RESEARCH AT COVENTRY UNIVERSITY
Churches look to prevent conflict and violence The ways in which the church can influence warring communities
Issue 16 Winter 2014
Breaking ground for female building engineers Shuli Liu leads the way with research success
Muddy Waters Researching water quality in Ireland
WELCOME It’s my pleasure to welcome you to the latest issue of Innovate. It’s an exciting time for Coventry University as we head into December 2014, because we’ll find out how we fared in the national Research Excellence Framework – the new system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. Our rating in the REF is hugely important to us, not just in terms of the funding it brings, but also the benefits it can offer to our research reputation and future research collaborations. If you’re interested in the kind of organisations we currently partner with then read on. This issue of Innovate is packed with stories about the way we consult or collaborate with a range of companies, public sector bodies and government agencies. There’s an update on our groundbreaking collaboration with Unipart, where we’re taking our innovative teaching and learning to the factory floor. This collaboration is already proving fruitful and we’ve just signed a new research contract with Ford. You can read about how we’re working with the Anglican church to look at interventions in areas undergoing conflict and war. We’re also working with West Midlands Fire Service on a potentially life-saving new app called 999 EYE. Our researchers are also working with offenders in a category B prison to find out if horticultural intervention can help improve health and wellbeing. We’re also looking at cyber security with a range of high profile partners and ways we can keep the rail industry safe. You can also hear about our PhD students and the work they are doing to encourage children to become more active. The range of stories in this issue shows the depth and breadth of our expertise. As a University we’re determined to play our part in shaping the future. If you feel you’d like to work with us on this then please get in touch. I look forward to hearing from you.
PROFESSOR KEVIN WARWICK Deputy Vice-Chancellor Contact: innovate@coventry.ac.uk
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INNOVATE WINTER 2014
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04 NEWS The latest research and business news from campus 06 COVENTRY JOINS WITH NPL ON SMART TEXTILES RESEARCH Leading the way in smart textiles with global centre of excellence
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08 AMES RESEARCH REPUTATION GROWS WITH FORD University collaboration with Unipart secures research contract with Ford 09 FALLS PREVENTION IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND Innovative app helps people identify the hazards in their home 10 CHURCHES LOOK TO PREVENT CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE The ways in which the church can influence warring communities 12 SWITCHED ON, TUNED IN AND STRESSED OUT? Maintaining the balance between work and personal life in the technology age
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14 GIVING CAR INTERIORS THE LIGHT TOUCH Improve the sustainability of automotive plastics against the sun’s UV rays 16 A NEW ‘APP’-ROACH TO COMBATTING COLLUSION Combatting cyber criminals with sophisticated technology 18 GROWING POSITIVITY IN THE PRISON GARDEN Using horticultural therapies to support offenders
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22 MUDDY WATERS Researching water quality in Ireland
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24 HOW SAFE WILL TOMORROW’S RAILWAYS BE? Safety solutions for the rail industry
28 FIGHTING FIRES WITH PHONE TECHNOLOGY Testing the effectiveness of a new emergency response solution
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20 BREAKING GROUND FOR FEMALE BUILDING ENGINEERS Shuli Liu leads the way with research success
26 A MISSION TO GET PEOPLE MOVING Innovative interventions to make kids more active
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Edited and designed by Marketing and Communications Coventry University Printed by Emmersons
FOR MORE INFORMATION If you would like to find out more about any of the articles within this issue, if you have a general enquiry about applied research or to subscribe to a future issue of Innovate, contact us on T +44 (0) 24 7688 8352 E innovate@coventry.ac.uk www.coventry.ac.uk/research
This publication is available in other formats on request. Please contact Marketing and Communications on +44 (0) 24 7688 8352 If you would prefer to receive Innovate electronically email innovate@coventry.ac.uk
NEWS
Tristessa Allison, Learning Innovation Lead, Customer Learning Academy, British Airways, Felix Bradshaw, Sales Director, Serious Games International
First class training for British Airways staff
COVENTRY UNIVERSITY SPIN-OUT ‘SERIOUS GAMES INTERNATIONAL’ (SGIL) HAS WON A CONTRACT WITH BRITISH AIRWAYS WHICH WILL GAMIFY TRAINING FOR ITS FIRST CLASS CABIN CREW.
COVENTRY UNIVERSITY’S RECENT SUCCESS IN THE VARIOUS NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLES CAN BE LARGELY ATTRIBUTED TO ITS INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO TEACHING AND LEARNING AND STUDENT SATISFACTION. The University is always looking for new ways to enrich teaching and learning and the launch of the Disruptive Media Learning Lab (DMLL) is one of the latest initiatives in this field. It’s a new teaching, learning and study space, which opened in October 2014 on the top floor of the Frederick Lanchester Library. Staff in the Lab encourage and support projects, which experiment with different forms of teaching and engagement to enrich
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students’ experience and education. Staff from across the campus are encouraged to visit the space and share their ideas of how they can modify their teaching. It’s an exciting and creative space with a grassy hill and innovative study spaces. Email: DMLL@coventry.ac.uk disrupt_learn disrupt_learn
ritish Airways were looking for an interactive and engaging way of training its cabin crew in a variety of skills and procedures relating to first class travel. Serious Games International has designed a training tool for First cabin crew featuring a fusion of 3D visualisation and scenario games. The software is being utilised to engage crew ahead of a dedicated day-long training course. It will then be used as referral tool to support continual professional development. Using SGIL’s award winning games developers, best practice from the video game industry will be used to stimulate and challenge crew using state-of-the-art
technology. The outputs from the serious game are expected to show an improvement in knowledge retention. Tristessa Allison, Learning Innovation Lead, Customer Learning Academy, British Airways said: ‘Utilising SGIL’s expertise and technology will enable our cabin crew working in First to visualise and experience a selection of scenarios associated with first class travel. In essence equipping them with the essential skills to serve our customers to the highest standard.’ Felix Bradshaw, Sales Director, Serious Games International said: ‘We are delighted to be working with British Airways, designing a game that will revolutionise the way they train staff in first class. We are confident that it will add real value to their training procedures through engagement and increased knowledge retention rates.’ The contract is the beginning of a digital partnership between the two companies which will see Serious Games International designing further games based learning applications for the airline.
Mixing theatre and research to create a spectacular performance TWO RESEARCH CENTRES FROM COVENTRY UNIVERSITY RECENTLY TEAMED UP WITH RESEARCH GROUPS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK TO PROVIDE AN UNUSUAL FORM OF THEATRE AS PART OF THE COVENTRY MYSTERIES FESTIVAL. ASTheatre worked with the Applied Mathematics Research Centre and the Smarter Households Project, both based in the Faculty of Engineering and Computing at Coventry University to produce a show for the Mysteries Festival, an annual creative event which takes place in the city. The show, called The Institute of Impossibility was about the evolution of ideas and creativity. The performance formed part of LASTheatre’s ‘The Enlightenment Café’ series which offers science communication through theatre. The group create worlds in which science is the centre piece and allow audiences to discuss and play with what they learn. School and community groups, and the general public attended the show which was themed around ‘fixing’ EVO, a machine that must be fuelled by new ideas.
The Smarter Households team worked with LASTheatre to develop a mock-up home, inside which volunteer audience members took part in a light-hearted sketch with professional actors, mimicking a family arguing about an expensive energy bill. The Smarter Households project, funded under the EPSRC BuildTEDDI programme, aims to equip households with the ability to reduce their energy consumption through an intelligent digital sensor and smart meter system and serious game (www.coventry.ac.uk/smarterhouseholds). This is a collaboration between Coventry University, the Universities of Birmingham and Edinburgh, Orbit Housing Group and E.ON. Principal Investigator Dr Shuli Liu said: ‘Although it was an unusual request, being part of the Mysteries Festival presented a valuable opportunity to promote our research to wider audiences. There was also a strong civic message of promoting the research within the city itself.’
‘Immersive theatre is a great way to engage audiences with scientific concepts in an entertaining way, and as our smart meter and sensor system and serious game will be installed in 20 homes in Coventry, it was an invaluable opportunity to gauge reactions to the technology and obtain early feedback during the development stage.’ The Applied Mathematics Centre based their show around recent research in complexity theory. The Centre has pioneered the application of mathematical techniques from the new field of sociophysics to humanities, in particular to the analysis of social structures depicted in narrative epics. The work, supported by the Leverhulme Trust and the European Science Foundation, has led to important advances in comparative mythology. This in turn generated an enormous amount of impact, including interviews with BBC Radio 4 and an extensive article in the New York Times.
It is also the type of application of mathematics which is accessible by the general public and the presentation generated a great deal of interest. Professor Ralph Kenna said: ‘Proving impact beyond academia is increasingly important to publicly funded fundamental, as well as applied, research. In abstract subjects such as mathematics, this can sometimes be difficult to achieve. However, by mixing mathematics with other disciplines, we have shown not only is this possible, but it can really inspire and excite the public at large. Complexity theory is one such area where public engagement is possible, enjoyable and rewarding.’
