RISE August-September 2011 - University of Salford

RISE 

Research Innovation and Internationalisation News 

August/September 2011 

From the Office of the 

Pro-Vice-Chancellor 

Research and Innovation

Welcome 

I welcome you to a new look issue of RISE. 

This August/September issue brings you, as 

ever, insights into some of the ongoing research 

and innovative new projects here at Salford 

University. 

Universities are always busy places and this year has been particularly so for us here at Salford as we focus 

our sights, research and teaching, onto an exciting new chapter in our history. As you read this issue of 

RISE part of our campus will have relocated down the road to Salford Quays to take up residence in our 

new building with brand new fantastic and futuristic facilities at MediaCityUK (MCUK). 

The University’s innovative and creative new building at MCUK will deliver new courses and research 

pathways into technology for the future. As researchers we learn from the past; its inventions, decisions, 

and the way we lived and worked. The University recently celebrated the past life of one Salford’s famous 

sons, James Prescott Joule, by purchasing his home Joule House, which sits on the University campus. 

This is the house where Joule conducted his famous experiments into energy and heat, leading to the 

unit of energy ‘joule’ being named after him. Salford and its forefathers such as Joule were at the birth of 

the Industrial Revolution, the University’s move to MCUK will be at the beginning of a new technological 

revolution moving us further forward into a new and exciting digital age. You can read more about our 

new building and all it can offer on page 8. 

There is so much more for you to read about in this issue. Whilst reading through if you feel that our 

research is of interest to you, is applicable to your needs or can support your business, policy or processes 

in any way, please do contact us. 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) 

August/September | 03


Magazine 

Contents 

At the vanguard of a digital revolution 06 

Past into present 10 

The Northern years 12 

Watch, read and learn… with pugh! 13 

Keeping the lights on 14 

Touch me, feel me use me 16 

Child obesity and family intervention 17 

Holding back the flood 18 

The BBC audio research partnership 20 

Emotional intelligence in research 22 

A thing created is loved before it exists… 24 

Education in a changing environment 

conference 25 

Yawning gap between man and dog 26 

Modelling for efficiency 28 

Ministerial tour of the Energy House 29 

Heat, light, speed, sounds and floods... 30 

06 

Excavating a revolution 32 

Good business in the Metropolis 

= Innopolis 33 

Exciting thermals! 34 

Research visit to detainee prisons 

in Kurdistan, Iraq 35 

A new perspective 35 

Celebrating good research 36 

Waste not want not 37 

Reconstruction for peace 38 

Research,discuss, implement… 

The Disaster Resilience Conference 40 

Salford to Bangladesh 41 

The written word 41 

The Salford low-energy house 42 

Student detectives in the digital age 43 

Strategic planning 43 

Crossing boundaries with Creative Hive 44 

Jazz standards 45 

Working well 46 

New appointments 47 

10 

17 

28 

18 

04 | August/September

14 

Postgraduate news 

Nurses’ experience of caring for men 

with sexual dysfunction in Jordan 50 

The real A&E – Planning for emergency 52 

Robotic applications - the future 53 

Ultrasound image research 53 

Artificial intelligence in architecture 54 

Time to design with children 55 

Science visits, the teenager and impact 55 

Postgraduate awards 56 

International news 

26 

Global nursing 61 

PhD quality indicators for biomedicine 

and health sciences 61 

Vice-Chancellor visit to India 62 

Other international news 62 

Forthcoming events 63 

Contact details 64 

30 

53 



Magazine 

At the vanguard 

of a digital revolution 

Our move to MediaCityUK is now a reality as we open on October 

4th. With more than 1600 researchers, academics and students 

collaborating with several major partnerships at the starting line 

we are off to exciting new possibilities. 




Magazine 

T 

he USA University Carnegie 

Mellon will be researching in 

close partnership with the 

University. Based in Pittsburgh, 

USA, and currently ranked 20th in the world 

by the Times Higher Education, Carnegie 

Mellon has forged a major new partnership 

with Salford. This innovative new partnership 

will see Salford collaborating with the arts 

and technology institution on a number of 

projects designed to share knowledge in 

the digital, media and creative subjects 

developing both institutions’ expertise. 

Regular collaborations in areas such as 

acoustics and media asset management 

will produce concrete outputs in research 

and help inform new courses, a joined up 

approach and strong collaboration. 

There will also be student and staff exchanges 

and, for science fiction fans, the exciting 

possibility of meeting Anthony Daniels (AKA 

C3PO in Star Wars) who’s a visiting professor 

at Carnegie Mellon! Producer and Professor 

at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment 

Technology Center, Don Marinelli, said: 

“The University of Salford is a world leader in 

the area of acoustics and audio research and 

development. We therefore have much to 

learn from Salford in that regard, while 

reciprocating in other areas of digital media. 

The Research Hotel 

will be located at 

MediaCityUK for 

researchers working 

on themes related to 

the digital and creative 

industries. 

Researchers from any discipline will soon be 

able to tap into the University’s academic 

expertise whenever they need it, thanks to 

the ground-breaking Research Hotel, housed 

at the University’s MediaCityUK facility. 

The Hotel is available to academic staff and 

postgraduate researchers working on 

themes related to digital futures and the 

creative industries. 

Characterised by a creative interdisciplinary 

mix of research expertise, into which can be 

added academics from partner institutions 

and, crucially, from industry, teams of external 

researchers from any area of work will be 

encouraged to drop in and collaborate with 

Salford researchers to find new ways of 

working and creating innovative solutions. 

Collaborative projects with BT on 

08 | August/September 

Above: The University of Salford will be located 

on the first four floors of this disctinctive building 

Opposite: The latest in technology will 

be available 

Below right: This is the ‘diamond’ feature which 

sets the University building apart 

communication and networks and the BBC’s 

R&D team looking at issues including technical 

innovation, digital asset management and 

personal media, the Research Hotel is already 

welcoming its first guests! Mike Hession, 

Research and Innovation Manager for 

MediaCityUK, explains: “There’s always been 

a thirst for business to work with academia 

and look for new ways of working, but this 

was often a complex and time-consuming 

process, the Research Hotel is different. We 

will be able to set partnerships up quickly and 

work in a highly flexible manner with our 

partners, delivering what they need, when 

they need it”.

The University’s building has some of the most 

advanced facilities of any institution: Living 

Lab; HD TV studios; radio broadcast facilities 

and a digital performance lab; researchers 

who will be using software that makes 

collaborative working easier than ever; 

Media Asset Management systems which will 

be more advanced than those which many 

media organisations use and will enable easy, 

real-time collaboration; a location alongside 

the BBC, ITV and numerous smaller 

independent companies; 22 taught 

postgraduate courses in subjects as diverse 

as journalism, audio technology and database 

and web-based systems. 

Professor Brian Longhurst, Pro Vice-Chancellor, 

Media and Digital Futures at Salford University 

said: “I’m hugely excited about the opportunities 

our new facility at MediaCityUK will bring. 

The research, development and innovations 

that will stem from our investments are truly 

indicative of the University’s achievements 

and aspirations. A number of key principles 

inform everything we are doing, With our 

overriding approach being to network in 

flexible and open ways that ensure the best 

forms of partnership working. We are also 

committed to operating in a genuine 

interdisciplinary way. Our aspiration is that, 

through our own efforts and our partnerships, 

we will be world leading in everything we do. 

The University’s research and development 

work will link to the talent stream that is 

represented by our students across a wide 

variety of programmes. Our work with 

Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment 

Technology Center, the BBC, and our 

instigation of the Research Hotel indicate the 

successes that we are already having. 

In addition, the Framework for Research and 

Innovation at Media City (FIRM) which we 

lead, can have a further impact, but it’s also 

important to remember that MediaCityUK is 

not just about the ‘media’, but about practices 

associated with digital technologies which 

are transforming our society, economy and 

politics, such as conversations with colleagues 

from Health and Social Care where we are 

researching into new innovations in digital 

health care that will take place at 

MediaCityUK, where the University of Salford 

will be in the vanguard of new development 

and technologies”. 

Name: Brain Longhurst 

Email: b.j.longhurst@salford.ac.uk 

Website: www.firm-innovation.net 



Magazine 

Past into present 

Competitive cultural heritage 

In this fast paced business world, of buying globally as cheaply as possible; 

goods being made in one country to ship to another country that actually used to 

make the goods themselves, industry and skills depleting in areas that may never 

return; somewhere along the line do we lose not only our industrial production and 

the jobs that fulfil members of our society and build our communities, but also our 

technical and industrial heritage? For Dr Aleksej Heinze, Senior Lecturer in Salford 

Business School, researching into enterprise cultural heritage, this is an area he 

feels we sadly overlook. 

Commenting on our industrial losses 

Aleksej said: “A number of 

companies are steeped in history 

and have a rich collection of recipes, 

knowledge of traditional production methods 

and links with the location of their area and 

many more unrealised assets. This knowledge 

of an organisation’s past is invaluable in the 

current economic climate; it enables them to 

differentiate themselves from others and to 

innovate their products and services, thereby 

giving them a competitive advantage. 

The term used to describe this knowledge 

asset is Enterprise Cultural Heritage (ECH)”. 

The need to celebrate ECH and thus maintain 

the competitiveness and innovation in Small 

and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is at the heart 

of the European project – MNEMOS. This 

research project, funded by the EU Leonardo 

Lifelong Learning Programme, is conducted in 

partnership with five European countries (the 

Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Italy and the 

UK). MNEMOS aims to understand the often 

hidden heritage values of enterprises and help 

companies to re-discover and preserve their 

valuable ECH assets to drive their quality and 

innovation. Free vocational training material 

has been developed to support companies 

in exploiting and effectively managing their 

cultural heritage. Based on the project’s survey 

findings, which revealed strong indications 

that SMEs are interested in exploiting their 

cultural heritage, the MNEMOS team 

discovered that the majority of those 

interviewed found it difficult to identify and 

exploit the economic value of their ECH. 

Taking the needs of SMEs as a starting point, 

an innovative concept of ‘Enterprise Cultural 

Heritage Management’ has been developed by 

the project team, the benefits to SME are: 

Integration of ECH management with four 

aspects of existing company activities; 

Brand management, Change management, 

Heritage management and Intellectual 

Property management; Identification, 

realisation and preservation of the heritage 

values attached to the company’s products 

and services; Celebration of the differences 

that the company brings to its customers by 

highlighting, through its communications, 

its historic roots and how these make their 

services and products so special. 

The theory all sounds very good but what 

does it actually mean in practice? How do you 

ensure as a SME that you are using your ECH 

to the best advantage of your organisation? 

MNEMOS has identified a number of 

organisations across Europe that are already 

using their ECH successfully, by highlighting 

their history, traditions, values and culture in 

order to raise them above others in the market 

and be more competitive. The Lancaster, 

UK, based J. Atkinson & Co have been 

producing coffees and blending teas since 

1837, and recognise the importance of 

preserving their heritage, continuing to use 

the vintage roasters over more modern 

machines as the traditional taste was the 

very thing their customers bought into; 

the Greek Haitoglou Bros have been 

producing Macedonian Halva since 1924, 

their production follows a set of key values 

in order to use their ECH in their business 

including preservation and incorporation 

of craftsmanship into modern production 

systems, respect for consumers, constant, 

consistent quality and innovation amongst the 

people who share and pursue the company’s 

vision. Another successful company identified 

in the South of Italy and established in 1873 is 

Lanificio Leo. 

This company is one of the most significant 

examples of an enterprise-museum, in which 

design-oriented production and ECH values 

are integrated into a management model 

mixing enterprise business processes with 

cultural heritage. Mr Leo sums up the 

necessity of ECH perfectly when he states 

that: “Quality of production does not come 

from machinery but from the understanding 

of people, in the way that they relate to 

each other and feel that they are contributors 

towards the success of the company in an 

international context” . 

This knowledge of an 

organisation’s past is 

invaluable in the current 

economic climate 

If you would like to know more about this 

research contact Aleksej at: a.heinze@salford. 

ac.uk or if you would like to access free 

training material and read about more case 

studies visit the project website at: 

www.enterpriseculturaleheritage.org 

This project has been funded with 

support from the European Commission. 

This publication reflects the view only of the 

author, and the Commission cannot be held 

responsible for any use which may be made 

of the information contained therein. 

Right: Sue and Ian Steele, 

J. Atkinson & Co. Lancaster 

Name: Aleksej Heinze 

Email: a.heinze@salford.ac.uk 




Magazine 

The Northern years 

There has been a lot of controversy in the news lately 

about the move from the bejewelled south by the BBC and 

its presenters to the land of the gritty North, with its dark 

satanic mills, whippets, meat pies, and Coronation street 

style housing! 

T 

ongue in cheek aside, the North is 

really the place to be for art, 

literature and music, past and 

present. In fact the change in 

entertainment in the latter 50 years of the 

last century can quite justifiably say it started 

here in the North where the descendants of 

the Industrial Revolutionists started a new 

revolution in music, art, broadcasting 

and cinema. 

A man who knows about cultural revolutions 

is Dr. Chris Lee, School of Media, Music & 

Performance here at the University, who was 

recently invited to appear in the BBC Four TV 

Documentary, 1960 - The Year of the North. 

Chris said: “I was invited to appear in the 

programme after my appearance the previous 

year in the series Rude Britannia. The Director 

invited me because of my expertise in the 

field of Regional Studies and Popular Culture 

and primarily because I’m from the North and 

fiercely proud of it! Essentially the programme 

looked at the seismic shift in the Arts and 

Entertainment world that began in the 1950’s 

and was fully realised in the early 1960’s when 

Granada TV’s Coronation Street seized the 

public’s hearts and minds and films like A Taste 

of Honey became box-office smashes. This 

was followed by the dominance in the music 

charts of bands from the North such as The 

Beatles and Herman’s Hermits”. 

It was a play written by a 16 year old Salford 

School girl, who had a loathing of the normal 

portrayal of Northern workers who doffed 

their caps and said “Sir” and were portrayed 

as “gormless” when in fact they were “very 

alive and cynical”, that brought opportunities 

for new writers to emerge. Chris continued: 

“A Taste of Honey’s success saw a whole slew 

of movies released, all filmed in the same 

gritty, neo-realist style, leading the Press to tag 

them ‘kitchen sink dramas’. To many viewers 

and movie goers around the country they 

were an eye opener. To us up here they were 

reflections of life as it was really lived. 

But where did this genre come from? 

Simply put, there was a post-war reaction 

to a society that was led by a stifling 

establishment that had endured for so long. 

Normal portrayal of 

Northern workers 

who doffed their caps 

Young people in particular were abandoning 

the values that had been in place for 

generations and were fervently questioning 

the status quo and the old ideas of 

Imperialism and Empire. The disastrous war 

in Suez in 1956 and the development of 

atomic weapons gave creative fuel to the 

newly emerging writers, poets and musicians 

of that period. 

Shelagh Delaney’s play is a prime example 

of this trend. Written when she was sixteen 

and first performed at Manchester’s Library 

Theatre when she was 18, it rapidly 

transferred to Stratford East in London 

and was eventually made into a film in 1961. 

The themes it centred around are startling 

even for now, let alone a 1960’s schoolgirl; 

pregnancy, inter-racial sex and homosexuality, 

single-parenthood, alcohol abuse and adult 

promiscuity. Pulling no punches this dystopian 

view of the life of a Salford schoolgirl is never 

the less a vibrant and modernistic affirmation 

of life and Tony Richardson’s direction coupled 

with Walter Lassally’s camera make full use 

of Salford and Manchester as the panoramic 

backdrop for Shelagh’s tale”. 

To celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary the 

University and Cornerhouse are holding a 

special screening of A Taste of Honey, hosted 

by Chris in November. 

Name: Christopher Lee 

Email: c.lee@salford.ac.uk 

Above: Shelagh Delaney wrote this play aged 16 


Watch, read and learn… with pugh! 

Dawn Shaw Researcher and Senior Lecturer, School of 

Computing, Science & Engineering here at the University 

has recently launched an App on the Apple store called Pugh. 

This is an interactive character designed to help hearing 

impaired children learn to lip read. 

The Pugh App and concept, 

developed by Dawn, was born 

from the idea to create characters 

in which hearing impaired children 

could learn facial movements and relate them 

to words. The concept came from watching 

cartoons in which deaf children have to rely 

upon a signer in the bottom of the screen to 

communicate the story. 

Through teaching Media for over twelve 

years Dawn understood the importance of 

semiotics (the impact of gestures and signs in 

communication) in effective storytelling. 

These semiotics are lost when a hearing 

impaired person focuses their attention on 

the signer rather than the on screen action, 

often leading to them not being able to grasp 

all the intricacies of the plot. Dawn realised 

a solution for this would be to design 

characters which have realistic mouth 

movements, allowing the watcher to lip 

read and concentrate fully on the characters 

and the associated semiotics, rather than 

the signer. 

Finding that there were few software 

products out there tailored to this specific 

area (the only other product being an 

American product called Baldi an animated 

human floating head for children to interact 

with and learn to lip read) Dawn created 

Pugh. Her aim was to create a character 

which children can relate to and enjoy far 

more easily than Baldi. 

In developing Pugh’s realistic mouth 

movements, sophisticated motion tracking 

technology was used to track human mouth 

movements when speaking, this data was 

then used to develop the animated mouth 

movements, with the end result of Pugh 

being able to ‘speak’, with accurate mouth 

movements, any text. 

Pugh’s arms are going to be useful too! 

He has been designed with arms so that in 

future, as the project develops further, he 

may be able to sign as well. We all know 

that human speech has facial emotions 

delivered along with the sound and this 

is also an area that Dawn took into 

consideration. In the designing of Pugh 

the creation of eyebrows and moving eye 

storks were included so that in project future 

development he can convey emotions to the 

words spoken. 

The fact that Pugh can 

create expressions of 

emotion was important 

in the design 

In order to learn we need to relate to a 

character and therefore the fact that Pugh 

can create expressions of emotion was 

important in the design. 

Pugh is unusual in that it uses an avatar and 

not a human for lip reading and with this in 

mind Dawn needed to test Pugh in someway 

for accuracy, so with support from the 

Commercial & Technology Transfer office at 

the University, she created Pugh as an IPhone 

app for the initial testing. 

Dawn is now working with local schools 

for the hearing impaired to use the app 

for educational purposes. 

Pugh doesn’t end here though! The next 

stage of his life is to develop him some 

friends who can also sign, the aim being that 

this will lead on to software for learning lip 

reading as well as cartoons for the deaf and 

hearing. 

Name: Dawn Shaw 

Email: d.m.shaw@salford.ac.uk 

Above: IPhone App, Pugh in action 



Magazine 

Keeping the lights on 

Professor Keith Ross, School of Computing, Science & 

Engineering here at the University, along with colleagues from 

Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham, Sussex and Huddersfield 

University’s have been looking at energy for our futures. 

Are nuclear power plants our only way forward? 

Taking into account the fear factor 

post Japanese Tsunami and the 

chain of events around the reactors 

there, how do scientists allay fears 

of future safety issues around nuclear energy 

and at the same time provide the levels of 

energy needed in an environmentally friendly 

way? How do we keep the lights on here in 

the UK? 

Keith said: “Even if the UK’s plans to build a 

series of new nuclear power stations goes 

ahead as scheduled, in spite of the 

Fukushima accident, the UK is potentially 

facing a serious shortage of electric power 

around the time that the current AGR 

(Advanced Gas-Cooled) reactors, which 

generate about 20% of our electric power, 

reach their currently planned lifetimes 

(~2023). 

The only viable way of bringing more power 

generation into operation on this timescale 

would be to build more gas stations but that 

would tie us to a (moderate) source CO2 

emissions that would prevent the UK reaching 

its target CO2 reduction for 2050. There is, 

therefore, a well recognised need for research 

that will enable the Operators to delay the 

dates of final closure”. 

One of the main areas of concern that could 

determine the reactor shut down schedule 

is the moderator. The role of a reactor 

moderator is to slow down the fast neutrons 

produced by the nuclear fission taking place in 

the reactor’s uranium fuel. This slowing down 

process is a result of the fast neutrons striking 

the carbon nuclei, causing them to recoil out 

of their sites in the graphite lattice. EPSRC has 

funded a powerful consortium of research 

groups in UK universities (Salford, Manchester, 

Leeds, Nottingham, Sussex and Huddersfield) 

to study the whole process of graphite 

irradiation, using the more powerful 

techniques now available to address one of 

the main areas of concern - the safe limit for 

the irradiation of the graphite moderator. 

