All Hands on DEC - October 2008
- Visiting professor launches Psychology Seminar Series
- University Centre Yeovil students Win Gold at Starpack Awards
- Internet Communication Systems student scoops Vice-Chancellor's Prize
- UK Postgraduate Prospectus 2009 has now arrived
- Conference opening keynote talk at the Hybrid Artificial Intelligence Systems (HAIS 2008) conference in Burgos, Spain
- Successful start of two Great Western Research (GWR) funded projects within Smart Technology Research Centre
- Best papers, poster and session awards at the KES 2008, Zagreb, Croatia
- How to submit future stories
- Next Newsletter
Visiting professor launches Psychology Seminar Series
One of the top academics in the field of Psychology, Professor Mike Eysenck from Royal Holloway, University of London , launched this year's Psychology Research Seminar Series on Thursday 16 October. Professor Eysenck, who has recently become a Visiting Professor in Psychology at BU, is a well-known author and highly regarded researcher.
Professor Eysenck's seminar on 'Why does anxiety impair performance?' was well attended and the audience was made up of both practicing psychologists from the local area and academics and students from BU and local universities. Professor Eysenck discussed why anxiety can have a disruptive effect when trying to carry out complex tasks and highlighted his new theory which proposes that anxiety can impair efficiency but not performance because anxious individuals use additional effort. Although there was no time for questions, attendees were able to chat with Professor Eysenck afterwards over refreshments and network with fellow psychologists from the local community.
Professor Eysenck's seminar was the first in a series of research discussions taking place over the autumn and spring terms. Other topics being presented by experts from all parts of the UK include: 'Detecting deception: pitfalls and opportunities, 'Psychological wellbeing and the natural environment'; 'Cyberbullying: research and action'; 'P aran ormal belief and experience'; 'Psychological factors in pain management'; 'Quality of working life in UK universities'; 'Enhancing function with EEG-neurofeedback'; and 'The role of Psychology in politics'.
For more information on this year's Research Seminars, which are open to members of the general public as well as students and staff from other educational institutions, please visit: http://dec.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/psychology/seminars.html or contact Dr Jacqui Taylor (seminar organiser) extension 65313 or email jtaylor@bournemouth.ac.uk
University Centre Yeovil students Win Gold at Starpack Awards
Three UCY Sustainable Graphics and Packaging students have been awarded prizes at the annual Starpack Awards. These prestigious awards recognise innovation in packaging design and technology.
The three UCY winners were selected from 250 entries from universities and colleges across the country. Holly Stevens won a gold star for her instant festival polythene pack, designed to be useful in its own right, but to also help carry around festival essentials. Competing in the same category, Laurens Parsons received a commendation for her MacPac design. Fellow UCY winner Thomas Horwood-Luscombe won the gold Crown Packaging award for a metal pack to hold a consumer electronic product, its instructions and accessories.
Thomas and Holly have now been invited to compete in the Worldstar Awards 2008, which will take place in Tunisia later in the year.
Internet Communication Systems student scoops Vice-Chancellor's Prize
Adam Bateman from BSc (Hons) Internet Communication Systems will be awarded the Vice Chancellor's prize at this year's Graduation Ceremony.
The Prize is awarded each year to a final year student whose performance or achievement is deemed by the Vice-Chancellor to have been the most distinguished overall in the academic year.
Adam was nominated for the award as staff recognised that he was an exceptionally hard working and high performing student. This was demonstrated by Adam paying to attend a network training course in his own time to increase his understanding of the subject. Adam performed so well on the course that the training company hired him to work for them during his placement year. During the placement year Adam gained extensive knowledge of internet security issues, which he applied to his final year project for which he received the highest mark in his cohort, an impressive 93%. Adam's project was one of the best projects that the first and second supervisors had ever seen, and the technical level of the project was at a standard expected of an MSc student.
UK Postgraduate Prospectus 2009 has now arrived
Aimed specifically at the UK market, our Postgraduate Prospectus 2009 is now available. The prospectus summarises our entire postgraduate course portfolio. New for this year, we have included fees and scholarships information related to each course, where available. The prospectus has the strap line "Take your career to new heights" on the cover, with a skyscraper set against a blue background - this distinguishes it from the Postgraduate International Student Information Guide, which has a mountain range on the front.
The publication will be distributed to UK postgraduate enquirers via the askBU Enquiry Service , at askBU information points on both campuses, and through a series of targeted postgraduate events we plan to attend throughout 2009.
If you are planning an event and require a stock of prospectuses, please contact Victoria Bel Gil, Postgraduate Marketing Manager, at vbelgil@bournemouth.ac.uk
Conference opening keynote talk at the Hybrid Artificial Intelligence Systems (HAIS 2008) conference in Burgos, Spain
Professor Bogdan Gabrys has given a well received conference opening keynote talk at the recent international Hybrid Artificial Intelligence Systems (HAIS 2008) conference held in Burgos , Spain in September.
The talk covering various aspects of modern smart adaptive systems utilising computational intelligence approaches is at the heart of the research conducted within the Smart Technology Research Centre. The talk att ra cted local Spanish media coverage.
Successful start of two Great Western Research (GWR) funded projects within Smart Technology Research Centre
Two externally funded GWR collabo ra tive research projects, one co-funded by Screwfix Direct Ltd and the other by British Telecommunication, have officially started with kick-off meetings taking place in September at Bournemouth University .
These research projects led by Prof Gabrys mark the beginning of an exciting collabo ra tion with the Artificial Intelligence Research Group from Bristol University represented by Professor Trevor Martin and the two companies represented by Dr Dymitr Ruta (BT) and Dr Michael Barker (Screwfix Direct).
Newly recruited PhD students, Mr Edward Apeh, working on the Robust Adaptive Algorithms for Relational Data Mining project (Screwfix Direct) and Mr Krzysztof Litwin, working on the Probabilistic modelling of customer behaviour using nature-inspired hybrid optimisation techniques project (BT) , together with recently appointed lecturer Dr Amanda Schierz completed the teams participating in the meetings and responsible for successful delivery of the projects.
Best papers, poster and session awards at the KES 2008, Zagreb, Croatia
KES 2008 , the 12th international conference on Knowledge Based Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems attracted around 400 international participants, and was held in Zagreb , Croatia at the beginning of September.
To promote research in the Knowledge-based and Intelligent Systems area, the continuing leadership, and his role of the Chair for Academic Affairs within KES International, Professor Bogdan Gabrys, lead a group responsible for awarding the best papers, (the ove ra ll best paper and the best student paper), as well as the best special session and the best poster awards from all of the submissions to KES 2008.
Further details including the winners and the prizes can be found at the conference website: http://kes2008.kesinternational.org/awards.php .
For more information about the above and related research activities and outputs please contact Professor Bogdan Gabrys via email at bgabrys@bournemouth.ac.uk
How to submit future stories
If you have a story you would like included in the next issue of "all hands on DEC" please send it to Emma Bennett . Each month the next deadline will be found at the bottom of the newsletter and a document can be found in the 'I drive' (I:\DEC\Private\Marketing\All Hands on DEC) with all copy/story deadlines for the rest of the year.
[Back to Top]
Next Newsletter
Story deadline is: 17 November 2008
Newsletter will be sent out: 30 November 2008
[Back to Top]