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Coventry joins with NPL on smart textiles research Coventry University has partnered with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to deliver a Knowledge Transfer Partnership in the area of smart textiles. NPL is the UK’s National Measurement Institute, and a world-leading centre of excellence. NPL’s Electrical Interconnection Group will work alongside the University’s Functional Materials Team to look at techniques for applying conductive tracks to a range of textiles. A Knowledge Transfer Partnership, or KTP, as it’s widely known, is funded by Innovation UK (formerly known as the Technology Strategy Board) and is designed to enable innovation in business. It brings together three elements, the company, academic expertise and a dedicated KTP associate, in this case, Dr Kathryn Wills.
driverConnex secures funding award for its innovative solutions
The focus of the KTP is smart textiles; whilst this itself is not a new innovation, the approach that will be investigated through the partnership will be highly innovative. Dr Andrew Cobley who will be overseeing the project on behalf of the University said: ‘There are already methods to produce conductive textiles, such as weaving a conductive yarn into the material or by printing conductive inks onto the fabric surface. However this isn’t always the most practical approach because, for example, the conductive yarn could unravel during the lifetime of the fabric, such as during the washing process.’ There are numerous applications for the work across the wearable technology sector, for example within health, sport and the military.
obile technology innovation company, driverConnex, has secured ERDF funding to create a new app that will provide access to the benefits of fleet telematics for individuals and businesses of all sizes. Backing for driverConnex, which comes under the Electric and Intelligent Vehicles project programme, coincides with the company’s relocation to Coventry University Technology Park, putting the company in direct contact with a range of business support and R&D facilities. The Electric and Intelligent Vehicles Project is an ERDF-funded grants scheme managed by
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Martin Lucy (left), Senior Project Manager, EIV Project & Mark Andrews (right), MD driverConnex
A key goal will be selective metallisation of the textile, i.e. the incorporation of conductive tracks into the textile rather than coating the whole surface, which could lead to circuit designs being incorporated into clothing. The process of depositing nanoparticulate silver onto fibres has already been developed by NPL, with the resulting fabrics demonstrating excellent coverage of silver and conductivity, whilst retaining the necessary flexibility for textile applications. The next step in the additive process will use the metallisation expertise at Coventry University to increase the conductive layer to a more useable level for electronic applications and then develop a robust prototype. There are many factors to consider when working with smart textiles,
Coventry University Enterprises Limited and is currently offering grants of up to £30,000 to eligible West Midlands based SMEs in the Electric Vehicle (EV) or Intelligent Vehicle Systems (IS) sectors. Using the funding received from the EIV project, driverConnex has devised a solution that will comprise of a dedicated app downloaded onto each employee’s smartphone (or other mobile device) synchronised with a web portal to enable real-time fleet/driver management. Mark Andrews, Managing Director of driverConnex believes this approach could revolutionise the current view of telematics as something regarded as just the preserve of large fleets.
for example, the texture of the treated material and also its lifetime; how well will it survive repeated washing cycles? The chemistry of each fabric is also a factor since the differences between natural and synthetic fabrics results in different responses to the conductivity treatments. Kathryn Wills, KTP Project Associate, said: ‘This is a fantastic opportunity to be working on smart textiles and with the ultimate focus on conductive tracks, rather than whole surface coating, there is a real opportunity to see electronics being more easily integrated into clothing in the near future, which has the potential to be really influential in the healthcare and sports industries.’
‘We have already done a lot of work with SMEs and drivers and know they will be drawn to a solution that is not reliant on any additional hardware/installation and simply use the device they already have with them constantly – their smartphone.’ ‘With mobile technology, the key is not just to create a menu of functionality you think will be useful, it’s about designing a user experience and user interface that is intuitive and driver focused creating something drivers will want to use, as opposed to something they feel compelled to use because it is mandated by their employer.’
For more information visit www.driverconnex.com
Helping Lotus go low-carbon When it comes to automotive engineering expertise, there are few companies with a reputation as outstanding in the industry as the historic British marque Lotus Cars. So when Coventry University students were given the chance to work with the company on low carbon enhancements, it was an opportunity grabbed with both hands.
ver six decades at the forefront of British car manufacturing and an impressive heritage competing in the cutting edge world of Formula One racing have earned the Lotus name an iconic status in the engineering field. It’s a status that automotive engineering students around the world will be all too aware of, particularly a group of third-year undergraduates from Coventry University who recently collaborated with Lotus on a unique design brief set by the Norfolk-based carmarker. The challenge for the students was to take the company’s existing Evora platform and design a low carbon enhancement that could theoretically be integrated into the car to improve emissions – without compromising the performance and driving experience. It was a tall order, but the students – working under the supervision of the University’s expert automotive engineering academics – had big ideas to match the task.
A number of potential solutions emerged, with two winning ideas standing out in what would prove to be a glowing testament to the students’ engineering and innovation abilities. One focused on the Evora’s powertrain, with a proposal that would boost the car’s emissions by employing advanced cylinder deactivation techniques to improve fuel efficiency.
THE OTHER IDEA PROPOSED ‘LIGHTWEIGHTING’ THE CAR THROUGH MASS REDUCTION OF KEY COMPONENTS – THE STUDENTS REDESIGNED SOME PARTS TO SUCH A HIGH STANDARD THAT THEY WOULD ONLY REQUIRE DETAILED REFINEMENT TO BE PUT INTO PRODUCTION.
At the end of the project it was the team championing the powertrain modifications whose idea Lotus picked as the victorious concept, but this wasn’t a sole success for just one group of students – all of the undergraduates were winners in this collaboration.
“It was encouraging to see appropriate tools and techniques being applied during the project to refine the potential options before utilizing the appropriate CAE tools to provide a data driven solution. Coventry University is producing well rounded engineers capable of hitting the ground running.”
“The enthusiasm and maturity demonstrated by the Coventry University students resonated throughout the project and reflected in the quality of results delivered,” commented Lotus’s Neil Thomas, platform manager for the Evora who oversaw and judged the students’ work.
This academic year further cohorts of automotive engineering students are continuing to work with Lotus to help build on the strong links forged through this project – links that have already seen plans put in place for further, more in-depth collaborative work between this illustrious car manufacturer and Coventry University.
Divided into four competing teams, the students chose to focus their research in various different areas, but not before conducting a thorough benchmarking study of the competition to understand where improvements could be made. Equipped with original CAD drawings of the car, they used an array of analytical tools at their disposal through the University’s Engineering and Computing Building to explore solutions for the task at hand. Left to right: Mehmet Bayraktar, Ajit Deshpande and Mufaddal Bharmal
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AMEs research reputation grows with Ford The Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) – a collaboration between Coventry University and Unipart Manufacturing Group - is set to play a major role in the development of cleaner and more efficient engines. ore than £900,000 of funding from Innovate UK (the new name for the Technology Strategy Board) has been allocated to Unipart Eberspächer Exhaust Systems (UEES) for its part in a project to help design, develop and prototype build new fuel rail systems for the Ford 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine. The global manufacturer will work closely with AME on the simulation, analysis and metrology aspects of the work, utilising an eight-strong team of engineers, designers, quality experts and material specialists. Together, they will form an important part of a consortium that is looking to create a three cylinder, 1 litre high-pressure gasoline turbo engine for future Ford models. ‘This demonstrates the trend for powertrain solutions that offer the same level of performance, but a reduced engine capacity,’ explained James Simester, Technology Director at AME.
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‘It’s definitely the next big advancement in this field and gives the car manufacturers the chance to offer motorists improved efficiencies, cleaner vehicles and a host of cost savings without detracting from the driving experience.’ He continued: ‘Our role will be to work with UEES on developing a new fuel rail system that is able to offer the high pressure performance required by the gasoline turbo engine. ‘We will then be responsible for manufacturing the prototypes and coming up with processes and strategies for long-term volume production.
‘IT’S A MASSIVE CHALLENGE, BUT ONE WE KNOW WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE WITH. THE FACT THIS FUNDING FOLLOWS THE RECENT ‘TOWARDS ZERO PROTOTYPING’ PROJECT ALSO SHOWS OUR REPUTATION IS SPREADING ACROSS INDUSTRY.’
Dennis Witt, Ford Project Manager: Advanced Propulsion Centre, added his support: ‘Ford is delighted to be actively involved in this project, which will ultimately see benefits for consumers through even further improved engine efficiency - reduced CO2 emissions and improved performance.’ AME’s new higher education model provides manufacturing degrees, offering a blend of innovative activity-led teaching, product development and research. Construction work on the 1,700 square metre, state-of the-art manufacturing and R&D space at UEES is gathering pace and will deliver the UK’s first ‘Faculty on the Factory Floor’ for 25+ undergraduates and postgraduates in the first year. It will also house over £2m of state-ofthe-art automation, joining technology and testing equipment, which, alongside Unipart’s extensive manufacturing operation, will play a key role in the development of the Ford 1.0-litre EcoBoost fuel rail systems.
‘We’ll certainly be making the most of AME and its world class research and development capabilities,’ continued Andy Davis, Managing Director of Unipart Eberspächer Exhaust Systems. ‘As part of the R&D, we will be investigating joining techniques, simulating various design models and developing how we actually test the physical design and geometry more effectively.’ He concluded: ‘There will also be a major focus on product verification through pressure and hydropulse testing. We need to prove this system works time and time again so it is ready to go into volume production at the end of the project.’ AME is supported by the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s Catalyst Fund. www.coventry.ac.uk/ame ame_uk
Falls prevention in the palm of your hand round one in three adults over 65 who live at home will have at least one fall a year, and about half of these will have more frequent falls*, but it’s not just the older population who are affected by falls. There are a variety of digital technologies and a range of equipment that can support people at risk of falling, like automatic fall detectors and grab rails. Research shows that, of all the support available, digital technologies are an underused resource. Coventry University’s Health Design & Technology Institute (HDTI) is part of a small consortium who were funded by NHS West Midlands to evaluate the use of fall detectors in the region. The research was led by Dr Gillian Ward from HDTI who said: ‘We discovered that in some areas of the West Midlands fall detectors are flying off the shelves and in others they are hugely underused. The main reason for this was a lack of knowledge amongst the public and health and social care professionals, which can prevent the use of fall detectors by people who may benefit from them. We also found areas of excellent practice that needed to be shared more effectively across the region.’
