Tag Archives: Medway

Peer recognition for placement student Hubert Dziedziczak

Hubert Dziedziczak, a Computer Science (Networks) with a Year in Industry student, has won the Employee of the Quarter award while on placement at the Wates Group. The award formally recognises individuals who perform tasks far beyond their job description in helping the company achieve its objectives. Nominations are made by colleagues, with the employee with the most votes announced at quarterly team briefings.

Hubert said: “It was great to be recognized by my colleagues for all my hard work, and to see that people understood that I’m trying my best to push my year in industry to its boundaries in order to learn as much as I can.”

Hubert is the fifth computing student from Kent to do a year in industry with The Wates Group and another student will be joining the group in the summer. The School of Computing sends more than 100 students on placements every year. The School has strong links with industry in Kent, nationally and internationally and has two dedicated placement officers who help students secure roles. The Industrial placement programme is available to all undergraduates and taught Master’s students in the School.

Hubert’s award follows the success of Jordan Norris, another Year in Industry student who won an employee award for going ‘above and beyond’ during his placement year.

SMFA Postgraduate Presentations Wednesday 23 May

The annual School of Music and Fine Art (SMFA) Postgraduate Presentations take place on Wednesday 23 May in the Galvanising Shop Performance Space at Medway campus.

The Postgraduate Presentations are an excellent opportunity for SMFA to celebrate the successes of our postgraduates and the contribution they make to the life, work and academic community of the school.

The day will run from 10.30am until approximately 3pm and includes a range of presentations from students studying Music and Fine Art MA and PhD programmes, as well as a participatory tour of a Fine Art Degree showpiece from a MA Fine Art student.

There will be an opportunity for the audience to ask questions after each presentation and a lunch will be provided for presenters and the audience at which further discussion can take place.

If you would like to attend contact the SMFA postgraduate team or visit the SMFA Facebook page.

Participants needed for study on biofeedback of eating behaviour

Researchers from the School of Engineering and Digital Arts are seeking participants to take part in a study relating to biofeedback of eating behaviour.

This study aims to investigate the interaction of users with biosensor driven feedback during the consumption of a small meal. Participants are required to take part in a single study session lasting no more than 60 minutes.

You will be asked to consume a selection of free food during the session, including pizza, jam sandwiches, yoghurt, apples and water. In return, you will receive a £10 Amazon e-voucher on the successful completion of the study session.

If you would like to learn more or volunteer to take part in the study complete the online form or email Ben Nicholls.

Survivors’ Forum Friday 18 May

Silke Grygier, founder of the Not The Only One Project, will be facilitating the next Survivor Forum from 18.30-20.30 on Friday 18 May in Rutherford Ext 12.

The main aim of this format is to create a safe space for survivors of sexual abuse to come together, meet others, share experiences, and discuss the issues and themes which affect them. The experience of being in a space with other survivors, can be hugely empowering for survivors and can alleviate common feelings of shame, stigma, and isolation, and foster experiences of connection and feeling understood.

In the Survivors’ Collective, Silke has facilitated forums on themes such as ‘access to healthcare’, ‘media representation’, ‘our experience in education & the workplace’, and workshops such as ‘speaking out’, ‘connecting to our body’, as well as a ‘giving testimony session’ where survivors had the opportunity to tell their story.

Not The Only One is a project designed to reach out to university students who have experienced childhood sexual abuse (CSA). As a group, CSA survivors are often invisible, not only to society, but also to each other, and suffer stigma and isolation. At the same time, survivors tend to experience great difficulties especially in young adulthood, and are often left with a lack of understanding and support. Through workshops, presentations, info-stalls, support groups, open forums, and therapeutic support this project aims to raise awareness, create spaces for survivors to come together, and offer specialist support.

Further Survivor Forums will take place on the following dates:

15 June (Rutherford Ext 12)
20 July (Grimond Seminar 2)

You can find out more about Not The Only One here. You can also contact Debbie Worthington, Student EDI Officer for further information.

Managing Mental Health for Line Managers

Learning and Organisational Development is running six sessions on Managing Mental Health for Line Managers, which will take place on:

Tuesday 12 June am or pm session

Thursday 14 June am or pm session

Tuesday 19 June am or pm session

The sessions are targeted at members of staff with management responsibilities. If you would like to attend a session, book via the Learning and Organisational Development website.

