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Vertically Integrated Projects - Current VIPs

The VIPs currently running

We have a total of 11 projects currently running in AY2425 Semester 1.

TBB: Bath biodevices without borders

Like Bath Engineering without Borders (BEwoB), this VIP team joins driven students and dedicated staff with problems that many people are currently facing throughout the world. However, unlike BEwoB, the focus of TBB: Bath Biodevices without Borders is on the development of practical, biodevice-implemented projects that can, and hopefully, will help many people throughout the world, whilst at the same time providing the involved students with practical employability skills. To this end, we intend, as soon as it is once again possible, to travel to areas of the world where we have identified a real need that we can devise a solution to, properly identify the need in that area, then develop a system/design that can help solve this problem. 

This VIP team aims to integrate all student years into not just our design and development process, but also into our assessing and implementation processes. This means that even if you are a first year, with no more engineering experience than your first semester modules, you will still have the opportunity to travel to new regions of the world and provide aid to people living there. On the same note, it is possible to join us at any point in your studies, even if this is your final year and you haven’t been a part of any societies or student teams to date. 

All skills are welcome and no need for any specific background knowledge required.

TBB is scientifically supported by Electronic and Electrical Engineering C3Bio academics, they will be providing initial project ideas in line with ongoing research projects and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (https://unfoundation.org/what-we-do/issues/sustainable-development-goals ), technical training, dedicated lab space and resources within the Faculty of Engineering and international network contacts. 

The team produced a poster for end of Semester 1 AY2223

SDGs: 3 Good Health and Wellbeing, 6 Clean Water and Sanitation & 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

Academic Directors: Dr Despina Moschou, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering; Dr Pedro Estrela (Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering); Dr Ben Metcalfe (Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering)

Who can apply in 2024/25? Applications for Semester 2 will open in December, this VIP welcomes applications from all University of Bath students.

Creating immersive training experiences in virtual reality

A Virtual Reality Sexual Harassment Intervention Training

Our project has created a Virtual Reality (VR) app over the last 2.5 years. This puts the player in a scripted game where they see a non-playable character experience sexual harassment. Our scenarios enable participants to practice speaking up to prevent harassment escalation. Developed in collaboration with SARSAS and the University's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team, we aim to demonstrate VR's effectiveness as a training tool for sexual harassment intervention.

With 97% of women in the UK having experienced sexual harassment and 1/3 of these incidents occurring in the presence of bystanders, our initiative aims to address this critical issue.

As of 2024, our project has progressed significantly, and we expect to be performing a psychological experiment, aiming to recruit 200 participants to test the effectiveness of this training compared to typical sexual harassment intervention training. We have also received interest from the National Rail who have developed a similar VR training. We want to continue outreach along these lines, to spread the impact of our work, contingent on promising results we find.

We are currently seeking individuals to join our team in the following capacities:

Experimental Research Team

We're seeking psychology and social sciences students interested in running experiments, analyzing results, and potentially co-authoring academic papers based on our findings. While there's no guarantee, there's a strong possibility for students involved in writing the paper to have their names included as authors. This presents an excellent opportunity to gain experience in academic research and potentially contribute to a published work. Experience with pre-registration and publishing would be advantageous, but it's not a requirement. Our academic director, Ken Cameron, has extensive publishing experience and will guide the process.

Leadership

If you are confident in experimental methods and leadership, we'd be keen to consider you for a leadership position in our academic team. Responsibilities will include:

  • Writing and publishing papers based on our findings
  • Preparing and submitting ethics applications for future experimental phases

Outreach and Marketing

We're also seeking individuals with experience in public outreach, advertising, and marketing. These roles will be crucial in three key areas:

  1. Marketing the study to potential participants, ensuring we reach our target number and diversity of subjects.
  2. Managing logistics with SARSAS and the university's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team. This involves coordinating between the academic team and the sexual harassment experts, ensuring the smooth operation of experiments while meeting the requirements of all involved parties.
  3. Potentially disseminating our results. This would involve translating complex findings into accessible information for the general public. If our results prove promising, there may be opportunities for outreach to other universities and teams to share our findings and methodologies.

