Innovate 4 Coventry University's Applied Research Magazine

Applied Research at Coventry University

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At Coventry University, our applied research teams work closely with your organisation, applying their knowledge and expertise to devise inventive and original solutions for real-world problems.

At a local, national and international level, we work with clients across the public, private and voluntary sectors. From art to design, health to sports, regeneration to human security, mathematics to engineering, computing to communications – we can find a solution that’s right for you.

Applied Research at Coventry University www.coventry.ac.uk/researchnet

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World of enterprise

How work in Shanghai and support for UK businesses made Coventry one of the most entrepreneurial universities Lights out Helping householders to conserve more energy in the fight against climate change Life saving detection How a new diagnostic device for malaria could save thousands of lives

ISSUE 4 autumn 2008

Contents Applied Research at Coventry University : Issue 4

4 News The latest research news from across the campus

Welcome to the autumn 2008 issue of Innovate, the applied research magazine from Coventry University.

In this issue we have cause to celebrate as our enterprising commitments have recently been recognised in the 2008 Times Higher Education awards. These national awards attract entries from the great and good in UK higher education and Coventry was proud to be nominated in three categories and win an award in two of them.

Our Leadership Development programme won in the Outstanding Contribution to Leadership Development category – seeing off fierce competition from five other institutions including the London School of Economics and Newcastle University.

Getting the structure at the top right can only ensure success all the way through an institution. This certainly rang true when we were highly commended for our dedication to enterprise.

Management, academics and students at Coventry all exercise an entrepreneurial attitude throughout this University and we were highly commended for the impact that is having internally and throughout the UK. In this issue of Innovate we’ve aimed to give you a flavour of our enterprising nature and the part we are playing in supporting businesses both locally and globally.

Our new Institute of Applied Entrepreneurship is now at the heart of our activities, creating a coordinated approach to our work and leading Coventry into future development.

Funding councils such as HEFCE are heavily supporting future initiatives and we continue to attract more businesses interested in working with us on research projects and business development.

I hope this issue gives you an insight into some of the groundbreaking projects we are currently involved with and that you enjoy reading about this award-winning institution.

If you have any comments please do not hesitate to get in touch.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Professor Ian M Marshall Pro Vice Chancellor (Research) innovate@coventry.ac.uk

SOCIETY AND ENVIRONMENT

8 Time for a SEE change 19

Bringing humanity back into the economy

10 Muslim diversity Why we need to understand different Muslim communities

12 Energy saving begins at home How Coventry is helping the fight against climate change ENTERPRISE

14 Virtual learning Understanding the effects of moving the classroom online 16

26

16 World of enterprise Revealing Coventry’s entrepreneurial attitude

18 Sharing reaps rewards How HEFCE funding is supporting entrepreneurial partnerships

19 Breaking free of the office A new scheme is helping academics work remotely

22 Lecture download How new technology is changing interaction between students and lecturers

24 In Focus: Durabuild 14

28

Specialist computing skills help a business through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership HEALTH

26 Migrating disease Why there are growing numbers of HIV/AIDS cases in regions across the UK

28 Life saving detection A new diagnostic device for malaria could save lives

30 Fighting the superbug How lab testing helped Bostik launch a new germ-killing adhesive 10 Contact us 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 future issues of Innovate, contact us at the following: Telephone 024 7623 6364 Email innovate@coventry.ac.uk Website www.coventry.ac.uk/researchnet

Credits Managing Editor Karen Smith Written and edited by Cheryl Liddle Designed by Kraken Creative Printed by Emmersons This publication is available in other formats on request.

Please contact Marketing and Communications on 024 7688 8352

Innovate news 05

Innovate news 04

NEWS IN BRIEF Building future for construction training

Business boost for SMEs

The next generation of engineers and builders will hone their leadership skills at a new multi-million pound venue in Coventry from autumn 2009.

Work began on the ACT-UK Simulation Centre in September, which is being constructed in Coventry University’s Technology Park.

The ground-breaking centre introduces a pioneering form of simulation training using highly-skilled actors and a virtual reality auditorium, which has a 16-metre, curved widescreen. Trainees will be able to navigate every aspect of a building project recorded from real life by watching a 4-D simulation on the screen.

Regional development agency Advantage West Midlands is contributing £6.6 million towards the simulation centre in partnership with Coventry University and ACT-UK. Agency funding has levered in a further £2.1m to the project, from Coventry University Enterprises Ltd, Learning and Skills Council Coventry and Warwickshire and private sector investors in the company

The Design Hub has joined forces with other regional bodies to offer a package of support to help SMEs maximise their potential thanks to funding from the European Regional Development Fund.

The Design Hub, the West Midlands Technology Network (WMTN), Innovation Challenge and the Institute for Creative Enterprises (ICE) will collectively offer fully funded website designs or refurbishments and/or a five day package of business advice and mentoring.

The businesses eligible for assistance are SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises) from a number of sectors to help develop all areas of their business through innovation.

So far, the WMTN has assisted over 1,000 companies, helping them create over 2,600 jobs and over £86 million in sales. The WMTN works with both start-up and established SMEs to deliver practical help in product design and development and provide free access to specialist skills and technologies from the region’s universities.

Working together with these partners, the Design Hub is offering a support package to businesses to help them become more creative when it comes to developing new products and finding the right market to maximise their potential.

A five day “pick and mix” package of business support, advice and mentoring will be tailor-made for companies wishing to take advantage of free design and assistance.

Both the website and the support package are offered on a first come, first served basis and are open to SMEs from a number of sectors including: creative industries, manufacturing, engineering and design, food and drink, medical technologies and education and entertainment media.

Lorna O'Neill from the Design Hub said: “This is a must for companies wishing to take advantage of the range of skills we can provide. Coventry University’s Design Hub and partners work together to assist businesses by providing resources that would normally only be available to larger organisations. Both offers end in December and we only have limited places left so I would advise companies to get in touch as soon as possible.”

For further information about the offers contact Lorna O'Neill on 024 7679 2230 or email LONeill@cad.coventry.ac.uk

established to operate the centre – ACT-UK Ltd. Industry leaders are currently working in partnership with ACT-UK Ltd to develop courses and scenarios.

Michiel Schrijver, Managing Director of ACT-UK Ltd, said: “For the first time in the UK we are able to offer training in both hard and soft skills within a complex simulated construction environment. What sets this training apart from any other is that it simultaneously supplies trainees with key leadership qualities of perspective and foresight, speeds up the learning process,

offers instant feedback and develops every aspect of their construction personality.”

The centre facilities will offer business and training facilities to construction students, professionals and managers. It will also reflect a lifelong-learning approach to training and professional development including liaison with schools, colleges and universities as well as construction companies.

For more information: www.act-uk.co.uk or call 024 76 236 646 or e-mail: imagine@act-uk.co.uk

Getting children reading Coventry schools were invited to the first research event of the Reading and Child Development Applied Research Group (RCD ARG) in June as part of the National Year of Reading.

Local teachers from a mixture of primary and secondary schools as well as parents, researchers and Coventry City Council attended the ‘Getting Coventry Children Reading’ event.

Presentations included information on speech rhythm and reading development. Children’s poet and primary school teacher, Neil Stevens gave teachers ideas on how to get children interested in writing and reciting poetry in ways that can enhance their appreciation of speech rhythm.

Delegates were also told about opportunities to get involved in research and collaborate with the ARG on forthcoming projects.

The much-publicised research into children’s text messaging and literacy development was also discussed and details of ongoing projects in the area were revealed.

Coventry Children’s Book Club also launched in September, which is a collaboration between the research group and Waterstone’s book

stores. The club is open to children of all ages and they can sign up for membership on the Coventry University website. Schools can arrange for Waterstone’s to run themed events on their premises.

The RCD ARG is concerned with all areas of reading development and reading difficulties, particularly the development of assessments of reading-related skills, the early identification of reading difficulties and the evaluation and implementation of tuition methods and therapies, including the use of new technology and computer-based support for literacy.

For more information: www.coventry.ac.uk/ researchnet/d/764

Refurbished Technocentre opens Coventry University’s award-winning conference centre is back in business after a £1m extensive refurbishment programme.

The new facilities can now cater for all forms of corporate hospitality, conferences and training days, with WiFi internet connectivity throughout.

The high-spec, custom-designed rooms all have plasma screens and benefit from natural daylight and balanced air-conditioning.

The largest conference room offers flexible layouts and is equipped with a full stage set, advanced integrated PA system and an essential range of audio visual equipment.

As well as the latest in conferencing aids, the centre can also stream conferences to the internet and between rooms to enable real and virtual conferences to run simultaneously.

