RESCON 12
Thursday 19 July 2012
We are pleased to announce the date for next year’s annual research conference as above. We hope as many staff and postgraduate students as possible are able to attend.
Following on from the success of RESCON11, the event will again see presentations and posters from both Students and Staff.
Further details, including information about the key speakers and a draft timetable for RESCON 2012 will be posted on iCity and circulated to Faculties soon.
For more information please contact jane.farrow@bcu.ac.uk or telephone 0121 331 6858.
Call for Papers - Interface 2012
This year’s Interface symposium for Humanities and Technology, hosted by BIAD at Birmingham City University will be held on 28th, 29th and 30th June. The conference will provide an invaluable opportunity for participants to travel to the country’s second city to collaborate and share ideas with some of the industry’s most promising academics.
Interface 2012 aims to foster collaboration and shared understanding between scholars in the humanities and technology fields, particularly where their efforts converge on exchange of subject matter and methodology. Focusing on the interests and concerns of Masters, PhD students and early career researchers, the programme will include networking opportunities, as well as research exposition and various training and workshop activities. We aim to have as many female speakers at the symposium as possible and therefore strongly encourage women to submit their abstracts.
The event will host a range of 15-minute presentations, poster displays, workshops, installations and a concert across two and a half days. Authors wishing to participate in the event are required to submit a 200 – 300 word abstract, outlining their work and concept. The duration of the workshop will be 45 minutes and the presenter will be required to provide practical examples and approaches within the theme of the symposium.
Click here to find out more about requirements for the submissions
Research Papers Competition Winners 2011/12
We are pleased to announce that the joint winners of this year's Research Papers Competition are Birmingham City Business School's Dr Hatem El-Gohary and Mrs Cindy Millman.Dr El-Gohary was joint winner for his 4* research work published in Tourism Management entitled: Factors Affecting E-Marketing Adoption and Implementation in Tourism Firms: an Empirical Investigation of Egyptian Small Tourism Organisations. Mrs Cindy Millman was made joint winner for her 2* research work published in International Journal of Online Marketing entitled: E-Commerce Adoption by Micro Firms: A Qualitative Investigation in the UK Tourism Sector.
Professor David Edwards said: "Please join me in congratulating our deserved winners who continue to make significant contributions to research quality and taught practice within Birmingham City Business School (BCBS). These two highly professional and extremely capable individuals are a credit to the School and an absolute pleasure and privilege to work with; they set a standard for us all to follow and long may they continue to do so. I am extremely proud of them both".
NOTE: Call for entries to the 2012/2013 competition is now open. If you wish to enter this competition, please contact Professor David Edwards for an informal discussion.
Professor Scott to Present at 2020 Biodiversity Event
Professor Alister Scott, Professor of Spatial Planning and Governance at Birmingham City University will be visiting London next week as a guest speaker at the Biodiversity 2020 Strategy Conference on 13 December. He will be presenting his research findings in relation to the RELU (Rural Economy and Land Use Programme) on the rural fringe and highlight the important messages about the need to link ecosystem approaches with spatial planning. Having already been published in the Government Gazette and Town and Country Planning on this matter, the research has equipped Alister and his team extensively enough to provide a policy relevant for taking on the challenges that face biodiversity conservation towards 2020.
Playing around in the Rural Urban Fringe?
The battle to protect the green belt and the countryside can now be fought out via a new board game, which has been developed by researchers at Birmingham City University as a decision-making teaching tool.
Rufopoly is an interactive game that enables people to journey through the fictitious county of Rufshire which is under constant change from new pressures for development within the region’s growing population. Players are challenged to balance the needs of the countryside and the town by making decisions about the future development of the fringe space within the square they land on. Alister Scott, Professor of Spatial Planning at Birmingham City University, and Director of the project explains: “In the real world policy makers and planners are facing massive challenges in trying to accommodate the competing economic, community and environmental needs. The arena where this battle is most apparent is called the rural-urban fringe.
Where players land is determined by the throw of the dice and each square is related to one of the four themes identified within the research. From the sum of the different decisions that players make, they are required to build a vision of the fringe to complete the game. Read more on this story.
