BU Research Blog

Category / Strategic Investment Areas

November 1, 2023

The Success of CuttingGardens2023 Conference

conferences, Events, Research Training, Strategic Investment Areas Xun He

Last week saw the great success of the CuttingGardens2023 conference (16-19 October 2023). This was a globally distributed and hybrid conference on cutting-edge EEG/MEG methods with 800+ attendees. The event was globally coordinated by the CuttingEEG Association, and locally hosted by 21 gardens in 15 countries across Europe, Asia, and North and South Americas. Bournemouth University hosted a local Bournemouth Garden as part of this global event. This was chaired by Dr Xun He (also a member of the global organising committee) and the Multimodal Immersive NEuro-sensing (MINE) Research Cluster.

The conference had a series of plenary (global) talks on topics of theoretical advances, real-time processing and classification, reproducible analyses, and deep neural networks. These plenary talks were globally broadcasted to all gardens. Our Bournemouth Garden hosted a plenary speaker (Hubert Banville from Meta) on deep neural networks in the afternoon of Thursday, 19 October. Our local discussion on the plenary talks was so lively and critical, that very often our questions were among the top-voted online. Our attendees also enjoyed a thought-provoking, interactive, and friendly local programme. Following BU’s research expertise, they got a chance to visit the MINE Research Cluster and the EEG-eye tracking co-registration labs, and greatly advanced their knowledge and skills in these research fields through talks and tutorials. Our sponsors, ANT Neuro UK (EEG equipment producer) and TG0 (tactile sensing devices producer), also showed great support and delivered excellent demonstrations showcasing the most recent technical advancement.

The full support from the Faculty of Science and Technology (represented by Prof Christos Gatzidis) was extraordinarily reassuring, without which the conference would not have taken place. FST’s Deputy Dean, Dr Carly Stewart, also delivered the welcome note for the conference.

Our great success could not have been possible without the very enthusiastic and dedicated work of the best team. They truly deserve a loud round of applause! They are:

Bournemouth Garden organising committee (over 15 months from July 2022 to October 2023): Xun He (Chair), Ellen Seiss, Andrew Hanson, Marina Kilintari, Ruijie Wang, Federica Degno, and Biao Zeng (University of South Wales, visiting fellow of BU)

Local speakers: Federica Degno, Andrew Hanson, Otto Loberg, Géza Gergely Ambrus, Xun He

MINE Research Cluster visit hosts: Fred Charles, Ellen Seiss, Andrew Hanson, Xun He

EEG-eye tracking co-registration lab visit hosts: Federica Degno, Otto Loberg

Broadcasting support: Elliott Roch

Assistants: Damla Kuleli, Toby Denholm-Smith

Some team members and speakers in the summer of 2023 (from left to right: Andrew Hanson, Ellen Seiss, Xun He, Federica Degno, Ruijie Wang, Marina Kilintari, Otto Loberg)

Registration desk (from left to right: Xun He, Andrew Hanson, Toby Denholm-Smith, Damla Kuleli)

Carly Stewart (FST’s Deputy Dean) delivering the welcome note

Poster session

Discussion after a plenary talk

Enjoying the conference dinner at a vegan restaurant

Ellen Seiss hosting the lab visit to MINE Cluster

Fred Charles hosting the lab visit to MINE Cluster

Géza Gergely Ambrus giving a workshop talk

Federica Degno giving a workshop talk

Xun He giving a workshop talk

Our locally hosted plenary speaker, Hubert Banville (from Meta AI), was giving a plenary talk

The cheerful and ambitious conference cohort

September 4, 2023

INRC seminar by Dr Jie Sui, Friday the 8th of September at 14.00 h, Share Lecture Theatre (Fusion).

BU research, Events, Featured, Featured academics, REF Subjects, Research Centres, research methods, Research news, research staff, Strategic Investment Areas, Women's Academic Network ebballester

We want to draw your attention to a seminar organized by the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research Centre on this Friday, the 8th of September, from 14:00 h to 15:00 h at the Share Lecture Theatre (Fusion Building). There will be a networking event after the talk with coffee and biscuits.

