22nd February 2019

Faculty of Computing Engineering and Science

Inside this issue

voiCES
Conferences & Awards……………..….2
QS students’ success……...………….…3
Advance HE STEM conference..…...4
Maths news & activities.……..….……6
As I forgot to ask Paul for an intro before he went away, it falls to me to write it. In Jan- Forensic Science accreditation….….6
uary we had a successful strategic planning session with the VC and other members of
Technocamps #2 ESF Funding...….…7
University Executive. Key new course provision and important developments such as
New Marketing colleague…..….…….8
extending the Crime Scene House, establishing a Biosciences Academy and the reimag-
ining of Glyneath Building were all approved. Just as important, smaller scale matters PhD Success…………………………..…….8

were clearly delegated to the Faculty allowing us increased autonomy. Overall it reflect- Pomona of Welsh Heritage Apples
ed the positive work we have all contributed to over recent years. and Pears..………………...9

As we set the budget for 2019/20, we continue to be prudent particularly with signifi- JMC Recruitment Solutions
cant recurrent costs, but our overall financial position is stronger than it has been for visit to AME…..…………..10
some time. Alongside that prudence, the work everyone is doing to recruit and retain LGBT+ in STEM…………………....….….11
students is equally important, particularly as we pass through the demographic dip and
Vietnamese HE Leaders visit USW.12
take advantage of other opportunities that the external environment presents. That
Research in Mechanical
work is directly supported by investments to enhance our teaching facilities. In addition
we are strengthening our research and innovation development, establishing new re- Engineering………………..12

search groups and investing in existing strong centres to take better advantage of the Alzheimer’s fund raising results…..12
benefits they bring. Public Engagement……………………..13

One of the biggest pieces of work will be the reimagining of Glyneath building. We are Interdisciplinary work on
working on engaging staff and students with this. As a first step an “inspiration board” Bronze Age paintings...13
will be set up in G221 foyer area. Staff and students are encouraged to post pictures of Publications………………………………...14
interiors, exteriors, layouts etc. to inspire what Glyneath could be. More on this once New Starters………………………………..15
we have it set up.
Editorial……………………………………….15
I’ve taken the opportunity of LGBT History Month to add an item on LGBT+ in STEM. In my shoes…………………………..…….16
The focus on diversity and inclusion is a vital one, making our Faculty a better place for
Editor: Stewart Eyres
all to work and study within, even if like me you have never experienced exclusion due
Cover image: lgbthistorymonth.org.uk
to your ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation.
Taking place every February, the overall
My door is always open (except when I get cold—just knock!), aim of LGBT History month is to promote
equality and diversity for the benefit of
Stew the public

Creative—Inspiring—Responsive—Professional
Conferences & Awards
Primate Society of Great Britain By Tracie McKinney

Rhiannon Smith (Year 3 International Wildlife Biology), supervised by Tracie

McKinney, presented at the Primate Society of Great Britain conference at Bristol
Zoo in December. Gibraltar’s Barbary Macaques are a well-known and popular
tourist attraction. Close human-monkey interaction is common, and centres on
food provisioning. Bartering behaviour, or stealing valuable non-food items from
tourists in exchange for food, has been recorded among long-tailed macaques in
Bali. This study aims to record the types of interactions between Barbary ma-
caques and humans at this site, and to see whether the macaques also display
any sorts of bartering behaviour. Research was conducted within two areas of
the Gibraltar Nature reserve (Ape’s Den and St. Michael’s Cave). Each site was
studied over a period of 25 days, totalling 125.25 hours of study, In total, 1,139
human-monkey interactions were recorded across both the Ape’s Den and St.
Michael’s Cave. At both study sites, the most frequent behaviour shown by hu-
mans was to offer food to the monkeys (accounting for 46.6% of all human be-
haviours recorded); this was regularly instigated by staff rather than by the tour-
ists themselves. As such, ‘eating’ was the most frequent behaviour exhibited by
the monkeys (39% of all behaviours). Stealing behaviours were shown mostly to
gain food rather than any other items. Both humans and macaques were record-
ed touching each other with relatively high frequency (120 human initiations, 135
by monkeys). Although two verbal accounts of bartering were given from local Rhiannon Smith presents her research poster
people, no examples of bartering behaviour were recorded during the
study. Although stealing behaviour is exhibited frequently by the monkeys, it is
mostly food that is stolen. More often than stealing food, the monkeys are given
food by the public, despite this being illegal. This is likely to have an impact on the
health and longevity of the monkeys; to best conserve these animals, both tourist
and staff education requires improvement.

British Conference of Undergraduate Research 2019 By Stewart Eyres

USW hosts the 9th annual conference dedicated to showcasing research carried
out by undergraduate students, on the 15th & 16th April. Originating at the Uni-
versity of Central Lancashire, this the first time it has been held outside England.
Look out for the programme, and be sure to support our contributors as well as
welcome visitors to our Treforest campus during the event. www.bcur.org

2nd British-Finnish Natural Resources Initiative 2019

By Duncan Pirrie
Dr Duncan Pirrie has been invited and funded by the British Embassy in
Finland to attend and present a keynote paper at the 2nd British-Finnish
Natural Resources Initiative 2019 held at Espoo, Finland in February. The
event organised by the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) and the British
Embassy Helsinki was a two-day brain storming event to explore, develop
and initiate cross-border natural resource-based research, teaching and
commercial services opportunities between the UK and the Nordic region.
The event was held at Aalto University with keynotes from UK and Finnish
academics and businesses followed by brainstorming sessions. The second
day was dedicated to Battery Mineral-Metal-Material-Product Value
Chain, including wider Nordic-Baltic stakeholders. The meeting included a
reception held at the British Embassy. Conference delegates

