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SHIVA project progresses with innovation funding

Business Engagement, HEIF, Impact, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, Knowledge Transfer

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The SHIVA Project has received Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) that runs for 12 months from August 2016 until July 2017. (HEIF 5+1+1.)

The HEIF funding will be critical in terms of supporting the development of networks locally, nationally and beyond. The key aims will be to link user groups and stakeholders in education, health and wellbeing related to children, young people and adults, through the creative digital innovations offered by the SHIVA project.

This project which brought innovative virtual sculpting tools to children with complex disabilities, enabling them to partake in creative digital activities from which they had previously been excluded was recognised in the Time Higher Awards last November winning the Outstanding Digital Innovation in Teaching or Research Category.

Originally the SHIVA project on 3D modelling and 3D printing for young people with disabilities was funded by the EU Interreg programme with the duration from 2010 to 2015.

The original project team worked with the Victoria Education Centre (VEC) in Poole.  As the project ended in 2015, it was clear there was scope to take this project beyond the initial funding and the SHIVA project has successfully been awarded impact acceleration funding and more recently HEIF funding.

A new Research Assistant, Michelle Wu, an NCCA graduate (2016), is the latest member to join this team. Michelle will be involved in turning the SHIVA system into a deployable product with proper installation, configuration and usage instructions. This area of work will help make SHIVA accessible to all potential users in the UK and further afield and strengthen the potential for developing networks that will benefit from this award winning technology.

For more information on this project contact Alexander Pasko or Oleg Fryazinov within the Faculty of Media and Communication.

Jayne Codling within RKEO co-ordinates the HEIF project portfolio for BU. Feel free to contact Jayne if you have any questions regarding HEIF at BU or knowledge exchange activities including business engagement and innovation funding.

BU Research Project wins THE Award

BU research, Featured academics

SHIVACongratulations to the SHIVA Project team who won the Times Higher Education (THE) Award in the Outstanding Innovation in Teaching or Research category.

The SHIVA Project (Scuplture for Healthcare: Interaction and Visual Art in 3D) won the award at the THE Awards, one of the most prestigious awards in the Higher Education sector.

The team from BU’s National Centre for Comptuer Animation (NCCA) developed the SHIVA software system, working with Victoria Education Centre in Dorset – a local school for children with physical and learning disabilities.

The software enables students to bring art to life by creating objects using eye gaze or touchscreen technology, before 3D printing the finished result.

The winning team for the award included: Professor Alexander Pasko, Professor Peter Comninos, Dr Leigh McLoughlin, Dr Oleg Fryazinov, Dr Valery Adzhiev, PhD student Mathieu Sanchez and Mark Moseley, who worked for Victoria Educational Centre and is now a BU Doctoral student.

To view all the winners from the evening, visit the THE Awards website.

BU research reported in Times Higher Education today

Research news

The BU research-based film we previously reported on has been highlighted today by Times Higher Education UK. Rufus Stone is part of the New Dynamics of Ageing programme and will tell the story of being gay and growing older in the British countryside. Using research findings in this way is a great way of engaging the public, creating and impact and raising the overall profile of BU.  Shooting should begin in mid-July so we will have to wait to see the final result but congratularuons again to Kip Jones and the rest of the team involved.