What do the professionals think? Following the initial research, further funding was secured to produce a range of resources aimed at health and social care professionals, people at risk of falling and their carers, to raise awareness of falls prevention, detection, response and best practice for professionals. The resources included a booklet, a video, a good practice guide and a smartphone app. Gillian said: ‘All of the resources have been well received and the app, in particular, is proving to be a really useful tool.’ FallCheck allows people to identify potential fall hazards in their home, or the home of someone they care for. The app was developed by occupational therapists, falls experts and telecare advisors and the content is based on guidance for falls prevention. ‘The app is very simple to use and divides the home into areas and highlights potential hazards and solutions for preventing a fall occurring. It could be something as easy as rearranging the furniture in the bedroom to provide clear access to the bed, removing a rug or installing an automatic night light. But perhaps the person’s home may benefit from more sophisticated solutions like fall detectors and other telecare sensors that can enable the person to get help if they have had a fall. The app signposts the user to simple technology solutions and national resources on falls prevention as well as telecare support available to the user.’ The app was created by the University’s Centre for Excellence in Learning Enhancement alongside HDTI. ‘We tested the usability of the app with health and social care professionals. It was essential that this group of users felt confident with the app because they would be the ones promoting it. The feedback from the usability testing was overwhelmingly positive. They said it was simple, usable and helpful.’
Michelle Palmer, is a Handling and Moving advisor at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW). Michelle is currently leading on falls from a nursing aspect at UHCW. Michelle heard about the app from a colleague and wanted to find out if it would benefit patients at UHCW. She said: ‘I think the app is very good. It’s useful for the patients and easily accessible for most patients, or their relatives. I do recommend it to people and have spoken about it to a number of colleagues throughout the country who deal with falls. I would like to see all patients who are to be discharged following a fall using it to help them identify how they can reduce the recurrence of falls at home.
For further information about the app or other resources please contact g.ward@coventry.ac.uk
‘I also think that the app should be advertised in GP’s surgeries so people may access it prior to having a fall.’
The app is free to download from www.coventry.ac.uk/fallcheck
Are you, or someone you know, worried about falling at home?
Fallcheck is a free app to help prevent falls in the home
The app is web enabled so can be used on any mobile device as well as a PC. It was launched in September and has already attracted a great deal of interest and more than 1000 downloads.
*www.nhs.uk/conditions/Falls/Pages/Introduction.aspx
Innovate I Winter 2014 9
Churches look to prevent and
Stories of war and violent conflict are never far from our minds, or from the media. Whether it is civil war in South Sudan or turmoil in the Middle East, the results can be devastating. 1.5 billion people live in countries affected by conflict 1, and they are 3 times more likely to be undernourished 2.
1. World Development Report 2011 by the World Bank. 2. http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/ 2639Issues%20Brief%20on%20Peace%20etc_FINAL_21_Nov.pdf.
he World Bank believes the cost of the average civil war to be more than 30 years’ worth of GDP. Conflict is more than costly. It is development in reverse. Churches, mosques and other local faith groups are often the first responders during times of conflict and crisis. They provide emergency relief and shelter to the displaced. They provide safe space to share and listen, to seek understanding, healing and reconciliation. And they continue to provide schools, hospitals and other essential services to local people, maintaining a sense of normalcy as much as possible. Often their leaders can become trusted peacemakers. The media is constantly reporting on the destructive actions of religious fundamentalists in various parts of the world. However, many faith groups and religious communities play very positive roles in development and peacemaking, which are easily overlooked. Faith groups normally have deep roots in their communities and wide support networks that stretch around the world. They have an open-ended commitment to local people and provide a local response to local problems. And they know the culture and customs of their community. And if faith groups can respond to conflict then perhaps they can also help to prevent it. That is the concept being investigated in a research project that Coventry University is leading, which looks at the role of faith groups and faith-based organisations in conflict prevention and early warning. The project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
It brings together an influential network of The Anglican Alliance, Coventry Cathedral, the Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace, and academics from Coventry University’s Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations. The aim of the project is to investigate the role of churches and other faith groups in helping to spot early signs of tension and violence and stop it from happening. It looks to see what scope there is for improving the work that churches and faith groups do to help prevent violence and how this can be supported. Laura Payne from the University’s Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations explained: ‘Our research is looking at the reasons why conflict occurs. It asks whether we can recognise early warning signs and take early action to prevent larger outbreaks of hatred and violence. We are partnering with one of the biggest church networks in the world – the Anglican Church. There are over 80 million Anglicans in 165 countries. Our partners have a deep commitment to peacemaking going back centuries, and we are bringing together the best of our research strengths and their experience and network to try to progress this important work.’ As part of the research, Laura and Professor Alp Özerdem, Co-Director of the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, travelled to Nigeria and Solomon Islands with the partners from the Anglican network of churches. Laura explained: ‘We chose Nigeria and Solomon Islands as the case study locations because they are so different. Nigeria is a huge country, with quite an even split of Christians and Muslims. The Solomon Islands is a collection of islands which has a population that is recorded as being around 97% Christian. During our visits to these countries we wanted to find out what the church has been able to do when violent conflict breaks out and where opportunities were taken and missed.’
Conflict in Solomon Islands broke out in 1998 over access to land, employment and other opportunities in the capital of Honiara, on the island of Guadalcanal. This was partly driven by growing migration from the neighbouring island of Malaita. The church played a big role in the resolution of this conflict with the Melanesian Brothers, or monks, at the heart of the resolution. ‘The Brothers were vital in providing muchneeded humanitarian support. They provided security at ports and airports so that vital supplies could be imported. They provided safe transport for evacuees and collected weapons to help restore peace, disposing of them at sea. They camped on the front line between the militants for months, refusing to give up on the young men so much like themselves.
SEVEN OF THE BROTHERS WERE KILLED BY ONE OF THE MILITIA LEADERS, ACCUSED OF BEING SPIES WHEN THEY WENT TO TALK ABOUT POSSIBILITIES FOR PEACE.’ In Nigeria the research focused on the middle belt of the country which comprises a mix of religions. It’s a volatile area, with many intersecting conflicts and sporadic fighting and rioting that has taken on a religious tone over time. Churches and mosques have been destroyed, blown up or burnt down. In Nigeria, the researchers worked with local organisations including the Justice, Development and Peace Commission/Caritas. Established by the Catholic Church, it was set-up to address justice, peace, development and human rights challenges. The organisation has organised peace committees in many local areas, usually comprised of 15 local people from a range of backgrounds who could be the eyes and ears of the community, monitoring interactions and raising the alarm in times of growing tension. ‘In Nigeria we saw these local committees in action.
The peace teams worked well. They had clearly built up trust and understanding over time.” Laura, Alp and Professor Alan Hunter, who is also working on the project, presented their observations to an international consultation of church leaders from Africa, Asia and the Pacific in order to collaboratively generate the project’s research findings. The consultation took place in November 2014 in Coventry and Lambeth Palace in London, the Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Alp said: ‘Representatives from churches in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, Kenya, Solomon Islands and Nigeria attended the event. We also invited a wider group of senior leaders from government, international organisations, charities, the media and faith groups to join us at Lambeth Palace on the final afternoon, to present what we found and get their views about what could work and how they could get involved in supporting local faith groups on the front line of preventing violence.’ ‘We expect that this research will contribute towards building the body of knowledge and tools which will help address conflict situations before they become violent. Where successful conflict prevention and early response mechanisms can de-escalate conflict and serious social harms can be avoided. Damage to economies, infrastructure and social relations can be prevented. However, we will always need more long term solutions too. Often the only real way to prevent violence permanently is to build the levels of trust and fairness in societies and to address people’s grievances. When we can do this, our resources can be used for provided public services and improving quality of life. We can prosper in peace.’
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Switched on,
tuned in and stressed out?
he separation between work and personal life has become blurred over recent years, so much so that we have a ‘new normal’. There are lots of factors which contribute to this trend, but perhaps the most significant is the advancement in technology enabling us to be always connected and globalisation demanding 24/7 responsiveness. ‘The negative impacts of this ‘always on’ culture are that your mind is never resting, you’re not giving your body time to recover, so you’re always stressed. The more tired and stressed we get, the more mistakes we can make and this affects our productivity and quality of work produced. Physical and mental health can suffer too,’ says Dr Christine Grant, an Occupational Psychologist at Coventry University’s Centre for Research in Psychology, Behaviour and Achievement. Christine has had a long-standing interest in this area of research and now focuses on measuring the impact of remote working on work-life balance, well-being, job effectiveness and the development of psychometric measures. Christine explained: ‘My passion for research in this area started about 15 years ago. I had a successful career in banking in the City of London. My employer at the time offered some opportunities for remote working, but IT systems at the time were very slow and not well accepted by employers. Consequently, I found it difficult to manage a job in the City and family life. I was inspired to start researching work-life issues, especially related to technology. I decided it was time to change my career.’