2
 Mechanical Engineering Student presenting at CoDiT’19 Conference. By Ewen Constant

Our Final year BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering student, and GE Avia-
tion employee, Bethany Jones, to present her paper “Fracture Toughness
Prediction of Composite Materials” at the 6th International Conference
on Control, Decision and Information Technologies (CODIT'19) to be held
in Paris, France on April 23-26, 2019. This paper is based on her final year
project work so-called “Technique for monitoring and predicting the frac-
ture point of composite materials” Her supervisors are Dr Kary Thana-
palan and Ewen Constant. This shows the calibre of our students and the
excellence research that exists within the department of Mechanical Engi-
neering.

QS students’ success at industry event By Owain Llywelyn

Two students in the final year of the Quantity Surveying degree competed
in the Timber Research and Development Association University Chal-
lenge 2019.Staged in Sheffield on the 8th and 9th February, students were
in teams of four .Each team included a student architect, engineer, project
manager and quantity surveyor.

Our students, Carys Anne Richards and Isla Thomas, were the QS mem-
bers of the teams coming second and third, greatly impressing Oliver
Hartley-Booth, the preeminent QS in the field of sustainable construction.
They shared the cash prizes, and were key to their teams’ success.

Carys Anne Richards, studying part-time (Year 5 BSc

Quantity Surveying) while working for Waites Con-
struction

Carys and Isla working at the event earlier in the month.

Isla Thomas Year 3 BSc Quantity Surveying

3
Advance HE STEM conference
By Clare Johnson, Ali Roula, Stewart Eyres
Several colleagues from the Faculty attend the annual STEM in HE conference
organised by Advance HE (30th to 31st January). This year it took place in Bir-
mingham at Millennium Point, which incorporates elements of Birmingham City
University, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham Metropolitan College
and ThinkTank museum. Five papers with USW CES authors were presented over
the course of the two-day event.

Clare Johnson (Head of Cyber Security) writes:

The HEA STEM Conference, January 2019, provides an opportunity to learn about
the techniques academics in other institutions are using to engage and support
their students. Going with a small group from USW was really beneficial, as it
allowed us to discuss how we could translate some of the ideas into reality for
Marius, Ross, Clare and Jack at the conference desk
our own teaching areas within USW’s ethos. Attending sessions for disciplines
Presentations at the conference are available via
other than the one I teach in were also useful as it helps to generate ideas that www.heacademy.ac.uk/hub
search for STEM Conference 2019 under content
we wouldn’t usually consider appropriate for cyber. type

There were three sessions I found particularly interesting. The use of OneNote for See www.heacademy.ac.uk/node/35514
laboratory work to track student contributions, observe progress on group activi-
ties and assess in Going paperless: The digital teaching laboratory (Dr Anna Ber-
tram, University of Nottingham), where VLE combined with OneNote was dis-
cussed. The presenter noted that this could, in the future, translate to Microsoft
Teams, which includes To Do lists / Planner, Chat, Video, file sharing and more.
This would be a useful tool for our Professionalism and Governance students,
who study an immersive group assignment in Year 1, and currently use
WhatsApp, Dropbox, Facebook Messenger and so on for group discussions. Using
Teams would enable us to set tasks, track progress and assess, as well as being on
a platform that everyone can access regardless of their preferences for social
media.
See www.heacademy.ac.uk/node/35534
The session on Litemap (litemap.net) - Vision: Visual Interface for Students to
Interpret Online Notes and become Scientific Writers (Dr Alexandra Okada, The
Open University) was also interesting as a platform that can be useful for notetak-
ing. Information from various sources can be annotated and turned into visual
notes – I thought this might be useful for research purposes. I also enjoyed the
session by Wendy Sadler of Cardiff University on Teaching science communication
to physics students – where we were asked to made a circle with our thumb and
first finger, look through that circle at an object far away, and then close one eye,
then the other. The eye which can still see the object through the circle is our
dominant eye. The purpose of this? To demonstrate science facts in an interac-
tive and engaging way – something valuable to all STEM subjects. Cardiff have
used this model to develop a spinout company called Science Made Simple.

Poster presentations

Finally, I particularly liked the poster presentation on MSc Dissertations by Dr

Jean Assender, University of Birmingham, which focused on the use of writing
retreats to support students. Results suggested that 6 one day retreats, which
included quiet writing time, supervisor face to face time and the opportunity to
browse previously submitted dissertations, resulted in improved completion rates
and times. This is something that could easily be implemented for our disserta-
tion students.
4
Ali Roula (Head of Electrical & Electronic Engineering) adds:

Not knowing what to expect on my first participation in such conference, I have

approached the prospect of giving two presentations in front of a more seasoned
audience of leaning and teaching experts with a mild sense of trepidation. I was
quickly comforted with the overall spirit of collegial dialogue and exchange per-
meating the event and I would highly recommend attendance of future Advance
HE STEM conferences for our faculty members.

