Category / Creative, Digital & Cognitive Science

Book launch in Kathmandu

BU research, Featured academics, PG research, Publishing, student research, Uncategorized

 

This week sees the publication of a new book co-edited by BU Professor Edwin van Teijlingen.  The book The Dynamics of Health in Nepal is published for Social Science Baha by Himal Books in Nepal.  The lead editor Dr. Sharada Prasad Wasti was awarded his MSc from the University of Aberdeen and his PhD from the University of Sheffield.  The second editor, Padam Simkhada is Professor of International health at Liverpool John Moores University as well as Visiting Faculty in BU’s Faculty of Health & Social Sciences.

This edited volume has 13 chapters written on various health-related topics that are topical in Nepal.  Many of the authors are from Nepal who completed their postgraduate studies at a UK university.   The chapters cover amongst other topics such as Maternity Care, Health of the Elderly, Road Traffic Accidents, HIV/AIDS and Non-Communicable Diseases.  The book will be formally launched in a hotel in Kathmandu on the morning of Sunday 11th January.

The book also includes a chapter by BU PhD student Sheetal Sharma.  She co-authored the chapter ‘Customs and believes surrounding newborn babies in rural areas’.  One of her collaborator was a PhD student registered at the University of Aberdeen and another at London Metropolitan University, whilst third collaborator is the founder of Green Tara Trust, a UK-based Buddhist charity.

Copies of the book are for sale from Himal Books in Kathmandu and all profits from the book will be donated to Green Tara Nepal.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Faculty of Health & Social Sciences,  Bournemouth University

Showcasing Undergraduate Research Excellence – SUREBU 2015: call for submissions

Fusion, Research news, student research

SUREBU is a Fusion funded project aimed at showcasing the best of BU’s undergraduate research.  Research is broadly defined and could include work towards an undergraduate essay or dissertation, work carried out as part of a volunteer or work placement, or activities for an academic society.  Not only are research skills a central part of undergraduate study and academic life, but they are also vital skills for any future career.  By encouraging undergraduate students to think critically and develop their skills, research will help to enhance their student experience and increase their employability upon graduation.

The call for submissions is now open, and all BU undergraduate students – from all schools and courses – are eligible to apply.  Examples of research could be anything from preparing for a dissertation or an essay to work carried out during a placement year to volunteering or work with academic societies.   The main criteria is that evidence of the student’s own critical thinking can be demonstrated.  As well as developing new skills, this is a good opportunity to enhance their CVs through a conference presentation, publication of abstract or even being the winner of awards and prizes.

To get involved, register on SUREBU’s website and submit an abstract.  Abstracts should be a maximum of 300 words, with a title no longer than 150 characters.  The deadline for submission is 5th January 2015.  If you know of a student or recent graduate who would be eligible to submit, do encourage them to apply!

Third book in PR history series published by Palgrave

Research news, Uncategorized

The third book in Professor Tom Watson’s edited world history of public relations series, Middle Eastern and African Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations: Other Voices, has arrived.

Ten chapters from Turkey to South Africa and the Arab Gulf to Nigeria are covered by 14 authors.

The next book in the series, Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives, is due for online publishing by Palgrave Macmillan in its Pivot series next week. The hard copy will follow in 3-4 weeks’ time.

And the manuscript on Western European Perspectives will be submitted next week, too.

Busy times for PR history scholarship and publishing!

Digital Business Briefing – December 2014

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

 

Now available for December, the Digital Business Briefing is compiled by the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) in partnership with Innovate UK, Catapults, Tech City, Nesta, and Horizon2020. The briefing highlights funding, support, events and training relevant to those working in the digital industries.

Sign up to receive regular updates “Join the creative industries community”

Wanted ! – Researchers for Silicon South

Research news

Position: 2 full-time freelance contracts available for 3 months each

Day rate: £100 plus travel expenses

Location: Dorset

Silicon South is working on behalf of the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership to develop a strategy for boosting the digital creative economy in Dorset. Silicon South has committed to undertake a series of research and feasibility studies which together will inform a full-scale investment strategy setting out how this growth can be achieved.

