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April 2014

EPS Team Brief NewsletterWelcome News and achievements What’s happening? Our staff Get in touch

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Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter April

Welcome News and achievements What’s happening? Our staff Get in touch

Rachel Brealey

Director of Faculty Operations.

Welcome to the April edition of the EPS Team Brief

Although we are now in a new month I’d like to take this opportunity to reflect on March’s announcements which will impact how we work in the future.

Firstly, Colin Bailey has been appointed as Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor for the University. I am sure you will agree that Colin has been an exceptional Dean for the Faculty, and will be a difficult act to follow. During his time in the Faculty, he has worked to transform the financial position allowing us the strategic flexibility to invest in new and growing areas. He has also led on a number of very successful initiatives including the BP-ICAM, National Graphene Institute, and two Queens Awards. In addition, he is also an approachable, inspiring and fun person to work with! I am pleased that he will be staying in post until a suitable successor has been found for our Faculty.

We have also selected the architects Mecanoo for our £220 million Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD) project. This is a significant milestone in the project which will transform how we work and collaborate across the faculty from support services through to research and teaching. More details about their appointment are in the newsletter.

You may have also seen in the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s budget, that funding will be made available for an Alan Turing Institute for computing and a new graphene centre. No decision has been made about the location of these two research centres, but we will be bidding for both to come to Manchester so we can continue to apply our considerable knowledge and experience in these sectors.

Finally, I’d like to thank you for your feedback on the last edition of Team Brief. We have made some additional changes this month highlighting which articles require action with this symbol. To continue our investment in improving our internal communications I would like to ask you all to take part in a survey to improve our faculty and school intranets, more details are provided in the newsletter.

Have you got the full view of MECD?

We’re delighted to announce that Mecanoo will be joining Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD) as project architects. Mecanoo are a Dutch firm, based in Delft, and have an impressive portfolio of projects including significant education and HE work. Mecanoo’s director and founder is Prof Francine Houben, who was named Woman Architect of the Year in 2014 by the Architects’ Journal. They have recently completed work on the Birmingham City Library and the redevelopment of the Cornerhouse (First Street). We are sure they will be an enormous asset to the project—and an exciting partner for the Faculty to work with.

MECD is continuing to press ahead and its impact will be felt across the Faculty. The best way to stay in touch with what’s happening is to log on to the Me + My University portal. This will remain active throughout the life span of MECD and has recently been updated with:

» An analysis of the current estate and our needs (statement of existing requirements)

» Feedback from the student workshops

» 360° photo mapping—see parts of the campus you’ve never seen before!

» Visits to other major developments across the country

If you haven’t already signed-up to the Portal you will need to register before you can access the links above.

Neil Stubbs, MECD Project Manager, said:

Thank you to everyone who has already and continued to provide their thought and ideas to the project. We will be retaining our briefing team, who have been gathering our existing and future accommodation needs via a string of meetings, surveys and workshops, to ensure Mecanoo are fully aware of the Faculty’s detailed requirements.

Further updates regarding the project will be available via the Portal and other internal communications channels.

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Click on the image to visit the site, and then please use the eye icon to view the photos New

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Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter April

Welcome News and achievements What’s happening? Our staff Get in touch

Have you got news for us?

Have you got some news to tell but don’t know who will be interested or who to contact to get your message out? Well, EPS’s new virtual news team has hopefully made it easier by providing a one stop shop email address to contact us - [email protected]. This will give you access to a range of communications experts and channels including media, online, social media, stakeholder engagement and internal communications.

The new virtual team, consisting of, David Benko, Web Services Coordinator, Aeron Haworth, Media Officer, Rachel Hobson, Internal Communications Manager and James Tallentire, Marketing and Communications Manager. If you or your colleagues are involved in research, major projects or similar activity and you want others to hear about your success story please contact us. The types of stories we are interested in would include:

» Breakthrough: a new discovery or invention.

» Human interest: any aspect of your work that has an impact on people and their lifestyles —this may range from influencing government policy to new research applications.