Our guest speaker is Dr. Jie Sui (University of Aberdeen), invited by Dr. Ellen Seiss. Prof Dr Sui is renowned for her studies investigating the unique self, self-representation, and social interactions in VR. Her research combines multiple neural recording modalities, such as EEG and fMRI, with computational modelling.

The title of this exciting talk is: “Understanding the Self: Prospects for Translation”. Please find the abstract below.

We warmly invite you to attend this seminar.

Kind regards,

Ellen and Emili, on behalf of all of us.

Abstract:

“An understanding of the self helps explain not only human thoughts, feelings, and attitudes but also many aspects of everyday behaviours. This talk focuses on a particular perspective on self-processes. This perspective highlights the dynamics of the self that best connects with the development of the self over time and its realist orientation. We are using psychological experiments and data mining to comprehend the stability and flexibility of the self in different populations.

In this talk, I integrate experimental psychology, associative learning theory, computational neuroscience, and machine learning approaches to demonstrate why and how self-association affects cognition and how it is modulated by various social experiences and situational factors.”

August 24, 2023

INRC seminar by Dr Jie Sui, Friday the 8th of September at 14.00 h, Share Lecture Theatre (Fusion).

BU research, Events, Featured, Featured academics, REF Subjects, Research Centres, research methods, Research news, research staff, Strategic Investment Areas, Women's Academic Network ebballester

We want to draw your attention to a seminar organized by the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research Centre on Friday, the 8th of September, from 14:00 h to 15:00 h at the Share Lecture Theatre (Fusion Building). There will be a networking event after the talk with coffee and biscuits.

The title of this exciting talk is: “Understanding the Self: Prospects for Translation”. Please find the abstract below.

We warmly invite you to attend this seminar.

Kind regards,

Ellen and Emili, on behalf of all of us.

Abstract:

March 9, 2023

BU HL team wins award at the BISA Model NATO at FCDO in London

BU2025, Events, Fusion, Fusion themes, Global engagement, humanities, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, Knowledge Transfer, Knowledge Transfer Partnership, RKE development framework, Strategic Investment Areas, Student Engagement edolea

BU students in the Humanities and Law Department, Shahidah Miah (3rd year Law student), Alex Carey (2nd year History student) and Josh Pitt (3rd year Politics student) won the Distinguished Delegation Award at the BISA Model NATO. The event took place at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office on Friday, March 3rd, and was organized by the British International Studies Association in partnership with FCDO.

Over 100 students from 30 UK universities participated at the 2023 edition. It is the first time BU takes part in this simulation and wins a team award, against some powerful teams from universities with long tradition of politics and international studies.

What is BISA Model NATO – This is a simulation type of event. Students are randomly allocated a country and each student is part of a specialised NATO body – the Military Committee and the Civil Emergency Planning Committee. The students then have to agree a detailed set of actions to be endorsed in a final declaration by a simulated North Atlantic Council, NATO’s highest authority. BU team successfully represented Canada.

In BISA’s press release summing up the event, Mark Webber (BISA President) said: “The simulation is designed to provide students with experience of crisis decision-making; to get them into the heads of people having to make tough choices in very testing circumstances. The students rose to this challenge very well. The Model concluded with a declaration agreed by all the student delegates on how NATO should respond to a major natural disaster. The students performed just like seasoned diplomats.”

Employability skills demonstrated. Simulation events are a recognised model of learning and allow participants access to insights unobtainable in a traditional classroom setting. Our BU students had very good & concise interventions, demonstrated excellent negotiating skills, proposed great initiatives and worked brilliantly as a team representing Canada, thus contributed to reaching overall consensus at the end of the day. They were true diplomats for a day. And they also networked with fellow students, staff from other universities and diplomats from FCDO. They received glowing praises for their interventions during the day.