Silicon South is looking for two freelance full-time researchers to assist in the development of the strategy by undertaking research and analysis on a range of projects related to the creative and digital sector. Working to the Director of Silicon South, you will undertake a combination of primary and secondary data analysis and research on a variety of topics relevant to Silicon South’s strategy.

Informal enquires about the post are welcomed. Please contact Anthony Story on 07702 103872.

Please send a CV and covering letter detailing your experience to: paul.webster@siliconsouth.org.uk

Closing date: Noon, 8 December 2014.

Click here for more information including application details.

Reminder For All Consumer Researchers – December Meeting of Consumer Research @ BU

Uncategorized

Just over a month ago we held a very successful meeting bringing together consumer researchers from a wide range of disciplines across the University.  Our ‘Hands-On Information Sharing Session’ made it clear that there was tremendous potential for cross-disciplinary research and that as a united group we could not only act as a forum for research and ideas but also to provide a platform for interaction with industry.

This is a reminder that our next meeting is going to be held on:-

Wednesday, 3rd December in CG01, Christchurch House between 3-5pm.  [Please note the change in venue.]

Anyone who is doing consumer research of any description is welcome (e.g. consumer behaviour, retail, marketing, advertising, psychology, consumer neuroscience …) and there will be coffee and mince pies to help our consumer thinking along.

At this meeting we will be begin to identify groups or clusters of researchers, to discuss potential collaborations, and discuss plans for the future.

So if you think this might be of interest, please do come along next Wednesday.  If you are unable to make this meeting but are interested in being involved please email us to let us know and we will keep you informed about future events.

Jeff Bray (Tourism; jbray@bournemouth.ac.uk)
Juliet Memery (Business School; jmemery@bournemouth.ac.uk)
Janice Denegri-Knott (Media School; JDKnott@bournemouth.ac.uk)
Siné McDougall (SciTech; smcdougall@bournemouth.ac.uk)

 

Developing ViRETS – A Virtual Reality Eye-Tracking System

BU research, PG research

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

 

Title: Developing ViRETS – A Virtual Reality Eye-Tracking System

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 3rd December 2014

Room: P335, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract:

This research project aims to develop a Virtual Reality Eye-Tracking System (VIRETS), capable of displaying naturalistic viewing conditions with high ecological validity and large field of view (FOV) in order to investigate the effects on human gaze behaviour (including head movement) and how this could be advantageous when looking at methods for visual cognition experiments. Static, lab-based eye trackers (head-mounted or desk-mounted) are accurate and easy to calibrate. However, they have traditionally made use of single screen setups with a FOV which doesn’t provide realistic viewing conditions. Furthermore, the head of a participant often has to be restricted using a chin rest and/or bite bar, or, in the case of head-mounted eye-trackers, restricted to small movements, which prohibits naturalistic head movements.

While mobile eye-trackers bring eye-tracking research to real world scenarios, allowing for naturalistic head and eye movements and allowing for naturalistic viewing conditions, the method presents a number of limitations, such as lower frequencies and the possibility of dropped frames. Although video footage can be layered with gaze behaviour to show saccadic eye-movement in real scenes, data analysis has to be carried out offline and can be time consuming: Specifically, video footage must be inspected frame by frame, labelled and described in order to analyse what objects in the scene participants attend to. Furthermore using real-world scenarios make it difficult to control all the stimuli presented, making the interpretation of cause and effect relationships difficult.

ViRETS aims to address these concerns by combining realistic and immersive VR, head-mounted eye-tracking, motion tracking and the freedom of naturalistic head movement. By these means we’ll investigate how an increased FOV affects gaze behaviour, head movements and performance specifically in the context of visual search and navigation.       

We hope to see you there.

Funding Call Scoping Workshop: Invitation to inform the content of an upcoming Innovate UK UX and Data Competition

Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Knowledge Transfer Partnership

 

The Knowledge Transfer Network are running  an information day and workshop around User Experience and Data technology innovation.  This event will bring together businesses, academics and researchers working within UX and data to contribute to a discussion on the scoping of a Spring 2015 funding competition. 