Looking for Laura is Number 1 Bestseller
The Centre for Applied Criminology’s Professor David Wilson’s new release, Looking for Laura: Public Criminology and Hot News has been rankednumber 1in the AmazonMedia Studiestop 100 best selling books.
This thought-provoking book stems from the author's parallel experiences in the public eye - as a reporter for Sky News and contributor to BBC, ITV and both national and local newspapers and magazines, especially in relation to high profile cases and fast-moving events in the field of crime and punishment. 'Looking for Laura' provides a window through which to appreciate the media pressures that this can create even for a professor in this field and former prison governor with considerable experience of working with offenders who hit the headlines. The book also looks at the way in which crime is packaged and presented for consumption by a news-hungry public. By considering a range of media situations in which the author has been involved, it provides an absorbing context within which to understand the still relatively new field of public criminology. It has a Foreword by the award-winning investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre.
Looking for Laura is published by Waterside Press and is now available to buy from Amazon. For more news, events and project information, click here. To read the latest newsletter for the Centrefor Applied Criminology, click here.
More Publications for CRES
Fascinated by his own imagination, Coleridge secretly wrote that its characteristic blend of power and desire made him a 'Daemon': a being superstitiously feared as 'a something transnatural.' Coleridge and the Daemonic Imagination examines this simultaneous experience of exaltation and transgression as a formative principle in Coleridge's poetry and the fabric of his philosophy. In a reading that spans the breadth of Coleridge's achievement, through politics, religion and his relationship with Wordsworth, this book builds to a new interpretation of the poems where Coleridge's daemonic imagination produces its myths: 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,' 'Kubla Khan' and 'Christabel.' Gregory Leadbetter reveals a Coleridge at once more familiar and more strange, in a study that unfolds into an essay on poetry, spirituality, and the drama of human becoming”.
Greg Leadbetter’s book, Coleridge and the Daemonic Imagination, is due to be published by Palgrave just after Easter. The book has received glowing reviews from leading scholars including Coleridge’s biographer and author of The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes, and Seamus Perry of Oxford.
"Leadbetter's book offers us a new way into Coleridge, presenting a writer and thinker who repeatedly found his truest genius in the experiences that made him most uneasy. It is a compelling and encompassing account of a powerfully heterodoxical mind. Leadbetter has penetrating things to say across the whole range of the great career.”—Seamus Perry, Balliol College, Oxford. This new publication is available to buy from Amazon and Palgrave.
Book Praised in Leading Theatre Journal
PME’s David Roberts’ recent Cambridge UP study of Thomas Betterton has been described in the current issue of a leading journal, Studies in Theatre and Performance, as ‘a scrupulously researched biography [which] plugs a gaping hole in the history of London theatre.’ The reviewer, Peter Thomson of Exeter University, ‘doubt[s] whether any biographer has done such a good job’ of describing the political pressures of theatre management.
Professor Roberts, on his recent book publication and other current research activity in the centre said:
“all of these items are a tribute to the very high level of research conducted by the School and to the determination of colleagues to maintain such standards when there are so many other pressures on our time”. The book is available from Amazon.
Plant and Equipment Management Innovation Conference: PEMIC 2011
This year’s annual Plant and Equipment Management Innovation Conference (PEMIC-11) promises to be an event not to be missed. PEMIC embraces both academics and professionals in the plant and equipment business sector; to provide optimal opportunity for networking and for showcasing industrial, business and scientific innovation. It also serves as the platform for awarding recognition to individual contributions within the sector, through its International Awards for Excellence scheme.
PEMIC-11 is hosted by the Centre for Business, Innovation and Enterprise (CBIE) within Birmingham City Business School, in partnership with the Off Highway Plant and Equipment Research Centre (OPERC). The conference is organised by Professors David Edwards and Gary Holt of CBIE. The event is being held at Birmingham City University, City North Campus, Perry Barr on Wednesday 16 November.