The overall research programme includes 

trying to understand the behaviour of the 

individual recoil carbon atoms, by using a 

unique combined Atomic Bombardment 

Accelerator/Transmission Electron Microscope 

(now at Huddersfield) in which the build-up 

of radiation damage can be studied in situ. 

The results produced can be simulating by 

Molecular Dynamics computer modelling 

either for these energetic ions as used in situ 

to match the damage observed by TEM or by 

fast neutrons as in a reactor. Models for the 


esulting lattice defects (buckles or folds) are 

being simulated at Sussex (Professor Malcolm 

Heggie and colleagues) while at Salford (Keith 

Ross, Daniel Roach, Zhanna Mileeva and 

Alice Bailey) are preparing to use Coherent 

Neutron Inelastic Scattering (a new technique 

being developed in the group) to measure 

the dynamics of the carbon atoms involved in 

these lattice defects. An important feature of 

nuclear graphites is their porosity which exists 

over a large range of length scales. 

The UK is potentially 

facing a serious 

shortage of 

electric power 

Salford are applying Small Angle Neutron 

Scattering and microgravimetric techniques 

to studying this porosity - how it varies in 

different kinds of graphite; how it absorbs the 

dimensional changes that would otherwise 

occur and how it links to radiological oxidation 

processes. Salford also plan to use diffuse 

neutron scattering to study the carbon-carbon 

bond length distribution and hence the nature 

of the carbon-carbon bonding and how this 

varies with irradiation. 

and colleagues) holds a unique collection of 

nuclear graphites from a variety of sources 

worldwide and will be using a variety of novel 

techniques such as X-ray tomography to study 

these while, at Nottingham, multi-scale 

simulations will be used to attempt to understand 

the macroscopic consequences of our 

microscopic models for fast neutron damage. 

Keith continued: “The most significant 

achievement of our research would be to 

contribute new understanding that would 

enable the Electrical Generating companies 

to keep their AGR reactors running longer. 

More than that, however, we would succeed 

in the rejuvenation of a crucial research field 

that is relevant not only to the current AGR 

reactors but to the planned Generation 4 High 

Temperature Gas Cooled Reactors that are 

expected to take over from the current PWR 

designs in the future and in training a future 

generation of physicists to help in the 

development of future zero CO2 power 

generation technologies”. 

Name: Keith Ross 

Email: k.d.ross@salford.ac.uk 

At Leeds (Professor Aidan Westwood and 

Andrew Scott) will apply advanced electron 

microscopy techniques to study virgin and 

irradiated graphites. The Manchester 

graphite group (Professor Barry Marsden 



Magazine 

Touch me, feel me use me - 

Interactive studio working 

What’s that you see across the studio floor? Gordon Burns, host of the BBC Northwest 

Tonight Programme, utilising and enjoying the latest technology for presenters, 

technology soon to be used on the studio floor of this regional programme. 

S 

o how did Gordon’s futuristic 

touch screen ‘presenter’s dream’ 

technology arrive in the BBC 

Studios? Read on to find out more! 

Lee Griffiths, Lecturer and Researcher in 

Computer Science here at the University 

along with colleagues from the School of 

Computing, Science and Engineering, were 

commissioned by the BBC to develop an 

interactive way of including social media 

postings within the programme. 

Lee said: “The BBC deliver many live studio 

based news broadcasts which involve the 

presenters interacting with media such as 

static pictures, video and other data whilst 

a discussion develops. In reality most of the 

interaction is rehearsed, staged and 

controlled by the show’s producer whilst the 

broadcast is being delivered. This studio trial 

of a Microsoft Surface based touch 

application, will allow presenters to interact 

with viewer submitted media in real time”. 

Lee who has recently produced a paper on this 

work with Phil Smith, a colleague from the 

BBC, continued:”Most TV companies have 

attempted to address this shortfall in live 

viewer interaction by launching a series of 

social media feeds using services such as 

Flickr, Twitter and Facebook. 

It gave me total control 

of the item, was visually 

exciting and was fun to do: 

I cant wait to have another 

go, hopefully live on air! 

These allow viewers to submit stories, 

comments and images relating to topical 

issues and these comments are often sent in 

as a show is being aired. Thus the traditional 

model for presenter interaction cannot take 

advantage of the dynamic and real-time 

Above: Gordon Burns testing the application on 

the set of North West Tonight 

nature of social media as the comments used 

in the show need to be prepared earlier in the 

day. The research team set about developing 

a studio-friendly software application to run 

on a table top device which would give 

presenters the ability to directly manipulate 

this real-time information in a live broadcast 

studio setting whilst at the same time allows 

the producers ultimate editorial control of 

content off camera”. 

That’s the theory and its worked well in 

practice! Gordon said: “It gave me total 

control of the item, was visually exciting and 

was fun to do; I can’t wait to have another 

go, hopefully live on air!” 

Name: Lee Griffiths 

Email: l.s.griffiths@salford.ac.uk 


Child obesity and family 

intervention 

Childhood obesity isn’t just a UK problem we know it’s an issue in many countries. 

However it’s not something that a child can tackle alone, lifestyle intervention is 

needed through a family behavioural-change approach with respect to physical 

activity and diet. 

Professor Lindsey Dugdill, School 

of Health Sciences, here at the 

University, and colleagues 

from Liverpool John Moores 

University and Leeds Metropolitan University 

have recently published research findings on a 

study exploring the relationship between adult 

BMI change and child BMI SDS (BMI Standard 

Deviation Score) change following completion 

of a community-based, lifestyle change 

intervention for obese children and families 

in Liverpool. 

The research focused on a family based 

programme for overweight children and 

young people called GOALS (Getting Our 

Active Lifestyles Started). GOALS is a healthy 

lifestyle programme that helps families with 

overweight or obese children, make small, 

realistic changes to their physical activity and 

eating behaviours. 

Lindsey said: “GOALS supported the whole 

family in making gradual, sustainable changes 

to their levels of physical activity and their 

eating patterns. The intervention involved 

families working in a group for eighteen 2 

hour, once weekly, sessions. These focused on 

diet, physical activity and behaviour change, 

and involved practical cooking and classroom 

sessions to equip families with the skills and 

knowledge to eat a healthy balanced diet 

(based on the Food Standards Agency Eat 

well Plate). Physical activity as we know is 

a key factor in addressing obesity and the 

intervention also included weekly, fun based, 

physical activity sessions for adults and 

children together, with emphasis on 

enhancing self efficacy for physical activity 

through modeling, achieving targets and 

goals with positive reinforcement all the 

way through”. 

Above: Physical activity and family fun helping to 

combat obesity and diabetes 

The research results clearly show a strong 

positive association between adult BMI change 

and child BMI SDS change, and demonstrate 

that family adult members being involved 

in the weight loss process improves child 

treatment outcomes. 

Acknowledgements: Liverpool City Council 

(SportsLinx), Liverpool PCT, Alder Hey 

Children’s Hospital, families who participated 

in the GOALS intervention 

This work was funded through the 

Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (2006-2008) 

and the Working Neighbourhood Fund 

(2008-2009) 

Name: Lindsey Dugdill 

Email: l.dugdill@salford.ac.uk 



Magazine 

Holding back 

the flood 

Since the year 2000, over 4 million people have been affected by flood in Europe. In 

England alone, about 3.8 million properties are at risk of surface water flooding. 

We need water to work, clean, flourish and function, 

but what do we do when we have too much water and 

we experience flooding in our towns and villages such 

as Cockermouth, which has been badly hit in the last 

two years? Professor Miklas Scholz, Chair in Civil Engineering and 

Director of the Civil Engineering Research Centre (CERC), from the 

School of Computing, Science and Engineering here at the University, 

working with colleagues on a new European research project which 

aims to boost flood defences by better using reservoirs, may just have 

the answer. 

Civil Engineers at The University of Salford are calling for owners of 

water bodies such as water companies and local authorities to boost 

the UK’s flood defences by using our extensive network of reservoirs 

to take up excess water during heavy rainfall. The team of researchers 

have surveyed hundreds of sites in Germany, England and Scotland, 

which are either abandoned or full to the brim, and suggest that for 

little or no extra cost, a capacity of millions of gallons could be added 

to absorb high water levels. In the case of full reservoirs, the researchers 

discovered that there is little need to operate them at full capacity 

during the wettest months, so that by keeping them less full, there is 

room for heavy rainfall runoff to be stored, whilst also reducing the 

pressure placed on dams by having constantly full reservoirs. 

By bringing back old reservoirs into use upstream 

more green spaces can be used for other purposes 

than flood control downstream 

Members of CERC from the School of Computing, Science & 

Engineering have also looked at hundreds of sites in Scotland’s Central 

Belt, which have been abandoned by Scottish Water, because they are 

obsolete, too small or have become too polluted to store drinking 

water. By bringing these back into operation, they would have the 

capacity to absorb a huge amount of flood water. However, this 

would require a shift in the current reservoir management strategy. 

Some water companies currently sell smaller reservoirs to fishing clubs 

and members of the public to avoid being liable for them under the 

Flood and Water Management Act 2010. 

Right: Professor Miklas Scholz overlooking a reservoir 

near Pitlochry, Scotland 

Current small-scale flood defences such as sustainable drainage 

systems and flood defence walls are expensive for local authorities 

and property developers to build and maintain by bringing back old 

reservoirs into use upstream more green spaces can be used for other 

purposes than flood control downstream. The added capacity will also 

help to reduce pollution from agricultural and industrial runoff. 

Miklas, who is leading this research at the University, said “In the area 

around Perth, we found that of 40 reservoirs, only two were in use for 

drinking water production, by using the other 38 for flood control, we 

can save lives and millions of pounds on reduced flood damage and on 

building new flood defences and sustainable drainage systems further 

downstream in the catchment”. 

At the heart of the research is the mathematical categorisation of water 

bodies using the European Union-funded Sustainable Flood Retention 

Basin Concept developed by Miklas and his research team at CERC. 

Bodies of water are assessed on 55 variables such as Engineered, Mean 

Flooding Depth, Maximum Flood Water Volume, Managed Mean 

Flooding Depth and Managed Maximum Flood Water Volume. 

The latter two compound variables are novel and essential in identifying 

the under-utilised flood control potential of former and current water 

supply reservoirs. The data are then applied to create risk maps, which 

can be used by authorities for planning and flood control purposes. 

This novel methodology also helps to produce reliable flood risk 

management maps more cost-effectively and rapidly. Miklas’ proposed 

geostatistical methodology will aid stakeholder communication by 

delivering information to planners and authorities regarding the 

most favourable locations for Sustainable Flood Retention Basin 

development. Implementing this research as part of preparing reservoir 

flood plans and planning for new flood storage infrastructure now 

could save heartache, anguish and lives in the future. 

The Environment Agency and some water companies have taken a 

keen interest in discussing opportunities on how to implement this 

research into practice. The most likely pathway to success is to lobby 

for changes to the Reservoirs Act 1975, which traditionally puts 

more importance on drinking water provision than on flood control. 

Legislation needs to recognize the need for flood storage to be used to 

compensate for effects of increased urbanisation and climate change. 

Name: Miklas Scholz 

Email: m.scholz@salford.ac.uk 




Magazine 

The BBC audio research 

partnership 

‘Did you hear that?’ ‘Can you hear me?’ ‘Listen to this!’ 

Phrases common in everyday life, we take our audio perceptions 

and soundscape in our lives for granted and we expect the best. 

When we watch a film or listen 

to music or sit in front of 

the TV we expect the audio 

quality and technologies to be 

the best they can. Here at Salford University, 

in partnership with the BBC, Professor Yiu 

Lam and colleagues are working on ground 

breaking acoustic research to provide the best 

for the future. 

The concept of the BBC Audio Research 

Partnership (ARP) began when the BBC 

R&D identified the importance of 

advancing audio delivery to match the fast 

pace of media developments over multiple 

broadcasting platforms. It was recognised that 

such advancement could only be achieved 

through synergy developed in a network of 

excellence involving leading researchers in 

this field. In a sequence of visits and 

internal evaluations, the BBC identified the top 

five universities that matched their strategic 

needs. Among the five universities, two were 

identified as primary partners. Salford, with 

its leading presence in acoustics and audio 

research through its Acoustics Research Centre 

was recognised as a key primary partner. 

Along with University of Surrey, Queen Mary 

University London, University of Southampton, 

and York University, a partnership was formed 

to map the research expertise at these universities 

to the BBC’s strategic plans in audio R&D 

with Salford concentrating on Acoustics and 

Spatial Audio. 

In July this year the Partnership was launched 

in the newly opened BBC building in the 

MediaCityUK to an audience of guests from a 

wide cross-section of the creative, media and 

broadcasting industry and academic institutes. 

Professor Lam said: “The vision of the ARP 

is to drive internationally leading research, 

training, and commercialisation of audio 

and acoustics applied to broadcast; forming 

a pipeline of innovation for the BBC and its 

partners. The University of Salford is ideally 

placed to deliver this thanks to the world class 

research, staff and facilities in the Acoustics 

Research Centre (ARC) allied with extensive 

central support services for bidding and 

commercialisation”. 

The creation of MediaCityUK and the close 

proximity of the Salford University building 

to BBC will offer many benefits to the Audio 

Research Partnership. As part of an ambitious 

development plan the University has taken 

103,000 square feet over 4 floors in the heart 

of MediaCityUK next door to the BBC. The 

building is designed as a state of the art 

Salford and its partners will 

develop formative and 

internationally leading research 

in audio and accoustics 

facility for teaching, research and enterprise 

activity centred on media and digital futures. 

A key aim of the building is to create both 

physical and virtual collaborative spaces to 

foster and facilitate research with external 

organizations. The collaborative research 

activities between the BBC and the Acoustics 

Research Centre under the ARP will be a 

substantial part of this. Facilities within the 

MediaCityUK building include TV studios, 

radio studios, edit suites, animation, 3D 

modelling and audio post production suites, 

a mobile and ubiquitous computing lab, 

and a ‘The Egg’ offering an environment 

where prototypes and interactive technologies 

developed as part of the Audio Research 

Partnership can be assessed and showcased. 

The Acoustics Research Centre (ARC) at 

Salford has over 35 years track record of high 

quality research in acoustics. Yiu continued: 

ARC is the only sizable UK university group in 

audio acoustics that undertakes specialist 

research, dedicated graduate and postgraduate 

training, and provides commercial services 

to industry. The synergy between research, 

teaching, and commercial works has enabled 

the Centre to establish its leadership in 

building, environmental, and audio acoustics 

research. It is backed up by a wide range of 

state-of-the-art acoustics facilities. The ARC 

has an extensive portfolio of projects that map 

onto the key research themes designated by 

the BBC, with tremendous synergy between 

areas of excellence within the ARC and the 

strategic aims of BBC Audio and Acoustics 

research. The ARC facilities will be key 

contributors to Audio Research Partnership 

research projects, ensuring the world class 

facilities at its disposal are utilised to full 

impact for the BBC and its partners. 

This exciting opportunity for Salford and its 

partners will enable them to develop 

transformative and internationally leading 

research in audio and acoustics that create real 

impacts applied to broadcast. The vision is to 

develop fundamental audio technologies that 

enable the enrichment of audience experience 

for future broadcast delivered over a variety 

of platforms, and allows the exploitation of 

innovative broadcast options to create new 

dimensions in production and broadcast 

contents. A range of projects and 


development work, both in research and 

training, will be undertaken by Salford to drive 

through these goals. At Salford, the initial 

focus will be on the delivery of spatial audio 

and periphony in the acoustic environment of 

living rooms. Examples of planned projects in 

the first year include: Compression of 

ambisonics for broadcast; Ambisonic 

reproduction in living room acoustics; 

Spatial audio delivery using unconventional 

loudspeakers; Enhancing binaural listening 

using ear scans. The ARC and the BBC are 

currently working on an exciting EU FP7 

project Fascinate (new paradigm in 

broadcast) along with projects on periphony 

for broadcast and a Knowledge Transfer 

Project around event sound extraction. 

The ARC is fully committed to exploit 

this exciting opportunity provided by the 

Partnership. With all this research ongoing 

and the development and implementation of 

new ideas, the acoustic future sounds perfect! 

Name: Yiu Lam 

Email: y.lam@salford.ac.uk 

Above: Acoustics Research Partnership 

Research Team with colleagues at MediaCityUK 



Magazine 

Emotional intelligence 

in research 

Scientific research, especially in health, is how we move 

knowledge forward, how we cure disease, make life healthier, 

happier and longer. 

The Petri dish, research lab, medical 

testing and analysis all play equal 

vital roles in research but what 

about the emotional side of health 

research? Especially in sensitive areas such as 

Breast Cancer? Professor Stuart Mackay, Lead 

for the Emotional Intelligence (EI) Research 

Line of Enquiry, in the Directorate of 

Radiography here at the University, along 

with internal and external colleagues have 

been looking into just such an issue. 

Stuart said: “Two years ago the Directorate 

of Radiography changed the direction of its 

research. It began to focus into clinical 

research and one key focus of this work was 

the area of Breast Imaging. We began to 

explore this field from the perspective of the 

technical equipment, the science, but also 

recognised the importance of the perspective 

of the patient and practitioner to be able to 

achieve the goal of improvements in clinical 

practice through applied research. This focus 

on the human side of research gave rise to the 

Emotional Intelligence line of enquiry within 

the research programme”. 

The research team have been advancing 

considerably, since the initial discussion 

between Stuart and Dr Ashley Weinberg, 

Directorate of Psychology, Counselling and 

Psychotherapy at the University, which started 

this whole line of enquiry. Now two years 

down the line the research team has a wide 

range of expertise from within Salford and 

other universities across the NHS. The team 

have representation from psychologists 

with expertise in EI, clinical colleagues from 

the NHS breast screening programme, 

a Professor of statistics, user/carer input and 

close links with 8 Trust hospitals in the North 

West of England. Stuart continued: “EI is the 

way we recognise emotions within ourselves 

and others, understand the impact of these 

emotions and set about behaving in a way 

that will bring about optimum outcomes. 

For example in a situation where a woman is 

about to undergo a mammogram, an x-ray 

of the breast, you have a highly emotionally 

charged situation yet the mammographer, a 

radiographer with specialist training to x-ray 

the breast, has to gain the confidence and 

compliance of the women in order to be able 

to get the best quality image enabling the 

potential cancer to be diagnosed. Women 

respond in many different ways to this sort 

of situation and so recognising the emotion 

within the women, recognising and 

controlling their own emotions and being able 

to behave in a way that enables optimum 

communication and positioning of the 

women are vital to producing an accurate 

breast cancer diagnosis. There is a paucity of 

research in EI in the clinical environment and 

so we have been exploring this concept to see 

if EI has a clinical application”. 

With an endorsement for the Salford Breast 

Research Group from the Director of Public 

Policy at the College of Radiographers, 

Stuart and the team are currently exploring 

the possible link between EI and clinical 

performance in mammographers in 

the NHS, with a three-way measure of 

performance: validated patient experience 

tools; physical measurement of the 

compression force applied during the 

mammogram; and image quality of the 

final mammogram. 

EI can be taught and learned, and with this 

in mind a group of radiography, psychology, 

nursing and HR staff from across the university 

along with clinical staff, with funding support 

from the Higher Education Innovation Fund, 

are developing an EI course. The Course will 

take a blended learning approach and include 

e-learning and work-based activities along 

with face-to-face group learning at the 

university to try and improve the EI of 

participants. 

Though its only early days Stuart said: “early 

results from our work have shown that 

radiographers do have higher EI than a 

normative sample and that there are 

differences between subgroups of the 

profession with mammographers coming 

out as higher scoring. Our multicentre trial 

exploring the EI and psychological profile of 

mammographers and the link with patient 

experience is almost complete so results will 

be available next year”. 

Name: Stuart Mackay 

Email: s.mackay@salford.ac.uk 

Addendum: As this article goes to press the EI team have officially been invited to work with the Australian Institute of Radiography to undertake 

a national survey of EI in Australian Radiographers to carry out an international comparison with our UK wide EI survey. 




Magazine 

A thing created 

is loved before 

it exists… 

All the recent controversy around 

rising university fees and the 

provision of Higher Education in 

the future raises other concerns: 

will anyone go to university 

anymore for the sheer pleasure 

of learning, of being creative 

of doing and forming something 

wonderful and new? 

