Category / student research

Bournemouth University students to present their research in Parliament

student research

Bournemouth University students, Georgia Robertson and Jordan Ezra, will be presenting their research in Westminster as part of the annual ‘Posters in Parliament’ event.  Around 40 undergraduates from universities all over the UK will be presenting their research to politicians, policy makers and fellow students.

As a country, we face a number of big challenges – energy provision, health and wellbeing, as well as issues such as sustainability – all of which research can help solve.  Posters in Parliament is designed celebrate the research of some of the UK’s undergraduates, as well as highlighting the achievements of the next generation of researchers, some of whom may well go on to tackle some of our biggest challenges.

Georgia Robertson, an Events & Leisure Marketing student, will be presenting her research into business-to-business marketing, which she began while on her placement year.

“Over the years, email marketing has developed a negative stigma, perhaps because of an increase in unsolicited contact in an attempt to generate businesses leads.  These are known as lead generation emails.  This stigma has led to a dramatic drop in engagement in business-to-business email marketing campaigns, which means it’s important for those involved in the campaigns to know how to optimise their success,” explains Georgia.

“I analysed data from over 500 lead generation email campaigns from my placement to see which variables influenced the success of those campaigns.  These included the subject line, email content and the links in the email.  By exploring these variables, I was able to identify the factors that led to success in email marketing campaigns, which I hope will be useful to businesses trying convert email contacts into customers.”

Jordan Ezra is a Digital Media Design student.  For his final year dissertation, he chose to explore the gradual dissolution of human rights by different world governments and intelligence agencies.

“I’m interested in current world events and particularly how the erosion of human rights has been justified by events of the last 20 years.  My research has shown that it’s becoming more difficult to tell the truth – an interesting conclusion, given the rise of ‘fake news’ stories,” says Jordan.

“By analysing events of the last 20 years, I found that legislation across the world is limiting our human rights through increased surveillance and co-operation with corporations, among other issues.  My analysis showed that the justification for this dissolution is related to events such as September 11 Twin Towers attacks and subsequent war on terror.  There’s an increasingly blurred line between privacy and security, which is beginning to spark debates around the need for more transparent democracies.”

Georgia and Jordan will be presenting their research in Parliament on 14 March.  Posters in Parliament is part of the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR), which Bournemouth University will be hosting in April.  If you’d like to attend and support some of the BU students presenting their research at BCUR, please register on Eventbrite here.

Congratulations to your winners of the 2017 Research Photography Competition!

PG research, Student Engagement, student research

Bournemouth University researchers have given us a glimpse into some of their fantastic research, for the Research Photography Competition. The competition which ran in its third year challenged BU academics and students to capture the impact of their research in a single image.  Researchers from across BU and all its faculties entered the competition.

Entries to the competition demonstrated some of the research taking place both here at BU and across the globe from forensic investigation, midwifery in Nepal, meeting the identity needs of older people and looked at repairing trust in the service sector.

The competition saw an overwhelming response with close to 1000 votes from BU staff, BU students and the wider BU community.

Vice Chancellor John Vinney congratulated the winners on 9 March in the Atrium Art Gallery.

“It’s been brilliant to be able to announce the winners. There’s a great diversity of winners that really encapsulate the range and impact of research here at BU,” commented Vice Chancellor John Vinney.

Below are your winners:

 1st Place- “This is Me. I am Ron” by Chantel Cox

Chantel Cox, PhD Student, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences

Chantel is a PhD student from the Faculty of Health and Social Science. She is looking at the cultural processes that underpin healthcare professionals meeting the identity needs of frail older people.

On winning first prize Chantel commented,

“It’s very exciting to win. It’s really good to get your research known about and out there in a different format. I’d like to use photography somehow in my research, so it’s really inspired me.”

2nd Place- The Compound Eye of Calliphora Vomitoria (Bluebottle fly) by Christopher Dwen

Christopher Dwen, Forensic Research Assistant, Faculty of Science & Technology

Christopher is a Forensic Research Assistant from the Faculty of Science & Technology. He’s been looking at the blood feeding activities of flies at crime scenes, as these can often be confounding. These patterns can help in instances of violent assaults.

3rd Place- A Concerted Effort to Repair Trust by Samreen Ashraf 

Samreen Ashraf, Lecturer in Marketing, Faculty of Management

Samreen is a Lecturer in Marketing from the Faculty of Management.

Samreen is a Lecturer in Marketing from the Faculty of Management. Samreen has been looking at the service sector and examining trust repair endeavours from various stakeholders’ perspective related to three different contexts: mis-selling financial services (e.g. PPI); HR issues in the retail sector (e.g. Sports Direct) and safety issues within the leisure sector (e.g. Alton Towers).

