EPS Team Brief Newsletter May 2014

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EPS Team Brief Newsletter May 2014

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Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter May

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

Rachel Brealey

Director of Faculty Operations.

Welcome to the May edition of the EPS Team Brief

We wrapped up the last day of April with our Faculty Open Meeting. It was lovely to see so many staff members from across the Faculty in one room. The Open Meetings are your opportunity to ask our Vice-President and Dean questions and also share your thoughts and views with him. The next open meeting is on 16 July and I would encourage as many of you as possible to attend.

We had a great response to last month’s intranet user survey with over 200 submissions from our Faculty. The results are now being reviewed and will form part of the development process for new Faculty and School intranets. As well as feeding into the development of our own intranets the results will be used for the scoping stage of the PSS social intranet project—one of PSS’s key priorities for 2014/15.

Just a quick reminder that this Team Brief should be delivered alongside CoreMunicate. I know this could create a long session as part of your team meetings so, I recommend that you focus on content that is relevant to your teams and those stories requiring action, identified with the symbol. This newsletter provides a useful back-up option for those who miss the meeting and also a source of extra information.

Finally, we had some very sad news after the early May Bank holiday weekend as we lost two valued colleagues; Len Ross, who ran the Measurement Laboratory in the School of Chemistry and Eric Warburton who was part of the laboratory technician team within CEAS. Both were long serving members of staff who will be very greatly missed. Details regarding their funeral arrangements will be circulated via the Schools. Our thoughts are with their families at this sad time.

EPS wins another five Athena SWAN Awards

The Schools of Computer Science, Materials, Mathematics and Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering and Physics and Astronomy have been all presented with an Athena SWAN Bronze Awards.

The awards recognise and celebrate good practice in recruiting, retaining and promoting women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) in academia.

These Bronze Awards demonstrate each School has identified their own particular challenges and they have planned activities which will advance the representation of women in their subject.

This latest win takes the University’s total to 13 Schools; three with Silver awards and ten with Bronze. Dr Helen Ryder, University Athena SWAN Coordinator commented:

Embedding a real culture change takes both time and commitment. Our 13 Athena SWAN Awards across our STEMM Schools are a marvellous achievement. The University’s commitment to the Charter has had a positive impact on changing the culture and attitudes within our Schools.

For more information visit: Athena SWAN.

Athena SWAN Charter

The Athena SWAN Charter is a scheme which recognises excellence in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) employment in higher education.

The beliefs underpinning the Charter are: The advancement of science, engineering and technology (SET) is fundamental to quality of life across the globe.

It is vitally important that women are adequately represented in what has traditionally been, and is still, a male-dominated area.

Science cannot reach its full potential unless it can benefit from the talents of the whole population, and until women and men can benefit equally from the opportunities it affords.

Manchester Teaching Award nomination

Three members of staff from the School of Physics and Astronomy have been nominated for the Manchester Teaching Awards. These awards are coordinated by the Students’ Union, with nominations and winners determined entirely by students. The winners will be known on 9 May.

The nominations are: Best Personal Advisor—Prof Sean FreemanBest Lecturer—Prof Peter Wilkinson and Dr Tobias Galla.

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Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter May

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

Award success for EPS peer support

EPS Schools came away with a handful of awards at last month’s annual Students as Partners Celebration Evening, which celebrates peer support across the University.

Abby Gaya, Sabbatical Intern for EPS within the Teaching and Learning Support Office, said:

The Faculty and Schools should be very proud of their success at this year’s awards. Peer support, including Peer Mentoring and Peer Assisted Student Sessions (PASS) are an essential part of creating an outstanding learning environment and student experience.

PASS sessions are popular with students as they are led by two higher year students for a group of First Year students within the same discipline. They are designed to be fun yet engaging and provide students with a supportive environment to aid their transition to university level study. Our winners included:

Staff Coordinator—for academic and administrative support to their peer support schemes.

Dr Iain Dupere, PASS Staff Coordinator, Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering (MACE)Karen Baylis, PASS Staff Coordinator, MACEDr Megan Jobson, PASS Staff Coordinator, Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science (CEAS)

Student Coordinators—for providing essential support to Students as Partners, ensuring all PASS Leaders have completed training, planned debrief sessions and devised new activities.

