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RISEResearch Innovation and Internationalisation News
November/December 2010
+Plus
EC Recognition | Youth climate | Mobile Life | Delegation to India | and much more ...
Professor Ghassan Aouad
Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research & Innovation, The Old Fire Station, The Crescent
E: [email protected] T: 0161 295 5382
Professor Sue Kilcoyne
Associate Dean, Research & Innovation, College of Science and Technology, Newton Building
E: [email protected] T: 0161 295 2865
Professor John Keiger
Associate Dean, Research & Innovation, College of Arts and Social Sciences Crescent House
E: [email protected] T: 0161 295 5275
Professor Mustafa Alshawi
Associate Dean, International, College of Science and Technology, Maxwell Building
E: [email protected] T: 0161 295 5128
Professor Tony Warne
Associate Dean, Research & Innovation, College of Health and Social Care, Allerton Building
E: [email protected] T: 0161 295 2777
Professor Vian Ahmed
Director of Graduate Studies, Research & Graduate College, Faraday House, The Crescent
E: [email protected] T: 0161 295 6397
Dr Matt Boswell
Acting Assistant Registrar (Research Co-ordination) Research & Graduate College, Faraday House, The Crescent.
E: [email protected] T: 0161 295 4301
Mrs Anna Higson
Executive/Projects Officer, The Old Fire Station, The Crescent.
E: [email protected] T: 0161 295 3176
Mrs Gillian Southwell
PA to PVC Research & Innovation, Dean, College of Science and Technology
The Old Fire Station, The Crescent.
E: [email protected] T: 0161 295 5382
Mrs Sandra Wadeson
Administrator, Research & Graduate College, Faraday House, The Crescent.
E: [email protected] T: 0161 295 3671
Mrs Linda Kelly
PA to Director of Graduate Studies, Research & Graduate College, Faraday House, The Crescent.
E: [email protected] T: 0161 295 3841
Editor Anna Higson
RESEARCH AND GRADUATE COLLEGEContact details
For more information contact
Research & Graduate College,
University of Salford,
Faraday House, Salford,
Greater Manchester, M5 4WT
T: +44 (0)161 295 4616/4301
W: www.rgc.salford.ac.uk the design team, 0
161
2952
630
(313
18/1
0) Slavewitnessing the voice
From rainbows to invisibility cloaksIt’s a (Meta)Material Magical World!
Tweet the Word!Do you, Tweet, Blog, Facebook or Wiki?
Passing on the KnowledgeReal world research for use in real world situations
Centre for Disaster ResilienceUnderstanding the what, when, why and where of a disaster situation
Inside
RISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
...to RISE. RISE is the Research, Innovation and Internationalisation Newsletter from the Office of the
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation). The aim of RISE is to let you know about our expertise in
research, innovation and internationalisation and to reach out locally, nationally and internationally.
he weeks preceeding writing this introduction to the
November/December issue of RISE have been a time of concern
and contemplation, not just here at the University of Salford but
in Higher Education (HE) generally, with regard to the current economic
climate and the provision of Higher Education now and in the future.
However, when I think of all the academics and educational professionals
I meet in my role as Pro-Vice-Chancellor, the one word that comes to mind
is the word ‘curator’. This word comes from the Latin word cura meaning
to care, and that is exactly what HE professionals are doing: caring
passionately about the future of research in the UK, caring about the future
of our universities and our role of providing a high class education to
people from all areas of our society. In this current economic climate we
all face difficult situations with difficult decisions ahead of us, but out of
adversity can come great opportunities. The only way to advance HE is to
be good curators, to move forward, to take our research and teaching
into new areas, to support and nurture people from all levels of our society
who aspire to attend University, and to open our doors to young minds
and fresh ideas that can help us to build a stronger national picture in
future years.
Here at the University of Salford we aim to do just that. We have recently
changed our structure from faculties to colleges and our bustling schools
now sit within these three colleges,: the College of Science and
Technology; the College of Arts and Social Sciences; the College of Health
and Social Care. These vibrant and busy colleges will continue their
collaborative working across our six research themes of Energy; Media,
Digital Technology and the Creative Economy; Human Rights, Social Justice
and Security; Enterprise and Innovation; Health and Wellbeing; and the
Built and Human Environment, taking our multi-disiciplined research into
new and exciting areas.
Looking into the future and learning from the past is the message behind
our lead story in this issue. This is the story of Mende Nazer, an inspirational
woman from Sudan who has overcome great hardships and tragedy during
her lifetime. Through her testimony, she hopes to lay the foundations for
a better life for others. You can read her story on page 4.
There are awards and honours to read about, from Professor Trevor Cox
who has recently been made the President of the Institute of Acoustics
(page 9), Cristina Mendes da Costa, who has recently been named as
the Learning Technologist of the Year by the Association for Learning
Technology at their annual conference (page 8), and a fantastic
achievement by Dr. Julie Nightingale, Director of Radiography, and her
medical ultrasound colleagues whose expertise has been deemed best in
the country and as such have been appointed by the NHS as trainers to
others in their field! (page 6) Young talent also abounds in this issue.
There’s an article on young A-level students who had a fantastic time
working on anti-cancer and anti-bacterial drugs with scientists at the
University, and an article on the strong and vibrant talent pool of designers
here in the North who are part of the Designers Northern Alliance and
have been wowing the professionals at their recent exhibition.
There are also two added bonuses in this issue! The first you will see is a
supplement to RISE, (INACTION) highlighting just some of the fantastic and
engaging activity ongoing in the University, I’m sure you’ll find it an
interesting read. The second is a DVD on research and innovation at the
University; this short film will take you on a visual journey through our
University and touch on just a small amount of the fantastic research that
is ongoing here at Salford.
I’m not sure if the future’s orange, but here at the University of Salford it
is definitely bright! We’ll continue our mission to provide real world
research to address real world problems, utilising the wisdom and expertise
of experienced professionals and encouraging new talent to move us
forward into the next decade.
Please do contact us if you feel that our research is of interest to you, is
aplicable to your needs or can support your business, policy or processes
in any way. The University of Salford’s door is always open to conversation,
collaboration and new partnerships.
All are welcome!
Professor Ghassan Aouad
Pro Vice Chancellor (Research & Innovation)
02 | November/December
04 Slave - witnessing the voice
06 Scanning for Health
08 Tweet the Word!
09 Read all about it
09 Make a Noise Mr President!
10 From Birth to Death
12 Brother, won’t you join the Line?
13 EC Recognition
13 Up and Over!
14 From rainbows to invisibility cloaks
16 Virtual Images = Real Choices
18 Leading the way to Business Success
18 On the Right Tracks
19 Art not to be sniffed at
19 New York, New York!
20 Passing on the Knowledge
21 Youthful climate
22 University’s Plans for Media City
24 Valuing Knowledge, Expertise and Evidence in Libraries
25 Searching the Future of Marketing
25 Reflexive Research
26 Centre for Disaster Resilience
28 Economy + Work = Employability
29 More Success!
29 Momentum Growing for ECE 2011 Conference
30 Go on Insulate... its free
32 Test Tube Researchers!
32 Recording the Creative Gesture
33 Talent Management in China
34 Open all hours
35 Mobile Life
36 Looking for talent? Its up North!
38 How many philosophers does it take to change a lightbulb?
38 Nursing Research & Education
39 Awarded for Excellence!
39 Acoustics and The Green Man
40 New Appointments
41 New beginnings
42 A Robot in your home by 2020
44 Disaster, Women and Empowerment
46 OCTIS1 2010
46 Early Career Researchers Deliver
47 Postgraduate awards
48 Delegation to India
48 India Higher Education Inward Mission
49 Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
49 Sino British College China
50 Forthcoming Events
22
Postgraduate research news
04 insidethis issue
International news
November/December | 03
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISE
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26
welcome
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
Much research has been undertaken around the subject of human rights: which laws need to be put in place to address international issues such as the freedom of women, the rights of children, the basic human right to food, water and shelter - all necessary and imperative to improving life chances for humans. But while reports can be read, programmes watched and
statistics analysed, none of these actions can move the world forward without doing one vital thing: listening.
he witness’ testimony reveals that which statistics and
reports can never do; testimony reveals the story of the
individual and the lasting effects of their experiences.
Researchers from the College of Arts and Social Sciences at the
University have been working with a former Sudanese slave, Mende
Nazer, to hold an academic conference to do just this: listen and bear
witness to her voice.
As a young Sudanese girl Mende’s childhood was horrifically cut short
when at the age of 12 the Mujahidin rode into her village to
murder, rape, burn down buildings and abduct the villagers. Mende
was sold as a slave to an Arab woman in Khartoum and stripped of
her name and freedom, being forced to work first in Khartoum and
then at the residence of a member of the Sudanese Embassy in
London, before escaping. Initially her appeal to stay in the UK was
refused, but following a high profile campaign she was
finally granted asylum in 2002. With the help of writer and filmmaker
Damien Lewis she turned her story into an autobiography, Slave, which
also inspired the recent Channel 4/Slate Films drama, I Am Slave, and
a forthcoming play, Slave: A Question of Freedom, which will be
premiered at the Lowry theatre in Salford Quays this month.
Inspired by Mende’s story and drawing on the University’s history of
research into testimony and performance, Vice-Chancellor Martin
Hall suggested a joint academic conference around Mende’s story in
conjunction with Feelgood Theatre Productions. The conference will
take place on 24th November and will include input from
the Director of Slave: A Question of Freedom, Caroline Clegg,
and documentary film maker and co-author of Slave, Damien Lewis,
as well as from Mende Nazer herself.
Aimed at academics, community groups and professionals working
in areas such as human rights and performance, the Salford
conference will focus on questions of telling true stories through
narrative, and relaying experiences through creative channels such as
literature and the stage.
Dr Matt Boswell, who is organising the conference, said: “Mende’s
story is terrifying and her willingness to share this story is a
tribute to her bravery. People associate the word slavery with the old
transatlantic slave trade – but it is still happening now, right on our
doorstep. At the conference we’ll be looking at how people
like Mende explore their experiences through the use of
storytelling. Salford has a strong emphasis on supporting research on
human rights, diversity and the creative industries and this event will
also link to all of these themes”.
This academic conference will address the function of testimony and
how bearing witness and telling the true story can lay the foundations
for a better life for others. Mende concludes: “I am one of the lucky
ones. I have a voice and can speak out, and I want to use my story to
help others who are not as fortunate. My story is very powerful and
sometimes overwhelming, but I know that it will educate and raise
awareness of not only slavery in Sudan but around the world, even
here in the UK”.
If you would like to know more about the research behind the
conference contact Matt at: [email protected]
If you would like to attend the conference on the 24th November
visit the website at: www.thelowry.com/event/slave-conference
Slave
T
04 | November/December November/December | 05
witnessing the voice
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
it affects are men, men being six times more
likely to have an abdominal aortic aneurysm
than women.
However these statistics can be drastically
altered through screening. A number of
research studies, both in the UK and overseas,
have demonstrated that screening for AAA
can have important benefits. Screening aims
to detect aneurysms in asymptomatic
individuals before they rupture. The most
effective screening tool is medical ultrasound,
which is a quick, painless, safe and effective
test that can identify and take measurements
of aneurysms. The NHS AAA screening
programme is being gradually introduced
around England, with full coverage of the
country expected by March 2013. All men
will be invited for ultrasound screening in the
year they turn 65, although men over 65 can
request to be included in the screening
programme. When invited for screening, the
men will be scanned by trained sonographers
(registered radiographers with additional
ultrasound training) or screening technicians,
trained to a high standard in identifying aortic
aneurysms.
The University has a long tradition of offering
high quality ultrasound education and
training. The MSc Advanced Medical Imaging
(Ultrasound) programme at the University has
been led by Jan Dodgeon from the
Directorate of Radiography, and staff from
this Directorate will be delivering four
screening technician training programmes a
year in different sites around the UK. Each
training programme comprises a combination
of online learning, face-to-face delivery, and
practical hands-on training to complement
clinical practice in the workplace. Volunteer
patients will play an important part in both
training and assessment. Jan and her team
are also commissioned to deliver ‘training the
trainer’ sessions to ensure effective mentoring
and assessment in the workplace, and CPD
update sessions for GPs and others involved
in the screening programme. All training will
be overseen by an Advisory Group chaired by
Julie together with external stakeholders
including the commissioners, external experts
from different professional disciplines, and
professional body representatives.
This vital training will provide peace of mind
for many and will ultimately save lives, whilst
at the same time being cost-effective for the
NHS in the long term.
If you would like to know more about this
innovative training programme contact Julie
Dr Julie Nightingale, Director of Radiography in the School of Health, Sport and Rehabilitation Sciences and her medical ultrasoundcolleagues here at the University, have had one of the highest accolades possible given to them, which is that their knowledgeand expertise has been deemed the best in the country and is to be used in training others.
he University of Salford has been
awarded a three year contract to
deliver education and training to
support the NHS Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
Screening Programme (NAAASP), which is
currently being rolled out across England for
men aged 65 years and over.
This contract is an educational role in a vital
service, and behind any good health
education is research and tried and tested
science, but to those of us who don’t have
the medical expertise, what is an Abdominal
Aortic Aneurysm (AAA)?
The aorta is the main blood vessel that
supplies blood from the heart to the organs
of the chest and abdomen, dividing in the
pelvis into right and left branches which
supply the pelvic organs and legs. The blood
pressure within the aorta is very high, causing
the thick muscular walls to pulsate with the
contractions of the heart. In some people, as
they get older, the wall of the aorta in the ab-
domen can get weaker, and it begins to
dilate (expand).
This is known as an aneurysm, which will not
normally cause any symptoms – in other
words, the person is not aware that they have
the condition. Unfortunately, because the
aortic wall is weakened as it dilates, it can
rupture without warning, causing sudden
massive blood loss into the abdomen. This is
a life-threatening condition that requires
emergency surgery; the main group of people
T
Scanning for Health
06 | November/December November/December | 07
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
The award was presented at the ALT
conference in Nottingham by Sugata Mitra,
Professor of Educational Technology at the
University of Newcastle.
Working with PhD students championing
innovative and critical use of social media
such as blogs, wikis and twitter for
networking, collaboration and dissemination
of their research, Cristina has recently been
involved with helping the students in the
Centre for Translation, Interpreting and
Intercultural Studies in the School of
Languages to organise the first student-led
online conference on translation and
interpreting studies which brought together
researchers from across Europe to
communicate their research via web-
conferencing.
She also works with the University's
researchers to help them make use of new
web technologies to assist collaborative
research ventures and holds regular
training sessions.
The judges praised her for: "Developing a set
of resources, activities and events that help
staff and students to learn by making
effective use of social media, for modeling
the behaviour that she wishes to encourage,
and for combining her own research with the
overall role to considerable effect".
Cristina said: "Many PhD students use social
media on a daily basis and social network
sites such as Facebook are common practice
in their personal lives. However, there is a
need to foster reflection and understanding
regarding the advantages and implications
that these communication channels can have
on their professional and academic lives.