All entries from this year’s Research Photography Competition are currently being exhibited in the Atrium Art Gallery until 22 March.

PCCC success with industry-student collaborative research

Fusion, innovation, Student Engagement, student research

A project led by Dr. Georgiana Grigore, a member of FMC/CMC’s Promotional Cultures & Communication Centre, has received a prestigious industry award.  The Millennial Rules project won an award for Excellence in Research Presentation at the Media Research Awards, hosted by Mediatel on the 23rd of February. This is an example of innovative fused activity where students work with experts from media organizations and their tutors to develop and co-create excellent research.

Neil Sharman, a freelance researcher, delivered a guest talk for Consumer Culture and Behaviour that led to a collaborative project with the Marketing Society, Metro, Mail Online and CrowdDNA.  As part of this collaborative work, three students from the Marketing Society – Jack Goss, Iona Kelly and Emily Richardson – won £1,000 between them after impressing judges with their marketing insights. The students were selected with 10 others to take part in a special workshop day all about Millennials and the Media. The workshop was part of a research project for the Mail Online and Metro newspaper, which aimed to discover more about how Millennials use media. James Harrison, president of the BU Marketing Society at the time, added: “This was a really great opportunity for our members to take part in and the Marketing Society is pleased to have helped make it happen. We continually strive to organise events and opportunities that inspire our members and develop their knowledge in the world of marketing and advertising.”

 Neil, who came up with the idea of the project was impressed with the student’s enthusiasm. He said: “We had some start students in the room and we learnt lots from the insights they produced. They represented BU and their generation brilliantly.” Throughout the day the students worked on a range of tasks to define their marketing and advertising insights with help from experts at the Mail Online, the Metro and CrowdDNA. Neil wishes to pass his thanks onto the Marketing Society for contributing to the success of this project.

 

More details about it can be found here: http://www.millennialrules.co.uk

 

Vianna Renaud, Placement Development Advisor for FMC and doctoral student in CEMP, publishes article in the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) Phoenix journal

PG research, Publishing, student research

The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) is the professional body for careers and employability professionals working with higher education students and graduates and prospective entrants to higher education.

As the focal point for sector-wide research and expert opinion, this issue of Phoenix focused on current best practice surrounding placements. With membership of over 2,800 careers and employability practitioners in over 160 HE institutions, as well as in other sectors and overseas, it is a leading source of current practice and information.

‘Bournemouth University has an established history of PAL leaders, and has successfully trialled Placement PAL pilot projects, with the 2016-17 year being the first year that Placement PAL was implemented across the campus. Contributing to this dedicated issue was a wonderful opportunity to share our success with the greater UK HE university community, potentially creating Best Practice amidst the sector.’

‘Given the growing numbers of BU students choosing a sandwich placement experience, this issue contains a wide range of related current and topical issues. As both a practitioner and researcher in the field, I would highly recommend staff to read this issue.’

http://communications.agcas.org.uk/newsletters/7/issues/747 

 

Research Photography Competition: voting closes Friday!

Student Engagement, student research

‘Can you convey the impact of your research in a single image?’ That’s the challenge we set BU academics and students this year. The overwhelming response saw researchers from across the university getting creative and utilising their photography skills. The photos give just a small glimpse into some of the fantastic work our researchers are doing both here at BU and across the globe.

Researchers from across the university, working in areas as diverse as science, marketing, health and forensic investigation submitted images to the competition. Now we want your help to pick the winners!

To vote click on the ‘Vote’ button below your favourite image on this page. Or vote by liking an image via our Facebook album. Perhaps a particular research subject strikes a chord with you, or you find a certain image especially evocative – whatever your reason, the competition winners are for you to decide!

The deadline for voting is 3 March and the winners will be announced in the Atrium Art Gallery on 9 March, by Vice-Chancellor Professor John Vinney at 2pm. If you would like to come along to this free event please order your tickets here.

The full exhibition will then be on display in the Atrium Art Gallery from Thursday 9 March until Wednesday 22 March, so drop by and take a look.

From Nepal, to BU and back again

PG research, student research

Recent BU graduate Dr Pratik Adhikary is currently working alongside BU researcher Professor Edwin van Teijlingen and the Centre of Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health (CMMPH) in Nepal.

The CMMPH have been working on improving maternity care in Nepal for a number of years. They’ve most recently begun looking at the impact of women’s groups on maternal and child health uptake in Pharping- rural Nepal.