Robel, Negasi, Hafeni Heita, Chukwuka Eluchie, PASS Student Coordinators, Electrical and Electronic Engineering Ian Jackson, Sinead McElroy, Valentina Okolo, PASS Student Coordinators, CEAS. Audrey Valreau and Benjamin Mohankumar, PASS Student Coordinators, MACE - Aerospace Engineering

PASS Leaders—for outstanding peer support delivered through the PASS scheme.

Faiz Farik, PASS Leader, Materials Science

Peer Support Video Competition winner was MACE’s Aerospace Engineering PASS scheme.

Student Team Working Award went to Materials Science’s M.A.T.S.C.I (Maximising Activity for Top Class Students through Collaborative Integration) project. PASS Leaders Student Coordinators have worked in tandem, devising, developing and delivering creative new ideas to make lasting improvements for the PASS scheme including organising numerous events such as the Hunger Games and University Challenge to engage our first year students.

And finally, the Peer Support Scheme of the Year Award went to MACE’s Aerospace Engineering PASS scheme. Abby commented:

Students and staff involved in Aerospace PASS have shown great commitment to enhancing the learning experience showing an amazing level of creativity designing sessions with catchy titles such as “Structured Ker-Plunk” as well as contributing to the content of the year wide challenges such as the Redbull Formula 1 Challenge.

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Aerospace PASS Coordinators 2012-2014

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Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter May

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

New Centre for Doctorial Training

Our valuable role in providing trained scientists and engineers has received a boost with a successful application for a new Centre for Doctorial Training (CDT) in Materials for Demanding Environments (M4DE).

Our centre will be one of 22 announced by Chancellor George Osborne when he visited The University in April. CDT students are funded for four years and the programme includes technical and transferrable skills training as well as a research element.

Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) the centres bring together diverse areas of expertise to train engineers and scientists with the skills, knowledge and confidence to tackle today’s evolving issues, and future challenges.

It flies!

Students from Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering (MACE) have won a prize for the Best New Aircraft Design in Merlin Flight Simulator Group’s It Flies USA competition.

The team of eight MACE students who entered were Abdullah Desai, Stuart Garthwaite, Andrew Aldridge, Thomas Koochitt, Bagrat Rashoyan, Stefan Oltean, Aleksejs Gusevs and Luke Wheadon.

The team won affiliate membership to the Royal Aeronautical Society and commemorative coins from the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.

Merlin is the market leader in manufacturing flight simulators used in aeronautical and aerospace engineering teaching and research. For the competition our students had to design an aircraft that had to be able to fly. Their entry was judged on how well the aircraft flew by one of Merlin’s simulator test pilots and also a presentation on their design.

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Missed the Faculty Open Meeting?

Don’t worry. You can access a recording of the meeting here.

Topics discussed at the meeting included the Campus Master Plan and our Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD) project, Faculty’s actions from the staff survey and an update from Colin Bailey, Vice President and Dean plus an open question and answer session.

More details about campus master plan and the opening of the MECD Project Office are available via the links.

Any suggestions for topics to be covered at future meetings should be sent to Rachel Hobson.

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Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter May

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

Award for new break-through analysis technique

Xiangli (Shirley) Zhong, Experimental Officer, School of Materials has received a Professional Technical Staff Award from the Microscopy Society of America and Microscopy and Microanalysis for a break-through technique developed in Manchester.

The technique enables researchers to carry out real time study on a wide variety of samples especially bulk metallic samples in a liquid environment at an atomic resolution that wasn’t previously possible.

Xiangli said:

I am honoured but surprised I won the award! I think the break-through work cannot be done without the team effort and our School’s great support!

Xiangli will present the new method and accept the award in M&M2014 which is the largest microscopy conference in the world with 2650 attendants, over 1000 papers submitted and 120 exhibitors.

MACE students support rocket launch

Last month a group of nine undergraduate students from the Aerospace Engineering programme in Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering (MACE) were on hand to support Steve Bennett, CEO of Starchaser Industries Ltd in his latest rocket launch.

This is one of a series of rocket launches that Steve is running to promote his company and raise funds for the launch of his NOVA 2 rocket which aims to be the first British Civilian rocket to carry people to the edge of space.

Steve has been working on his dream of human spaceflight for many years while running a successful space education business space4schools.co.uk educating and inspiring young people in the areas of space travel and exploration.

