Christmas Conference Poster Winners
The winners of this year's Graduate School poster competition are Juanita James (Physics) and Matthew Barnes (Lancaster Environment Centre). They presented research on the use of quantum dots in solar cells, and the application of allometric scaling to air quality measurement. The winning posters are at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sci-tech/christmas_conference/winning_posters
Business Partnerships and Enterprise
Environment: LEC hosts event to raise awareness of new funding opportunities for business
On Friday 4 January, over 35 businesses attended the "New Year New Opportunities. Helping businesses to gain knowledge to innovate, develop and grow" event, supported by the Environmental Sustainability Knowledge Transfer Network.
Attendees gained an overview of the Technology Strategy Board's Innovation Voucher scheme, which provides up to £5,000 for innovative projects for start-up, micro, small and medium-sized businesses to gain knowledge from a research organization, had an opportunity to discuss project ideas with academics from Lancaster and other Northern Universities and also find out about other funding opportunities.
Business included Wire Energy Limited, FSB, Eco Building Technologies Furness Enterprise Limited, Perceptive Engineering, Allan Gilles Limited UKTI Norwest Limited and resident companies Carbon Action Limited, The Reach Centre and Small World Consulting Limited.
Employability: Faculty student Avinash Nandwani won Lancaster University's Student Enterprise of the Year
Barcelona born School of Computing and Communications graduate Avinash Nandwani won Lancaster University's Student Enterprise of the Year Award 2012. His enterprise, Cheeky Promotions Ltd, provides innovative solutions for retail industry, with a particular focus on nightlife, and his first major customer was the University of Central Lancashire Student Union, delivering an induction and loyalty solution for their freshers week. Avinash received his award from Designer Wayne Hemingway MBE.
Avinash Nandwani comments "this award meant a lot, because it has given me the recognition from the university and made me believe that I am doing the right thing trying my own thing rather than applying for jobs. Further I have worked very hard and love this university and being part of the 'Lancaster Ecosystem' makes me very proud."
Students and staff who have enterprising business ideas can access support on campus through LUSU or by contacting Enterprise Manager Jon Powell.
Security Lancaster: Cyber Security report mentioned in the House of Commons
Lancaster University, its status an Academic Cyber Security Centre of Excellence and a report, The Small Business Cyber Security Survey 2012 Report, by Security Lancaster in partnership with the ICT KTN, were referred to in parliament during question time on 19 December by Eric Ollerenshaw OBE, MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood.
Pure Updates
Pure is Lancaster University's research information system. You can find more information on how to update your research profile, with handy user guides, at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/pure/.
Duplicate Entries
The Library validation team asks everyone to try not to make duplicate entries of Research Outputs in Pure.
Once the record has been validated by the Library team, you can't edit it. If you find an incorrect or incomplete entry already in the system, don't make a new entry. Instead, please do the following:
Send an email directly to Richard Ingham in the Library listing the changes needed, and they will be made as soon as possible. You can identify the record that needs amending by finding the unique ID number, in a rather light typeface, in the top left hand corner of the record screen. Please refer to this ID number in your email.
Two Helpful Pointers When Entering A New Publication/Research Output In Pure
- Please double check that you have made the most appropriate possible choices when setting up the template you are using for the entry, especially when adding Conference papers that have/have not been published.
- Please add as much information as possible, especially DOI's where known, as this saves the Library team a lot of time when checking records.
In case you would like a reminder of the general Research Output entry procedure, there are several user guides online.
Pure upgrade next week
Pure will be upgraded next Wednesday (16th January). You will not be able to use Pure after 2pm that day. The system should be up and running again the next day.
The new version fixes several problems. In particular there should be a noticeable improvement in speed.
Contact pure-support@lancaster.ac.uk for more information or to report any difficulties you notice from Thursday morning onwards.
News
Recent stories from Science and Technology:
Biofuel cultivation could harm human health
Large-scale cultivation of biofuels in Europe could lead to increased human mortality and crop losses according to research from the Lancaster Environment Centre.
Lancaster scientist advises Zambian Government on food crisis
Professor Kenneth Wilson from the Lancaster Environment Centre has met the Vice-President of Zambia to discuss the current food crisis caused by the crop pest the African Armyworm.
Success for School of Computing and Communications at Top-Tier Conference
The School of Computing and Communications has achieved its highest ever success at ACM SIGCHI, the top international conference on Human Computer Interaction (HCI), with nine papers accepted for publication. Two proposals from the School to run interactive workshops at the event were also accepted.
Changing our material future, layer by layer
A proposal involving researchers from the Universities of Manchester, Cambridge and Lancaster, has been awarded 13.4 million Euros (around £11m) to form a "Synergy Group" by the European Research Council (ERC).
