Monthly Archives: March 2016

Participants sought for study to develop quality of life measure

The University of Kent, the London School of Economics, the National Institute for Health of Welfare in Finland, and the University of Economics and Business in Austria are conducting a study assessing differences in long-term care services and their impact on the lives of older people using these services and their carers across these three countries. As part of this study researchers at the University of Kent are interested in knowing how people answer questions about their preferences for social care outcomes.

We are carrying out a survey using a technique called Best-Worst Scaling, where we ask people to choose the quality of life situation they consider to be the best and worst from a list of different situations. We are inviting students and staff to take part in interviews to help develop the survey. We want to know what you think about when you complete the survey, and we want you to give us feedback on the Best-Worst Scaling task and how it is presented.

Researchers from the University of Kent are seeking male and female participants aged 18 years and older.

There are two parts to this study.

Phase One will involve a simple, short online questionnaire asking questions about you, such as your age, gender and education level. This will only take a few minutes to complete. Based on your responses, you may be asked to take part in Phase Two of the study.

Phase Two will involve an interview in which you will be asked to complete the survey on the computer. A member of the research team will then discuss with you your understanding of the Best-Worst Scaling task. You will receive a £20 Boots voucher for your participation in Phase Two of the study.

For further information, please contact Laurie Batchelder at L.Batchelder@kent.ac.uk.

Spatial Syntax in Binaural Composition – Can we compose music for human hearing?

Can we compose music for human hearing?

On Tuesday 22 March at 17.00 in the Clocktower Building, Lecture Theatre,
University of Kent, Historic Dockyard Chatham, The School of Music & Fine Art presents Dr Matt Barnard (University of Hull) as the key speaker in a seminar on the binaural method of hearing. This represents our natural spatial register and employing binaural recording and/or synthesis methods in composition reveals peculiar characteristics of the method. Discussing a compositional practice that is now exploring a syntax of space as primary, the binaural method is explored in its creative manifestations.

Matthew Barnard is a composer and researcher primarily focused upon electronic music, including electronica, acousmatic and soundscape idioms. The field of spatial representation in sound, particularly ambisonics and the binaural method, are of interest.

For more info contact Tim Howle
t.howle@kent.ac.uk

University of Kent hosts Sport Relief Mile 2016

The University will be hosting the Sport Relief mile on Sunday 20 March across campus – based at the Sports Pavilion.

Participants have the choice of three distances; 1, 3 or 6 miles. Participants are to arrive from 09.30 and the race starts at 11.00 at the Pavilion playing fields. The 3 and 6 mile route takes place along the Crab and Winkle cycle path off campus. Parkwood accommodation block will be used for the 1 mile route.

The first Unibus on Sunday 20 March will not come up to Parkwood estate. There will be no vehicle access or egress from Parkwood between 10.45 and 12.00 on the day. We would politely request that you do not use your vehicle around Parkwood during that period. The event will be finished and cleared by 13.00.

If you would like to participate and raise money for Sport Relief you can do so on the day or by visiting www.sportrelief.com

In an emergency, Campus Watch and Kent Sport staff will retain access but general movement of traffic will be necessarily restricted during this short period.

For more sports events coming up this spring visit the Kent Sport events calendar.

International Festival of Projections

The International Festival of Projections, a major free arts festival, will be taking place at the University of Kent from 18–20 March 2016.

The programme will showcase spectacular large-scale moving and still image projections, as well as intimate installations and performances on sites including ancient woodland, public spaces and in places usually hidden from view.

Funded as one of the University’s Beacon projects, which were announced during its 50th Anniversary celebrations, the Festival has been designed to showcase internationally renowned arts together with ground-breaking research at Kent. A specially curated programme will include film screenings, art installations, talks and events.

Discount tickets for Festival of Steam and Transport

Kent students and staff, along with five accompanying guests, can get discounted tickets for the Festival of Steam and Transport at The Historic Dockyard Chatham from 27-28 March 2016.

You will need your Kent ID to receive the following rates:

  • Adult: £9.50
  • Concessions: £8.50
  • Child: £7.00
  • Family: £27.50
  • Add. Family Child: £6.00

These tickets will be available to purchase on the day of visit, however you may like to obtain tickets in advance, from The Historic Dockyard Admissions Desk during normal opening hours.

International Women’s Day coffee morning – 8 March 2016

In celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD), the School of Engineering and Digital Arts is hosting a charity coffee morning and networking event for all staff and students of the School on Tuesday 8 March 2016 from 10.30 onwards, in the social area, Jennison Building.   Come along and meet representatives from the School’s EDI Committee and find out about University initiatives which support female students to advance their careers in academia.