Promoting digital literacy amongst the
research community is vital in the current
environment as it provides them with new
and open forms of sharing their work and
engaging with the wider community. I'm
extremely happy that my work at the
University has been recognised".
Cristina’s current research focuses on the use
of Information and Communication
Technologies in a changing environment,
with particular interest in analysis of the
advantages and also the implications of using
the social web for teaching, learning and
research. Her other topics of interest include
web 2.0, Curriculum Innovation, Digital
Identity, Digital Storytelling, ePortfolios,
Communities of Practice, Social Networking,
PLEs and PLNs, Mobile Technologies, Teacher
Training, all this whilst also being a PhD
student in Technology Enhanced Learning
(TEL), we think she deserves the award!
If you would like to know more about
Cristina’s research contact her at:
ristina is a member of Staff here at
the University in the Research and
Graduate College where she is the
Learning Technologies Development Officer,
but she is also a PhD student here at the
University, and the reason she is in this issue
of RISE is she has been named as Learning
Technologist of the Year by the Association
for Learning Technology (ALT) at their recent
conference!
ALT is a professional and scholarly association
which seeks to bring together all those with
an interest in the use of learning technology.
With over 200 organisations and
over 700 individuals in membership,
ALT facilitates collaboration between
practitioners, researchers and policy makers,
spreads good practice in the use of learning
technology, raises the profile of research
in learning technology, supports the
professionalisation of learning technologists
and contributes to the development of
policies. Cristina was given the award in
recognition of her work with postgraduate
research students and researchers across the
University and beyond.
Tweet the Word!Do you, Tweet, Blog, Facebook or Wiki? Do you know your Google from your Mozilla Firefox? No? Perhaps you need to have achat (virtual or otherwise!) with Cristina Costa!
C
Many PhD students use social media on
a daily basis
ith regard to his recent experience
Brian said: “Conference plenary
lectures are usually rather insular
affairs, aimed at impressing immediate peers
with arcane knowledge. Thus, while I was
honoured to be asked to give the centrepiece
lecture I was somewhat daunted to discover
that it would also be a public lecture at the
Yale Centre for British Art, perhaps the most
prestigious art museum of its kind outside
Britain, plus the fact that the lecture was to
be recorded for an educational podcast, that
a local journalist was to make a feature of
the lecture and that as well as the attendance
of the specialised audience there would be
many members of the New Haven public in
attendance!” Brian overcame the daunting
task and delivered a lecture entitled ‘From
Caricature to Cartoon – the Comic Image and
the Periodical Press 1820-1850’ to a full
house in the extremely well equipped and
steeply raked lecture theatre. The lecture also
resulted in a well illustrated lead article in the
New Haven Sentinel.
Brian’s lecture formed the twelfth Wolff
Lecture, named after a founding figure of the
Society, the historian Michael Wolff who, now
aged 83, was present in the audience. At the
reception in the foyer of the magnificent Louis
Kahn designed Centre Brian met a range of
local people who had come to the lecture,
and they proved to be a very well informed
and enthusiastic group.
On summing up his experience Brian said:
“for a day at least, it was a wonderful
experience to be embraced by the staggering
resources, congenial environment and
cultural standing of a world leading American
museum”.
If you would like to know more about Brian’s
research contact him at:
[email protected] you would like to read the article in the
New Haven Register visit:
www.nhregister.com/artcles/2010/09/08/life/doc4c8811993aadb292659792.txt
he Institute of Acoustics is the UK's professional body for
those working in acoustics, noise and vibration. It has 3000
members with the aim of “promoting and advancing the
art, science and technology of acoustics in all their aspects”, or put
more simply, to improve the world we hear. As President of the
Institute, in theory Trevor is the boss! He chairs Council and Executive,
committees which make all the big decisions affecting the Institute.
Although the Institute has a small office run by professionals, a lot of
work is done by volunteers from industry, academia and the public
sector, and Trevor will also get to do the nice bits such as attending
the Institute’s conferences and handing out awards to the great and
good. Trevor said: “The Institute has been very successful in recent
years, but it is still rather reactive, as the President I hope to establish
more forward-looking budgeting as well as strategic and operational
planning. In the current recession, balancing the budget is a concern”.
Not only has Trevor been doing his normal job of Professing and
Researching at the University, along with being President of the
Institute he has also has been a Journalist for a month. He said: “at
the New Scientist I spent a month in their offices writing stories. The
idea was to improve my ability to communicate science and developing
contacts for future public engagement activities. I’ve been very lucky
to be a Senior Media Fellow funded by the Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and part of my fellowship has
involved taking placement in media organisations. Soon after I arrived,
the story of the annoying vuvuzelas at the World Cup hit the news.
I wrote a short on-line piece for the New Scientist which was even
tweeted by the White House! Other writing included a piece on
Acoustic Archaeology, investigating how important sound was to
ancient sites such as Stonehenge, which appeared in the printed
magazine”.
But that was not the end of Trevor’s work in London. Immediately after
finishing his placement, he spent a week performing a Science Show
at the Purcell Rooms, South Bank Centre, London. It was part of the
Royal Society’s Summer Exhibition and involved working with
professional singers to explore the science of the human voice.
You can follow Trevor’s x Presidency on
http://twitter.com/ioa_presidentOr if you would like to know more about his research contact him at:
Read all about it
Make a Noise Mr President!
W
Professor Brian Maidment, College of Arts and Social Sciences here at the University was recently honoured by being approachedto deliver the Wolff lecture centrepiece at the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals annual conference in New Haven, USA.
June was a busy month for Professor Trevor Cox, from the University’s School of Computing Science and Engineering, not onlydid he spend a month being a journalist at New Scientist, he also became President of the Institute of Acoustics.
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08 | November/December November/December | 09
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
his new, multi-disciplinary research
centre includes expertise from a
wide range of disciplines including
social work, public health, social
epidemiology, psychology, social policy,
historical archaeology, counselling and
psychotherapy whilst also drawing on
members from related research disciplines
including housing, environmental health,
sociology and nursing and midwifery.
The Centre is also closely linked with the
World Health Organisation (WHO)
Collaborating Centre (oral health in
deprived communities).
The Centre for Social Justice Research is
concerned with fairness and equity in
society, exploring major issues such as
poverty, exclusion, health inequalities and
human rights. In order to do this
the research centre collaborates with
universities and research groups in the UK,
Europe and beyond to make a positive impact
in people’s lives.
Social and health Inequalities; community
and professional engagement and social,
psychological and public health interventions
are the three major streams of current
research work in the Centre, streams which
are constantly growing and being developed.
The first of these themes is closely linked
to WHO’s agenda of “closing the
inequalities gap in a generation” and is
particularly concerned with; delivering
equity from the start, promoting universal
access to health and social care and
understanding and tackling social exclusion.
The second stream, community and
professional engagement, seeks to promote
social justice by focusing on such areas as
oppression, disadvantage, human rights and
security, with the research also
focussing on the work of professionals
in these areas, including their training
and pedagogical underpinnings.
The third stream, social, psychological and
public health interventions, includes research
on improving health and well being, advocacy
and therapies and psychological capabilities.
Newly emerging research involves the areas
of social policy and health psychology with
new Professorial appointments.
The research team at the Centre work with a
wide variety of funders such as; The
European Union, The Home Office, Ministry
of Defence, Economic and Social Research
Council, National Institute for Health
Research, Children’s Workforce Development
Council (CWDC) and private companies such
as Unilever, local authorities, primary care
trusts and third sector organisations such as
the Prince’s Trust and Petrus.
There are also 31 postgraduate research
students linked to the Centre whilst the
school is also home to postgraduate
programmes in Social Work, Counselling and
Psychotherapy, Public Health and
Psychology. This School and Research
Centre are making real and tangible
differences at local, national and
international levels, not just for the future but
for the here and now.
If you would like to know more about
the research ongoing in the School
contact: [email protected] or
T
How do we cope with looking after our ever expanding and diversifying society? What makes society tick? Are we providingthe right kind of health and social care for future generations? Are the plans we implement now equitable and morally just?Will they work in the future? Researchers in the School of Social Work, Psychology and Public Health, here at the University,form the new Centre for Social Justice Research and are looking at just such questions leading to exciting and challenging
times ahead!
10 | November/December November/December | 11
From Birthto Death
and all
inbetweenHuman Side
the
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
hese projects are about discovering how specific
working-class communities (the Chartists and Owenites in
the early C19th, British Communists in the first half of the
C20th, and trade union members in the mid C20th) used periodicals
to shape and develop their message or agenda. Together these
projects will examine the role of periodical publications in giving voice
to specific working-class political movements within this broad period.
Each student will be supervised by a University expert and
co-supervised by the expertise of Lynnette Cawthra who is the WCML
Library Manager.
The first student (supervised by Sharon and Lynette) to start this
marathon of PhDs is Jen Morgan. Jen has just begun her study of the
‘Transmission and Reception of P. B. Shelley in Working-Class Journals’
this academic year. The WCML holds a surprising number of early
nineteenth-century journals and Jen will be exploring the use to which
Shelley’s poetry is put in journals published from the aftermath of
‘Peterloo’ to the end of the Chartist period, roughly 1820-1850.
The second PhD student (supervised by Ben Harker from English/
Sociology and Lynnette) will begin work on ‘Culture, Journals and
Communism in Britain, 1935-50, reading journals central to
communist debates on national culture in an effort to explain why and
how communists analysed and sought to improve British culture
between 1935 and 1950.
Then in 2012, a third and final student (supervised by John Callaghan
from Politics and Lynnette) will begin a PhD project on ‘Political
Cultures in British Trade Unionism, 1931-79’, investigating the politics
of British trade unions through the in-house journals of leading trade
unions.
The real distinctiveness of these particular PhD projects though is that
in the second year of their study, each student will spend a year based
at the Working-Class Movement Library, to use the archives and to
work on library business. It is aimed that the students will give public
talks on their research, specialist tours of the library, curate an
exhibition on their project, and write a finding aid for the library’s
resources in the area they have explored. The students will also be
offered the opportunity to be trained to index, catalogue and digitise
the journal material they examine, to help with the WCML’s audience
development and outreach activities, or to develop the library’s web
presence and social network.
If you would like to know more about this research project contact
Sharon at: [email protected]
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EC RecognitionThe University has recently received recognitionfrom the European Commission for its work to support the career development of researchers. Dr. Victoria Sheppard, Research Skills Co-ordinatorat Salford, represented the University at the recentVitae Researcher Development where the ‘badging’ was to take place. Salford is one of onlyten universities in the UK to have achieved this status.
he European Commission ‘badging’ is the
result of a national benchmarking exercise,
which was carried out by Universities UK in
March 2010 and measures what Higher Education
Institutions (HEIs) are doing to implement the Concordat
to Support the Career Development of Researchers.
It looks at the standards of management and support
that UK researchers can expect, in alignment with the
European Charter and Code. Victoria said: “The EC
badging is a useful way of publicising the University
internationally, to researchers who are considering
coming to work in the UK. It was awarded to Salford in
recognition of the support that the University
currently offers to colleagues on research-only
contracts and its strategic commitment to continuously
improve the recognition, retainment and professional
development of its research staff.”
The University set up a Concordat Steering Group in
2009 to oversee the implementation of the Concordat,
this has involved consultation with Salford’s contract
research staff, a feedback event and the development
of an action plan, which sets out practical steps to
improve the representation and integration of this
community within the University.
For more information on the University’s
implementation of the Concordat, visit
www.research.salford.ac.uk/research_staff_concordat.
T
here are approximately
70,000 masonry arch bridges
on the UK road and rail
networks (approx. 1 million spans
worldwide), the vast majority of which
are now well beyond the 120 year life
usually expected of bridges. Though
masonry arch bridges are in general
considered long-lived structures, large
numbers are now showing signs
of distress.
However, the cost of replacing these
bridges in the UK alone would run into
tens of billions of pounds, and their
aesthetic and heritage value is also
significant. Unfortunately the methods
currently used to assess their safety are
antiquated and/or over-simplistic,
making the task of prioritising
renewal or refurbishment schemes
extremely difficult. Weathering,
continually increasing traffic volumes
and factors such as the increased
frequency of flood events brought
about by climate change only serve to
exacerbate the situation.
The need to ensure our bridge stock can
safely carry current and projected traffic
loading has led to dramatically increased
interest in the performance of masonry
arch bridges over the past few decades,
with UK researchers playing a leading
role in this internationally. Gareth and
Clive’s research will lead to the provision
of significantly improved guidance for
bridge assessment engineers.
If you would like to know more about
this research contact Gareth at:
T
Up and Over!Dr. Gareth Swift and Professor Clive Melbourne of the Civil Engineering
Research Group here at the University, are celebrating securing a £650,000
EPSRC grant for a 40 month research project to gain an improved
understanding of the behaviour of soil-filled masonry arch bridges under
both ‘ultimate’ and cyclic ‘working’ loading regimes.
12 | November/December November/December | 13
Brother, won't you join the Line?
The University is celebrating the success of an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) application for an extended programme of three consecutive Collaborative Doctoral Awards (or CASE awards) in partnership with the Working-Class Movement Library (WCML). The entire programme looks at ‘Culture, Journals and Working-Class Movements, 1820-1979’
focusing on the library’s extensive journal holdings.
Allan has been leading an EPSRC project for the lastthree years and together with major scientists from theUniversity of Surrey, has produced a Nature paper on thistopic. It has now attracted 100 citations, which makes itone of the most cited University papers in recent years.
RISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
‘
’
ver the last ten years, the idea that artificial materials could
be created to give us a way of life beyond our dreams, has
taken root throughout the world. Exploiting the Greek word
‘meta’ meaning ‘beyond’, the word metamaterial has been adopted
to describe an artificial material constructed from ‘atoms’ or
‘molecules’ of our choice, and it turns out that their influence on the
behaviour of light is so remarkable that the outcomes are truly
breathtaking. If we think of a prism, or a pair of spectacles, we can
soon get used to the idea that light is redirected for our benefit.
After centuries of acceptance of this everyday occurrence, the onset
of the last decade coincided with the dramatic idea that adding
magnetism to materials can alter our expectations in a most dramatic
way. The question of how to do this was answered by the construction
of the metamaterial. Progress over the last ten years has lead to the
invention of various types of metamaterials, and to the stimulation of
revolutionary ideas in optics and the use of nanotechnology.
The ideas that have taken us all by surprise are now led by the trapping
of rainbows and the design of invisibility cloaks. Firing a beam of light
into a wedge shaped piece of metamaterial enables the light to be
brought to a standstill. This is quite remarkable because the stopping
of light in its tracks seems an impossible thing to do, but it is absolutely
necessary to do this if light beams are to be used to make the
computers of the future. As if this was not the only outcome, it is also
the case that light of different colours can be brought to rest at
different points in the wedge.
This leads to the description of the trapping of a rainbow. Allan has
been leading an EPSRC project for the last three years and together
with major scientists from the University of Surrey, has produced a
Nature paper on this topic. It has now attracted 100 citations, which
makes it one of the most cited University papers in recent years.
