City News Issue 19

City News Issue 19

CAN WE LIVE IN A SUSTAINABLE LONDON?

NEWS

updates

RESEARCH

meet the team

more...

Hello Hello and welcome to the latest issue of City News.

This month’s cover feature looks at sustainability and asks is it a sustainable concept in itself?

We all know that we need to be more environmentally conscious and many of the changes we are asked to make are personal – whether that’s by reducing our consumption of meat and cheap clothes, or switching off lights and computers. Whilst these small actions undoubtedly help, City academics argue that what is really needed are large-scale changes in government policy and industry-wide implementation of new technologies. In a city like London, with an ever-expanding skyscraper skyline - more than 200 new buildings over 20 storeys are planned in the next few years – does changing the way we build hold the answer to long-term sustainability? Professor Sarah Stallebrass and her team are working on research that will enable less concrete to be used in construction, thereby helping to protect the environment.

They are working with some of the biggest construction companies in the country to put theory into practice, which has the potential to make an impact.

On page 8 we talk to Professor Vicky Joffe about her Changing Behaviours, Changing Futures programme, which is working with children who have speech, language and communication challenges. Research shows how the difficulties can affect their social and emotional functioning and they are at a significant risk of developing behavioural difficulties. Vicky explains why intervening at an early age can help make a difference to the lives of the young people and those around them.

We also look at a new City initiative to raise our profile and attract prospective students in China. Where familiar channels like Facebook and Twitter are not available, we consider the alternatives and how City is embracing the world of Chinese social media.

This edition’s Meet the Team (page 18) features the Service Desk. Offering support across our many sites they are at the front line of keeping City’s IT systems up and running. Their remit covers more than 4,000 PCs and in the last three months alone they’ve responded to over 6,000 requests and 9,500 phone calls.

And finally, thank you for the feedback about CityWire, our new fortnightly e-bulletin. We hope it’s proving to be a useful tool for spreading the word about what’s happening at City and we welcome contributions for future editions.

Simon Watts Head of Communications and Events

Contents 2

News

4 5

City steps into China LEaD-ing City staff

6 8 10 12 16

Can we live in a sustainable London?

Changing Behaviours, Changing Futures Measuring the mood of Europe Meet the academics The Conversation

17 18

Kickstarting Popcord Meet the Team

21

10

8

20 12

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The Vice-Chancellor’s Awards Sports teams join anti-homophobia campaign Full of Spark The Undergraduate Awards seek entries

Interview Launch event

Is the Co-op just another bank?

IT Service Desk

Student journalist

How I became a bounty hunter...

From the archive

Communication by eye-closure - an early Google glass?

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It’s your magazine Comments and feedback are always welcome, as are suggestions for future editions such as research outputs or an exciting new project. Please contact the Editor.

Marketing & Communications reserves the right to edit submissions.

About City News City News is published six times a year by Marketing & Communications for all staff.

Back issues: blogs.city.ac.uk/staff-news/city-news Editor: Demetri Petrou Tel: 020 7040 8783 Email: demetri.petrou.1@city.ac.uk Thank you... ...to all of this issue’s contributors: Professor Andrew Boon, Stephanie Broadribb, Professor Adrian Cheok, Jason Clarke, Dr David Collins,Sophie Cubbin, Professor Paul Curran, Dr Graham Daborn, Simon Denton, Michael Freeman, Giulio Folino, Louise Gordon, Professor Victoria Joffe, Helen Merrills, Professor Tim Lang, Frank Milani, Ben Mumby-Croft, Jo Pentecost, Ryan Taylor, Tom Sanderson, Matt Sandrini, Professor Jane Singer, Bei Shi, Chris Smith, Dr Steve Sorrell, Professor Andre Spicer, Professor Sarah Stallebrass, John Stevenson, Kelvin Ward, George Wigmore, Dawn White Next edition Our next edition will be published in July/August 2014.

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News

Full of Spark Five winners of City’s annual business plan competition decided at the CitySpark marketplace.

This year’s CitySpark final at The Hangout saw 16 student start-ups pitch their business ideas to over 60 judges.

The finalists were each allocated a stall within the CitySpark marketplace. Judges browsed the stalls and listened to the student entrepreneurs ‘pitch’ their ideas as they browsed. Each of the judges had 1,000 CitySpark ‘dollars’ to invest in as many businesses as they chose.

There were five £3,000 prizes and places on the CitySpark Summer Accelerator on offer for the ideas that received the most CitySpark investment dollars.

The winners were (in no particular order): Eatro - Described by the Evening Standard as ‘so zeitgeist’, Eatro Co-Founders Daniel Kaplansky, Zifeng Wei and Bar Segal are addressing the gap in the food industry for real homemade food. Eatro is a peer-to-peer

marketplace for homemade takeaway. iSleepeasii - BSc Optometry student Dhruvin Patel was the winner of the earlier CitySpark Christmas Marketplace. He had completed the research behind the iSleepeasii concept (a screen cover to block out blue LED light from mobile phones and tablets: this light has been proven to disturb user’s sleep patterns) and for the final he had developed a prototype.

Nudge - PhD students Marius Brown, Miodrag Vidakovic and Robert Schumacher came together at the inaugural City Graduate Bootcamp in March, where they took first prize for Nudge, ‘the clever wristband that gives you effortless control over your diabetes’. They will use their £3,000 winnings from CitySpark to make and test the prototype.

Popcord - a portable mobile phone charger.

Founders Frank Milani (Masters in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership) and Matt Sandrini have already raised £47,000 on Kickstarter to begin production and will use their winnings from CitySpark for marketing.

Sports teams join anti-homophobia campaign City’s sports stars joined athletes from around the world to wear rainbow laces as part of a campaign to eradicate homophobia from sport. The campaign is the brainchild of lesbian, gay and bisexual rights charity, Stonewall.

Students from the University’s Football, Rugby, Basketball and Tennis teams (to name

a few) wore the laces during competitive matches.

They joined a host of sports stars including footballers Joey Barton, Olivier Giroud, Leighton Baines and rugby stars Tom Palmer and Gareth Thomas.

UrbanEmber - is the result of three entrepreneurs meeting at a weekend event here at City. Andrew Whelan (Cass MBA) met fellow entrepreneurs Sam Harrison and Jean-Louis Rawlence on the accelerator programme and they are now developing the urban discovery ‘app’.