Women’s equality has made positive gains but the world is still unequal. International Women’s Day celebrates the social, political and economic achievements of women while focusing world attention on areas requiring further action. The theme for 2016 is Pledging For Parity.  Everyone – men and women – can pledge to take a concrete step to help achieve gender parity more quickly – whether to help women and girls achieve their ambitions, call for gender-balanced leadership, respect and value difference, develop more inclusive and flexible cultures or root out workplace bias. Each of us can be a leader within our own spheres of influence and commit to take pragmatic action to accelerate gender parity.

Each year International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8. The first International Women’s Day was held in 1911 when women would rally for the right to vote, have an education, hold public office and end discrimination against themselves.  Over the years, International Women’s Day has been held in more and more countries. Many global corporations have also started to more actively support IWD, for example, on 8 March search engine and media giant Google, some years, even changes its logo on its global search pages.  Year on year IWD is certainly increasing in status.

Profits raised from the purchase of refreshments from J’s on Tuesday 8th March will be donated to Rising Sun, a voluntary organisation in Kent addressing domestic violence and providing services for women, children and families.  The Charity seeks to challenge attitudes and beliefs that perpetuate domestic violence, and through their work, promote healthy and non-abusive relationships.

Please do make time in your morning on Tuesday 8 March for a coffee break and chat, to support International Women’s Day and Rising Sun.

Help us promote what makes the University special

To protect and promote what makes Kent special, the University has a brand, logo and visual identity – and we need your help in applying this.

To make it easier, we have published online brand guidelines, covering everything from tone of voice in our communications, to how and where to use our logo, preferred colours and photography.

There are also a number of handy downloads, including the University logo, PowerPoint templates and examples of video branding. If you’re looking for images, there’s a link to a number of approved University photographs featuring, for example, our campus/centre locations and postgraduate/undergraduate students.

Take a look at the brand guidelines now via this link. You can also link direct to the University’s Image Library.

If you have any queries, you should be able to find most of the answer in the FAQs section. If not, please email the Brand Implementation Group at: kentbrand@kent.ac.uk.

Add tech skills to your degree with a Year in Computing

Many students are keen to learn the tech skills that will make them stand out to a graduate employer, or simply want to learn more about computing for their own interests.

The School of Computing is now offering a ‘Year in Computing’ for all Kent undergraduate students. This extra year can be taken after stage 2 or the final year of a students’ current degree programme.

The Year in Computing will especially be of interest to students if;

  • they are interested in studying computing AND their current degree,
  • they would like to get prepared for a career in tech,
  • they are interested in exploring the frontiers of their subject and computing,
  • they want to learn how to be creative with computing.

Colin Johnson who is heading up the programme said; ‘We have had a very positive response from students across all disciplines about the Year in Computing. The students who have been accepted on to the programme so far have a range of reasons for wanting to study computing, from opening up their career options to adding a formal qualification that demonstrates their interest in computing.’

To find out more go to https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/ug/year-in-computing.html

Tamara Rathcke wins funding on Speech-to-Song Illusion

Dr Tamara Rathcke, Lecturer in the Department of English Language & Linguistics, has just won a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant for a project entitled ‘Speaking or Singing? Unveiling Individual Variation in the Perception of the “Speech-to-Song Illusion”, in conjunction with Professor Simone Dalla-Bella (University of Montpellier) and Dr Simone Falk (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich).

Can speech ever sound like song? Seemingly impossible, the ‘Speech-to-Song Illusion’ (S2S) is a striking example of a perceptual effect where a spoken phrase repeated several times shifts to being heard as sung without any change to the speech sounds. The previous work conducted by Tamara and her co-researchers revealed that sound acoustics play a crucial role in S2S; but so far, the cognitive processes underpinning the transformation remain unclear. The new project will examine the role of the individual perceiver, as not all listeners are equally likely to experience the effect. They aim to investigate healthy native and non-native populations with normally distributed characteristics such as musical training, language skills and working memory capacity, in order to unveil if, and how, these characteristics may predict listeners’ performance in S2S. The project will illuminate how the link between language and music is mediated by cognitive abilities and previou s experience of the listener, and produce academic contributions as well as a database available for other researchers and a web resource accessible to the general public.

For more details of British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants, please see the page here: www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide/srg.cfm