What about those who don’t follow the traditional 

educational route, will they able to go to university? 

Here at the University of Salford, the School of English, 

Sociology, Politics and Contemporary History (ESPaCH) 

are ensuring that creativity doesn’t die through lack of funds, they are 

taking their Creative Writing Team to new heights with one particular 

student finding success out of trauma. 

The Creative Writing team in the School of ESPaCH is gaining a 

growing reputation for research into innovative approaches to the 

pedagogy of writing skills. Dr Ursula Hurley, who teaches on the BA 

English and Creative Writing programme, has published widely on the 

teaching of fiction and memoir, Ursula’s research informs the design 

and delivery of her modules, research which clearly benefits her 

students, as one such student, Neil Blower, has discovered. Neil has 

just completed the first year of Salford’s BA English and Creative 

Writing programme and has also just signed his first book deal! 

Wonderful things can happen when 

people are given the tools and techniques 

to help them 

After taking a module on writing autobiography, designed by Ursula 

and delivered by the Creative Writing Team, Neil was inspired to write 

about his experiences of active service in Afghanistan. The result is a 

novella, entitled The Diary of Tommy Atkins, a fictionalised diary of a 

soldier’s experiences with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

Above: Dr Ursula Hurley, Lecturer Creative Writing Programme 

Neil himself is also a sufferer of PTSD. With no conventional 

qualifications Neil was admitted to the BA course via the Accreditation 

of Prior Experience and Learning route, and is a prime example of 

the necessity for Higher Education to open its doors to learning 

opportunities for all, Neil is the first member of his family to go to 

University. His book will be published by Fire Step Press, and launched 

at the Imperial War Museum North in September, Neil has already 

featured on Radio 1 and been interviewed on Radio 5 Live by 

Nicky Campbell. 

Ursula said: ‘It’s inspiring to see my research contributing to the success 

of our students. Wonderful things can happen when people are given 

the tools and techniques to help them tell their own unique stories. 

Neil has worked really hard to get to this point and I hope this is the 

first of many books for him”. 

Name: Ursula Hurley 

Email: u.k.hurley@salford.ac.uk 


Education in a changing 

environment conference 

The 6th International Education in a Changing Environment Conference 

(ECE) was held at the University recently with delegates and presenters 

arriving from 31 countries across 5 continents. Despite the Salford summer 

weather, a fantastic, creative and innovative time was had by all. 

The ECE is a biennial event and 

conference theme this time round 

focussed on Creativity and 

Engagement in Higher Education. 

Identifying Social Media; Learning, Teaching 

and Assessment; Network and Partnerships 

as key themes, the conference explored the 

relationship between pedagogical research 

and best practice, with examples from 

across the globe via a mixture of research 

presentations, Pecha Kucha, workshops, 

demonstrations and posters. 

Conference opened with a keynote speech 

from University Vice Chancellor Professor 

Martin Hall. Martin spoke about the 

importance of engaging students in new and 

innovative ways especially at a time when 

Higher Education is undergoing great change. 

Guest keynote speakers at the conference 

included: Professor Alec Couros, a world 

leading authority on social media in 

education; Glynis Cousin, Professor of Higher 

Education and Director of the Institute for 

Learning Enhancement at the University of 

Wolverhampton; Norman Jackson, Professor 

of Higher Education and the former Director 

of the Surrey Centre for Excellence in 

Professional Training and Saul Nassé, 

Controller of Learning, BBC. 

This was the first time that the ECE conference 

had called for full research papers and Pecha 

Kucha and with fantastic results. There was 

a response of over 100 abstract and 50 full 

research paper submissions. Prizes abounded 

as well at the 6th ECE as Emerald Group 

Publishing presented two paper prizes, Elsevier 

awarded a prize for Best Paper in Healthcare 

Education, Dwelltime awarded a prize for the 

best Pecha Kucha presentation and a prize 

for the best paper on the use of the web 

and emerging technologies in education 

and McGraw Hill awarded a prize for the 

best poster. 

With conference feedback such as: “worth 

travelling 10,000 miles for!” and “best 

international research conference I’ve been 

to” plus many more like these, the University 

certainly held a successful research event, but 

it didn’t end there! Post conference, Frances 

Bell, Conference Chair for Full Papers, held a 

publication workshop for those who missed 

out at the conference, with one participant 

saying: “The workshop was really energising. 

It was a writing-awakening for me”. 

Conference research papers and abstracts 

are being published on USIR, the networking 

is continuing via the website, CrowdVine 

and Twitter, and with a special edition in the 

PESTLHE journal, the research arising out of 

this conference will pave the way to new 

ideas and innovative practices in higher 

education institutions around the globe. 

Web: www.ece.salford.ac.uk 



Magazine 

Yawning gap 

between man 

and dog 

When someone else yawns do 

you yawn too? When you hear 

someone yawning does 

it make you yawn as well? 

This is known as contagious 

yawning; where only reading 

the word ‘yawn’ is sufficient 

to induce yawning in some 

people. (Have you yawned 

yet?) 

R 

ecent research has suggested one’s propensity 

to ‘catch’ yawns from others might be linked to 

empathy, as people who score highly on an 

empathy index are more likely to catch yawns 

than others. But can this putative empathic link cross the 

species divide? Dr Sean O’Hara, a lecturer in wildlife 

cognition and behaviour in the School of Environment & 

Life Sciences, here at the University, is working to provide 

an answer to this question. 

Domestic dogs are especially noted for their attentiveness to 

human behaviour and are impressive in responding to only 

very subtle cues. This attention to another’s behavioural and 

emotional state led researchers of a 2008 study to report 

that dogs catch yawns from humans, and at rates that even 

exceeded those of contagious yawning reported for humans 

and chimpanzees. The report’s authors suggested dogs 

might therefore possess rudimentary empathy 

(and empathy capable of crossing the species divide). 

Sean’s study attempted to test 

dogs under conditions that were 

designed to preserve the dogs’ 

sense of familiarity and emotional 

connectedness to the yawner 

However, Sean’s (and co-author Amy Reeve’s) research, 

recently published in the journal Animal Behaviour, has cast 

doubt on this finding. Unlike the original 2008 research, 

Sean’s study attempted to test dogs under conditions that 

were designed to preserve the dogs’ sense of familiarity and 

emotional connectedness to the yawner. 

Above: 

Sean and Chico, 

the Lurcher 

So dogs were tested in their own homes and the yawner, 

in some trials, was the owner; thus homing in on any 

empathicpropensities. Under these more natural conditions, 

however, dogs failed to catch yawns. 

One reason why dogs may have yawned in the 2008 study 

could have been because the lab testing conditions induced 

yawning as a consequence of anxiety. In Sean’s study heart 

rate measurements were taken before, during and after the 

trials to demonstrate that his subjects were not being 

psychologically stressed by the test conditions. This meant 

any yawns seen could be attributed to contagion rather 

than stress induced. Under these affable conditions though, 

subjects didn’t catch yawns from familiar or unfamiliar 

people and they didn’t even catch yawns when played 

videos of fellow dogs yawning. 


ehaviour and is believed to be cognitively challenging but, 

increasingly studies are beginning to show that some 

animals, like many non-human primates, elephants, 

social carnivores, and even some invertebrates, are also 

capable of social learning. 

The empathy and emotional-connectedness with owners 

link appears to have been dealt a blow. As Sean said when 

interviewed for the May edition of Science News: “I’m afraid 

it’s not looking good for canines and contagious yawning”. 

However, it need not be a fatal blow as empathy is not a two 

way street; just because people feel emotionally-connected 

to their dogs doesn’t mean that dogs must reciprocate 

emotionally. 

Sean continued: “Our pets probably don’t feel for us the way 

we feel about them, they rely on us as the source of their 

needs and they are clever at using us to help them acquire 

what they need, but they needn’t feel anything towards us 

despite us often thinking that they might care about us, or 

us wanting them to! In contrast however we know people 

are often very emotionally-connected to their pets. Previous 

research has shown that the bereavement following the loss 

of a dog is as emotionally stressful as the loss of a (human) 

loved one. Clearly we do empathise with our pets”. 

Contagion does not constitute 

social learning – it’s only a 

‘matching’ response that is ‘released’ 

when one sees another performing 

the action. 

Top Right: 

Chico, played 

a role in Sean’s 

research 

Sean is currently researching into the reverse idea. If owners 

are emotionally-connected to their dogs will they ‘catch’ 

yawns from their pets? Dog owners are currently being 

recruited to test whether they are more likely to yawn in 

response to seeing their own dog yawn rather than an 

unfamiliar dog yawning. Cross-species contagious yawning 

has recently suffered a setback but, who knows, with this 

new research it might make a comeback – just in the reverse 

direction! 

Name: Sean O’Hara 

Email: s.ohara@salford.ac.uk 

Contagion is an important aspect of behavioural research 

because evidence of its existence in a species promotes the 

idea that the species might be capable of social learning. 

However, it provides initial evidence that individuals might 

respond to others’ social cues, and if ‘matching’ is coupled 

with individual learning this constitutes social learning. 

Solving problems via social learning is a hallmark of human 



Magazine 

Right: ThinkPod 

Colour Creative 

exterior wall 

Below: 

Willmott Dixon 

Project image 

Modelling for 

efficiency 

In these difficult economic times, the building industry is experiencing hardships in 

many areas, good management and forward planning in large scale builds is essential 

in order to use available resources efficiently. 

E 

ver present with the ethos of real 

world research for real world issues, 

research into 3D modelling, ongoing 

here at Salford. The University’s state 

of the art ThinkLab, is bringing in partners 

from all corners of the industry to discuss 

shared projects, plan new research areas and 

discover the best way forward for the building 

industry. Building Information Modelling and 

Management (BIMM) is recognised as an area 

of high potential benefit to the construction 

industry and recently Willmott Dixon 

Construction hosted an event in the ThinkLab 

with the aim of developing a strategy that 

could drive efficiencies on their construction 

sites through the implementation of BIMM. 

Andre Witter, Operations Manager for 

Willmott Dixon’s Manchester Office said: 

“3D modelling has been used by design 

consultants for many years now, however we 

see BIMM as the product of a truly integrated 

team working to deliver a coordinated 

information rich three dimensional model. 

This model will help to reduce waste and 

produce outputs to support and streamline 

our management processes resulting in 

benefits to the businesses involved, our clients 

and end users”. 

In response to this commitment from Willmott 

Dixon, design consultants and building 

services subcontractor, Old Moat Primary 

School (a new build project for Manchester 

City Council who are big BIMM advocates) 

was chosen as a demonstration project to 

display to guests from Manchester City 

Council and industry professionals. ThinkLab’s 

3D visualisation platform was used to 

demonstrate the project including: 

visualisation walk through; integrated 

modelling; clash detection; schedule 

production; specification loading; 

operation and maintenance information 

loading and construction time lining. 

Showing designs to the user is always a good 

way forward and this project certainly did that. 

The early afternoon session involved a group 

of staff and pupils from Old Moat School. 

The THINKpod’s 3D technology was used to 

take the children through the virtual school 

using the BIMM model. This gave them 

a great insight into their new school and 

a number of the children took the 

opportunity to navigate themselves through 

the 3D models. 

The day closed with representatives from the 

other Constructors Partners on Manchester 

City Council’s Framework 1 joining the Old 

Moat team and the Council’s Framework and 

Project Managers for a knowledge sharing 

workshop. Experiences from Old Moat and 

other BIM projects were shared along with 

discussions regarding the industry’s uptake 

and understanding of BIM. 

Name: Carla Kocsis 

Email: c.kocsis@salford.ac.uk 


Left: Professor 

Martin Hall with 

Andrew Stunnell 

MP outside the 

Energy house 

Ministerial tour of the 

Energy House 

The University’s fantastic new research facility, the Energy House, has caused such widespread 

interest across industry and academia alike, that we often have people dropping in to discuss 

potential projects or just to see what it all about. Most recently the house was visited by 

Government Minister Andrew Stunnell MP, the Parliamentary under Secretary of State for 

Communities and Local Government. 

Andrew’s visit included meeting and discussions with leading 

academics and researchers working within the Energy 

House and a tour of the Energy Hub, including Salford’s 

Energy House and postgraduate area, where he chatted 

to postgraduate students and Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) 

associates. 

In anticipation of the Government’s Green Deal initiative due to be 

launched next year, Andrew and his team heard how Salford 

academics are conducting research into fuel poverty, aiming to help 

low income and vulnerable people overcome fuel price rises and the 

effects of energy inefficient housing. The latest figures published by 

Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), indicate that around 

21% of households in the UK are living in fuel poverty. This is set to 

increase over the next few years, with fuel bills on the rise and the big 

5 energy providers all announcing between a 15% and 20% rise in gas 

and electricity bills. 

Also highlighted during the visit was the cross disciplinary work being 

undertaken at the University to reduce the threat of fuel poverty faced by 

householders within the UK, including pioneering research to understand 

how best to influence and change energy inefficient behaviour and habits 

in the home. The Minister said: “Over 40 per cent of the UK’s green 

house gas emissions come from the built environment, so we must make 

every effort to ensure retrofit schemes like the ‘Green Deal’ work, or the 

country risks losing its battle against climate change. That’s why I’ve come 

to the Energy House today. This fantastic facility shows us that greening 

our homes isn’t just an elite pastime, it’s something everyone can do. 

With the countdown to the Green Deal underway, the Energy House will 

be a vital tool for understanding how measures to improve energy 

efficiency work in practice. I have argued for many years that we 

must close the gap between the predicted improvements of 

retrofitting and actual energy performance, so I’m delighted the 

Energy House will help us achieve this”. 

The University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Martin Hall, added: 

“We were very pleased to welcome Andrew to our Energy House. 

His enthusiasm for our work clearly demonstrates that our 

cutting-edge research into highly relevant energy issues is in line 

with the Government’s ambition to make all UK homes zero 

carbon from 2016”. 

Fuel Poverty – A household is said to be in 

fuel poverty if it needs to spend more than 

10% of its income on fuel to maintain a 

satisfactory heating regime. 

It’s not only a new Energy House we have here at Salford but also 

two new key members of staff; Richard Fitton, Energy House 

Technical Manager and Gary Bateman Energy House Business 

Development Manager. Richard, a Building Surveyor by trade 

with a career focused on energy management will manage the 

collaborative research that takes place within the house as well as 

the running of the house itself. Gary has joined as a secondment 

from Envirolink the business support organisation for the low carbon 

and environmental goods and services sector. Two new additions to 

a fantastic new project. 



Magazine 

Heat, light, speed, 

sounds and floods... 

Welcome to the School 

of Computing, Science 

& Engineering 

Cross discipline and cross 

theme working is something 

we do well here at the 

University of Salford, both 

internally and with external 

partners and never more 

so than in the School of 

Computing, Science & 

Engineering (CSE). 

W 

orking closely with industry partners on 

multi-disciplinary projects, CSE, addresses 

key challenges which face our society 

today and in the future including: 

the management of energy consumption; reducing CO 2, 

emissions; water and its quality; the managing of floods 

and pollution; examining the effects of noise on our societies 

and environments and developing materials for a new and 

sustainable future. 

It’s estimated that households account for over 30% of 

the energy consumption in the EU and 23% of UK CO 2 , 

emissions. CSE in collaboration with Salford Business School 

are currently working on a large European Commission 

funded project called DEHEMS. This project has carried out 

one of the largest household energy monitoring trials in 

Europe and is studying patterns of usage and behaviour, 

to make recommendations on reducing carbon footprint. 

Thinking smart and acting smart is where the solutions are in 

energy futures and in another CSE project, funded by British 

Gas, researchers in the School are pursuing how data mining 

can be applied on half-hourly energy usage data from 

Smart meters to understand patterns that can lead to 

recommendations for reducing energy consumption, 

lower CO 2, emissions and, lower bills. 

Understanding and developing materials, applied to new 

energy-saving and ecologically-sound contexts, remains a 

major theme in our CSE’s Materialsand Physics research, 

with a team of researchers working in our Materials 

Above: 

Computer, Science 

and Engineering 

research work 

CSE, addresses key challenges 

which face our society today and 

in the future 

Characterisation Group. This research group has a strong 

track record of their work gaining significant EU and EPSRC 

grant awards highlighting the importance to society of 

their research, with a particular focus of theirs around the 

development of safe ways to store hydrogen to use as fuel 

in cars. On-going investigations into new solar cell materials 

compliment another strand of research whereby new 

materials and processing techniques will lead to applications 

for a more sustainable future. 


from aerosols, you would think that this School would be 

busy enough! But no read on, for not only does CSE do all 

of the above but it is also home to one of the world’s leading 

Acoustic Research Centres. CSE’s Acoustic Research Centre 

(ARC) is so good in fact that the BBC in its recent move to 

Salford has decided to use the University’s facilities for its 

acoustic research rather than build its own (you can read 

more about this research partnership on page 20). 

This school has a fantastic reputation 

for promoting and encouraging access 

into their world 

ARC has many current research projects ongoing 

including: the Soundscapes project; research work with the 

Department of Environment and Food Agency; collaborative 

research work with Encraft Ltd and Ricardo UK around 

characterisation of the sources of sound from structures 

tested on roof mounted turbines, noises from vehicles 

and noises from fuel pumps in aircraft. 

With exciting new materials research in the recent 

Nobel-Prize winning field involving the usage of grapheme 

pushing further forward the boundaries in the applications 

of nanomaterials; significant recent advances in biomaterial 

applications with particular emphasis in the field of dentistry; 

research into meta-materials stopping the travelling of light 

giving the potential to revolutionise computing, medical 

science and virtual reality; research into sustainable urban 

drainage and water distribution networks; EPSRC funded 

research into scheduling systems to speed up trains; major 

European funded research on vibrations and noise on 

residents near freight railways; research into the electrical 

stimulation of muscles aimed at helping people with partial 

paralysis and research into sprays that could dramatically 

reduce the negative impact of hydrocarbon propellants 

Above right: 

Trying and testing 

research 

However CSE, Professors, Doctors and Researchers don’t 

just sit in their research labs beavering away at their work! 

This school has a fantastic reputation for promoting and 

encouraging access into their world. By opening its doors to 

a wider non scientific audience, taking their research work 

to Schools and Colleges encouraging young girls and women 

in to Science and Engineering, creating a better public 

understanding of Science and Engineering and giving a 

greater awareness of the real-world applications of 

mathematics to sixth form students, this School is making 

Computing, Science & Engineering accessible to all. 

Name: Sunil Vadera 

Email: s.vadera@salford.ac.uk 



Magazine 

Excavating a revolution 

The textile mill is one of the iconic sites of the Industrial Revolution. However, static 

museum displays showing the technology of mill engines and textile machinery in 

modern museum buildings often fail to show the wider context of this technology. 

It’s not until one visits museums that were built as textile mills, such as Helmshore in 

Lancashire or Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire, show the full life-changing impact of this 

technology becomes obvious. 

Dr Mike Nevell, Head of Archaeology 

at the University’s Centre for 

Applied Archaeology, has, along 

with his research team, just 

completed a three month piece of applied 

research work that demonstrates the value 

of undertaking large-scale archaeological 

work on the remains of the recent past. 

The archaeological investigation of Oak Mill in 

Chadderton, Oldham, took place as part of a 

planning condition funded by the developer 

ahead of a scheme for new social housing. 

These investigations revealed the foundations 

of a late 19th century cotton spinning mill on 

the site. 

Although the six storey mill block was working 

as recently as 1929 and was demolished in 

1934, northing of the scale of the site 

was visible on the ground. Mike said: 

“Investigating textile mills from this period 

can be very confusing with a variety of 

manufacturing process potentially available; 

from wool and silk production to linen and 

cotton with a variety of production stages 

leaving different types of remains; from 

power systems and production floors to 

warehousing and office buildings. 

Although analysis of the historic maps for 

such a site can reveal the broad outline of the 

development of such a mill, it is only 

archaeological excavation that can reveal the 

scale and scope of such sites. Targeting the 

power systems for detailed analysis provides 

an archaeological short cut for understanding 

the way in which such a mill site developed”. 

At Oak Mill large earth-moving machinery was 

used to locate and clear the rubble from the 

major elements of the power systems of the 

cotton mill. This involved removing tonnes of 

spoil from the remains of the boiler house, 

one of two steam engines, and the site of 

the flues and chimney to reveal the heart 

of this factory. 