Student Enterprise Manager Ben MumbyCroft commented on the evening: “This year’s CitySpark competition has set a new standard for student enterprise at City. Not only in terms of the high quality of the winning finalists but also in terms of the imagination, creativity and can-do attitude of the competing teams and the innovative format which saw over 70 start-up founders, investors and business advisors voting for their favourite teams.

I now look forward to working with the winners to help them develop their ideas further and, based on last night’s performance, I’m excited about the future of student entrepreneurship at City.”

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The Vice-Chancellor’s Awards Across the University, individuals and teams put an enormous amount of effort into supporting City’s Strategic Plan.

This year, the University is looking to acknowledge that contribution with the introduction of the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards.

The Awards are intended to complement existing Awards (such as the Teaching Awards, the Research Awards and The Chancellor’s Award) and nominees may be drawn from any area or level of the University.

The number of nominations that were received and more specifically the reasons that were given for nominations were overwhelming. Words like ‘ dedicated’, ‘committed’ and ‘ passionate’ echoed through the many citations. Congratulate to everyone that has been nominated, and thanks to the many colleagues who took time to compose compelling citations.

The winners are:

Excellence in engagement with business, the professions and partner organisations: Winner: Dr David Collins and Eric Klotz Commendations: Dr Caroline Wiertz, CSDO, the Hangout

Excellence in international engagement: Winner: Dr Patricia Cubi-Molla Commendations: Dr Zahera Harb, Prof Tong Sun

Outstanding engagement with the local community: Winner: Adam-Lucas Pettit Commendations: WP Outreach Team, Dr Caroline Wiertz

Outstanding service in support of students or staff: Winner: Michelle Preston Highly commended: Kjell Horn, Rupa Lakhani Commendations: Jessica Ferguson, Waheeda Dhansey , Istvan Boha

Team performance of the year: Winner: Portering Commendations: Events, Unitemps, Pupillage Advisory Service

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City steps into China Being the University of the City of London, City’s population of staff and students has always reflected the multicultural nature of the capital. Around 25% of City’s staff are from 50 countries beyond the UK. Our student population is even more diverse, with about 40% of City students coming from more than 160 countries.

The global feel of the University is in no way a coincidence. The Strategic Plan places a strong emphasis on internationalisation and the recruitment of some of the most able students from around the world.

A great deal of that responsibility falls to the International Recruitment team, part of the University’s Marketing & Communications department.

“You could say that we are the ones working behind the scenes to encourage able students from around the world to study at City. We go to schools and colleges as well as student fairs looking for able students”, says Simon Denton, Senior International Officer for the East & South-East Asia.

“With international recruitment

there are some fairly unique challenges in every country” he adds.

Head of Digital at City, Ryan Taylor, knows only too well about some of these challenges.

Recently, the University has been increasing its social media presence in China. He explains that this was not as easy as it sounds. “With many countries, this is fairly straightforward as a great proportion of the world use Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. With China, they have their own social media platforms. Being such a large market for student recruitment, we’ve now launched our own SinaWeibo and YouKu accounts. Of course, it’s not just about launching: our profiles need to be kept regularly updated with content of interest to the Chinese audience.

This has led to us hiring our first ever Chinese social media assistant.”

Bei Shi, also known as Claire, herself a City student, started working for the digital team in January. She ensures that the latest news at City is shared with our Chinese followers and responds to any enquiries from potential students.

To follow what goes on our Chinese social media pages or share with Chinese friends, you can follow us at i.youku.com/CityUniversityLondon and www.weibo.com/cityuniversitylondon

LEaDing the way in education

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Several services for staff and students have come together to form Learning Enhancement and Development (LEaD) - a new department to support excellence in education and student support. City News speaks to the department to find out a little more…

Who are you?

The new department comprises the fomer Learning Success team and the newly-formed Student Counselling and Mental Health Team, as well as the Learning Development Centre. LEaD takes a collaborative, focused approach to providing support to both staff and students.

What do you do?

Part of LEaD focuses on learning development and aims to improve a broad range of learning elements across the University. More specifically, we run the MA in Academic Practice – an accredited programme which is free for staff, covering all aspects of education. Additionally, we work with Schools and other Professional Services to provide leadership and support in areas such as educational technologies and their integration into curricula and pedagogy. We also ensure that staff make the best use of available multimedia and learning spaces.

The Learning Success team provides a range of services to support students in their learning. Their expertise includes giving advice, support and guidance to students with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties. Within the team, the

disability service is available to support City students throughout their studies.

The Student Counselling and Mental Health Service team works closely with students to address any problems caused by stress, anxiety, relationships, academic concerns and a range of mental health issues. We provide groups, workshops and offer one-to-one consultations and counselling, either by appointments or during their drop-in hours of 1pm to 2pm every weekday. We provide support for applying for Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSA), organising and implementing of special examination arrangements for their course, advice and advocacy with all aspects of University life. We can also arrange for mentoring where appropriate.

Why do we do this?

It’s important that both staff and students at City spend their time learning. We also have an opportunity to promote our activities to other

LEaD Launch event The creation of the new department was officially celebrated at a launch event on the 3rd June in the Student Refectory, University Building. Staff from across the University met the teams and found out about how the new department can support staff in their work.

This event was preceded by the 6th Annual Learning at City Conference which took place on the 4th June. For the first time, the conference was based off-site with external presenters and attendees.

institutions around the world. In the last year, the team has presented at a range of national and international conferences, including in the USA, Turkey and Greece. We have also published articles and book chapters.

It is good to be recognised. Our work on learning spaces was highlighted in a report to the French Ministry of Higher Education.

We were also short-listed for a Times Higher Education Award in leadership development.

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Can we live in a sustainable London?

Tuesday 22nd April saw people around the world celebrate Earth Day where events were held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. This year’s Earth Day was the 44th since its inception in 1970, which is widely viewed as marking the beginning of the contemporary environmental movement. The theme for this year’s event was green cities and encouraged cities around the world to be more sustainable.

Sustainability is a ‘buzzword’ which is easy to say, but harder to define. It has best been described by the Brundtland Commission (formerly known as the World Commission on Environment and Development) as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

Despite the widespread knowledge of the word and a relative understanding of what sustainability is, many people ignore the importance of actions that need to be taken.

Population boom Only a century ago, two of every 10 people on the planet resided in a city. Today more than half of the world’s population live in cities and by 2050 the number will have nearly doubled, from 3.6 billion to more than 6 billion representing 70 per cent of the population. In London, the Office for National Statistics estimates another million people will move to the capital in the next 10 years.

