University, and his supervisory team consists of Dr. Raian Ali, Prof. Keith Phalp and Associated Prof. Jacqui Taylor.

If you have any comments, or would like to contact Mahmood, please contact him at: mhosseini@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

Sport PhD Student Emma Mosley To Be Trained At Top International Research Institute

Fusion, PG research, Training

Congratulations to Emma Mosley, a ST PhD student in Sport, who has been successful in gaining a substantial Santander Mobility Award. Emma will be venturing to Germany for one month in spring to research at the prestigious German Sport University Cologne within the Institute of Psychology.

Emma’s thesis, supervised by Dr Ian Jones and Dr Jo Mayoh, aims to discover the psychophysiological effects of approaching athletic competition stress in a positive manner through the use of heart rate variability (HRV).

In Germany, she will be researching under the supervision of Dr Sylvain Laborde who is an expert in the area of psychophysiology and HRV and works in a large team of internationally renowned sports psychologists.

Whilst at the University Emma will gain experience in HRV data collection, data analysis and the writing of scientific papers in relation to HRV. She will have the opportunity to join on-going research projects as well as conducting her own research.

Dr Tim Breitbarth, the Coordinator for Internationalisation of Sport at BU, said, “The visit offers Emma the chance to start engaging with leading and well-connected experts in her field while receiving first-class training in the most modern equipment at the same time. Also, her visit will help to deepen our established international research, teaching and student exchange partnerships from which BU benefits in terms of reach and reputation.”

For details about her research and international endeavour contact Emma at Emma.Mosley@bournemouth.ac.uk

BU Graduate School Santander Scholarship awarded to SciTech PhD Student – Alimohammad Shahri

PG research

SciTec PhD student Alimohammad Shahri has been successful in securing a BU Graduate School Santander Scholarship Award, to the value of £2,500.

The grant will support Alimohammad to visit three research groups in Europe: the Open University in the UK, Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain, and Simula Research Lab in Norway.

Alimohammad’s PhD thesis research investigates novel methods for the obtainment and analysis of users’ feedback on the quality of software systems and the utilization of that feedback to improve the service and plan the evolution of a system. The visits will allow Alimohammad to present his work and interact with scholars in the three groups and do joint work especially in the areas of requirements engineering, model-driven development, gamification to motivate users to play an active role in contributing knowledge useful to evolve software, and datamining techniques of users’ feedback to infer their collective judgement on the role of software in meeting their requirements.

Alimohammad’s research is part of the SOCIAD project, funded by an FP7 Marie Curie CIG grant and Bournemouth University, and his supervisory team consists of Dr. Raian Ali, Prof. Keith Phalp and Associated Prof. Jacqui Taylor.

For further information regarding Alimohammad’s research please contact him at ashahri@bournemouth.ac.uk:

 

 


CMH visit to Lund

PG research

 

 

 

 

 

 

Members of the Centre for Media History (Hugh Chignell, Kristin Skoog, Kathryn McDonald, Tony Stoller and Megan Davies) are currently visiting the University of Lund to develop our ties with media historians there.

We are talking about our research at a seminar on Wednesday evening at which we will focus on public service broadcasting and how it has been interpreted in the UK.

Conversations are taking place between us and staff and students in Lund and planning for future events.

HSC PGR Colleen Deane is awarded BU Santander Scholarship Award

PG research

 

HSC PhD student Colleen Deane has been successful for the second year running in securing a BU Graduate School Santander Scholarship Award, this time to the value of £2,500.

The funds will be used to support Colleen’s current collaboration with world leading researchers at the MRC/ARUK Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing based in the University of Nottingham.  Colleen will have the exceptional opportunity to work with muscle cells and investigate the novel role of vitamin D on muscle growth and the underlying regulatory mechanisms. Colleen is under the supervisor of Dr Timothy Etheridge and Dr Jane Murphy.

For further information regarding Colleen’s research, please contact her: cdeane@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

Another Santander award…

Fusion, PG research, Women's Academic Network

Another recent beneficiary of the current round of BU Graduate School Santander Mobility Awards is Higher Education Academy (HEA) funded PhD student David Galley. His study has attracted funding of £1000 allowing him to travel on fieldwork to other universities around the UK, seeking the perceptions of male social work students on their journeys through qualifying programmes.
The PhD thesis research of David Galley is based on male student’s perceptions of the lack of male practitioners in social work practice in the UK, why those males who undertake qualifying degrees enter the profession, and what their experiences are of what has been described as ‘pedagogically feminised’ programmes. His mixed-methods study will examine current and established perceptions which may inform future social work curricula. His research is supervised by Prof Jonathan Parker and Dr Sara Ashencaen Crabtree who have both researched and published in this area.

HSC student Daisy Wiggins wins Santander award

PG research

Congratulations to Daisy Wiggins from the School of Health & Social Care for winning a Santander Mobility Award of £1,000. This award will allow Daisy to develop networks to examine decision making in childbirth.

Daisy’s PhD is looking at My Birthplace: a computerized decision making tool to support women, their partners and midwives to make a decision about place of birth. Her match-funded PhD studentship with Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust (PHT) is an innovative four year model that enables Daisy to undertake a PhD while remaining connected with clinical practice. She currently spends two days per week working as a midwife in clinical practice and three days per week working on her PhD research. 

The Santander Mobility Award will fund a trip to the Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions Research Unit at the University of Stirling in Scotland. In addition, Daisy will visit Kings College London to network with colleagues at the Women’s Health Unit.

Daisy’s research is supervised by Prof. Vanora Hundley (BU), Dr Carol Bond (BU) and Gill Walton (Head of Midwifery at PHT).

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health: http://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/centre/centre-for-midwifery-maternal-and-perinatal-health/