The eventual exposed remains covered an 

area 50m by 70m and survived up to 5m high. 

Using mechanical diggers on such robust 

industrial sites not only speeds up the 

excavation process, but also makes the site 

safer to investigate. It also provides more time 

to record the technological details of 

the power systems and foundations. 

Yet even here, it is necessary to use rapid 

recording techniques in order to cover the 

Above left: Oak Mill chimney base 

Above right: Oak Mill Boiler House 

whole site as quickly as possible. At Oak Mill 

this was done through the use of detailed 

aerial photography that produced images of 

the boiler and engine houses, whose plans 

from this angle looked more like circuit 

diagrams than building foundations! 

In recent years the intimate relationship 

between the standing ruins, archive material 

and the archaeological remains of industrial 

sites has been shown by excavations across 

the UK. From Glasgow, through Lancashire to 

London, archaeology is revealing new insights 

into the role and impact of that iconic image 

of industrialisation, the textile mill. Of the 

Centre’s work Mike said: “Our Centre is 

leading the way in exploring and 

developing new recording techniques for 

such sites, recovering information about the 

recent past that can only be achieved through 

archaeological work”. 

Name: Mike Nevell 

Email: m.d.nevell@salford.ac.uk 


Right: 

Innopolis study 

visit group 

Good business in the 

Metropolis = Innopolis 

Creative partnerships, joint working and exchanging experiences, this is the ethos 

behind the INNOPOLIS project. 

INNOPOLIS is a project which identifies and disseminates 

best practice in innovation policy in university city-regions, 

focussing on regional policy that facilitates knowledge co-creation 

between universities and enterprises and is a partnership between 

universities and regional authorities in four diverse European university 

city-regions: Greater Manchester, Helsinki, Lodz and Thessaloniki. So 

far the project has documented over 125 European cases of University/ 

Industry Knowledge Exchange and 25 National ‘Best Policy Practices’ 

to stimulate Knowledge Exchange. The project is now developing a 

methodology to help policy makers understand which policies and 

practices would suit their region and its context. With all the above 

at the forefront the fourth study visit and seminar for the project 

was hosted recently by the University of Salford and Manchester 

Knowledge Capital. 

The objective of the North West visit was to gain a better 

understanding of best policy practices for knowledge exchange, 

looking at examples and case studies from Greater Manchester. 

The programme showcased some of the excellent knowledge exchange 

and innovation support activities underway across the city region and 

provided an opportunity for project partners to discuss the successes, 

challenges and benefits of knowledge exchange from a variety of 

perspectives. Hearing directly from the key actors involved in a whole 

range of knowledge exchange cases – from niche technology SMEs to 

large multi-national businesses, academics from various disciplines and 

support intermediaries such as incubators and KTP Associates provided 

unique and in-depth insights into knowledge exchange in action. 

Setting the context for knowledge exchange in Greater Manchester 

to enable a better understanding of its innovation ecosystem, the 

INNOPOLIS project partners heard about the engagement approaches 

taken by GM’s universities to working with other partners across the 

city and beyond, overcoming current challenges and meeting the future 

global ambitions of Manchester’s knowledge economy. The partners 

also visited the spatial initiatives driving forward the city region’s main 

innovation hubs of Corridor Manchester, Manchester Science Parks and 

MediaCityUK. In addition to visits with leading-edge research facilities 

including the University of Salford’s ThinkLab and Energy House, the 

area’s sporting knowledge assets were on display showcasing the 

University’s work with elite athletes across the UK and of course 

Manchester United Football Club! 

INNOPOLIS Project Director, Professor Carl Abbott said: “Universities 

and cities are the wellsprings of innovation. Manchester and Salford 

were at the heart of the Industrial Revolution and the ripples that 

started here transformed the world. This inheritance coupled with a 

pioneering spirit and supported by world-class universities shapes the 

context for innovation in the city-region to this day. I’m certain that 

our project partners were enthused by the variety, scale and ambition 

of the knowledge exchange practices that were investigated. 

Along with our partners we have now documented and analysed 

over 125 knowledge exchange practices and 25 innovation policies. 

The results of this analysis will play a vital role in enabling policy makers 

to understand which policies and practices are likely to thrive in their 

regions allowing them to strengthen the roles of universities in 

driving innovation and so improving economic competitiveness and 

wider wellbeing”. 

Name: Carl Abbott / Elena Vasilieva 

Email: c.abbott@salford / e.vasilieva@salford.ac.uk 

Website: http://knowledgecities.eu/intro 

This project is funded by the EU’s European Regional Development fund through the INTERREG IVC programme. This communication reflects the view only of the 

author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 



Magazine 

Exciting thermals 

Energy bills going up, incomes going down, we all know the cost 

of running and heating a home or a business or constructing new 

buildings and workplaces is expensive. Don’t forget your carbon 

footprint, we all need to be thinking of this at a personal and 

commercial level balancing the environment in the here and 

now as well as planning and constructing a safe environment 

for future generations. 

Do you find this stressful or 

worrying? Are there too many 

environmental and energy issues 

to worry about as well as actually 

constructing the buildings or running the 

business? If you’re trying to tackle such 

issues on your own it can be, but there are 

experts to help who are easily contacted and 

can work with you or your business to reduce 

your concerns, and here at the University of 

Salford we have lots of them! 

If you’re a regular reader of RISE you will 

have seen the articles on the new Energy 

Research Hub here at the University which is 

attracting a fantastic amount (nationally and 

internationally) of interest from academia 

and industry alike. The Hub does a fantastic 

job, but there’s more! There are ‘pockets’ 

of research ongoing across all the University 

Colleges and Schools that tackle the issue of 

energy. Here research examines the human 

effect of: energy consumption; its efficiency; 

how we use it with regard to our health, work 

and leisure time; the use of energy in industry 

and commercial enterprises and how we 

ensure strict standards and adherence 

to guidelines with regard to such as 

CO₂ emissions. 

The Thermal Measurement 

Laboratory which is part of 

Salford Analytical Services 

One such ‘pocket’ here at the University 

is the Thermal Measurement Laboratory 

which is part of Salford Analytical Services 

(SAS). Dr Kerry Abrams, Technical Consultant 

said: “With the introduction of the Climate 

Change Act and the commitment to reduce 

CO2 emissions by at least 26% by 2020 and 

80% by 2050, the Construction industry is in 

the process of renewal. The introduction of 

new building regulations to ensure all new 

properties are “carbon zero” and government 

policies like the Green Deal which will enable 

Above: Salford Analytical Services work in action 

homeowners to make their homes more 

energy efficient mean that the types of 

materials used in construction must be 

optimised for its purpose”. 

First accredited in 1981, the University of 

Salford’s UKAS accredited thermal measurement 

laboratory offers expertise in all aspects 

of thermal properties of building materials, 

energy conservation, insulation materials and 

methods. This commercial service provides 

thermal conductivity/resistance measurements 

of building and insulation materials stringently 

following British and European product and 

measurement standards. The Laboratory is 

also an OFGEM approved test house. 

Kerry continued: “This is an exciting time for 

the Thermal Lab as we are placed perfectly 

to help and support the growth predicted in 

the Insulation material sector. 

Materials stringently following 

British and European product 

and measurement standards 

Whether it’s working closely with companies 

focussing on insulation materials produced 

from renewable and ‘green’ materials such 

as sheep’s wool or recycled plastic bottles, 

or testing the performance of newer, more 

innovative materials or even improving existing 

insulators that have been produced using 

lower global warming potential gases, our 

professional practise and UKAS accreditation is 

invaluable to our customers”. 

Name: Kerry Abrams 

Email: k.j.abrams@salford.ac.uk 

Web: www.analytical-services.salford.ac.uk/ 

Thermal_Measurement_Laboratory 


Research visit to 

detainee prisons in 

Kurdistan, Iraq 

Dr. Elaine Crawley, Director of the 

University’s Centre for Prison 

Studies has recently returned from 

Kurdistan where she spent three 

weeks conducting research with 

prison officers. 

The aim of the project, which was made possible by an award 

from the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (BISI), 

and by the granting of formal access into prisons by Judge 

Qadir, Director of General Security (Asayish) Kurdistan 

Region-Sulaimaniyah, was to explore the experience of prison work 

for officers working in detainee prisons. 

In Kurdistan, prisons for prisoners awaiting a court appearance are 

under the authority of the Asayish, the security and intelligence agency 

for the region. Detainees held by the Prison Department of the Asayish 

are generally held under suspicion of; terrorism, drug smuggling or 

fraud.Inevitably, the political, economic and cultural past of Kurdistan 

has had a significant impact not only on prison policy and practice in 

the region but also on the character of the prisoner population and, 

ultimately, on the role of the prison officer itself. 

Elaine is seeking to identify: the key 

challenges for officers working in 

detainee prisons 

Through interviews with male and female officers working in 5 

detainee prisons (Sulaimaniyah city; Kani Goma; Raparin; Garmian; 

Halabja) Elaine is seeking to identify: the key challenges for officers 

working in detainee prisons; officers’ perceptions of their work role 

and their expectations/needs with regard to training and the ways in 

which prison officer training, working practices and, ultimately, the 

role itself might be enhanced. Elaine is currently drafting a report on 

her findings to present to Judge Qadir and his Prison Directors, and 

is delighted to have developed such a positive working relationship 

with Prison Departments in Kurdistan and looks forward to conducting 

further research later in the year. 

Name: Elaine Crawley 

Email: e.crawley@salford.ac.uk 

A new perspective 

In the August 2010 issue of RISE we gave you a 

glimpse through the lenses of Photography 

Programme Leader, Lawrence George Giles. 

Lawrence, in partnership with Openeye Gallery, 

the Bluecoat and National Museums Liverpool, 

embarked on an exciting new initiative to establish 

Liverpool’s first ever international photography 

festival. 

T 

he festival entitled 

LOOK11 is dedicated 

to pushing the 

boundaries and 

categories of contemporary 

photography practice whilst 

developing ideas around our 

collective photographic future. 

Three years in the planning 

the LOOK11 1st International 

Photography Festival took place 

recently in Liverpool and was a 

great success. 

In the second decade of the 21st 

century, photography continues 

to be deployed to bear witness and 

to make the case for change. In 

various guises, from concerned 

reportage and social documentary 

to activist networks and citizen 

journalism, photographers, 

artists and campaigners give 

photographs a central place in 

their calls to action. Look2011 

provided a platform for individuals, 

communities and non-professionals 

to create and share 

work alongside both nationally 

and internationally established 

photographers and artists and in 

so doing contribute to both art 

form and audience development, 

locally, regionally and nationally. 

Lawrence, whose own areas of 

research and personal practice 

are in visual narrative, digital art 

and media and the importance of 

extending audiences and 

audience participation, said: 

“The Festival launched to great 

acclaim and has provided 

opportunities to establish links 

and socialised networks with 

fellow practitioners, institutions 

and organisations from within 

and outside of the UK. 

Significantly the University’s 

involvement and support of the 

Festival will have benefits in terms 

of fostering long-lasting key 

contacts within these organisations 

in respect to the wider field 

of photographic practice”. 

He continued: “The Festival also 

reflects the University’s strategic 

aims with regard to media and 

the creative economy, whilst there 

has already been direct benefits 

for my Level 4 BA Photography 

students who have exhibited 

work at the Bluecoat gallery in 

May this year providing them 

with real world experience and 

opportunities to meet and work 

alongside a myriad of potential 

future employers from a range of 

institutions. Core to the Festival 

has been the work undertaken 

with local communities and 

community groups, in respect to 

public engagement and widening 

participation whilst the overriding 

theme and visual presence that 

LOOK11 has attained provide a 

strong series of assets which run 

across the universities stated goals 

and strategic planning”. 

Lawrence is currently working 

towards LOOK13 and establishing 

the festival as a biennial event, 

he is also interested in community 

inclusion and widening 

participation via the University’s 

programmes. 

Name: Lawrence Giles 

Email: l.g.giles@salford.ac.uk 

Web: www.look2011.co.uk 



Magazine 

Celebrating 

good research 

The newly formed College 

of Science & Technology at 

the University continued 

its yearly celebration of its 

excellent record of research 

by holding a Research 

Showcase recently. 

The Showcase, which took place in Maxwell Hall, 

provided an opportunity to review the College’s 

research highlights from the last academic year. 

In addition to promoting and showcasing the 

College’s diverse research portfolio the event had the effect 

of advancing multi-disciplinary work across the College and 

between the University Themes of the Built and Human 

Environment, Energy, Health and Wellbeing and Media, 

Digital Technology and the Creative Economy. 

The Dean’s Prize is an award which 

acknowledges an early career 

researcher who has made an 

exceptional contribution to research 

over the past twelve months 

The event attracted 130 researchers, which also included the 

award of the Dean’s Annual Research Prize. The Dean’s Prize 

is an award which acknowledges an early career researcher 

who has made an exceptional contribution to research 

over the past twelve months. This could be through the 

production of significant new research findings, high quality 

publications or achieving a prestigious grant. This year’s 

award was presented to Dr Devi Prasad Tumula (see 

opposite), from the school of Computing, Science and 

Engineering. The award was presented by Professor Ghassan 

Aouad, College Dean and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research 

and Innovation. As part of his prize Prasad was invited to 

spend 30 minutes presenting his research to the College 

with a talk entitled ‘Sustainable Water Resources’. 

Over lunch 105 research posters created by staff and 

students were on display, covering a wide range of 

topics from each of the three Schools (Computer, Science 

& Engineering; Environmental Life Sciences; School 

of the Built Environment) within the College. Student 

posters were judged on organization and clarity, 

presentation, and report of the research and six students 

(two from each School) offering the best posters were 

awarded a £100 prize. 

Above: 

Wind Turbines 

and Solar Cell 

Fabrication 

Our congratulations go to the prize winners for their high 

quality posters, and outstanding research projects, winners 

are as follows: 

School of the Built Environment: 

Elham Sfandyarifard, Salford Centre for Research & 

Innovation (SCRI) – ‘Future Practice of Children’s Hospital 

Design through Participatory Approaches’ 

Benny Hidayat, Management in Construction Research 

Centre – ‘Knowledge Communication in Post-Disaster 

Reconstruction Project’ 

School of Computing, Science & Engineering: 

Jane Mooney, Virtual Environment & Future Media Research 

Centre – ‘Evolving Emergency Planning Tabletop Exercises’ 

Sreejith Karthikeyan, Materials & Physics Research Centre – 

‘Properties of CulnSe₂and Mo Thin Films Produced by Pulsed 

d.c Magnetron Sputtering for Solar Cell Fabrication’ 


Waste not want not 

The Deans Prize, an award presented 

as part of the College of Science and 

Technology’s Research Showcase event, 

was awarded to Dr Prasad Devi Tumula. 

Prasad is a Lecturer and Researcher within 

the College and during the last 15 years he 

has focused his research efforts on the 

development of tools for the sustainable 

management of water/wastewater systems. Prasad’s 

research has contributed to the development of eight 

novel methods for the management of water and 

wastewater systems. He has particular expertise in the 

development of tools (for rehabilitation, leakage and 

water quality management) that have continued to push 

the state‐of‐the‐art for water network modelling using 

artificial intelligence techniques. 

He has secured external funding continually over the 

past eight years from organisations such as the Royal 

Academy of Engineering, Scottish Higher Education 

Funding Council (ERP), and United Utilities. With over 

40 scientific articles published in international journals, 

its clear to see why Prasad is achieving funding from 

organisations seeking real results for real problems, 

such as funding received recently from United Utilities 

to investigate the Iron and Manganese problems in water 

distribution networks. 

School of Environment & Life Sciences: 

Carly Tetley, Centre for Environmental Systems and Wildlife 

Research – ‘Keeper ratings of animal personality as a tool for 

improving the breeding, management and welfare of zoo 

animals’ 

Kathrin Scherer, Centre for Biochemistry, Drug Design & 

Cancer Research – ‘Intracellular Uptake of E-combretastatins 

by Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging’ 

You can read more about Elham and Jane’s research in the 

Post Graduate Research section in this issue. The event was a 

great success, and enabled the College staff to spend some 

time together in an informal environment, discussing their 

research and exploring potential new collaborations. 

Name: Lynn Clarke 

Email: l.clarke@salford.ac.uk 

Above: 

Testing liquids and 

preparing a study 

Prasad said: “Unfortunately, many decades of 

accumulation in distribution systems and periodic release 

of significant quantities of Mn and other adsorbed 

compounds associated with the Mn deposits can cause 

more than the traditional aesthetic issues. The process 

of deposition and release of these compounds is highly 

complex and, at present, not amenable to physical 

modelling. Presence of high concentrations of Fe and Mn 

will lead to higher operational and maintenance costs to 

water companies, vis-à-vis to consumers. Pilot work will 

be carried out, on a test network, to study the influence 

variation of parameters such as pH and dissolved oxygen 

on the manganese deposition in pipe networks”. 

This research has Prasad research has led to work with 

various academic organisations both in the UK and 

Internationally, researching into the management of 

sustainable urban drainge systems, a collaboration with 

Napier and Edinburgh Universities to across the globe 

and warmer climes working with DongA University in 

South Korea, here Prasad researched into leakage 

management in water supply systems, in collaboration 

with the Hanil Networks. 

Name: Prasad Devi Tumula 

Email: p.d.tumula@salford.ac.uk 



Centre for Disaster Resilience 

Reconstruction 

for peace 

While war in the North and East of Sri Lanka has 

ended, peace, especially sustainable peace, is not so 

easily forthcoming. 

H 

ere at the University the work of the Disaster 

Resilience Centre (DRC), focuses on many vital 

areas in the post disaster process, and now 

to add to their portfolio of projects they have 

been successful in gaining a further award, this time from 

the British High Commission in Colombo, for a project 

entitled ‘Conflict Prevention through Infrastructure 

Reconstruction’. Lead by Dr Richard Haigh from DRC, 

Reconstruction for Peace is a one‐year programme of 

research and capacity building that seeks to explore 

the interaction between youth and infrastructure 

reconstruction programmes in the North and East of Sri 

Lanka as a means to prevent future conflict in the region. 

The Salford team (Dr Richard Haigh, Professor Dilanthi 

Amaratunga & Professor Martin Hall) will work with 

colleagues from Sri Lankan Universities (Colombo, Jaffna, 

and Eastern University) on the project examining: how 

reconstruction programmes engage, employ, connect and 

divide youth in the region; the extent to which inequality in 

access to infrastructure affects social cohesion among youth 

and the factors of infrastructure reconstruction programmes 

that are most sensitive to impacting conflict prevention. 

The evidence gained from the study will be used to inform 

policy development and build the capacities of the 

Universities in the North and East of Sri Lanka and the Sri 

Lankan construction industry (including SMEs) and local 

government engaged in reconstruction projects within 

the region. 

Conflict to peace through 

the rebuilding of the socioeconomic 

framework of 

the affected society 

Richard said: “Post‐conflict reconstruction supports the 

transition from conflict to peace through the rebuilding 

of the socio‐economic framework of the affected society. 

However, there is a need to pay special attention to conflict 

dynamics that may arise through the development work”. 

Right: Damaged homes in war torn Sri-Lanka 

Interest in helping to support a lasting resolution to the 

Sri Lanka conflict has led some to focus efforts on 

strengthening incentives for peace and reconciliation, 

including encouraging conflict sensitive approaches and 

supporting post conflict recovery and reconstruction. 

Physical infrastructure, broadly defined to include services 

that are essential ingredients to the quality of life and 

economic activity, has the potential to connect or divide 

communities. Reconstructing the physical infrastructure 

after a war can help in the peace building process through 

restoring dignity, providing a much needed employment 

opportunity and promoting conflict sensitive approaches 

Dilanthi added: “Any physical reconstruction needs to be 

tailored to the needs of the affected people, including 

diverse ethnic groups. 

Precautions need to be taken to avoid repeating mistakes 

that occurred during post tsunami reconstruction efforts 

e.g. a lack of consideration of ethnic co‐existence. 

Conflict also tends to deepen gender discrimination and 

disadvantages faced by women. Similarly youth, who have 

been born into and often participated in the war, must 

overcome persisting inequalities and differential access to 

opportunities, while the elderly face challenging economic 

constraints and often require special care”. 

