BU Research Blog

You may ask what has stand-up comedy got to do with research? Well, the founders of Bright Club have taken public engagement to an entirely different level, by founding a variety night whereby academic researchers take the stage alongside established comedians and musicians.

But, given the prospect of stand-up comedy is frankly terrifying for the vast majority of people, why do it? Firstly, it takes your research to an entirely new audience – people may not think to spend their Thursday evening at a seminar or public talk from academics. However, they might be tempted to head out to a local pub to watch a variety night.

A stand-up gig is also a great way to develop skills around reading and reacting to your audience. Naturally, giving any sort of public talk means considering (and reacting to your audience), however a stand-up routine takes this to a whole new level. Key to a successful act is reading what your audience is reacting to and building on that.

Plus, for the researcher taking part, Bright Club offers a positive way to explore the frustrations and idiosyncrasies that are are part of a research career.

Want to see Bright Club in action? There are many examples online, such as this one here (warning – this clip contains strong language!) or you can access the weekly podcast here

The Wellcome trust has announced an exciting new project looking for researchers working in biomedical sciences or medical humanities to send in ideas about how to turn their PhD into a game.

The Trust is also looking for game development teams to help turn these ideas into playable video games during a hack session.

The best game that comes out of the hack session will receive additional support and be further developed for release.

This takes public engagement to an exciting new dimension, and we will be keenly awaiting the results!

For further details, click here: Gamify Your PhD | Wellcome Trust

You may also be interested to read Wired‘s feature on the Call.

If you are interested in getting involved, do let the RDU know! Contact Becca on redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk or 01202 961206.

Sense about science have announced a call for nominations for the John Maddox Prize for standing up for science.

Last Thursday the RDU took part in our team Away Day!  We wanted our Away Day to focus on giving back to our local community, so the RDU contacted The Hub who put us in touch with The Richmond Fellowship, which is a non-profit organisation that encourages, supports and challenges people with mental health problems. 

Our task for the day was to add life and colour to Bailey’s Cafe, which is attached to Richmond Fellowship and provides a selection of hot food, snacks, and drinks for all – at present, they have 9 trainees in Bailey’s Cafe who have a support plan that is targeted at getting them back to paid or voluntary work. 

We had a fantastic time and highly recommend other BU groups get involved and give back to this this great community!

Our community’s local Richmond Fellowship (East Dorset Community Services) is located in Christchurch and it provides a variety of recovery focused activities, training and one-to-one support for people with Mental Health problems.  The Service is based on an ethos of social inclusion, service user involvement and individual support.  Activities include peer supprt, healthy living, horticultural groups, Bailey’s Frames, Bailey’s Cafe, groups and groupwork.  East Dorset Community Services is part of one of the largest specialist mental health service provider in England.  The Service enables people to undertake training and education and to access other support within their areas thus reducing social isolation. 

Colleagues may be interested to learn about the forthcoming Thomas Hardye School Community Lectures, taking place in the next academic year. There are many esteemed speakers giving lectures on a range of fascinating topics that I am sure will be of interest to many.

For those of you with a particular interest in public engagement, you may wish to note Professor Jim Al-Khalili (Professor of Physics and Professor of Public Engagement in Science) is giving a talk on Thursday 29th November titled ‘Paradox – The Greatest Enigmas in Science’. 

If you would like more information about the lectures, or wish to enquire about tickets, please contact Richard Cain at rcain@thomas-hardye.net

Do you already have an interactive exhibition of your research? Would you like the opportunity to engage Festival goers with your research?

A potential opportunity has arisen for BU academics to join colleagues from other local institutions in an exhibition tent at Bestival to engage the festival going public. You can learn more about why festivals are a great opportunity for public engagement here. If you might be interested in taking part, please contact Becca on redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk or 01202 961206.

The Royal Academy of Engineering is calling for applications to the Ingenious fund to develop public engagement activities which:

• “inspire creative public engagement with engineering projects
• stimulate engineers to share their stories, passion and expertise in innovative ways with wider audiences
• develop engineers’ communication and engagement skills
• create debate between engineers and people of all ages to raise awareness of the diversity, nature and impact of engineering”. 

Given BU’s excellence in engineering, this is a great opportunities for colleagues to take their work to a far wider audience. Inspiration can be found from the case studies that are available here.

Grants are available for between £3,000 and £30,000. Further details on how to apply can be found here.

The deadline for applications is 21st September 2012.

If you would like to brainstorm ideas or discuss a potential application, please contact Becca on redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk or 01202 961206. 

 This week, Dr Jacqui Taylor, Associate Professor in the psychology group (School of Design, Engineering and Computing) coordinated two workshops on the Impact of Technology on Children, in-conjunction with colleagues from Winton Primary School, Bournemouth Borough Council, Barnardo’s, Dorset Police and the Research Development Unit. Many congratulations to Jacqui for organising two such informative and engaging events.

The first workshop was aimed at parents and included presentations about current research findings, technical advice, police guidance on child protection and film ratings guidance. The workshop also encouraged lively debate about how parents can use research findings to ensure that their children have a healthy relationship with technology.

The second workshop invited practitioners (including teachers) to consider research around the psychological impacts of social networking and video games, age ratings, child protection and technological innovation. Again, this promoted considerable discussion on how to develop good practice at a speed that keeps pace with changing technology.

A full report on the workshops will be made available next month, but until then, insights into the knowledge shared can be found from Dr Jacqui Taylor’s presentation Research on the Impacts of Technology on the Thoughts, Feelings and Behaviour of Children and Cheryl I’anson’s talk on Age Ratings of Video Games. PC Jeff Gray’s presentation on Protecting Young People Online can be found here.

If you attended the workshop, Jacqui would be grateful if you could complete the Children and Technology Workshop Evaluation Questionnaire

Jacqui would be grateful if anyone with children aged between 4 and 12 years could complete the Children and Technology Research Questionnaire to aid research in the subject area.

Future activities around the theme of technology and children are being planned. If you would be interested in participating in a future event, or have ideas about what you would like to learn, please contact Becca on redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk.

The Society of Biology have announced details of their Science Communication Awards 2012.

The Awards are aimed to reward high quality public engagement work conducted by researchers helping to inform, enthuse and engage the public (including school groups, patients and any non-scientific audiences). The judges will be looking for all types of engagement activities (from talks to hands-on demonstrations) with added weight to projects that work with deprived communities.

There are two award categories:

New Researcher Prize: £750 (aimed at Masters/PhD students or first year post-docs)

Established Researcher Prize: £1500 (aimed early career researchers).

Nominations close on 1st August 2012 with the Awards presented at a ceremony in London on 16 October 2012.

If you are planning to enter a colleague or student, please do let Becca know on redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk or 01202 961206, we would love to hear about excellence in this area.