A prestigious list of speakers will be in attendance, including representatives from JCB excavators, Balfour Beatty, Morrison Utilities, A-Plant, Finning (Caterpillar), Mentor FLT and numerous other international companies. This year’s keynote address will be delivered by former Director General of the CBI, Lord Digby Jones who will be talk about business innovation and enterprise. There is also a presentation from the UK Health and Safety Executive and adjoining static exhibits of innovative machinery, which may also include larger excavators and other plant items on show outside in the adjoining conference area.
Professor Edwards said: "We are absolutely delighted that Lord Jones will be speaking at this year’s prestigious Plant and Equipment Management Innovation Conference (PEMIC-11) event. As a highly successful business adviser, and originating from the West Midlands, he was an ideal choice as our keynote speaker and we are confident that conference delegates will find his respected views and opinions enlightening and informative, and his renowned banter entertaining”.
PEMIC -11 is also host to OPERC’s International Awards for Excellence. Professor Holt confirmed: “These prestigious honours are given to celebrate outstanding personal contributions throughout the plant and equipment sector in recognition of business, professional or scientific endeavour. What makes them particularly special is the fact that they recognise the contribution of recipients’ achievements, into the wider social and business communities”.
The conference day will conclude with a champagne reception and five-course gala evening dinner. A limited number of tickets are still available. If you want to know more please see the conference website here or email Professor Edwards at david.edwards@bcu.ac.uk.
Philosophical Research with the University of Aarhus and the London School of Economics
Professor Mark Addis from the Centre for Research in English Studies is currently pursuing a number of collaborative research projects as part of his Visiting Professorship. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the Institute for Philosophy and History of Ideas at the Aarhus University, Denmark and a Research Associate at the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science at the London School of Economics. Mark is engaged in collaborative philosophical research in the philosophy of psychology and Wittgenstein studies. In the former area, he is working on the application of the philosophy of psychology to issues about cognition with a major part of the overall investigation being work on expertise and the cognitive science of religion. A fundamental part of the inquiry is methodological questions about the philosophy of psychology including the philosophical and practical implications of these. Underlying motivations for research on expertise include the attempt to demonstrate that it is possible to be Wittgensteinian without adopting an anti-scientific perspective and to determine the appropriate philosophical significance of relevant experimental work in psychology and neuroscience. The work is being conducted with colleagues from the Institute for Philosophy and History of Ideas, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Organizational Architecture at the Aarhus School of Business, and the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science.
Mark’s research on the cognitive science of religion is concerned with developing a philosophical perspective on how cognition, meaning, symbolization and knowledge relate to it. Producing such an account is essential for explaining the communal and collective character of religion adequately. He is doing this work in co-operation with the internationally renowned Religion, Cognition and Culture research group in the Faculty of Theology at Aarhus University. The research in Wittgenstein studies is being undertaken at the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen. It focuses on user driven thematic search in Wittgenstein’s philosophy of psychology and an ontology for searching his texts is being created. Nordforsk is supporting the work throughthe Joint Nordic Use of the Wittgenstein Archives at Bergen and the Georg Henrik von Wright Archives in Helsinki funding scheme and it is being carried out with a colleague from the Institute for Philosophy and History of Ideas.
Research Aims to Enhance the Employability of Birmingham City University Students
Employability is more than about getting a job. It is about having the mix of knowledge, skills, attributes and aptitude which sustain a successful career. With changes to Higher Education, and the current economic climate, the university is more acutely aware of the investment students are making in their future. Employability is at the core of BCU’s mission, whether to assist students onto their career path, or to help them progress in their existing role.
Clare Jones, a senior lecturer in Human Resource Management, is undertaking a research project in employability, focussing initially on the experiences of Business School undergraduate students during their placement year. The research project is supported by the Business School’s Centre for Business, Innovation and Enterprise (CBIE) and consists of two key phases. First, Clare is looking at the methods and criteria used by organisations to recruit students, and how the university prepares students for work. Secondly, she is exploring whether students’ belief in their own abilities and skills change during the work placement.