Francesca Elford, the sales and marketing officer at the TechnoCentre said: “During the summer, we have invested over £1m to refurbish the centre. The improvements will enable us to offer a more extensive service tailored to meet the needs of individual clients and corporations.”

For more information call Francesca Elford on 024 7623 6016 or email the team conference.cad@coventry.ac.uk

Innovate news 07

Innovate news 06

NEWS IN BRIEF Walking for life Research into ways of promoting walking as exercise is underway thanks to funding from The Medical Research Council.

Researchers at Coventry University, the University of Warwick and University College London received £315,584 for a project to develop and evaluate interventions to promote walking, for delivery in primary care.

Dr David French and Dr Jemma Edmunds from Coventry and Professor Jeremy Dale of the University of Warwick were also awarded £53,000 by WC-PCR to fund a PhD studentship on the same topic.

This research aims to promote “brisk” walking, i.e. walking that results in being slightly out of breath. Brisk walking counts as “moderate” physical activity as described in Government recommendations, which are that people should engage in at least 30 minutes of “moderate or vigorous” exercise, for at least five days each week, to gain health protective benefits. However, over 60% of men and 70% of women in England and Wales do not meet these requirements, with activity decreasing with age.

Sonic treatment Health problems due to physical inactivity, such as diabetes, are expected to increase dramatically in the future as a consequence, and may soon overtake smoking as the behaviour that causes most ill-health and premature death.

The funded research builds on an intervention previously developed by Dr French and colleagues that helped 130 volunteers increase their walking by 60%, from an average of 20 mins/day to 32 mins/ day, for at least six weeks. The new research aims to adapt this intervention so that it can be delivered in primary care by practice nurses and health trainers, targeted at patients for whom increasing physical activity is a health priority.

It will be developed to be acceptable to those delivering it, easy to deliver as intended and acceptable to patients attending primary care. The research will also evaluate its success in increasing walking amongst primary care patients who receive the intervention, in the short-term and longer-term.

For further information please contact Stefanie Ashford at aa3117@coventry.ac.uk

Talking up new research group Coventry University played host to internationally-renowned health experts at a workshop held to mark the launch of the Applied Research Group in Pre-hospital, Emergency and Cardiovascular Care (PHECC) earlier this year.

Reflecting the scope of the new research group, talks were given by some of the most eminent practitioners in their field.

The keynote speaker Professor Sir Muir Gray CBE, from the University of Oxford, Chief Knowledge Officer to the NHS and Director of the National Library for Health spoke about his vision for how modern advances in communication technology could help to combat ill health and improve outcomes for patients, now and in the future.

Professor Douglas Chamberlain CBE, from Brighton, spoke about the development of ambulance services from their basic ‘first aid and transport’ function in the 1960s through to the highly trained and professional paramedics and emergency technicians of today.

Professor David Thompson, from the University of Leicester, and a former director of the Nethersole School of Nursing at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, gave an international perspective on cardiac rehabilitation and Lt Col Rob Cole RAMC provided an expert overview of pre-hospital and emergency care in the British Armed Forces, including how the latest advances in treatment are made rapidly available to personnel injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Professor Peter Ellwood, from Cardiff, gave an overview of the lifesaving role of aspirin.

Professor Tom Quinn and Professor Malcolm Woollard are Co-directors of the PHECC group and Tom said: “This event proved an ideal way to ‘showcase’ the work of our research team to colleagues and future collaborators.”

For more information: www.coventry.ac.uk/phecc

Congratulations: Students graduated at a special ceremony at the Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham

Graduation for workplace students More than 50 middle manager employees from the AA and Caterpillar, who have been on a year-long scheme to study in the workplace, graduated in September at a special ceremony.

Each employee received a Certificate in Lifelong Learning at the event that was hosted by organisational development consultancy Acua Limited (formerly CU Training Services) and marked the completion of a capability improvement programme devised to improve performance at work. The qualification attracts 60 credits, which can count towards a degree, enabling the employees to continue their education should they wish.

Acua Limited was set up by Coventry University to provide bespoke learning solutions and consultancy services in the workplace. Over the past 18 months, a team of Learning and Development Consultants from the University have been working with the leaders from the AA and Caterpillar to research skills gaps and then design and implement a bespoke learning package that puts employees’ work at the centre of the curriculum.

Larraine Boorman, Managing Director of Acua Limited, said: “The need to develop talent at work is greater than ever, with 70 per cent of the expected 2020 workforce already beyond compulsory education age.

“The AA and Caterpillar recognised the importance of developing the talent of their employees to bring about improved business performance. CU Training Services are delighted to be able to publicly recognise the achievements of the students in completing the programme.”

A revolutionary new ultrasonic treatment for liver and kidney cancer offers a surgery-free procedure for patients in the UK. Research by Professor Tim Mason, Head of Sonochemistry alongside Chinese researchers at the Chongqing Medical University ran trials at Churchill Hospital in Oxford and discovered a type of focused ultrasound that could treat specific tumours.

Ultrasound is high frequency sound beyond the range of human hearing and has been used for a number of medical practices such as looking inside the body to observe a growing foetus or to aid the rejuvenation of muscles and pain control.

Tim, who has been involved in sonochemistry research for the past 25 years, explains that the key to this new type of ultrasonic cancer treatment is the ability to focus low energy ultrasound beams to a small, high energy target in a tumour inside the body.

Professor Mason said: “It works because the individual beams are harmless but the focus heats up and kills the cancerous cells in a procedure known as High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU). Patients lay over a small bath of water in which there are two concentric

ultrasound transducers. One transmits a lowpower diagnostic beam, allowing the doctor to visualise the tumour and guide the treatment; the other produces the focussed beam.”

HIFU is useful to treat a single tumour or part of a large tumour but cannot be used to treat widespread cancers that have affected more than one part of the body. However, research shows unlike many treatments for cancerous tumours, HIFU has been proven to leave the patient practically unscathed.

Innovate society and environment 8

Time for a SEE change As the credit crunch bites and global markets feel the strain, Professor Malcolm McIntosh believes we need to bring a bit of humanity back into the economy If the new emerging economy is to succeed it has to break many of its old rules. The last few months have highlighted the need for greater transparency and accountability in financial markets. If nothing else, the year 2008 has brought home the need for an economy that values the delicate, beautiful planet on whose survival we depend.

In management and business there is a need for people who can manage figures and for people who are social and financial capitalisers. In a 24/7 world we also need people in all sectors – including in universities – who know how to switch off (and be cool, calm and reflective) and can switch on again (and love surprises and engage with ambiguity).

If complexity science has taught us anything about the planet, about ourselves and about organisations, it is that we can spot trends but not be specific about events – until they have happened. At this time we need to understand the relationship between the series of nested networks that are social and natural systems.

This year’s Applied Research Centre in Human Security (ARCHS) conference is all about the new world economy – the new low carbon Sustainable Enterprise Economy, hence the title of this project SEE Change.

It builds on last year’s great event at the Eden Project and this year delegates were able to attend for free because of the generous sponsorship support from Wessex Water and Shell and support from a whole host of organisations that believe in the work we are doing.

The conference attracted reflective practitioners in business, government and civil society and those who wanted to mix corporate responsibility, human security, globalisation, sustainability, rural and urban livelihoods, food, water, and developed and developing country perspectives. It appealed to those who know that we need

to talk across sectoral and professional boundaries, to break the rules and to find solutions on the journey towards the new low carbon Sustainable Enterprise Economy.

Seminars and key note speeches aimed to answer key issues like how we make the transition to a low carbon Sustainable Enterprise Economy? How can the new economy help deliver freedom from fear and freedom from want – the two issues at the heart of the human security debate? It challenged individuals and organisations how to think, breathe and practice in the new economy, while exploring how we can harness the best of what it means to be human – sharing, caring, enterprise, innovation, creativity and problem solving – to create peaceful, socially just and environmentally sound enterprises and a sustainable enterprise economy.

Speakers included Annie Chikwanha from the African Human Security Initiative; Jan Aart Scholte from Warwick University on globalisation; Ted Cantle form Coventry on the environmental imperative; Daniel K. Irurah, an energy expert from Wits University in South Africa; David Vidal from the world’s largest business organisation on the new capitalism; plus contributions from WaterAid, Wessex Water, CISCO, Ashoka, UNEP, UN Global Compact, Eden Project, EABIS, Nepal Wireless, and Dharamitra.

ARCHS’ conferences, teaching programmes and research aim to develop ways of breaking the rules by developing new ways of seeing the world so that we can tackle some of the biggest challenges we all face in today’s society. This means harmonising the world economy so that we can pay more attention to the delivery of peace and social justice and the equitable distribution of resources.

Our main research projects in ARCHS exemplify this approach to work. We have been running roundtables on sustainable

enterprise around the world using appreciative inquiry and conversational learning methodologies to find out how a range of reflective practitioners envision the emerging Sustainable Enterprise Economy.

