EEECS Research Society

EEECS Research Society Event

“Benefits and Issues of Research Collaboration”

Riddle Hall, Thursday 28^th March 2013, 9am – 1pm

Motivation

Promoting the interdisciplinary research and industry-academia partnership is on everybody's agenda, from individuals to Schools, Universities and Research Councils. Indeed, research collaborations are integral part of any research activity aimed at addressing major technological, social and environmental problems. The synergy of collaborations permits researchers to

• Maximise the impact of their work
• Advance their technical expertise and subject knowledge, and learn in depth on the current challenges and opportunities
• Further extend researcher networks and ultimately to gain independency in research

Research collaboration may have many different modes, ranging from co-authorship on a research papers to partnership between industry and universities. Along with their great benefits, research collaborations present fundamental challenges, for example matching the collaborators expectations as to what the nature of the research relationship should be, including individual rights and responsibilities.

This event is aimed at understanding the hidden potential of the research collaborations and how to make most of it, their structure and life-circle, fundamental issues and practical approaches to establishing new collaborations illustrated with the first-hand experiences of success and challenges in achieving the goal.

Registration for this event is now open: http://qubeeecsrs.wufoo.com/forms/research-collaboration-event

Event Agenda

8:45 am      Arrival and registration

9:00 am      HoS welcome speech (TBC)

9:15 am      Workshop 1: 'Research Collaboration Reconsidered: No Venture No Gain’

Presenter: Conor Quinn, Business Alliance Manager (Engineering and Physical Sciences), QUB Research & Enterprise,

This workshop is aimed at understanding different modes of research collaboration, what you may expect in terms of benefits and
commitments involved, and how to identify and target potential collaborators and maximise the outcomes of the established partnership. An argument in support of the research collaboration, its basic taxonomy and fundamental issues will be discussed. The typical life-cycle of the research collaboration will be revisited, including the time when the active collaboration on a specific task is about to finish and you may wish to change the focus of your research programme.

10:00 am    Workshop 2: ‘Making Most of Attending and Organising Research Conferences’

Presenter: TBC

This interactive workshop is aimed at learning in practice on the major benefits of attending and organising research conferences and
events as a measure of expanding researcher’s collaborative network. Planning of the attendance and follow-on activities will be discussed, alongside the best practice of research showcase aimed to attract collaborators from academia (including cross-disciplinary agenda) and industry. During the workshop, participants will have an opportunity to attend a mini-conference and present a research poster on their subject. They will be requested to make connections with potential collaborators and to suggest how to move it to the next stage of active partnership. In small groups they may be asked to draw a proposal for a special session or a conference aimed at a targeted audience.

10:45 am    Coffee/Photographic Exhibition “An Illustration for Research Collaboration”

The photographic entries, illustrating the best experience with and challenges of collaborative are welcome. The most artistic and inspiring message will receive the prize on behalf of the EEECS Research Society.

11:00 am     Expert Panel ‘Research Collaboration Knowhow’

                   Experts: Dr David Linton, Dr Paul Miller

A panel of senior members of School academic staff will be available to answer any questions related to fostering productive research collaborations and resolving emerging issues. The experts will be sharing their personal experiences, credible practices and practical advice in order to help members of audience reflect on their own approaches and issues with collaborative research.

11:20 am     Insight 1: ‘A Story of Success’

                   Presenter: Dr Michael Loughlin, Senior R&D Engineering Manager, ECIT

The subject of this insight is a first-hand example of successful research collaboration presented by the experienced member of R&D staff. Attendees will learn the mechanics of success and how to turn their affiliation into support of the industrial and academic communities.

11:40 am    Insight 2: ‘A Story of Challenge’

                   Presenter: Dr Paul Miller

An example of how and why wishful thinking yields no successful collaboration will be presented. The attendees will learn from the first-hand
experience about the hidden obstacles to be hit and sacrifices to be made when pursuing a collaborative proposal. Indeed, not all great stories have a happy ending, yet how they end can make them a truly great lesson and inspiration for many others.

12:00 am    Photographic Contest “An Illustration for Research Collaboration”

                   Music performance by TBC

12:30 am    Prize giving, feedback filling and buffet milling

Speakers’ Bios

Conor Quinn

An experienced business development professional, Connor has developed a powerful combination of commercial and technical skills in a range of roles within consultancy and technology enterprises. Having supplemented his core skill set as a Chartered Engineer with additional capabilities from his MBA Connor has spent recent years in business development and technology transfer functions within the UK university
sector.