Project Goals

  1. Demonstrate the effectiveness of VR in sexual harassment intervention training
  2. Publish academic papers on our findings
  3. Expand the reach and impact of our training program
  4. Contribute to the reduction of sexual harassment incidents through improved bystander intervention

Join us in this important initiative to combat sexual harassment and create safer environments for everyone.

Academic Director: Ken Cameron (Department of Computer Science)

Project 2: Virtual Reality in Chemistry Labs

This team will be designing and running an experiment to test the new app based on Virtual reality in the labs.

Academic Director: Steve Flower (Department of Chemistry)

Who can apply in 2024/25? Applications are open. Get in touch.

Widening participation and access to the University of Bath by young people from Somerset and West Wiltshire.

Whilst the reputation for excellence in undergraduate studies at University of Bath grows nationally and internationally, its ability to recruit students from low-income families remains stubbornly difficult to improve. And this is despite significant time and financial investment made by the university. The argument that is often presented when trying to understand what is happening is that Bath is an expensive city. That is certainly true but so are other places that are currently making more progress in recruiting from this target cohort. One consideration that has received little air time recently here in Bath, is to explore the potential to recruit students to the University of Bath that live within commuting distance of the campus. Commuter students are not common here; but they are elsewhere. And one of the biggest challenges for Bath is that apart from heading west to the Bristol area, the region is essentially rural and with limited good public transport. So before embarking on any marketing or promotional campaigns, this project seeks to understand the following baseline questions:

What is the actual potential to recruit students to University of Bath from low-income families within the region? And what would a successful programme of recruitment look like? Could it involve commuter students? Or is there a mechanism to support suitable students from the region to move to Bath for their undergraduate studies?

SDGs: 4 Quality Education, 8 Decent Working and Econominc Growth, 10 Reduced Inequalities, 17 Partnerships

Academic directors: Professor Jane White (Mathematical Sciences) and Professor Matt Dickson (Institute for Policy Research

Who can apply in 2024/25? Applications for Semester 2 will open in December, this VIP welcomes applications from all University of Bath students.

Carers Centre carbon reduction journey

Carers Centre are looking for support from a VIP to support their carbon management plan. As part of their recommissioning with BANES council and commitment to contributing to BANES carbon reduction by 2030, the Carers Centre have been encouraged to look at their carbon emissions as an organisation. In the initial stages the project would be to support the carers centre to provide an outline of the Carers Centre carbon management commitment and collaboration with UoB to BANES as part of the recommission. With the view that first semester would be time for the VIP group to explore the Carers Centre emissions within Scope 1 emissions and prepare a list of recommendations to be presented to the organisation. There would be opportunities for students to learn about the work of the carers centre and understanding what they deliver to their service users within the social care sector.

The project aims to support Carers Centre in creating a carbon commitment outline, help identify their carbon emissions in Scope 1 and provide recommendations on how they can approach their carbon management plan in their organisation.

Project Partners: Carers Centre BANES - Contact | The Carers' Centre - Bath and North East Somerset (banescarerscentre.org.uk)

The team produced a poster for end of Semester 1 AY2324

SDG: 13 Climate Action

Academic Director: Brian Rutter, Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Who can apply in 2024/25? Applications for Semester 2 will open in December, this VIP welcomes applications from all University of Bath students who have an interest in climate change and supporting a local charity.

Co-production of construction materials: working for and with the community

New for Semester 2

We aim to combine engineering expertise, mathematical modelling, and participatory social research methods to identify the factors required for a community to proactively empower people to make more informed decisions to cater for their own needs on the use of sustainable construction materials. Engineers constantly present novel construction materials which are not adopted by the community. We seek to work with communities themselves to identify their needs and to co-design strategies for using sustainable construction materials to meet those needs. If we can identify answers to the question of societal need, we can contribute to setting the current approach towards introducing novel materials onto its own sustainable co-creational path.

The Project aims to understand the needs of a home (a place where people feel safe, comfortable, where they can express themselves and their beliefs) vs. the needs of the engineering properties of a building (house – physical shelter).