» Helping people understand the world they live in: if your knowledge or research can help journalists better explain events affecting society and the environments we live in.

» Event: anything that is happening in your area that needs to be publicised.

» If you are unsure, contact us anyway.

If you have news to share just email us: [email protected], we will contact you to discuss further and we will decide how best to use your information across the various communication channels available.

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Special Commendation

Mike Hughes, teaching laboratories technician at the School of Chemistry, has received a Special Commendation in the Higher Education Academy of Physical Sciences Technician of the Year 2014 awards.

Rachael Barker, Head of School Administration, said: ‘Mike was up against an exceptionally strong field of entrants. The judges were very impressed with his contribution to the quality of student learning.

‘The testimonials contained within his nomination clearly showed the high regard in which his work is held, and the wonderful impact his work has on the student experience at the University of Manchester.’

Mike Hughes

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter April

Welcome News and achievements What’s happening? Our staff Get in touch

Reaching out to tackle the misconceptions

A new government report, Public Attitudes to Science (PAS 2014), has highlighted that nine-in-ten people think that scientists (90%) and engineers (88%) make a valuable contribution to society and more people now agree that “it is important to know about science in my daily life” (72% agree, versus 57% in 1988).

The report also looked at the view of 16-24 years olds. Of our potential future students, 71% agreed that the “UK needs to develop its science and technology sector in order to enhance its international competitiveness”. And, 63% thought that because of “science and technology there will be more work opportunities.”

This is great news for our Faculty’s work, but the report also found that misconceptions still persist and many still do not know how scientists go about their work. A third (35%) still think that scientists adjust their findings to get the answers they want and three-in-ten (29%) think scientific research is never or only occasionally checked by other scientists before being published.

James Tallentire, EPS Faculty Marketing & Communications Manager, said:

Ultimately the report strongly underlines the importance of our student recruitment and engages the public to address people’s concerns and deal with any misconceptions either through the media, our website, social media or our outreach activities and events.

5Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter April

Welcome News and achievements What’s happening? Our staff Get in touch

Reactors and robots in action at The Big Bang Fair 2014

A team of nuclear energy PhD students and electronics engineers from our Dalton Nuclear Institute showcased a virtual nuclear reactor simulator and smart robots at The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair at the NEC in Birmingham last month.

Over 75,000 visitors had the opportunity to learn how a modern nuclear reactor is operated by taking the controls of our newly improved nuclear reactor simulator game and discussing the role nuclear power plays as a low carbon energy source.

Also attracting a lot of attention were our robots from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE). Our engineers are leading research to develop robust robots that can help with the decommissioning of nuclear facilities; prototypes of these smart machines were seen in action at our stand.

Vicky Plane, Marketing Manager at Dalton Nuclear Institute, said:

It’s great to be able to bring science and engineering to life and inspire and inform young visitors at our stand about the work we do, how it benefits society and the possibilities for future careers in the field of nuclear energy.

The Big Bang Fair, aimed at young people aged 7–19, ran for four days in March with a mission to thrill and inspire future scientists and engineers. For more details and further information about additional Big Bang events around the country see: www.thebigbangfair.co.uk.

New investment for Jodrell Bank

Our Jodrell Bank Observatory will be continuing to address fundamental unanswered questions about our Universe including how the first stars and galaxies formed, the nature of gravity, and the search for life beyond Earth thanks to a £100million pledge from the Government to build the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) – a radio telescope.

Dr Keith Grainge, Head of the SKA group within the School of Physics and Astronomy, said:

This is an important step forward in realising this extremely exciting project, which promises to transform our view of the Universe.

Construction of the new telescope in South Africa and Australia is scheduled to start in 2016 and SKA Organisation headquarters will be based at Jodrell Bank.

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Over 75,000 visitors had the opportunity to learn

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter April

Welcome News and achievements What’s happening? Our staff Get in touch

A place alongside Bill Gates

Professor Steve Furber CBE at the School of Computer Science has received the BCS Lovelace Medal and has also been made a Distinguished Fellow of the Chartered Institute for IT. The Awards put Professor Furber in the company of some of the top names in the history of the industry, including Bill Gates, Sir Tim Berners Lee and Vint Cerf.