There is growing recognition that reconstruction requires 

interdisciplinarity solutions and that those professions 

traditionally involved in the reconstruction of infrastructure 

must understand the sensitive environment in which they 

will be operating. Understanding the needs of those living 

in the region will be vital if reconstruction is to help prevent 

future conflict. 

Name: Richard Haigh 

Email: r.p.haigh@salford.ac.uk 




Centre for Disaster Resilience 

Research,discuss, implement… 

The Disaster Resilience Conference 

Above: Dr. Richard Haigh 

speaking at the opening 

ceremony of the International 

Conference on Building 

Resilience 

The International Conference on Building Resilience. Organised by the 

Centre for Disaster Resilience (CDR) from the School of the Built 

Environment with colleagues from RMIT UniversityAustralia, and in 

association with UNDP Sri Lanka the Disaster Management Center, 

Ministry of Disaster Management, the Central Environmental Authority, 

Ministry of Environment and the RICS Disaster Management Commission , 

recently held its interdisciplinary conference, at the Sri Lankan World 

Heritage site, Kandalama. 

Working closely with the local organisers and hosts; the 

Chamber of Construction Industry Sri Lanka, University 

of Moratuwa, University of Peradeniya, and University 

of Colombo, this International Conference on Building 

Resilience welcomed over 125 international academics, practitioners, 

professionals and policy makers concerned with interdisciplinary 

approaches to disaster risk reduction and the development of 

sustainable communities and cities. The conference had a particular 

focus on the challenges associated with reconstruction of communities 

in a post-war environment. 

Incorporated into the programme were keynote addresses by respected 

government officials, leading industrialists and implementers along with 

distinguished local and international academics. Chief Guest, Minister 

of External Affairs, Hon Professor G L Peries, and Guest of Honour, 

Mrs Marina Mohamed, Secretary, Ministry of Disaster Management Sri 

Lanka, welcomed delegates and provided an important policy context 

for the subsequent debate, highlighting national priorities and action 

plans. They also established an expectation that the conference will 

serve as an impetus for further action in helping Sri Lanka to tackle the 

challenge of disaster risk. With a busy and varied programme, which 

also featured several workshops led by leading industrialists and 

academics; presentation of 109 research articles and conference 

outcomes that will be used to support the 2010-2011 United Nations 

World Disaster Reduction campaign ‘Making Cities Resilient’, 

a busy and productive time was had by all. 

Research knowledge gained and shared at the conference will be 

available to a wider audience as all accepted papers were published in 

the conference proceedings and selected papers will also be published 

in a special issue of the International Journal of Disaster Resilience in 

the Built Environment, by Emerald Publishing. 

Name: Dilanthi Amaratunga 

Email: r.d.g.amaratunga@salford.ac.uk 

Web: www.buildresilience.org 


Salford to Bangladesh 

Sharing the knowledge 

Dr Chaminda Pathirage, a Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship winner, and 

a Centre for Disaster Resilience (CDR) member, recently visited the 

Department of Environmental Science and Disaster Management, 

Patuakhali Science and Technology University (PSTU) in Bangladesh. 

Apart from engaging on a number 

of collaborative research activities 

in Bangladesh Chaminda’s primary 

aim of visiting was data collection 

for his VC research project. His project 

explores means of building resilience for 

critical infrastructure facilities by capturing and 

sharing good practices and lessons learned 

from past disasters. During his visit 

Chaminda had the opportunity to visit 

flood and cyclone devastated villages near 

Patuakhali and to meet up with Government, 

NGOs and community representatives involved 

with the reconstruction work and also 

delivered a guest lecture on the role of CDR to 

all academic staff members of the University, 

emphasising the multi-disciplinary nature of 

disaster management efforts. 

Delivering a seminar on ‘Building Resilience 

on Critical Infrastructure’ for undergraduate 

students was also on Chaminda’s to do list. 

This group of students are following a BSc 

in Disaster Management which is the first 

bachelors’ degree programme in this subject 

area in south Asia. Chaminda certainly had 

a busy and full diary during his research visit. 

A visit which culminated in the inaugural 

meeting of a further CDR project ‘Community 

Engagement for Risk Erosion in Bangladesh 

to Enhance LifeLong Advantage (CEREBELLA), 

a British Council’s INSPIRE funded research 

project between Salford and PSTU. 

Name: Chaminda Pathirage 

Email: c.p.pathirage@salford.ac.uk 

The written word 

The Centre for Disaster Resilience here at the University, continues its 

work, building new partnerships, researching into real world issues and 

embedding research to improve day to day lives in disaster areas. 

The practical side of research is 

essential, but spreading the word 

and publicising findings and 

evidence is crucial to further 

progress. Professor Dilanthi Amaratunga and 

Dr. Richard Haigh from the Centre have done 

just this with the publication of their new 

book; Post-Disaster Reconstruction of the 

Built Environment: Rebuilding for Resilience’ 

published by Wiley-Blackwell. Dilanthi tells 

us about the book: “Disasters threaten all 

parts of the world and they appear to be 

increasing in frequency, scale and intensity. 

Despite huge improvements in the emergency 

response, permanent reconstruction is 

often uncoordinated, inefficiently managed 

and slow to begin. International agencies 

are geared to an efficient response in terms 

of humanitarian relief, but they are not well 

versed in the requirements of long‐term 

reconstruction, which is often constrained 

by lack of planning and poorly coordinated 

management. 

The construction industry is typically engaged 

in a range of critical activities after a disaster, 

including provision of temporary shelter in the 

immediate aftermath and restoration of 

permanent shelter and public infrastructure 

once the immediate humanitarian needs 

have been attended to. Post-Disaster 

Reconstruction of the Built Environment 

identifies the challenges that face the industry 

and highlights best practice to enable the 

construction industry to address those 

problems which make an effective response 

to these unexpected events difficult. Written 

by an international team of experts including 

several researchers from School of the Built 

Environment, Centre for Disaster Resilience, 

this book will help researchers and advanced 

students of construction understand the 

problems faced by communities and the 

construction industry when faced with a 

natural or man-made disaster, and identify 

the planning and management processes 

required by the industry to mount an 

effective response”. 

Name: Richard Haigh 

Email: r.p.haigh@salford.ac.uk 



Magazine 

Left: 1970’s Salford housing. 25% more 

efficient than 2013 regulations. 

Above: The Energy House 2011 

The Salford lowenergy 

house 

Learning from our past 

The University and Energy research have been 

in the news a lot recently due to the success of 

the University’s Coronation Street style 

Energy House, the new and exciting research 

partnerships being formed with industrial 

partners around the energy theme and the 

BBC news website following the ‘life’ of the 

house and it’s new partners. 

It may appear to the untrained eye that the University is jumping 

on the ‘energy bandwagon’ but as Dr Phillip Brown, from the 

University’s Salford Housing & Urban Studies Unit, reminds us 

that researchers at the University have been working in the 

field of domestic energy efficiency for well over 30 years. 

In the mid-1970s Salford City Council owned over 40,000 socially 

rented dwellings of varied designs and ages. Many were poorly 

insulated, were cold in winter and suffered from condensation with 

subsequent mould and rot. The situation was aggravated, particularly 

for low-income council tenants, by the ongoing Middle East crisis that 

had led to uncertainties in the supply of oil, and the rapidly rising cost 

of fuels. The Council approached Salford University with a request to 

design with them an economic low-energy house that would meet a 

list of stringent specifications which included: economic to build, 

using established construction methods and materials; heating costs 

and energy consumption should be much lower than existing houses 

and the method of heating should be capable of adaptation; the 

dwellings should place no limitations on normal living patterns 

and general maintenance costs should be low. 

Philip said: “essentially the Salford houses had about four times the 

thermal capacity, four times the insulation and about quarter times the 

winter ventilation rates of what was then normal for similar buildings. 

Extensive monitoring in the early 1980’s, and a follow-on study in 

2010, showed that the houses had stable superior comfort 

temperatures and used on average 25% of the space heating 

energy of the average UK housing stock. Condensation was no 

longer a problem. The costs for heating the properties went from 

being £4 per week to £1 per week at 1980’s fuel prices”. 

A multi-disciplinary University team comprising of Philip, Peter Webster, 

Gareth Morris and Maria Burke returned to these properties and 

explored how they had fared over time. The team found that most of 

the properties are still in excellent condition and continue to be energy 

saving in comparison to many, if not most, properties that have been 

built across Salford since. In fact, the team concluded that the 1970’s 

Salford design is thermally about 25% more efficient than impending 

2013 UK building regulations and it should be able economically to 

meet the proposed 2016 regulations, which will include a sustainable 

near-zero carbon requirement, particularly if they are fitted with new 

energy saving components. 

The lessons from this work can influence 

current policies 

The residents were particularly happy with their houses, with most 

occupiers being unaware that they were living in such innovative and 

iconic properties! The houses and the recent research has generated 

a lot of interest both domestically and internationally and discussions 

have taken place with the Department for Communities and Local 

Government (CLG) about how the lessons from this work can 

influence current policies around new build accommodation. 

Name: Philip Brown 

Email: p.brown@salford.ac.uk 


Student detectives 

in the digital age 

Innovative teaching practices 

and research implemented in 

real world situations are key 

factors here at the University 

of Salford and recently Dr David 

Newton and Dr John Haggerty 

from the School of Computing, 

Science and Engineering gave a 

group of ten computer science 

students a fantastic real world 

experience. 

The students were given the 

opportunity to take part in a truly 

international experience when 

they were invited to Amsterdam 

for an intensive multi-national EU subsidised 

programme of study called “e-discovery: 

detectives in the digital age”. 

The students were given seminars and talks 

from a distinguished panel of European 

experts in the fields of computer security, 

privacy law and archiving, followed by the 

opportunity to put their newly acquired 

knowledge to the test in a series of carefully 

orchestrated practical sessions. The Principal 

Manager for the Forensic Technology Solution 

section at Price-Waterhouse Cooper in The 

Netherlands provided the closing lecture. 

Working in teams where each member came 

from a university from a different country, the 

students learnt first hand about international 

collaboration. These students are now in a 

position to contribute significantly in ensuring 

the forensic readiness of companies, both as 

trainees and as future employees. Additionally, 

students could become forensic technology 

specialists in companies such as accountancy 

firms. 

David and John helped with technical 

expertise at the practical sessions as well as 

leading in two of the keynote programme 

themes. David is very proud of his students 

Above: David and John with students 

achievements and said: “to their credit, the 

students managed to balance the rich delights 

of Amsterdam with the academic demands 

pretty well. At least no one fell into a canal!” 

Universities from France, Germany, the 

Netherlands, Sweden, Croatia and Spain 

participated in this, the first year of a three 

year programme, which was hosted by The 

University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam, 

in 2012 the event will be hosted at the 

University of Salford. 

Name: David Newton 

Email: d.e.newton@salford.ac.uk 

Strategic planning 

In an earlier article in this issue of RISE we brought 

you the research and methodologies behind the 

prevention of flooding, 

D 

r Bingunath Ingirige, 

School of the Built 

Environment and 

member of the 

Research Centre for Disaster 

Resilience at the University, 

along with Professor Terrence 

Fernando, Director of the 

University’s prestigious ThinkLab, 

have been tackling the situation 

from the human, financial and 

environment angle. 

Bingunath and Terrence recently 

hosted the Salford Strategic Flood 

forum at the Think Lab, which 

was chaired by Councillor Derek 

Antrobus from Salford City 

Council. This forum was 

established as the best way to 

implement recommendations 

arising from the 2007 Pitt Review 

into floods in the UK and also 

plays an important co-ordinating 

role in preparing Salford City 

Council to deal with new 

responsibilities emerging from the 

Flood and Water Management 

Act of 2010. University research 

showcased at the forum focussed 

on stakeholders and engagement, 

which generated discussion and 

debate among the forum 

members who represented 

Salford City Council and the 

Environment Agency. 

Professor Mike Kagioglou, 

Head of School of the Built 

Environment, in his welcome 

address identified the importance 

of multi-disciplinary work in the 

area of flood risk mitigation and 

community resilience, and how 

multidisciplinary initiatives can 

significantly improve the impact 

benefiting communities at large. 

In his presentation, Bingunath 

emphasised the importance of 

the contribution that small 

businesses make to local 

economies and their increasing 

vulnerability to effects of flooding 

and other weather extremes. 

Terrence along with Mr. Liam 

Gaffney of the Environment 

Agency, then went on to 

demonstrate how 3D High 

resolution mapping of the Irwell 

flood basin helps in capturing 

both the social and physical 

dimensions of the flood risk 

and enables wider stakeholder 

engagement in the process. 

Erik Bichard, Professor in 

Regeneration and Sustainable 

Development at the University, 

highlighted how the local 

communities can be incentivised 

to take up property level flood 

protection measures in his 

presentation of the resilient 

homes initiative. Bingunath, as 

part of a RICS Education Trust 

project entitled ‘Developing Flood 

Expert knowledge in Chartered 

Surveyors (DEFENCES)’, is also 

leading a major initiative 

examining how Allerdale Borough 

Council, post and during the 

Cockermouth Town Centre 

floods of 2009, worked with 

other agencies and community 

groups to begin the recovery 

process. The researchers will 

conduct an exploratory study 

into various stakeholder led 

approaches to flood recovery in 

Cockermouth, and assess how 

important the recovery process is 

to revitalising the local economy. 

Dr Les Tickner, the Council’s Flood 

Recovery Co-ordinator for 

Cockermouth said: “This is a 

great opportunity for Allerdale 

Borough Council to share its 

experience of working with the 

community on emergency 

planning and disaster recovery 

with the University of Salford”. 

Name: Bingu Ingirige 

Email: m.j.b.ingirige@salford.ac.uk 



Magazine 

Crossing boundaries with 

Creative Hive 

Full time member of staff Alex Fenton has created 

a ‘Hive ‘of activity amongst academics and 

research students near and far recently with his 

online creation of ‘Creative Hive’. Alex recently 

completed an MA in Creative Technology and 

works for the University based web development 

company EDinteractive. 

A 

lex’s research work has been in RISE before when Creative 

Hive was set up in May 2010 as a way for creative students 

to be able to easily set up a blog and showcase for their 

work on the web, which would last for the duration of 

their studies and beyond. Just over a year later and we bring you news 

of Creative Hive again, because its grown. Alex said: “Over 200 people 

have joined so far from the Universities of Salford, Bradford and Carlisle 

amongst others and member 200 was from across the globe from 

Auckland University of Technology. People’s blog posts and projects 

form their own web spaces for their studies or e-portfolios and create 

a central, searchable melting pot of ideas, research, resource and 

connections”. 

In July 2011, Creative Hive came out of the virtual and went physical, 

with a series of conference presentations and exhibitions. The first of 

these was a paper presentation at Salford’s Education in a Changing 

Environment Conference. This was a truly excellent event organised 

by various parts of the University and bringing together a variety of 

delegates and speakers from around the world. Creative Hive has a 

showcase space for student work in the virtual world of Second Life 

and in July recently this space was used to give a virtual presentation 

at the PLE Conference at Southampton University. The technology 

came together at short notice to deliver a successful presentation 

and a question and answer session. 

Alex continued: “The support from staff and students for 

Creative Hive so far has been outstanding and this has led to a series 

of physical exhibitions. Starting in Allerton Studios at the University, 

sixteen Creative Hive members exhibited their work in a variety of 

disciplines including photography, sculpture, creative technology, 

film, painting and more. These physical events really helped to 

further showcase work and create a real dialogue for new and 

interesting cross departmental collaborations. There will be further 

Creative Hive exhibitions at MediaCityUK later in the year”. 

Creative Hive is an open access, free to use resource for staff or 

students to create a showcase. It has been designed to work in 

tandem with other existing online resources and can help to draw 

further attention to them. 

Name: Alex Fenton 

Email: a.fenton@salford.ac.uk 

Left: HIVE 

interactive event 

Creative Hive is an open access, free to use 

resource for staff or students to create a 

showcase 


Jazz standards 

A previous issue of RISE featured an article on Professor 

Tony Whyton and the ground breaking €1 million European 

Research fund he was awarded ,the largest of its kind for Jazz 

in Europe, to lead a three year pan European project entitled 

Rhythm Changes: Jazz Cultures and European Identities. 

One year on and entering its 

second year, the Salford-led project 

team continues to engage in 

an ambitious programme of 

research activities. During the first year of 

the project, Rhythm Changes has worked 

collaboratively with different organisations 

across Europe, from festivals to national music 

information centres, examining the histories 

and practices of jazz in 5 European countries. 

Research activities have included archival 

studies, interviews with influential musicians, 

arts professionals and politicians, performance 

projects and publications, and the project 

team has continued to develop partnerships 

locally, nationally and internationally. 

To date, the project has produced 12 

publications (including 2 edited books, 

articles and book chapters) that have either 

been published, or are in press, alongside 

20 presentations at international events. 

During the first year, Rhythm Changes 

delivered a number of high profile Knowledge 

Transfer events within major European jazz 

festival settings (London, Rotterdam, 

Amsterdam and Stavanger) and the Rhythm 

Changes ‘Real Book’ project has been chosen 

to lead Music Centre Netherlands’ (MCN) 

media campaign this year. 

Rhythm Changes’ collaboration with the 

Europe Jazz Network will also result in a 

major research study on behalf of this 

Europe-wide organisation, demonstrating 

the social and economic impact of its 

members across 27 European countries. 

Following the recent annual review of 

HERA-funded projects, Rhythm Changes was 

evaluated as ‘excellent’ by HERA reviewers 

and the Joint Research Programme board. 

One reviewer stated: “One of the most 

striking qualities of this project, one that was 

evident in its early application and continues 

to be so, is the dynamic interrelationship of 

excellent scholarship and public outreach. Of 

course the very nature of the project calls for 

this, but many projects often settle for the 

scholarly or the public and fail to connect 

the two. Rhythm Changes achieves this 

interconnection in a dynamic and useful way”. 

The evaluators commended the project on the 

quality of its engagement activities and web 

presence, describing the collaborative work of 

the 13-strong project team as ‘exemplary’ 

and concluded: “this is an excellent project. 

It offers an exciting scholarly undertaking, 

in both approach and outcome, that 

combines with a very positive public 

enhancement of knowledge and appreciation 

for jazz in general and in its particular, and 

several, European contexts”. 

The largest international 

event ever hosted for jazz 

studies research 

The first Rhythm Changes conference will 

take place in Amsterdam in September this 

year. The event has attracted a record level of 

interest from around the world and will be the 

largest international event ever hosted for 

jazz studies research and, in addition to 

featuring presentations from speakers 

representing 24 countries, will also include 

a range of presentations, workshops, 

and performances, commencing with a 

concert at the famous Bimhuis Amsterdam. 

Above: Team Hegdal taken at the Mai Jazz 

Festival in Stavanger 2011 

Bottom: Copenhagen Jazz Festival 

Images by Andrew Dubber 

Tony said: “I am delighted with the success 

of the first year of Rhythm Changes and the 

fantastic feedback we’ve had from HERA, 

the project advisory board and our range 

of stakeholders. This project has the 

potential to break new ground in terms of 

interdisciplinary scholarship and the team has 

really shown how the fields of music, media 

and cultural studies can come together in a 

creative and positive way”. 

Name: Tony Whyton 

Email: t.whyton@salford.ac.uk 



Magazine 

Working well 

Christine Parker, Senior Lecturer in the School of Health Sciences here at the 

University, along with colleagues: Tamara Brown, Research Assistant in Vocational 

Rehabilitation; Professor Lindsey Dugdill and Dr Margaret Coffey from Public Health, 

has been engaged on a research project entitled ‘Working Well’. 

The project focus is on reducing 

sickness absence amongst NHS staff 

and both the intervention and the 

evaluation of the service have been 

highly commended by Dame Carol Black who 

heads up the Government’s nation-wide 

initiatives in this area. 

Christine said: “We all recognise that the 

decision to go off sick or not varies 

significantly between individuals, even 

when their symptoms seem to be the same. 

Research tells us that ‘good’ work is good 

for our health and wellbeing but illness 

perceptions and the attitudes and beliefs of 

all parties, including healthcare professionals, 

play a large part in influencing sickness 

absence behaviours”. 

Sickness absence costs in the UK can exceed 

£1,000 per employee per year, with North 

West workers topping the regional absence 

league. In the NHS, in particular, 

musculoskeletal disorders and back pain have 

been the main causes for both short and long 

term sickness absence: accounting for 40% 

of ill health retirement costs with moderate 

mental health issues running a close second, 

though some would suggest that they are 

now overtaking back pain. In reality, however, 

physical and mental health issues are often 

closely linked and it is frequently difficult to 

distinguish between ‘chicken’ and ‘egg’. 