The Manchester students supported the launch by helping to set up the 14 foot Tempest rocket, the launch pad and the retrieval of the rocket body and payload on its return to the ground.

PhD students from the University of Manchester Aerospace Systems research group in MACE also used the opportunity to test the flight computer they are building for the upcoming AIAA CanSat competition. It was a great opportunity for budding Aerospace Engineers to gain some hands on field experience.

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Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter May

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

Xiangli (Shirley) Zhong

Your Manchester alumni magazine out now

The latest edition of the EPS Faculty alumni magazine, Your Manchester, is now available.

The magazine is sent to 73,000 of our alumni—if you have any story ideas for the next edition email EPS News.

Calling all ListServ owners

We have a whopping 500 mailing lists on the ListServ system which are connected to the Faculty or our Schools. If you are a list owner please can you check if the list remains current and has been used in the last 12 months. If it hasn’t please delete it from the system.

Recognising innovative research

Professor Andrew Sherry, Dalton Nuclear Institute, has been chosen as a Recognising Inspirational Scientists and Engineers (RISE) Renowned Fellow to mark the 20th anniversary of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Working with the Royal Academy of Engineering, EPSRC are highlighting the most exciting, innovative and enthusiastic scientists and engineers in the UK and the great research that they are doing.

Also, Dr Rahul R Nair, Leverhulme Fellow within the School of Physics and Astronomy, has been selected as one of the two winners of the 2014 The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Young Scientist Prizes in Semiconductor Physics. As part of the prize, Rahul has been asked to present at the International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors, to be held in Austin Texas in August this year.

Gareth Morris, Professor of Physical Chemistry in the School of Chemistry, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for his ground-breaking work in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) pectroscopy.

And finally, Professor Paul O’Brien has been awarded the 2014 Platinum Medal of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

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Andrew Sherry—photo courtesy of Creative Vision

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Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter May

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

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New graphene website

Our new Graphene website will be launched in late May. The site aims to be the definitive voice of graphene research and commercialisation, and has information for a range of audiences, including general public, industry and academics from other institutions.

The site has been designed with creative agency HAVAS Lynx, and has been built and operated by the EPS web team.

Are you running an event?

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.

Save the Date – next Faculty Open meeting

Date: Wednesday 16 July 2014

Location: Rutherford Lecture Theatre, Schuster building

Time: 13:00-14:00

Contact: Rachel Hobson x64045

More details are available from here.

Graduate Recruitment Fair

Helping our students find employment upon graduation is so important. The Careers Service would be very grateful if you could promote this event to your students. If you would like further details, as well as any publicity items such as suggested texts for School Facebook pages, emails, newsletters, posters or leaflets, please contact Jan Hewitt.

Date: Wednesday 11 and Thursday, 12 June 2014

Location: The Armitage Centre, Fallowfield

Time: 10.30 – 16:00

Contact: Jan Hewitt. x 52834

Anniversary of 2013 Staff Survey Results

Next month, it will be one year since The University published the results of our staff survey. To mark this, June’s Team Brief will highlight your hard work and actions that have taken place in the last year as well as looking ahead to those projects which will come to fruition before the next survey in 2015.

If you have a story to tell please contact Fiona Campbell.

What’s happening?

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter May

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

New starter

Samantha Bradey, formally a member of the EPS web team, joined the BP-ICAM as the new Communications and Marketing Officer, replacing Emma Nichols who left us at the end of January to take up a role in Physics and Astronomy as Ogden Research Fellow.

New PA Network

Maria Marsh, Executive Assistant within the Dalton Nuclear Institute, is working with the Staff Training and Development Unit to establish a University Wide PA network for Executive Assistants, Personal Assistants and Secretaries with personal responsibilities within their role.

If you would like to know more about the network please contact Marie.

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Our staff

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter May

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

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Get in touch!

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Team Brief Newsletter May

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

Past issues

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

If your story is specifically for June’s team brief, the deadline for submissions is 2 June.

What should we feature next?

This month’s cover star was our James Chadwick Building. This is ahead of the President & Vice Chancellor, Dame Nancy Rothwell’s recent visit being featured in June’s edition of UniLife.

If you have any ideas of what to feature next please contact Rachel Hobson.

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