BCS introduced the Distinguished Fellow award in 1971 and it is presented from time to time in recognition of notable service to the advancement of computing; to date, only 27 people have been selected for the title.

Britain’s engineering future

Five EPS Students made it to the final of the 2014 SET for BRITAIN at the House of Commons. The competition aims to encourage, support and promote Britain’s early-stage and early-career research scientists, engineers, technologists and mathematicians who are the “engine-room” of continued progress in development of UK research and R&D.

Our finalists were, David Jimenez Cruz - School of Mechanical, Aerospace & Civil Engineering, Antonios Oikonomou - School of Chemistry and Mary Aprahamian, Maria Thorpe and Francis Watson - School of Mathematics.

Presidential visit to our Dalton Cumbrian

Facility

Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell visited our Dalton Cumbrian Facility (DCF) for the first time last month.

On the visit, led by Professor Simon Pimblott, Dame Nancy was able to see first-hand the ongoing world-leading research projects in radiation science and nuclear engineering decommissioning. She was particularly impressed by the extensive links that academics have formed with industry as a result of our presence in Cumbria and the opportunities this presented for growing high quality science with impact.

You can find out more about the President’s visit in her weekly update.

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Professor Steve Furber Mary Aprahamian Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell and Professor Simon Pimblott

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter April

Welcome News and achievements What’s happening? Our staff Get in touch

VIP visitors to the National Graphene Institute

Although the new building isn’t due to open until early 2015, our National Graphene Institute has attracted a number of VIP visitors over the last month including Manchester Central MP Lucy Powell and EU Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn.

Mrs Powell’s visit was part of a MP-scientists pairing scheme set up by the Royal Society to build bridges between parliamentarians and some of the best scientists in the UK. Her visit was hosted by Dr Aravind Vijayaraghavan, one our graphene researchers, who also spent a week in Westminster with Mrs Powell last year as part of the scheme.

National Graphene Institute would not have been possible without our second visitor Mr Hahn. Mr Hahn was the Commissioner who approved a £23m investment via the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) towards the £61m Institute. He was given a guided tour of the construction site by Nobel Laureate Sir Kostya Novoselov.

Impact case studies go live

Case studies showing the impact of our research will start going live next month on our re-launched website. These case studies were originally submitted as part of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessment. This process assesses the quality of research in UK higher education institutions and these case studies made up 16% of the overall score.

With the wealth and breadth of research undertaken by the Faculty, we submitted a wide variety of case studies, from drinking cups to nuclear reactors. The aim of each case study was to show how The University of Manchester had contributed, as a world leader, to life beyond academia. New case studies will continue to be added to the website over the next few months.

From 4 April 2014

Further details are available here.

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Click here t to visit a impact case study

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter April

Welcome News and achievements What’s happening? Our staff Get in touch

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Your intranets need you!

Improving staff communications was a key action from the recent staff survey. To address this a project has begun to improve the EPS and School intranet sites and it needs your help.

Please complete this short e-survey which looks at how you currently use the intranet(s) and what functionality you would like in the future. The project team would really appreciate it if you could take five minutes out of your day to complete the survey to help ensure the new intranets meet your needs.

Close date: Friday 25 April 2014

Faculty open meeting

The next Faculty Open Meeting takes place in April (details below). These meetings are a valuable opportunity for you to meet Colin Bailey, Vice President and Dean of the Faculty, and to discuss and ask any questions that you have.

You can view a video of the last EPS open meeting day here.

Slides from the previous meetings can be found here.

Wednesday 30 April 2014

Location: Schuster building (T.b.c.)

Time: 13:00-14:00 (t.b.c)

Contact: Rachel Hobson Tel: 0161 306 4045

Join us

e-survey

Calling all sports fans

With this year’s summer sporting extravaganza the Communication Team are looking for your sports inspired research, projects or personal stories to link our Faculty and Schools to the world wide events taking place.