The urgent need to grow the use of sustainable construction materials is clear. However, whilst huge progress has been made on the engineering aspect of this challenge, what is far less clear are the societal needs and attitudes that determine the adoption or rejection of these alternative materials. Engineers constantly present novel construction materials, which are not adopted by the community. By working with communities themselves, we seek to identify their needs and to co-design strategies for using sustainable construction materials to meet those needs. If we can identify answers to the question of societal need, we can contribute to setting the current approach toward introducing novel materials onto its own sustainable co-creational path.

SDGs: 11, 9, 8, 3, and 17

Academic Director: Taghried Abdel-Magid, Dept of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Who can apply in 2024/25? Applications for Semester 2 will open in December, this VIP welcomes applications from all University of Bath students. Please get in touch with Vertically Integrated Projects if you are interested in joining.

Diversity Network

New for AY24/25

Whilst the University of Bath has grown nationally and internationally, recruiting students from more diverse backgrounds is remaining difficult. We organised a student diversity focus group in May 2024 to better understand how we can improve diversity amongst students and learn from their current experiences. Students reported struggling to integrate and reported not really feeling a sense of belonging. By creating a network open to all students within the Faculty of Humanities and Social sciences, we aim to host regular events/gatherings to address these topics and learn from students about their experiences at Bath. We aim to extend this scheme across the whole university after this trial. This VIP addresses the issues at the local level, stimulating debate and taking actions in order to improve diversity and tackle these challenges in the future. With contributions from academic experts and specialists in this area, the VIP will have an opportunity to make a difference to policy and practice at the University.

The goal is to provide students from different ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds a sense of belonging at the University of Bath by creating a network of like-minded students.

SDGs: Goal 5: Gender Equality Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities

Academic Director: Dr Jean-Philippe Walhin, Department for Health & Miss Annika Theilgaard, Faculty of HSS

Who can apply in 2024/25? Applications for Semester 2 will open in December, this VIP welcomes applications from all University of Bath students.

Slow the Flow - Conserving water across our region

The project concept evolves as a collaboration with BANES and the West of England Combined Authority, serving as a pilot initiative to demonstrate how, as part of the regional engagement program, we can collaborate with The University of Bath.

The problem: We need to reduce the amount of water that is running into our water systems across the region to reduce the impact on the current water infrastructure and help support nature and adaptation.

The request: To investigate how we could integrate known interventions, technology and behavioural change techniques to support mobilisation across the region.

Goal – to work with The University of Bath to consider how we could create a ‘scalable’ model that supports the reduction of run off within a given locality.

In relation to the West of England Climate and Nature Action Plan alignment: CRA11 Work with National Grid, Wessex Water, Bristol Water and other local infrastructure providers to understand regional infrastructure resilience to the impacts of climate change. NR14 Work with Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership to identify actions and investment required to deliver the Bristol Avon Catchment Plan and the Bristol Avon Fish Recovery Strategy to improve the health, biodiversity and resilience of our water courses, wetlands and river catchments. In relation to BANES Climate Strategy and Action Plan.

In relationship with WECA - West of England Combined Authority.

SDGs: 3 Good Health and Wellbeing, 6 Clean Water and Sanitation & 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

Academic Directors: Prof Jan Hofman, Co-Director of the Water Innovation Research Centre & Thomas Kjeldson, Department of Architecture & Engineering.

Who can apply in 2024/25? Applications for Semester 2 will open in December, this VIP welcomes applications from all University of Bath students.

Open science – Hardware for microscopy

The Openflexure Project is a globally recognised exemplar of open science hardware development (https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/ecosocres2021d30NoteOpenSource_en.pdf). Open development of open science hardware is key to scientific reproducibility and scientific equality. It allows researchers everywhere to understand how their hardware is operating, and also to modify it to their needs. With careful design, open hardware can also allow manufacture and maintenance across the globe, including in low and middle income countries (LMICs).