Looking at the initial findings from the research Clare commented: “I have been able to gather very useful information about how different employers recruit and I have identified some common concerns shared by our students as they start their job. I can use this information to develop the way we prepare all our students for work.”
The final report will be available in autumn 2011, though Clare intends to continue to explore this theme with future students, and with employers. This project complements Clare’s doctoral research in employability among post-graduate students as she notes: “Employability is relevant to all our students, and my research will increase our understanding of employers’ expectations of students, enabling us to develop the way we prepare students for their chosen career”. Employability and employer engagement has a high profile across Higher Education and Clare’s research has attracted the attention of a leading academic journal interested in publishing the findings.
Creativity and Innovation in Teaching Methods Book Published following CRE Research Project
Remaking the Curriculum: Re engaging Young People in Secondary School is a book by Martin Fautley, Elaine Millard and Richard Hatcher from the Centre of Research in Education. The book, published by Trentham Books is based on an independent two year research study which was funded by Creative Partnerships. It describes a model of innovative, creative teaching and curriculum change that successfully engaged students in creative learning and earned participating secondary schools the Creative Partnership Award of Schools Creativity status. For more information about this insightful research project and subsequent publication, click here.
New Electronic Marketing Publication for CBIE
Hatem El-Gohary’s first book titled “Electronic Marketing Practices in Developing Countries: The Case of Egyptian Business Enterprises” published by German publisher, VDM Verlag is now available in book stores.
The book’s aim was to analyze the current practices of Electronic Marketing (E-Marketing) by Egyptian business enterprises, the different factors affecting the adoption of E-Marketing as well as the different forms, implementation levels and tools of E-Marketing used by these enterprises. Within the book a theoretical model to assist the understanding and interpretation of these relationships and evaluating the potential of E-Marketing in developing countries (Egypt) was tested. The research work conducted in the book builds on previous research in the fields of E-Marketing and adds to the relatively limited empirical research that has been conducted on E-Marketing in an Egyptian business context.
The book develops and validates a conceptual model based on systematic positivist research philosophy with a quantitative approach. It unveils research undertaken in relation to E-Marketing and its adoption by Egyptian business enterprises. It divulges findings that E-Marketing adoption by Egyptian business enterprises is affected by their perception of E-Marketing relative advantage (usefulness), ease of use, compatibility as well as some Egyptian business enterprises internal factors such as owner skills and support, available resources, organizational culture, product type, international orientation and the enterprise size. On the other hand, Egyptian business enterprises internal factors were found to have a positive direct impact on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) related factors such as perceived ease of use, perceived relative advantage and perceived compatibility. Moreover, the findings indicate that Internet Marketing and E-Mail Marketing are the most commonly used E-Marketing tools by Egyptian business enterprises.
In terms of contribution to knowledge, this book provides an insight for entrepreneurs, policy makers, practitioners, researchers, and educators by providing a clearer view and deep understanding of the issues related to E-Marketing adoption and practices by Egyptian business enterprises. It addresses some research gaps in the field, particularly in terms of the factors affecting E-Marketing adoption. Overall the theory in the field of E-Marketing is still in its infancy stage and is not yet well established. The book can be considered as an important step towards theory building in the field of E-Marketing and has brought to light a number of concepts for the practises of E-Marketing by Egyptian business enterprises.
On his recent publication, Hatem El-Gohary said:
“I believe that publishing such a book will have a good impact on my research profile which in turn will have a high good impact on the school and the Department of Marketing and Business profiles. Within this context, I am doing all my best to continuously develop my research profile and to make good and pro-active contribution to the success of BCUBS”.
Integra Project Reaches Phase 2
Integra - Fusing Music and Technology, is a 1.9 million, EU-funded project led by Birmingham Conservatoire (UK). The project initially started in 2005. Now in its second phase, Integra promotes live electronic music across Europe and provides composers and performers with powerful, easy-to-use tools that enable live interaction with computers.
Bringing together 11 internationally recognized organizations from nine countries, five new music ensembles and six research centres - Integra achieves its aims through concerts, commissions of new works, modernization of existing repertoire, development of new software, training sessions for performers, an education programme and outreach activities.