If you have anything that fits the ‘team sheet’ contact James Tallentire.

Tour de France (Yorkshire to London) 5 July-7 July

FIFA World Cup, 12 June-13 July

Commonwealth Games, 23 July-2 August 2014

Contact: James Tallentire

Out of this world fun this half term at Jodrell Bank

Jodrell Bank is running a range of activities throughout the Easter Holidays on a Mars theme including becoming a Martian for the day, taking part in some hands on experiments and joining a mission to Mars to find out more about this fascinating planet!

7–11, 14–17 & 22–25 April 2014

Further details are available here

What’s happening?

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Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter April

Welcome News and achievements What’s happening? Our staff Get in touch

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Alan Turing Cryptography Day

As part of the School of Mathematics outreach work around 200 school children and teachers will be descending on the University to take part in lots of cryptographic activities and a live cryptographic competition on 30 April 2014.

There will also be a prize-giving ceremony for the winners of our online 2014 Alan Turing Cryptography Competition which has been running since late January and is open to all Secondary School pupils.

Wednesday 30 April 2014

12:00 –16:00

Alan Turing Building at The University of Manchester

Join the national Universities Week celebration

Universities Week, a national awareness campaign about higher education and its impact on the real world, will run from 9 to 15 June, with the theme Ideas for Life.

Please can colleagues who are planning to run events that week, or throughout the month of June, contact James Tallentire so we can publicise all our events on the national Universities Week and local websites.

A Big Saturday event will be taking place at Manchester Museum on 12 June, with the theme Ideas for Life – Sustainability involving University researchers. A comedy-style Bright Club event is planned for the same day – if you’d like to take part please contact James.

Universities Week, 9 – 15 June

Bright Club, 12 June

Contact: James Tallentire

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter April

Welcome News and achievements What’s happening? Our staff Get in touch

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Staff changes and new starters

Faculty Finance have a number of changes within their school based teams:

» In EEE/MACE Izzy Cooper and Naddia Khatun who have replaced Karina Moulinec-Rojas and Amanda Samariwo

» Alex Groot has joined CEAS/Materials to cover for Joanna Jozefiac who goes on maternity leave in May

» Andrew Railton has joined Physics and Astronomy/Chemistry/SEAES to cover for Lucy Valentine who has started her maternity leave.

Jon Mossman, from Physics and Astronomy will be joining MECD as the Decant Project Manager for the School of Materials move.

Julie Thompson has been appointed as part time Teaching & Learning Assistant in the School of Mathematics. International Women’s Day award

Jenny Gradwell, School of Mathematics, has received a Manchester City Council International Women’s Day Award for her work with the charity Didsbury Dinners who came top in the Women Protecting Our Environment category.

Long service award

Faculty Finance Team member, John Halliwell, celebrated 25 years of service with the University in late March. He joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester in 1989.

Lenox Green OBE

Lexon Green, School of Mathematics Postgraduate Admissions Officer, has received his OBE at Buckingham Palace last month. Lenox was recognised in the New Year’s Honours List for services to the community through the Rainbow Christian Centre in Hulme, Greater Manchester.

Ten years ago Lenox and his wife, Heather, set up the Rainbow Christian Centre by remortgaging their home in Stretford. The pair work tirelessly to help vulnerable people on a daily basis in many different ways such as providing a weekly food bank, helping at court cases and generally providing support and assistance wherever it is needed in the community. Further information about the Rainbow Christian Centre can be found here.

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Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter April

Welcome News and achievements What’s happening? Our staff Get in touch

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Got something to tell us?

If you have any news or events you’d like to share with your colleagues via team brief email: [email protected] or contact:

Rachel HobsonInternal Communications ManagerTel: 0161 306 4045

What should we feature next?

This month’s edition of the newsletter featured images from the MECD 360° photo mapping project.

We are keen to highlight more buildings, landmarks, labs and equipment from EPS in future editions. Therefore, if you have any suggestions please contact Rachel Hobson (left box).

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Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter April

Welcome News and achievements What’s happening? Our staff Get in touch

Past issues

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