Such population growth will move sustainability from something that we

King’s Cross, London

should do, to something we need to do for the population to survive.

What are we doing?

So what are we doing to become more sustainable? And can London ever be a fully sustainable city?

The answer to the first question is “not enough” says the Energy and Environmental Manager at City, Jason Clarke. “When it comes to sustainability, big cities can get a bad reputation. When so many people are concentrated in a relatively small area, convenience often takes precedence over environmental awareness” he says. “In reality, there’s a lot that we can do, which doesn’t require much effort or finance.

Here at City, we’re looking for sustainable innovations in all aspects of the University”.

It’s an issue that matters to City and our students. According to a report by The Higher Education Academy, around 69% of students believe that universities have an obligation to act on sustainability. The University has set Sustainability performance as one of the Key Performance Indicators, measured each year. This is a move that saw the University awarded a First Class Award in the 2013 People & Planet Green League.

One of the initiatives to stem from this is the Green Dragons project, which invites staff and students to share their ideas for being more sustainable. It is designed to raise awareness about sustainability and help students who get involved to gain skills such as project and

budget management, which will be useful in their careers.

Some of the ideas that have already been taken forward include local projects such as Waste No More - a reuse scheme for the unwanted items that City students leave behind in student halls; Meat Free Mondays – a project by students aiming to change the food consumption at City’s food outlets and reduce the carbon and ecological footprint of the University; and international projects including Hydrovillage - a project run by City students that design hydroponic systems that enables people affected by soil infertility to feed their families.

Projects such as Green Dragons are preparing students to enter a booming industry. According to a report by the Greater London Authority, the value of London’s Low Carbon and Environmental Goods and Services sector in 2011/12 was £25.4bn.

Can we do more?

When we consider whether London can be fully sustainable, the answer isn’t clear. “There is some leading research being done at City, but the hardest thing to change is the collective mindset” says Jason.

The research includes work done by Professor Sarah Stallebrass and her team at the School of Engineering & Mathematical Sciences.

“When we talk about being more sustainable, we often think about our homes and our work places – on a relatively small scale. Each day construction work is underway in any given part of London. Imagine how big a difference it would make if we started building

7

more sustainably” Sarah says. She and her colleagues are working on research that will enable builders to use substantially less concrete. “Cement is made from natural resources and the industry that produces it is one of the primary producers of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas. Using less of it will be a huge step towards sustainability and protecting our environment.” The research involves using a novel hollow pile (the structure used in building foundations) devised by her colleague Dr Andrew McNamara, instead of solid piles, currently the commonly used method. “We are working with some of the biggest construction companies in the country to implement our recommended actions and this gives us a real opportunity to make a difference”.

Changes in policy People are generally well-intentioned and would be prepared to live more sustainably. However, it is clear they need a bit of a push.

“One of the biggest parts of the problem, is top level policy” says Professor Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City. Tim’s research considers sustainable food systems and influencing policy makers. It has led to him sitting on groups such as the London Food Board – an advisory group of independent food policy organisations and experts which oversees the implementation of The Mayor of London’s Food Strategy.

“Food has such a huge environmental impact that most of us don’t understand.

Our eating culture has a marked effect on public health. We are overeating.

We are eating unhealthily.

We don’t produce much of our own food. In essence, London is a parasitic

culture, with a huge environmental footprint” he says. Despite this, Tim believes there is a great opportunity for change.

“Around 30 per cent of greenhouse gasses are food related. If we make changes to the way we eat, we could make huge changes in food mileage (the amount of miles an item of food takes to get to the plate) and embedded water (the amount of water used in the entire process of producing, retailing and consuming a product). For example, a 125ml cup of coffee is made with 140 litres of water, whereas a 250ml cup of tea, only 35 litres. Quite astonishingly, a single burger has 2,400 litres of embedded water. By changing what we eat and where we buy it, we can ‘decarbonise’ our food. By eating less meat and dairy products and by growing more vegetables, we could be far more sustainable. These changes won’t come easily though. One of the most important things we can do is educate young people about what is right and wrong”.

KEL considers efficiency, sustainability, data and integration. The long term aim is to provide better and cleaner places to live, work and play by reducing cost and carbon out of the urban environment.”

When asked if he thought London could be completely self-sustaining, he seems thoughtful. “There’s an answer that I’d like to give and there’s what I think is realistic. Developments in technology are starting to change things though. We are seeing passive housing in Germany, river assisted cooling in Sweden and a project to plant a million trees in New York. If institutions like City continue to prepare the next generation of thinkers, we can really start making a difference”.

The people changing our future One person who agrees with Tim is Chris Smith. Chris is a Cass MBA graduate who has launched a consultancy firm to help businesses and institutions work more sustainably and cost-effectively. “Education has a key part to play in sustainability.

I worked on a project recently which provided a primary school with solar panels. Each day, schoolchildren saw how much energy was produced by having solar panels on the roof. In turn, they went home and asked their parents why they didn’t have solar panels.”

It is that kind of common sense thinking that has been the basis for Chris’s new company Kingscote Enterprises Ltd (KEL).

“A big problem is that when companies hear the words ‘sustainable’ and ‘environmentally friendly’, they associate them with increased cost. Quite often, that isn’t the case. There are ways in which organisations can operate both more sustainably more cost-effectively.

5 Sustainable City ideas from round the world

Dynamic Parking Pricing, SFpark, San Francisco, California, USA Intelligent Streetlights, Tvilight BV, Groningen, the Netherlands Inner-City Bus Rapid Transit, Metrobus Line 4, Mexico City, Mexico River-Assisted District Cooling, Göteborg Energi AB, Gothenburg, Sweden Retrofitting an Inner-City District, King’s Cross Square, London, United Kingdom

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Professor Victoria Joffe

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A leading expert in child speech and language, Professor Victoria Joffe, Professor for the Enhancement of Child and Adolescent Language and Learning at the School of Health Sciences, spoke to City News about her ground-breaking work, background and the future.

How did you become involved in speech and language therapy?

As a child I was always taken with the power and impact of communication and language.

I remember when I was young my grandfather - who was a really effective communicator - had a stroke and lost some of his language. I used to go with him to the speech and language therapist and for me as an 11 year old it seemed like she gave him back the gift of language. This made me really interested in speech and language therapy.

I did a four year degree at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, which is where I grew up, then went to the University of Oxford with a scholarship from Rhodes University to study at the Department of Experimental Psychology.