There were many interesting moments and discussions during the conference See www.heacademy.ac.uk/node/36244 and
www.heacademy.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/stem-
sessions. My two highlights were firstly, learning about the great potential for conference-2019-curiosity-and-reward-detectives-
game-neuroscience-applications
gamification in teaching learning and the growing evidence around it including
from neuroscience (such a in work presented from Bangor University on curiosity
and reward) and secondly, the increasing importance given to diversity and inclu-
sivity amongst HE institutions which was obvious in the number of presentations
addressing either data gathering on the topic or reporting outcomes of various
interventions. All in all very informative!

Stewart Eyres concludes:

Returning to the conference for a second year, I was struck by how it had ma-
tured. The keynote on the future of work was mature and relevant to our think-
ing on how we should be supporting students’ learning, and the disciplines that
seem likely to thrive (albeit reflecting developments in automation). The various
parallel presentations were highly relevant, and in fact it was a tough set of choic-
es to decide which to attend.

I was particularly struck by a discussion on timetabling for commuting students, See https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/node/36044

from Kingston University. While their students were urban commuters, travelling
across London to study, it clearly translates to our contexts where commuting
from the valleys and along the South Wales transport arteries presents similar
challenges. Kingston had developed a means of interrogating their data to inform
meaningful discussions, and I hope that by sharing this experience with USW col-
leagues we can develop something similar.

In addition Professors of Engineering from Aston University and Christ Church

Canterbury’s new School of Engineering, discussed a range of diversity issues that
affect recruitment into their programmes, and trailed future UK SPEC require-
ments around Inclusion and Cyber Security. As both of these are key elements of
Engineering development here this demonstrated to me that we are at the fore-
front of thinking in these discipline areas.

In summary the conference is an excellent means to share what we are doing to

improve student learning, attainment and experience, while drawing on the work
of others with the same focus. USW attendees are currently drafting Expressions
of Interest to publish their presentations in paper format, and we will be seeking
to support staff to attend and contribute in 2020.

5
Maths news and activities
The mathematics department are running the Royal Institution Mathematics By James Kent, Vicki Brown & Nick Gill
Masterclasses from 26th January to 23rd March. Nearly 200 Key Stage 3 and 4
school children are invited to take part in these events, which include the mathe-
matics of rock guitar, mathematically investigating a crime scene, and the mathe-
matics of juggling. Speakers from the mathematics department include Graeme
Boswell, Vicki Brown, Nick Gill, James Kent, and Mark Griffiths.

The spring Maths seminar series has started. There are 6 speakers this term cov-
ering topics such as Galois Theory, machine learning, and probability. If you are
interested in attending please see the website: maths.research.southwales.ac.uk/
research-seminars-spring-2019/

Dr Nick Gill gave several talks before Christmas: he joined Ian Short to give an
invited talk to a conference in Oxford about maths in Africa. They were speaking
about their work mentoring African research mathematicians, funded by the Lon-
don Mathematical Society. This work has involved, amongst other things, the
supervision of several Masters and PhD students.

Nick also gave research talks at the University of Birmingham and the University
of Lincoln. The topic in each case was “Cherlin’s Conjecture”; the talks outlined
recent progress made towards a proof of this conjecture, in joint work with col-
laborators from USW, Imperial College and Milan; this work has been funded, in
part, by a grant from the EPSRC.

Virginia Tech Seed Grant funded

Dr Vicki Brown, alongside researchers in the USA, has recently been awarded a
seed grant from Virginia Tech to work on an investigation into different mosquito
species in Wise County, Virginia. This is an interdisciplinary collaboration between
biologists and mathematicians to gather information on the different mosquito
species in the area, and their particular habitats, and then build a mathematical
model that can accurately reflect mosquito spread. This insight will be invaluable
in exploring the spread of various mosquito-borne diseases in the area.

Forensic Science & Investigation accreditation

This excellent news was recently received with three commendations being given By Paul Jones

for:

1. Our involvement in ComSim - a University-wide focus group of staff who

teach through the medium of simulation, which supports the Crime Scene
Investigation element of the accreditation scheme.
2. The excellent support provided to students who have been out of education
for a while, and in the areas of physical science and data analysis.
3. The inclusion of a PRINCE2 foundation project management qualification in
the level 7 curriculum of the MSci and MSc courses.

The panel of assessors included the CSFS Chair of the Accreditation and Standard
Committee, Helen Davies, Dr Sue Jickells formerly of the University of East An-
glia, and Professor Jeremy Bradshaw of the University of Bath.

6
Technocamps #2 Successful ESF Funding
Technocamps is a pan Wales schools outreach programme lead by Swansea Uni- By Laura Roberts
versity, with the South East Wales Hub based in the School of Computing and
Mathematics at USW.

The programme mission is to inspire, motivate and engage people with computa-
tional thinking and promote Computer Science as underpinning all aspects of
modern society.

Technocamps have recently received confirmation of £5.3 million ESF funding, Technocamps Workshop @ USW with Hawthorn
plus additional funding from Welsh Government to continue their delivery of ed- High School
ucational workshops in Computing and STEM to all secondary schools in Wales,
Technocamps 2: Enhancing STEM Attainment Project. The specific objective be-
ing, ‘to increase the take up and attainment levels in STEM subjects amongst 11-
19 year olds’.