The core of the Openflexure project is a motorised micromanipulation stage that is built into a compact and high resolution microscope (https://openflexure.org/projects/microscope/build). The project is developed openly, using distributed version control to enable contributions to the project goals, project development and project oversight from anywhere. A main project goal has been high resolution microscopy to contribute to malaria diagnosis in Tanzania, which has driven the core project development in a particular direction. Together with users in other fields a number of design variations have been developed, adapting the core technology to each type of use.

This vertically integrated project will contribute to the development of open microscopy in three possible ways.

A. Development of microscope hardware. The Openflexure Microscope is 3D printed from CAD, which allows many variations of the hardware to address different user needs. Part of the VIP will assess user feedback (eg. https://openflexure.discourse.group/) and identify and address needs in hardware for new uses or needs in enhanced usability of existing hardware.

B. The Openflexure microscope can be built in different versions up to a high resolution (<500nm) robotic scientific microscope. Part of the VIP will assess applications in water quality monitoring in LMICs and applications in cell biology in laboratory incubators, to determine the type of microscope best suited for these applications. The common PLA material has been shown to work in these harsh environments, but there may be better materials such as PET. Environmental testing can be used to assess any improvements over PLA.

C. Positioning of the Openflexure project offering. The Openflexure project is developed by physicists and engineers as a series of different microscopy devices, and the website (www.openflexure.org) presents the possibilities from the device perspective. Many users will start from a scientific or environmental need, and will not necessarily know which device would be suitable for their need. Part of the VIP will assess the way in which the organisation of Openflexure project information could enhance visibility and accessibility of the microscopes for users. We have already seen a shift in perception of the quality of the microscope by switching from prints and renders in vibrant colours to displaying versions in scientific black-and-white or medical blue-and-white.

The team produced a poster for end of Semester 1 AY2324

SDGs: 3 Good Health and Wellbeing, 6 Clean Water and Sanitation & 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

Academic Director: Professor William Wadsworth, Department of Physics

Who can apply in 2024/25? Applications for Semester 2 will open in December, this VIP welcomes applications from all University of Bath students.

Institute for Sustainability

New for AY2425

Working with Institute for Sustainability this project aims to develop resources to teach about sustainable technologies using a range of media for dissemination into schools. The goals of the project are to develop resources for education establishments (for all ages) about sustainable technologies from the fundamental to the cutting edge research which aligns with school interests and curricula and highlight university research eg on solar cells, bio plastics, battery tech etc.

SDG: 13 Climate Action

Academic Director: Fiona Dickinson, Department of Chemistry.

Who can apply in 2024/25? Applications for Semester 2 will open in December, this VIP welcomes applications from all University of Bath students who have an interest in sustainability.

Students for Sustainable Food

Having ran since 2020/21, In 2021/22, this VIP project will build on initial work carried out by two VIPs in the previous year to further help develop and deliver a sustainable food policy for the University of Bath.

This VIP team will be involved with the testing of interventions to change dietary choices amongst students and staff to be healthier and greener, through ideas like food labelling, carbon tax, or nudges to change behaviour.

The team produced a poster for end of Semester 1 AY2223

SDG: 12 Responsible consumption and Reduction

Academic Director: Prof Lorraine Whitmarsh (Director - Centre for Climate Change & Social Transformations (CAST) and Dept of Psychology)

Who can apply in 2024/25? Applications for Semester 2 will open in December, this VIP welcomes applications from all University of Bath students.

Student Wellbeing

Started in 2019/20, Concerns about student wellbeing and mental health continue to dominate national debate. This VIP addresses the issues at the local level, evaluating interventions and stimulating debate over how best to tackle these challenges in the future. Working with experts from the academic and professional realms, the VIP team will have an opportunity to make a difference to policy and practice at the University and beyond.

SDGs: 3 Good Health and Wellbeing.

Academic Director: Professor Richard Joiner

Who can apply in 2024/25? Applications for Semester 2 will open in December, this VIP welcomes applications from all University of Bath students.

Get in touch

If you have any questions about Vertically Integrated Projects at the University of Bath, please contact the VIP Team by email.


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