Innovate UK (formally Technology Strategy Board) will be running three funding competitions in areas relating to User Experience (UX). This event is an opportunity to learn more about these funding calls, how to apply as well as influencing future activities in UX.

There are two themes to these UX related competitions: 

1. Utilising personal data to improve a user’s experience of a product or service: This competition is a feasibility study and is due to launch in March 2015. There will be an opportunity to influence the scope of this call so that it correctly addresses the issues that are affecting the UX industry.

2. Innovative technology & software to improved the interaction between human and machine: This will focus on novel approaches to UX with an innovative software element to them, essentially how to let people and machines interact better, moving beyond the traditional keyboard, mouse and screen.  

There are two competions in this theme: a feasibility study and a  Knowledge Transfer Parnership. (KTP).

Date: Tuesday, 02 December 2014

Time: 10:30 – 16:30

Venue: Barbican Centre, London

Register now to attend

Critical Review Of Vendor Lock-In And Its Impact On Adoption Of Cloud Computing

BU research, PG research

We would like to invite you to the next research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre for the new academic year, that will be delivered by Justice Opara-Martins.

 

Title: Critical Review Of Vendor Lock-In And Its Impact On Adoption Of Cloud Computing

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 19th November 2014

Room: P302, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract:

Cloud computing offers an innovative business model for organizations to adopt IT services at a reduced cost with increased reliability and scalability. However organizations are slow in adopting the cloud model due to the prevalent vendor lock-in issue and challenges associated with it. While the existing cloud solutions for public and private companies are vendor locked-in by design, their existence is subject to limited possibility to interoperate with other cloud systems. In this seminar we will present a critical review of pertinent business, technical, and legal issues associated with vendor lock-in, and how it impacts on the widespread adoption of cloud computing. The talk in this seminar will reflect on the issues associated with interoperability and portability, but with a focus on vendor lock-in. Moreover, the talk will demonstrate the importance of interoperability, portability and standards applicable to cloud computing environments along with highlighting other corporate concerns due to the lock-in problem. The outcome of this seminar provides a foundation for future analysis and review regarding the impact of vendor neutrality for corporate cloud computing application and services. 

We hope to see you there.

User Experience (UX) Themed Call for KTPs

Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Knowledge Transfer Partnership, student research

 

The User Experience (or UX) KTP competition  has just opened .

The aim is to encourage new, enhanced forms of interaction between computing systems and the people who use them.   Proposals may address technologies that contribute to these new forms, such as sensing information about the user, or those that improve specific types of experience, such as mobile and wearable devices.

A launch event is being held in London on 14 November 2014. Registration is required.

 To find our more about this call and other KTP opportuntities please contact Rachel Clarke in R&KEO . Contact details are as follows: email: clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk or ring extension 61347.

Third time lucky in Bangkok

Post-award, Research news, Uncategorized

 

Group photo of the delegates at the opening of the Researcher Links Workshop in Bangkok on November 2

Working with partners at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, a team from BU led and participated in a British Council Researcher Links Workshop in Bangkok from November 2 to 4.

For Professor Tom Watson of the Media School and Associate Professor Jirayudh Sinthuphan of Chula’s Faculty of Communication Arts, it was ‘mission accomplished’, as the Workshop had been postponed twice in February and May because of Thailand’s febrile politics.

“This time, there were no problems as Bangkok was about as quiet as it will ever be,” said Professor Watson. “As a result, the Workshop was attended by representatives of four UK and seven Thai universities who worked very well together”.

From the three days of collaborative working, four projects related the Workshop theme of ‘the impact of social media upon corporate and marketing communication in Thailand and UK’ emerged. They will be developed over the coming months into research actions, bids for funding and publications.

With Professor Watson were Associate Professor John Oliver (Senior Researcher), Dr Ana Adi (Deputy Workshop Coordinator), Dr Tauheed Ramjaun and Mona Esfahani, all from the Corporate & Marketing Communications academic group. Among the Thai participants was Dr Waraporn Chatratichart of the University of the Thailand Chamber of Commerce, who is a PhD alumna from the Media School.