Through the delivery of a ‘STEM Enrichment programme,’ pupils will receive a

minimum of 20 hours engagement with the project. This will include in-school
workshops delivered by Technocamps staff, Technoclubs (in-school coding clubs
in line with the WG Cracking the Code initiatives), University-based visits and
workshops, and masterclasses delivered by Academic staff and members of the
tech/computing industry in Wales. The overall aim of this programme is to en-
courage and inspire pupils to continue to study Computing and STEM related sub-
jects on to A’ Level and Higher Education. There will be an emphasis on careers
and learning in context, linked to specific work place skills and applications.
The programme also has an ambitious target of reaching a female cohort of 64%.
To support this, the USW team will be holding and Women & Girls in STEM Con-
ference in summer 2019 in collaboration with Chwarae Teg and ESTnet, which
will include key note speakers from academia, local business, industry and re-
search.

In addition to schools outreach work, Technocamps also provide teacher training

in all areas of computing to enable IT teachers to gain confidence in their ability
to teach Computer Science and Computing GCSE and A’ Level content.
Technocamps AI Residential Summer 2018, Treforest
Technocamps USW team is based in J308: Campus

 Technocamps Regional Coordinator – Laura Roberts

 Administrator and Finance Assistant – Cecilia Priday
 Development and Delivery Officers – Dr. Richard Ward, Rhys Williams, Conah
Harrison
 Technical Assistant – Tamas Szklenar

If you would like to find out more about the Technocamps Project, volunteer to
deliver a Master Class, or take part in the W&G STEM Conference please contact
Laura Roberts, J308. Laura.roberts@southwales.ac.uk x 82158 / x 82270
www.technocamps.com

7
New Marketing colleague
Heather Eyland joined the university in January taking on the role of Student Re- By Heather Eyland

cruitment Officer for FCES. Heather joins us from Cardiff Metropolitan University
where she worked as a Student Recruitment and Marketing Officer. Being from
Devon, Heather focused on promoting Wales as a study destination to students in
South West England as well as implementing campus based recruitment events.
Going forward, Heather will be working towards delivering and developing the
range of schools and colleges liaison and student recruitment activities that take
place across the Faculty, as well as providing HE support to schools and colleges
locally and in England.
The 2018-19 cycle has so far seen a number of successful events for the faculty
including taster days for Engineering, Cyber Security, Computing, Biology, Phar- Please contact Heather if you have any questions or
maceutical Science, Forensic Science and Forensic Investigation. We have also ideas you would like to put forward to the team:
Heather.Eyland@southwales.ac.uk
hosted GCSE and A level maths pop quizzes, in total welcoming 600 students on
site. We continue to offer outreach sessions in local schools and colleges across
subject areas and have so far visited 20 schools to provide subject specific ses-
sions such as ‘Spectroscopy In a Suitcase’.
For the first time this year, we have been recording all school and college activity
via the University’s Customer Relationship Management system. This will enable
us to log and track the number of enquiries generated from all school/ college
activity and therefore, track the journey of any student who has taken part in a
school/ college activity (be it on campus or at their school or college). We can
then monitor whether they subsequently attend an Open Day, Applicant Day,
apply to and enrol as a USW student. Evaluating our school and college activity in
this way will enable us to monitor all our activity against the applications received
from all schools and colleges we engage with, and assist us in more effectively
targeting schools and colleges by subject area and region.
For the current year, we have set the ambitious target of increasing the number
of schools and colleges involved in events from 134 in 2017/18 to around 180. In
order to achieve this, we have a plethora of activities scheduled across the faculty
in the coming months. These include a Maths AS level revision day and Teachers
Conference, further Cyber Security and Computing Taster Days, a Biology Taster
Day, Introduction to A-level Chemistry event, Geology and Natural History Taster
Day, Engineering Taster Day as well as an on campus Spectroscopy in a Suitcase
session.

An interim report of our plans and activities will be circulated to the faculty in
March.

PhD Success
Ayad Al Sallo has been awarded his Ph.D. for his thesis “Mathematical Modelling
of Smectic Liquid Crystals”. Liquid crystals have a multitude of applications, rang-
ing from their well-known use in display technologies to the basis of biological
sensors in the detection of bacteria and viruses. In all these settings, imperfec-
tions on the surfaces that contain the liquid crystals can alter the sample’s molec-
ular structure, which can be both problematic and beneficial for applications.
Ayad’s work focussed on a certain class of liquid crystals and he developed the
first higher dimensional model capable of predicting the molecular structure in
response to various boundary imperfections. A key component of this work in-
volved the development of a novel solution method used to treat the underlying
mathematical equations and its subsequent numerical implementation.
8
Pomona of Welsh Heritage Apples and Pears
‘The Heritage of Orchards and Cider Making in Wales’ was a 2-year Heritage By Niamh Breslin
Lottery funded project led by the Welsh Perry & Cider Society, which I am very
proud to have been part of.

I worked on two of the project’s three elements – supporting community or-

chards across Wales and investigating Welsh heritage varieties. The final element
– recording the modern story of orchards and cider making in Wales – was car-
ried out by USW’s George Ewart Evan’s Centre for Storytelling.

The main outcome from the project was the discovery of previously unrecorded
varieties of Welsh apples and pears. Over 200 apple and pear trees across Wales
were DNA tested to ascertain their variety, and 73 of these were revealed to have
no match on the established National Fruit Collection database. The owners of
these varieties have named them and applied for their registration on the data-
base, pending approval from NFC. I GPS tagged each tested tree and mapped
them using GIS software, allowing them to be easily found again when collecting
fruit for analysis and graft wood to propagate new trees – particularly useful “Welsh Druid”, a cider apple which originates from
the Chepstow area
when there were a lot of trees in one location.