Since March 2010 the Salford University team 

have been collaborating with Ross Whiteside 

and Victoria Dickens from Salford Community 

Health to design, implement and evaluate a 

Physiotherapy-led vocational rehabilitation 

service for NHS staff presenting with aches 

or pains and/or associated mental health 

problems such as stress, anxiety or depression. 

The aim was not to simply provide rapid 

restorative treatment for individual staff but 

also to provide proactive support in preventing 

people going off sick in the first place, 

changing attitudes and beliefs of both staff 

and line managers in relation to healthy 

working practices and focussing on what the 

individual can do when injured or ill, rather 

than what they cannot do. 

The project was funded in its first year through 

a SHINE award for innovation from The Health 

Foundation and by April 2011 results indicated 

significant improvements in sickness absence 

levels, staff psychological well-being; work 

satisfaction; and identified functional 

limitations: all maintained at 3-months 

post discharge. Interviews with employees, 

focus groups and line managers 

demonstrated high levels of satisfaction, 

with a perception that Working Well had 

been instrumental in helping staff to 

return-to-work/stay-at-work. Line managers 

also identified that they felt more confident 

in managing sickness absence and that the 

service had helped them develop more 

positive relationships with staff in this regard. 

Christine continued: “The time scales and 

funding for the Working Well project limited 

the scope of the evaluation to some extent 

and there is an intention from the Primary 

Care Trust to extend the funding for another 

12 months so that more follow up and 

sickness absence data can be collected”. 

Name: Christine Parker 

Email: c.parker1@salford.ac.uk 



New appointments 

Tony Whyton 

Tony has played a 

significant leadership role in research, with a strong track record of 

innovation and sustained contribution to the field of jazz studies 

worldwide. He edited the first international peer-reviewed journal for 

jazz, created and managed the Centre for Jazz Studies UK and has 

been responsible for the creation and development of a number of 

international jazz studies conferences, both in the UK and abroad. Tony 

has provided a leadership role in a number of interdisciplinary research 

projects, including his work as Project Leader for the €1m trans-national 

Rhythm Changes research project - the largest ever research award for 

jazz studies in Europe, evaluated as ‘world-leading’ by the HERA Joint 

Research Programme board. 

Gai Murphy 

Gai is recognised as an expert in urban vector management and has 

featured in the Salford RAE submissions in 1996, 2001 and 2008 

and sustained a record of attracting funding for vector management 

research. Gai was author of a national policy document for the Health 

and Safety Executive on urban rodent control and the safe use of 

rodenticides by professional users. In 2009 Gai received industry 

award recognition for ‘contribution to the European Pest Management 

Industry’. There is concern that exotic mosquitoes could become 

established in the UK and Gai is currently working with UK Port Health 

Authorities and the Health Protection Agency to trial a range of 

sampling methods to survey for mosquitoes at UK Ports and to 

develop a national monitoring and surveillance system. 

Peter Buse 

Peter’s research has made significant contributions in the areas of 

critical and cultural theory, British drama, and popular visual culture. 

His first book, the co-edited collection Ghosts: Deconstruction, 

Psychoanalysis, History, was chosen by Marina Warner as a book of the 

year in the Times Literary Supplement. Most recently, Peter has been 

undertaking a major work of cultural and media history: a 

comprehensive study of the history, uses and meanings of Polaroid 

photography, taking in the recent disappearance of the technology 

and demise of the company. This project has yielded articles in major 

refereed journals, has been supported by grants by the British Academy, 

the AHRC and the Leverhulme Trust, and is due to be published in 

book form by Chicago University Press in 2013. Peter also directs the 

Periodicals Research Cluster in HuLSS and sits on the editorial collective 

of new formations. 

Karl Dayson 

During his time at Salford, Karl has helped establish 11 community 

owned finance organisations that today has loaned over £20 million 

to 28,000 people whose only alternative would have been high cost 

sub-prime lenders. Additionally, it has been Karl’s research on 

Community Land Trusts that has resulted in the building of 150 

affordable community-owned homes mainly in rural England. He has 

been consulted by ministers and civil servants in the Department of 

Work and Pensions, the Department of Business, Innovation and 

Skills, the Department of Communities and Local Government, 

H.M. Treasury and the Financial Services Authority. 

Carl Abbott 

Carl brings a multi-disciplinary approach and outlook to his work 

thanks to his industrial experience, training as an engineer and 

qualified teacher status. This background provides the foundations 

of his academic career, throughout which he has been driven by a 

commitment to integrated scholarship, delivering outputs with 

academic rigor and industrial relevance. His career journey at Salford 

provides evidence of sustained leadership in a boundary-spanning role, 

making significant contributions to both research and practice through 

activities in the Centre for Construction Innovation (CCI), the North 

West Construction Knowledge Exchange (NW CKE) and the EPSRC 

funded Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre the Salford Centre 

for Research and Innovation (SCRI). 



New appointments 

Nigel Mellors 

In his present role as Associate Dean of Enterprise and Engagement, 

Nigel has developed, implemented and delivered the major part of 

the University’s strategy in ‘knowledge exchange’. To achieve this he 

has established and led a team of 25 people with a portfolio of 

different skills and together they have delivered a number of exciting 

and innovative projects that have contributed both to the external 

status of the University and supported its strategy for growth. Nigel has 

also maintained a successful research programme that has produced 

academic publications and patent applications. He has generated over 

£3m of research and EU contracts over the last five years. He was also 

a key instigator in the development of the Energy Theme at Salford 

and now leads the commercialisation team developing and 

implementing the Energy Hub at Salford. 

Laurence Kenney 

Since 1998, Laurence has worked in the area of rehabilitation 

engineering. His research focuses on the design and evaluation of 

rehabilitation devices, notably prostheses and functional electrical 

stimulation devices, together with wearable sensor systems for their 

control and evaluation. In this period, Laurence has been Investigator or 

Co-Investigator on externally funded projects worth over £2.3 million. 

He has published 25 papers in leading peer-reviewed journals and over 

75 conference papers. Laurence was one of the founders of the 

Centre for Health, Sport and Rehabilitation Sciences in the early 2000s 

and now leads the research programme in functional electrical 

stimulation and other rehabilitation technologies within the Centre. 

Paul Rowlett 

Paul has been appointed to a Chair in French Language and Linguistics. 

A graduate of Bradford and York, Paul has taught in the UK, France 

and Belgium, and has been at Salford since 1990. He has published 

research on negation, functional verbs, and the specifier 

headrelation, with funding from the British Academy, the Arts 

and Humanities Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust. 

He is currently investigating diglossia in metropolitan France. He is 

editor of the Transactions of the Philological Society and member of the 

linguistics group on the EU-funded sectoral qualifications framework, 

was chair of the HEA Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and 

Area Studies group for linguistics, and founding chair of the University 

Council for General and Applied Linguistics. 

Gaynor Johnson 

Gaynor has published twelve books on international history: two 

single-authored monographs and ten edited volumes. She has also 

published a significant number of articles in a range of important 

peer-refereed journals in her field, as well as a range of book chapters. 

The majority of these books demonstrate not only the diversity of 

Gaynor’s research interests within the twentieth century, but have led 

her to work with a very broad range of scholars from around the world. 

Gaynor has established an international reputation as an historian of 

the interwar period. In 2006, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal 

Historical Society and the following year was elected to the executive 

committee of the British International Studies Association. Gaynor has 

recently been appointed Associate Head of School International in the 

new School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences and is also 

the Secretary of the Transatlantic Studies Association. 

Samia Nefti-Meziani 

Samia is a leading expert internationally in Computational Intelligence 

and Cognitive Robotics. She has been pursuing advanced theoretical 

research in the area of intelligent computing (including data and 

knowledge mining, swarm intelligence, evolutionary computing) and 

its application to wider practical problems such robotics and smart 

technologies. Samia is a prolific author of high quality research 

publications, she has published and edited extensively in the above 

areas, which have appeared in leading journals and books. Samia has 

secured several grants from EPSRC, FP5, FP6 and Industry. She has 

been appointed as Vice president of the IEEE R&A UK and R&I Chapter, 

which is the World’s most prestigious organisation in the area, and she 

is associate Editor of ICRA and IROS. She has given invited research 

seminars at an international level including the Global lecture in 

‘Shangh’AI lectures’. She has also organised many international and 

national high profile events. 

Miklas Scholz 

Miklas, Chair in Civil Engineering, is the Director of the Civil 

Engineering Research Centre. His research interests are in wetland 

systems with a particular passion for solving water quality problems 

associated with sustainable drainage systems and integrated 

constructed wetlands. Miklas currently supervises six PhD students 

and four post-doctoral research fellows. He has successfully supervised 

seven PhD students and four post-doctoral research assistants. Miklas 

has published two books (Elsevier and Springer), more than 115 high 

impact journal papers, and more than 100 peer-reviewed conference 

papers. He is a member of the Institute of Environmental Management 

and Assessment Council. 




Post graduate research is important to the 

University and as an institution we are 

keen to encourage the many ways that 

our research students can engage and 

share their work and research findings 

with a wider community, regionally, 

nationally and internationally. Behind 

good post-graduate research is a good 

research team. Meet some of the team 

behind the post graduate scenes in the 

Research & Innovation Division. 

Dr Victoria Sheppard and 

Dr Sonja Tomaskovic work as 

part of the Graduate Studies team 

(GS), based in the Research and 

Innovation Division. GS offer 

support and development 

opportunities to the postgraduate 

research community across the 

university. As well as a comprehensive research skills training 

programme, they facilitate a range of events throughout the year 

which enable Salford’s postgraduates to communicate their research 

across disciplines and to engage with the wider research community 

beyond the University. 

Victoria and Sonja, who currently share the role of Research Skills 

Coordinator, are the first point of contact for all Post Graduate training 

opportunities. They run the Salford Postgraduate Research Training 

programme (aka SPoRT). The SPoRT Programme, in line with the 

new Researcher Development Framework (a national tool endorsed by 

Research Councils UK), offers training on the skills essential for any 

research career – from research techniques and personal effectiveness, 

through to research governance, engagement and impact. 

The full details of the programme are available online at 

www.pg.salford.ac.uk/page/sport 

As well in-house training Victoria and Sonja can also advise on regional 

and national development opportunities and regularly work with other 

universities in the North West, and with Vitae to deliver shared events, 

along with providing support for early career researchers and contract 

research staff. 

Each summer the Graduate Studies team run an interdisciplinary 

conference, SPARC (Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference), 

a two day event which attracts researchers from a wealth of UK 

institutions. Victoria and Sonja also work closely with Cristina Costa 

to offer a suite of online resources geared towards postgraduate 

researchers. Finally, the Graduate Studies team can also help 

postgraduates by offering small funds to help with disseminating 

research in innovative and creative ways. The DGS discretionary fund 

can be applied for by current students for the purposes of engaging 

new audiences. More details are available at: 

www.pg.salford.ac.uk/page/funding 

Name: Dr Victoria Sheppard/Dr Sonja Tomaskovic 

Cristina Costa (Research and Learning Technologies 

Manager) is based in the Research and Innovation 

Division at the University. She works closely with 

researchers and PhD students championing 

technology innovation across the University, 

facilitating research collaborations through the 

implementation of state-of-the-art software tools 

and training on Social media. She also advises 

researchers on the coordination, promotion and dissemination of 

research. Cristina is also responsible for the further roll-out of the 

Virtual Doctoral School project, a networked environment available 

for Salford Researchers and partners www.virtual-doc.salford.ac.uk. 

Along with Dr Victoria Sheppard she co-writes a blog on Research 

skills and Digital Scholarship http://virtual-doc.salford.ac.uk/pgrs/, 

and shares a twitter presence at @SalfordPGRs 

Name: Cristina Costa 

Email: c.mendesdacosta@salford.ac.uk 

Tel: 0161 295 6751 

Fiona Christie (Senior Careers 

Consultant) and Tahira Majothi 

(careers consultant) are based in 

Student Life at the University and 

work very closely with the Postgraduate 

studies team to support 

our research community. They 

run career development training 

and offer one-to-one careers guidance for current students and alumni. 

They maintain a specialist careers blog to keep postgraduates up-todate 

with careers news. An annual postgraduate conference PG Futures 

has also been established as part of our calendar. Fiona and Tahira act 

as go-betweens for information on many other issues of interest to 

researchers, e.g. visas for international students, enterprise activity, 

external support for researchers via Vitae. You can access their blog 

which includes films of previous careers events at http://pgblog. 

careers.salford.ac.uk/. You may also like to sign up to their group 

on Linked in “Salford PhDs Past and Present” which is also open to 

“friends” of Salford. You can also connect with them via 

@SalfordPGRs on Twitter. 

Name: Fiona Christie/Tahira Majothi 

Email: f.christie@salford.ac.uk/ t.majothi@salford.ac.uk 

Tel: 0161 295 5668/ 0161 295 3161 

Linda Kelly is the Graduate Studies office 

administrator, and responsible for running the office 

as the the PA to Director, as well as organising the 

SPoRT programme. 

Name: Linda Kelly 

Email: l.m.kelly@salford.ac.uk 

Tel: 0161 295 3841 

Email: v.m.sheppard@salford.ac.uk/s.tomaskovic1@salford.ac.uk 

Tel: 0161 295 4452/0161 295 3747 




Nurses’ experience of 

caring for men with sexual 

dysfunction in Jordan 

Even in today’s modern society there are some things 

that we find difficult to discuss and difficult to treat, 

one such thing is the provision of healthcare and 

nursing around sexual dysfunction in men. 

I 

n Western society sexual dysfunction is dealt with 

and discussed more than in others but it is still a 

‘difficult’ or ‘embarrassing’ area for many patients to 

talk about. Muwafaq Al-Momani, from Jordan, who 

has recently completed his PhD here at the University in the 

School of Nursing and Midwifery, supervised by Dr Paula 

Ormandy and Karen Holland has based his postgraduate 

research on just this area of nursing. Muwafaq has 

addressed the problem of the male dominated patriarchal 

society, in his home country, failing men with sexual 

dysfunction, preventing them from coming forward to 

disclose a problem and seeking appropriate nursing care. 

Muwafaq who has a clinical nursing background across 

different nursing specialities, as well as supervising staff 

and managing the day-to-day staff shortages across same 

sex wards, said: “I came to the UK with this idea and, with 

excellent guidance, developed and executed a complex 

research study that has generated a new evidence base 

regarding Jordanian nurses’ experience, knowledge and 

health care provision for men with sexual dysfunction. 

The study aimed to examine Jordanian nurses’ experience, 

education and the impact of culture on their ability to care 

for men with sexual dysfunction. A mixed methods 

approach combined a quantitative translated survey and 

in-depth qualitative interviews to explore embedded 

multiple units of analysis, within a Type Two Single Case 

study, across three hospitals representing different health 

sectors within Jordan”. 

The majority of nurses in Muwafaq’s study, 65%, agreed 

that initiating a discussion on sexual issues with men was 

important, although only 18.8% considered it to be a 

priority and only 16% of the nurses reported actually 

making time to discuss sexual concerns. Only 30% of 

nurses from across the three study sites felt equipped with 

the skills, confidence and knowledge to appropriately care 

for patients. Of the nurses interviewed 59% of them 

believed that discussing sexual issues with male patients 

was taboo in Jordan; 93% agreed that it was more 

appropriate for male nurses to discuss sexual health issues 

with male patients within this culture. Indeed the majority 

of nurses (90%) perceived that men in Jordan found 

it difficult to talk to female nurses about sexual 

health problems. 

Right: Main medical centre in Jordan 

Muwafaq continued: “The findings were influenced not by 

the religious beliefs of nurses but the interpretation of those 

beliefs through society and historical cultural norms. Men 

in Jordanian society prohibit women talking about sexual 

issues directly with men and this influenced how nurses and 

their managers interpret these rules within nursing practice. 

Being considered a man in Jordanian society related directly 

to being a father and having a family, however the needs of 

those men suffering with sexual dysfunction were hidden 

and not being met. 

Being considered a man in 

Jordanian society related 

directly to being a father and 

having a family 

Such rules influenced nurse education with male and 

female nurses reporting being educated separately within 

their basic nursing curricula on such issues. It is clear from 

the research that little is known in Jordan on how men 

with sexual dysfunction find support and help, and that if 

societal norms are to be translated into nursing practice 

then more male nurses need to be available to care for 

these men, in Jordan. The Jordanian Nursing Code of 

Practice needs to reflect such restrictions imposed by 

society, alongside providing nurses with the tools to 

undertake sexual health assessments and organisational 

support to provide quality care”. 

Muwafaq is now returning to Jordan to start a new post as 

a Lecturer within the University of Jordan and he hopes to 

directly influence nurse education and practice, in addition 

to championing the issue of men’s health within Jordanian 

society and health policy. 

Name: Muwafaq Almomani 

Email: muwafaq.almomani@gmail.com 





The real A&E – 

Planning for emergency 

TV programmes such as ‘Casualty’ and ‘Holby City’ show the 

fictional side of a hospital situation. ‘Real A&E’ is a documentary 

which highlights the reality of working in life and death 

situations, with strategies in place to be prepared for any 

major incident that may occur. 

Left: Good planning for emergency services 

is essential 

B 

ut where does the background 

work come from in preparing the 

front line staff for emergency 

situations, such as a bomb 

explosion or an event such as the recent 

incident in Norway? Who plans and prepares 

the front lines for an emergency and how 

do they do it? These are questions that Jane 

Mooney, part time PhD Student and part-time 

Research Physician at Salford Royal Hospital 

NHS Trust, may well be able to answer. 

A robust product that 

delivers a superior touch 

interactive table-top 

exercise experience 

Jane, supervised by Lee Griffiths and Dr 

Marianne Patera, School of Computing, 

Science and Engineering (CSE) here at the 

University and supported by Professor Nigel 

Mellors also from CSE, is researching into 

the use of learning technologies in 

upgrading emergency medical planning 

training. Jane said:” Traditionally courses 

teaching emergency service personnel 

major incident preparedness utilise table-top 

exercises (‘serious games’) with paper mats 

and plastic counters. Whilst this provides a 

reliable, portable approach there are some 

disadvantages to the current set up. The 

positioning of multiple counters can clutter 

the maps; the data generated by the course 

participants is not recorded; the background 

and patients’ vital signs remain static and all 

too easily the map or counters can be subject 

to inadvertent disruption part-way through an 

exercise! With my medical background and 

developing computing skills I am producing 

an electronic platform to enhance table-top 

scenario delivery”. 

By incorporating human computer interaction 

and usability principles coupled with expert 

emergency medical planning knowledge 

and an appreciation of learning theory into 

the construction of the software, Jane aims 

to produce a robust product that delivers a 

superior touch interactive table-top exercise 

experience compared to the existing 

paper-based alternative. Jane continued: 

“Whether the electronic version is the 

equivalent or otherwise of the paper version 

will be determined via a randomised 

controlled trial. This will take place on the 

main national medical emergency planning 

training course, Major Incident Medical 

Management and Support (MIMMS). A pilot 

study of preliminary software was 

conducted earlier this year on a MIMMS 

course held at Manchester United Football 

Club for crowd medical teams from assorted 

football clubs”. 

Jane has been presenting her research 

nationally and internationally at conferences 

in Europe and Singapore and is due to present 

in Vienna at the AMEE Conference and 

Gateshead at the CEM Conference. She has 

also given a local school, Woodhey High 

School in Bury, a taste of the first stage of 

development. The High School children 

commented and made a BBC School 

Report entitled ‘Can a Computer Game 

Save Lives?’ Jane’s research is currently 

growing from strength to strength proving 

that actions in the virtual world can save lives 

in the here and now! 

Name: Jane Mooney 

Email: j.s.mooney@edu.salford.ac.uk 

Web: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8558244.stm 


Robotic 

applications - 

the future 

In the last few issues of RISE 

we’ve been following Antonio 

Espingardeiro, a PhD Student 

here at the University, on his 

journey into robotics research. 

In a recent interview to techEYE Antonio 

revealed some robotics applications 

which he feels will be emerging in the 

next decades. Antonio feels the future 

of artificial machines will gain a new 

dimension into our lives. Robots are likely to 

provide extra help in the common households 

of the future by providing supervision, 

cognitive assistance, entertainment and 

companionship. 

