Lancaster University Undergraduate Research Conference

Lancaster University Undergraduate Research Conference 2021

In March 2021 Lancaster University held its second Undergraduate (UG) Research Conference. This conference was the first UG conference held solely online, and the first to include students from all of its’ UK and oversea partners.

Blackpool and Fylde College students responded positively to the conference by the agreed deadline. With applications submitted from the following curriculum areas: Blackpool School of Art, Computing and Digital Technologies, Engineering and Science, Leadership, Management and Lifestyle and Society, Health and Childhood. Unfortunately, some students had to withdraw from the conference owing to personal mitigating circumstances caused by the pandemic. The abstract reviewers were impressed by the range of topics covered in the undergraduate research projects undertaken at B&FC; representing the diverse nature of the subject disciplines within each curriculum area.

The impact of participation in relation to student scholarship and professional development was demonstrated through the positive feedback and outcomes achieved by B&FC students. Notably a level 6 student on the BSc Physical Activity, Health and Nutrition Leadership, Management and Lifestyle presented her research and received excellent feedback and won the prize for the best presentation in the Social Sciences category at the conference. In addition to this accolade, the student has also been approached by Lancaster University to be involved in some research on their own mental health services.

A submission was made by the following students:

Leadership Management and Lifestyle (LML)

BSc (Hons) Physical Activity, Health and Nutrition

Hannah Farquhar - “A Critical review of current health and wellbeing policies and their effective implementation at English HEIs”

Society, Health and Childhood (SHaC)

BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies

Claire Leeds - Early Years Education or Prep School – “To play or not to play”

Computing and Digital Technologies

BSc (Hons) Computer Science and Digital Technologies

Daniela Tyliszczak - Website: Improving Accessibility: “Creating a small video game prototype which allows a range of input methods to improve player experience and player skill level” Andrew Mbavaya - “Digitization of the five human senses for communication purposes (Survey Paper)”

BSc (Hons) Software Engineering (Game Development)

Joel Whittle - “Exploring a Bigger Search Space through Genetic Evolution” James Roskell - “The Impact of Sound on Player Progression” James Armer - “Student Engagement with Augmented Reality in Distance Learning” Daisy Ball - “How Effective is Augmented Reality as a Marketing Tool?” Andrew Hearn - Website Pretension: “Does VR have an affect on player’s emotion within video games?”

Engineering and Science

BEng (Hons) Engineering (Mechatronics Engineering)

Liam Winder - “The Importance of High Voltage Harness Strategy in Medium Duty Battery Electric Vehicles”

BEng (Hons) Engineering (Mechanical Engineering)

Matthew Worthington - “The Most Important Cog in the Machine: Using 5S in a Local Engineering Company