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‘I completed a Masters in Occupational Psychology and was fascinated in the impact of work-life balance on mood, effectiveness and performance. I met Professor Louise Wallace from Coventry University at a conference. We started talking about the health and wellbeing aspects of work-life balance and how this could impact on stress levels and employee health.’ Whilst e-working has been linked to positive productivity gains, the impact of e-working on employees’ well-being and work-life balance has not been measured in depth and particularly some of the more negative aspects. For example, employees may be struggling to ‘switch off’ from work that is constantly available, which in turn may impact their wellbeing. Christine completed a PhD focusing on remote e-workers and, as part of her studies, created a way to measure the impact of technology and e-working on work-life balance and job effectiveness. This included all types of e-workers not just those working from home but those who accessed work remotely, including after hours working. ‘I’ve spent six years developing and testing the model and it’s been met with huge interest both in the UK and overseas.’ Christine set up ‘ework-life solutions’ a service aimed at organisations who employ or are looking to employ remote e-workers. ework-life solutions provide a service that enables organisations to effectively measure the impact of remote working on their workforce. This innovative service consists of an on-line ework-life assessment tool and personalised consultancy service. Remote working is on the increase worldwide. With many organisations now providing some form of access to a remote
working facility it has become very important to consider the effects on employees. The ework-life assessment tool offers organisations a service that measures the impact of remote working on their employees. Employees complete the ework-life assessment tool and this provides employers with a baseline as to where employees need help to improve e-working effectiveness and where well-being and work-life balance interventions are required. Employees receive an individualised report that indicates the impact of their e-working on their work-life balance, well-being and job effectiveness.
EMPLOYERS CAN THEN CHOOSE FROM A NUMBER OF RECOMMENDED INVENTIONS AND STRATEGIES, SUCH AS AN E-LEARNING TRAINING COURSE TO HELP THEIR EMPLOYERS IMPROVE THEIR E-WORKING CAPABILITIES. Christine explained: ‘Both employer and employee can benefit from using the assessment tool. Employers can improve their e-working effectiveness which ultimately can affect productivity levels and gain performance improvements. Employees can benefit by understanding how improving their e-working practices can also help their work-life balance and wellbeing. The assessment tool indicates where gaps may be occurring in eight dimensions measured by the tool. I can then assist in selecting appropriate interventions and a post assessment can be undertaken.’
Christine has interest from a number of organisations and universities who wish to use the tool, either for research or commercially. Christine is very keen to promote use of the tool and to advance research in this area; she recently presented her research in New York at the Work and Family Research Network conference. She has also won a British Psychological Society research funding competition with colleagues from 3 different universities. The group will be holding a series of seminars in 2015 on, the ‘switched on’ culture. ‘The tool is hugely effective and we’ve had feedback from users who say our interventions have changed (revolutionised) the way they work and most importantly raised their awareness of how technology can impact their lives. The worry is that technology is moving at a faster pace than we can keep up with. Smartphones and mobile devices mean that we are ‘always on’. Tools like this can help workers to moderate their usage and realise the damage they could be doing to their health and wellbeing.’
CHRISTINE HAS TEAMED UP WITH A RISK MANAGEMENT CONSULTANCY WHO HAS A PORTFOLIO OF HEALTH AND SAFETY TOOLS THAT CAN BE USED ALONGSIDE THE E-WORK LIFE ASSESSMENT TOOL TO HELP ORGANISATIONS MINIMISE THE RISK TO THEIR EMPLOYEES.
‘I’m really interested in the potential impact of remote working on the next generation; Millenniums and Generation Z, as they’re widely known. At the moment, the majority of us are ‘visitors’ in a virtual world, we dip in and out to book a holiday or send an email. In the future, Millenniums and Generation Z will be permanent residents in the virtual world and unless something changes then this could have a huge impact on their wellbeing. Employers need to put interventions in place now to help manage expectations and set precedence.’ To find out more about ework-life balance assessment solutions visit: https://ework.coventry.ac.uk/ To contact Dr Christine Grant email: christine.grant@coventry.ac.uk
Work-life balance, a term that was coined in the early 80s, is now one of the most commonly-used phrases in organisations across the world. Innovate I Winter 2014 13
Sunlight is responsible in one way or another for giving life to nearly every living thing on our planet, and yet if left unchecked over time its UV rays can be equally destructive – from harming our skin to damaging the integrity of plastics. t is that very problem of polymers deteriorating in sunlight that was the focus of a unique industrial PhD collaboration between Volkswagen and Coventry University spin-out Exilica. When chemistry with management student Eugen Fichter graduated from Coventry University in 2007, little did he know his final year research project – overseen by former Reader in Applied Chemistry Dr Daniel Lynch – had sown the seed for a collaboration that would see him reunite the following year with his former supervisor through his job at Volkswagen. Eugen’s career aspirations had led him back home after his studies and he began working for the German carmaker in its plastics quality assurance division, playing a key part in ensuring the premium build quality for which Volkswagen is globally renowned. Having enrolled on Volkswagen’s highlyregarded doctorate programme, Eugen had a moment of inspiration when choosing the area in which he wanted to focus his PhD study.
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The issue of the sun’s UV rays degrading the quality of polymers over time is faced by manufacturers across all industries, but it can be a particular challenge to the automotive sector given how exposed plastics on cars are to sunlight and other elements. Not only was it a challenge with which Eugen was familiar through his role with Volkswagen, he also knew exactly who to contact to find a solution thanks to his final year research project at Coventry University. By this time Daniel had launched spin-out firm Exilica with the support of Coventry University Enterprises, and was specialising in a field of particle technology that potentially held the answers for Eugen’s research with Volkswagen. As technical director of Exilica, Daniel was only too happy to accept when Eugen asked him to be an official external supervisor for his PhD project alongside Volkswagen’s automotive polymer expert Dr Peter Schwarzer. The collaborative project – which harnessed Exilica’s cutting-edge hollow spherical silica particle technology – gave Eugen the opportunity to pick up his research where he left off when he graduated.
HIS MISSION WAS TO FIND A WAY TO IMPROVE THE SUSTAINABILITY OF AUTOMOTIVE PLASTICS AGAINST THE SUN’S UV RAYS – IN PARTICULAR THOSE USED FOR THE CAR’S INTERIOR.
Biography
The particles can withstand the high temperatures and pressures involved in injection moulding processes, meaning they can be safely manufactured into any polymer while remaining inert to the polymer itself.
they can be safely manufactured into any polymer while remaining inert to the polymer itself. Their controlled release system can then allow an encapsulated substance (for example an additive) to be discharged slowly over time, introducing a more measured flow of the substance into the plastic and – crucially – mitigating unwanted side effects. The proof, however, is in the pudding – as part of the research project, natural and artificial weathering tests have been carried out on polymers incorporating Exilica’s technology, and initial results have shown that the particles’ slow release mechanism does indeed enhance the effect of the additives when incorporated into a range of prototype polymers.
The method currently favoured by the automotive industry for protecting against UV radiation is to incorporate additives into the polymers to increase their resilience. However, additives in the concentrations required to be effective can often leach out of the polymer in high concentrations, resulting in undesirable side effects such as surface discolouration or stickiness.
Exilica’s innovative hollow silica particles – which act like microscopic containers capable of storing up to four times their own weight in other substances – provide a unique new technique to get the benefits of the additives without the associated issues. The particles can withstand the high temperatures and pressures involved in injection moulding processes, meaning
Eugen Fichter is a materials technology specialist who works in Volkswagen’s quality assurance division in Wolfsburg. Having graduated from Coventry University in 2007 with a degree in chemistry with management, he embarked on Volkswagen’s doctorate programme with a view to researching new polymer technologies for automotive applications. He was awarded his PhD in September 2014. Dr Daniel Lynch PhD is the technical director of Exilica and inventor of the processes by which its nanoparticles are created. Before being appointed a reader in applied chemistry in 2007, he was senior lecturer in biomolecular and sports sciences at Coventry University for 12 years, during which time he produced over 200 research publications. A materials chemist whose experience includes working with a number of industrial consultancies, Daniel was on the 2005–2006 Enterprise Fellowship Scheme and was the first academic to be awarded he Midlands Medici Fellowship in 2004–2005.
These results meant that Eugen’s research project had achieved its key aim, which was to show that the particle technology developed by Exilica could be applied to automotive polymers to develop a workable solution to an industry-wide issue. It is a success that can be shared not only between Eugen – who was awarded his PhD – and Volkswagen, who have benefited from insight into a unique technology; it is also a testament to the leading-edge innovation of a Coventry University spin-out which is making waves on a global scene.
Innovate I Winter 2014 15
A new ‘app’-roach to
combatting collusion ‘Is there an app for that?’ It’s a phrase that you hear on a daily basis now but would never have cropped up in conversation just 6 years ago.
ince the introduction of ‘apps’ in 2008, growth in this industry has been phenomenal. In 2012, there were more than 1.2 billion people worldwide using mobile apps. This figure is set to grow at almost 30 percent each year, to reach 4.4 billion users by the end of 2017.* It’s big business and has revolutionised the way we use smartphones and mobile devices. It’s also revolutionised the way we share data, making it very attractive to cyber criminals. Cyber criminals are innovative and sophisticated, and develop new threats as quickly as new technologies emerge. ‘App collusion’ attacks, where two apps work together to bypass security measures on a device, are a serious threat that could compromise data and services on Android platforms.