Even at that point, my interest was to explore interventions for children and young people with speech and language difficulties. I wanted to make a difference, not only by researching and assessing the nature of the difficulties, but also through supporting people with language and communication difficulties and building the evidence base for the profession.

Why does language play such a big role in determining our behaviour?

Language gives you the ability to communicate, so think about someone who is unable to do that. They might have a history of failure and an inability to make progress educationally. This may be because they don’t have the requisite language skills to understand what is going on in the classroom or to make friends and connect with other people. These children are very vulnerable.

Their lack of understanding and engagement can lead to difficulties in behaviour as well as impact on their emotional and social functioning. Frequently, children with language and communication difficulties are labelled as lazy, inattentive and naughty.

Children who have speech, language and communication difficulties (prevalence rates in primary schools are higher than for autism and dyslexia) are at significant risk of developing behavioural difficulties which can lead to long-term issues. This is why funding is crucial. It makes financial sense to intervene at a young age when we can turn things around and make a difference to the lives of the young people and those around them.

When you consider the young offender population, research shows that around 70 per cent have speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). We need to be cautious when interpreting such results as they do not mean every child that has SLCN is going to become a young offender, but without a doubt there is a problem as we have a group of young people who have got into trouble. A significant number have been shown to have difficulties talking and listening and in many cases, the problems have not been detected early. We really need to do much more to raise awareness, not just in schools but also in the wider community as SLCN is an invisible problem in society.

What is the Enhancing Language and Communication in Secondary Schools (ELCISS) project?

The ELCISS has its roots in a research project that was funded originally by the Nuffield Foundation and then by participating local authorities and The Communication Trust. I had been working with younger children with speech and language difficulties in preschool and primary school and it was clear to me that while they were supported during their primary education, when they reached year 7 (around 11 years of age), support and provision mostly ended. It was as if their difficulties stopped.

Having worked with these children, it was clear to me that this was not the case.

ELCISS was then established in 21 schools across two outer London boroughs. Around 450 children who were underperforming educationally and had speech and language difficulties were referred by teachers, to participate in the study. It was a randomised control trial with trained teaching assistants delivering interventions in the form of storytelling or vocabulary enrichment.

We chose these two areas as they are key components and integral to education and our daily lives. We use stories all the time to interact with others and children typically need to learn 3,000 new words a year.

We found very promising results.

Participants who received the storytelling intervention were much better at storytelling tasks than the controls. Conversely, students who received the vocabulary training, performed significantly better than controls on vocabulary measures.

But what really blew us away and was more unexpected were the benefits reported by the teachers, teaching assistants and the children themselves. These included the students being more engaged in the classroom, improved confidence and self-esteem and the continued use of newlylearned strategies. This was the first part of the Changing Behaviours, Changing Futures programme which started in 2007. We are

still in touch with many of the original schools and the teaching and support staff involved in the study. Many have now embedded the programme into their teaching. Other schools across the country are adopting the two programmes and the Education Endowment Fund has recently funded two boroughs to implement the programmes in their schools.

What more can be done by teachers and others in education to help combat this problem?

Teachers, parents and anyone who spends significant amounts of time with such young children are able to do a huge amount and what’s really quite neat about my work is that we are asking for very small changes to make a difference.

Simply being aware of speech, language and communication can make a significant difference, as small changes in what you are saying or doing in the classroom can help.

This can include talking at a slower rate, repeating important pieces of information, making sure that everyone is listening at the most crucial parts of a conversation and using cues to support your message. For example, using visual clues like pictures or gestures.

There is very little in initial teacher training about SLCN and we need to embed this kind of training in those early years of study.

What’s the future for the project and your work in particular?

We’re looking for more funding as we’d like to roll out the programme across England and build a greater, more robust evidence base for the work with older children and young people with SLCN. We also want to add to the existing ELCISS programmes and assist older children who are leaving school, as there is no support for adults with such difficulties. The new module will fit into the Changing Behaviours, Changing Futures programme and will focus on developing life and social skills.

The other important activity is continuing to raise awareness about how language and communication pervade our lives. Everything is mediated by language and communication, so it is important to think about the impact on young people who do not have these skills. Raising awareness means they will be identified earlier and we will be able to put support and training in place at an earlier stage. This will help avoid some of the more significant longer term impacts on educational attainment and social inclusion.

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Measuring the mood of Europe

self-perceived ‘very good’ health

83% IRELAND

Social benefits place too great a strain on economy

42% spain

For policymakers, advance knowledge of long-term social trends and patterns is vital. Understanding how people view the world and how they fit into that world, is key to predicting future societal needs.

How do you implement changes to improve the public’s trust in policing and justice, for example, if you don’t know how the system is valued and perceived? In the UK, there is a drive to make police more visible on our streets, but how did policy makers know that is what the UK population wanted?

Step in The European Social Survey (ESS).

The ESS is conducted every two years, in over 20 countries in and beyond the European Union. It produces high quality data sets on social, moral and political trends.

The survey is based at City and to date has conducted over 300,000 interviews across Europe. The data from the interviews,

which is free to use, has been accessed by over 60,000 users worldwide and quoted in thousands of publications, including reports from The Cabinet Office, The National Audit Office and the Institute for Criminal Policy Research at Birkbeck, University of London.

The ESS came to City in 2003 and under the directorship of the late Professor Sir Roger Jowell, it grew from a team of two, to eight academics. The number of countries participating has grown from 22 in the first round to 30 in the latest (2013).

Rory Fitzgerald is the current ESS Director and under his stewardship the ESS has been awarded European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) status.

ERIC is a legal status which is awarded to facilities that demonstrate ‘panEuropean relevance.’ The ESS is the only initiative in the UK to carry ERIC status.

ERICs offer unique research opportunities to users from different countries and are playing an increasingly important role in the advancement of knowledge and the development of technology. Their creation is central to Europe 2020, the European Union’s ten-year growth strategy which aims to enable the “EU to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy”.

The ESS, with ERIC status, will contribute to this strategy by continuing and developing its work to address societal challenges concerning health, wellbeing and inclusivity.

It joins some of the most innovative research infrastructures in Europe, such as CERN, home of the Large Hadron Collider.