Dr Michael Loughlin

Over 15 years of experience designing and developing enterprise software solutions for the UK utility, telecoms and financial sectors. Michael has extensive experience leading software development teams in high-technology start-up companies and established multi-nationals and has commercialised academic research in speech recognition and network management. He has a PhD from Imperial College London in Computational Fluid Dynamics. Michael is currently co-investigator on an EPSRC funded project to develop autonomous methods in large scale industrial process management (EP/J012149/1) and a joint EPSRC/DSTL funded project to address information extraction in large data sets (EP/J020540/1)

Dr Paul Miller

Paul Miller is presently a lecturer in the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Queen’s University of Belfast. He received a BSc in Physics in 1985 and was awarded a PhD in 1989 for his work in the use of optical processors for pattern recognition. Following his PhD he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Electronics and Electrical Engineering. The area of research was
the use of systolic arrays for Kalman filtering.

In 1991 he was appointed as a research scientist in the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Australia. His research there focused on the use of optical correlators for automatic target recognition and tracking. In 1996 he was appointed Senior Research Scientist in the Tactical Surveillance Systems Division. He headed up a team looking into the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for focal area surveillance. In 1999 he rejoined Queen’s University Belfast.

EEECS Research Society Christmas Event

To be held at
Conference Room 1, Riddle Hall, 5th December 2012, 9am – 1pm

Motivation

Extremely dynamic research environment in the School allows for the great mobility of research students and contract researchers. The progress in research career is primarily defined by professional expertise indeed, yet one must underestimate the significance of essential skills in career planning and up-to-the-date knowledge of the opportunities and support available in the School and University. The School Research Society set the objective of fostering supportive research community enabling the understanding of personal developmental needs and planning successful researcher career in long term perspective.

This event comprises several interactive insights and workshops aimed to present fundamental aspects of career planning, critical issues, relevant researcher tools, and School support mechanisms and to showcase best examples of successful implementation of career pathways from the captains of industry and research.

The unique feature of this event is a focus on the crucial role of creative, enabling thinking in successful and prolific career in research and academia.

Registration is required via website: http://qubeeecsrs.wufoo.com/forms/qub-eeecs-resilient-career-planning-for-success/

Agenda (tentative)