Newly propagated trees of these unique varieties – along with the already known
Welsh varieties – have now been planted in 4 museum orchards across Wales,
acting as genetic resources to preserve these varieties and the biologically diverse
orchard habitat as an important part of Welsh natural heritage. Graft wood and
fruit will eventually be available from the museum orchards.

I was heavily involved with the compiling of a Pomona – a catalogue of the Welsh
apples and pears – with photographs and descriptions of the fruit and the juice
and cider/perry that can be made from them. It is hoped that this will act as a
reference document to encourage community groups, orchard owners, cider
makers and individuals to use and plant Welsh heritage varieties. The Pomona is
described by the Marcher Apple Network as “a wonderful record of the unique
and the locally distinct”. Niamh in Raglan museum orchard with one of the
heritage varieties.

The Pomona is available online in both English and Welsh on the Welsh Perry &
Cider Society’s website, along with further information on the project and its out-
comes: www.welshcider.co.uk/heritage

A slideshow summarising the project can be viewed on YouTube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR8bT2a36yw

The results of the project have been featured on BBC News: www.bbc.co.uk/
news/uk-wales-46796649

9
JMC Recruitment Solutions visit to AME
By Craig Thomas
Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (AME) students have heard about ways they
can secure work placements and future employment during a day of presenta-
tions from specialist recruiters. A team from JMC Recruitment Solutions (JMC)
gave seminars to all three years of AME students at the University of South Wales
(USW) after JMC Managing Director, Warren Crook, contacted Craig Thomas, sen-
ior lecturer and course leader, earlier this year.

Rick Godfrey, who works for JMC Recruitment Solutions, said the seminars were
the first that JMC has done at a university, and there are hopes it will become a
regular event.

“After Warren got in touch with Craig, they agreed a partnership would be posi-
tive for both parties.” he said.

“We were exploring the ideas of engaging with AME undergraduates early on in
their careers, because our job is to provide aviation mechanics, technicians and
engineers to maintenance repair organisations (MROs) and airlines around the
world. Rick Godfrey, JMC Recruitment Solutions, visiting
University of South Wales. More about JMC Recruit-
ment Solutions can be found at
“There is a decreasing pool of available talent, and an increasing demand for air- www.jmc-groupltd.co.uk
craft maintenance engineers globally, so we thought engaging with universities
and their undergraduates early on would mean that we may be able to attract
some of those when they leave USW.”

JMC employs some 1,500 engineers in any given week, supplying them to aircraft
maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) organisations around the world, and
works with the likes of Flybe, Lufthansa and EasyJet.

“We connect mechanics, technicians and engineers with airlines and MROs,” Rick
added.

There was also a discussion about the opportunities the partnership could create.

“We have a plan that between years two and three we might be able to find paid
work placements for students during their summer breaks. This will help them
towards completing their EASA modules and enable them to gain valuable experi-
ence that will aid them in gaining their licences after leaving university.” Rick said.

“We are glad that the pilot partnership is being run with USW - this is the first
university we have worked with. We don’t want to exceed capacity by getting too
many universities involved. We want to build on this relationship so that it will
work for the long-term.”

Craig Thomas added: “It’s fantastic that companies such as JMC are identifying
the unique skill-set that USW AME gives its graduates.

“While the EASA Part 66 qualification is essential for a practising Aircraft Mainte-
nance Engineer; the degree provides a far greater depth of understanding of the
discipline and offers fantastic career progression. This is something that very few
organisations and universities around the world can offer as a complete package
to its graduates.”

As part of this partnership, JMC will be sponsoring the AME student of the year
and providing a suitable reward for the deserving graduate later in 2019.
10
LGBT+ in STEM
By Stewart Eyres
It being LGBT+ History Month led me to reflect on my attendance at the LGBT+
STEMinar at the new Institute of Physics HQ in London, on the 11th January. Once Spectrum is the staff LGBT+ network, which also
welcomes allies. See the pages on The Hub under
again I was struck by how such an event provided a forum both for the intersec- Deps/Facs > HR > Equality & Diversity

tion between challenges for LGBT+ people and the subcultures of STEM disci-
plines, and a place where early-career people in particular can talk about their
work without simultaneously worrying about how their audience might react to
them as the person they are. While the issues are multi-faceted, a key one is the
ideal of STEM being fact-driven and objective, leading to a belief that an individu-
The University has moved into the Stonewall Top
100 Employers for LGBT people, in part due to the
involvement of members of Spectrum in developing
our approach. This is based on their Workplace
Equality Index, with their assessment drawn from a
submission coordinated by HR colleagues Clare
Payton-Stagg and Coralie Slight.

al’s personal characteristics have no bearing on the development of the disci-

pline. Understanding that STEM disciplines are human activities impacted by the
prejudices and actions of those working to further our understanding, is central
to improving those disciplines as welcoming places for all people to work. These
concepts are related not only to the experience of LGBT+ people, but to such
matters as the under-representation of female and BAME colleagues in senior
roles notionally gained on merit, and the issue of sexual harassment becoming
visible and being dealt with, albeit more haphazardly than we might prefer. As
with all actions that improve inclusion, improvements for the “target” group
means improvements for all.