Why this is so timely – Students participating in the model are working on the aftermath of a natural disaster – multiple earthquakes across the eastern Mediterranean and South-East Europe resulting in significant loss of life and mass displacement of populations. Given the current context, both geopolitical with the War in Ukraine and the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, but also more broadly the climate change and the likely increase of natural disasters in the near future, working on such scenarios helps prepare students for real life situations. In addition, such events are inspiring students to embark upon careers and projects in diplomacy, government, non-governmental organisations and the military.

BU delegation at BISA Model NATO was advised and supported by Associate Professor Alina Dolea and Senior Lecturer Scott Keefer.

The full press release featuring our students is available here – BISA/FCDO Model NATO 2023 – Over 100 students from 30 universities | BISA

February 27, 2023

Second INRC Symposium: New Frontiers in Neuroscience -Neuroimaging and Integrative Multi-Sensing Methods

BRIAN, BU research, BU2025, Events, Featured academics, Fusion, Fusion themes, Knowledge Exchange, nhs, NHS, Postgraduate Research, Public engagement, REF Subjects, Research Centres, research methods, research staff, Strategic Investment Areas, Student Engagement, Uncategorized ebballester

Recent advances in neuroimaging, accompanying the coalescence of multiple neurophysiological registration modalities in virtual reality settings, are experiencing a substantial growth in brain research. These developments in experimental and analytical approaches to probe the human brain, open exciting avenues for novel applications in e.g., health, media industries, education, sport, art, or tourism. This topic was the focus of the second symposium of the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research Centre , which took place on the last 16^th of January at the Inspire Lecture Theatre on Talbot Campus.

The symposium, entitled “New Frontiers in Neuroscience: Neuroimaging and Integrative Multi-Sensing Methods” concentrated on these two linking themes from a cross-disciplinary angle, leveraging synergies between BU departments, collaborators in other universities, industry, charities, and at the NHS.

The event started with a fascinating talk by Mavi Sanchez-Vives (Biomedical Research Institute IDIBAPS, Barcelona), Leader of the Human Brain Project work-package entitled “Networks underlying brain cognition and consciousness”.

Prof Fred Charles presenting at the 2nd INRC Symposium.

Next, our first session revolved around the integration of multi-sensing methodologies and their industrial applications. In this focused session, we enjoyed three exciting talks, the opening one by Prof. Fred Charles (BU) on multimodal immersive neuro-sensing approaches; followed by Dr. Ifigeneia Mavridou (EmteqLabs), who discussed her appealing research of affective responses to VR environments. Finally, Dr. Federica Degno (BU) showed us her avant-garde work on co-registration of eye movements and EEG recordings.

The second session, centred on neuroimaging recordings in clinical neuroscience, was opened by Dr. Ruth Williamson (Deputy Chief Medical Officer, University Hospitals Dorset), who presented her multidisciplinary study of the effect of cold-water immersion on brain function, inspiring a stimulating debate on its clinical applications. The symposium concluded with Prof. Carol Clark’s (BU) very interesting talk on mapping brain structure, function and cognition in women engaged in sporting activities.

After the symposium, we had two follow-up activities in the afternoon: first a seminar, sponsored by the Department of Psychology and the MINE research cluster, by Dr. Benjamin Schöene (Universität Osnabrück), who debated the novel perspectives that VR offers in psychological research; followed by a visit to the Multimodal Immersive Neuro-sensing lab for natural neuro-behavioural measurement (MINE), led by Dr Xun He .

All of us in the INRC would like to thank very much the attendants to the symposium, and a huge thanks to the speakers for accepting our invitation, and for their compelling talks.

For colleagues who could not make it, the two thematic sessions were recorded, and can be accesed on this link. If you are interest in getting in touch, contributing or joining the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research Centre, please do not hesitate to contact Ellen Seiss, (eseiss@bourenmouth.ac.uk) or Emili Balaguer-Ballester (eb-ballester@bournemouth.ac.uk).

Thank you again for your interest, and we are looking forward to seeing you in our next activities.