Fitzgerald describes City as the ‘helm and engine room’ of the ESS. The team ensures extensive pan-European collaboration, drive high methodological standards and oversee

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Proportion of employees receiving training

71% SWEDEN

Acceptance of homosexuality

93%

netherlands

Believe too many people receive unentitled benefits

78% poland

Proportion of housework done by women

82% greece

the research agenda. Fitzgerald and his team have particular responsibility for co-designing and pre-testing the question modules.

He says: “The ESS plays a direct role in influencing discussion in democracies across Europe and the ESS methodology consistently sets new standards in cross-national research, in areas such as sampling, questionnaire design, response measurement, fieldwork design, crossnational harmonisation and data archiving and access. Previous cross-national survey enterprises had often been blighted by a lack of comparability, due to poor or nonexistent harmonisation and coordination.

The ESS therefore adopted a more directive approach, working closely with national teams in developing the survey.”

As a result, many features of the ESS have impacted the way large surveys

are undertaken worldwide. In the US, the National Centre for Health Statistics adopted ESS methodology in 2009.

Elsewhere, the European Quality of Life Survey, conducted by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), used the ESS as a benchmark for improving its methodology in 2007; and The Survey for Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) has also drawn on the ESS. Its innovative, forward-thinking approach encapsulates the work of the ESS ERIC, as Fitzgerald reflects: “The establishment of ESS ERIC marks the formal acceptance of crossnational social survey measurement by governments across Europe, including the more subjective attitudinal data generated from the survey. The results provide a

unique opportunity for social scientists to help address many of the grand societal challenges identified by the European Union such as ensuring inclusive, innovative and reflective societies and addressing issues related to health, demographic change and well-being. The academics in the ESS ERIC headquarters at City are eager to harness the wealth of academicallyrigorous research made possible by the ESS and to ensure it plays an active role in shaping the societies of the future.”

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Meet the academics To celebrate Universities Week, the Natural History Museum hosted a celebration to showcase some of the best university research. Teams from UK universities delivered activities in the Darwin Centre.

Professor Cheok represented City demonstrating how his research is changing the way we interact with the internet. His exhibition explored a number of his research projects including a device that connects to a smartphone and emits the smell of your favourite meal; the world’s first tele-hug ring which delivers a remote hug; and a digital lollipop to stimulate your taste buds. www.universitiesweek.org.uk

“What I want to do is to connect all our senses to the internet,” says Professor Adrian Cheok, Professor of Pervasive Computing at City. “Today you can post a picture on Facebook and describe what you are up to but what does it smell like to be at that amazing beach or how does dinner taste at that Michelin star restaurant?” he asks. “I want us to move from the information age, where we are communicating logical data across the internet to the experience age where we communicate sensual data such as touch, smell and taste,” he explains.

Adrian is currently working on a device which digitally creates a sense of taste by actuating the tongue through electrical and thermal stimulation. That device is then connected to the internet wirelessly. He has also been working with neuroscientists in France to measure people’s brain activity when they experience sweet, sour, salty and bitter tastes and is trying to reproduce this activity electrically.

“It’s early days for this invention but the potential is very exciting,” says Adrian, “In the future I envisage people creating entirely new digital tastes and smells via their computers,” he adds.

Another of the research projects Adrian is working on is a collaboration with Chef Andoni Luis Adruiz, regarded as one of the world’s finest. Chef Andoni is famous for serving creative and unusual dishes, following the principles of molecular gastronomy, at his Michelin star restaurant Mugaritz in Spain. Adrian is creating a mobile phone ‘app’ which will transmit the unique smells of the dishes created in the kitchen. It was launched in early 2014 at one of the world’s largest gastronomy conferences in Madrid.

Adrian is also working on inventions which recreate human touch. “Psychologists have found that more than half of all human communication takes place nonverbally but in today’s busy society we aren’t always

with each other so I wanted to find a way to establish human touch remotely,” he says.

The first of the products Adrian has conceived is a pair of pyjamas for parents who work or live away from home. The pyjamas are connected by a wireless ‘app’ to the internet and allow parents to show their child affection even when they aren’t physically present by transmitting a realistic hug sensation to their child.

Building on the same idea Adrian has created a ring (known as RingU), which you can give to your partner, child or friend and use the internet to transmit a ‘finger squeeze’ in real-time to let them know you are thinking of them.

Adrian says that initially the products he is creating will be used primarily for leisure and entertainment but he believes being able to communicate sensual data will have a dramatic impact on every facet of society.

Adrian, who was born in Adelaide, Australia, was first introduced to the limitless

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Professor Adrian Cheok

School of Mathematics, Computer Science & Engineering

possibilities of technology when he was taken by his aunt to see the original Star Wars film when he was 16. “The scene that stuck with me was when R2D2 and Chewbacca were playing 3d hologram chess on the Millennium Falcon,” he remembers. Twenty years later after doing a Bachelor of Engineering at the University of Adelaide he began to work on creating a 3d hologram display when he started his academic career as an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore. “It was like a dream

come true for me working on something I’d been obsessed with as a kid,” he says.

While he was working on this project Adrian realised that communicating a ‘visual presence’ was only a starting point and he started thinking about what he could do to communicate presence in a more realistic way. This drew him into his current research field which blurs the lines between human senses and computers.

After working as a Professor at the Graduate School of Media Design at Keio University and Associate Professor at the National University

of Singapore Adrian came to City in 2013. He is excited about the University’s connections to Tech City and is doing a lot of work at The Hangout (City’s incubation space near the Old Street Roundabout). “I’ve been working on some amazing research projects such as RingU and the Huggy Pyjama and I’m keen to take these inventions out of the lab and turn them into real ventures. Being at City opens a lot of doors to me and I feel very inspired being in London,” he says.

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Amidst constant and dramatic change in the media industry, many journalists have the core assets needed to survive and thrive. They are “inherently curious and creative, attributes well-suited to entrepreneurialism” says Professor Jane Singer, Professor of Entrepreneurial Journalism at City.

Jane, who has studied journalists’ responses to technological and other changes for more than 20 years, says having an innovative mind is crucial, as old business models and definitions of journalistic tasks are increasingly challenged.

“For journalists, an entrepreneurial spirit involves creative thinking about the needs of an audience and the opportunities for meeting those needs differently from (and better than) whatever currently exists. It’s the continual and sometimes frustrating process of innovation.”

However, her research and her experience as a journalist and academic have shown that change is never easy. Through successive waves of recent technological upheaval, journalists have tended to respond with concerns about the potential effects on such core professional values as accountability and truth-telling.

In her writing, Jane considers the process of how journalism is reconfiguring itself in the digital age to ensure it is still a useful practice.