STEMinar

The STEMinar itself (lgbtsteminar2019.iopconfs.org) had an amazing range of

subjects covered. Talks ranged from Viking habitation of ice sheets in Greenland
to materials for dealing with legacy nuclear waste sites. Keynotes were a personal
career reflections that inspired the audience to overcome prejudice to succeed in
STEM. A senior panel discussed issues around career progression and profession-
al travel to places where LGBT+ are not so accepted as in the UK, or even illegal.

The next two STEMinars are in Birmingham (2020) and Oxford (2021). USW has
an ambition to host the 2022 event, bringing it to Wales and to a different sort of
institute. To get involved, get in touch. Ahead of that we are seeking to increase
our activities specifically related to STEM for LGBT+ people, to complement other
inclusivity work around the University. As CES is the “STEM Faculty” it seems ap-
propriate for us to lead on this. I would also encourage colleagues to participate
in Birmingham or Oxford — please talk to me about requirements.

International Day for LGBT+ in STEM: 5th July

For 2019, we are aiming to offer a mini-STEMinar incorporating an academic

speaker talking about their research and experience, and a relevant awareness-
raising event. The latter is likely to be using Pride in STEM’s Out Thinkers pro- Scientists are Humans is an interesting resource
gramme. If anyone is interested in being trained and helping deliver that, contact exploring the intersections between science culture
and personal identity, amongst other things. See:
me. Similarly, if you know any interesting speakers please get in touch. Andrew scientistsarehumans.com
Princep gave a great talk in November (a very late celebration of the day!), and
anything along those lines would be suitable.

LGBT+ physical sciences climate survey

Some of you completed this survey last year, thanks for doing so. Preliminary
results were presented at the STEMinar, with complete results expected in April.
1025 full responses were received, showing that those in work were more likely
to be “out” than undergraduate students, but also that awareness of support
networks was far higher in universities (staff or students) than elsewhere. 11
Vietnamese Higher Education Leaders visit USW
On Tuesday 04 December 2018 the University of South Wales welcomed a dele-
gation of Vietnamese Higher Education leaders as part of a jointly funded project
By Louise Hawker
between British Council Vietnam, the Ministry of Education of Vietnam, Global
Wales and Vietnamese university partners. The event held at Treforest Campus,
was organised by Universities Wales to showcase how university-industry collab-
oration can flourish when government, universities, and industry work in partner-
ship.

Network75 was asked to take part as an example success story given its 100%
employability record and 20 years of experience in providing its degree appren-
ticeship scheme. Network75 provides students with the opportunity to combine
degree level study with a work placement in industry, enabling them to graduate
with an honours degree, 5 years of industry work experience, and no student Abi, Jake and Rhiannon along with the Vietnamese
Higher Education Delegation at Treforest Campus
debt.

Network75 founder, Professor of Innovation and Engagement Steve Thomas, was

invited to speak along with three of our students; Abi Morgan (Network75 Civil
Engineering Trainee at Capita), Jake Hearne (Network75 Electrical and Electronic
Engineering Trainee at ARUP), and Rhiannon Sheppard (Network75 Supply Chain
and Logistics Trainee at GE Aviation Wales) giving presentations regarding their
experiences of university and industry placements whilst on the scheme.

The event was a great success with Abi, Jake, and Rhiannon’s presentations dis-
playing the wealth of experience and knowledge they have gained through their
academic studies and placements.

Research in Mechanical Engineering By Kary Thanapalan

If you would like to get involved in research related
to Mechanical Engineering please contact Dr Kary
Dr Kary Thanapalan has become the new lead for research in Mechanical Engi- Thanapalan

neering, to emphasise the research focus in this area. Currently, the research in
looks at some of today’s most challenging issues such as control system design,
aerospace materials, energy, thermodynamics and heat transfer modelling. But,
the scope is not limited to these areas and the new research focus is to strength-
en existing interests and explore new areas of research. Therefore, there is an
open invitation to all, who have research interests relating to Mechanical Engi-
neering or indeed anyone who wishes to develop a new interest, to contact Kary
with a view to collaboration

Alzheimer’s fund raising results

Cheryl George from the Alzheimer’s Society visited to congratulate Collette Luce
on her work leading fund raising efforts at USW. A grand total of £1292 was
raised during 2018.

Collette and Cheryl posed for a picture celebrating this success! Thank you every-
one for your support.

12
Public Engagement
Civic Mission has gained increasing importance in the UK and particularly Wales By Stewart Eyres

in the last year. One key aspect is public engagement — the act of engaging the Please contact me about ideas for public engage-
public to understand and inform our work, particularly research and innovation. ment or support that would make existing activities
easier to do or more effective in practice.
This is distinct from recruitment outreach, connecting as it does with all age
groups and walks of life. Many Universities have strong and visible public engage-
ment activities in STEM, and I’m keen to support activities here at USW. Speaking
to colleagues it may be there are some barriers to this. Initially it seems some are:

 Activities underway that could benefit from some organisational support

 Existing or new activities where a small amount of resource could lead to

significantly improved offerings, or make those offers easier to do

 Engagement in venues or communities not currently benefiting, that need

some support to gain access or define the best approach

To this end I would like to invite colleagues to contact me to help scope out what
might encourage them to do more.

