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Manchester made its mark at this year’s Big Bang Fair

From clever robots to curling ribbon, the Faculty made an impact at this year’s largest celebration of science and engineering for young people.

Staff and students from across the Faculty attended the four-day Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair with a combination of theatre shows, interactive exhibits, citizen science projects, a special competition prize and information about future careers in science and engineering.

Visitors to the show, which ran from 15 – 18 March, experienced a host of exciting science and engineering-related activities including:

· A collection of autonomous Manchester robots that have been designed to work in the tough environments encountered when decommissioning nuclear power plants and cleaning up waste material to support the UK’s energy sector. Some of these pioneering machines can work underwater while others walk across dry land using spider-like legs. Read more.

· ‘It’s elementary! How to make and break an element’. In this fun, interactive and highly energetic stage show Dr Sarah Heath, a chemist and nuclear scientist from the Dalton Nuclear Institute, demonstrated how elements are formed, and what happens when they fall to bits. She said: “Some elements are completely stable, but for me these aren’t the best ones... I like the ones that are unstable and break down spontaneously – when this happens things can get really interesting..."

· This year saw the return of the highly popular ribbon curling experiment. Everyone knows that when a sharp blade is run down the side of a ribbon it curls upwards - however, there had been very little scientific understanding of this process until Manchester mathematicians recently revealed precisely how and why a ribbon curls when a sharp blade is run down one side.

· Representatives from the Manchester Energy network attended the show on a quest to find the next generation of pioneering scientist and engineers in this exciting field. Outstanding innovation and idea development was rewarded with The University of Manchester’s ‘Global challenges, Manchester solutions’ special prize, part of the wider Big Bang Competition.

Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair took place from 15-18 March 2017 at The NEC, Birmingham. It is an award-winning combination of exciting theatre shows, interactive workshops and exhibits and careers information from STEM professionals for young people aged 7 to 19. www.thebigbangfair.co.uk

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In the Spotlight

As we celebrate World Book Day, Lynne Bianchi, Director of UoM Science Education Research and Innovation Hub and author of Smart Pickings, talks to us about the role books have played in her life.

How did you end up working in Science?

Lynne joined the University in 2014 bringing with her a vast amount of experience working in primary science education, and with enthusiasm to support in-service teachers across Greater Manchester to enhance the teaching and learning of science. The Science & Engineering Education Research and Innovation Hub, founded by Lynne, works with teachers in primary and secondary education to explore innovative ways of approaching the National Curriculum for science, technology and computer science. My dad was a Paediatric Surgeon, my mum was a Pharmacist and I have two brothers - a doctor and a naval architect - so I guess you could say science has always been in my blood. I began my career teaching science in primary schools and became intrigued with how children learn and think. That led to me pursuing a Masters Degree in Education and a PhD in Science Education. These opportunities were pivotal in my understanding of my profession and they lead to me working with a range of educational groups including the English, Northern Ireland and Lithuania government bodies to advise on the revision of their national curricula. I soon began to think that realising my dream of creating a centre of excellence for primary science so that in-service teachers could be truly supported to make science teaching and the learning the best it can be for children. Here at the University we are working to establish strong partnerships with teachers, researchers, scientists and engineers as well as creative and cultural professionals so that together we can make vivid the place of science in children’s learning.

What inspired you to write Smart Pickings?

For many years I’ve explored ways to share my thinking within the STEM education sector and I’ve found public speaking and writing to be something that I enjoy. I had been writing various small features, books and resources over the years however it wasn’t until I had children of my own that I thought about writing a children’s book. The inspiration came from being asked to read a well-thumbed book for the umpteenth time by my daughter Claire. One of her favourites is ‘You Choose’ which had become tatty and dog-eared having been read so many times. We have created many a story together as they choose their own path through the book - where they would live, what would they wear, where they would sleep and this set me thinking about the same approach for the world of primary science.

Smart Pickings uses pictures and cartoons to introduce children to a range of scientists – contemporary and past, encouraging them to explore their work and ask 'who are they?', 'what are they famous for?', 'how did they make a difference?'. The reader is the author and the story is theirs – it grows with the choices they make, based on their desires and interests. The book is suitable for all ages and abilities from three years upwards and is best read together – a child with a child, child with their parent or carer, a group of children, a teacher with a child. It’s about sharing ideas and talking together about scientists, our world and the many opportunities we have to take hold of the scientific experience and learn together.

"We have been learning about science in school but I didn’t realise there were so many different things a scientist could do. When reading the book, I couldn’t decide between being a zoologist or an architect but after looking at all the investigations I could take part in, where I would work and what equipment I would use I changed my mind completely and became a roboticist!" Lucas Moss, aged 9

What books do you enjoy reading? Most of the books I read are related to my work however I do enjoy reading autobiographies from people who have succeeded in achieving their dreams. One of the most inspirational books I have read was ‘The Shed That Fed A Million People’ by Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow. It tells the story of how a fish farmer from Argyll, Scotland, became the international CEO of global charity Mary’s Meals that now feeds over 800,000 children a day.