Our partners are divided into two groups - artistic and scientific.
Artistic:
Scientific:
Summer Book Release for CBIE’s Researcher
Dr Lisa Q Zhang’s first book publication, titled Retail Internationalization in China – Expansion of Foreign Retailers will be released in July 2011 by Palgrave Macmillan and will be available to order from Amazon.
China is potentially the largest retail market in the world, attracting unprecedented attention from international retailers. Many experts claim that success in China not only provides access to this enormous market, but improves the capabilities of international retailers to succeed globally. Yet little research has been published on the expansion process of international retailers operating in China. Lisa Qixun Zhang fills this gap with her case study research and the presentation of a new theoretical model focusing on retailers’ post-entry stage of internationalization. Her model provides an internationalization and future research on retailers’ performance. Based on empirical results, the author also offers pragmatic advice including: -
Adapting to the local cultural and regulatory environment;- Identifying and evaluating locations for new international retailing operations;
- Establishing a bridgehead for such operations;
- Expansion and market development; and
- The challenges of learning from experience.
The book represents Lisa’s current research agenda. If you are interested in research relating to this field or beyond or would like further information, please contact lisa.zhang@bcu.ac.uk. To read more about Lisa's work, click here.
Launch of New Marketing Journal for CBIE
Hatem El-Gohary, a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the Business and Marketing Department (BCUBS) and a researcher for the Centre for Business, Innovation and Enterprise (CBIE) has recently launched the International Journal of Online Marketing (IJOM). The IJOM is a new high profile peer online journal which will encase applied research and provide complete coverage of the opportunities, challenges and current trends encountered by researchers and practitioners in the field of online marketing. The quarterly journal offers an important and critical platform for researchers, practitioners, entrepreneurs, policymakers and educators to present and discuss their experiences and perspectives on important issues in the marketing world. The first edition of the journal is due for release in the next few days.
Although the introduction of a new journal to the world is a challenging prospect, the IJOM has huge potential to become a new phenomenon and philosophy in the assistance of online marketing, and achieve a rapid growth of its readership. The IJOM’s mission is to provide broad and comprehensive international coverage of subjects, issues and current trends relating to all areas of online marketing. Emphasis is highly placed on publishing research articles, case studies and book reviews that seek to connect theory with application, identifying best practices in online marketing. The journal will link both practical and theoretical approaches of online marketing to make a proactive contribution to its field.
Hatem El-Gohary is currently the Editor in Chief of the journal and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Customer Relationship Marketing and Management (IJCRMM). Hatem has been involved with the development of the IJOM since its initial planning stages and has worked closely with American publishing company IGI Global throughout the process. Speaking about his work on this exciting new project, Hatem said “I am sure that having such a journal within our school will have a great impact on the school profile as well as the profile of the Department of Marketing and Business. Within this context, I am doing my best to turn this journal into a success story which in turn will make good and proactive contribution to the success of Birmingham City University and the Business School”.
For more information on this journal please click here. For more news and events in CBIE, please click here.
CBIE Professors Launch Research Initiative into UK Plant and Machinery Supply Chains
Supply of new off-highway plant and machinery to the UK’s industrial business infrastructure is key to maintaining optimum productivity and sustained levels of output. But, since onset of recession in 2007, prevalent negative macroeconomic conditions have meant this supply has fallen sharply – and stakeholders are witnessing tough operating conditions.
Professors David Edwards and Gary Holt of the Centre for Business, Innovation and Enterprise, recently began researching this problem from two standpoints - firstly, to achieve better understanding of the supply chain’s business challenges and secondly, to analyse the effects of these challenges on the drastic downturn in sales.
Professor Edwards commented, “Many of the UK’s plant and machinery supply chain stakeholders are finding the economic situation extremely difficult, in some cases, pricing their products and services at or below cost to secure business. They are trying to ‘buy survival time’ and long for a more profitable business environment to return. The focus of many in the sector right now, really is, survival”.