Kind regards,

Ellen and Emili on behalf of all of us at the INRC

February 16, 2023

SaferKids VR launch

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, BU2025, Fusion, Impact, Industry collaboration, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Strategic Investment Areas shodge

Before the pandemic, local school children had a local facility near Wallisdown called SafeWise. SafeWise supported children learning about keeping safe and in particular road safety. However, during the pandemic this facility closed, leaving children without such an important resource. In collaboration with Colin Parnell from Centre VR, Dr Sarah Hodge (from the Department of Psychology) was awarded a bid by Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole (BCP) Council to develop a VR simulation/game about road safety skills; SaferKids VR.

The educational simulation/game was designed and created, with an interdisciplinary team, including psychologists, and game developers and programmers. The team of game developers and programmers, consisted of two BU graduates Sam Walsh and Josh Maddocks, as well as Andrew Ham. Since graduating from his Masters degree, Sam has led the team on the SaferKids VR development.

Within SaferKids VR, there was the creation of SKIE: Safer Kids Interactive Expert (robot pictured above). SKIE supports the player in VR, navigating the friendly real-life interactive virtual world and achieving learning goals and road safety skills. In the United States, every year, thousands of people are injured as a result of someone else’s negligence. You can read this article to know what to do if you ever get into an accident.

Schools can sign up for their pupils to be involved.

For more information on the project please see the link https://centrevr.co.uk/saferkidsvr/ or contact shodge@bournemouth.ac.uk

January 7, 2023

ADDISONIC Lab Now Up and Running!

Awarded & submitted bids, BU Challenges, BU2025, Industry collaboration, innovation, international, Research Centres, research opportunities, Strategic Investment Areas dmontalvao

The ADDISONIC, a lab in Poole House 2nd floor with the capacity for fatigue-accelerated testing of materials at Bournemouth University, is now up and running. We are now looking for research collaboration opportunities, so if you know anyone in the industry who requires help in this exciting new field or you are interested in developing the many research aspects in this area, please get in touch with us. We would be delighted if you could share your thoughts (and problems!) with us so that we can explore ways for future collaboration.

Please watch this exciting video that Mambo Media produced at: ADDISONIC – finding new ways of fatigue testing materials – YouTube

If you want to learn more, you can also check the ADDISONIC webpage.

Finally, please see here our latest publication here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prostr.2022.12.155.

Any questions? Please contact me on dmontalvao@bournemouth.ac.uk

I am looking forward to hearing from you soon. 🙂

December 2, 2022

Angling for sustainable biodiversity in Europe

BU research, EU, Events, international, Public engagement, Research communication, Research news, Strategic Investment Areas, Uncategorized Rob Britton

I was invited to be a panel member and speaker on a forum on the role of recreational angling in biodiversity protection and restoration held at the European Parliament this week. Chaired by Niclas Herbst MEP, with representatives from organisations including the European Angling Alliance, plus MEPs and their aides (e.g. from DG Environment), the Forum discussed the contribution of recreational angling to sustainable biodiversity within Europe, including how angling activities align with a number of European Directives (e.g. Water Framework Directive, Invasive Alien Species Regulation, Common Fisheries Policy reforms) and the European Biodiversity Action Plan. This Forum was also timely, given widespread concern over substantial declines in freshwater fish diversity and abundance across the world.

I outlined that approximately 10% of the world’s population have recently engaged with recreational angling, with approximately 24 million anglers in Europe, who contribute both financially (e.g. licence fees) and through volunteer based activities that, in combination, provide the resources needed for many conservation initiatives to run. In return, angling is recognised as being good for human well-being and the mental health of individuals as it reconnects people with nature. Using examples from our work in the Research Cluster in Fish Ecology and Conservation, I discussed how recreational anglers contribute strongly to protecting and restoring biodiversity through: (i) adopting catch and release angling (C&R) when targeting threatened species, as this maintains fishery access and socio-economic values, and results in negligible fish mortality when good angling practices are used (and C&R soon becomes the social norm where most, if not all, fish are returned alive post-capture); (ii) the provision of long-term catch data to support the management and conservation of data-poor species, as demonstrated by our REF2021 Impact case study on saving a critically endangered fish species from extinction; and (iii) how anglers act as citizen scientists, for example, by generating data on biological water quality that supports statutory assessments. Moreover, effective implementation of regulation and education can then manage angling activities that are potentially harmful to biodiversity (e.g. releases of alien species).