A former BU PhD student, Dr Adhikary is in charge of planning and monitoring the study, as well as training local Nepalese data collectors. He also looks after the data entry and the overall evaluation of the study.

As well as this, Newton funding is offering him his first fieldwork post as an independent researcher. Below we follow his journey from a former BU student to a BU staff member.

“I’m originally from Nepal and came to Bournemouth University in 2009 to study for my PhD. This looked at Nepalese migrant workers working in the Middle East and Malaysia – this focused on their physical and mental health, as well as any risks they took in their jobs. Previously, I studied for an MSc in Public Health at the University of Aberdeen, as well as working as a cardiac data collection officer in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary,” says Dr Adhikary.

“Studying at BU was very important for my academic career. I was lucky enough to present my PhD study at an international conference, which provided me with useful feedback from both academics and early career researchers,”

“My academic supervisors Prof van Teijlingen and Dr Steven Keen were instrumental throughout my PhD- in gaining a partial fee waiver, international travel funds to attend conferences and arranging a grant from the open society foundation,”

“As a young researcher, I am planning a number of drafts for publication in 2017. Support from my BU colleagues has given me a unique stepping stone in the academic world,”

“Being at BU has enabled me to grow my researcher’s network and provided me with an insight into the some of the highest quality of research in the world,” says Dr Adhikary, “I’ve always felt at home at BU and I’m keen to continue my research career here! “

You can read one of Dr Adhikary’s PhD papers online for free here

Dr Adhikary was also a co-author on this recent 2016 paper on the BU Research Blog

Student Research Assistant – Application Deadline Reminder

Funding opportunities, Fusion Investment Fund, Student Engagement, student research

A reminder that the deadline for academic applications is 1st March 2017.

Academics are invited to submit applications for the semester-based round of the SRA programme.

The programme is funded by the Fusion Investment Fund and this year has a focus to support departments in their co-creation targets whilst supporting students to undertake paid work under the guidance of an experienced academic in a research position that is directly related to their career path and/or academic discipline.  Each department has it’s own allocation of funding and we encourage collaboration between departments for this scheme.

The academic applications will be assessed against the following criteria which you will need to demonstrate within the application form:

  • Student-centred
  • Co-creation and co-production
  • Fusion
  • External engagement
  • Impact
  • Cross-Faculty
Summer programme
This placement is for successful students to work for 30 hours a week for a total of four weeks in June/July 2017.The SRA programme is coordinated via RKEO and the Faculties.Academics will apply for the funding via an application form. A Faculty based panel will review all staff applications and decide which applications to continue to the student recruitment stage of the scheme.  The application deadline for this round is 1st March 2017.

Approved academic applications will be advertised as SRA positions to students with student applications being received, processed and managed centrally within RKEO and distributed to the relevant academics after the closing date. The academics will be responsible for shortlisting, interviewing and providing interview feedback to their own candidates. Successful students will need to complete monthly timesheets, signed by their supervisor for payment and processed by the relevant Faculty.

These SRA vacancies will be available to taught BU students only, where SRA applicants must be able to work in the UK, be enrolled during the time of their assistantship and also have an average grade of over 70%.  Staff are permitted to have multiple SRAs.

If you have any queries, please contact Rachel Clarke, KE Adviser (KTP and Student Projects) –  sra@bournemouth.ac.uk

14:Live presents- FoodSMART: Eat out smarter!

Student Engagement, student research

14:LIve

Have you ever considered what’s in your food when you’re eating out?

14:Live will be welcoming FoodSMART on 28 February, at 14:00-15:00.

FoodSMART is an innovative technical ICT solution which uses QR coding on your smartphone to provide nutritional information and deliver personalised advice when eating out. This means that consumers can make an informed choice about what they’re eating. The app can even be tailored to your individual dietary requirements or tastes.

It can be quite difficult to eat healthily when in a restaurant or cafe, as menus often give you limited information about the ingredients in a meal. By working with partners across Europe- nutritionists, chefs and other universities- the team have developed an app that can show exactly what is in your meal. The app gives consumers all the data they need and encourages the food service industry to support healthier eating.

Come along to Floor 5, of the Student Centre, on Talbot Campus to hear from Dr Heather Hartwell as she speaks all about the project and even get a chance to test out the prototype.

