The 6th April 2011 saw the sixth successive year of the Yorkshire and North East Hub Public Engagement Competition: Communicating to the Public. The competition, part sponsored by Systagenix Wound Management, gives postgraduate researchers and research staff the opportunity to communicate their research in an easily accessible way either through the form of a poster or with a Pecha kucha presentation. This year the event was held in the historic Durham Town Hall with a total of 48 posters and 16 Pecha kucha presentations.
A host of judges hailing from regional businesses and organisations plus some returning winners from the 2010 competition were invited to come and assess the entries. The judges represented the following organisations:
- Systagenix Wound Management
- Covance
- Dream Laboratory Ltd
- Durham University Museum
- HEA Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies
- KSA Partnership
- Marketwise Strategies Ltd
- Newcastle University
- Researchers in Residence
- Roundtuit Publishing Ltd
- University of Teesside
The day started at 10.30am with a warm welcome from Ray Hudson, Professor of Geography and Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Durham University, with responsibility for the University's regional engagement strategy. This was then followed by a brief introduction on how the day would run by Dr Victoria Willett (YNE Hub Manager) before the real activities of the day took place.
Two parallel sessions of judging took place divided by lunch. When all the judging was complete the judges withdrew to consider their decision while the participants and supporters heard from Alistair Linsell (Durham University chemist and 2009 FameLab finalist) and Liza Filby (Kings College London and Speakeasy training). The day was finished with a presentation made by Kate Hudson from Beacon NE one of the public engagement beacons that is based with Newcastle University, the Centre for Life and Durham University.
The following prizes were then awarded:
Pecha Kucha prizes
Overall best arts, humanities and social sciences £100
Alice Schofield, University of Sheffield, Evaluating the intellectual assets of the scholarship and collections directorate at the British Library
Overall best science, engineering, maths and medicine £100
Richard Morris, Newcastle University, The way we walk: Does it cause Osteoarthritis?
Highly commended arts, humanities and social sciences £25 Amazon voucher
Isabelle Buchstaller, Newcastle University, Talk of the Toon: The Diachronic Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English
Sharon Cox, York St John University, The effects on counsellors of working with clients presenting with eating problems
Highly commended science, engineering, maths and medicine £25 Amazon voucher
Toby Fountain, University of Sheffield, Global bed bug spread: Planes, Trains and Olympic Games
Glyn Hallam, University of Sheffield, Keep Calm and Carry On! How your brain can help
Poster Prizes
Overall best arts, humanities and social sciences £100
Jasjit Singh, University of Leeds, Keeping the faith
Overall best science, engineering, maths and medicine £100
Jo Morgan, University of Leeds, The next generation in genetic diagnostics
Highly commended arts, humanities and social sciences £25 Amazon voucher
Kirsten Owen, University of Sheffield, That's when good neighbours become good friends
Nathan Stephens Griffiths, Durham University, Visualising activism
Julia Brooke, University of Huddersfield, Young mothers experience of relationship abuse
Highly commended science, engineering, maths and medicine £25 Amazon voucher
Michelle Carlin, Northumbria University, Sowing the (poppy) seeds of doubt
Delegates Choice (as decided by all the participants) £25 Amazon Voucher
Nathan Stephens Griffiths, Durham University, Visualising activism
The Hub would like to thank all the researchers who attended and put so much effort into their posters and presentations. Feedback is available and if you would like to know what the judges thought about your entry them please e mail yorksandnehub@vitae.ac.uk with the word ‘feedback request' in the title.
The Hub would also like to thank Systagenix Wound Management for their generous sponsorship of this event.
We hope to be able to upload the 2011 posters and some of the Pecha kucha presentations to the Yorkshire and North East Hub web pages soon so please keep an eye out for them at www.vitae.ac.uk/ynehub