Interdisciplinary work on Bronze Age paintings By Tracie McKinney

Tracie McKinney contributed to work presented the joint meeting of the Archaeo-
logical Institute of America and the Society for Classical Studies, in San Diego
“New Art Historical and Primatological Perspectives on Monkey Iconography in
Bronze Age Aegean Wall Paintings”

Bronze Age Aegean wall paintings depicting monkeys from Crete and Thera show
the animals in a variety of roles, from wild to possibly trained, to cultic or sacred.
Bronze Age Aegean wall paintings from Crete de-
These images, while stylistically Aegean, are closely related to—and seem to be picting monkeys

descendant from—Egyptian and Near Eastern monkey and ape iconography.

While monkey depictions in these latter regions often provide species-specific
characteristics, Aegean wall paintings often lack this distinct level of identifica-
tion. In order to better understand the relationships between the monkeys in
Aegean wall paintings and those that live(d) in the Aegean, Near East, and Egypt,
several primatologists were consulted to more accurately identify species-specific
visual characteristics. When these identified traits are coupled with collaborators’
expertise in primate cognition, behaviour, ecology, habitat, and history, a new
region is recognized as a contributing source for monkey iconography: Harappa
and the broader Indus River Valley. With an emphasis on the primatological as-
pects and the growing corpus of Indus goods and species found in the Aegean, an
image emerges of an even broader iconographic and socio-religious sphere of
interaction. In this expanded system, the Near East functions both as an inde-
pendent source of iconography and as an intermediary that facilitated a dissemi-
nation of monkey iconography, belief systems, and possibly the creatures them-
selves.

Of primary importance to the methodology employed is the cooperation of schol-

ars from seemingly disparate disciplines—the stitching together of the results of
various projects and experiences to attempt to answer new (and the previously
unanswerable) questions. This type of interdisciplinary approach could certainly
be used for other species, sites, paintings, and objects to hone our understanding
of period, place, animal, movement, and trade.
13
Publications
1. Da Costa , R. C.; Rawe, B. W.; Iannetelli A.; Tizzard, G. J.; Coles, S. J.; Guwy,
A. J.; Owen, G. R. 2019 “Stopping Hydrogen Migration in Its Tracks: The First
Successful Synthesis of Group Ten Scorpionate Complexes Based on Azain-
dole Scaffolds” Inorganic Chemistry 58 (1), 359-367 DOI: 10.1021/
acs.inorgchem.8b02456
2. GILL, N., HUNT, F., & SPIGA, P. (2018). “Cherlin's conjecture for almost sim-
ple groups of Lie rank 1.” Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philo-
sophical Society, 1-19. doi:10.1017/S0305004118000403
3. Goggin KA, Murphy DJ (2018)Monitoring the Traceability, Safety and Au-
thenticity of Imported Palm Oils in Europe, Oilseeds & Fats Crops and Li-
pids25, DOI 10.1051/ocl/2018059 https://www.ocl-journal.org/articles/ocl/
full_html/first/ocl180025/ocl180025.html
4. A. H. Graettinger, D. W. McGarvie, I. P. Skilling, A. H. Höskuldsson, K. Strand
“Ice-confined construction of a large basaltic volcano—Austurfjöllmassif,
Askja, Iceland” Bulletin of Volcanology (2019) 81:9 https://doi.org/10.1007/
s00445-019-1269-x
5. Higgs, G, Langford, M., Jarvis, P., Page, N., Richards, J. and Fry, R. (2019)
Using GIS to investigate variations in accessibility to ‘extended hours’ primary
health care provision, Health and Social Care in the Community, forthcom-
ing, DOI:10.1111/hsc.12724
6. Ixer, R., Bevins, R., Turner, P., Power, M. & Pirrie, D. 2019. Alternative Altar
Stones? Carbonate-cemented micaceous sandstones from the Stonehenge Askja— the volcano subject of the research pub-
Landscape. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 112, 1- lished in Graettinger et al. 2019

13.
7. Langford, M., Higgs, G., and Dallimore, D. (2019) Investigating spatial varia-
tions in access to childcare provision using network-based GIS models, Social
Policy & Administration, forthcoming 10.1111/spol.12419
8. Laycock, E.A., Pirrie, D., Clegg, F., Bell, A.M.T. & Bidwell, P. 2019. An investi-
gation to establish the source of the Roman lime mortars used in Wallsend,
UK. Construction and Building Materials, 196, 611-625.
9. M.A.Mohamed, C.K Tan, A.A. Abd El-Rahman, S.S.Wahid, M.Attalla,
S.A.Ahmed, “Experimental study of the effectiveness and exergetic efficiency
of counter-rotating screw heat exchanger in a prebaked anode production
plant”, Applied Thermal Engineering, 148: 1194-1201, 2019.
10. Page, N., Langford, M. and Higgs, G. (2019) Measuring spatial accessibility to
services within Indices of Multiple Deprivation: Implications of applying an
Enhanced two-step Floating Catchment Area (E2SFCA) approach, Journal of
Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, forthcoming doi:10.1007/s12061-017-
9246-2
11. Pirrie, D. 2018. Testing the efficiency of soil recovery from clothing. Foren-
sic Science International, 289, 83-91.
12. Pirrie, D. & Shail, R.K. 2018. Mud and metal; the impact of historical mining
on the estuaries of SW England, UK. Geology Today, 34, 215-223.
13. Rahman F, Hanano A, Hassan M, Fitzpatrick DA, McCarthy CGP, Murphy DJ
(2018) Evolutionary, structural and functional analysis of the caleosin/
peroxygenase gene family in the Fungi, BMC Genomics 19:976, https://
bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12864-018-5334-1
14. Rowland M., Cavecchi A., Thielmann F., Kulon J. Shur J., Price R.,“Measuring
The Bipolar Charge Distributions of Fine Particle Aerosol Clouds of Commer-
cial PMDI Suspensions Using a Bipolar Next Generation Impactor (bp-NGI),”
in Pharmaceutical Research Journal. January 2019. doi: doi.org/10.1007/
s11095-018-2544-9

14
Publications
15. Trevelyan, P.M.J. and Walker, A.J. , Asymptotic Properties of Radial A+B→C
reaction fronts, Phys. Rev. E. 98, 032118, (2018).