Recent research topics have included participatory journalism, digital journalism ethics and changing newsroom practices.

Jane started at City in September 2013. She is excited about sharing her ideas with City

Professor Jane Singer The School of Arts & Social Sciences

students in her MA Entrepreneurial Journalism module.

Jane points to successful entrepreneurial journalists who are engaged in start-ups in and around London’s Silicon Roundabout, as well as larger US-based online-only enterprises such as Huffington Post and BuzzFeed, both of which have UK versions.

Also of interest are non-profit start-ups that specialise in investigative journalism, with funding from foundations and users rather than primarily from advertising.

Born in New York and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Jane started writing for her high school newspaper at the age of 16. She went on to obtain a BA in Journalism at the University of Georgia, where she worked as a reporter and editor of the university’s daily newspaper for four years.

After graduation, she went to work as a reporter for a newspaper in Florida, becoming an editor before moving on to other papers in Virginia and Pennsylvania. In 1982, she left newspapers to move back to the New York area, taking a job with CBS Inc. on a novel project that was to shape her professional and academic career.

CBS was trialling a prototype of a new videotex service, a forerunner of today’s web-based information services that initially used a television set as a monitor and a telephone line to carry information.

Subscribers would ring up a telephone line and receive news, sport and weather; they also could play games via the service, similar to teletext services offered by British Telecom at the time. When personal computers began

to gain popularity, the service - by then renamed Prodigy and no longer owned by CBS - evolved into a proprietary, national digital network, the first of its kind in the US. Jane served as the founding news manager for the company for four years, beginning in 1986. She also earned an MA in Liberal Studies from New York University during this period.

Jane says she was attracted to City in part because the academic journalists at the University are still very active writers, whereas in the US, most academics stick to academic publishing. Jane is also excited about City’s proximity to the country’s start-up hub in and around Shoreditch. “I’d like to work with Tech City and bring something of what I’ve learnt about technology from an academic standpoint, but also gear up on the business aspect of journalism. I find it exciting to keep learning and doing things differently.”

“I find it exciting to keep learning and doing things differently”

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Professor Andrew Boon The City Law School

“In lots of legal businesses people pay lip service to professional ethics.

They don’t always think that much about what they are doing and why.”

“Most businesses are ethical in the way they conduct their work in order to remain legitimate in the eyes of the public. But lawyers are somewhat different because they can represent people even if they are considered by the rest of society to be morally beyond the pale,” explains Andrew Boon, Professor of Law at City. Andrew specialises in Professional Ethics, part of the wider subject of Legal Ethics, the study of the relationship between morality and law and the values underpinning the legal system.

“The big question for Professional Ethics is whether there is a separate role of morality for lawyers or whether, in most of what they do, they should be subject to an ordinary business ethic. In other words, to behave

consistently with honourable business practices,” says Andrew.

Andrew doesn’t just write about the values lawyers aspire to, he researches and writes about what they actually do and how ethical rules work in the real world. For example, he is working on the disciplinary processes of the legal profession, considering which lawyers get disciplined and why.

One of Andrew’s motivations for his research is to have the general public and law students interested in the subject. “In many legal businesses people pay lip service to professional ethics. They don’t always think that much about what they are doing and why. Part of my mission is to start a debate and have them think about those issues a little more,” he explains.

Another of Andrew’s aims is to try and ensure that more students study Professional Ethics as an undergraduate subject, as they have in many other countries, including the USA for over 20 years. Andrew is keen for law students to have a clear understanding of Professional Ethics from the start of their careers and to learn about the institutions of the legal system, the values that underpin them and the professions’ roles in relation to them.

Andrew began studying law at the University of Leicester. After graduating in 1971 he worked for 10 years at London firm Gaster, Vowles, Turner and Loeffler where he became a partner. In 1982 he decided to switch paths and become an academic lawyer.

Andrew went on to do his Masters in Further and Higher Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. It was there,

when he was writing about education, that he became interested in practical skills and how they might be taught in the law degree.

Andrew’s interest in this area grew and grew.

He started working on a book with Jenny Levin called The Ethics and Conduct of Lawyers in England and Wales, which was published in 1999. The book is one of the few academic books on the recommended reading list for Bar students.

Making a name for himself in the field of Professional Ethics, in 2010 the Law Society commissioned a report from Andrew called Legal ethics in the initial stage: A model curriculum. This forms the foundation of the Law Society’s position on the subject.

Andrew became Head of the School of Law at the University of Westminster in 1995, a job title which quickly changed to Dean. Andrew remained there before joining The City Law School in September 2012. He is preparing to teach Professional Ethics in addition to the legal skills module on the undergraduate course at City next year.

One of the projects Andrew is particularly excited about is City Law School’s new Centre for the Study of Legal Professional Practice.

Andrew is forum director, with Nigel Duncan, of the Legal Ethics forum. “The aim of the Centre is to inform and develop the legal professional research, practice and training of the future. While many of my colleagues provide a practical take on legal practice, I provide an academic one. It’s an amazing opportunity for us to influence the education training of the law students of the future,” he says.

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The Conversation

Is the Co-op just another bank?

Just when members of the Co-op thought the group’s increasingly farcical situation was coming to an end, it was revealed that the bank had overlooked £400m in fines for mis-selling payment protection insurance (PPI), breaching the Consumer Credit Act and various other misdemeanours.

This was an unpleasant surprise. Not just because of the large figures involved that have caused the bank to delay publishing its annual results. Rather, what really shocked the Co-op’s members was the revelation that the apparently ‘ethical’ bank had mis-sold PPI to its customers, just as its commercial competitors had done.

It is staggering that banking executives could simply overlook £400m worth of fines in an industry when all their peers were routinely making similar payouts. It is like being surprised there are flood waters lapping at your door long after your neighbours have fled to higher ground.

It may seem the height of carelessness to overlook £400m worth of potential fines. However, it could be the result of a common cognitive trap called ‘anchoring’ that many senior executives find

themselves caught in. Decision makers who focus their attention on one issue they initially think is important, end up disregarding other – sometimes more vital – pieces of information.

In the past six months, executives at the Coop have focused on the need to recapitalise the bank due to regulators increasing capital requirements. This meant they put significant amounts of effort into seeking new funding through the bail-in process.

But by doing so they could have overlooked other important information. The situation is a bit like a tennis player having half a dozen balls coming towards them at once. The player inevitably focuses on returning one ball over the net and miss the other five.