Overall, the forum highlighted to MEPs the role that angling can play in helping support a better environment, including where evidence based science can help inform angling practices and ensure fisheries management activities promote sustainable biodiversity.

Rob Britton at the Recreational Fishing Forum at the European Parliament

November 18, 2022

MINE Research Cluster’s Opening Event

BU research, Events, Strategic Investment Areas Xun He

In the afternoon of 16 November 2022, the Multimodal-Immersive NEuro-sensing (MINE) Research Cluster hosted a successful Cluster Opening event. This friendly event was the first time the Cluster showcased its research activities since they set up the lab space in May 2022.

At the event, Dr Xun He, Prof Fred Charles, and Dr Ellen Seiss gave three short talks and answered questions from the audience. Xun gave a brief introduction to the MINE research concept and the Cluster, then reported some interesting findings from an on-going immersive neuroscience research project about embodied perception of social interactions. Fred then presented several virtual reality (VR) projects carried out by the Cluster and our brain-computer interface (neurofeedback and affective storytelling) research. Ellen’s talk summarised the Cluster’s collaborative research with our industry partner Emteq Labs. This research direction uses VR and integrated physiological measures to detect users’ emotion states.

The audience showed great interest and engaged in lively discussion with the team. After the talks, some guests visited the Cluster and experienced our research setups. This cluster opening event attracted nearly 50 people including external guests from NHS, charity, industry, and higher education. Some guests stayed for two more hours after the planned event time, apparently having enjoyed the conversation to the full. We would like to thank all guests for their interest and comments.

If you are interested in our research, please visit our website at www.bournemouth.ac.uk/mine/. The MINE Cluster is also working with BU’s Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research Centre (INRC) to organise a research symposium in January 2023. More information will follow nearer the time. Please keep track of our activities. We hope to see you all again very soon!

Update (24/11/2022): this is the blog post providing details of the INRC Symposium on 16 January 2023 (9.15am – 1pm). Please have a look if you are interested!

August 10, 2022

NIHR Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) seminar – 1st September 12-2pm

BU research, Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, NHS, PG research, pre-award, Research Centres, Research news, research staff, Strategic Investment Areas Louise Ward

Are you interested in finding out about the NIHR RfPB funding
programme? Join our online seminar on 1st September 2022 from
12.00pm – 2.00pm

About the seminar

The seminar will be hosted by the NIHR Research Design Service and will provide a great opportunity to hear from members of the RfPB programme team and funding panel, as well as from successful applicants. There will also be information about the RDS and the support available for people who are applying to the programme.

Who is the seminar for?

Researchers and health and social care professionals who want to learn more about the RfPB programme and the support available to them.

What will the seminar cover?
• An overview of the RfPB programme
• What the funding panel look for in an application
• Experience of previous successful applicant(s)
• Including Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in your application
• Including Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in your application
• How the NIHR RDS can support applicants

How to book a place
Please register via this link.
The full programme and further details will be sent nearer to the date of the seminar.

Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU)

We can help with grant applications to National peer reviewed funders. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.

Feel free to call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email.

May 10, 2022

FUN Project dissemination and networking event

BU research, BU2025, Events, HEIF, Impact, Strategic Investment Areas, Uncategorized vhulusic

FUN (Feeling the UNfelt: Assistive Technology accessible digital environments with a haptic interface) is a 2-year HEIF funded research project designed to help address the current lack of (freely) available accessible software resources for children and young people (CYP) who have physical disabilities, specifically with a focus on learning about the physical world through gameplay and haptic feedback. The project is a partnership between Bournemouth University and Livability Victoria School in Poole (find more about the project here).