As if the trapped rainbow work was not enough for the metamaterial
field, the latest developments are pursuing what is known as
transformation optics. It is incredible that the ideas underpinning this
go back to the early part of the last century concerning relativity, and
introduce the possibility of using metamaterials to bend the path of
light into whatever direction is preferred. The natural application for
this kind of light control is to be able to bend light around objects to
cloak them, i.e. to hide them from view. This is a really wonderful, and
totally unexpected, direction, but there is more to come! Salford is
now involved, not only in trying to cloak a stationary object, but
together with Imperial College London, Allan and Rhiannon are
working out how to hide a whole sequence of events. For example, a
CCTV camera could be observing an area, but if an intruder into that
area is suitably embedded into a metamaterial, a piece of time is
erased from history, and the camera will see nothing! So is Harry
Potter’s invisibility cloak fiction or a future possibility? Watch
this space!
If you would like to know more about this research project contact
Allan at: [email protected]
Allan Boardman, Professor of Applied Physics from the University’s College of Science and Technology, along with hisresearch student Rhiannon Mitchell-Thomas, are engaged in cutting edge research in the globally hot topic called
metamaterials. Rhiannon, who obtained a top-class first in Physics at Salford, is working with Allan to bring out someof the magic of these new materials and is helping to establish Salford as a leading player.
O
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISE
14 | November/December November/December | 15
IT’S A (META)MATERIAL
MAGICAL WORLD!
From rainbows to invisibility cloaks
n the Research Centre for Virtual Environments, VETS3D have
created the Virtual Housing Suite which allows professionals
from the public and private sector to access a range of tools
and services that facilitate a number of controlled and bespoke
interactions with tenants, suppliers and other stakeholders. Using a
games engine environment, extensive modelling techniques and links
to external databases, this approach has built on the expertise drawn
from the research at the University into immersive virtual environments
and its uses within the public arena.
A recent project has been undertaken with City West Housing Trust,
based in Salford, to engage with tenants involved with the Barton
Village Project in Eccles. The outline of the work is to refurbish four
high rise housing blocks and improve the energy efficiency of the
structures.
A representation of the site with a number of possible options was
presented to residents of the housing blocks by using an interactive
model, This enable d the residents to understand the choices on offer
to them and visualise the changes to their home environment.
The model that the VETS3D team designed allowed for the addition
of further data sets, so for example the team were able to overlay a
visual representation of collated thermal data to allow for comparison
between the current materials used and proposed materials for
external render and windows., which in turn showed the potential
heat loss and heat savings. In projects such as this, clear and effective
communication is paramount to success and the model proved
invaluable when used with residents to explain the issues around
energy efficiency for their flat and the surrounding building.
Sustainability Manager at City West Housing Trust, Jon Cross, worked
with the VETS3D team and decided to utilise the tool in his work as
he felt it would give the project added value, Jon said: “the Barton
Village 3D modelling tool brings the expertise of the University of
Salford out into our local community, visually informing customers of
the design option decisions for their homes. This is the
first visualisation tool that brings real information choice to staff
and customers".
Any Regeneration Manager knows that tenant engagement is
essential in these types of upgrade projects, as Nigel Sedman, Head
of Investment & Regeneration at the Trust, said: “the biggest risk to
projects such as this is customer buy in. The University of Salford’s
virtual model allowed tenants to visualise a range of options for their
homes allowing them to engage fully in the project. This created a real
feeling of inclusion and vision within the tenant group and allowed
this phase of the project to run smoothly”.
VETS3D is a prime example of cross disciplinarily research themes
working closely with external partners to deliver the required results,
as Paul Welshman, Business Manager of the VETS Research Centre
said: “this is an example of a commercial unit within the University’s
Energy theme, working with one of our key partners in Salford City
Council in order to bring a product to market. Salford City Council
helped us to identify an industrial partner in City West Housing Trust
who will now be using the tool to interact and engage with the wider
community. This is a perfect example of the University integrating into
the public and private sector, using research and innovation and
making our technology available in the public domain”.
If you feel VETS3D could help your business or work area or you would
like to know more about the research behind VETS3D contact Paul at:
In the current economic climate, careful thought into the planning of public services and the best way of spending publicmonies on projects such as refurbishing housing, is an essential prerequisite of any organisation, and the University of Salfordhas just the way to help.
I
=VirtualImages Real
Choices
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
16 | November/December November/December | 17
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
Leading theway to Business SuccessThe University of Salford’s BusinessSchool was one of 13 providers in theNorth West selected by the North WestDevelopment Agency to deliver theLeading Enterprise and Development(LEAD) programme. The programme isrun by experts from the University of Salford, alongside leading industry professionals. The team at Salford consists of: Veronica Jones as LEAD Project Manager, Dr Ed Doran as Programme Leader and Liz Walker asLEAD Administrator.
EAD is a 10 month leadership
programme specifically aimed at
companies with up to 50
employees and is designed to equip
owner-managers with the skills and abilities
they need to increase profits, capitalise on
new opportunities and make the most of
their existing resources. Concentrating on
two areas: the business itself and the
personal development of the owner-manager,
the LEAD programme is made up of several
elements which run alongside each other
throughout the 10 months and it requires
2-3 days commitment per month. These
elements are: a two-day Residential
“Overnight Experiential”; Masterclasses;
Action Learning Sets; Expert Coaching;
Shadowing & Exchanges; Learning &
Reflection Days and Online Forum.
To date the Masterclass speakers have
included two of Salford Business School’s
Visiting Professors, international lawyer
Professor Arun Singh OBE and marketing
guru, Professor Malcolm McDonald.
The School has been working with 56 SME’s
so far on this programme. The first cohort of
LEAD participants successfully completed
and graduated from the programme in
June 2010 and the second group, which
started in February 2010, is due to graduate
in December this year. A third group started
in September 2010 and a fourth one is
planned for March 2011.
For further information on the LEAD
programme at Salford, please contact
Veronica Jones on [email protected] visit: www.business.salford.ac.uk/LEAD
Congratulations go to Professor T X Mei, Chair of Control and Mechatronics, Directorof Engineering 2050 Research Centre from the School of Computing, Science and Engineering here at the University, who has recently been awarded £345,887 in a research grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)to study innovative methods for Challenging Established Rules for Train Controlthrough a Fault Tolerant Approach. The project will be led by Professor Mei from Salford’s Engineering 2050 Centre along with his Salford colleague Dr. Samia Nefti-Meziani, also from the School of Computing, Science and Engineering, and work in collaboration with The Institute for Transport Studies at the Universityof Leeds with colleagues Dr R Liu, Professor M Carey and Dr T Whiteing.
his exciting new project brings
together a multi-disciplinary
multi-skilled team to develop a
new integrated approach that can be used to
challenge the current conservative safety
rules in signalling and train systems and to
increase capacity at busy stations and
junctions.
The expertise level runs high in this project
with the team consisting of specialists in rail-
way research as well as experts from outside
of the industry, providing a highly
appropriate mix of relevant skills in railway
signalling, scheduling, network modelling,
safety and fault tolerance methods, and
evolutionary computational techniques for
optimisation which are all essential for
tackling the problem in question effectively.
The project proposes to develop a fault
tolerant approach to the design and
operation of the rail network, by integrating
track design (e.g. the track layout, the
positions of points and signalling blocks) with
dynamic routing/scheduling, optimised using
a novel evolutionary computational approach
particularly suited for combining multi
objective optimisation with safety/risk
management. Many challenges lie ahead in
this project and one of the key challenges for
the research team is to develop solutions that
do not require additional new infrastructure
investment or major changes to existing
stations/junctions.
If you would like to know more about TX’s
research contact him at:
On the Right Tracks
TNew York, New York!University of Salford’s Dr Maria Burke and her Research Fellow Michael Quigley, both have good reason to celebrate as one of the world’s most famous Magazines highlighted their current research activities when their Digital Research Project was featured recently in the New York Times Magazine!
he research project entitled, talesofthings.com (ToTEM), is
funded by EPSRC and is led by Dr Chris Speed at
Edinburgh College of Art who gave the interview.
The University partners included in the project are: Brunel, Salford,
Dundee, Edinburgh and University College London.
Maria said: “This is really thrilling! – so far this year our work has been
featured by the BBC, by top technology sites such as Wired, by New
Scientist Magazine and now the New York Times, plus the project also
featured as an article in there! The Brussels Airline in flight magazine.
As to the future, well its very bright… just wait and see where we go
with this!”
Maria and the team have just finished working with a large Estate
Agent in Manchester and more details on research emerging from this
part of the project will be forthcoming in following issues.
If you would like to know more about Maria’s research or the ToTEM
Project contact her at: [email protected]
T
ub is an innovation space and pop
up gallery based in a disused retail
space in Salford. By attracting an
audience to an otherwise empty retail unit,
this project aims to support the regeneration
of the City and further create links between
the University, its local community and the
creative industries that surround it. Working
as a cross University fusion between research,
academic enterprise and teaching and
learning, Hub aims to facilitate the incubation
and showcase for ideas and creative outputs
through a series of curated shows and events
by the partners involved. Each of the projects
is collaborative involving the community
and the creative industries. Partners
include Central Salford Urban Regeneration
Company, BBC 21CC, Lets go Global, Soup
Collective and producer and curator Bren
Callaghan, to further secure cultural and
industry links within the community. There is
also a virtual Hub in Second Life at the Salford
Metaverse and first and second life visitors
gathered together for the launch.
An alternative method of viewing the classic
British film ‘My Beautiful Launderette’ was
one of the first offerings at Hub, with
Manchester-based Producer Bren O'Callaghan
working in collaboration with Charlotte and
the School of Art to present the film via
nostrils and throats and not just eyes and ears
as part of the Hazard Festival. Screenings
were a real retro hit and the Friday night
audiences were treated to a question and
answer session with Gordon Warnecke, an
actor from the original film. In a period of
escalating 3-D movie production, itself
stemming from a gimmick long thought
redundant, Scratch ‘n Sniff Cinema is a
purposely no-tech method descended from
the era of Odorama and Smell-O-Vision,
popularised by the likes of trash film director
John Waters (Polyester, Hairspray). Salford
students had worked with staff to create the
set to transform Hub into Tub for the night!
Let’s Go Global in collaboration with Hub
held a pervasive gaming event called ‘Zombie
Nation’. Exploring new ways of engaging
with urban public spaces this event combined
creative technology, gaming and performance
and involved local youth groups who through
playing the game experienced digital media
training, with ‘mash up’ edits of the film
captured on their hand held digital video
cameras as they solved the clues provided.
Passersby joined in and some came along
dressed as zombies on the day to engage with
game and the space, such as the zombie
knitter who took over one of the empty
shop units encouraging others to join her
in knitting!
‘Offit’ was Mary Oliver’s along with Lois
Klassen’s foray into the Hub. Mary who is the
Head of the Performance Research Centre in
the School of Music Media and Performance
and Lois during their six-week collaborative
residency at Hub, explored the locale specific
to the gallery, just on the border of Salford
and Manchester. As travelers and explorers
the artists were considering the imbalance
caused by the presence of cultural production
in urban spaces.�‘Offit’ - Salford vernacular for
‘not on it’, out of sorts, or not quite right, is
an installation in which the visitor finds
themselves confronted with things that are
‘Offit - not on it’. This exhibition asks: does
art produce a condition of offit and is this a
useful condition from which to view the
process of urban regeneration?
If you would like to know more about the
research behind the hub contact Charlotte at:
L
Art not to be sniffed atWhat do you do with a disused space? Well if you’re Charlotte Gould, Head of Creative Technology & Communications Research Centre in the School of Art and Design here at the University, you turn it into an innovative art gallery!
H
18 | November/December November/December | 19
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
Passing on the KnowledgeReal world research for use in real world situations, that’s the ethos here at the University of Salford, working with organisations, supporting the development of new products and services to create impact not just at local business
and community level but regionally, nationally and internationally. Never more so are these intentions alive and kicking than in the University’s Knowledge Transfer Partnerships(KTPs)
e’ve written about the KTP office before and its success in
creating new knowledge partnerships, currently 22 live
KTPs, benefitting a wide range of local businesses, students,
academics and researchers alike.
Marie Foley KTP Administrator tells RISE “For several years the
University has used HEIF funding to support the short-term
placement of academic staff in organisations to enable the
development of new products and services. This has proved to be an
extremely successful initiative at a number of levels. Benefits have
included good relationships between academics and companies
resulting in further placements, projects and consultancy and the
development of Knowledge Transfer activities particularly through
Knowledge Transfer Partnership projects. Under HEIF 4 the University
has an allocation of funding to support staff placement activity. As this
is the final year there is a limited amount of funding available and each
application will be assessed against the extent to which the
activity will lead to the following; development of a KTP, innovation in
products, services and processes, contract/collaborative research
(particularly with SMEs), consultancy and other commercial services”.
Seeing is believing as they say and never more so with KTPs, the proof
that these successful KTP partnerships work for all those concerned is
clearly demonstrated in the partnership between Fuji Film Imaging
Colorants Ltd and the School of Computing, Science and Engineering
(CSE) here at the University. Fuji required the expertise to develop
analytical methodology to characterise the morphology of primary
particles of organic pigment based inks to study the interaction of the
ink vehicle when printed onto media using inkjet technologies.
Working in partnership with Geoff Parr from CSE and utilising
X-ray Diffraction together with Transmission Electron Microscopy and
high resolution Scanning, Fujifilm now have a methodology allowing
them to continue with their studies and are using the knowledge
transferred to them by the University to evaluate further technologies.
Definitely a win win situation! Universities through KTPs can support,
develop and inspire local businesses; the KTP office at the University
is always open for discussion and collaboration.
If you as an academic would like to apply under the final stages of the
HEIF 4 or if you’re a business who would like to know more about
KTPs and what the University can do for you, contact Marie Foley at:
limate change was the issue and
Simon and colleagues in Virtual
Environments at the University,
created, as part of the Iconic Project, an
opportunity for pupils around the globe to
show their work and discuss issues. At a time
when climate change is highly topical, this
project set out to determine how various
forms of IT could be used to bring together
young people and to help them to find out
more and discuss their thoughts and feelings
around this important, but contentious topic.
Below the Big Screen in Exchange Square
pupils involved in the project from St.
Ambrose Barlow High School in Salford also
talked to passing shoppers and city centre
workers demonstrating their work live on
laptops .
Working in collaboration with the BBC’s
21CCs and schools in London, Salford and
Shanghai via East China Normal University
(ECNU) the schools were equipped with
professional quality weather stations allowing
pupils to collect their own meteorological
data, this year there has been a wide range
of weather events to say the least from heavy
snow to heat waves and not a little
controversy surrounding climate change
following 'Climate Gate'!