Regarding sales of new plant and machinery, Professor Holt said, “Sales of new items have fallen significantly. Our most recent analyses show for example, that long held ‘doyen’ of plant the backhoe loader – known to many more affectionately as the ‘JCB’ – has witnessed a decrease in sales from approximately 5,000 units in 1994 to 1,600 units in 2009. Looking at the overall picture, total sales of the ten most popular plant items in 2009 are down to 1998 volume. This is certainly not good for UK plc and may lead to problems of production and efficiency, particularly when confidence and industrial output returns”.
In pursuit of their research, the professors are presently undertaking extensive field studies with several major UK machinery suppliers and customers. Their initial findings have been submitted to a leading academic journal and industry-facing periodical for publication. For more information on this project, please email gary.holt@bcu.ac.uk.
New Publications for CESR
The Centre for Environment and Society Research is thrilled to announce the acceptance of two new book proposals for publishing.
The Blitz and its Legacy edited by Birmingham City University’s Peter Larkham and Mark Clapson (University of Westminster) is due to be published by Ashgate in 2012. The book draws on a recent successful interdisciplinary conference organized by Mark and Peter in September 2010. For more information on other project work relating to reconstruction post World War 2, click here.
Lairds, Land and Sustainability: Scottish Perspectives on Upland Management is to be published by Edinburgh University Press.
For more news, project updates and contact information in CESR, click here.
CBIE in Prestigious Industry Initiative
CBIE’s David Edwards is pleased to announce his position as an academic representative on a prestigious HSE noise and vibration panel which aims to raise awareness and reduce the risks of Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) and Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) in the workplace.
The Noise and Hand-Arm Vibration Programme led by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE’)s Noise & Vibration Policy Unit, is a new initiative designed to develop greater stakeholder engagement with key partners across industry sectors Energy, Extraction, Manufacturing and Construction, identified by the Labour Force Survey (LFS), where NIHL and HAVS poses a risk to the health and safety of workers.
The group seeks to gather and share knowledge and experience in good practice and promote awareness and changes in behaviours and attitudes towards health and safety in the workplace. Main objectives for the partnership group’s consideration include:
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Focusing on the key messages
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Finding the occupations most at risk
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Exploring the measures which will best address the requirement for changed attitudes and behavior
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Development of effective mechanisms for communicating key messages
On being appointed, David said
“It is both a pleasure and privilege to be working with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) again on workplace hand-arm vibration and noise. After almost 10 years, my ‘first tier’ research into vibration emissions from hand held power tools undertaken in partnership with Professor Holt (also of CBIE) and Professor Neil Mansfield (Loughborough University), has encouraged many Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to revise their means of testing machinery from single axis data to tri-axis measurement. Leading on from this, the Hand-arm Vibration Test Centre (HAVTEC) database (found at www.operc.com) was established; and continues to grow as the only freely available international source of scientifically reliable and independent vibration data. I fully support the HSE’s new ‘second tier’ approach to effectively managing the risks posed to workers’ health. Unlike accident safety, where there is usually a ‘tangible’ and ‘immediate’ incident to report upon, poor-health issues that develop over time (such as white finger from hand-arm vibration exposure) tend to reside further back in industry’s conscience. Yet, the longer term damage posed by these risks can be extremely debilitating for the individual and costly for employers and society in general. The scientific community has a duty to proactively engage with, and support government bodies in this way and I am delighted that Birmingham City University academics are involved".
For more information on this project, please contact david.edwards@bcu.ac.uk
CHSCR Launch Quantitative Research Workshops
CHSCR are embarking on a series of new research workshops to encourage more researchers to participate in quantitative research.
The workshops will incorporate six related topics via informal ‘learning lunches’, collectively called Quantitative Analysis for the Terrified! The main emphasis for the workshops will be on creating a collaborative environment for sharing ideas and understanding.
Topics include:
What is data? – unpacking language of research
The normal distribution – sample and population
- Finding the average
- Choosing an inferential test
For more information on these workshops please click here.
CHSCR Receive Funding for Conference Attendance
The European Association for Cancer Education (EACE) recently held their 23rd Annual Scientific Meeting in collaboration with Saxion Universities of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. Funded by CHSCR , Senior Lecturer Debbie Lewis presented the workshop “Using Actors in Communication Skills Training”.