*Source: Portio Research (March 2013)
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Coventry University is playing a leading role in a new £3 million research programme taking on cyber criminals who use malicious apps which can collude with each other to infect the smartphone in your pocket. The project, which is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), will see Coventry’s cyber security experts receive a £190,000 share to work on new ways to detect instances of ‘app collusion’. Malware attacks are rising year on year – and over one million new Android malicious apps were identified in 2013 by McAfee, a division of Intel Security. Malicious apps can gain access to any personal data on a smart device, including address books, passwords, PIN numbers and GPS coordinates.
An example of app collusion would be one app which is permitted to access your personal data passing that data to a second app which is allowed to transmit information over the network – allowing them to carry out ‘attacks’ that neither app could carry out alone. Coventry will be working with City University London, Swansea University and internet security company McAfee on the app collusion aspect of the project. The multiuniversity collaboration will also see Royal Holloway, Imperial College London and the universities of Liverpool, Birmingham and Edinburgh work on different aspects of mobile security.
OV ONE MILL ANDROID M APPS IDENTIFIE BY Mc
VER LION NEW MALICIOUS WERE ED IN 2013 cAfee
Dr Siraj Ahmed Shaikh, Reader in Cyber Security, is leading Coventry University’s element of the research project. He said: ‘People are certainly waking up to the fact that as their smartphones become more sophisticated, so do the methods of attack which target their personal data.
HOWEVER THERE IS STILL A WAY TO GO TO INCREASE AWARENESS, AND RESEARCH PROGRAMMES LIKE THIS ARE CRITICAL IN ENSURING WE STAY A STEP AHEAD OF THE CRIMINALS EXPLOITING SECURITY WEAKNESSES. ‘We will be leading on the detailed analysis of app behaviour to see how two or more apps could be profiled for suspicious ‘colluding’ behaviour. This is particularly relevant for Android platforms, which by their very design are more open and flexible, and allow users to download apps from different sources. It’s only going to become more of a concern in the coming years, as apps integrate with other technologies such as cars and household appliances.’ Siraj is supported by Dr. Harsha Kalutarage, Senior Research Assistant, working on the project, who will be using advanced statistical techniques to develop risk models to identify collusion candidates for a given app (or a set of them). This should then help lay down a baseline to investigate which combination of apps pose a higher risk than others. Dr Igor Muttik, a senior principal architect at McAfee, part of Intel Security, said: We’re up against really sophisticated malware – some even used by nation states for spying. Such attackers are well aware of the technology involved in detecting and tracking them. So, we need to constantly raise the bar by improving the technology and this will make it more difficult and less profitable for them to operate.’
Biography Dr. Siraj Ahmed Shaikh is a Reader in Cyber Security and has been involved in research of large-scale distributed secure systems for fifteen years. His doctoral and post-doctoral research involved design and verification of security and safetycritical systems. From 2011 to 2013, he was involved with the development of an intelligent control and guidance system for unmanned logistics vehicles for unmanned distribution capability, funded by Ministry of Defence. He is a Chartered Fellow of BCS and a Chartered Scientist (CSci). Dr. Harsha Kumara Kalutarage is a Senior Research Assistant with research interests in mobile security, network security and statistical applications in security and safety of critical systems. He is currently involved in the investigation of risk profiling of Android applications for collusion attacks, as part of an EPSRCFunded project on App Collusion Detection (ACiD), jointly with City and Swansea universities, and McAfee. Previously he has been involved in the MoDFunded project on detecting insider threats. For more information contact: siraj.shaikh@coventry.ac.uk
Innovate I Winter 2014 17
Growing positivity in the prison garden oventry University have recently been commissioned to evaluate a horticultural intervention at HMP Rye Hill, a category B private prison run by G4S. The research team are evaluating the introduction of the ‘Master Gardener Programme’ targeted at substance misusing offenders.
Principal investigator on the research team is Geraldine Brown from Coventry University’s Centre for Communities and Social Justice. She explained: ‘Lots of prisons have gardens; that’s not the innovation here. This is the first prison in the UK to adopt the successful Master Gardener framework, which is significantly different to other activities in prison gardens.’
The Master Gardener programme is led by Garden Organic, the UK’s leading organic charity. The core Master Gardener programme was launched as a pilot in 2010 at a national level with the aim to ‘provide local support and advice for growing food’. The initial programme evaluation was carried out by Dr Moya Kneafsey and Elizabeth Bos from Coventry University. It shows how the programme has proved extremely successful in a community setting, helping 65,000 people grow their own food alongside impacting on health and wellbeing as well as other social and environmental impacts.
The research team had a number of objectives as part of the evaluation. These included exploring prisoners’ personal experiences of engaging in the horticultural intervention, identifying the potential benefits associated with a horticultural intervention in a prison setting for participants, for prison staff, G4S, and participants’ families. There were also objectives relating to the longer term potential of the scheme including evaluating participants’ experience of desistance (the long-term abstinence from criminal behaviour) and post-release, understanding the impact of the project once prisoners are living back in the community.
Following the successful pilot the programme was transferred to a prison setting, and has also launched in other areas nationally. The Master Gardener Programme at HMP Rye Hill is funded by Public Health England (Northamptonshire). The project was launched in Spring 2013 and provided offenders with a disused patch of land within the prison grounds.
The initial research involved a group of nine (‘main stream’) offenders with a range of substance misuse issues. The group worked with their Master Gardener, Robin Baxter to plan, design and create the space measuring 55 x 35m. The group have completely transformed the area. It now features poly tunnels, greenhouses, a network of paths, a bridge, a pond and a memorial garden,
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There is a growing body of research that draws attention to the effectiveness of horticulture and gardening in a number of different therapeutic settings.
spaces thought of, designed and created by the participants. The participants have successfully learned how to grow fruit and vegetables, which they can use for their own consumption. To evaluate the success of the scheme, Geraldine and her team from Coventry University, which includes; Elizabeth Bos, Dr Geraldine Brady, Dr Moya Kneafsey and Dr Martin Glynn from the University of Wolverhampton, adopted a 360 degree approach. This included participant’s reflective diaries and circles of change, monthly observations, focus groups with participants, and questionnaires and focus groups with staff.
Data was collected from offenders engaged in the horticultural intervention, substance misuse staff, staff not involved or engaged in the intervention but who come into contact with participants as part of their daily role, the prison management team, Garden Organic staff and family members of offenders. Geraldine continued: ‘The evaluation of this work has been very innovative. It’s much more of a holistic approach to evaluation and takes into account the perspectives of a whole range of people, not just the participants and their immediate supervisors. We’ve given the participants room to talk; this fostered their trust and support which allowed them to really open up about their feelings towards the programme.
It’s taken time, and hasn’t been without its challenges, but it’s produced excellent results. We’ve placed the participants at the heart of the programme and they’ve shared some of their most personal reflections with us.’
for medication and increased opportunity for fresh air and physical activity. They’ve been happier, calmer (able to be more in control), talking, sharing and able to reflect on past behaviour.
The evaluation team have been invited to share their findings at the Association of American Geographers conference in Chicago next April, contributing to the emerging theme of ‘Carceral Geographies’.
THIS IS THE FIRST PRISON IN THE UK TO ADOPT THE SUCCESSFUL MASTER GARDENER FRAMEWORK, WHICH IS SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT TO OTHER ACTIVITIES IN PRISON GARDENS
The team are part way through the 12 month period of the evaluation and the interim findings are showing very significant results. Following the initial phase of research HMP Rye Hill has been re-categorised and now is for sex offenders only. The second phase of the evaluation is now being carried out with the new population and has involved twice as many participants; the team have continued to use the same methodological approach to enable a reflection on the similarities and differences in the final report. Emerging themes show that participants and others have reported noticeable changes in both physical and emotional health and wellbeing, including better sleeping patterns, eating healthier, less drug use, reduced need
Biography Geraldine Brown is a Research Fellow with more than ten years research experience. Her research interests include: health and social care policy and practice, community engagement and action, and race and ethnicity. Her work has focussed on the health and social care needs of teenage parents, Black and minority communities and older people.
The programme has also had social impact. The participants and the staff have noticed a positive sense of ownership, a feeling of pride in their visible and tangible achievements, supportive relationships with each other through a ‘team’ approach, with staff involved in the project and with the wider staff group, improved behaviour and compliance within prison. Participants have also increased self-perception and self-confidence, they’ve also reported improvements in the ability to establish and build trust.
Geraldine said: ‘We’ve had such strong support from G4S and that is important when working in a prison setting and is what’s made working on this programme so effective. Early indications are very positive. Ideally we’d like to use the findings to support the development of similar programmes in other prisons in the UK. We’re also working with care farms to see if a similar approach will be effective for their clients on release back into the community; this area of the work is being led by Elizabeth Bos.’
Participants have enjoyed learning new skills - both practical skills in the garden and developing their skills in the classroom. Participants and staff have recognised the development of skills that would be transferable to the world of work and allow or enhance opportunities for participation.