Through a bespoke programme of workshops
hosted by the BBC's 21CCs the schools'
meteorological data provided the context
for discussion of the issues and
misunderstandings surrounding climate
change. From December 2009 to July 2010 a
programme of 8 workshops were delivered,
with the final event taking place as
mentioned above, on Manchester’s BBC big
screen in September this year. Initially the
workshops made use of various video
conferencing facilities to discuss the weather
data that the different schools had collected.
Live discussions were held between pupils in
Salford, London and Shanghai and the
contrasts between each location's weather
data and the difference between weather
and climate was debated.
Working with the Virtual Environment
Specialists (VETS) at the University the project
also developed a unique, 3D VE to further
facilitate communication between schools.
In this environment pupils were able to
upload the material they had created e.g.
video clips, posters and podcasts and discuss
key climate change issues using the chat
facility. Topics for discussion ranged from the
Greenhouse Effect to the Ozone Hole with
pupils in different locations sharing the
information they had gathered, asking
questions and trying to reach a common
understanding.
The research undertaken through this project
allowed researchers at the University to
explore the use of telepresence experiences
to understand how different ways of
interacting across a distance can contribute to
the learning process and assess the combined
use of range of technologies. These events
provided a range of challenges e.g. dealing
with diverse groups and linking
communications across several time zones.
The challenges were met head on by
researchers and pupils and highlighted for all
the schools involved that through the
technology of the future the world is a smaller
place and its problems more easily solved by
working together.
If you would like to know more about
Simon’s research contact him at:
[email protected] visit the project website at
www.cccproject.co.uk
W
The BBC Big Screen in Central Manchester was the showcase for one of the six VC’s Iconic Project for MediaCityUK recently,when Dr. Simon Hutchinson, School of Environment & Life Sciences here at the University, took his Virtual Environment (VE)
project live and youthful!
C
Youthful
climate
20 | November/December November/December | 21
ocusing on how the BBC were aiming to use MediaCityUK
as a catalyst to drive forward the development,
management and archiving of the BBC’s growing volume
of digital content, Tim stressed the critical role of the University in
designing and developing new programmes to deliver graduates
equipped with the right skills and industry knowledge to fill new,
emerging and exciting roles.
The keynote speech from the BBC was just one of a number of
interactive sessions delivered as part of the day. With less than one
year to go until the doors open to the first 1,500 students, the Summit
was designed to provide key University colleagues, with an in-depth
insight of the innovation, advanced technologies and collaborative
working that is shaping the University’s MediaCityUK Programme.
Delegates were given a preview of what Curriculum, Research and
The Student Experience would look and feel like at MediaCityUK in
October 2011.
Alongside the formal presentations, delegates were given the
opportunity to experience some of the new technologies and
equipment destined for MediaCityUK. Paul Welshman from the
University’s VETS team, alongside Steve Bradley and Russell Vaughan
from Cisco, demonstrated the teleconferencing facilities that would
be available at MediaCityUK which, as well as providing a direct link
to a global audience, could also be used to share real time learning
and research across the University estate.
Over lunch, delegates were treated to a number of interactive digital
performances from staff based in the Performance Research Centre.
Following these performances, Professor Ghassan Aouad Pro Vice
Chancellor, Research & Innovation and Professor Brian Longhurst Pro
Vice Chancellor, Digital & Media Futures, outlined the vision for
research at MediaCityUK. Central to this vision is the creation
of a dedicated research base in the form of a ‘Research Hotel’.
Ghassan and Brian emphasised the pivotal role this will have in the
achievement of the University’s strategic objectives for Research and
Innovation facilitated through this new and collaborative approach.
University colleagues were given the opportunity to set out their views
on the opportunities for MediaCityUK over the next three years. The
University’s MediaCityUK sponsor, Dr Adrian Graves, Deputy Vice
Chancellor and Registrar, closed the Summit reflecting on the
outcomes saying “The great achievement of the day was to
demonstrate that our presence and activities in MediaCityUK will
transform the University of Salford.”
Summarising the day, Andrew Kemp MediaCityUK Programme
Director said “The summit has been successful in bringing
MediaCityUK to life”. Andrew thanked colleagues across the
Programme saying “We now have a strong view of how it will look
and work on day one. The challenge from this point forward is to
start the transition of staff, students and systems to MediaCityUK to
ensure the University realises the full potential of this unique and
innovative facility. The key to its success will be effective engagement
with the local communities, the public and partners”.
If you would like to learn more about the summit or the
University’s plans for MediaCityUK please visit the website at:
www.mcuk.salford.ac.uk or contact the Programme Team at:
Tim Sargeant, Head of Technology BBC North, addressed over sixty delegates at the University’s second MediaCityUK Summit recently. Speaking of the challenges faced by one of the world’s most established broadcasting organisations, Tim highlighted
the importance of Higher Education and specifically the University of Salford’s presence at MediaCityUK, in helping to develop solutions that meet the ever
changing needs of digital and media industries.
IndustryLeaders
participate in
University’s Plans
MediaCityUKfor
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
F
Photograp
hy b
y:Peel Media
22 | November/December November/December | 23
RISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
vidence based practice (EBP) is an approach to decision
making that involves a process of integrating the best
available research evidence with professional knowledge
and expertise. Evidence based practice has been a key feature of
modules within the School of Nursing for a number of years,
but recently two active research staff within the school, Alison Brettle
and Maria Grant, were successful in obtaining a bid to host a major
international conference in another area of EBP, that of library and
information practice.
The 6th International Evidence Based Library and Information Practice
Conference will be hosted by the University of Salford from
27th-30th June 2011. The conference will provide an exciting
opportunity for collaboration between the School of Nursing and
Midwifery and the University Library and beyond, with local and
international organising committees made up of representatives from
a range of the library sectors.
Libraries are usually associated with storing or finding information and
evidence rather than using or generating it, and as a profession which
is not traditionally associated with conducting research, generating
sufficient evidence can be a challenge! But EBP is important to libraries
for a number of reasons. As a professional service libraries need to
ensure that the decisions they make are based on the best available
evidence as this affects the service they provide to their users.
For example should a University Library switch all its journal and book
collections to electronic ones as many students are now distance
learners? How would this affect remaining students? Libraries are
increasingly being asked to evaluate and justify the services they offer
to provide evidence of effectiveness, value for money or impact on the
‘community’ around them. How would a public library provide
evidence of this? Does it just provide books for children or a valuable
resource to the whole community? Will this information convince
councils of a continued need for funding? Librarians spend much of
their time providing information to others to help them make
professional decisions and teaching people how to incorporate
evidence based approach into their work, it makes sense that they
practise what they preach!
With a core strand of valuing knowledge and expertise, the conference
will seek to explore issues such as these and the best ways of
incorporating evidence into professional library practice.
The conference themes are set to provide something of interest for
everyone and include: reflection; outcomes, impact and value;
practicality and applicability; and innovation, education and research.
Dr Hazel Hall of the Library and Information Science Research Coalition
will be a keynote along with others from the local academic and library
sectors to promote the wealth of expertise within the University and
the North West. Previous conferences have been held in Sheffield,
Canada, Australia, US and Sweden and have attracted a wide range
of national and international delegates.
To find out more about the conference contact conference Chairs
Alison Brettle or Maria Grant at: [email protected] or
Or visit the conference website at: www.eblip6.salford.ac.uk
Most people would agree that important decisions need to be based on strong evidence. In recent years the evidence based practice movement has gained momentum and acceptance, not only in healthcare (where it began) but across a range of professions and areas of policymaking.
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISE
Valuing Knowledge, Expertise and
Evidence in Libraries
24 | November/December November/December | 25
he new programme offers business training courses
in search marketing and social media marketing.
The programme comprises four evenings for the Foundation
and six evenings for the Professional course, runs over ten weeks
and aims to shape the search engine optimisation industry.
The identification of the need for search engine optimisation (SEO)
training is the result of ongoing research in the Information Systems,
Organisations and Society Research Centre (ISOS) and also of
collaborative work undertaken with commercial partner organisations
such as the Latitude Group, MEC Manchester, MediaVest, PushON and
the SEMPO Institute. Demand for the programme has been confirmed
by delegate registrations – all twelve places for the September 2010
cohort of learners have been filled.
Search engine marketing management is becoming an increasingly
important discipline used by organisations that want to reach out and
interact with the increasing online user population. Moreover,
marketers can also realise benefits of measurement such as return on
investment that are unprecedented in other media. For example, tools
such as Google Analytics allow website owners to track the journey
of a visitor to their website, activity whilst on their website and at what
point they leave. This all provides a wealth of data helping marketers
to develop and optimise their web pages to suit their prospects’ needs.
Keeping the training material up-to-date is one of the main concerns
for any programme in such a dynamic field as search engine
optimisation. Therefore, the course combines the work of three main
contributors – academics, local industry experts and a leading
international body in the field, who together, through a process of
peer review, develop the latest thinking and practice in the area of
search and social media.
The trend demonstrated by the increased industry investment in
Search & Social Media Marketing is encouraging, however, despite its
popularity in business, there are still not many academic studies in this
area and to meet this need, Salford Business School is currently
exploring the options of a Postgraduate Certificate (PG Cert) in Search
& Social Media Marketing as well as encouraging doctoral research in
the field in topics such as: Search engine optimisation and its
integration with marketing and Social Media Marketing. It is
anticipated that these programmes will be delivered at the new unique
digital learning, teaching and research space at MediaCityUK from
October 2011.
If you would like to know more about Aleksej’s research or the new
programme contact him at: [email protected] or visit
www.searchmarketing.salford.ac.uk
Searching the Future of Marketing Salford Business School is currently offering a new and cutting edge executive education programme – Search and Social MediaMarketing. This is particularly timely, since last year the UK reached an historic milestone – spending on online advertising surpassed that of advertising on TV and the current thinking is that the US economy will follow in 2010 by becoming the secondmajor economy to spend more on online advertising compared with traditional media.
URF have carried out work across a number of themes on
science cities, knowledge regions, innovation ecosystems
and univer-cities, on critical infrastructure, urban retrofitting
and the development of energy alternatives to reduce resource
consumption.
Research has been funded by academic, government, industry and
other types of funding organisation. What this means is a ‘mixed
economy’ of research, underpinned by long-term intellectual agendas
and a desire to inform contemporary debates in practice. Working in
this way requires a particular context and culture. In search of
engaged research that is both ‘excellent’ and ‘relevant’ we need to
understand the relationship between what academics do and where
and how they do it.
These issues form the focus of a new book, written by Professor Tim
May and Dr Beth Perry, entitled ‘Social Research & Reflexivity –
Content, Consequences and Context’ (Sage 2011). This book
examines the critical gaps in thinking about reflexivity and social
research, how reflexive practice is shaped by contexts and cultures in
which researchers work and how research practice might respond to
twin demands of excellence and relevance in the knowledge-based
economy. With acclaims from the academic community ‘….Thought
provoking and well-organised’… ‘a harsh critique of academic
business as usual…’ this book develops a new position on reflexive
research that will generate much debate.
For more information please contact: [email protected] or
[email protected] or see www.surf.salford.ac.uk
Reflexive ResearchThe Centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures (SURF) at the University of Salford has a critical research focus on howcities can address the challenge of developing a sustainable and knowledge-based economy.
S
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E
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
nderstanding the what, when, why and
where of a disaster situation is the most
important element of undertaking good
research that can provide good evidence to open up
solutions and fast responses which are critical to
recovery post disaster. The main aim of Udayangani’s
visit was to explore opportunities to create a strategic
partnership between Salford and PSTU in carrying out
collaborative research and teaching activities. During
her visit she met with undergraduate students who are
currently enrolled on the BSc in Disaster Management
programme which is the first bachelors’ degree
programme in this subject area in South Asia.
Udayangani also addressed a disaster management
learners and a practitioner group on the flood
management initiative. Whilst visiting PSTU she also
carried out site visits in the areas affected by floods and
cyclones and visited housing reconstruction activities
which had developed following disasters.
Udayangani’s visit was a success and she plans to
further expand her research partnership with
Bangheadh and has submitted several research
applications. This will help her to further expand the
“disaster risk reduction” and “impact from culture on
disaster risk reduction” research themes within the
centre.
If you would like more information on Udayangani’s
research contact her at: [email protected]
Inspire in BangladeshDr Udayangani Kulatunga, a member of the Centre for Disaster Resilience, here at the University recently visited Patuakhali Science and Technology University (PSTU) in Bangladesh to understand and explore disaster management activities carried out in this country. Her visit to PSTUwas sponsored by British Council’s INSPIRE Exploratory research grant.
In this Centre, we’re not just researching into Disaster Resilience and associated activities, were writing about it!
Through the Centre’s International Journal of Disaster
Resilience in the Built Environment, published by
Emerald insight and Edited by the Centre’s Dr. Richard
Haigh and Professor Dilanthi Amaratunga, we are
highlighting new and exciting knowledge, via peer
reviewed papers, from colleagues across multi
disciplined/multi themed research strands, colleagues
from other research areas across academic institutions
both nationally and internationally providing evidence
based practice for the wider academic community,
national and international strategic agencies,
construction companies and anyone who is witnessing,
aiding and developing disaster areas across the world,
can utilise the research knowledge published in this
journal to better prepare and develop for the future.
To visit the Journal’s website go to:
www.emeraldinsight.com/ijdrbe.htm
United Nations DevelopmentProgramme RecognitionReal world research is at the ethos of the University of Salford andnever more so than here at the Centre for Disaster Resilience, researchers in this Centre, don’t just write about the topic from afar,they are on the ground researching and working with the peoplewhose lives are most affected by these international disasters and,importantly, working with the agencies that have to regroup and develop devastated communities and their built environment.
he United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) has endorsed the
activities being carried out by theCentre for Disaster Resilience and inparticular UNDP recognises the Centre’s efforts in Sri Lanka, lookingat its aimed capacity developmentfor strengthened ownership and sustained results on disaster mitigation and reconstruction, its work on the development of institutional frameworks on disaster risk management (DRM)and promotion of efforts to
decentralise it and for helping tostreamline various local DRM efforts under a common platform.The Centre plans to put forward ajoint programme of activities together with UNDP, in order tostrengthen current work and leadforward into future research and mutual programmes.
If you would like to know moreabout the above developments contact: [email protected] [email protected]
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Centre for Disaster Resilience
Rics Cobra 2010 ConferenceThe University’s Centre for Disaster Resilience, recentlyorganised and hosted a special Disaster Managementstream as part of its partnership with the Royal Instituteof Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in association with the International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the BuiltEnvironment, all done as part of The Royal Institution ofChartered Surveyors’ (RICS) COBRA 2010 InternationalResearch Conference. Dr Chaminda Pathirage and DrKaushal Keraminiyage from the Centre for Disaster Resilience at the University co-chaired the session.
iming to stimulate research ideas and views by
exploring a range of perspectives from which the
Built Environment is able to contribute towards
improved resilience to disasters, the session succeeded in
bringing together many researchers and postgraduate students
from around the world and by doing so the international
postgraduate community presented and discussed their
research in order to facilitate networking among researchers
and to widely disseminate the existing knowledgebase.