This work has led to a project with the UN Secretary-General’s Office on a reflective analytical history of the first 10 years of the UN Global Compact, which will be published in time for the 10th anniversary birthday meeting in New York in July 2010.

ARCHS is also just beginning another project comparing worldwide Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. This work will examine their origins, the effects and their applicability for future situations with specific reference to the role of business in promoting or destroying peace in all societies. We have a team of doctoral candidates from around the world working in these areas.

There is much work to be done on humanising the globalisation project and the human security agenda is at the heart of it. You can join us by taking part in our conferences and seminars and by joining our teaching programmes. Come and be part of the future in the Futures Institute at Coventry University.

Professor Malcolm McIntosh A former BBC documentary film-maker Malcolm McIntosh has been a pioneer of teaching and research in ‘corporate citizenship’ in the UK and internationally.

In addition to his role as Director of the Applied Research Centre for Human Security (ARCHS), he acts as a special advisor to the UN’s Global Compact and DEFRA’s UK Sustainable Development Commission.

A jewellery teacher from Plymouth won the Guardian Sustainable Enterprise Essay Competition and a free place on ARCHS MA programme.

Jane Hope, a Programme Leader at Plymouth College of Art & Design, beat off fierce competition to win the free place on ARCHS new MA programme.

Her winning essay explored the transition to a Sustainable Enterprise Economy through her quest for ethically mined silver, taking her on a journey through Bolivia to what may soon be the world’s first Fairtrade accredited gold mine. The jeweller and jewellery teacher said “I am so happy to be taking this MA; I feel incredibly privileged to be given this place and I just can’t wait to start.”

ARCHS innovative transdisciplinary MA programmes in Sustainable Enterprise and in Human Security are delivered in partnership with the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK and the Sustainability Institute, Stellenbosch, South Africa. The courses focus on what works, linking leading practice to theory.

For more information please go to www.coventry.ac.uk/archs or email mervi.alho@coventry.ac.uk.

“I am so happy to be taking this MA; I feel incredibly privileged to be given this place and I just can’t wait to start.”

diversity

Interest in British Muslim communities has grown in recent years in light of national and international events. Often, these communities are presented homogenously when the reality is a much more complex, diverse group of communities. Nadeem Baksh explains how innovative research has highlighted why organisations would benefit from a better understanding of Muslim communities

In April 2008, iCoCo launched a publication “Understanding and Appreciating Muslim Diversity: Towards better engagement and participation”, setting out a baseline model illustrating the theological and ethno national diversity of British Muslim communities. It also described the ways in which communities were organised around traditional leadership patterns, which created a further set of affiliations.

The publication is a summary compilation of information gathered (both as part of wider community cohesion reviews and specifically focused work) over a period of 15 months. It involved more than 1000 one to one stakeholder interviews, 3000 people surveyed in focus groups across 10 cities involving respondents from a range of backgrounds (ages, economic status, ethno national heritages, political affiliations and religious denominations) including Muslims and other faiths.

It was clear, almost from the very outset, that iCoCo was breaking new ground and that the ‘one size fits all’ model which had been used to characterise – and stereotype – Muslim communities completely failed to do justice to the complexity within British Muslim communities. There is as much diversity within Muslim communities, as between them and other communities and a more fine-grained analysis was overdue. However, many Muslim communities were inevitably concerned about any further reviews or analysis and felt that most such work to date had resulted in more negative reporting and a continued association with ‘terror’ and other problematic views.

Subsequent reviews have taken our research across the length and breadth of the country and more recently overseas.

Documenting the variations of British Muslim community diversity has been a wholly fascinating experience for all involved and by its very nature is a continuous work in progress. With each successive review adding more detail to the breadth of issues addressed.

Underlying the overall aim of this work is that better understanding and appreciation of British Muslim diversity will help improve engagement and participation ultimately making it easier to build bridges between various Muslim communities and all other communities and to build mutual trust and respect.

There are some wider implications too for the way in which we understand and relate to all communities. The private sector has been developing very sophisticated analyses of communities largely for marketing purposes, with a particular focus on income and purchasing potential. These are gradually being adapted and extended, especially to minority communities and can now serve a number of purposes, with broader attitudinal research and, from a public sector perspective, to try to ensure wider engagement and representation.

With around two million Muslims now living in the UK and the various minority communities making up some 10% of the population, there is now considerable scope to improve our knowledge of all communities and to address them with more sophisticated levels of understanding.

And iCoCo is now starting to address the majority community in much the same way, using fieldwork to get behind some of the assumptions made about the broad categories, such as the ‘white working class’ that can only ever provide a very superficial view of any community.

To find out more about iCoCo and to download a copy of the publication visit: www.cohesioninstitute.org.uk

Nadeem Baksh is a Principal Associate with iCoCo, working across a range of projects and was also the lead specialist in compiling iCoCo’s publication Understanding and Appreciating Muslim Diversity: Towards better engagement and participation. The Institute of Community Cohesion (iCoCo) provides a new approach to race, diversity and multiculturalism and represents a unique partnership of academic, statutory and nongovernmental bodies. Based at Coventry University, it also combines the experience and expertise of DeMontfort University , Leicester University and Warwick University with practitioners from a range of diverse backgrounds and professions.

Innovate society and environment 11

Muslim

Initial research therefore involved establishing a peer review group and consultative body of Muslim academics, scholars, community leaders, representatives and frontline practitioners from across the full spectrum of Muslim diversity including women and young people. Over time an appreciative inquiry approach developed and was combined with an objective understanding in recognition of theological, cultural and political variations. In addition, wide disparities of differences between the places reviewed and the constant flux of change affected by several factors including the ethno national or regional heritage composition of local Muslim communities, and the impact of overseas and contemporary events, led to the development of a flexible and adaptable methodology, tailored to suit the local conditions and the current social climate dependant on the time and place reviewed.

The Review began in summer 2006 as part of a study looking at the relationship between youth disengagement and the growth of support for extremist groups in a West London Borough.

The commissioning Local Authority, despite the highly charged anti-Muslim climate, had the foresight to recognise an unfortunate and largely undue focus linking extremism and Muslims resident in the Borough which in turn was being exploited by Far Right and other religious extremist groups. Understandably, local Muslim residents felt victimised and many had either withdrawn from, or were resistant to and/or completely disengaged from civic level engagement. In response, the Local Authority was keen to build trust and develop channels of engagement with its Muslim residents.

However, it became evident that little was known about the diverse make-up of Muslim communities resident in the Borough. So, it was decided to develop a basic model highlighting the principal theological components and corresponding ethno national affiliation of the majority Sunni Muslim community. A good illustration of local Muslim diversity was provided by the Mosques (the correct term is Masjid, plural Masaajid) established in the Borough with reference to the respective Muslim practices and specific ethno national adoption. This proved helpful to local agencies in identifying a wider range of potential Muslim community contacts, thereby reducing dependence on traditional community elders who in the past had represented only a section of Muslims in the Borough.

At the same time, iCoCo was commissioned to carry out reviews in very different areas across West Yorkshire and the East Midlands, necessitating the need to use methods involving comparative analysis and expanding the scope of research to include traditional Muslim structures, groups and organisations. This process revealed an array of new complex variations and effectively increased the range of Muslim community diversity identified. As the work progressed certain patterns emerged – for example, with respect to commonly established forms of majority Muslim practices and the predominance of certain ethno national heritage communities both in terms of political (elected councillors) and community leadership, often sponsored and/or appointed through traditional extended family and clan based networks.

Innovate society and environment 12

Energy saving

UK Carbon Facts

begins at home

Home is where the energy is and in the fight against climate change, Coventry is helping European households to save more of it. Reader in Applied Computing Dr Kuo-Ming Chao explains how new digital devices will reduce carbon emissions Simple every day tasks like switching lights off and not putting the central heating on too high may not feel like planet saving actions. But statistics show that our households account for 25-30% of European carbon emissions, with more than 80% of household energy being used on heating.

By 2020 Europe has a commitment to reduce its CO2 emissions by 20% – with an option of increasing this target to 30% if the US, India and China agree to emissions targets.

It’s a relatively short time frame to achieve such sweeping changes as the renovation of buildings and houses and moving wholesale to electrically powered vehicles to cut emissions. In fact recent analysis

by Capgemini, revealed that most of the population will not have embraced the changes in time. It predicts more than 80% of the refrigerators bought in 2007 will still be in operation in 2020; less than a third of the industrial and utility infrastructure in place today will be renewed by 2020;

and more than 20% of the cars bought in 2007 will still be on the road in 2020. In summary, the report concluded that the key to reaching the emissions target would have to be met by simply conserving more energy.