Geraldine continued: ‘Our final report will be published early in 2015. It’s been a fascinating and rewarding project to work on and it would be wonderful if the programme was rolled out to other settings. Early signs show how this project can be such a powerful catalyst for change, based on a very simple proposal.’
Her particular focus has been consideration of mechanisms and processes that may contribute to these groups exclusion and the effectiveness of efforts to challenge it. Geraldine’s approach to research is to promote the voices and views of those identified within political and public discourse as marginalised and/or vulnerable in an attempt to embed their experiences within research and in the development and implementation of policy and practice. For more information contact: g.brown@coventry.ac.uk
Innovate I Winter 2014 19
As a young female academic working in the field building services engineering, Dr Shuli Liu is certainly making her mark in a ‘man’s world’.
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Breaking ground for female building engineers
SHULI RECENTLY PRESENTED HER WORK AT AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AND WAS DELIGHTED TO LEARN THAT HER WORK IN THIS FIELD IS NOT ONLY GROUND-BREAKING IN THE UK, BUT ALSO IN USA, AUSTRALIA, AND ACROSS EUROPE. their energy consumption and facilities bills including gas, electricity and water.
t’s a discipline traditionally dominated by men and Shuli is determined to change that trend. Shuli is currently a ‘Reader’ in Low Carbon Building Technology at Coventry University. Her career to date has been extremely successful. She’s made great strides in a relatively short space of time and attracted almost £2 million pounds in research funding to the University, created patented inventions which feature in high street products, organised and presented at international conferences and been published in countless high-profile journals. Shuli has been working in building services engineering for the last 15 years. She started her academic career at home in China studying an undergraduate degree in Gas Engineering before moving onto a Masters in Building Service Engineering.
Shuli was attracted to the UK for her PhD study in Sustainable Technology at Nottingham University before moving into her first teaching role at Coventry University in 2008.
‘The feedback I got from delegates at the conference was very rewarding. We really are leading the way in smarter households and there’s a huge appetite for this work across the world.’
‘I was attracted to the role at Coventry because I could make my mark on low carbon research. The University was just embarking on the low carbon building agenda so I knew I would be able to add my skills to the existing expertise within the Faculty of Engineering and Computing. Since I started here, my career has gone from strength to strength and I feel hugely supported in the work I do. I’ve managed to secure a huge research grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (ESPRC) of £1.1m for a project called ‘An Intelligent Digital Household Network to Transform Low Carbon Lifestyles’’. The project uses Shuli’s expertise in smarter households and aims to develop an intelligent digital platform to help households understand and directly manage
Shuli’s research success has also led to her being put forward for a prestigious Wolfson Award, jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the Royal Society. This scheme is for outstanding scientists who would benefit from a five year salary enhancement to help retain them in the UK. Shuli said: ‘When I was told that the University wanted to put me forward for the Wolfson Award I was absolutely delighted. It’s a really prestigious honour and not something you can self-nominate for. It was a sign to me that the University were proud of my achievements.’
Shuli is hoping that by raising her profile it might go some way to increase the numbers of females entering the world of building service engineering. ‘I’ve been teaching for more than 6 years now and in that time I’ve only taught 2 female students, out of a cohort of around 100. I’ve got lots of ideas about how to change this trend. This area of engineering is heavily focused on technology but traditional views of physical engineering and dirty overalls still prevail. Women in this industry often pay closer attention to human factors and can provide a creative and innovative input on the design and modelling of building functions.’ Shuli knows that this is not something that will change overnight, but with role models like her, and a greater awareness of the impact a female can make in this arena then perhaps more young women will be attracted to the industry.
For more information contact: shuli.liu@coventry.ac.uk
Innovate I Winter 2014 21
Waters
he musician Muddy Waters got his famous nickname from the Deer Creek, Mississippi, where he loved to play, but which was heavily contaminated by sediment pollution. Indeed, suspended sediment is known as the number one cause of water quality violations in the USA and in many other countries.
Professor Damian Lawler, Professor of Hydrology and Co-Director, of Coventry University’s Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience said: ‘Many argue that dirty water is the world’s chief health risk. A key pollutant is ‘suspended sediment’ - the term given to fine sediment particles (mainly silt and clay) which are so small and light (usually < 1/10 mm in diameter) that they are suspended in the waters of streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, wells and seas all over the world, turning clear water cloudy.’ Sediment can come from a number of sources. Huge numbers of silt particles are washed off agricultural fields during rainstorms: in fact, sediment from agricultural sources is responsible for almost 76% of all sediment supplied to rivers across England and Wales. This has been accentuated by a number of factors, including a shift towards more autumn-sown cereals in the UK which exposes bare tilled soils to the risk of erosion in winter rainfall events.
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Other sources include: eroding river or reservoir banks; hillslope gullies in upland areas; drains; soils eroded by underground rivulets; point sources (e.g. from Waste Water Treatment Works); organic sources; faeces and urban sources.
Sediment is increasingly considered a key aquatic pollutant internationally, and a priority target for management in many countries because it contaminates drinking water for people and animals, and can cause significant health problems. The presence of sediment in water reduces light levels, of course, which can hinder aquatic plant growth. Moreover, murky (turbid) waters create visibility problems for fish trying to locate and prey on insects to survive. Particles in rivers can also damage fish gills through ‘sandblasting’ effects. Sediments often clog river beds and smother redds (spawning nests for fish), reducing vital oxygen supplies to the developing eggs. Furthermore, pathogens and other contaminants, such as metals, insecticides and pesticides derived from the catchment area, often ‘stick’ to the silt particles: these are called ‘sediment-associated pollutants’, and they can cause severe problems if ingested by people and organisms. Worse still, these adhered contaminants then persist in river environments for much longer periods because, when the ‘host’ sediments are dropped at the end of a flood, their associated pollutants are also deposited, and therefore much more difficult to flush out of the system. So keeping a river clean of suspended sediment makes it more able to ‘self-clean’ for other contaminants, i.e. to become a more ‘resilient river’ to toxic loadings.
The many shades of environmental, water and community resilience form a key part of the work in the CAWR University Research Centre. Recently, the Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified deteriorating water quality ‘as the primary environmental challenge facing Ireland today’. Consequently, the Irish Government, through the EPA, decided to find out more about this recently-recognised pollutant in Irish rivers, as virtually no data existed. An interdisciplinary team was set up from University College Dublin and Coventry University, including a hydrologist, geomorphologist, biologist and engineer. The team received funding from for the ‘SILTFLUX’ project from the EPA for €400,000. Damian said: ‘For the first time, we have been determining river sediment pollution levels for a collection of Irish rivers, and connecting the dangerous transient peaks in sediment concentrations to land-use and catchment types.’ ‘We are also analysing the impact of different types of rainfall and flood events on the short-term, but important, concentration dynamics of this hitherto elusive pollutant at 15-minute intervals.’ To do this, Damian and the team has set up a network of
If you’re wondering whether this cryptic headline will reveal an article about the great Mississippi and Chicago blues musician, or the world’s chief health risk of dirty water then you’ll be right on both counts, because, believe it or not, there is a connection.
new river monitoring stations across east Ireland, equipped with turbidity meters that record light transmission which decreases in river water as sediment waves pass. The information is automatically stored on dataloggers and periodically downloaded. He continued: ‘This means that we capture much more representative records of changing sediment concentrations before, during and after storms when sediment levels normally rise - including the vital peak levels - than would have been possible with manual, infrequent sampling visits. From analysis of these high-resolution datasets, we aim to establish predictive relationships which link rainstorm locations, intensities and durations to ‘clarify’ the processes and any desirable management responses to agricultural or other impacts which generate problematic muddy waters!’
Biography Professor Damian Lawler relishes working in the hydrological sciences, as water is the key to life. After Undergraduate and PhD degrees from the University of Wales, he worked at the University of Birmingham, leading geomorphology and hydrology research groups, before moving to Coventry University in 2013 when he became Professor of Hydrology. In 2014, Damian became co-Director of the new University Research Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR). He has enjoyed working on complex hydrological questions, including river instability, water pollution, urban water and climate change impacts, in the UK, Ireland, France, Iceland, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Siberia, USA and Australia. And the music link? For downtime, he plays electric guitar (very badly) in a rock band. For more information contact: damian.lawler@coventry.ac.uk
Innovate I Winter 2014 23
How
safe will
Rail underpins the public transport network in most modern economies. According to a recent report, Great Britain has one of the safest rail systems in Europe. Further, it highlighted that rail travel is considered to be more than 400 times safer than cycling or walking*.
tomorrow’sRAILWAY BE? assenger and employee safety is at the heart of all rail operations,’ explains Alexeis Garcia-Perez, a Senior Lecturer in Business Information Systems at Coventry University. ‘Whether it’s a suicide attempt or an incident at a level crossing, the implications are widely publicised and can have a huge impact on the industry.’ Alexeis led a feasibility study funded by the Rail Safety Standards Board (RSSB) looking at ‘How safe tomorrow’s railway will be’ 1. He has liaised extensively with industry stakeholders to look at assessing and exploring a new approach to predictive risk modelling.
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Alexeis’ experience and expertise in the area of data analysis proved valuable in taking the project forward to help the rail industry better understand how systems work which can then be used in diagnostics or prognosis. Alexeis noted that ‘in the past, this approach was applied to data analysis exercise for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) vehicles to understand their operation, potentially diagnose faults and predict how these vehicles will operate in certain environments. The systems also analysed whether a vehicle was fit for purpose, or whether changes need to be made to make them more efficient in different situations. This approach was also applied to gas turbines for Siemens and many other companies across different sectors.’