This Disaster Management session attracted more than 35
scholarly written research papers and presentations relating to
many themes: disaster mitigation and response; climate change
and disasters; disaster resilience and risk reduction; knowledge
management and disasters; skills and human resource aspects
of disaster management, gender and disaster management;
building design and management in reconstruction. All the
research papers presented during this session have been
published in the formal proceedings of the RICS COBRA 2010
conference. It was a successful session with stimulating and
thought provoking papers and discussions, culminating in the
highlight of two expert keynote addresses delivered by
Professor Dilanthi Amaratunga, from the University of Salford,
and Dr Suzanne Wilkinson, from the University of Auckland,
New Zealand. Two best paper awards were given by the
International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built
Environment, in two categories; the experienced researcher and
the postgraduate researcher.
A special themed issue using selected papers from the session
will be published in the International Journal of Disaster
Resilience in the Built Environment, further spreading the
expertise available in this area. After the success of the special
stream in this year’s RICS Conference the Centre plans
to continue its association with RICS in holidng disaster
management specal streams in years to come.
If you would like further information on the special
stream contact: [email protected] or
AU
26 | November/December November/December | 27
hese may be phrases that many of us dread, but they are
concepts that Dr Phoebe Moore, Lecturer in International
Relations and International Political Economy and
Programme Leader for the Master’s degree in International Relations
and Globalisation here at the University knows only too well.
Writing, teaching and researching in these areas is what makes
Dr Moore tick!Phoebe’s latest monograph, entitled ‘The International
Political Economy of Work and Employability’ (Palgrave, Aug 2010)
examines the after effects of global shifts to a knowledge-based
economy which have led to an emergence of a new type of labour
force in both the Eastern as well as Western hemispheres, with
workers and the rising unemployed increasingly being expected to
become self-managing, precarious lifelong learners, linked with the
impact of technological development.
The book has attracted good reviews highlighting her expertise in her
subject area as, one international academic states: “This book
provides one of the richest and most systematic comparisons of skills
revolutions in three countries in the East and West. Phoebe Moore
introduces brilliantly the International Political Economy of Work
and Employability into the literature on employability and skills”.
(Joohee Lee, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology,
Ewha Womans University, South Korea).
Phoebe’s latest work conducts a critical investigation of how
employment and education policy in three different locations across
the world is informed by a dominant view of what should make a
person ‘employable’, a concept created by the elite, and then she
looks for new models for post-capitalist production such as peer to
peer communities, that want to overcome this binding set of rules.
The International Political Economy of Work and Employability
provides the basis for research into the dramatic impact of global
instability on workers such as is seen in the context of the recent
recession.
If you would like to know more about Phoebe’s research contact her
‘Knowledge based economy’, ‘employability’ and ‘international markets’ are all buzz words we are hearing currently, with ‘financial crisis’, ‘double dip recession’ and ‘market forces’ joining in
the chorus.
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Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
aving reported in a previous issue
the success of the creative Poets,
Lecturers and Writers in the
School of English, Sociology, Politics and
Contemporary History (ESPaCH) here at the
University, it would appear that the School
have gone on to further accolades in the last
few months with the English and Creative
Writing Lecturers winning awards and
recognition in all areas and from all quarters!
Lecturer, Jennifer Tuckett, has been selected
for Drafted, Vision and Media's film
development programme. As part of the 8
month development and training initiative,
Jennifer will be working with Caroline
Cooper Charles, Head of Development at
Warp X Films, to develop a screenplay from
treatment to first draft stage as well as
attending master classes at Vision and Media,
the North West's film agency. The project is
supported by the UK Film Council
and National Lottery and Jennifer has
been selected as one of 24 writers chosen
to undertake this highly competitive
programme.
Dr Gill James’s project with Aimhigher
students, has just won the approval of Yoko
Ono wife of the late John Lennon. Gill’s
research and work with the students will
support the Imagine Appeal at the Alder Hey
hospital in Liverpool. Dr Ursula Hurley’s
experimental memoir/novel, Heartwood won
first prize in the Unbound Press International
Creative Non-fiction Competition, with the
first chapter being published in the November
issue of their journal. Ursula has also recently
been shortlisted for the Tony Lothian
Biographer’s Club Prize for first time
biographers, for her work charting the life of
Renaissance Playwright Elizabeth Cary.
In a previous issue of RISE we celebrated the
successful launch of Dr Judy Kendall’s poetry
collection and the success for Judy continues
with her poem 'Wa Harmony', from her
second poetry collection Joy Change,
(Cinnamon Press, 2010), which has been
selected to feature in the Forward anthology
of best poems of 2010, complementing the
selection of a poem from her first book ‘The
Drier The Brighter’ for the 2007 anthology.
If you would like to know more about these
works or the research behind them contact
Judy Kendall at: [email protected]
More Success!The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, moves on to lots of recognition andawards it seems!
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MomentumGrowing forECE 2011 ConferenceSaul Nasse, Controller of BBC learning, Glynis Cousin, University of Wolverhampton, Alex Couros, Universityof Regina, Canada and Norman Jackson,University of Surrey are all now confirmed speakers at the 6th Educationin a Changing Environment conference‘Creativity and Engagement in Higher Education’!
he Conference will take place on
University of Salford Campus from
6th – 8th July 2011, with a Gala
Dinner to be held on the 7th July at the world
renowned Lowry Centre, Salford Quays
Colleagues and partners of the University,
alongside those from Universities in the UK
and overseas, are being encouraged to
submit full papers by 24th January 2011
which will be double reviewed by an
international committee including many
academic staff from Salford. Those papers
that are accepted will be contenders for a
special issue of PESTLHE or will be
recommended for other REF returnable
journals.
The Education in a changing Environment 6th
International Conference will be a conference
that will look at creativity and engagement
in Higher Education, and to this end the
Committee are keen to seek suggestions of
creative ways for exploring Higher Education
research and practice by means of an
abstract and are therefore encouraging
proposals for performance/demonstration/
posters and workshops.
If you would like to know more about the
conference visit the website at:
www.ece.salford.ac.uk
Or contact either Chris Procter or Debra
Leighton, Co-Chairs of the Conference at:
EmployabilityEconomy + Work = T
28 | November/December November/December | 29
As you read this article, we will be nearing completion of the Salford Energy House and Hub, where the University’s leading academics are working collaboratively across research themes and with external partners to address all sorts of issuesaround Energy, but one of the vital stumbling blocks is not the climate but the human mind and attitude, raising the question - How can we engage homeowners and residents to adopt energy efficient measures?
Go on Insulate...
hen a well known building materials company offered to
insulate the lofts of every house on a street, all the residents
declined. This was despite the obvious benefits, of reduced
energy bills, and warmer homes; many could simply not face having
to clean out their crammed lofts!
This is the issue facing the Department of Energy and Climate Change
(DECC) and the newly formed Energy Technologies Institute (EIT). The
institute, a new public/private partnership involving some leading
British companies including Rolls Royce, BP and Shell, has been tasked
at making our homes more energy efficient. David Clarke, Chief
Executive of EIT recently said: “in order to hit the 2050 targets the UK
will have to refurbish and retrofit approximately 12,500 homes per
week, that’s a city the size of Cambridge every month”.
Speaking recently as the first bricks of the Energy House were laid, Dr
Nigel Mellors, Associate Dean, College of Science and Technology
commented: “the issues around reducing the carbon footprint, of our
homes, through energy efficiency, can only be solved through a
multi-disciplinary approach, combining new technology, behaviour
change and fiscal support”. Passionate about people is what we are
here at the University of Salford, people and their behaviour especially
in relation to issues in local environments such as Nigel is talking
about. What makes our Energy hub researchers tick are issues such
as: reducing the carbon footprint of a home; the energy efficiency of
an area; flood ratings and warnings and the burning question how
do you encourage the population of an area be pro active and take
responsibility for such occurrences as floods?
Erik Bichard, Professor of Regeneration and Sustainability at the
University, is currently actively engaged in examining just such
problems. Over the past 18 months Erik has been leading a team of
researchers to investigate a problem that had been troubling the
Environment Agency. The Agency is required to help the population
in England and Wales to cope with flooding. Climate scientists predict
that inundation events are set to increase, but most people who live
in a flood risk zone are not listening to advice from the Agency with
regard to flood defences.
It’s a fact that the emission of greenhouse gases as a result of heating
homes is a contributing factor to this problem, but many people still
don’t have basic energy saving measures installed in their homes.
Erik’s team has proposed a solution to this problem which involves
reward-based incentives. Offering residents non-cash rewards
including fruit and vegetables, garden makeovers, access to further
education, free meals, hair dressing sessions and a range of public
transport opportunities. In exchange for this, home-owners are
required to buy flood protection measures as recommended by a
qualified flood protection survey team. The research programme – part
of the Resilient Homes programme – has undertaken a comprehensive
survey of home-owners in England and Wales, with results so far
indicating that two in three people who were reluctant to invest in
flood measures said they would change their minds if offered
non-cash rewards. These interesting results will feed into the next
phase of Erik and the team’s research.
Its cross University projects such as Erik’s above that will feed into the
Energy Hub and create the bigger picture, giving Universities, Industry
and business vital information in planning, developing and protecting
our future environment.
If you want to find out more about the Energy House and Energy
theme then visit us at the BBC:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science_and_environment/
If you would like to get involved, or have your work and research
featured on the BBC then please contact Stephen Waterworth,
Energy Hub Manager.
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Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
30 | November/December November/December | 31
It’s free
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
Talent Management in China:Is it a Management Fashion?
Paul Iles, Professor in Leadership and Human Resource Management (HRM) at the Salford Business School here at theUniversity has recently had two articles published on a growingarea of research that of ‘Talent Management’ or TM.
ntil the late 1990s, this phrase was uncommon in HR or
management circles. It was placed firmly on the HR agenda
by a report, later book, by the McKinsey Group, who coined
the phrase ‘the war for talent’. The argument was that a
series of changes such as: the increasing value of knowledge to
contemporary organisations; the global nature of many managerial
and professional labour markets; the reduced ‘commitment’ of many
employees to their employers; demographic changes such as ageing
societies and an increasing importance given to work-life balance,
had generated a reduction in the talent supply at the same time as
the demand for such talent was soaring. Organizations had to ‘wage
war’ to recruit and retain scarce talent, as well as optimise it through
training and development, by enhancing their ‘employer brand’ and
becoming an ‘employer of choice’.
Various studies conducted by Paul with colleagues David Preece
(University of Teesside) and Xin Chuai (Belzona, Harrogate),
have analysed the ‘fashionability’ of TM, involving two empirical
studies of TM in China; specifically, among Western multinationals
and consultancies based in Beijing. The team found that the
organizations defined TM in very different ways, and meant very
different things by the term. For some it was simply a re-labelling of
HRM, with no substantive differences seen between the two terms.
For others it was around the definition of TM; the focus of TM with
this group of employers was to use the term when referring to an
exclusive, selected elite group, ‘talents’, whose contribution is seen as
of disproportionate importance to the organization, either because of
their performance in a key business-critical role, or because they are
seen as ‘high-potential’ and likely to occupy such a role in the future.
The majority of these companies saw TM’s novelty and value lying in
its break with the traditional ‘egalitarianism’ of HRM. TM provided a
rationale, partly drawn from marketing theories of branding and partly
from economic theories of human capital, to segment the workforce
and treat it differently in how it should be managed. Paul and his
colleagues’ research, with their case studies, found that all the
organisations involved denied that they had adopted TM due to
fashionability; this was driven by real organisational problems that
needed urgent resolution in China’s booming labour market, and
specifically in the area of recruiting and retaining professional and
managerial talent.
Paul said: “a limitation of the study findings so far is they are based
on the findings from Western multinationals in Beijing, and may not
be applicable to other kinds of organizations in other parts of China.
I am currently following this up with studies of local Chinese
companies in Hangzhou Zhejiang and articles on these findings will
be published soon.
If you would like to know more about Paul’s research contact him at:
UTest Tube Researchers!Stimulating and encouraging an interest in the science of thehere and now and the possibilities that can be attained are keyto creating future science professionals and researchers. Hereat the University the College of Science and Technology takesevery opportunity to do just that and recently saw Dr SteveRossington and Dr Nick Hirst supervising A-level studentsworking on research projects to investigate methodology to synthesise anti-cancer and anti-bacterial drugs in the university’s Cockcroft laboratories.
he five students from Clitheroe Grammar School, Bury
College and Oldham College, working under the Nuffield
Foundation science bursaries and University of Salford’s
College of Science and Technology sponsored placements, worked
on a project looking at improving synthetic methods towards an
antibacterial agent and work experience involved in the synthesis of
potential anti-cancer drug molecules.
All five students, who are looking to apply to university in September
2011, worked in the university’s laboratories implementing their
knowledge of biology and chemistry to ‘real life’ research as well as
understanding aspects of an university research environment.
This summer saw the first year of the College of Science and
Technology’s sponsored A-level scheme which offers 19 places for
students to be placed in respective research centres across the Schools
of Environment and Life Sciences and Computer Science and
Engineering. It is however the second year that the University has
welcomed AS level students on the Nuffield Scheme, and after the
success of this Summer Steve and Nick will be hopefully continuing
next year! Vice-principal at Oldham College, Dr Alan Mathur, said
of the scheme: “Josh got a tremendous amount from his placement
and I think it has been a real help to him in focusing his choices of
degree courses”.
If you would like to know more about the scheme contact Steve at:
T Recording the Creative GestureEvery picture tells a story, every city has a tale and every citizenis a package of narratives, emotions and images. University ofSalford tutor in Advertising Design, John Rooney from theSchool of Art and Design has embarked on a research projectinvestigating and capturing the creative gestures of a city,bringing a medieval process to life through digital technology.
orking with recordings of past and present narratives John
aims to use digital technologies to present a gallery of coded
interconnected emotional information in a creative space.
John’s research will reveal local content which will include a wide range
of creative commentary including, sculpture, poetry, visual arts,
architecture, pop culture and film. Data and interviews from around
the city and spaces are recorded with image and sound, the narrative
image or trace is revealed when creativity is discussed, and the
outcome from each gesture can include abstract, figurative or
typographic results.
Manchester and Salford has always, and still is a hotbed of cultural
activity and contains work that has had a profound impact on John’s
design practice and creative reference points. Interviews with key
figures involved in the cultural impact of places have been recorded
and where possible with face-to-face interviews of the individual
in question. Datum will also be recorded via existing audio and
video archives.
The methodology of this project is a transferable model. A long-term
aim of John’s work is to develop a databank of creative narratives in
collaboration with others from other locations. Data will be presented
in the form of a digital palimpsest. Before the invention of the printing
press, writers imprinted their texts on reusable parchment. The paper
would be scraped to "erase" the prior content and make way for new
writings. This was known as a palimpsest. The previous layers could
often be seen rising beneath the new words, a delicate reminder that
we cannot ignore what came before, that we are constantly building
on the past. The research in this project includes visuals that contain
a layer of emotional engagement within the data; information
expressed in this project is at once analytical and emotional in its
content, the data in John’s project will be presented in the form of a
digital palimpsest.