The EACE was founded by Cancer Educator, Dr Milly Haagedoorn in 1987 and aims to improve the clinical outcomes through training and education of individuals working in cancer and palliative care. For more information on this story and other news in the Centre of Health and Social Care Research, click here.
Exciting Projects for the Centre of Business, Innovation and Enterprise
The Business School is extremely proud of the excellent standards of project work undertaken by its researchers and members from the Centre for Business, Innovation and Enterprise are currently involved in some highly innovative and exciting research and professional practice projects. Professor Mike Jackson of the Business School is continuing to conduct ‘world leading’ research in his field, including his involvement with the Context Aware Computing Research Group at Birmingham City University.
On the aims of the research group, Professor Jackson said: “Increasingly, organisations which offer services are attempting to personalise those services by matching their offerings to the interests of potential consumers. A simple everyday example of this can be obtained by visiting the Amazon website. Anyone who has ever visited Amazon once will discover that on their second and subsequent visits the site makes recommendations based on their previous buying and browsing behaviour. This is achieved by recognising the context of the visitor. Context-aware computing developed as a branch of pervasive computing where the location of a user of the system was used to tailor the services offered.
"A user’s context can, however, encompass much more than simply their location. For example the context of a learner in an e-learning environment will include references to their prior experience, their emotional state and their preferred learning style. If an e-learning programme is able to establish the context of a learner it will be better able to tune the delivery of instructional material in order to meet the learner’s needs. The aim of the Context Aware Computing Research Group at Birmingham City University is firstly, to find ways of describing a user’s context, secondly, to find ways of describing services and thirdly, to develop techniques for augmenting a service request with details of the requester’s context and matching it to the most appropriate service."
Find more information on current projects in the Centre.
Professor Jackson’s latest papers include:
Fuzzy ECA Rules for Pervasive Decision- Centric Personalised Mobile Learning
‘Intelligent Context’ for Personalized Mobile Learning
Constraint Satisfaction in Intelligent Context-Aware Systems
Translational Research and Context in Health Monitoring Systems
CRE Announces Joint Research Project with the University of North Carolina
The Centre for Research in Education (CRE) is delighted to have been approached by the prestigious University of North Carolina in the US to undertake a joint research project into assessment in music education in the UK and the US. Professor Dan Johnson of UNC will be working with Professor Martin Fautley of BCU to investigate the approaches teachers in both countries use as forms of assessment for school pupils. This work has particular resonance at such a time of global austerity as it provides an opportunity to engage young people in the school system in the Arts.
As yet, there has not been a great deal of empirical research in comparative studies in music education between the two countries, so this project will be hugely significant. The planning for the project is still in its early stages but the initial work will take place early in 2011.
For more information about this project and other research activity in the Centre, click here.
Association of Researchers in Construction Management Annual Conference
Professor David Boyd, Director of the Centre for Environment and Society Research recently presented a keynote address at the Association of Researchers in Construction Management Annual Conference in Leeds to an audience of 180 people from 20 countries. The address entitled Re-Embodying Construction explored the philosophical and practical consequences of concepts of Embodiment for construction. Embodiment draws the physicality of human being into an understanding of the world thus making a direct connection with the way we think and act in our practice. Professor Boyd's argument challenged the conference to make its research closer to, and more aware of, practice thus to re-embody construction. For more information on current projects and news, click here.
Thomas Betterton Book Release
Thomas Betterton - The Greatest Actor of the Restoration Stage is the latest publication to be released by Professor David Roberts (Head of English) at Birmingham City University. The book has been described as “an entertaining study which unearths new documents and draws fresh conclusions about this major but shadowy figure. It contextualises key performances and examines Betterton’s relationship to patrons, colleagues and family, as well as to significant historical moments and artefacts. The most substantial study available of any seventeenth-century actor, Thomas Betterton gives one of England’s greatest performing artists his due on the tercentenary of his death”.
Click to see More news and events in this area.