Easier said than done – especially when it means convincing households throughout the whole of Europe to change behaviour and be more accountable for their energy consumption.

One of the issues stopping householders from being ‘green’ is the fact there is no way of measuring the impact their activities in the home are making on the environment.

To help tackle this problem, an East-West European partnership has now emerged from the UK Government’s Digital Challenge initiative to pioneer a programme called The Digital Environment Home Energy Management System (DEHEMS). The 2.9 million programme is funded by the European Union Seventh Framework

Programme theme: co-operation under ICT for the environmental management and energy efficiency with the aim of changing attitudes.

The programme, which started in June this year, aims to be completed in November 2010 and involves city councils, academics and industry.

Councils such as Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol and municipality Ivanovo have been tasked with establishing a series of ‘Living Labs’ across Europe – the first time that Living Labs have ever been used in this way.

Over 200 households (Living Labs) will take part in the experiment to use the Digital Environment Energy Management System that is being developed by academics and industry bodies.

Research has begun into the appropriate technologies and methodologies that will determine the software needed to create a system that monitors and controls energy consumption in the home.

At present it is difficult to do this because appliances and systems that use energy are rarely networked or automated intelligently.

The energy requirements for different appliances and devices are varied and adjusting settings to optimise environmental performance requires a major effort e.g. thermostat settings for heating, standby settings for appliances, temperature settings for washing machines and dryers and so on.

Where home automation has been installed, it is frequently at a high cost. A recent Deutsche Bank survey cited a typical cost of more than 75,000.

But the internet has opened up a new opportunity to develop IP enabled solutions that are more user friendly and flexible than past electro-mechanical automation approaches.

• The average household could save around 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year by making their home energy efficient.

• If everyone with gas central heating installed a new condensing boiler, we’d cut emissions by 12.5 million tonnes. We’d also save around £1.9 billion per year on our energy bills and enough energy to heat over 3.3 million homes for a year.

• If everyone installed cavity wall insulation, we’d cut CO2 emissions by 4.6 million tonnes, enough to fill 1 million hot air balloons.

Together with other universities, Coventry is developing a simple and attractive digital model that householders can use to reduce their carbon emissions.

It will move from just recording how much energy has been used to a model that also looks at the way the energy was used.

It will bring together sensor data in areas such as household heat loss and appliance performance as well as energy usage monitoring to give real-time information on emissions and the energy performance of appliances and services. Changes will be able to be made to those appliances and services remotely from a mobile phone or PC and provide specific energy efficiency recommendations for the household.

Coventry is literally working at the heart of the project as it is tasked with delivering the Semantic Services Development Work Package, which basically allows meaningful interactions between the householder and the networks to take place.

The work includes building the Service Demand, Service Provider, Semantic Layers, the Service broker wrapper for the control system and the User Interface (UI) for the whole system.

Building this level of technology to meet the needs of the user, means initially monitoring the demands of people in the home. Once the householder makes a request, the control system will use stored data such as environmental and external conditions to give the user options based on their request.

The impact will be to personalise action on climate change, influence new policies such as Personal Carbon Allowance and support the move towards localised generation and distribution of energy.

• If every home that could, had 270mm loft insulation we’d save 3.8 million tonnes of CO2, the same as the annual emissions of around 650,000 homes.

• If everyone put an insulation jacket on their hot water tank, we’d cut CO2 emissions by 900,000 tonnes - enough to fill around 182,000 hot air balloons.

• If everyone in the UK installed just one energy saving light bulb, we’d save enough CO2 to fill the Albert Hall over 1,900 times.

Facts from the www.energysavingtrust.org.uk

A Service Orientated Architecture and loose coupling system is being used, which allows different applications to exchange data with each other and enables each software Work Package to develop at the same time.

Due to the breadth of the technology involved in the project, a committee has been formed to make general policies on the use of new technologies and to explore and alleviate any potential problems such as incompatibility of the technologies.

A steering committee, involving all the Work Package leaders, has also been established to monitor progress. Due to the constraints of time and resources on the project the team have implemented a threeresearch cycle approach. This means that the learning from each research cycle will feed into the research and system development activity of the next cycle. These cycles repeat to create a series of experiential-based learning episodes through which people can build knowledge.

The use of these innovative applications will be a breakthrough in Information Communication Technology (ICT) solutions in environmental monitoring and management – with the opportunity to use them on a much wider scale. The establishment of a European Research Area in this field is also a major advantage towards not only reaching 2020 targets in carbon emission reductions – but also in creating world-class technology that can respond to major environmental threats throughout Europe.

Project partners: Co-ordinator and Work Package leader Manchester City Council; Work Package leader Technical University Cluj-Napoca, Romania; Clicks and Links ltd, UK; Hildebrand Technology ltd, UK; Work Package leader Bristol City Council, UK; Corinex Communications AS, Slovakia; Energy Agency Plovdiv, Bulgaria; Ivanovo Municipality, Bulgaria; Birmingham City Council, UK; The Centre, Belgium, Work Package leader Salford University, UK; Work Package leader Rousse University, Bulgaria; Institute e-Austria Timisoara, Romania.

Dr Kuo-Ming Chao is a Reader in Applied Computing and he is the leader of Distributed Systems and Modelling Applied Research Group, Department of Computing and the Digital Environment, Engineering and Computing Faculty.

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LEARNING As the interest in distance learning grows, how will immersive virtual worlds impact on the future of higher education? It’s a question Professor Maggi Savin-Baden aims to solve with the support of a £513,000 research grant from the Leverhulme Trust

Learning in immersive worlds has become a central learning approach in many curricula, but the socio political impact of this approach to learning in higher education remains under-researched.

Immersive virtual worlds are 3D environments, such as Second Life, where you create your own virtual person (avatar) who you clothe and manoeuvre as you wish.

Although these worlds have gained media coverage and popularity in higher education, much of the recent research into learning in immersive worlds centres on games and gaming. It is largely underpinned by cognitive learning theories that focus on linearity, problem-solving and the importance of attaining the ‘right answer’ or game plan.

Most research to date has looked into students’ experiences of virtual learning environments, discussion forums and perspectives about what and how online learning has been implemented. Yet, virtual world learning seems to offer new perspectives relating to the study of the socio-political impact of learning in higher education.

This is because virtual spaces such as Second Life are universal – not bound by time or geographic location – and they adopt different learning values to other learning spaces. Furthermore, research would seem to suggest that identity and identity construction in virtual worlds occurs through dialogic learning rather than gaming.

There are extensive possibilities for using virtual worlds, in particular for distance learning and simulations, but adopting them as teaching and learning spaces raises questions. For example, we are not sure what the impact will be on students’ conceptions of reality, and the relationship between in-world and real-world behaviour.

Learning in immersive virtual worlds also brings to the fore questions about the nature of honesty, disclosure and collaboration.

It is these areas that Coventry University is now able to explore with £513,000 worth of funding from The Leverhulme Trust, one of the largest non-governmental funding bodies for research that

Online learning: Images from the virtual world Second Life

Testing, testing… puts emphasis on the originality of a project, the significance of the proposed work and the removal of barriers between traditional disciplines.

To foster a greater understanding of the impact of this style of learning, we will interview staff and students from a wide range of disciplines in Higher Education Institutions across the UK, using participatory research. The study will investigate their conceptions of and decisions about the way in which they teach and learn at the socio-political boundaries of reality, focusing on the exploration of three main themes: n Students’ experiences of learning in immersive worlds; n Pedagogical design; n Learner identity.

A team of researchers will begin by undertaking a comprehensive literature review that relates to and transcends each research theme.

Research sites will be chosen to reflect a range of uses of virtual worlds across a variety of disciplines. Examples may include medicine, performing arts, law, philosophy, health care management and physics. Data will be acquired through Participatory Action Research (PAR) as it seeks to engage people as active participants in the research process; and results in practical outcomes related to the work and learning of the participants.

This four year project officially started in September this year and will finally give the world insights into how knowledge is created and understood in virtual worlds.

It will give us the ability to delineate the socio political impact of such learning on the higher education community and better understand how learning occurs and what it means to create learning environments and curricula in such spaces. This understanding about communication and dialogue will help develop approaches to teaching and whether disciplinary differences help or hinder learning in immersive worlds.

For more information: http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/grants_awards/ or http://cuba.coventry.ac.uk/leverhulme/

Maggi Savin-Baden is Professor of Higher Education Research and heads up the Learning Innovation Research Group.

She is the author of six books on Problem-based Learning, and a recent one on Learning Spaces.

A £200,000 research grant from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has enabled Coventry University, Kingston University and St George’s University of London to investigate Problem-based Learning (PBL) in virtual worlds.