The content of this research is taken from interviews with key figures
from the creative sector, a joint project with Birmingham Institute of
Art and Design about the life, work and influences of Birmingham’s
typographic alumni and utilising software designed by Dr Ian Drumm,
Acoustics at Salford, which has been designed to record the audio
signature of an image, John will create a unique experience and way
of viewing our lives and cultures.
If you would like to know more about John’s research contact him at:
Wbringing a medieval process to lifethrough digital technology
32 | November/December November/December | 33
elen, a recent finalist in the ALT
Epigeum Award for the most
effective use of video in education,
has been working with students making short
films using the devices in their pockets, i.e.
their mobile phones, developing imaginative
and innovative techniques through exploring
the creative affordances and constraints of
everday technology.
This active, experiential learning video-based
project was fully digital and networked;
students used wikis for all aspects of project
management, technical analysis and final
reporting, accompanied by online photo
journals (Flickr) which gave an insight into the
entire process. The films were also uploaded
to YouTube and presented in class in a mini
film-festival. Through using multiple media
across a range of open platforms the students
immersed themselves in the technologies as
mobile and networked learners and content
producers
At first, the students were resistant to the idea
of creating mobile phone films as many of the
techniques ran counter-cultural to the
predominant disciplinary culture. However
once the students began to work on the films,
they discovered a whole range of innovative
and imaginative techniques that could be
used with small handheld devices that
they wouldn’t be able to do with
normal video cameras turning constraints
into opportunities.
This project also gave the students the
opportunity to consider other areas of mobile
technologies such as ethical issues around
mobile recording/monitoring devices and
addiction to technology, whilst others used
their mobile phones film to capture
truly engaging, authentic footage in
unexpected alternative ways, developing
a range of innovative techniques.
By challenging their usual practice and
exploring mobile film-making as an emerging
genre, this project, institutionally and further
afield, has raised awareness of the creative
potential of consumer technologies and the
benefits of UGC creation as way for students
to create open content which can be
repurposed for others. Staff in other
universities are now following our approach.
This innovative project challenged the
students current thinking and practice and
widened their repertoire giving them an
appreciation for the potential of short form
content and its engagement capacity. With
the final films being highly praised at a recent
TEDx conference by Hugh Garry, BBC Senior
Interactive Producer, it looks as if these
students will have a smooth and mobile
journey from education to industry!
If you would like to know more about
Helen’s innovative work contact her at:
Innovative practices and new exciting ways of teaching, make the student think outside the box, that’s what produces bright,enthusiastic and employable future citizens, and that’s just the mix Helen Keegan, Senior Lecturer in Interactive Media and SocialTechnologies and Researcher in the School of Computing Science and Engineering, encourages in her students!
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Mobile Life
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
Research that is real, useable and accessible, that’s a firm belief here at the University of Salford and twelve months ago theUniversity made a commitment to the Open Access agenda announcing plans to mandate peer reviewed research from the 1st
January 2010.
n principle this means that all our
research outputs and publications are
deposited into the University of
Salford’s Institutional Repository (USIR) and
with this pledge the University became the
100th institution worldwide to announce
its intention to become an Open Access
University.
Since the mandate and over the past twelve
months USIR has attracted in the region of
32,000 downloads and 1,500 deposits. The
University wants the repository to wholly
reflect the magnitude of research produced at
Salford and this is something that will be built
on during the new academic year 2010/11.
In order to spread the open access word and
get researchers on board, the USIR team took
their expertise along to visit Research and
Innovation colleagues in the University’s 45
research centres early on in the new academic
year. The aim of these visits was to encourage
researchers to deposit their work, and this
approach seems to be working! With over
500 pieces of work being deposited in USIR
during the month of September alone, the
USIR team has also been providing one to one
support for those wishing to find out more
about how the deposit process actually
works.
To celebrate the success of USIR’s past twelve
months an Open Access celebratory event
was held recently to thank all Salford
researchers for their contribution to USIR and
for supporting the ethos of Open Access, a
culture to which the University shows
heavy commitment. A thank you speech was
delivered by the Vice Chancellor, Professor
Martin Hall who described Open Access as
being at the heart of what we do as an
institution and provided an insight into his
vision of Open Access in the future. Martin’s
speech was complimented with presentations
from the Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and
Innovation, Professor Ghassan Aouad and
Julie Berry, Acting Director of The Library,
updated colleagues on the achievements and
developments of USIR. A number of
colleagues were recognised for their
contributions to USIR. Professor Andy
Moorhouse and his colleagues in the
Acoustics Research Centre were acknowl-
edged for their paper on research into
aerodynamic modulation of wind turbine
noise which has been downloaded 1,184
times during the last year! Fame also for Dr
Darren Brooks from the Centre for
Parasitology & Disease Research whose recent
deposit in USIR becomes its 3000th!
Discussions at the celebratory event were held
around researchers concerns such as
copyright and policies of publishers nationally
and internationally, an area that the USIR
team are expert in and adept at handling,
using tools such as the Sherpa Romeo
database to check copyright and policies of
publishers from around the globe.
The further development of the audio visual
side of the repository are next in the sights of
the USIR team as they look to develop current
collaboration to find more fitting ways of
displaying the practice based research outputs
of the University.
If you would like to know more about USIR
contact the team at: [email protected] visit the USIR site at:
http://usir.salford.ac.uk
I
34 | November/December November/December | 35
Openall hours
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
his innovative alliance was developed by the BA Graphics
course team at the University of Salford with a core project
team consisting of Joanne Greenhalgh, Tash Willcocks,
Hannah Gibson, Julian Tagoe, John Boothe, Andrew Taylor and Paul
Haywood. Connecting with other Northern based Higher Education
Institutions currently focused within the discipline of Advertising,
Animation, Digital Media and Graphic Design, these being; University
of Central Lancashire, Manchester Metropolitan University, Liverpool
John Moores University, the University of Huddersfield and the
University of Chester with many other institutions across the North of
England and Scotland also expressing an interest in the mission of the
network, it was green to go and DNA was formed. The intention of
DNA is to create a collaboration of partners who would meet to
discuss the subject of design and how academia may best be tailored
to meet the needs of the local creative industries, and ultimately
provide students with high quality, ‘real world’ experience, which is
likely to become an even more important commodity as the ripple
effect of the recession is experienced.
The Alliance’s first exhibition was held recently in the Triangle in
Central Manchester, exhibiting the best graduate talent from seven
major Universities in the North of England, keynote lectures from
industry such as Robert Urquhart and Si Scott (famous for his work
with Nike and Umbro) and Alliance academic partners. With
Sponsorship from the Triangle Shopping Centre, GyroHSR, Tayburn,
Leftfield, Shape, The Drum and Business Link NorthWest, the event
highlighted and showcased the best new and emerging talent in the
field judged by industry experts.
The event was considered to be a real success, with, over the two day
event, approximately 300 students attending and over 40 businesses
who willingly engaged in the event. However perhaps the whole
event is best summed up in the words of Illustrator and Designer Si
Scott of Breed London who was one of the judges at the exhibition:
“I admit I didn’t really know what to expect from the Designers
Northern Alliance, a graduate show and awards event that I had been
invited to take part in and be a judge for. When walking into the
shopping centre, it dawned on me that this was a great idea for
hosting a design festival. Rather than expecting people to visit your
respective university or college to view your final end of year show,
why not bring the show to them? Slotted in among the designer stores
peddling their trade, the DNA was spread over the three floors of the
building offering a great visual melting pot of emerging talent from
various different design institutes in the North. The work on display
was of such a high standard that I and fellow judges found it difficult
to narrow down the winners”.
If you would like to know more about this initiative contact
Joanne Greenhalgh at: [email protected] or visit:
www.designersnorthernalliance.org
Looking for talent?
Think of advertising, digital media, graphic design and animation, slick, thought provoking, fresh new ideas doyou immediately think of London its talent pool, connections and capacity? Well you shouldn’t, if you’re lookingfor fresh new inspiring talent, go North my son to the Designers Northern Alliance (DNA) its where the new creativetalent gene pool is emerging!
tailored to meet the needs of the local creative industries,
and ultimately provide students with high quality, ‘real world’ experience
T
Its up North!
Sounds like the North is where it’s at!
36 | November/December November/December | 37
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
How many philosophers does ittake to change a lightbulb?A: Nine. One to change the bulb, andeight to hold a seminar on how Nietzche would have done it
Say the word Philosophy and many of us think of Hippocrates, Kant or Sartre. Philosophy to many is a rational and balanced investigation of questions about our existence and knowledge, our ethics and morals, then to others Philosophy is the jokeabove!
ut all joking aside, doesn’t the ability to philosophize make
us human? Too deep? Andrew Basden Professor of Human
Factors and Philosophy of Information Systems in Salford
Business School at the University wouldn’t agree, read on! The
University of Salford has not traditionally been a seat of philosophy,
but it is becoming an international centre for the application of the
radical philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd, a Dutch thinker of the mid
twentieth century. Academics and professionals from all over the world
contact the Salford team, led by Andrew, who are investigating the
application of Dooyeweerd's philosophy to information systems,
business and other areas, academics such as Dr Duncan Roper.
Duncan, previously from the University of Western Sydney, Australia,
and now in New Zealand, recently presented three applications
of Dooyeweerdian thought in a seminar entitled ‘Questions of Unity
and Diversity in the Management of Social Systems’, hosted by the
ISOS (Information Systems, Organisations and Society) research centre
here at the University. During this presentation three examples of unity
and diversity were explored or put up for discussion: the social system
of water management in Sydney - how real-life water management is
not just a matter of physics but has important social, economic,
juridical and even faith aspects; the more general issue of: state and
nation, especially with reference to New Zealand's experience -
intercultural issues between those of Maori and European origin and
the abstract question: what is a university? The ability of Dooyeweerd's
thought to address real-life systems, general issues and abstract
questions is rooted in three characteristics that distinguish
Dooyeweerd's approach from many others: its emphasis on everyday
rather than theoretical thinking, its focus on meaning rather than
things, and its acceptance of diversity and coherence. It is these that
make Dooyeweerd's thought particularly relevant to complex
interdisciplinary issues in real-life social systems today.
Salford University hosts 'The Dooyeweerd Page’. This site began in the
mid 1990s and has grown to become an international
scholarly resource that facilitates understanding, discussion and critical
development of Dooyeweerd's thought and its application.
Andrew and colleagues believe that Dooyeweerd is one of the best
philosophers of everyday life yet to emerge, but that other thinkers
are moving in that direction. Might the University of Salford grow a
wider capability in the philosophy of everyday life? Something to
think about?
If you would like to know more about Andrew’s research contact
him at: [email protected] or visit the Dooyeweerd Pages at:
www.dooy.info
Acoustics and TheGreen ManUniversity of Salford Research Technician, Charlie Mydlarz,Acoustics Research Centre, and colleagues recently took theirresearch work to the Green Man Festival, where hundreds offestival goers were able to experiment with some weird soundsand one of the world’s biggest whoopee cushions!
etting up stall at the festival was done with the aim of
fostering public awareness of the work of scientists in
acoustics, and the University’s stall was set out in the
science area, Einstein’s Garden. Charlie and colleagues invited people
to experiment with making their own sounds using bikes, tubes and
a variety of weird and wonderful objects and were on hand to explain
the different acoustic properties behind the creation of each sound.
Hundreds of young people and families at the festival took time out
from bands such as Billy Bragg and the Doves to visit the Salford Sound
Around You tent and experiment, making it one of the most popular
of the science tents on site. Charlie is Research Technician on the
Identifying a Sound Environment for Secondary Schools (ISESS) project,
which is a three year project investigating the effects on teaching and
learning of different acoustic designs within secondary schools and
classrooms, with the aim of improving the environmental design of
secondary school buildings to minimise the detrimental impact on
children and teachers of poor school buildings. Along with working
on the ISESS project Charlie is also undertaking a PhD at the University
working on creating a sound map of Britain, with a project entitled
‘sound around you’, here the research project asks the public to use
their mobile phones to record around 5 – 10 second audio clips from
different environments such as a park or a street and upload them to
a virtual map. The project aims to produce the largest ever sound map
purely for research purposes, the findings of the project could have
far reaching uses in such as psychological research, town planning or
checking out the sound map for a particular area before buying
a house!
If you would like to know more about Charlie’s research contact him
S
Nursing Research & Education – Seeing the Person not the IllnessFor the past five years the School of Nursing & Midwifery has been pro-active in working with patients, service users and carers by making visible their experiences within nurse education.
larger article on this group is included in the Supplement
to this issue of RISE. The school’s ethos has been one
that is committed to driving forward nursing practice,
education and research, by putting service users/carers at the heart
of nursing knowledge and learning through public engagement.
An important aspect of this work was the formation of a service user
and care forum in 2005. This group represents a range of people;
as patients, service users and carers who are committed to sharing
their ‘real world’ experiences of healthcare and illness to enhance
nursing and nursing care. With academic staff the service user/carer
forum have delivered over 20 student conferences, presented their
experiences and personal knowledge within modules and have
commented on curriculum developments. This year (2010) the group
is five years old and there will be a celebration on 8th December in
the Mary Seacole building to mark the group’s huge contribution to
creating evidence based practice for improved nursing services.
If you would like more information about the User/Carer Forum
contact Julie Wray at : [email protected] or visit:
www.nursing.salford.ac.uk/aboutus/serviceusers
A
Awarded for Excellence!The Emerald Publishing House has recognised the editorialwork of one of the University’s leading academics, Professor Mustafa Alshawi.
ustafa who is, Associate Dean, International in the
College of Science and Technology here at the
University, has extensive research expertise with
specific interest in Integrating IT and Business Strategies,
Measuring IS/IT capability of Organisations, Business Process
Management, Integrating Design and Construction, e-learning and
Process Management as wells as holding down international
advisory posts in various countries.
The editorial award was received in partnership with the Journal’s
Co-editor Professor Jack Goulding from the University of Central
Lancashire, and was awarded in recognition of the work and level
of commitment in seeking to maintain the high standing of their
journal “Innovation in Construction”
If you would like to know more about Mustafa’s research contact
him at: [email protected]
M
B
38 | November/December November/December | 39
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
New beginningsAs the Director of Graduate Studies at the University of SalfordI take this opportunity to welcome you to the November/December 2010 issue of RISE Postgraduate Research News.
e’ve recently seen the return of continuing postgraduate
students carrying on with their research projects after the
Summer break and we also welcome to our halls new
postgraduates full of enthusiasm for their new research project
beginnings in exciting new and multi discipline areas of research.
The enthusiasm for new and exciting research opportunities here at
the University outweighs the general economic and financial gloom
spreading across the country, here in these pages you’ll find positive
and dedicated young researchers seeking answers to real world
problems regionally, nationally and internationally. In this issue the
postgraduate student researchers are talking about robotics, disaster
management and online conferences in translation.