If you have any questions, then please contact Hannah Jones

BU staff, students and alumni celebrate the launch of Events Management: An International Approach

student research

Editors

Dr Paul Kitchin, Lecturer Sports Management, Ulster University and Dr Nicole Ferdinand, Senior Lecturer Events Management, Bournemouth University, Editors for Events Management: An International Approach

On January 25th 2017, Bournemouth University staff and students celebrated the launch of Events Management: An International Approach. The text brings together the work of 22 authors boasting 11 nationalities. At the launch event, which was hosted at King’s College London, leading Editor for the publication, Dr Nicole Ferdinand, Senior Lecturer in Events Management at Bournemouth University was joined by BU colleagues, current students and alumni as well as staff and students from a range of universities and other organisations – including Goldsmiths University, University of East Anglia, University of East London, University of West London, Set Square Staging Limited and Vodafone.

Ms Emelie Forsberg, Event Manager for British Private Equity and Venture Capital, Panel Member, Author and BU Alumnus

Ms Emelie Forsberg, Event Manager for British Private Equity and Venture Capital, Panel Member, Author and BU Alumnus

 

Mr Christian White (pictured left), BU alumnus and Youngest Author of Events Management: An International Approach

Mr Christian White (pictured left), BU Alumnus and Youngest Author of Events Management: An International Approach

 

The event started with an international networking reception in which attendees from 15 different countries were given the opportunity to meet individuals from a variety of cultural and also professional backgrounds. At the end of the reception two lucky attendees received free copies of the text.

Networking session in full swing

Networking session in full swing

Dr Paul Kitchin hosted the book launch, providing an overview of the text and facilitating the academic versus industry panel discussion which was the highlight of the evening’s proceedings.

Author panel members (from left to right) Academics: Professor Stephen Shaw, Emeritus Professor, York University, Dr Nicole Ferdinand, Senior Lecturer, Events Management and Dr Nigel Williams, Senior Lecturer Project Management both at Bournemouth University, Industry: Mr Bruce Johnson, Manging Director, Bruce Johnson Consultancy, Ms Emelie Forsberg, Event Manager, British Private Equity and Venture Capital and Mr Michael Chidzey, Marketing Director, Chillisauce Events

 Events Management: An International Approach is available for purchase from Amazon.co.uk:  https://goo.gl/c8rZ3O

 

 

Standing up for Science media workshops- applications now open!

PG research, student research

Early career researchers- this is your chance to find out how your voice can be heard in the media!

Sense about Science will be running Standing up for Science media workshops for early career researchers to learn from scientists who have or are actively engaged with the media. You can also hear from respected science journalists who will teach you how the media works, how to respond and comment. As well as hearing what journalists want and expect of scientists. The first workshop of 2017 will be on Friday 7 April, at the University of Manchester. 

The workshop is open to early career researchers and scientists (PhD students, post-doctoral fellows or equivalent) in all sciences, engineering and medicine and is free to attend. The event will discuss science-related controversies in media reporting with practical guidance tips for working with the media.

Apply by 9am on Tuesday 21 March or click here for more information.

Student Research Assistantship – academic applications now live

Funding opportunities, Fusion Investment Fund, Student Engagement, student research

Academics are invited to submit applications for the semester-based round of the SRA programme.  Application deadline is 1st March 2017.

The programme is funded by the Fusion Investment Fund and this year has a focus to support departments in their co-creation targets whilst supporting students to undertake paid work under the guidance of an experienced academic in a research position that is directly related to their career path and/or academic discipline.  Each department has it’s own allocation of funding and we encourage collaboration between departments for this scheme.

The academic applications will be assessed against the following criteria which you will need to demonstrate within the application form:

  • Student-centred
  • Co-creation and co-production
  • Fusion
  • External engagement
  • Impact
  • Cross-Faculty
Summer programmeThis placement is for successful students to work for 30 hours a week for a total of four weeks in June/July 2017.

The SRA programme is coordinated via RKEO and the Faculties.

Academics will apply for the funding via an application form. A Faculty based panel will review all staff applications and decide which applications to continue to the student recruitment stage of the scheme.  The application deadline for this round is 1st March 2017.

Approved academic applications will be advertised as SRA positions to students with student applications being received, processed and managed centrally within RKEO and distributed to the relevant academics after the closing date. The academics will be responsible for shortlisting, interviewing and providing interview feedback to their own candidates. Successful students will need to complete monthly timesheets, signed by their supervisor for payment and processed by the relevant Faculty.

These SRA vacancies will be available to taught BU students only, where SRA applicants must be able to work in the UK, be enrolled during the time of their assistantship and also have an average grade of over 70%.  Staff are permitted to have multiple SRAs.

If you have any queries, please contact Rachel Clarke, KE Adviser (KTP and Student Projects) –  sra@bournemouth.ac.uk

Augmented Reality Technology for Minimally Invasive Surgery

student research

We would like to invite you to the latest research seminar of the Centre for Games and Music Technology Research.