The PREVIEW project will investigate, implement and evaluate a user-focused approach to developing scenarios and materials, linking the emerging technologies of virtual worlds with interactive PBL online, to create immersive collaborative tutorials. The project team will create specific PBL environments within Second Life, PBL scenarios, strategies, guidance materials and good practice guides, all of which will be evaluated under the guidance of users, and made available to the higher education community.

The team were also awarded a further £15,000 from JISC to research staff and student experiences of PREVIEW and are supporting the Higher Education Academy Psychology subject network who are adapting and trialing the scenarios developed by PREVIEW for use in psychology.

On top of testing the effectiveness of PBL, Coventry was also awarded £15,000 from JISC to organise a National Workshop on leaning in immersive environments. The event, which took place in October this year at the Technocentre brought together diverse groups of people involved with developing learning in immersive worlds. Seminars and networking helped to share ideas for future development.

Enterprise isn’t just a buzzword at Coventry; it’s ingrained in the University’s teaching, research and even in its people. Gideon Maas, Co-director of the Institute of Applied Entrepreneurship, explains how its regional, national and international impact has earned Coventry Highly Commended status for Entrepreneurial University of the Year in the 2008 Times Higher Education awards

MA in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education aims to develop future leaders in education who will shape the entrepreneurial learning opportunities for generations of students to come. Already three members of staff have been pioneer participants in the first cohort of the International Entrepreneurship Educators Programme, developed and run jointly by the NCGE and Enterprise Educators UK, and supported by the HEA and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. This programme delivers the latest thinking on entrepreneurship education – and Coventry’s staff look set to continue to benefit.

“In addition to the innovative new courses the University offers, Coventry is doing much more. Its new Student Enterprise Centre provides important incubation support for budding venture creators. This is leading the university further along its path towards becoming an entrepreneurial university within a global context.”

As well as the 24 staff from across the University and CUE who are part of the Institute, other academics and professional staff are also encouraged to foster an enterprising attitude and we have embedded enterprise into the appraisal scheme and reward entrepreneurial activity.

Being acknowledged in the 2008 Times Higher Education awards is further encouragement that we are on our way and NGCE Chief Executive Ian Robertson agrees when he said: “Enterprise has been placed at the strategic heart of the Institution. It is clearly taking a completely fresh look at how to support the enterprise needs of the world beyond the University.”

The Institute’s new high-powered Think Tank will be meeting soon as part of an annual venture to discuss entrepreneurship.

The first topic will be focused on ‘An Entrepreneurial University.’ I think you’ll agree that Coventry is worthy of the label.

For more information email business-enterprise@cad.coventry.ac.uk or call +44 (0) 24 7623 6001.

“Enterprise has been placed at the strategic heart of the Institution. It is clearly taking a completely fresh look at how to support the enterprise needs of the world beyond the University” Ian Robertson, NGCE chief executive

Since July 2007, 14,000 undergraduate students have had access to the University’s enterprise courses portfolio and it has assisted over 200 students in starting their own business. The University and its commercial arm Coventry University Enterprises (CUE) now support more than 6,000 SMEs every year.

The Technology Park and the Business Enterprise Works programme offer a range of packages to graduates and local businesses looking for support in developing their enterprise. There are currently 60 full time business tenants based at the Technology Park and a further 175 registered on the 4front scheme (a postal forwarding scheme which enables small businesses to use the Technology Park as their registered business address).

Dr Gideon Maas is the Co-Director Institute of Applied Entrepreneurship.

Before joining the University in 2007, he managed his own consulting company, GEB Consultants, focusing on innovation and growth strategies for entrepreneurs and family businesses. He has contributed to many national strategic development initiatives in South Africa and was the first International Chair in Entrepreneurship, worked for Stellenbosch University Business School, where he obtained his PhD, and was the Principal researcher and author of the 2006 and 2007 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Reports.

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World of enterprise

It’s not what you do, but the way that you do it – and at Coventry our way is enterprising.

We’re one of the leading universities in the UK for enterprise and entrepreneurial activity and the establishment of an Institute for Applied Entrepreneurship has coordinated all our enterprising activities.

Focusing on four core business areas: education and training; applied research; entrepreneurship support and creating an enterprising culture we offer entrepreneurs seamless support from business creation through to supporting their formation and beyond.

Today’s global economy calls for a global university – and we need to produce graduates who understand the complexities of operating a successful enterprise on the world’s stage. Coventry’s new Masters qualification in Global Entrepreneurship launches in January 2009 and will give participants the knowledge, tools and strategies required to develop an internationally competitive entrepreneurial business or project – and make it profitable.

The two-year course will be presented in China with the support of the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade in Shanghai.

China is one of the world’s fastest growing economies, and offers a major development opportunity for UK entrepreneurs.

Shanghai will support the programme through a week-long study trip giving students an understanding of international entrepreneurship, an insight into the different culture, and potentially entry for our entrepreneurs into the local business world.

Ultimately, Coventry’s vision is to become an internationally recognised Institute of Excellence promoting an entrepreneurial lifestyle and mindset within the University community and to its stakeholders.

It is a culture that the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurs (NCGE) recognised in Coventry when they gave it a Highly Commended status in the first Times Higher Education award for Entrepreneurial University of the Year. Professor Paul Hannon, Director of Research and Education for the NGCE, said: “Coventry’s new Institute for Applied Entrepreneurship is a flagship development that will provide new opportunities for learning for the non-typical student, for instance entrepreneurs and local businesses.

“It is forging strong links with China through its MA in Global Entrepreneurship and, in partnership with the NCGE, the new

Coventry’s commitment to sharing knowledge with businesses and organisations has been recognised by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) with funding worth nearly £5 million for future applied research initiatives

How will the money be spent?

Ambitious goal-setting and a clear rationale were just two of the reasons why Coventry University was awarded nearly £5 million from the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF).

The national fund is designed to support and develop a broad range of knowledge transfer activities, which economically and socially benefit the UK. The fund builds capacity and provides incentives for higher education institutions to work with business, public sector bodies and third sector partners, with a view to transferring knowledge and thereby improving products, goods and services.

Coventry’s innovative approach to managing and developing its strategic partnerships was commended as excellent. The University was awarded £1.33M (2008/09), £1.60M (2009/10), £1.90M (2010/11) to invest in key areas such as student enterprise and entrepreneurship, commercialisation of Intellectual Property, industry events, academic consultancy and the Business Development Team structure This is the fourth round of HEIF funding and totals £400 million for universities across the UK to boost the economy and society. The Government announced HEIF4 following the publication of Lord Sainsbury’s Review of Science and Innovation and it accepted all of the Sainsbury recommendations, including those on HEIF. Coventry was among only eight institutions that were highlighted

by HEFCE for their innovative strategies that involved new initiatives as well as the continuation of successful projects.

2008-2011: • Funding will enable academic staff and technicians to have time away from teaching to work with external organisations on shortterm projects through the Knowledge Transfer Enterprise Grant Fund. It aims to encourage new academics to pick up projects and help them to break into applied research.

• More money will be put into the Proof of Concept Fund to help inventors create first stage prototypes to make it easier to approach businesses with ideas.

• Support for the SPEEd (Student Placements for Entrepreneurs in Education) programme has been boosted too, which is designed to give students the opportunity to improve their entrepreneurial skills through the development of a new business idea.

• Money will be put towards attendance at industry events or hosting events with external partners.

• New Continual Professional Development products will be invested in to develop a co-ordinated approach to CPD provision.

2009-2011 • Academy for Industry funding will help build stronger industry links and longer term partnerships through match funding of academic applied research secondments in industry, and potentially reciprocal industry contracts with the University.

• Funding will help secure specialist consultancy bid writing expertise to enhance proposal quality, so the University can apply for large collaborative projects.

• Funding for market research/intelligence will support the development of new business partnerships, opportunities for new applied research collaboration with industry, cover a percentage of salary for an Information Officer, and subscription fees for relevant business and market research databases.

• Lord Stafford Awards recognise innovation in business and a contribution towards these annual awards has been agreed by Coventry University until 2011.

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Sharing r£aps r£wards

Breaking free of the office When a group of academics surrendered their offices for hot desking and a laptop the results proved a success both personally and professionally.

Anne Marie McTavish explains how a JISC funded project is creating the right work-life balance and was shortlisted in the 2008 Times Higher Education awards for Outstanding ICT Initiative

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Behind the doors of most academics’ offices nestle the familiar piles of coursework, timetables and resources that provide a sense of security. Bookshelves stand tall, lining the walls of these womb-like offices, cradling all the reserves needed to survive the working day.

So, imagine the reaction from academics in the Business, Environment and Society Faculty when it was suggested they closed the door on these cosy sanctuaries and stepped out into the world alone – with only a laptop and a smart phone for a lifeline.