8:45 am	-	Arrival and registration
9:00 am	-	HoS welcome speech
9:15 am	-	Workshop 1: 'Career Planning for Success' by Philip Clarke, Senior Career Adviser for QUB. Phil is a professionally qualified and experienced Careers Adviser and has worked at Queen's since 1999. He took over the role of Careers Adviser to contract research staff at the end of 2011. Since then he has run a series of workshops covering topics such as planning your research career, writing an academic CV, preparing for academic interviews and career exploration for researchers. He also offers one-to-one guidance and coaching for contract research staff and is keen to develop services to staff in conjunction with the Staff Training and Development Unit. During Phil's time at Queen's he has worked with a wide range of students, staff and Schools, predominantly within the Faculties of Engineering and Physical Sciences, and Medicine, Health and Life Sciences. This session aims to help you be strategic in planning your career and understanding the key criteria for success, whether it's in academic research or in something else. Many early stage researchers aspire to a career in academia but what is the reality and what do you need to do to be successful? This session will encourage you to see the Bigger Picture in developing your career and will address key factors and drivers, how to maximise your opportunities and the benefits of planning short, medium and long-term objectives to ensure you get to where you want to be.
10:00 am	-	Workshop 2: 'Research Performance Enhancement' by Dr John Copelton, former Senior Career Adviser for QUB Dr Copelton holds degrees in Physics and a doctorate in Social Psychology. This diverse academic background has uniquely equipped him to work in the multi-disciplinary field of research performance. As a former Senior Careers Adviser at Queen's University, Belfast he developed a range of highly rated courses for both PhD students and postdoctoral research staff in Engineering, Medicine and Science. John's presentation at the Research Society Event on 5th December will look at:     The Research Process: What makes a difference     Individual vs group contributions     Effective research teams     The pro's and con's of cross-disciplinary research     The impact of multi-tasking on research outcomes
10:45 am	-	Coffee/Art Exhibition "Enigmatic ArchiteXture of Engineering Research"
11:00 am	-	Insight 1: 'Career enhancement through international experience', Dr. Owen Kavanagh, School of Biology, QUB. Dr. Owen Kavanagh earned his BSc Pharmacology from University College Dublin and PhD from Queens University Belfast. He has worked in biological research in internationally recognised laboratories such as Centre Nationale D'Etudes Veterinaire Ailimentaire (CNEVA, France) the Centres for Disease Controal (Atlanta, USA), Christian Medical College (Vellore, India) and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. In his presentation he will talk about being an internationally mobile research scientiest in the context of his career.
11:20 am	-	Insight 2: 'Career boost through industrial experiences', Paul Donachy, Head of Business Development and Commercialisation, QUB Entreprise Development
11:40 am	-	Insight 3: 'Career reinforcement with entrepreneurship', Noel Mckenna, Senior Director of Sotware Business Development CSR PLC. Noel McKenna is degree qualified as an Electronic Engineer from the University of Hertfordshire in England. He joined APT in 1994 as Development Engineer working on the development of audio compression algorithms. He held a number of positions within the company including Development Manager, Technical Director and then became CEO in 2000. In 2005 McKenna led a Management Buyout of the company and set about growing the company turnover and staff numbers by >400% in 3 years.  In 2009 the company split into 2 divisions, hardware and software and the hardware division was sold to a French broadcast manufacturer in March 2009. Noel runs the software business which licenses its core technology into the consumer audio space for wireless audio products such as MP3 players and mobile phones. Today the company boasts customers such as Microsoft, apple, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Creative Labs, and Sennheiser. In July 2010 the company was acquired by CSR PLC a FTSE 250 company based in Cambridge.
12:00 pm	-	Focus groups by Mr. Paul Monahan.
12:20 pm	-	Art Contest "Enigmatic ArchiteXture of Engineering Research", guided tour 'How to read Art' by TBC, music performance by Andy Zhou, winner of the 17th Annual Primary Musician of the Year Competition.
12:40 pm	-	Prize giving and wrap-up/buffet

 

Enigmatic ArchiteXture of Engineering Research

1st Research Society Art Competition, 5th December 2012

Does Science need Art?

• Visualization methods provide an important tool in science and engineering for the analysis and presentation of complex work.
• Images can often convey information in a way that tables of data or equations cannot match. 
• Occasionally, scientific images transcend their role as a medium for transmitting information, and contain the aesthetic qualities that transform them into objects of beauty and art.

http://www.princeton.edu/artofscience/gallery2011/
http://www.bris.ac.uk/fmvs/artofscience/#previous-winners

The Brief 

• Can you condense the joy and privilege of working at the forefront of Science and Engineering through the medium of photography?
• Perhaps you can capture an inspirational moment, person or piece of work on a canvas?
• Can you distil the essence of your work into a Haiku?
• Or simply have some fun get the kids to do it.

Art works?

• Drawing or painting
• Photography (please submit for printing)
• Multimedia/animation (60 sec time limit)
• Sculpture
• Poetry

Judging will be carried out on the day through an entirely democractic process. 1st place will be rewarded with a prize. All submitted art work will be posted on 

web site works of merits may be displayed in public spaces.

Registration

• Registration via website: http://qubeeecsrs.wufoo.com/forms/qub-eeecs-resilient-career-planning-for-success/
• Please provide a brief description of your art work and how it relates to your discipline.
• Please contact m.bain@qub.ac.uk for special requirements (power supply/projector etc)

25/10/2012: EEECS Research Society Formed a New Committee

EEECS-RS aims at promoting personal and professional development and career advancement opportunities, as well as enhancing communication, sharing knowledge and experience, teamwork and social interaction between researchers. The society will be closely collaborating with the school management, the Post Graduate Centre and the Staff Training and Development Unit (STDU).

On a recent meeting held in September of 2012, Dr. Alexey Shitvov was elected to be the chair of the committee. Other members include Drs. Michael Bain, Hans Vandierendonck and Huiyu (Joe) Zhou.

EEECS-RS warmly welcomes and appreciates any idea and suggestion from the research staff. It also anticipates more staff and PhD students to join in to become one of the committee members.

Please contact Dr. Alexey Shitvov (a.shitvov@ecit.qub.ac.uk).

Research

• Research Society