The University has recently changed its structure from a Faculty and
School System to a College System and our postgraduate researchers
now sit in one of three colleges, either; The College of Arts and Social
Sciences; The College of Health and Social Care or The College of
Science and Technology. This new way of being will build even further
on the University’s ethos of cross disciplinarity working, and by
interacting and working together will provide a more holistic research
outcome, delivering research and sharing knowledge that is
applicable, deliverable and useable.
In this issue we visit Antonio Espingardeiro and his research into
robotics and the ethics of robotics, he poses the question ‘are you
prepared for a robot in your home by 2020?’ The vast application of
robots in industry over the past years is now going even further with
countries such as South Korea working towards robots delivering
services in elderly care in care centres and hospitals, so maybe the
question of a robot in the home is not so far fetched!
With the recent Chilean Miner’s rescue and the capacity of human
beings to survive in difficult situations and rise above disaster events,
disaster management and post disaster reconstruction are areas of
research that are vital to moving certain countries forward. To this end
we visit again the Centre for Disaster Resilience and in particular two
students, Kanchana and Nirooja from the Centre who are researching
into empowerment post disaster for women, an interesting read for
the ever present challenge of women’s place in difficult environments.
I hope you enjoy reading in this issue about just a small part of the
postgraduate research ongoing at the University. Here at Salford we
are keen to encourage the many ways in which our research students
can engage and share their work and newly gained knowledge with
the wider community, building on relationships nationally and
internationally.
Professor Vian Ahmed
Director of Graduate Studies
The Directorate of Graduate Studies (DGS) was established to provide
a champion for graduate studies across the University. The office, in
Faraday House, looks after all aspects of central Postgraduate
provision, including Postgraduate Skills Training, e-learning and
careers, and has responsibility for quality assurance and enhancement
of Postgraduate programmes, as well as representing the University
externally, in particular on graduate organisations such as vitae and
the UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE).
Members of the Team
The current Director, Professor Vian Ahmed,
School of Built Environment.
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 0161 295 6397
Linda Kelly is the Graduate Studies Office
administrator, and responsible for running
the office as the DGS PA, as well as organising
the SPoRT programme.
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 0161 295 3841
Cristina Costa is the Learning Technologies
Development Officer, and looks after all e-learning
resources on postgraduate research programmes.
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 0161 295 6751
Fiona Christie is the Careers adviser with
responsibility for postgraduate researchers,
and is based in Careers within the Student Life division.
Her PhD careers blog can be found here.
Email: [email protected] tel:
Tel: 0161 295 5668
Jaye McIsaac is the Educational Developer
responsible for teaching and learning
development for Graduate Teaching Assistants
and other Postgraduate Teachers and is based
within the Research and Graduate College.
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 0161 295 3747
Dr Victoria Sheppard is the Research Skills
Coordinator. She oversees the provision of skills
training, the SPARC postgraduate conference and
other events and resources to support
postgraduate researchers.
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 0161 295 4452
W
Professor Pauline Adairhas been appointed as Professor of Health Psychology in the School ofSocial Work, Psychology andPublic Health. Pauline is a clinical and a health
psychologist and has held both academic andclinical posts concurrently throughout her career.Pauline has extensive experience managing and developing clinical services in the NHS, and hasbeen the Professional Lead for pain management services and a key part of a teamwho secured recurring funding of over 400K for a new integrated pain management service(2009). Pauline has published work in the area of health improvement in deprived populations and long term conditions. She hasled on an evaluation of a cardiovascular prevention initiative (the Keep Well health check)for NHS Fife (2008-2010). Pauline has previously(2001-2003) been the lead psychologist on amajor international collaborative study in childhood dental caries across 17 countriesfunded by the National Institutes of Health, NIH,USA. She has recently been awarded The Division of Health Psychology (of the British Psychological Society) award for her outstandingcontribution to the advancement of Health Psychology within NHS agendas and has playeda significant role in securing funding for thetraining of health psychologists at both Mastersand Doctoral levels and integrating their traininginto NHS practice. Pauline currently is a memberof the Division of Health Psychology PractitionersSubcommittee. [email protected]
Professor Stephen Davis-moon has been appointedas Professor of Contempo-rary Composition and Director of Music in theSchool of Media, Music andPerformance. Stephen has
enjoyed a professional composition career formany years, and has written music for a broadrange of ensembles and situations – from soloworks through to full orchestral pieces, with andwithout voices. He has also written a number oflive electronic/interactive; electro acoustic andsound-art installation pieces.
Stephen has had performances in Brazil, Finland,France, Germany, Holland, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Spain, Switzerland, UK, Ukraine andUruguay and has worked with many notablemusicians, institutions and festivals along theway including: Roberto Fabbriciani; Rohan deSaram; Die Neuevocalsolisten; Scottish Opera;
Centro Tempo Reale; Das Experimentalstudio derHeinrich Strobel Stiftung; Richard Craig; TaraBoumann; CCMIX Studios; Edinburgh International Festival – ‘Behind the Scenes’; Martyn Brabbins; Chamber Group of Scotland;Le Champs Libre; Ensemble Linea; Brake DrumPercussion Ensemble; The Edinburgh Quartet;Klangwerktage Hamburg; Finestre sul Novecento; The Tampere Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra.
He has also written widely on subjects that relateto Contemporary Music Practice and History: hisedited publications on Luigi Nono and EdgardVarese were well received; he also has a strongresearch interest in Algorithmic, Evolutionary andInteractive Music. Before joining the UniversityStephen had gained a broad experience of themusic HE sector in Scotland, spanning a periodof nearly 20 years. He began lecturing at the University of Edinburgh in 1991 and subsequently held posts at the University of Glasgow; the Royal Scottish Academy of Musicand Drama; and the Ian Tomlin Academy ofMusic at Edinburgh Napier University whose activities he directed from January 2007until September 2010. [email protected]
Professor Judith Smithhas been appointed as Head, of the School of Environment & Life Sciences.Previously Judith was Director of the Faculty of Biological Sciences Graduate
School and Head of the School of Biology at theUniversity of Leeds, where she built her researchprofile linking molecular science with the environment and evolutionary genetics. Herwork has ranged from pathogens affecting silkworms in China and shrimps in Lake Baikal,through to zoonotic disease (disease transmittedbetween animals and humans) in chickens inEast Africa and in sheep in the Yorkshire Dales.
Having previously served on the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Post Genomics and Proteomics Steering Group, Judith was recently appointed to the NERC Panelof Chairs – a body comprised of the top scientistsin the field and has co-ordinated a major EU-funded €2,355,000 project to deliver MarieCurie Fellowships for training in advanced genetic analysis.
Judith has a degree in physiology from Edinburgh University, a PhD in nutrition fromCambridge University and has carried out post-doctoral malaria research at Imperial College London. She also holds a Chair at theprestigious South China Agricultural University.Her research interests are in understanding therelationship between transmission and diseaseusing two systems; the zoonotic pathogen Toxoplasma gondii and the microsporidia, agroup of fungal related parasites that infect allanimal taxa. [email protected]
Professor Seamus Simp-son is Professor of MediaPolicy in the School ofMedia, Music and Perform-ance. His research interestslie in European and globalcommunications media
policies. Specific focus has been on a range ofInternet, telecommunication, and digital mediaconvergence governance issues. Some of his recent work has focused on: the EU as an actorin global Internet governance; critiques of theEuropean Electronic Communications Regulatory Framework; next generation communications media network policies at EU level; policy issues around private interest/hybrid public-private regulation in digital media environments.
Seamus’ work in these areas has recently appeared, or is shortly forthcoming in, among others: the Journal of European PublicPolicy; Governance; Convergence; Information,Communication and Society; the Journal ofCommon Market Studies; the European Journalof Communication; and the Journal of PublicPolicy. Seamus is also author of: Globalisation,Convergence and European TelecommunicationsRegulation (2005, Edward Elgar) (with PeterHumphreys, University of Manchester) and TheNew Electronic Marketplace: European Governance Strategies in a Globalising Economy(2007, Edward Elgar) (with George Christou,University of Warwick),
He was Principal Investigator on the ESRCfunded European Regulation of Internet Commerce project and is currently a member ofthe ESRC's Peer Review College. [email protected]
Postgraduate
research news
40 | November/December November/December | 41
New Appointments
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
he first generation of personal
robots will be able to interact
with humans by providing
entertainment, companionship, supervision,
locomotion or cognitive assistance. We could
expect scenarios where robots can play games
with humans, help them in their daily chores,
deliver lectures at households and even act
as personal carers for keeping patients
safely monitored, mentally occupied and
emotionally happy.
Governments around the world have already
expressed their concerns about the lack of
solutions/support for dealing with the aging
phenomenon (e.g. shortage of facilities
encompassing human and financial resources
to deal with elderly groups). The paradigm is
not only related with our longer life
expectations, but mostly with the guarantee
of dignity, mental activity and physical
occupation through the aging process.
Over the last few years it has been possible to
integrate several types of technological
disciplines such as software and hardware
into relatively cheap platforms. Personal
robots are a result of that, a mixture of
sensory information, image processing, voice
recognition etc, which soon could transform
the way in which humans live. We are talking
about devices that can perform a wide variety
of tasks such as assisting and entertaining
people in houses, offices, care centres or
hospitals. South Korea is already working
towards solutions for the problem and
intends to start commercialising robots in
every household by 2020. Also in Europe and
USA some prototypes are already under
research and they are likely to reach the
global markets over the next few years.
The future seems promising with these types
of achievements, making the Human Robotics
Interaction (HRI) an inevitable stage for
human history. Apart from the level of
Artificial Intelligence (AI) that ‘machines’ will
display; it’s likely that humans will gradually
develop new kinds of relationships with
robots (different from ordinary computers).
From an ethical point of view we have to
work towards a synergetic behaviour
between humans and robots. The recent
curriculum of Roboethics can establish new
paradigms and ethical frameworks to equip
roboticists, engineers, computer scientists,
philosophers, sociologists, lawyers and
ultimately users when it comes to decide the
direct and future applications of robotics
in society.
Only by converging Science and Humanities
is it possible to pose such questions as; why
we want personal robots, where should they
be applied and how could they help us, are
they threatening and if so what can be done
to mitigate this? By studying issues such as:
how machines should be designed, what kind
of algorithms should be applied, what kinds
of privacy and accessibility levels users require
in particular HRIs scenarios and finally what
are the relevant levels of autonomy and
uncertainty for human intervention, safety or
welfare we can answer these questions. It’s
certainly a huge challenge ahead of us that
progressively will demystify some of the
visions depicted in science fiction and value
the real meaning of human life.
This first decade of the 21st century will
hopefully be seen as the beginning of a new
digital era, a time where computers, the in-
ternet and communications became part of
our daily lives, boosted economies, aided in
the workplace and enriched our personal
lives. We have the opportunity, but also the
duty, to explore the potential of Robotics
technology and how can it positively influence
future generations.
If you would like to know more about
Antonio’s research contact him at:
We return again this issue to PhD student Antonio Espingardeiro, Antonio is researching into the ethics of Robotics and whatthe future may hold around the human/robot interaction, read on to catch up on Antonio’s research to date!
A Robot in yourhome by 2020...
Postgraduate
research news
Are you prepared?
T
42 | November/December November/December | 43
ow do we define a disaster? According to the United
Nations a disaster is commonly defined as “a serious
disruption of the functioning of a community or a society
involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental
losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected
community or society to cope using its own resources” (UN/ISDR,
2009). However, disasters may affect different people in many
different ways even within the same community since there are various
factors such as socio-economic class, level of education, gender,
culture, age and disability that make some individuals and groups in
the society less capable to cope with disasters than the others.
These social factors influence the ability of people to prevent, mitigate,
prepare for and respond to hazards. Thus, the poor, the elderly,
children, women and disabled people are identified as more vulnerable
to disasters. Women are typically disadvantaged in the event of a
disaster with limited access to resources, restricted rights, and
inadequate voice in decision-making, policies and measures which
are insufficiently sensitive to their needs.
Kanchana and Nirooja, working under the supervision of Professor
Dilanthi Amaratunga and Dr. Richard Haigh from the Research Centre,
are approaching their research from two different perspectives. Since
women face different conditions in disasters due to their different
social roles and responsibilities, resulting in different needs in disaster
risk reduction, Kanchana aims to investigate how women’s needs can
be mainstreamed with disaster risk reduction in the built environment.
In particular, her study attempts to find out how the different needs
of women can be identified and integrated into disaster mitigation
and the preparedness activities within the construction industry in
order to reduce their higher disaster vulnerabilities. Kanchana identifies
the role of the built environment as significant in fulfilling the needs
of women in disaster risk reduction since it provides the underlying
framework for all human activities. So far Kanchana’s research findings
demonstrate that women’s involvement in decision making in the
construction industry, consultation of community women, conducting
needs assessment and construction briefing are all ways
of mainstreaming women’s needs into reducing disaster risk in the
built environment.
Whilst Kanchana’s research is aimed at identifying ways of
mainstreaming women’s needs in disaster risk reduction prior to a
disaster, Nirooja’s research is aimed at how the affected community
women could be empowered during the post disaster reconstruction
in Sri Lanka. Since post disaster reconstruction can provide windows
of opportunity for physical, social, political and environmental
development of the impacted population, Nirooja’s research focuses
on formulating a strategy that integrates community women’s
empowerment in the post disaster reconstruction and it includes,
identifying the key factors which enable or hinder women’s
empowerment and exploring the current practices of empowerment
of women within this situation. Capturing the views of these women
in such difficult situations is no easy task and this research will discover
the opinions of women who are from the affected communities and
also the opinions of the policy makers and professionals who are
working in practice within the field of disaster management, women’s
development and the built environment.
If you would like to know more about this research contact
Kanchana or Nirooja at: [email protected] or
Empowerment is a privilege; the empowerment of women is a long and hard fought battle, a battlesome countries are still fighting. Two PhD students, Nirooja Thurairajah and Kanchana Ginige
from the Centre for Disaster Resilience, here at the University are researching into just this problem,examining the empowerment of women in post disaster reconstruction and the mainstreaming
of the needs of women with disaster risk reduction.
Disaster, Women andEmpowerment
Moving Forward
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
Postgraduate
research news
H
44 | November/December November/December | 45
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
ith a broad conference theme of: “Research in Translation
and Interpreting Studies: Methods of the Past, the Present
and the Future,” OCTIS 1 2010 succeeded in bringing
together international postgraduates from within the various areas of
Translation and Interpreting Studies and to give them the opportunity
to present papers to their peers.
The four conference keynotes were: Professor Graham Turner,
Chair of Interpreting & Translation Studies at Herriot-Watt University
in Edinburgh. Graham’s research is in social and applied areas of
linguistics with special reference to sign languages. Dr. Robin Setton’s
PhD is in Applied Linguistics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong
and he also has postgraduate degrees in Conference
Interpretation, Translation, Chinese Studies and Linguistics from the
University of Paris (Sorbonne), and is the author of a
monograph and articles on cognitive, linguistic cultural and
pedagogical aspects of interpreting. Dr Federico Gaspari is a
post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Bologna at Forlì
(Italy), where he is conducting a corpus-based investigation into
translation universals, looking at the features of translated and
non-native English as mediated forms of written production in
combination with Italian and finally Professor Ovidi Carbonell, who is
a Professor of Translation Studies at the University of Salamanca and
is working on issues of interculturality and ideology in translation.