In April 2008, 30 academics were invited to trial Location Independent Working (LIW) over a three-month period and of that first cohort, only one person has asked for his office back. All the others are now permanently LIW, another group went out in July and a group of people are just about to embark on the trial that is changing lives – both working and personal.

The University’s technological advances have enabled the project to be embraced fully. Everyone on the programme is given a laptop and a smart phone with 3G access that connects them to the University’s systems and files just as they did in the office but now they can do it from anywhere in the world. If they want to work in a coffee shop for the afternoon – which one lecturer does frequently as she prefers the ambience to a stuffy office – then they can. There are no restrictions on where or how people work – as long as their teaching and academic commitments are met.

One colleague, who has really taken to LIW, realised out of the books stored in her former office, she actually only needed one shelf of them. The E-library the academics have access to on the

University’s intranet and the ability to engage remotely with students on CU online means the comfort blanket of the office is no longer needed.

The first challenge was to get people to think how they could work differently. There’s an element of an academic’s work that is solitary – but thinking about how they were going to teach was by far the biggest challenge. They still had 20 lectures and 17 seminars to deal with and the need to see students to discuss work. LIW has made people much more structured about the way they work.

Academics make their students aware of the hours they will be in the University for meetings and also respond much quicker to emails when they are not in an office environment. Lecturers are finding this system more productive too as email conversations are quicker than office interruptions from students, which can naturally lead to lengthy discussions. The only negative is that staff are finding they are driven more by email so courses have been implemented to help with email management.

On days when teaching staff are using a recorded lecture from an industry specialist, there’s no need for them – or even the students – to be in the lecture theatre. They can post the recorded lecture on CU Online for students to retrieve – with course notes – at their convenience. This is very beneficial for the growing numbers of students who support their studies with paid employment. The flexibility of LIW academics also means that meetings can be scheduled in the evening or at times to suit students – rather than sticking to traditional office hours.

This flexibility has brought dramatic improvements in motivation and satisfaction – especially for staff who are parents of young children.

Previously when someone’s child was ill a day’s work would be lost. Now they can continue as normal from home and be there for their child at the same time.

LIW basically enables people to work in a way that best suits them, which is always going to effect motivation and retention. The old adage ‘a happy worker is a productive worker’ certainly rings true here. We find most people get more done when they work from home – and if anything we have to ensure they are taking enough breaks and not working too late. One colleague would use the time she would have spent commuting to and from the University to do even more work on her days at home until it was explained that those extra hours she had recovered were her time not the University’s.

The reduced commuting time has definitely improved quality of life for people. Not only because they save petrol money and get to spend more time with their family but also because they are benefiting the environment too.

The University is reaping the benefits of a more flexible workforce as office space is freed up. In BES, new staff can now be employed to cope with the surge in student numbers because LIW has created more empty office space. It also means the net can be widened in looking for better quality teaching staff. Attracting a specialist lecturer from Hastings, for example, to work in Coventry would have been difficult before – but now they can work at home for part of the week, the commute is manageable.

It has also improved communication between colleagues – with LIW staff making more of an effort to talk to people now they are not hiding behind the doors of an office.

Research is currently underway to formerly examine the effects of LIW and both quantitative and qualitative data is being gathered and analysed. Participants have been keeping a log, recording both good and bad experiences, and we have applied some of that learning to develop the programme for the next cohort.

The practice of employees working from home is becoming popular with businesses but investment in the project doesn’t come cheap if you are to install the most effective technology to support staff. However, after the initial outlay there is really only cost savings to be made from then on – in simple terms such as space, accommodation, heating and lighting and in the bigger benefits such as staff motivation, retention and productivity. One area the University has seen a massive difference in is sickness levels, for example.

As technology improves, remote working will continue to rise in popularity for both business and academia. The traditional image of an academic sitting in an office surrounded by books is fading fast.

Imagine now, that same academic sitting anywhere in the world, with 3G access working just as effectively. The fact is, we can’t teach students all they need to know about business practice and how globalisation and internationalisation are taking over the agenda if academics are not adopting the same principles themselves.

For more information: http://e-learning.coventry.ac.uk/LIW

"I’m not working less but the increased flexibility that I’m getting means I am spending more time on projects that I want to be working on and because of that I would strongly recommend it.”

Case study Tina Bass is a senior lecturer in Strategy and Applied Management in BES and was part of the first cohort to trial LIW. “I volunteered to be part of the first group of Coventry academics to become Location Independent Workers – this means that some of the time I work on campus but when I don’t need to be there I can work just as easily at home, in a coffee shop on a park bench – just about anywhere.

If wireless access isn’t readily available to me I have a dongle, which gives me 3G access to the internet. I am very enthusiastic about working in this way. For me the best things about being location independent are reduced travel time, lower petrol costs and up to date technology to take home with me, and this includes a laptop, camera, a smart phone, which is linked to my University email account and a photocopier, fax/printer. I’m not working less but the increased flexibility that I’m getting means I am spending more time on projects that I want to be working on and because of that I would strongly recommend it.”

Anne-Marie McTavish spent 18 years working in management consultancy for one of the world’s leading companies where she led a team to successfully implement remote working into organisations. Since joining the University five years ago, she has remained a consultant to a number of high profile UK organisations, which feeds directly into her role and research projects at the University. She is currently the project manager for the LIW project.

NU

ME

The changing face of student life means universities need to alter the way they communicate with students if they are to succeed. Professor Denise Skinner explains how Coventry is using technology to enhance interaction with its students

The nature and expectations of the student body in higher education have changed significantly in the last three decades as a result of societal and technological changes. A significant proportion of today’s students are likely to be combining study with employment, to have English as their second language and to use a range of technological devices for personal communication and to access information. Universities need to respond to these changes, not least by seeking new and innovative ways of working with students.

Coventry University has always been at the forefront of developing ways of using technology to interact with its students and a new project is helping to continue that trend. Funded by JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) the project is focused on developing the use of recorded lectures as a normal part of teaching within the programmes offered by the faculties of Business, Environment and Society (BES) and Health and Life Sciences (HLS).

Recording and replaying videos of lectures has long been a part of further education and higher education teaching practice. In some cases, such as earlier periods of the Open University’s operations, lecture material distributed on video cassettes was a natural extension of the practice of broadcasting educational content.

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Lecture Download

Elsewhere university and college libraries have developed collections of video materials, which may include recordings of lectures. However there have always been difficulties in the effective use of recorded lectures as learning materials because of the limitations of the available technology, complexities of distribution and the costs of storage.

The emergence of automated lecture capture systems is putting pay to these problems though. The system overcomes the labour cost issue by automating the key processes of scheduling, recording, digitising, storing, publicising and distributing lectures. And in recent years a number of proprietary systems have been developed with education in mind. Over the past 18 months the University has been experimenting with automated lecture capture using Echo360, an industry-leading platform that automatically captures lectures and converts them into podcasts, video, rich media and so on. Three systems have been in use, two in large shared lecture facilities and one in a smaller space intended for recording sessions.

The JISC funding will mean the University can develop the work it has started in this area and conduct a faculty level trial in BES and HLS, which will then be rolled out across the University.

Within BES the trial will be conducted by capturing lectures on the MBA programme. Just fewer than 300 students studied the MBA programme in 2007/08 of whom 50% had a first language other than English.

In HLS, the trial will concentrate on courses which have a high proportion of work-based learners, including the Foundation Degrees in Health and Social Care Management and Paramedic Sciences, degree programmes in Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and Social Work and the core Inter-professional Learning Pathway taken by all students on health profession courses.

In total approximately 1,200 students will be involved.

Captured lectures will be integrated with a range of social software technologies to create an ‘architecture of participation’ and will be made available in different formats (podcast, enhanced podcast and videocast). These will be accessible via a variety of mobile devices (notebook and laptop computers, MP3 players, video iPods etc) and in different formats thus providing a valuable means of integrating teaching activities, which occur in physical and virtual spaces.

As well as exploring the benefits of the captured lectures, the project will also look into related issues such as Intellectual Property, training needs, integration of captured lectures with other teaching tools and best practice in relation to the lectures.

There are many anticipated benefits to staff, students and the University by introducing the system – including the opportunity for students to access lectures at a time that suits them and increased flexibility for teaching staff.

If the project lives up to its anticipated benefits, universities could be seeing improvements in student retention and satisfaction from today’s student body.

The benefits Anticipated STUDENT benefits: n B eing able to replay (parts of or whole) lectures which they are having difficulty understanding (this is of particular importance where the student’s or lecturer’s first language is not English) n Having lecture material available for revision purposes n The opportunity to review lectures and enhance lecture notes n Accessing lectures at a time to suit them n Greater accessibility and usability of lectures for students with a disability.