16. Francesca Dalla Volta, Nick Gill and Pablo Spiga, “Cherlin's conjecture for spo-
radic simple groups” Pacific Journal of Mathematics Vol. 297 (2018), No. 1,
47–66 DOI: 10.2140/pjm.2018.297.47

17. Yilmaz, I.; Chen, L. D.;Chen, X. V.; Anderson, E. L.; Correa da Costa, R. (Nildo
Costa), Gladysz, J. A. and Bühlmann, P. Potentiometric Selectivities of Iono-
phore-Doped Ion-Selective Membranes: Concurrent Presence of Primary Ion
or Interfering Ion Complexes of Multiple Stoichiometries” Anal. Chem., 2019,
91, 2409–2417. 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b05196

New Starters
Welcome to new staff starting since the last edition of voiCES.

 Anthony Caravaggi, Lecturer in Natural History.

 Josephine Bradley, Lecturer in Biology.
 Odeh Dababneh, Lecturer in Aeronautical Engineering.
 Lisa Evans, Technical Support Assistant, Chemistry and Forensic Science.
 Conah Harrison, Workshop Development and Delivery Officer, Technocamps.
 John Hayton, Lecturer in Biology — Clinical Skills & Public Health.
 Xinjin Liang, Research Fellow in Low Carbon Bioprocess Analysis.
 Eduard Partenie, SESS Research Fellow.
 Matthew Phillips, SESS Research Fellow.
 Cecilia Priday, Marketing & Finance Assistant, Technocamps.
 Chris Pritchard, Lecturer in Health and Safety.
 Abdulla Rahil, SESS Research Fellow.
 Tamas Szklenar, Technical Officer, Technocamps.
 Rashid Mustafa, Senior Technician, CAPSE.
 Hammad Nazie, SESS Research Fellow.
 Rhys Williams, Workshop Development and Delivery Officer, Technocamps.

Editorial By Stewart Eyres

Editing voiCES has been incredibly useful to me in getting a broad picture of the
Faculty, engaging with a range of people and communicating all the positive work
we are doing. This issue sees contributions from across the Faculty, including new
staff, HPLs, colleagues in Professional Academy, Marketing and Technocamps as
well as regular contributors.

However I don’t have a good feel for who is reading it, and if there is anything
else that would be useful to see. In addition the regular contributors are not from
across the Faculty, and it would be good to broaden out that base. So if you are
reading this, please let me know, and write something up for the next issue!
15
In my shoes (under my hat) — Emma Derbi
I joined the USW as a Lecturer in Cyber Security – NCSA in August last year
(2018). Previously I was a student at the University of South Wales studying
BSc (Hons) Computer Forensics. As a mature student that had not been in
education for nearly 20 years, I started my degree on the foundation year.
Half way through that first year, I said to my partner jokingly, I absolutely love
learning at this University and will be here forever. Five years later after
graduating in July of 2018, I was employed as a Cyber Security lecturer within
the University of South Wales.

In my former life, my career could not have been more different. I cooked
burgers and chips for a living. I used to work as a manager in McDonalds for
20 years. I started out part time while in college, then working seemed to
take over my life and college fell by the way side. I worked my way up from a
lobby hostess to running a store. Over the years, I had worked at all the
stores in Cardiff at some point. I would often be sent to stores to help with
the training as this was my area of expertise while training others. I might not
have an academic background, but teaching was a skill I learnt at my time in
McDonalds while training others. I found that I had a talent to adapt my
training style to the needs of the learner. For the small time that I have been
teaching I believe my experience in training staff has helped me adapt to
classroom teaching. As it was approaching my twenty-year anniversary at
McDonalds, I decided that I wanted to do something different with my life. I
have always been interested in traditional forensics, so started to research
different universities that offered courses in forensics, as well as look at the
job prospects. It soon became apparent that even though there were plenty
of courses in traditional forensics there were very little jobs.

Having never really worked with computers, I thought it would be a great

idea to go from traditional forensics to computer forensics. I have never
been one to turn away from a challenge. Soon as I started my degree, even in
the foundation year I knew it was the right decision for my family and me.

During my time studying, I had the opportunity to work for the University in
my placement year. Eleven students from my degree including myself were
asked to take part in the pilot year for the National Cyber Security Academy –
NCSA in Newport. This is where I found my passion in Cyber Security. The
key aim for the Academy is to provide real-world skills that will prepare stu-
dents for the working environment. Now I have the pleasure of teaching the
new cohort at the NCSA. Therefore, I think it would be more fitting to call this
‘under my hat’ not in my shoes, as I changed my McDonald hat to a hat that
gives me great pride, the NCSA hat.

16