Overlooking the fines could have serious consequences for the group. Clearly there is the £400m that needs to be paid to the regulator. But an even greater cost is the potential further decline of the bank’s legitimacy in the eyes of various stakeholders. The fines show this ‘ethical’ bank was engaged in many of the same practices that supposedly ‘unethical’ competitors have been vilified for. The new senior management may be worried they

are dangerously close to the 7 per cent capital requirement. And staff are bracing themselves for further cost reduction exercises.

Co-op members might well ask why this bank controlled by US hedge funds still bears the Co-op brand and why the troubled group still has a 30 per cent stake. This leads to the bigger question: how long the bank will retain the ‘co-op’ part of its name.

Properly cutting ties between the bank and the rest of the Co-op Group would be a bold move but it certainly has much to recommend it. Ditching the bank would help the troubled Co-op Group to shore up its balance sheet and the new owners would be able to operate it in a more overtly commercial way.

But such a move would not be all positive. It would mean a reduction in alternative business models in the banking sector – the presence of a mutually owned bank keeps other commercial banks on their toes – and it would also reduce the degree of real choice for consumers.

Ironically, what’s right for the ‘ethical bank’ might not be the best move for everyone.

Professor Andre Spicer, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Cass Business School

The City Law School Advice Clinics

After his mobile phone ran out of battery again one afternoon in early 2013, City postgraduate student Frank Milani was inspired to come up with a solution to this very common problem.

Just a year later, Frank and his business partner Matt Sandrini are about to launch Popcord - their portable smartphone charger. A Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for its manufacture attracted £47,000 worth of pledges - more than double their original £20,000 target.

Frank was studying for a Masters in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership (MICL) at City when he and Matt decided to pursue their idea. He says the course had a substantial influence: “Being part of the MICL while developing Popcord has helped me in many ways.

I am surrounded by inspiring people and this has been crucial in helping me maintain focus and motivation throughout the development stages. In addition, the wide spectrum of topics covered by the course has given me the expertise to tackle unexpected challenges like writing the screenplay for the Kickstarter video.”

The pair was also able to tap in to the wide range of support City offers to entrepreneurs.

Recognising the need to protect their product in the early stages, Frank and Matt approached Start-Ed, The City Law School’s free business and legal advice clinic.

Founded by Reader in Law, Dr David Collins and City alumnus Eric Klotz, Start-Ed

has assisted more than 700 start-ups and small businesses since it was established in 2011. It is staffed by students from The City Law School who are supervised by local professionals including barristers, solicitors and accountants. David says a lack of access to simple legal advice is one of the major barriers to success in the start-up sector: “Legal advice, even in the most basic form, is essential for anyone thinking of starting a business or who is in the early stages of running one. But unfortunately legal advice can be prohibitively expensive for small companies. I am very pleased that we were able to provide Popcord with that initial legal assistance and point Frank and Matt in the right direction.”

Frank has taken full advantage of the services the University offers to support entrepreneurialism. In addition to the support from course leaders and colleagues there has been input from the CityStarters team (City’s student enterprise team) and The Hangout (City’s entrepreneurship centre) which Frank describes as ‘invaluable’ in the development of both Popcord and the KickStarter campaign.

CityStarters and Student Enterprise Manager Ben Mumby-Croft says: “Popcord is a great example of how student entrepreneurs can take advantage of new forms of

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finance to launch innovative new products and ventures. I’m a great believer in this approach and think it provides two key benefits for would-be start-up founders over traditional options such as trying to secure a bank loan or win prize money via enterprise competitions. Firstly, it forces entrepreneurs to think about how they communicate and sell their ideas and secondly it is a great way to test and validate real market demand for new products and services.”

Most recently, Popcord was one of the winners of the CitySpark competition.

To find out more about StartEd, email start-ed@city.ac.uk

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Meet the IT Support Services

AV Team: Ben Chapman, Begona Garcia, Steve Parkes, Ania Przygoda, Romano Pena, Augustin Galatanu

Service Desk Team: Larry Said, Zoe Blackwell, Ziashan Tailor, Rachel Thomas

Service Desk Team: Nick Lawlor, Anna Lartey, Femi Shoyele, Muhammad Islam, Helder Ferreira, Sade Ajibade, Gurjeet Seehra, Carlton Cotterill

Desktop Support Team: Owen Kenny, Kim Ly, Tomas Wright, Julia Amanshia, Perry Driscoll

Last year saw the Service Desk move to a central location with strategic local outposts. For the first time, there is a single point of contact in the form of the IT Service Desk, enabling faster responses to IT related requests and queries.

In an effort to ensure students receive the best possible service, the number of support staff has increased in the Service Centre in Drysdale Building and in the Library at Bunhill Row. Satisfaction with the support services has increased by 10 per cent, and faults reported by students are now fixed 73 per cent more quickly than previously last year.

The IT Support Services Team is managed

by Istvan Boha (Head of IT Support Services), who reports to Michael Freeman (Director of

IT Service). The team consists of three distinct groups, the IT Service Desk, the AV (Audio Visual) Team, and the Desktop Support Team. Their shared purpose is to ensure that staff and students are able to access the University’s information technology and that they are maintained and fixed as required.

The AV (Audio Visual) Team – The lecture room technologies are maintained by the AV Team. They ensure the lecture room pods, PCs and projectors (amongst other things) are ready for use and offer support to staff and students who need technical support while in the lecture room.

The Service Desk Team - Offering 24

difficulties with a University PC or its software, the Desktop Team will investigate and fix the problem. Its remit covers 4,100 desktops around different sites. Over the last three months, it has reduced the average time it takes to fix a desktop by 85 per cent.

hour support to staff and students, the IT Service Desk Team is who you contact when you need help with IT issues. From re-setting passwords to installing software, the team will either fix the problem for you, or will ensure your issue or request is raised with the right person in Information Services. Over the past 3 months the team has logged 8,097 incidents and 6,233 requests and received 9,965 phone calls.

The Desktop Support Team - When there are

Log IT related requests at cityuni.service-now.com

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Meet the Director Istvan Boha

Stephen Quinlan

Adrian Dawtrey

Michael Freeman

How did you get into IT?

Angelina Nasev

When I left University College London in 1982 I took a course in Programming and Analysis, which led to a job as a programmer and have been in IT ever since. I progressed quite quickly and in 1986 I had my first job as an IT manager at the solicitors Watson Farley and Williams. Before coming to City I was Head of IT and Logistics at Mitsubishi Electric Europe for 11 years, working in the UK, Ireland, France and Germany.