Learning at Work Week 14-18 May 2018

We are pleased to be taking part in Learning at Work Week 2018 and can now announce our activities for 14-18 May 2018.

Staff from across the organisation have offered their time to provide a selection of workshops throughout the week. Ranging from ‘An Introduction to British Sign Language’ to ‘Managing a Busy Inbox’ these varied sessions are now available to book on our website. We also have access to some free online resources from external partners which can be found at the same page. These include the National Numeracy challenge on Wednesday 17 May, which any member of staff can access, and Reading Ahead, an online book club community.

We will also be launching ‘Kent Experiences’ – a selection of activities offered by teams and departments across the University to help increase organisational understanding. These activities will give staff the opportunity to spend a short time learning about specific aspects of the University they may never normally get to experience. These ‘Kent Experiences’ will be advertised and available for sign-up at our launch event and online throughout the week.

The launch event takes place on Monday 14 May 2018 from 09:30 – 12:30 with an informal drop in session from 11:30 – 12:30 for more information about the ‘Kent Experiences’ on offer. For further details or to register your interest in the launch event please check the event page.

Online booking available for Campus Shuttle

Online booking for the summer term is now available for the Campus Shuttle service.

The service starts up again from Tuesday 8 May 2018 and you can now book a seat to guarantee your travel from that date.

The Campus Shuttle is a free coach service between the Medway and Canterbury campuses that is made available for staff and students during term-time only.

World-leading research features in new campaign

Researchers at Kent use their expertise to tackle local, national and global challenges and address pressing public issues.

A new poster campaign celebrating the impact of this research will run in locations across Canterbury and Medway from 7 to 20 May. The campaign, designed by the Corporate Communications team, supports the University’s public engagement with research outreach programme.

The campaign highlights the public benefits of some of the most impactful research carried out at the University last year. The work featured includes scientific discoveries that could lead to new strategies for improving age-related health and for the use of immune therapy strategies to fight leukaemia; work to deliver the next generation of high speed 5G mobile networks; the discovery and identification of fossils that have changed our understanding of human evolutionary theory; and a major report recommending new housing legislation.

Exam accommodation now available at Liberty Quays

Do you commute to Medway Campus? Then why not consider staying in a University of Kent room at Liberty Quays for the duration of your exams. Reduce stress and have more time to concentrate on studying with no need to worry about missing an exam as a result of traffic, train strikes or other travel delays outside your control.

All rooms are single en-suite rooms in flats with other students also taking exams. You will be supplied with a duvet; pillow; bed linen and towels. Kitchens will have basic items supplied for you to prepare simple meals, or you can take advantage of our catered package.

Choose from a room only package available from £110.00 for four nights or our catered package available from £150.00 for four nights.

Rooms can now be booked online. For further information please visit the event’s registration page or contact: conferences@kent.ac.uk.

Fine Art PhD student wins prestigious film award

Fine Art PhD student Stephen Connolly won a 2018 British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) Award for his film, Machine Space.

He won the Moving Image category under Best Practice Research Portfolio for his essay film exploring a city as a machine; a place of movement and circulation. Using a kinetic approach, issues of space, race and finance frame the city of Machine Space. Residents testify in voice-over about how the city as a spatial and financial machine shapes their experience. The city is Detroit, a place that has changed from producing the means of movement to producing space itself. The film uses formal representational devices to explore this content, and addresses issues of complicity of audiences in the state of affairs in the city. It is a visualization of the ideas of Henri Lefebvre, philosopher of space and urban life.

Stephen is an artist filmmaker and Kent 50 scholar who also lectures in Film Production at the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, and works as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the School of Music and Fine Art.

He said: “The PhD has been such an amazing experience and deeply helpful for my practice, encouraging me to push forward towards publication. The process of academic research has allowed me to place the work in context and in conversation with other disciplines and artists. I aim to contribute to the further development of practice as research as a process of making moving image work in the arts.”

Stephen has also joined forces with Matthew Gibson, Arts GTA (Film) within the School of Music and Fine Art, and Patrick Brian Smith of Concordia University in Canada, to organise an inter-disciplinary symposium of scholars and media-makers on the topic of ‘Visualising Spatial Injustice and Exploitation’. The event takes place on Friday 8 June in Grimond Building on the University’s Canterbury campus and registration is now open.