Safety in the rail industry is linked to many variables and therefore, Alexeis wanted to approach the problem in a different way. He said ‘I wanted to draw on the expertise of safety experts from across Britain’s rail industry to ascertain their views, opinions and thoughts about the issue and then support this with the hard evidence and data linked to rail safety.’ To achieve this, Alexeis formed a small team at Coventry University which included Dr Siraj Shaikh, Reader in Cyber Security; Harsha Kalutarage, Senior Research Assistant and Mahsa Jahantab, PhD Research student. Alexeis also gathered a consortium of safety and data experts from across the industry and their regulating bodies, as well as academic partners with knowledge of safety and related human factors.
Twelve individuals holding senior managerial positions at 8 rail organisations agreed to provide their knowledge for the benefit of the research. By liaising with industry experts, Alexeis was able to map the connections to build a safety model which could then be supported by data. ‘We wanted to combine qualitative information from the experts with the quantitative data from the industry to help build an accurate picture for prognosis.’
ALEXEIS CONTINUED: ‘THE WORKSHOP PROVED VERY VALUABLE. WE DISCOVERED THAT THERE ARE SO MANY VARIABLES LINKED TO RAIL SAFETY, INCLUDING WEATHER CONDITIONS, FOOTFALL THROUGH THE STATION, MAINTENANCE OF THE TRACKS, DAY OF THE WEEK, TIME OF DAY, ETC.’
* http://orr.gov.uk/news-and-media/press-releases/2012/britains-railway-one-of-the-safest-in-europe-orr-annual-health-and-safety-report-2012
This information was then used alongside the data collected from the rail industry experts about safety and used to model various scenarios to build a predictive model. Alexeis said: ‘We learned a lot from working on this project and with the rail industry in that whilst this approach provided very useful information and helped bring together a network of professionals on the issue of rail safety, it wasn’t the best approach to building a model of safety. The rail industry is complex and there are so many variables which come together when there is a safety incident. Taking this as a whole system proved difficult to model. Drawing on advice from experts at RSSB, it was suggested that as a possible next step, the project team should consider applying the model to a specific area of rail safety.
The project team is now working with an SME in the UK to monitor cracks in rail tracks and analyse whether they could become a safety concern in various weather conditions.
The applications of the model are can be applied across many industries and sectors.
Alexeis said: ‘This approach to modelling works well at an equipment level and the work we’re currently undertaking on rail tracks will be useful in predicting safety issues. We’re also working with a local hospital to apply the modelling to their radiotherapy equipment. I am involved in a knowledge transfer partnership with an American company called IQor, who are interested in applying this predictive risk model to their business processes in the hope that it will help streamline efficiency in fault diagnosis.’
Biography Alexeis GarciaPerez is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering and Computing. His teaching and research focus on data, information and knowledge management. He is currently working with organisations within the railway and other industries in the area of data analysis for decision making. For more information contact: ab1258@coventry.ac.uk
Innovate I Winter 2014 25
A mission
TO GET PEOPLE MOVING PhD research student, Emma Eyre, has been fascinated by people’s levels of activity for the past few years. ‘What makes some people more active than others? Is it down to ethnicity, the environment, socio-economic factors – or just a pre-disposition? ’ve been asking these questions since I started my journey into higher education. It’s a question that’s guided me through my degree, my Masters and now it’s consumed my work and study in the form of a PhD.’ Emma is a researcher in Coventry University’s Centre for Applied Biological and Exercise Sciences. Recently, Emma has been monitoring activity levels in school children and devising interventions that can support schools and children to become more active and ultimately more healthy. Emma worked with school children aged 7-9 in some of Coventry’s most deprived areas. ‘Research shows that children from more deprived areas are less active. I wanted to find out why so we asked the kids to wear GPS heart monitors for one week. We tracked where they went and how active they were. We tested the kids for a week in the summer and a week in the autumn in case the weather was an influence. Almost 100 children took part in the test, from a range of backgrounds, both boys and girls and a range of ethnicities.’ The initial data showed that all the kids were pretty inactive, with less than 42% of the sample meeting the recommended daily guidelines for activity. ‘At this stage of the research I knew the kids were spending little or no time outdoors. They went to and from school and stayed at home in between. We needed to find out why?’
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Emma carried out focus groups with both the children and their parents and asked what activities they enjoy or don’t enjoy, the barriers to physical activity, and any demands on their time that might affect levels of activity. ‘The focus groups were fascinating and highlighted a number of issues which affected the whole study sample.’ Safety was a huge concern and many people talked about a feeling of ‘stranger danger’ which meant the children were reluctant to move too far from the home. The local parks weren’t nice places to visit and made the children and parents feel unsafe. ‘Parents also talked about anti-social behaviour in their local area and issues with racism and drug abuse, people driving dangerously, all reasons why they didn’t want their children to go out and play. The fear of crime and potential threats meant that the parents wanted to keep their children indoors, where there is limited space for activity. It is difficult to keep kids entertained in the confines of a small home so we wanted to come up with some ideas to help get these kids active.’ Parents and children felt strongly about the provision of activity in schools and that more could be done within the school environment to encourage activity. School was also seen as a safe and supportive environment. Emma and her team developed a series of interventions, largely focused on the school to maximise on the feelings of safety and security. The kids were given pedometers and asked to record their steps.
THE INITIAL DATA SHOWED THAT ALL THE KIDS WERE PRETTY INACTIVE, WITH LESS THAN 42% OF THE SAMPLE MEETING THE RECOMMENDED DAILY GUIDELINES FOR ACTIVITY ‘We knew the kids had been on a school trip to Weston-Super-Mare and they enjoyed the visit so we asked them to try a virtual walk covering the equivalent number of steps from Coventry to Weston-Super-Mare. Walking is an accessible activity that all the kids could do without any additional intervention from us. We’d give them feedback when they reached certain milestones and they were really engaged – lots of them even (virtually) made it all the way to the coast.’
FOR SOME OF THE PARENTS, SPORT OR ACTIVITY WAS NOT CONSIDERED A PRIORITY – EDUCATION AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT WERE THE PRIORITY.
Emma said: ‘In order to engage these parents and kids we included special lessons into the curriculum about the science behind activity and the nutritional benefits of a healthy diet and active lifestyle. We used the virtual walk to work out calculations linked to the maths curriculum, we made healthy smoothies, the kids created games designed to get people moving and a video to encourage people to be active. They really embraced the challenge.’ Emma also taught the children how to skip and gave every child a skipping rope so they could continue the activity outside of school. ‘We wanted to show the kids they didn’t have to be in a structured sport or team activity to get their heart pumping. We made up hopping, walking, skipping and running games that the kids could play in the playground. The list of initiatives we introduced is wide and varied because there were so many different reasons as to why the kids weren’t active. We needed to cover lots of bases.’
Just six weeks after Emma and her team worked with the children and teachers the levels of activity had increased significantly. ‘The kids started out walking approx. 7000 steps a day and after we’d spent some time with them they were regularly walking nearly 17,000 steps a day. The teachers enjoyed skipping with the kids in the playground. Exercise and activity had become a sociable thing to do. The kids were now all achieving more than the recommended daily guidelines for activity. It’s amazing what some simple interventions can achieve – but essential that it’s supported by the kids, the parents and the schools.’ Emma and her team have now expanded their work to help teach children aged 4-5 essential motor skills like catching a ball, or kicking a ball to make them more active. Emma is also using popular children’s book characters like The Gruffalo to story-tell about movement and activity. ‘I’ve got so many ideas of ways to get kids to become more active and I love being able to try them. It can be a challenge, working in a school in a deprived area. We have to deal sensitively with language issues, cultural differences, religion and more but we’re all learning from each other. Making kids more active is what’s driving my research passion and it’s working!’. For more information contact: emma.eyre@coventry.ac.uk
Innovate I Winter 2014 27
Heading into a blazing building or attempting to rescue a family from a house fire may be a regular occurrence for the fire service, but no two incidents are ever the same. When the fire crew receive the emergency call, they are only ever given basic factual information about what awaits them. ail Steptoe-Warren, an Occupational Psychologist from Coventry University has been working closely with West Midlands Fire Service on assessing their operational preparedness before an incident. Gail explained: ‘We were commissioned to assess, at an organisational level, how the fire crews prepare themselves before attending to an incident. We worked with firefighters and commanders to understand the decision making process. We identified five critical areas, which include trust (between firefighters and the commander), incident learning, skills, prior experience and information gathering. We found that information gathering was an essential component in preparing the crew for an incident. There will always be similarities related to incidents, but there is also that outside chance that something could be missed or overlooked, which could put the crew at risk.’ 28 Innovate I Winter 2014
Following this initial assessment, Gail and her research team developed a further situational judgement test and an online intervention tool for information gathering. ‘The addition of video recording equipment on the fire-fighters uniform was an essential component of this intervention. Fire-fighters were asked to record training incidents and talk through their thought process, watch these videos back and learn from the debriefing. We all recognised the importance of visual information and how this could help the fire crew to make more informed decisions.’ Having a visual of the incident would allow the crew to see for themselves the scale of the emergency and devise their response accordingly. Gail continued: ‘Upon arrival, often under significant pressure, responding crews must rapidly ascertain and process a considerable amount of critical information in order to assess and control the risks at the incident site, form a tactical plan, prioritise and sequence tasks, resource the incident, manage people, problem solve and relay messages back to control room operators. If the crew are able to view the incident live before they arrive it presents obvious advantages. They would know how many appliances to send, what kind of fire they would be dealing with, access and exit routes in advance – all critical factors in the information gathering process and incident preparedness.’