The ten minutes presentations given by the keynotes generated
discussions and opened new avenues of networking.
Other presentations followed the keynotes and these were given by:
Roberto Pérez Gonzáles’ (University of Leon in Spain) on TRACE corpus
alignment; Paola Valli’s (University of Trieste) on Multilingual
Concordancers in the Translation Process: the How and Why of
Concordancing; Yasmin Al-Kashef from Ain Shams University in Cairo
on the topic of conjunctions as evidence of the translation universals
and Mireia Vargas (Autonomous University of Barcelona) on
insights on multidisciplinarity in the present of T&I Research with a
specific focus on community interpreters for the Chinese in Catalonia.
Katia Peruzzo from the University of Trieste gave a presentation on
terminological equivalence in European, British and Italian Criminal
Law texts, followed by Gianluca Pontrandolfo’s (also from the
University of Trieste) speech on Phraseology in English, Spanish and
Italian Judgments: A Contrastive Study. The last two contributions
were given by University of Salford PGR student Ines Radionovas on
the translation of the lipogram and by Georgina Collins from the
University of Warwick, who spoke about The Fluidity of the Original
Text: Translating Francophone Senegalese Women’s Literature
into English. Professor Myriam Salama-Carr, Head of Translating and
Interpreting at Salford, who chaired the conference, said: “the
conference was a rewarding experience for all. OCTIS 1 2010
succeeded in opening new perspectives in Research in Translation and
Interpreting Studies, establishing new venues for networking and
discussion and helping to develop crucial academic and social skills in
a friendly setting”.
With such a successful outcome and with requests from online
delegates to have more of the same, the OCTIS organising
committee, would like to thank all keynote speakers and presenters
who contributed to the success of the event and to let them know
that OCTIS 2 2011 will go ahead next year with a call for papers
circulated in due course.
If you would like to know more about OCTIS contact:
Or visit: http://tinyurl.com/OCTIS2010
OCTIS1 2010The First International Online Conference in Translation and Interpreting Studies (OCTIS 1 2010) organised by the Centre for Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies in the School of Languages at the University of Salford took place recently andproved to be a great success!
W
his year the conference had a
truly international feel with
papers delivered by early career
researchers from the UK, Australia, France,
Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania,
Spain and Turkey. Papers delivered dealt with
a plethora of different crises facing humanity
in the contemporary era, from ecological and
urban crises to crises of literary representation
and media technologies. The conference was
addressed by two keynotes; the first,
Professor Mark Neoclaus of Brunel University
dealt with the unending crisis of
contemporary security regimes and
governance through a permanent state of
emergency, while the second, Dr Lawrence
Cassidy of Manchester Metropolitan
University presented his work with Retracing
Salford on the crises of memory associated
with urban policies that have ‘cleared’ large
areas of traditional working class settlement,
both in the City of Salford and around the
North West more generally.
The conference also included a screening
of the film Cambodge me Voici by writer/
director Jean-Baptiste Phou exploring the
crisis of identity associated with the
Cambodian diasporas in France. The
conference organisers, Postgraduate
Researchers in the college; Will Jackson
(ESPaCH), Bob Jeffery (ESPaCH), Mattia
Marino (Languages) and Tom Sykes (MM&P)
are planning to publish a selection of the
papers delivered in 2011.
If you would like to know more about
the conference contact Debbie Hughes at:
T
School
School of Computing, Science & Engineering
School of Languages
School of the Built Environment
School of Environment & Life Sciences
School of English, Sociology, Politics &
Contemporary History
School of Health, Sport & Rehabilitation
Sciences
School of the Built Environment
School of Environment & Life Sciences
Salford Business School
School of the Built Environment
School of English, Sociology, Politics &
Contemporary History
Salford Business School
School of Computing Science & Engineering
School of the Built Environment
Salford Business School
School of Computing Science & Engineering
School of Nursing & Midwifery
School of the Built Environment
School of Languages
School of Computing
Surname
Clarke
Paoli
Yao
Barrie
Duke
Yongsheng
Guilherme
Kazmierczak
Keogh
Liu
Miles
Tattersall
Xiong
Zami
Mohammed
Elsebai
Young
Younis
Tamrackitkun
Malaheem
Forename
Charlotte Louise
Marco
Jialiang
John Anthony
Gary Paul
Gao
Henrich
Aleksandra Ewa
Claire
Nan
Alex
Angela Louise
Xiao
Mohammad Sharif
Tayfour Abdalla
Ali
Stephen Philip
Grace
Kamonnat
Mohammad Suliman
Title
Novel Precursors for the Growth of TiO2 by Liquid
Injection MOCVD
The Evolution of Crime in Post-War Italy in the
works of Carlo Lizzani and Grigorio Scerbanenco
A Collaborative Urban Planning Environment
Investigation of the Effects of Schistosoma Mansoni
Eggs on Hepatic Stellate Cell Phenotype
Labour Movements in a "Post-Material" World:
A study into the Continued Relevance of Labour
Movements in Contemporary Advanced Industrial
Societies
Formal Representation of Acupuncture: Concept,Theory and Logic
Development of a tool for diagnosing Production
Management Efficiency on Construction Sites
Urban Green Spaces and Social Cohesion
Work-Life Balance Policy in the UK: Gendered ICT
Workplaces and the Culture of Resentment
Analysing Functionalities of Project Extranets in
Construction: A Provision-Requirement Approach
The rise of the rogue states doctrine: The Clinton
and Bush approach to national security in the
post-cold war era
Social Relations in ICT Workplace - The Gender
Dimensions of Social Capital
Power Optimisation for Wireless Sensor NetworksSecurity Based on an FPGA Implementation
An Interpretivistic Approach to Understanding the
Factors that Influence the Adoption of Stabilised
Earth by Construction Professionals to Address the
Zimbabwe Urban Low Cost Housing Crisis
A Critical Investigation of the Implementation of
an Information Technology Service Management
project in a UK Higher Education Institution
A Rule Based System for Named Entity Recognition
in Modern Arabic
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Minimising Construction Disputes
Award
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
MSc
PostgraduateAwards
Reading: An Empirical Study of its effects on EFL Thai
Comprehension, Reading Fluency and Attitudes
The Effects of Prosthetic Alignment on Gait
Biomechanics
Early Career Researchers DeliverCrisis, Rupture and Anxiety was title of the Annual Postgraduate Conference from the College of Arts and Social Sciences held recently at the University, with yet another successful outcome.
Postgraduate
research news
46 | November/December November/December | 47
Research Innovation and Internationalisation News RISERISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
Sino British College China Sino British College (SBC) is an emerging key partner for theUniversity not only in terms of direct recruitment potential, but also in terms of other partnership opportunities that are in development such as potential delivery of a University of Salford programme in Media related areas in Shanghai.
alford Business School and The School of Computer Science
and Engineering have worked closely with Sino British
College to facilitate and support increased recruitment of
their students to study on campus at Salford. Following several
initiatives to encourage student recruitment to Salford, the University
is delighted to have welcomed over 50 students to its halls in
September. Most of these students will be entering the second year
of their undergraduate studies on Business related degrees with 5
students studying Engineering related courses.
The Sino British College students have been provided with a bespoke
induction programme as well as a designated Support Tutor to assist
them in their studies and provide pastoral and academic support at all
times. In addition, a visiting scholar from SBC, Mr Andy Ritchie has
been invited to the University to help the students in their first weeks
and ensure a smooth induction period.
Michael commented: “We are very pleased to welcome SBC students
to Salford and are grateful indeed for the support from colleagues at
the University for helping to make this happen. Both colleagues from
the University and SBC have worked collaboratively and the results of
these efforts are reflected in the arrival of students to Salford as a
destination of choice. We look forward to a longstanding relationship
with SBC that will further develop into other areas of collaboration” .
If you would like to know more about The Sino British College visit
their website at: www.sbc-usst.edu.cn/en/index.asp
Delegation to India As this issue of RISE goes to press the University’s VC, ProfessorMartin Hall will be leading a University delegation to India inNovember as part of the increasing engagement with India beyond direct recruitment initiatives.
reparations are well under way for this event and the
itinerary comprises several networking events, visits to
existing and potential partner universities as well as
attendance at the FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry) Higher Education Summit 2010
www.ficci-hes.com/index.htm being held in New Delhi.
The FICCI supported by Ministry of Human Resource Development,
Government of India is organizing its sixth annual Higher Education
Summit in November, with the main features of the Summit being
Conference, Exhibition, One-to-One Meetings and Master Classes.
At the Summit Martin and colleagues will be endeavouring to bring
together key policy makers, educationists and corporates at both
national and international level for deliberation and interactions that
would lead to knowledge sharing, identification of policy and practice
imperatives and action plan for the way forward.
The VC will be accompanied by Professor Brenda Cooper who
will co host all alumni and networking events, Pro Vice Chancellor
International, Professor Cynthia Pine, Michael Lurie, Head of
International Partnerships and Mr Jerry Burgess, Senior International
Officer, South Asia.
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) - UpdateOver the past months, visits have taken place between the University of Salford and RMIT to identify further areas of collaboration.
nitiatives have extended across activities relating to University
Themes realising potential in many areas. RMIT and Salford’s
institutional visions and strategies complementing each
other in many areas with an institutional collaboration that spans over
multiple disciplines.
As the University’s sole Tier One partner, activity with RMIT is being
carefully monitored and supported at the highest levels within the
University, and will be focussing on some specific areas such as: joint
projects in the area of Urban Futures, which is a strategic theme that
both universities share and joint projects in Media and Digital Futures.
Over the coming weeks, further communications regarding RMIT activity
will be shared with colleagues.
The University recently hosted a delegation of Indian universities as part of British Council Higher Education InwardMission. The University was selected to participate in this eventfollowing a successful tender process.
eld at the futuristic ThinkLab at the University, the event,
attended by senior representatives from XLRI, Jameshedpur,
Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Pune, Vignan
University, Guntur, and National Law University, Jodhpur, aimed at
seeking areas of common interest as part of potential collaborative
activity.
Colleagues from Computing Science and Engineering, Salford
Business School, Nursing and Midwifery and the Law School were
in attendance. During the visit, the Indian institutions were given a tour
of the facilities available within the respective Schools.
Following the day’s events, certain areas of collaboration were
identified such as staff and student exchanges, sharing of best practise
and potential research collaboration.
Michael Lurie, Head of International Partnerships commented:
“We were delighted to have been selected to participate in this event
for the second year running and build on the past experience. India is
a priority market and we are constantly seeking like minded partners
to establish long term, sustainable collaborations based on mutuality
and reciprocity”.
H
International News
India Higher Education Inward Mission
P
If you would like information on any of the articles in the
international section please use the contact details below:
Michael Lurie – Head, International Partnerships
T 0161 295 5953
Course Enquiries Service (International/non-EU)
University of Salford
T + 44 (0)161 295 4545
S
I
48 | November/December November/December | 49
RISE Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
Forthcoming Events
10th November 2010 – Transforming Public Engagement at Salford, 2pm – 4pm. Venue: Lady Hale Lecture Theatre, Peel Campus, Salford.
For more information contact: [email protected]
10th November 2010 – Crescent Network Event 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm Venue: Islington Mill, Salford.
For more information contact: [email protected]
16th November 2010 – Midday Recital: The Barbirolli Quartet. The University’s String Quartet in Residence presents a programme to
include Mozart: Strong Quartet in C major, K.465 (‘Dissonance’) and Szymanowski: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 56. Venue: Peel Hall,
University of Salford Campus. For more information go to: http://www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1292
16th November 2011 – 18th November 2011 – exposures Film Festival. The UK’s largest festival of student moving image work,
which takes place every year in Manchester. Venue: Cornerhouse, Manchester.
For more information go to: www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1239
17th November 2010 – 1st CSE Doctoral School Postgraduate Research Conference. Venue – University of Salford.
For more information contact: [email protected]
18th November 2010 – 22nd January 2011 – CUBEOpen. CUBE, Centre for the Urban Built Environment is opening is annual submission
competition. Venue: CUBE. For more information go to: www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1261
22nd November 2010 – Evening Recital: Chetham’s School of Music. Programme for Baroque Wind Ensemble presented by the
exceptionally talented young musicians of Chetham’s School. Venue: The Church of St Philip with St Stephen, Encombe Place, Salford,
M3 6FJ. For more information go to: http://www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1297
23rd November 2010 – A special tribute to the late Professor Deborah Baker. A seminar, in memory of Professor Deborah Baker,
will explore the ways in which established communities experience and make sense of the local impact of new migration within their
neighbourhoods. Venue: Mary Seacole Building, University of Salford.
For more information go to: http://www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1245
29th November 2010 – Monday Midday Organ Recital: Jonathan Scott ‘Best of British’. Programme to include Alfred Hollins and Henry
Purcell. Venue: The Church of St Philip with St Stephen, Encombe Place, Salford, M3 6FJ. For more information go to:
http://www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1310
30th November 2010 – Midday Recital & Masterclass: Halle Brass. Post recital Halle Brass Masterclass will be held and is free to attend.
An opportunity for brass musicians to observe the Halle Brass performing and seek advice and tips from professional musicians.
For more information go to: http://www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1311
7th December 2010 – Midday Recital: The Marchini Ensemble. Programme incluses Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Holst: St Paul’s
Suite. Venue: Peel Hall, Peel Building, University of Salford.
For more information go to: http://www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1314
14th December 2010 – Piano Recital & Talk: Angela Lear presents ‘Chopin: Composer v Interpreter’. Angela Lear examines and
demonstrates some of the problems and anomalies of interpretation in Chopin’s music as she discusses and performs a selection of
works. Venue: Peel Hall, Peel Building, University of Salford.
For more information go to: http://www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1315
12th January 2011 – 14th January 2011 – MeCCSA Conference 2011. Venue: University of Salford, Salford.
For more information go to: www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1269
14th January 2011 – 14th April 2011 – Exhibition: Langworthy Cornerstones Community Centre, Salford.
For more information go to: www.streetsmuseum.co.uk
20th April 2011 – 30th July 2011 – Exhibition: Primrose Hill Primary School, Phoebe Street, Ordsall.
For more information go to: www.streetsmuseum.co.uk
6th – 8th July 2011 – Education in a Changing Environment 6th International Conference: Creativity & Engagement in Higher Education.
Keynotes include: Glynnis Cousin, University of Wolverhampton; Alec Couros, University of Regina, Canada; Saul Nassé, Controller of BBC
Learning; Norman Jackson, University of Surrey. Venue: University of Salford, Salford, UK.
For more information go to: www.ece.salford.ac.uk
50 | November/December