Anticipated benefits for staff: Greater control over their workloads n Increased flexibility n Fewer student queries about the content of lectures n Being able to pre-record lectures to cover times when they are unavailable n The possibility of having a fallback position if they are unexpectedly unable to give a lecture n The possibility of integrating lectures with other learning tools and technologies such as blogs and virtual, social learning spaces for example. n

Denise Skinner is currently Associate Dean (Applied Research) and Professor of Human Resource Management (HRM) in the Faculty of Business, Environment and Society at Coventry University. Denise is an experienced manager and senior researcher in the fields of Change Management and HRM (Human Resource Management) and has undertaken funded research and consultancy work with a range of public and private sector organisations.

Durabuild

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Innovate InnovateAutomotive enterprise 24

In focus:

Celebrities and royalty are among the many who enjoy the quality glass constructions from Coventry-based company Durabuild. With an enviable customer-base, Director Paul Martin joined forces with the University to find a better way to keep control of his costs and track the work they were doing The company: Durabuild was founded in 1984 and was set up to manufacture high-end conservatories made from timber and aluminium. Over the last 24 years the business has expanded into both retail and commercial divisions and has a turnover of nearly £4 million.

The retail side of the company, known as Fawsley, sells quality conservatories, garden rooms and orangeries costing from £20,000 upwards and the commercial side of the business provides everything from roof lights to major glass constructions for schools.

When Paul Martin was offered a student through the Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme he saw an opportunity to finally rationalise his computer systems to get a better cost control system.

What did you want to get out of the KTP? I wanted to implement a new system that provided cost back analysis for the management team. We can do between 200 and 250 projects a year and they can be from anything up to half a million pounds.

I also needed someone to train my 45 employees on how to use the new system and integrate it properly into the business.

How did the University support you?

I worked with the KTP partner at the University in the Engineering & Computing Faculty who advised us on the kind of systems we should implement. It took 12 months to identify the software we wanted to use. We had meetings with the University and we all sat together and decided which system to go with. The benefits of the cost control system will be phenomenal in the end.

As a company we design, manufacture, install and guarantee our own products. This is why cost control will be so useful to us because we can track the items we have bought in. It means we will be able to improve our estimating and profitability in the mid-term.

Partnership: Coventry University's Director of Future Manufacturing Applied Research Centre (FMARC) Keith Popplewell with Paul Martin inside one of Durabuild's constructions on the Coventry campus.

How has Durabuild helped the University?

The student who has been working with us has been on lots of courses, and has been very active in the business. We’ve set lots of mini-projects to help him get a good understanding of the production side of the business.

I think it has been beneficial for him to be based in a smaller company as he has been able to experience all parts of the business.

He’s seen the sales and manufacturing side – right through to production. It has helped to give the student a level of commercial awareness, showing him that ultimately a business has to be profitable and financially viable.

Would you recommend other businesses get involved with KTPs? The benefits go two ways. For the company it is a cost effective way of making change in a business for the better – and for getting expert help along the way. From the student’s point of view it provides them with a broad experience of an operating business – and that’s invaluable. It allows them to experience a wide range of topics within the business and they can benefit from that.

This Partnership received financial support from the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships programme (KTP). KTP aims to help businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK Knowledge Base. KTP is funded by the Technology Strategy Board along with the other government funding organisations.

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Migrating disease The lack of high profile anti-AIDS public health campaigns in the UK since the 1980s has led to complacency and increasing rates of HIV infection. After 10 years researching the impact of the deadly infection in Sub-Saharan Africa, Professor Hazel Barrett is concerned about the changing geography of the infection in the UK, in particular the growing numbers of new cases emerging in the regions.

In 2007, UNAIDS (2007) estimated that 33.2 million people worldwide were living with HIV/AIDS. In 2007 alone, 2.5 million people were newly infected with the disease while just over two million people died as a result of the AIDS infection.

Closer to home, the figures are also a cause for concern. In the UK the number of people living with HIV in 2007 was 94,897 with 7,734 newly diagnosed cases (HPA, 2008). Since 2003 the number of annual HIV diagnosis has exceeded 7,000, with 2007 recording the highest annual number of people newly diagnosed. The UK HIV/AIDS situation continues to be a public health challenge.

So, when did the nation stop heeding safe sex warnings and believe the problem had gone away? The current generation of young people were not even born when the hard-hitting adverts featuring ‘tombstones’ were on the television in the late 1980s and so many people are still under the misapprehension that HIV/AIDS is a homosexual disease or caught by those that inject hard drugs – and that most new infections occur in London. In fact the reverse is true.

HIV/AIDS is now a heterosexual epidemic in the UK with 47% of new cases occurring as a result of heterosexual contact, compared to 35% of new cases occurring as a result of homosexual contact.

Injecting drugs accounted for only 2% of infections in 2007.

The remaining 16% of new cases are the result of mother to infant infection, infected blood or tissue products and other unknown causes. The majority (79%) of HIV cases in the UK in 2007 occurred amongst people aged between 20 and 44 years of age and of the 3,614 heterosexual cases, 67% occurred amongst black Africans, with women accounting for two-thirds of this number.

With over half of these cases found outside of London the demography, infection routes and geography of HIV infection in the UK is changing.

Since 1998 there have been an increasing number of new HIV cases occurring outside London, with the North East, South Central and East of England SHAs registering increases in HIV diagnosis of over 500%. This dispersal has accelerated since 2002. New HIV diagnoses amongst black Africans has increased five-fold over the last decade. Whilst many were infected in sub-Saharan Africa, an increasing number are being infected heterosexually in the UK. Higher rates of new diagnosis outside of London, particularly amongst black Africans are likely to reflect current dispersal policies affecting these populations. Such geographical patterns are important for healthcare providers in terms of targeting interventions and health promotion messages.

The Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), which is the UK’s leading charity on HIV and sexual health, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and is responding to this changing geography by opening services appropriate and welcoming to African people. Since the THT merged with seven other HIV charities (1998-2000), it has evolved from being a London-based charity to one which operates around the UK. For example, THT has two services in Birmingham aimed at the African community (African Health Promotion Services and Peer Support – French Speaking Africans) and one in Coventry (African Services).

Research undertaken at Coventry University by Betselot Mulugeta with the Eritrean and Ethiopian community in Birmingham suggest, however, that there is still much work to be done. The research revealed a lot of misconceptions and incorrect information circulating within this community. Many said that they believed HIV/AIDS is not a threat in the UK because unlike their home countries, there is no national public health campaign and the issue is rarely discussed openly in the media. Some stated that they believed all migrants to the UK were screened for HIV and therefore there was little infection among their migrant community, so they did not need to heed safe sex messages. Others believed that there were drugs that could cure the infection so they did not need to use condoms. In addition sexual issues are rarely discussed among this community, and women in particular find the topic embarrassing and feel unable to ask for advice and help.

Call to parent s: A poster as king parents to about HIV/AI tell their child DS on the str ren eets of Kigali, capital of Rwan da

The UK

UK reaction: The Terence Hi ggins Trust's takes a differe Get it On cam nt approach to paign promoting HI in the UK V/AIDS awaren ess

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To truly understand the HIV situation among these migrant groups, we need to recognise the cultural and health environment from which they originally came.

Many health authorities assume black Africans are all the same, but campaigns need to acknowledge the differences in culture and sexuality of people from different parts of Africa, something that charities such as THT are now beginning to address.

It’s not clear what happens when people move to a new country and change their sense of space and identity. The complexity of time, a sense of place and identity that are involved with relocation are particularly complicated when they are combined with a deadly infection. Therefore a considered approach needs to be taken in the way information is communicated to migrants. More research needs to be undertaken in order to inform health policy with respect to HIV prevention amongst migrant groups in the UK. There is a desperate need to understand the social context of the disease both in terms of the migrants region of origin as well as in their new UK communities, with emphasis being placed on learning more about the socio-cultural environments in which it spreads.

The British government is yet to address the steep rise in rates of the disease among heterosexuals and a new AIDS awareness campaign targeted at those most at risk of spreading it is imperative.

It’s a campaign they are reluctant to undertake because of the sensitivities around immigration, race and perceptions of neo-colonialism.

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 60% of global cases of HIV/AIDS but it is dangerous to think of the disease as just an African problem now that we can travel easily between continents. Surely it is time we had another UK national campaign to bring this deadly disease to everybody’s attention and to correct the misconceptions both the host and migrant communities have of the UK HIV/AIDS epidemic.