It was following this intervention, and a recognition of the importance of visual cues, that Matt Wroughton, a Watch Commander from West Midlands Fire Service started to form an ingenious idea. Matt had needed to call NHS Direct for advice on treating his young daughter. He found it difficult to describe her symptoms and thought it would have been helpful to provide a visual solution to the problem. Matt used his knowledge of incidents, his experiences with NHS Direct and his understanding of new technology to develop the idea for a smartphone solution, called 999eye. Through the use of an app, 999 callers are enabled to stream live footage into control rooms at point of call, highlighting key information about an incident which can then be shared with first responders’ en-route, tactical level managers, strategic leaders and partner agencies. Live footage from the app will offer instant ‘on-scene eyes’ firstly to the control room operators, who, under time pressure to question 999 callers to ascertain what is wrong, where they are, who they are and
who is in danger, must simultaneously select appropriate resources to dispatch to the incident and advise partner agencies accordingly in order to manage the incident effectively. 999eye live footage can also provide additional information to blue-light responding crews who have been mobilised to the incident to supplement the information initially gathered by the control room operators in receipt of the 999 call. Gail continued: ‘999eye is a great idea and we’re fortunate that Matt is part of a forward-thinking group at West Midlands Fire Service, headed-up by Chief Fire Officer, and Coventry University honorary graduate Phil Loach.
with phone technology Biography
We’ve been asked to support the research during the pilot phase and assess the impact of this new tool on cognitive behaviour.’ Staff in the control centres who take the 999 calls already have a great deal of information to process. They have 3 screens in front of them, they have a caller on the phone, they have maps to look at and other information to process. Gail and her team will be looking at the cognitive load on call centre staff when they have an additional resource to manage through 999eye. Gail said: ‘We’ll be looking at the effectiveness of 999eye on incident preparedness, will it work, and will it make a significant difference or impact on
decision making. The aim of the fire service is to save lives and increase the ability to save property. We also need to ensure the safety of fire crews. 999eye should be an invaluable tool for dealing with incidents but we can’t leave anything to chance so our analysis of the pilot will be essential in the deployment of the tool.’ The app has attracted significant interest from all over the world and across all the emergency services. Watch Commander, Matt Wroughton said: ‘We believe this system could have huge potential in helping us to save lives and property and potentially revolutionise emergency call-handling and response.’
If you’d like to contact Matt Wroughton about 99EYE email: Matthew.Wroughton@wmfs.net or follow Twitter: @westmidsfire To speak to Gail Steptoe-Warren about the research email: hsx566@coventry.ac.uk
Gail SteptoeWarren is a Registered Occupational Psychologist, Chartered Member of the Division of Occupational Psychology and a Principal Lecturer at Coventry University. Her areas of interest include recruitment and selection; development of psychometric tests (particularly situational judgment tests); strategic thinking and decision making; emotional intelligence; meaningful work; psychopathy and leadership as well as behaviour assessment in stressful situations. Matt Wroughton is a serving Watch Commander with West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS). Matt has served WMFS since 2003 with most of his career working in Operations. In 2013 Matt joined the Emergency Response, Research and Development Team and now leads on innovative solutions driven by then end user to support the strategic direction of the organisation. Matt also represents WMFS at operations level alongside West Midlands Police, West Midlands Ambulance and NHS on the Multi Agency Emergency Services Unit (MAESU).
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The utopia of teaching taff are empowered to come up with interesting and exciting teaching methods that help give Coventry students an ‘edge’. Dr Elizabeth Miles, Network Coordinator of the UNESCO UNITWIN* in Humanitarian Engineering and Chas Morrison of the University’s Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations discovered they had combined backgrounds in humanitarian engineering, humanitarian response and security in insecure environments. They decided to develop their shared expertise to design a role-playing game using a traditional 2D board that highlights the importance of conflict sensitivity, thinking ‘outside the box’ and responding to unforeseen events.
The game is called ‘Utopia’, a tongue in cheek reference to the variety of complex challenges that players face. It addresses the Institute of Chartered Engineers’ drive to promote working ‘internationally’, the concept of ‘responsible engineering’ and the development of more ‘globally aware engineers’. Chas explained: ‘Certain traditional teaching methods are essential for young engineers but there is a huge demand for graduates to be ready for the realities of work in challenging locations: conflict-affected, highly insecure or hit by disasters. Engineers are vital for post conflict and post disaster reconstruction. These situations require a combination of hard skills as well as social and cultural sensitivities. We created ‘Utopia’ to help close this gap and provide an innovative way to teach young engineers about the combination of skills needed in the field.’
* The UNESCO UNITWIN Programme promotes international inter-university cooperation and networking to enhance institutional capacities through knowledge sharing and collaborative work.
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Coventry University is well known for its innovative approaches to teaching and learning.
DURING THE GAME, TEAMS OF 3-6 ARE BRIEFED ON THEIR DUTIES TO BUILD ROADS AND SHELTERS FOR DISPLACED PEOPLE FLEEING CONFLICT AND FLOODING.
While the game starts simply, players soon realise they must stop thinking purely as engineers to creatively solve problems, which include contaminated wells, cholera outbreaks, refugees fighting, theft, threatened staff and landmines! Success comes through teamwork, communication and sensitivity, and so Utopia complements mainstream engineering training.
The approach was piloted with Masters’ students at Coventry University and with recent graduates in a civil engineering firm, Buro Happold. Following a successful pilot phase the project was rolled out to the Saudi Aramco summer school. It is now offered externally to the commercial sector, as well as students and staff on campus.
Wireless sensor technology supports
Singapore transport systems
The Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system in Singapore is one of the most efficient transport systems in the world. It spans the entire city state and there are plans to double the system by 2030. onitoring the construction of the stations which connect the MRT are the focus of a joint project between Coventry University’s Cogent Computing Centre and the Singapore MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Centre (SMART).
The designs of TERS are based on model analyses that predict the expected structural loads and ground/wall movement during construction. Strict regulations on ground deformations are imposed in Singapore to minimise the risk associated with construction and damage to adjacent structures and facilities, causing increased project costs.’
The project called ReStructure has been set up to investigate the feasibility of applying wireless sensing technology to the monitoring of civil infrastructures. Initially, this work is being carried out in the context of support structures for temporary excavations for MRT stations in Singapore.
The performance of the TERS is monitored throughout construction to ensure they match closely with the predictions.
Dr Michael Allen, a Research Fellow in the Engineering and Computing Faculty at Coventry University is working alongside the Principal Investigator, Professor Andrew Whittle, from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT. Michael explained: ‘We’re looking at deep excavation projects, essentially trenches tens of metres deep, that are created for MRT stations. These excavations use Temporary Earth Retaining Structures (TERS) to support the trench walls during excavation.
SURVEYS AND INSTRUMENTS ARE USED TO MEASURE MOVEMENTS, PORE PRESSURES AND LOAD ON THE STRUCTURE. The high costs associated with this monitoring limit the extent of the work and can affect how useful the measurements can be. Michael continued: ‘The overall aim of this research is to integrate recent advances in computational analyses and the design of low cost wireless sensors in order to develop a capability for ‘real-time’ data interpretation and prediction.
Field monitoring data will be used to update and re-evaluate model predictions during construction to offer a real-time observational framework that can reduce risk while enabling more creative and cost effective designs of TERS.’ As part of the project, Cogent have developed a low-power wireless sensing network for load monitoring using strain gauges. This network will be deployed during a real excavation in Singapore, allowing Cogent to investigate the potential of in-network intelligence to improve network lifetime and to enable real-time integration of measurements with the structural models developed by SMART researchers. Michael continued: ‘We can deploy a network of wireless sensors throughout the structure giving much more accurate and detailed measurements over the span of the project. This will give the engineers more precise measurements, help reduce the costs associated with monitoring during the excavation and contribute towards improved safety by reducing the level of risk.’ The findings from the deployment will inform the subsequent direction of the research. Michael said: ‘The initial results will lead onto additional research.
The wireless sensors are all powered by battery so we’ll need to look at ways of extending the battery life to make them work harder throughout the monitoring period – which can be up to one year or more. We also need to work out the best timing for collecting and sending the data the implications on this for the network’s usable lifetime.’ Michael and the team are more than 6 months into the year-long project. ‘It’s too soon to say whether the wireless sensors are going to be effective in this environment or not, but our experience so far has been very encouraging. If this approach proves viable then it will open exciting possibilities in the commercial world.’
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RESEARCH AT COVENTRY UNIVERSITY FOCUSES ON ‘EXCELLENCE WITH IMPACT’. We achieve this through our world-leading experts taking original approaches to make a tangible difference to the way we live. Innovate magazine is just one of the ways we share our expertise, knowledge and skills. If it’s given you a thirst for more then take a look at our website at www.coventry.ac.uk/research where you can uncover the people behind the stories and discover our cutting edge thinking.
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