What is the toughest thing about the job?

Femi Ogunro

Kola Fashoyin

Ensuring that we provide consistently excellent service in an environment of continual change. That is not just the organisational change at City but also the way technology evolves and the range of services we need to provide. The other part is ensuring that people understand that despite all efforts, things do go wrong. The challenge in IT and any service is to do your best to prevent issues, but when they do arise react as quickly as possible to solve them.

What has been your worst ever IT crisis?

Fortunately nothing too terrible. Generally major issues tend to arise due to external influences beyond your control. Sometimes it is human error. At my last job there was a major incident when a systems administrator said ‘yes’ when asked if they wanted to continue with an action and this caused the deletion of a huge amount of data. It took

Simon King

three days to recover the situation, during which the SAP system (a common centralised database for all applications within an organisation) was unavailable to 1,000 users.

One golden rule in IT is that you should always ask if you are unsure rather than press the button! It was a lesson learnt the hard way!

How will technology change student education in 20 years?

The delivery model of higher education is already changing with more distance learning, online assesments and the introduction of technology such as podcasts. We can use Microsoft Lync for tutorials, linking a lecturer in London to a student in Dubai for example. Adobe Connect (or MS-Lync) can be can be used for remote group teaching.

However the challenge is not so much what technology can deliver but how universities use it. In theory usage of remote learning technology ticks many boxes. Some people are happy to have a complete distance learning course with minimal interaction, while others want the traditional face-toface teaching. I can see such changes as adapting technology to meet the needs of our students: making use of technology to find new ways of delivering courses but ensuring that students are fully engaged. We also need to provide our students with the best technology to support their studies, regardless of the channel through which it is delivered.

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How I became a bounty hunter…

By student journalist Stephanie Broadribb

By XXXXXXXXXXX

Stephanie Broadribb (MA Crime Thriller Writing) was advised by her tutors to ‘get into her character’s head’ when researching for her novel. This advice led Stephanie to train as a bounty hunter in California earlier this year. She speaks to City News about her experiences.

In 2012, we had a lecture with World War One historian and writer Julian Putkowski on Research Methods. One of the things he said was that to make our stories feel authentic we needed to understand the world our characters operated in. This was echoed in a guest lecture from author Julia Crouch who gave some great advice on getting into our characters’ heads. As the main character in my novel is a female bounty hunter I thought it would be great to find out more about the practicalities of the job and how it feels to be a woman working in what is a traditionally male-dominated business. As I’m someone

who generally learns best through experience and practice I thought why not give it a go.

I had no idea where to start, so my first point of call was the ever dependable Google!

The thing about bounty hunting is that every US state has different rules and requirements for a licence, so you need to look carefully at what you can and can’t do. In my novel, the main character works in Florida, where the term ‘bounty hunter’ is illegal, although the job exists under a different title. I browsed websites and forums and this led me to a book - Modern Bounty Hunting. It was a great resource. When I looked up the author, Rex Venator - who is an experienced bounty hunter based in California - I discovered that he ran courses. I got in touch and a few months later I was on a plane to LA. Doing the training was fascinating, both in terms of learning about the business (there’s a lot more knowledge of the law required than I’d realised) and hearing about the real

life stories and experiences of the trainer, (a highly experienced bounty hunter) and others on the course, many of whom were already bounty hunting in other states. I also learnt lots of practical tips that will be helpful for my main character. I found out that an effective, active bounty hunter can earn up to $100,000 a year. It’s also a mentally and physically challenging job: you need to have great investigation skills, be physically fit and know how the law relates to what you do and be able to argue motions in court. No days and no cases are the same as others! The downside is that it’s a dangerous business. Bounty hunters are injured and killed every year.

This was all perfect research for my novel Deep Down Dead which will be the first in a planned series about 38 year old bounty hunter and single mother, Lori Austen, who must hunt down her old mentor, and lover, who has turned fugitive – the very man who buried the evidence of her criminal past.

From the archive

This looks like an early prototype for Google Glass. In fact, it is an undergraduate project from 1985 by City alumnus Dr Steve Sorrell. The project was called Communication by eye closure – a microcomputer-based system for the disabled. Steve has gone onto become senior lecturer in Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Sussex.

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Pick of upcoming City events To find details and to register for events at City, you can visit our website: www.city.ac.uk/events

Monday 23rd June 9am - 7.30pm Teaching of Public Law Conference 2014 Northampton Suite Following a very successful and enjoyable conference on the Teaching of Public Law at the University of Manchester in June 2013, we are delighted to be hosting another such event this summer at City. A range of eminent Public Law academics will be speaking throughout the day and discussing key issues relating to the teaching of Public Law at UK universities.

Wednesday 2nd July 10.00am - 3pm Undergraduate Open Day Northampton Square, London, EC1V 0HB We have the first of our two Undergraduate Open Days fast approaching. On Wednesday 2nd July we are opening our doors to offer prospective undergraduate students the opportunity to learn more about living and studying in London, explore our sites, see our facilities and meet staff, students and alumni.

Wednesday 9th July 9am - 5pm Medical Image Understanding and Analysis Conference 2014 Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham Hill, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0E The 18th Annual Conference in Medical Image Understanding and Analysis (MIUA) is a UK-based meeting for the communication of research related to image analysis and its application to medical imaging and biomedicine. The meetings provide an opportunity to present and discuss research in medical image understanding and analysis; a rapidly growing subject with ever increasing real-world applicability.

Thursday 10th July 12pm - 5pm International Legal Ethics Conference College Building, St John Street, London, EC1V 4PB The sixth bi-annual conference of the International Legal Ethics Association takes place at a critical time in the evolution of legal ethics. The conference attracts a large international audience including leading scholars and practitioners from the main jurisdictions. The atmosphere of the conference is open and inclusive. It is attended by academics from a range of disciplines, by practising lawyers and regulators.

Tuesday 9th September 9am - 5pm Digital Libraries Conference The Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS Digital Libraries 2014 is the conjoined conference for both the ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries and the Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries Conference series. The conference will bring together both communities in a single event to cover the latest research in digital libraries.

Whatever your interests in the broadly interpreted domain of digital libraries: user research, system architectures, collection policies, or specialist domains such as digital humanities, preservation or scholarship, we look forward to your submission of new research and your attendance in September 2014.

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