Other areas deal with the introduction of 

robotics and automation technologies into 

transport systems. Antonio said: “The car of 

the future will be able to read traffic signals 

and road hazards, such systems will make our 

journeys much safer. In another landscape, 

the environment seems to be one of the 

biggest topics of concern for the worldwide 

governments. Robots are likely to redefine 

the concept of recycling by making it much 

more engaging through new interfaces and 

picking it up at our doorsteps”. Antonio also 

reminds us that with a worldwide population 

of 10 billion people by 2050 we have to start 

rethinking our own strategies for producing 

much higher quantities of food with quality. 

“The use of agricultural robots seems a 

tempting technological solution as robots can 

scan large harvesting areas and for example 

decide what percentages of water or fertilizers 

to use in specific conditions. In any of these 

examples more autonomy will also mean 

that such machines can work for longer 

periods of time whilst we dedicate ourselves 

to other types of activities. In terms of 

research Antonio is currently conducting 

experiments with social assistive robots in 

nursing homes in Portugal and the UK. 

Above: Robots are likely to provide extra help 

in house holds in the future 

In a few months the young entrepreneur will 

be back to the UK for continuing experiments 

in the Housing21 extra care facilities in 

Birmingham. Antonio’s company Help 

Robotics Ltd. is developing a new robotic 

prototype entitled ‘P37 the elderly care bot’. 

Housing21 has already demonstrated a big 

interest in the prototype and Antonio 

mentions in the techEYE interview that the 

device will be ready for the first trials by the 

middle of 2012. 

Name: Antonio Espingedeiro 

Email: a.espingedeiro@salford.ac.uk 

Ultrasound image research 

Ahmad S. A. Mohamed is a full time PhD student in the School of 

Computing, Science & Engineering. 

Originally from Malaysia, Ahmad is 

at the University researching into 

developing a solution to improve 

the currently available motion 

estimation algorithm for tracking the 

ultrasound images of the knee’s tendon 

tissue being contracted at maximum effort. 

Ahmad said: “The images were captured 

using the B-mode ultrasound 2-D images, 

which is highly speckled and constantly 

changing from frame to frame. The 

ultrasound device used consists of a probe 

transducer that transmits pulses of wave 

signals penetrating the tissue structure; the 

waves are reflected back to the probe 

transducer to generate a digitised form of 

the image. The level of density of the image 

depends on the depth of the wave signals and 

the time taken for the reflected wave signals 

to reach the probe transducer. The major 

disadvantage of ultrasound image is that 

the image presented is in speckle formation 

and the way that the probe is positioned on 

the skin does contribute to the changes in 

the resulted image. Past studies from other 

researchers focused on tracking the regional 

areas of the muscle tissue with various results. 

The study that I am conducting looks into the 

various motion estimation algorithms used on 

speckled images in vivo at the fibrous area of 

the tendon. So far we have found that Normalised 

Cross-Correlation (NCC) was the optimal 

solution. However, the algorithm alone 

is not able to accurately estimate the motion 

of a single muscle fibre because the speckle 

signal itself is dynamic from frame-to-frame. 

Therefore, the aim of the study is to devise a 

solution to improve the tracking algorithm. 

The estimation of the next possible location in 

the next frame is determined by averaging the 

pattern of multiple points of regional areas 

placing on different layers of the tendon tissue 

to guide the search window as to where the 

tracking algorithm should look to perform the 

similarity measurement in the next frame. 

The search window then uses the Block 

Matching Algorithm (BMA) to determine best 

similarity. This method is then used during 

dynamic excursions of the patellar tendon 

across subjects of various age and gender to 

identify the accuracy, and effectiveness of the 

solution to improve the tracking algorithm 

to produce clinical results that are useful to 

the practitioner. The real impact of this study 

allows an insight into the aetiology of the 

tendon injury, repair and response to various 

training interventions”. 

Name: Ahmad Mohamed 

Email: a.s.a.mohamed@edu.salford.ac.uk 




Artificial intelligence 

in architecture 

Creating the right environment is essential to our wellbeing, 

if you’re too hot or too cold or uncomfortable you won’t be happy 

if you’re not happy you won’t, rest, work, learn or participate. 

If you design a building and you don’t get it right the first time 

round its done, it’s built, it’s there, changes are expensive and 

time consuming. So how do you get it right first time round? 

How can you plan now for the perfect environment in the 

future? Mohamad Nadim Adi, PhD student in the Centre for Virtual 

Environments and Future Media here at the University is looking into 

just this question. Creating an adaptable architectural environment 

today that works for the future. 

Mohamad said: “With the advancement in building materials and 

computer science, especially artificial intelligence models, buildings 

that can interact with their visitors are emerging and becoming more 

popular. The way we view architecture is about to change greatly, 

rather than being an empty shell were events take place, our buildings 

in the future will be an almost active member of the society, 

useful, changeable and atmospheric. The quest for a ‘smart’ building, 

a building that can act like a living creature and become an active social 

member in its environment, is where my research question began. 

If a building was able to simulate intelligence and interact with its 

inhabitants, what effect would that have on its users’ comfort 

and productivity?” 

The concept of reactive or interactive architecture has been around 

for some time, but what constitutes as reactive architecture, 

is ever-changing. Moving buildings that can change colour, shape or 

any of their properties in real-time and in accordance with their users 

or environment are what Mohamad defines as Interactive Architecture. 

He continues: “While Interactive Architecture is popular and is striking 

visually, it is still treated as a novelty item. The main aim of my research 

was to try and establish if an interactive environment can enhance the 

performance levels and comfort of its users through the use of virtual 

reality. In architecture the traditional way to evaluate a building usually 

depends on the experience an architect gains throughout their careers. 

As such you cannot know if a building will be successful or not until it 

is built. 

In this research we used the immersive virtual reality labs in the 

University of Salford to set a bench mark in evaluating architecture and 

test our theories. Participants were able to step into a life sized virtual 

version of the buildings we were testing and have experiences in them 

that were as close to reality as possible. The use of virtual reality meant 

Above: Mohamad’s design for an interactive installation at the 

University’s headquarters in MediaCityUK 

that we had absolute control on how a building behaved and 

interacted with its visitors. This meant that we could adjust, redesign 

and change our buildings as necessary in a quick, inexpensive and 

efficient way. Another aspect we were very keen on testing was 

whether people felt more comfortable in an interactive building. 

Through using a series of questionnaires and interviews we concluded 

that the majority of test subjects not only felt more comfortable but 

actually preferred working and staying in the interactive building”. 

Mohamad is thinking long term as well, not just testing his theories in 

the here and now but using SecondLife and focus groups to test the 

long term appeal of an interactive building, and taking his research to 

a wider audience via publication, not just in the UK but in the USA, 

Canada and Singapore. Mohamad said: “All our tests suggest that 

interactive or life like buildings are more attractive and more useful to 

be in, which indicates that they are a viable choice for the future and 

not a fashion trend or novelty item in the world of architecture”. 

Name: Mohamed Nadeemadi 

Email: mnadeemadi@hotmail.com 


Time to design with children 

The University over various projects with the general public and users of the health services. 

R 

esearch into the best way for 

practice, for treatments or 

designing of hospital services, is 

mostly with adults for adults and 

by adults. Elham Sfandyarifard, a PhD student 

in the School of the Built Environment here at 

the University, under the supervision of Dr 

Patricia Tzortzopoulos and Dr Monty Sutrisna, 

is taking her research to a different level, that 

of the child as a patient, Elham is examining 

the process of participatory design with 

children in providing children’s hospital care. 

By understanding children’s and young 

people’s perspectives and needs as the users 

of healthcare facilities, designers, policymakers 

and healthcare managers can deliver a more 

supportive environment. Instead of adults 

providing the service on an assumption of the 

needs of the younger service user, a 

consultation process will increase the 

likelihood of designing supportive hospital 

environments for the younger service user. 

Participatory design approaches are suggested 

as the means to enable better identification of 

needs, supporting value generation. However, 

there are challenges in implementing 

participatory approaches in building design, 

especially in complex environments such as 

hospitals, and with delicate clients such as 

children. Elham said: “My project tends to 

investigate the user involvement as a 

development process incorporating ideas 

and feedback acquired directly from end 

users (in this case children and young people) 

at various stages of the process”. Elham continued: 

“My current research aims to develop 

generic guidelines to help designers 

incorporate children’s perspectives in 

designing children’s hospitals. Focus is on 

providing not only a friendly environment but 

one that will promote recovery. As part of my 

research I conducted a series of interviews 

mostly with designers, planners and NHS staff 

who were involved during the design process 

of a children’s hospital, giving me an insight 

into how the patient perceptions were 

gathered and used in the project”. 

Elham’s research is certainly gaining 

recognition, with her work winning best 

student poster recently at the College of 

Science & Technology’s Research Showcase! 

Name: Elham Sfandyarifard 

Email: e.sfandyarifard@salford.ac.uk 

Science visits, the 

teenager and impact 

A Phd study 

PhD Student, Natasha Simons is currently in her 

final year of an Arts and Humanities Research 

Council Funded Collaborative project, examining a 

Science Discovery Centre’s special programmes for 

Teenage Visitors and assessing the impact on 

their learning. 

N 

atasha, a former 

Salford Masters 

student who graduated 

with a distinction 

in Heritage Studies, is examining 

the attitudes of teenage visitors 

to Science Centres and to specific 

outreach programmes in order to 

assess how such informal activities 

affect and/or influence learning. 

The collaborative partners in 

this project are the School of Art 

& Design at the University, 

(supervised by Debra Leighton, 

Assistant Head, Teaching for Art 

& Design) and Techniquest Science 

Discovery Centre in Cardiff. 

Natasha said: “Techniquest, 

like other Science Centres and 

Museums, is a unique provider of 

accessible science that is open to 

all, yet teenagers are infrequent 

visitors to Science Centres and 

there is currently little research 

to understand why this might 

be the case. This is an age group 

that has traditionally been seen 

as hard to reach. This research 

project will discover teenage 

attitudes, assumptions and 

knowledge, and evaluate 

learning that takes place during 

an outreach workshop”. 

So far Natasha’s research has 

involved undertaking an attitude 

survey of 600 teenagers, followed 

by three focus groups across five 

schools in the South Wales Area. 

With the first and second phase 

complete the impact study is 

ongoing and looks closely at what 

teenage pupils ‘start off with’ 

and compares this directly with 

what they ‘finish with’ by way of 

pre and post interviews (supplemented 

by observations). In 

this way a picture of what these 

workshops actually do for the 

teenage participant is emerging. 

Natasha continued: “Preliminary 

results show improvements in key 

skills (especially solving problems, 

following instructions, arguing 

a point, asking questions and 

working as a team). The other 

significant finding, so far, is the 

increase in verbal fluency of the 

pupils when asked more descriptive 

questions about the topic 

to be covered in the workshop. 

hands-on 

activities can also 

be ‘minds-on’ 

Every pupil interviewed showed 

an increased ability to talk 

about and reflect on the topic 

covered in the workshop when 

interviewed even two months 

after the workshop. Pupils did 

not demonstrate any significant 

improvement on fact-type questions 

and very little improvements 

on ‘speaking out loud to the 

class’ (this was especially apparent 

when interviewing pupil’s aged 

between 15 and 16)”. 

Natasha’s findings so far are 

significant to the Science and 

Heritage sector as they demonstrate 

not only an effective way of 

evaluating impact regardless of a 

pupils educational ability and/or 

social background ,but also shows 

that hands-on activities can also 

be ‘minds-on’, if well designed. 

The collective results from the 

three phases will also be used to 

theorise teenage non-visitation to 

Science centres. Natasha’s theories 

and findings have interested 

audiences across the Atlantic 

recently as she presented her 

findings in Chicago to the 

Visitor Studies Association and 

the Mid-West Museums 

Association annual conference. 

Name: Natasha Simons 

Email: ncsimons@googlemail.com 



Postgraduate awards 

School 

Surname 

Forename 

Award 

Title 

Salford Business School 

A Samah 

Azurah 

School of Computing Science 

& Engineering 

Abrahms 

Kerry 

PhD 

A Transmission Electron Microscopy Study of the 

Effects of Helium Irradiation on Polycrystalline and 

Monocrystalline Silicon 


& Engineering 

Abuhesa 

Musa 

PhD 

Investigation into Gas Flaring Reduction in the 

Oil and Gas Industry 

School of the Built Environment 

Abukhzam Faraj 

Mohamed 

PhD 

The Development of a Framework to aid the 

identification of factors inhibiting bank staff’s 

attitude towards E-Banking adoption in Libya 


& Engineering 

Abulgasem 

El-Mabruk 

PhD 

A Haptic Surgical Simulator for Cataract Eye 

Surgery using Circular Wave Model 


Al Mansuri 

Aisha 

PhD 

Climatic Design as a Tool to Create Comfortable 

Energy-Efficient and an Environmentally Wise Built 

Environmentin Hot Climate Regions (Tripoli-Libya) 

School of English, Sociology, Politics 

& Contemporary History 

Al Braithen 

Majed 

PhD 

Understanding the Perception of Success in the 

Development of an ERP System: An Interpretive 

Case Study in a Saudi Arabian Private 

Organisation 


Al-Hosni 

Mohammed 

PhD 

Ministry of Education of Oman: Examinations 

Marks andtheir Relationships with Educational 

Indicators 

School of Nursing & Midwifery 

Al-Momani 

Muwafaq 

PhD 

Nurses’ Experience of Caring for Men with Sexual 

Dysfunction in Jordan 

School of Languages 

Alharthi 

Nasser 

PhD 

The Discourse Structure of English and Arabic, 

with particular reference to Syntactic, Thematic 

and Grounding Structures of Newspaper Editorials 


Almanhali 

Mohamed 

PhD 

Design, Analysis and Deployment if HR Best 

Practices Modelin Abu Dhabi HR General 

Directorate 

School of Environment & Life Sciences 

Almoustafa 

Turkia 

PhD 

Optical Remote Sensing for estimating fuel 

moisture contentin upland vegetation 


Alomary 

Shaban 

PhD 

Conative Utterances: A Qur’anic Perspective 


Alowimer 

Saleh 

PhD 

An Empirical Study of Dictionary Use by Saudi EFL 

Learners at University Level with Reference 

to Major and Gender 


Alsehaimi 

Abdullah 

PhD 

Improving Construction Planning Practice in Saudi 

Arabia by Means of Lean Construction Principles 

and Techniques 


& Engineering 

Alzahrani 

Jumaan 

PhD 

Perceived Barriers to Research Publishing in Saudi 

Arabia and the Potential for Electronic Publishing 


& Engineering 

Asmuin 

Norzelawa 

PhD 

Investigation into Novel Matched Value-Actuator 

Atomiser (Insert) Design for Compressed Aerosols 


Balounova 

Lenka 

MSR 

Estimation of Changes in the Volume of Ice 

Making Up Gornergletscher since the Little Ice 

Age Maximum 


School 

Surname 

Forename 

Award 

Title 


Bazin 

Nor Erne 

PhD 

An Analysis of the Performance of Push, Pull and 

Hybrid Production Systems in Manufacturing 

Supply Chains 


Belhassan 

Taher 

PhD 

A Framework for Global Positioning System (GPS) 

Surveying Technology Adoption in the Libyan 

Public Surveying Sector 


Ben Jaber 

Abdelrazal 

PhD 

Investigating the Factors Affecting the Readiness 

for TQM Implementation within Libyan Higher 

Education Institutions 


Bennett 

Ian 

PhD 

A Critical Evaluation of Service Failure and 

recovery in UK Hotels from the Consumer 

Perspective 


Campisi 

Salvatore 

PhD 

Hermann Hesse and the Dialectics of Time 


Choucri 

Lesley 

PhD 

Education and Practice Development Midwives: 

Adapting and Evolving an Action Research Study 


& Engineering 

Chukudi 

Uchechuku 

MST 

Design of a Multi Agent System for the 

Monitoring of the Well being of dementia 

payment using ambient assistedliving 


Coe 

Nicholas 

PhD 

Studies on the Effect of Asparaginase in 

Paediatric Leukaemia 


& Engineering 

Cushing 

Ian 

MPHIL 

Vocal Effort Levels and Underlying Acoustic 

Phonetic Characteristics 

Computing Science & Engineering 

Dadiotis 

Konstantin 

PhD 

Improving Phase Grating and Absorption 

Grating Diffusers 

School of Music Media & Performance 

Effah 

John 

PhD 

Tracing the Emergence and Formation of Small 

Dot-Coms inan Emerging Digital Economy: An 

Actor-Network Approach 


El-Saboni 

Mahmoud 

PhD 

Interaction between Electronic 

Communication and Perceived Success in 

UAE Construction Projects 


Elgari 

Omran 

PhD 

The Role of Technology Transfer in Improving 

Manpower Capability in Private House Building 

Companies in Libya 


Entwistle 

Neil 

PhD 

Geomorphological Effectiveness and 

Maintenanceof a Riffle-Pool Sequence 


& Engineering 

Eskaf 

Khaled 

PhD 

Blood Glucose Level Prediction for Diabetic 

Patientsusing Intelligent Techniques 

School of Health, Sport & 

Rehabilitation Sciences 

Esmail 

Zahara 

PhD 

A Pilot Study to assess the value of Magnetic 

Resonance Imaging in Diabetic Patients 


& Engineering 

Evans 

Tomos 

PhD 

Estimation of Uncertainty in the Structure Borne 

SoundPower Transmission from a Source to a 

Receiver 


Fernando 

Nirodha Gayani 

PhD 

The Impact of Training and Development 

towards Women’s Career Advancement in the UK 

Construction Industry 




School 

Surname 

Forename 

Award 

Title 


Finigan 

Valerie 

DPROF 

The experiences of women from three diverse 

population groups of immediate skin-to-skin 

contact with their new born baby following birth 

School of Music, Media & Performance 

Gates 

Dorothy 

PhD 

Portfolio of Compositions 


Gledhill 

David 

PhD 

Ponds, People and the Built Environment: 

A Socio-Ecological Perspective 


Green 

Russell 

PhD 

The Indentification and the Effective Enforcement 

and Control of the Risks of Foodborne Illness in 

the MicroOwner/Managed Business Sector 



Grundy 

Michelle 

PhD 

Constrained, Compromised and Disconnected: 

Experiences of Women in Contact with the 

Magistrates’ Court following Violence and 

Intimidation from Male Partners 


& Engineering 

Hinojosa 

William 

PhD 

Proabilistic Fuzzy Logic Framework in 

Cognitive Reinforcement Learning for 

Decision Making 


Liasan 

Kolawole 

PhD 

Contextualising the Participatory Role of BME’sin 

Community Regeneration: A Requirements 

and Challenge Approach 


Ip 

Kim Kuok 

PhD 

Portfolio of Compositions - Five Compositions 

for SoloInstruments with Accompaniment 


Kalaiselvan 

Ramva 

MPHIL 

Aetiology, Management and Prognosis of 

Jaundice in AdultPatients with Acute Severe 

Intestinal Failure 

School of Health, Sport & 

Rehabilitation Sciences 

Li 

Shijuan 

PhD 

A 3-Dimensional Assessment and Feedback 

System forAnkylosing Spondylitis 


Livesley 

Joan 

PhD 

Children’s Experiences as Hospital In-Patients: 

Voice, Competence and Work 


Lounis 

Hassane 

PhD 

Discourse Connectives in Translation: A Relevance 

Theoretic Account with Specific Reference to the 

Translation from andinto Arabic 


Lowe 

Sharon 

MST 



Luis 

Chiara 

PhD 

Feminist and Lesbian Strategies of Reading 

and the Novels of Sarah Waters and Jeanette 

Winterson 


Major 

Denise 

MPHIL 

Student Nurses in Transition: Generating an 

Evidence Basefor Final Placement Learning 

Facilitation Best Practice 


Mansor 

Rabyah 

PhD 

Modelling the Progression and Retention of 

Students in Secondary School Education 

inSarawak: A Case Study using System Dynamics 


Martin 

Amanda 

DPROF 

Using Mixed Model Research to Evaluate 

the Outcomesof a Lean Approach to the 

Transformation of an Orthopaedic 

Radiology Service 


School 

Surname 

Forename 

Award 

Title 

School of Health, Sport 

& Rehabilitation Sciences 

Massarweh 

Reem 

MSR 

The Effects of a Self-Aligning Prosthetic Foot 

onTrans-Femoral Amputee Gait 


McGirr 

Seamus 

MPHIL 

Utilisation Management. A Study of an Initiativeto 

Provide Community Based Alternatives to Hospital 

Admission 


Michell 

Kathleen 

PhD 

A Grounded Theory Approach to Community- 

Based Facilities Management: The Context of 

Cape Town, South Africa 


Mihindu 

Sas 

PhD 

Holistic Model for Knowledge Collaboration in 

Scientific Communities of Practice 


Mohamad Kamar 

Kamanul 

PhD 



Mohammed 

Dauda 

PhD 

Capital Structure and Business Risk in Nigeria: 