As the FUN project is coming to its end (finishing on 31st July 2022), we organised a dissemination and networking event on 5th May in the Executive Business Centre. The main aim of the event was to present and demonstrate our project outputs and discuss its future potential with relevant internal and external academics and professionals, thus setting the stage for building wider impact. There were four presentations, one guest talk, two demo sessions, and a discussion at the end. Besides BU academics working on this and other related Assistive Technology projects, there were external people with various backgrounds related to special education, including teachers, technicians, consultants, occupational therapists, and assistive technologists, coming from BU, Livability Victoria School, Langside School, Treloar School and College, and the ACE Centre.

After opening the event, Dr Vedad Hulusic, the PI on the project, invited Prof Christos Gatzidis, the convener of the Assistive Technology (AT) Strategic Investment Area (SIA) who gave a brief presentation on the AT SIA strategy and other related AT-related projects at BU. This was followed by the FUN project presentation by Dr Mark Moseley, a postdoctoral research assistant on the project. At the end of his presentation, Mark gave a short demo of the FUN educational games and invited everyone to try them themselves using either touchscreen or eye-gaze interaction.

The guest speaker was Prof Pedro Encarnação from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP). In his talk titled “The use of physical and virtual robots to promote inclusive education” he covered his group’s work on physical and virtual robots and presented the results showing the success of virtual environments for children and young people in the educational setting. This was followed by a presentation by Dr Huseyin Dogan and Dr Paul Whittington who talked about the case studies of user ability detection, accessibility requirements capture, and provision of Assistive Technology recommendations – the work their group has been working on for the past few years. In the end, there was another demo session and a discussion on the past, present, and future of AT, instigating great participation by all participants.

The FUN games are being finalised and will be freely available both as standalone (executable) as well as web-based (running in a web browser) software. The aim is to have these games available in as many special schools across the UK and beyond, and in homes of CYP who will be able to use them independently without required supervision and assistance. The users will be able to create personal profiles and configure all required accessibility and game features to make their experience as FUN as possible, as well as to create new in-game content for themselves and their peers. The event participants had very positive feedback on the FUN project and games and anticipated a significant impact through the improvement of the quality of life of CYP with physical disabilities, their parents, caregivers, and teachers. The FUN team plans to extend this project by strengthening existing and creating new collaborations. The extensions will be multidirectional involving co-design with practitioners, changing practices, policies, and curricula in special schools, and having such games being used in educational institutions allowing CYP with profound disabilities to have FUN while learning.

“I really enjoyed the day – fascinating, inspiring & really positive.“ – Teacher, Livability Victoria School

“Haptic device easily put on/off, providing good feedback to a child. Worth considering use with adults with learning disabilities.” – Occupational therapist, Langside School

“The students involved whom I work with enjoyed the sessions + it was something that enhanced their self-esteem.“ – Teacher, Livability Victoria School

“It can be easily adapted to make it accessible to a wider range of individuals.“ – AAC consultant, ACE Centre

“Very good, simple to setup and use.“ – Technician/Music teacher, Livability Victoria School

April 28, 2022

Learn more about the SIA game-changer call from successful applicants and conveners: sessions running 4th – 13th May

BU research, Strategic Investment Areas Rhyannan Hurst

The call for game-changing research concepts is currently open to enable the growth of BU’s Strategic Investment Areas.

This is your opportunity to put forward concepts for which BU will be known in the years to come. Concepts that are prioritised for development by the SIA Steering Groups, will benefit from tailored institutional support to turn your idea into a reality. This could include identification of match-funding, support from estates, personalised funding development support and much more – you tell us what you need to make a transformative idea a reality.

Game-changing research concepts are welcomed from all of our academic community across all career stages.

To learn more about the SIAs, the open call and to discuss what you could do, please find further details on the staff intranet.

You can also come along to one of our short briefing sessions to ask any questions that you like and to learn more:

Bite-size briefing events – 30-minute sessions – email sia@bournemouth.ac.uk to receive a diary invitation

Discuss your plans with an SIA convener:

Assistive Technology – Thursday 5th May, 12.30pm with Prof Christos Gatzidis (Convener of the AT SIA)