 

Speaker: Long Chen

 

Title:     Augmented Reality Technology for Minimally Invasive Surgery

ARSurgery

 

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 1st February 2017

Room: PG11, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract:  This research presentation will demonstrate a novel approach of using augmented reality technology to provide rich additional information in for Minimally Invasive Surgery. The research addresses a number of challenges in terms of dealing with monocular visual sensor, and 3D surface reconstruction via state of the art computer vision algorithm. In recent years, laparoscopic scene tracking and surface reconstruction has been a focus of investigation to provide rich additional information to aid the surgical process. In this project, we developed an AR framework to compensate the depth perception issue of monocular laparoscopic scenes. Monocular laparoscopic techniques are arguably the most common techniques used in minimally invasive surgical paradigm. Yet, it is one of the technically demanding procedures from surgeons, and in which information is provided primarily through the video outputted from endoscopes. The major challenge in Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) such as laparoscopy is the lack of depth perception. We developed a robust 3D surface reconstruction and augmented reality with depth perception on the reconstructed scene by using the state-of-the-art visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm for the sparse salient point clouds detection. We then develop a robust global 3D surface reconstruction framework to obtain smooth surfaces from the unstructured sparse point cloud. The evaluation results illustrating the potential of our algorithm for depth augmentation and depth-correct augmented reality in Minimally Invasive Surgery.

 

We hope to see you there.

 

Submissions for the Research Photography Competition are closing soon!

Centre for Excellence in Learning, Fusion, PG research, Student Engagement, student research

Paris photo

There’s not long left to submit your entry to the Research Photography Competition. Submissions will be closing on Friday 27 January at 5pm. 

We have already seen a number of fantastic images submitted from both our staff and student researchers, but there’s still time to submit your image. This a great opportunity to present your research that you’re either currently working on or have already completed. The competition allows your research to be showcased across BU and is a great addition to your portfolio.

You can find out more information here. 

If you have any questions then email us.

Please read through the terms and conditions here.

Faculty of Management: PhD students of the year 2016

PG research, student research

Great news; two PhD students from the Faculty of Management, Department of Tourism and Hospitality have won PhD student of the year 2016.

SPyke

 

Sarah Pyke; Institute of Travel and Tourism (ITT) PhD Student of the Year 2016 was awarded her prize at the House of Commons on July 20, 2016. Her research ‘A Systems Theory Approach to the Well-being Effects of Tourism’ was supported by the National Coastal Tourism Academy (NCTA) and was part of the ESRC Destination FeelGood project. It extends the forefront of the tourism discipline and makes a unique contribution to knowledge by using Hagerty’s systems theory approach (a model extracted from the public health sector and for the first time applied in a tourism context) to quantitatively measure the well-being effects of tourism on the individual.

 

sprice

Sarah Price; EUROCHRIE, (the biggest Hospitality Conference in Europe) PhD Student of the Year 2016 was awarded her prize in Budapest, October 2016. Her research ‘Trust in Foodservice’ was supported by the EU project FoodSMART and identified key factors that consumers look for when selecting meals in workplace canteens. The project offered her the opportunity to be part of an International research team and take secondment periods in both France and Austria.

Many congratulations to you both – we are very proud of you

Not long left to submit to 2017’s Research Photography Competition 2017

PG research, student research

We’ve had some fantastic entries so far for this years Research Photography Competition and there’s still time left to submit. The past two years have seen some great entries from both our staff and students, across all our faculties here at BU. This year we are looking for an image that will show the impact your research will have on your chosen field. Here’s just some of the brilliant entries from our very first competition in 2015.

amanda-photo

‘LEAP: Landscape Ecology and Primatology’

Amanda H. Korstjens and Ross A. Hill
Faculty of Science and Technology

jill-davey-photo

‘All you need is Ubuntu!’

Jill Davey
Faculty of Health and Social Care
sheetal-photo

‘Even in Health Research, Laughter is the Best Medicine’

Sheetal Sharma
Faculty of Health and Social Care

 daniella-vos-photo

‘Mixing Business with Pleasure: Fieldwork and Friendships in Jordan’

Daniella Voss
Faculty of Science and Technology

Have something in mind? You can find out more information here. Or simply send over your photo with a 100-200 word blurb to research@bournemouth.ac.uk. The deadline for submissions is 5pm on Friday 27 January 2017.

If you have any questions then get in touch with Hannah Jones.

Please have a read through the terms and conditions here.