Evidence from a Panel Data Analysis 


Mohd Tobi 

Siti Uzairia 

PhD 

Social Enterprise Applications in an Urban 

Facilities Management Setting: A Service Delivery 

Model 


Obeidat 

Mohammed 

PhD 

Translating Conjunctions in Political Journalistic 

Argumentative Texts from English into Arabic 


Otter 

Franner 

PhD 

Composition Portfolio 


Palliyaguru 

Roshani 

PhD 

Influence of Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction 

within Post Disaster Infrastructure Reconstruction 

on Socio-Economic Development 

School of Art & Design 

Partington 

Robert 

PhD 

An Evaluation of the Impact of Just in Time (JIT) 

Strategies on Cut, Make and Trim (CMT) 

Customersand Suppliers within the Apparel 

Supply Chain 


& Engineering 

Piper 

Benjamin 

PhD 

Sodar Comparison Methods for compatible wind 

speedestimation 

Salford Business Schoiol 

Polychronakis 

Yiannis 

PhD 

On the Interactions between Supply Chain 

and Project Management: Theoretical and 

EmpiricalConsiderations 


Rabasse 

Praba 

DPROF 

To Compare the Efficacy of Blood Pressure 

Reduction with or without the Biochemical Profile 


Rambarran 

Sharadai 

PhD 

Innovations in Contemporary Popular Music and 

Digital Media, and Reconstructions of the 

MusicIndustry in the 21st Century 

Salford School of Business 

Rashid 

Amber 

PhD 

The Offshore Outsourcing of IT Services - 

A New Service Development Perspective 


Rayner 

Gillian 

PhD 

Interpersonal Processes and Self Injury 


& Engineering 

Reading 

Michael 

PhD 

The Application of MEIS for the Physical 

Characterisationof High-K Ultra Thin Dielectric 

Layers in Microelectronic Devices 


Rhoden 

|Paul 

DBENV 




School 

Surname 

Forename 

Award 

Title 


Rhumah 

Abadalslam 

PhD 

Environmental Investment in the Libyan Cement 

and Iron and Steel Industrial Sectors-Measuring 

the Environmental Investment Yield 


Safour 

Aziza 

PhD 

Analysis of Road User Charging Impacts on 

Activity Travel Patterns in Libya 


Sahak 

Siti 

PhD 

Ethnocentric Consumption of Malaysian 

Consumers and Acculturating Migrants 


& Engineering 

Rosidah 

Sam 

PhD 

A Novel, Flexible, Multi-Functional Handling 

Devicebased on Bernoulli Principle 


Savic-Jabrow 

Pamela 

DPROF 

School of Environnment & Life Sciences 

Schroder 

Lena 

MSR 

Antioxidant Activity of Lycopene and Tomato 

Products 


Severn 

Edwin 

DMA 

Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance 

Critical Commentary 


Sharples 

Naomi 

DPROF 

The Experiences of Deaf People on Becoming 

and Being Qualified Mental Health Nurses: 

A Narrative Exploration 

School of Social Work Psychology & 

Public Health 

Spence 

Nicola 

PhD 

Establishing a Theoretical Basis for Quality of Life 

Measurement 


Strudwick 

Ruth 

DPROF 

An Ethnographic Study of the Culture in a 

Diagnostic Imaging Department 


Sulaiman 

Nor Intan 

PhD 

The Critical Success Factors for Knowledge 

Sharing Behaviour among Malaysian 

Undergraduate Students 

School of the built Environment 

Tezel 

Bulent 

PhD 

Visual Management: An Exploration of the 

Concept and it’s Implementation in Construction 


Thomasson 

Denise 

PhD 

An Investigation into Congenital Transmissionof 

Toxoplasma Gondii as a Potential Mode of 

Transmission in Mice and Humans 


Wray 

Juli 

PhD 

Bouncing Back? An Ethnographic Study 

exploring the Contextof Care and Recovery 

after Birth through the Experiences and Voices 

of Mothers 

School of English, Sociology, Politics & 

Contemporary History 

Zwolski 

Kamil 

PhD 

The EU as an International Security Actor: 

A Comprehensive Approach 




Global 

nursing 

Regardless of national 

boundaries, health care 

delivery systems and 

professional/lay status, 

nursing practice is evident 

in some shape or form 

across the globe. 

While cultural competence 

and respect for individual 

differences spring 

immediately to mind as 

essential requisites for global nursing, 

there has been comparatively little 

identification and discussion of the wider 

core knowledge and skills for global nurse 

employability. This is a significant omission 

given the extent of nurse migration for 

employment purposes. 

Staff from the School of Nursing, 

Midwifery and Social Work, University of 

Salford and the School of Nursing, Fujian 

Medical University, China are exploring 

global nurse employability further. Under 

the auspices of the British Council PMI2 

Connect programme the team have 

undertaken systematic review training 

provided by Dr Alison Brettle, University 

of Salford, and plans are in hand to 

complete a systematic literature review; 

ideally in English and Chinese languages 

to scope the subject. The outcome will be 

a model of global nurse employability and 

accompanying learning resources. Led by 

Professor Xiaoying Jiang the team from 

Fuzhou comprising Dr Hui Min Xiao and Dr 

Rong Fang Hu have already visited Salford 

to compare and contrast nurse education in 

China and the UK. 

A return visit to Fuzhou is planned in the 

autumn by Dr Nancy Lee, Dawn Hennefer 

and other colleagues from Salford. 

Activities will include review of literature 

Above: Nurse education compared in 

China and UK 

findings, and workshops related to 

information searching and writing for 

publication. A dedicated virtual learning 

environment is under construction as part 

of the project, and this will go live once 

the project is completed. 

Name: Nancy Lee 

Email: n.j.lee@salford.ac.uk 

PhD quality indicators for 

biomedicine and health 

sciences 

Dr Gillian Crofts, School of Health, Sport and Rehabilitation Sciences, 

was invited to attend The 6th ORPHEUS Conference held in Dokuz 

University Izmir, Turkey this year. The conference theme was PhD 

Quality Indicators for Biomedicine and Health Sciences. 

T 

he conference comprised of oral 

and poster presentations and 

workshops, with over 300 

international delegates attending 

over the 4 days. Gillian was involved in writing 

a positioning paper, managing a workshop 

and presenting a paper on PhD Standards 

in Health Sciences. The outcomes from the 

conference are a culmination of contributions 

from across different disciplines in Biomedicine 

and Health Sciences. 

Doctoral training is held in high esteem by 

UK and European academic institutions as the 

pathway for all future researchers and 

academic careers, this conference provided 

the opportunity to share good practice and 

take the lead in developing guidelines for 

good practice in doctoral education of the 

future. What is unique about PhD education 

in the Health Sciences is recognising the 

profession specific nature of the award. 

The PhD should not only be relevant to 

professional practice therefore, but also 

demonstrate the ability to change policy or 

practice. Evidence of leadership in the field 

and the potential to be influential in the 

profession were also seen as important 

factors. 

Gillian’s workshop focused on the journey of 

doctoral training, it outlined the key stages 

in the educational process and for each stage 

presented characteristics that defined the 

quality of learning experiences in a framework 

of doctoral education. 

The outcome from the Conference is an 

ORPHEUS document on standards of PhD 

Education in Biomedicine and Health 

Sciences and can be found at 

www.orpheus2011izmir.org. 

Since the Conference Gillian has continued to 

collaborate with colleagues in Turkey on her 

research into ultrasound scanning of the foot 

and ankle and would also like to acknowledge 

colleagues from Salford University along with 

colleagues from Universities in Turkey and 

Sweden who contributed to the early 

discussions of this work. 

Name: Gillian Crofts 

Email: g.crofts@salford.ac.uk 




Vice-Chancellor visit to India 

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Martin Hall, and Mr Michael Lurie, Head of International Partnerships at 

the University, recently visited India as part of the ongoing strengthening relationship the University 

has with Indian Institutions. 

The visit was primarily to follow 

up on partnership initiatives 

established in 2010; to investigate 

CPD offerings in industry as 

potential partnership models for the 

University, support key milestones in other 

partnership activity, increase awareness of 

Salford activity in India at senior levels of UK 

and Indian governmental offices and to 

scope initial feedback on MediaCityUK 

opportunities in India. 

A highlight of this successful visit was the 

affiliation of ThinkLABS India. The University 

of Salford will be the first higher education 

institution to offer a master’s degree in 

Robotics and Embedded Systems taught in 

both India and the UK, when it launches in 

September. This innovative postgraduate 

course has been developed in partnership 

with Mumbai-based science education provider, 

ThinkLABS, in order to meet the demands 

of the Indian market which has seen a massive 

increased shift to the use of robotics and 

intelligent systems. A recent study by the 

Indian National Association of Software and 

Services Companies predicted the industry will 

triple its market size by 2015. Robotics and 

embedded systems are essential for creating 

sustainable manufacturing and autonomous 

systems businesses in India. The programme 

will combine four months teaching in 

embedded systems - computer systems 

designed to do one or a few dedicated and 

specific functions - in Mumbai, with the 

remaining eight months at the University of 

Salford’s Centre for Advanced Robotics . There 

is significant market growth forecast in the 

area of robotics and embedded systems across 

sectors including aerospace, nuclear, 

automotive and petrochemicals. ThinkLABS 

is a pioneer in the fields of hands-on science 

and technology education in India, and is an 

incubated company of the Indian Institutes of 

Technology (IIT) Bombay. Gaurav Chaturvedi, 

Director Vice-President of ThinkLABS said: 

“The robotics and embedded systems arena is 

set to witness a high growth stage. Currently, 

the embedded space is witnessing a gap 

between the skill set required and that which 

is available. We are collaborating with the 

University of Salford to bring in their 

technical expertise with robotics and Salford’s 

course is one of the leading courses in the UK. 

We believe that this reputation, together with 

ThinkLABS’ established technical expertise in 

the field of embedded systems, can lead to an 

instrumental part of the growth story of this 

industry”. 

Left: Vice-Chancellor, Professor Martin Hall 

The students get a chance to explore another 

culture whilst spending the year focused on 

the advanced science curriculum that prepares 

them well to continue their studies in 

graduate or professional areas”. Sounds like 

a winner for both sides of the Atlantic! 

Other international 

news 

Toledo University 

The University of Toledo (UT) has renewed its 

commitment to an international exchange 

programme that immerses students in a year 

of advanced science education in England. 

University of Toledo representatives met at the 

University of Salford recently to renew, for a 

further five years, the exchange programme 

memorandum of understanding that has 

been ongoing since 1984. 

Dr. Patricia Komuniecki, UT‘s Vice Provost for 

Graduate Affairs and Dean of the College of 

Graduate Studies said: “I am delighted this 

important exchange programme has enjoyed 

such a rich history and that both institutions 

are committed to see it continue”. Each year 

an average of 8 – 10 UT science majors, 

primarily biology/pre-med students, 

spend their junior year at Salford taking 

upper division lecture and lab modules. 

In reciprocation, Salford students travel to 

UT during their second year to experience 

science education in the USA. Dr. Brian 

Ashburner, UT Associate Dean of the College 

of Natural Sciences, said: The programme 

really provides a unique experience to be 

immersed in another culture for a full year. 

Sino British College China 

The University of Salford is looking forward 

to welcoming a new cohort of Sino British 

College students from Shanghai who will 

be entering the University at second year 

of their undergraduate studies primarily in 

areas of business. The University welcomes 

these students and as part of the growing 

partnership with Sino British College 

and explorations of further collaborative 

opportunities. 

New agreement with Edexcel 

Always with a view of opening our doors 

to students from international shores the 

University of Salford has recently signed 

a global agreement with Edexcel where 

progression routes to Salford will be marketed 

to Edexcel students across the globe to study 

programmes in several discipline areas at 

undergraduate level. This is an excellent 

opportunity for the University to attract 

students from countries we may not work 

with on a regular basis and thereby diversify 

our base of international students with 

students looking for completion of their 

UK degree pathway. 



Forthcoming events 

6th September, 2011 – British Accounting and Finance Association 

Northern Area annual Conference. The University of Salford is hosting 

a conference on behalf of the British Accounting and Finance 

Association (BAFA), which is open to delegates, including practitioners, 

from the UK and overseas. Venue: University of Salford. 

For more information go to: www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1506 

7th September 2011 – Research for patient benefit: are we really 

making a difference for foot disease in the rheumatic disorders? 

Professor Jim Woodburn, Glasgow Caledonian University. 

Cutting-edge research that is driving changes in clinical practice in the 

assessment and management of people with foot problems associated 

with rheumatic diseases. Venue: Mary Seacole Building, University of 

Salford. For more information contact: chsc@salford.ac.uk 

12th – 13th September, 2011 – COBRA 2011: RICS International 

Research Conference. COBRA is the Royal Institution of Chartered 

Surveyors’ (RICS) international research conference. The conference 

caters for all aspects of the research and academic base of the 

chartered surveying profession and provides an important forum for 

educators, researchers and practitioners to meet, and to discuss the 

latest research developments in the field. The conference also hosts 

the annual RICS Legal Research Symposium and the inaugural 

meeting of the Law Postgraduate Research Forum (CIB W113 Student 

Chapter), organised in partnership with CIB Working Commission 

W113, and features special conference streams in knowledge 

management and biodiversity and the built environment. For more 

information go to: www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1391 

12th – 14th September, 2011 - The Prosody-Discourse Interface 

(including research training workshop and special workshop on 

expressives and affective prosody). Invited speakers: Nicole Dehe, 

University of Konstanz; John Local, University of York; Chris Potts, 

University of Stanford; Marc Schroeder, German Research Centre for 

Artificial Intelligence. The Conference is the fourth in a series which 

provides a forum for those working on the relationship between 

prosody and discourse. Venue: University of Salford. For more 

information go to: www.languages.salford.ac.uk/reserach/centre_ 

applied_linguistics/events.php 

16th September 2011 – Industry Transformation Day: Building 

Information Modelling and Lean Process Improvement. This COBRA 

2011 Industry Transformation Day will bring together internationally 

leading practitioners and academics to present stimulating examples 

of these business models illustrating the leading edge of UK and 

International practice from the perspective of clients, contractors and 

designers. Venue: University of Salford. For more information go to: 

www.scri.salford.ac.uk/events 

21st October, 2011 – International Online Conference in Translation 

and Interpreting Studies. The aim of this online conference is to bring 

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. For more information go to: 

www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1506 

25th November, 2011 - Solution Focused Practice with Children and 

Families. Designed in collaboration with the United Kingdom 

Association for Solution Focused Practice (UKASFP) the conference will 

provide you with the opportunity to: Hear success stories of solution 

focused approaches with children and families from experienced 

speakers and workshop presenters; attend interactive and creative 

workshops to energise you with new ideas to implement solution 

focused practice and meet other strengths-based practitioners and 

share your positive practice experiences. Venue: Salford Innovation 

Forum. For more information go to: 

http://www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1510 

9th – 10th December 2011 – Periodicals across Europe: Call for 

Papers. Keynote Speakers: Professor Sophie Levie, Radboud 

Universiteit Nijmegen; Professor Barbara Mittler, Ruprecht-Karls- 

Universitat, Heidelberg; Dr Sascha Bru, Katholieke, Universiteit Leuven. 

To mark the foundation of the European Society for Periodical Research 

(ESPRit), the Centre for Periodicals Research at the University of Salford 

is hosting the Periodicals Across Europe Conference 2011. The theme 

of the conference is the comparative study of European periodicals and 

periodical cultures, and the conference organisers now welcome 

proposals for contributions. Venue: The Burgess Foundation, 

Manchester. For more information go to: www.famss.salford.ac.uk/ 

research/espach/Periodicals_Across_Europe.php 

23rd January, 2012 - Enterprise Conference for Postgraduates. 

This one-day conference will explore the different facets of what it 

means to be an entrepreneur or to be enterprising. The day will consist 

of panel sessions, workshops and networking opportunities and is 

run in collaboration with the University of Manchester. Venue: 

MediaCityUK (TBC). For more information contact: 

t.majothi@salford.ac.uk 

24th – 26th January, 2012 – Retrofit 2012 Academic Conference. 

The reduction of energy demand from the existing stock of buildings 

has been identified as a core part of UK and EU energy policy. As a 

high-level research, economic and policy question it brings together 

many disciplines in addressing a pressing real world problem. Retrofit 

2012 will look to accept papers from disciplines including the sciences, 

economics, built environment, business and management, information 

technology and computing, psychology and sociology. Venue: 

The Lowry, Salford Quays. For more information go to: 

http://www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1504 

26th June, 2012 - PG Futures Careers Conference. This is an annual 

one-day careers conference for postgraduates. The aim of which is to 

make delegates more aware of their career options as well as the 

strategies that can help in ensuring career success either within or 

outside of academia. Venue: University of Salford, Lady Hale Buidling 

(TBC). For more information contact: t.majothi@salford.ac.uk 

31st October – 6th November 2011 – Advances in neurocognitive 

bases of Dyslexia. Cristina Dye will be running a workshop on 

‘Advances in neurocognitive bases of Dyslexia’ during the Dyslexia 

Awareness Week this Autumn. The workshop is aimed at 

practitioners, educators and researchers in the Salford and Manchester 

areas. Venue: University of Salford. For more information go to: 

c.dye@salford.ac.uk 



Contact details 

If any of the research in this issue could 

support your business, policy or processes 

- get in touch with the University: 

Professor Ghassan Aouad 

Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research & Innovation, Strategic Leadership Team, The Old Fire Station, The Crescent 

e: g.aouad@salford.ac.uk t: 0161 295 5382 

Professor Sue Kilcoyne, Associate Dean Research 

Faculty of Science, Engineering and Environments, Newton Building 

e: s.h.kilcoyne@Salford.ac.uk t: 0161 295 2865 

Professor John Keiger, Associate Dean Research 

Faculty of Arts, Media and Social Sciences, Crescent House 

e: j.f.keiger@salford.ac.uk t: 0161 295 5275 

Professor Mustafa Alshawi, Associate Dean Research 

Faculty of Business, Law and the Built Environment, Maxwell Building 

e: m.a.alshawi@salford.ac.uk t: 0161 295 5128 

Professor Tony Warne, Associate Dean Research 

Faculty of Health & Social Care, Allerton Building 

e: a.r.warne@salford.ac.uk t: 0161 295 2777 

Dr Chris Harrison 

Director of Research & Innovation, Research & Graduate College, Faraday House 

e: c.j.harrison@salford.ac.uk t: 0161 295 5998 

Dr Matt Boswell 

Acting Assistant Registrar (Research Co-ordination) Research & Graduate College, Faraday House 

e: m.boswell@salford.ac.uk t: 0161 295 4301 

Mrs Anna Higson 

Executive/Projects Officer, Maxwell Building, The Crescent 

e: a.higson@salford.ac.uk t: 0161 295 3176 

Mrs Gillian Southwell, PA to PVC Research & Innovation 

The Old Fire Station, The Crescent 

e: g.l.southwell@salford.ac.uk t: 0161 295 5382 

Mrs Sandra Wadeson, Administrator 

Research & Graduate College, Faraday House 

e: s.wadeson@salford.ac.uk t: 0161 295 3671 

Mrs Linda Kelly, PA to Director of Graduate Studies 

Research & Graduate College, Faraday House 

e: l.m.kelly@salford.ac.uk t: 0161 295 3841 

Editor Anna Higson 


Research & Graduate College 

University of Salford 

Faraday House, 

Salford, M5 4WT 

t: +44 (0)161 295 4616/4301 

www.rgc.salford.ac.uk 

Communications Division, 0161 295 2639 (31617/09/11)

RISE August-September 2011 - University of Salford

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