Top to bottom:‘ Curious neurons’ by George Joseph; Matt Dunn, PhD student;‘ Blazin neurons’ by George Joseph; ISTM staff at the UHNM International Clinical Trials Day 2016 event.
Public engagement
Bringing research closer to people
Our students and staff have been especially busy over the last twelve months promoting their research and engaging with the public. PhD student, Matt Dunn, won“ I’ m a scientist- Get me out of here”, a national competition where participants take part in live chats and respond to emailed questions from secondary school students. Matt went on to win the competition and was awarded a small grant to spend on outreach activities. Matt was also selected to present some of his work to Members of Parliament as part of the SET for Britain competition.
Another PhD student, George Joseph, won national attention with some of his remarkable images. George was short listed and given special mention for his image‘ Blazing Neurons’ in the‘ Picturing Parkinson’ s’ national competition ran by Parkinson’ s UK. George also went on to win second prize for his‘ Curious Neurons’ image in the national EPSRC Science Photo Competition 2015. The aim of the competition was to promote a greater understanding of science and engineering research and the role it plays in developing new technologies that will ultimately make the world a better place. Both of George’ s images made it into the national press with coverage in the Guardian on separate occasions.
ISTM held its first open day to prospective Master’ s degree students in May. Participants were able to learn about the School of Medicine ' s M. Sc. courses in Biomedical Engineering and Cell and Tissue Engineering( taught by staff at ISTM) and about the cutting edge research being carried out in our laboratories. As well as inviting the public in to see some of the work going on in ISTM, staff have also been taking their science out into the public. One such event was for International Clinical Trials Day, where staff participated in a public engagement event hosted by the University Hospitals of North Midlands( UHNM). The event highlight both ISTM’ s and UHNM’ s commitment to collaborative research and clinical trials with the aim of improving patient care and treatment.
Dr Dimitra Blana has also co-authored an article that was published in The Conversation, entitled‘ How brain implants can let paralysed people move again.’ The Conversation is a global media resource with it’ s articles written through collaboration between editors and academics to provide informed news analysis and commentary that is freely available to the general public.
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