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Numb ers of new HIV outsid cases d e of Lo iagnos ndon: ed • North West S trategic has the Health highes Authori t numb • The S ty (SHA er 584 outh E ) c ases or a s t Coast • West 8% SHA 57 Midlan 7 cases ds SHA or 7.5% 536 cas es or 7 New c % ases o f HIV a in 200 mong 7: black A • 63% (1 fricans ,695) liv e outsid • 9% (2 e Lond 41) live on d in Ea • 9% (2 st of En 32) live g la d nd SHA in • 8% (2 Yorkshir 07) livin e and H g in the umber • 8% (2 West M SHA 07) Sou idlands th Cen SHA tral SH A.

Professor Hazel Barrett is the Head of the Department of Geography, Environment and Disaster Management. Hazel won the Geographical Association's 2008 Award for Excellence in Leading Geography for her work on HIV/AIDS. She did her first degree at Sussex University in Geography in the School of African and Asian Studies graduating in 1976. In 1978 she graduated from University of Birmingham with an MA in West African Studies and in 1984 completed a PhD in Geography and African Studies at the University of Birmingham. She lectured at Derbyshire College of Higher Education from 1986 until 1992 when she moved to Coventry University to take up a position as a Senior Lecturer. In 2007 Hazel was conferred a Chair in Development Geography.

A new technique for diagnosing malaria could significantly reduce the number of deaths from the disease that affects about 40% of the world’s population. Dr John Heptinstall reveals how the life-saving device has been developed Fifty percent of the world’s population lives at risk of exposure to mosquito borne malarial infection. Of the minimum 500 million cases occurring annually some three million are fatal with more than a third of these accounted for in Africa alone by infants under five years old.

The scale of the malarial problem and the necessity for the development of rapid, cheap malarial detectors is highlighted by various international organisations. In recognition of these high statistics and the lack of appropriate diagnostics at a local level, the World Heath Organisation recommends automatic treatment (without diagnostic confirmation) of all infants who have a fever in areas where malaria is prevalent. Many of these treatments are, of course, unnecessary and the resulting over prescription is a major contributory factor to the development of drug resistance.

Early detection of the disease can significantly reduce the number of deaths from the disease and groundbreaking research is nearly complete on the development of a new technique that can challenge the rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) currently used in the field, and laboratory-based microscopy.

Research teams from the Universities of Exeter and Coventry received £1(1.4M Euro) million of European Union (EU) funding to run the project from October 2005 until March 2009.

The EU is not driven to fund malarial sensor development entirely by altruism – global warming threatens to spread the disease into new parts of the world, including southern Europe.

The idea for the sensor began in Coventry based on my conversations with Dr Dave Newman about a multidisciplinary project in biochemistry and physics.

It was known that when the malaria parasite, Plasmodium, infects a human via a mosquito bite, it develops inside red blood cells where it consumes haemoglobin and produces insoluble crystals called haemozoin, a waste product of the malarial parasite. Dr Newman had published a method for detecting blood based on

measuring the iron in haem back in 1981 by using a sophisticated laser/magnetic (magneto-optic) method, which involved pulsing the input laser light and measuring a resulting pulsed pressure change.

When Dr Newman moved to Exeter in 2002, he later made an application for funding of the magneto-optic test (MOTTest). All of the early work on the sensor was conducted in Coventry (preparing haem crystals of various types) and Exeter (applying the magnetic field and laser light), with other partners keeping a watching

brief until proof of principle and design parameters were established. This was achieved within about 18 months, but not in the way it was originally envisaged.

Our investigations revealed that the haemozoin crystals are magnetic and will align in a magnetic field; moreover they have a distinct rectangular form. They also exhibit optical dichroism, which means that they absorb light more strongly along their length than across their width. When aligned by a magnetic field they behave like a weak Polaroid© sheet such as used in sunglasses.

The technology takes advantage of these properties to give a precise reading of the presence of haemozoin in a small blood sample and has been shown to work with malaria infected blood by our partners at KIT in Amsterdam.

We have created a device which gives a positive or negative reading for malaria in less than a minute, has no associated consumable cost and when fully developed will be capable of being operated by someone with minimal training.

The early results from our device have been published in the Biophysical Journal, and suggest that the technique could be as effective as RDTs but far faster and cheaper, making it a potentially viable alternative.

It has a totally different approach to current RDTs, which use a chemical agent to detect antigens associated with the malarial parasite. One of the problems with RDTs is that they need to be kept within a given temperature range, which is difficult in hot climates. These disposable kits cost between $1.50 and $4.50 each and take around 15 minutes to deliver a reading.

High-power microscopy is still the best method available for malaria diagnosis and has been used for more than a century.

Unfortunately it is time-consuming and

requires expensive equipment and specialist medical skills, which are rarely available in villages in rural areas in malaria endemic countries. Over the last decade RDTs have been developed which allow for faster diagnosis in the field, but these are too costly to be viable for developing countries.

Furthermore, RDTs are often not stable at relatively high temperatures and sometimes remain positive even after successful treatment.

Ultimately we expect to produce a sensitive, non-invasive device that will be able to detect the haemozoin crystals in the capillary bed under a fingernail. Prototypes of both instruments, blood-based and non-invasive, built by Philips and Exeter respectively, are to be field tested in Kenya from November 2008, directed by KIT. Both devices should serve as a cost effective alternative and be easy to use, making it suitable for developing countries, where the need is greatest.

Research Information: This research was carried out by Coventry University, the University of Exeter, Uppsala University, Philips Electronic, Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (KIT, Amsterdam; field trials in Africa), Eurorad SA, Metis Instruments & Equipment and was funded under the European Commission Framework 6 Program.

‘A magneto-optic route towards the in-vivo diagnosis of malaria: preliminary results and pre-clinical trial data’ was published in Biophysical Journal and is available at: www.biophysj.org/

The Coventry team consists of Dr John Heptinstall, Reader in Applied Biochemistry, Dr Martin Cox, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology and Dr Jamie Beddow, postdoctoral researcher. John and Jamie had previously worked on biosensors, specifically with the startup company Membrasense at Coventry University Technocentre. Martin has malaria research expertise, having done field work in Papua New Guinea.

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Life-saving detection

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Fighting the superbug When adhesive company Bostik needed verification for its ground breaking Antigerm sealant, it called on the University. Researcher Dr Steve Coupe explains how lab testing helped the company launch a powerful advertising campaign about the new germ-killing product Why did Bostik approach the University?

The company had been told about the University’s ability to do Microlab testing and they were looking for third party verification on whether their new sealant was as effective as they believed it to be.

They wanted to release the product in January 2008 so needed a speedy response so they could target the DIY market with a germ-killing bathroom or kitchen sealant. Bostik wanted a specialist microbiologist’s point of view that the germ killing property they had put into the material would work against specific bugs. They also needed this third party proof so they could market the product and adhere to the Advertising Standards Authority’s strict guidelines.

How did you confirm that the product worked?

We put different bacteria, such as MRSA, Salmonella typhimirium and Escherichia coli strain B, and fungus Aspergillus niger onto the material to industry standards (Japanese Industrial Standard JIS Z 2801: 2000). We grew the microbes on the sealant in an incubator at 35ºC and also tested a piece of material that did not have the same properties as the Antigerm sealant.

To meet industry standards the material must reach a certain level of kill rate of bacteria and in this case, the sealant worked over and above the requirements.

What did Bostik do with the sealant?

They have initially launched it to the DIY market with the slogan – ‘extra protection against infection’ and are looking to promote the product in other markets.

The slogan was made possible because of the verification we did at Coventry University. Bostik launched a £1.5 million advertising campaign off the back of this confirmation, which was aired on mainstream TV channels including ITV, Channel 4 and a range of Sky channels.

The range is called Evo-Stik Antigerm and is aimed at kitchens and bathrooms as a solution to black mould and bacteria that is often found in the gaps and cracks between tiles.

The company can also claim that it is the first product of its kind proven to kill germs, including MRSA, E. Coli, Salmonella.

What are the future plans?

The contract was initially for one year and we are still looking at ways we can improve and enhance the knowledge base around this kind of material. We are now looking at Anti-germ’s long-term efficacy through a novel model based protocol. As new superbugs develop we’re also working with Bostik to test them on the sealant.

For more information about the sealant: www.anti-germ.co.uk

Back in business with innovative conference facilities

Did you know? n

Over 1,000 people in the UK died from E.coli infection in 2006 The underlying cause of 700 deaths was the superbug, MRSA n More than 300 people died from Salmonella food poisoning n

Dr Stephen Coupe and Dr Gracy Sailo-Lebeau both work in the Business Environment and Society Faculty and are members of the Sustainable Drainage Applied Research Group (SUDSARG).

Stephen teaches MSc in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment and has worked extensively in applied research including the Bostik-Findlay project and a PhD project with Hanson Formpave.

Gracy is a Post Doctoral Researcher with Bostik-Findlay, a founder member of the University’s Microbiological Consultancy and supervises eight MSc research students in the area of Bioremediation and Oil contaminated land.

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