“The Workshop also reinforced the existing relationship between BU and Chulalongkorn University as the Dean of the Faculty of Communication Arts, Dr Duangkamol Chartprasert, and Professor Parichart Sthapitanonda both took part as Senior Researchers,” said Professor Watson. “The BU-Chula relationship has great potential for research collaboration and staff exchanges. I hope that other BU staff will follow the opportunity that the Workshop has opened up.”

 

Three for the price of one: Keynote Talk, Outstanding Contribution Award and Media Appearance.

BU research, Featured academics, Research news, Uncategorized

Prof Gabrys delivers a keynote talk at the KES 2014 international conference, receives the Outstanding Contribution to the KES International organisation award and appears in two popular Polish TV’s “Panorama” news programmes.

It was a very nice and productive trip to a beautiful Polish seaside city of Gdynia where the 18th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems took place between the 14th and 17th of September 20014.

I thought that I was only going to deliver a keynote talk which in itself was a nice recognition of the ongoing work that we are doing in the areas of robust adaptive predictive modelling and data science and a great opportunity to talk to over 200 delegates from over 30 countries attending the conference but as it turned out there were some other attractions awaiting.

This very well organised conference attracted the attention of the Polish TV and the topics of data science, artificial intelligence or big data, all in the focus of our Data Science Institute at BU, were judged to be of considerable interest to the general public. Not only I had an opportunity to talk briefly about the conference topics during the TV coverage at the conference venue (which was aired in the evening news programme on the 15th of Sep) but together with one of the local organisers we were invited to the “Panorama” programme studio to take part in the morning news programme the following day (aired on the 16th of Sep). The interaction with the journalists and the production teams brought to my attention how important is our role in informing and educating about this very dynamically changing field and related technological innovations which have already had such a huge impact on our lives and will play even bigger role in the near future.

So whatever next, I thought. Well, there was another surprise around the corner. Though I have been involved in the KES International for a number of years it has come as a very pleasant surprise and an honour to receive the Outstanding Contribution to KES International award during the conference dinner.

An icing on the cake, you could say. 🙂

Interested in Digital Health research?

BU research

We will be holding a CHIRP meeting on Thursday 30th October at 1pm in P403 for anyone who may be currently conducting (or interested in conducting) research studies related to digital health.

The aims of these CHIRP meetings are to meet regularly as a group with common interests so that we can stay updated about current research/current technologies etc., potentially find areas of common interest for collaboration and generally bounce ideas around one another.

Meetings are open to anyone interested in digital technologies and health whether this focuses on digital health interventions, issues around the impact of digital technologies on health and wellbeing, how digital technologies can aid clinical training or something similar. We are particularly interested in creating a multi-disciplinary group of researchers so welcome any colleagues from Health and Social Care, Computing, Psychology, the Media School etc. etc.

We are currently working on pulling together a BU CHIRP/Digital Health research webpage and aim to share our first version with colleagues at the meeting as well as update current/planned projects and past/upcoming events of interest.

Please contact Sarah on swilliams@bournemouth.ac.uk if you would like to join our CHIRP group or would like to come along and find out more at our meeting on the 30th.

Dog Facial Animation (CTRC Guest Seminar)

Research news

Speaker: Professor Andres Newball
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Cali, Colombia
Date: Thursday 30th October 2014   
Time: 15.00-16.00pm
Venue: P335

Abstract: Several human facial animation models have been developed in the last 30 years. In contrast, less attention has been given to animal facial models. Animal facial anatomical features are usually humanised, oversimplified, cartoonised or ignored. With Londra, our dog facial animation model, we successfully synthesised dog facial expressions such as anger, affection, attention, fear, happiness, yawning and smelling without displaying anthropomorphic features. A preliminary validation suggested that most expressions were recognised consistently. Our contributions include: a simplified model inspired by anatomy; a new bottom up form of the layered approach for the bone, muscle, complementary, skin and fur layers; a Dog Facial Action Coding System to synthesise the expressions; and the Tabulated Sphere Subsets to provide a fast way to approximate collisions between objects with constrained motion. This project was funded by the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Cali; The University of Otago and Colfuturo and had the collaboration from the Manchester Metropolitan University.