What else would you like to achieve? I would really like to be able to use Smart Pickings with children who wouldn’t otherwise have access to it – to hear their pickings would be amazing! I’d love to be able to explore ways in which perhaps the children involved in the Mary’s Meals programme could be given access to Smart Pickings, so that they too can be inspired to find out about scientists, discover their own scientific ideas and perhaps follow in the footsteps of those we all admire!

Smart Pickings is available on Amazon.

The Science Education Research and Innovation Hub will once again be involved in organising the Great Science Share taking place in July. The first Great Science Share took place last year, as part of Manchester’s year as European City of Science. More than 200 schools signed up to take part and hundreds of young people took the lead in sharing what they enjoy about STEM subjects in events across the city in July 2016.

RAEng Visiting Fellow provides a glimpse of the 'forgotten nanoscale'

Dr Qian Chen has given a lecture at the University on the ‘forgotten nanoscale’ as part of her Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Fellowship visit to the UK

A large audience of students and academics from the Faculty of Science and Engineering gathered on the afternoon of Wednesday, 18 January to hear Dr Chen, who is Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In her lecture, she explained how liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy (TEM) can be used to image self-assembly dynamics at the nanoscale. The self-assembly of nanoscale building blocks can be used to construct complexity in biology and engineering, producing extremely rich phases, reconfigurability and associated functions. Yet the quantitative prediction of their ensemble architectures and formation kinetics remains a challenge due to technical impediments.

Dr Chen discussed the use of a nanoscopic imaging technique, known as liquid phase TEM, to directly image the self-assembly of colloidal nanoparticles in a solution, one-by-one in real-time. Depending on solvent conditions, a single type of anisotropic nanoparticles can lead to a wide variety of final structures not previously predicted including linear and cyclic ‘polymeric’ chains, hierarchical plastic crystals, and highly ordered solids. The in-situ monitoring of dynamic pathways, together with computation reveals interesting and novel phenomena in these systems, due to inherent many-body coupling and discreteness at the nanoscale. "We expect our work in this area to open new opportunities in understanding the conformation, phase behaviours and collective dynamics on the nanometre length scale that is not accessible using other means," said Dr Chen.

Dr Chen is currently visiting the UK as part of a RAEng Distinguished Visiting Fellowship to conduct research at the BP International Centre for Advanced Materials (BP-ICAM), which links the Universities of Manchester and Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on collaborative research projects, and is supported by a $100 million ten-year investment by BP. "We are delighted to be hosting Dr Chen’s RAEng Fellowship visit to the UK. Through her future research working with BP-ICAM, Dr Chen will help to tackle the fouling and separation challenges faced by the oil and gas industry," said Professor Grace Burke, Director of the Materials Performance Centre at the University. "We are looking forward to future collaborations with Dr Chen and her research group at Illinois, as we continue our on-going liquid and gaseous in-situ TEM studies at Manchester." The goal of Dr Chen’s RAEng Visiting Fellowship is to initiate long-term collaborations in understanding and engineering artificial and natural nanoparticle assemblies for the purpose of developing fresh, generalizable concepts in materials science and nanochemistry.

#DrQianChen #forgottennanoscale #royal academy of engineering

The R.U.M Group – Launch meeting

‘R at The University of Manchester’ (R.U.M) is a group open to all staff and students using the statistical, software program ‘R’.

The ‘R.U.M’ group aims to bring together ‘R’ users of all levels, with interests in diverse fields from across the University, to exchange tips, ideas and knowledge. The group will meet each month and meetings will aim to cover a range of interesting topics related to data handling, manipulation and presentation, as well as providing an open and relaxed forum for ‘R’ users across the University.

A ‘R.U.M’ launch meeting will take place on Monday 7 November at 11am in Vaughan House. This session will consist of a brief welcome and introduction, followed by two short presentations by group members. The topics for this month are using interactive plotting using the plot.ly package and teaching with ‘R’.

All are welcome to attend and total proficiency in ‘R’ is not a requirement. It is recommended, but not essential, for users to bring a laptop to the event and for attendees to install the plot.ly package prior to the meeting. Following the meeting, a 30 minute ‘R Surgery’ will take place to troubleshoot any problematic code users may wish to resolve.

To stay up to date with the latest updates about ‘R.U.M’, subscribe to the mailing list.

Date: Monday 7 November

Time: 11am

Location: Ground floor, conference room at Vaughan House

For further information and to view the schedule, click here.

#R.U.M Group #university of manchester #Vaughan House

Introduction to Business Engagement

Are you an academic, postdoc or PGR student that is interested in collaborating with industry? Have you wondered how you can make these connections and want to know what support is available to you? The FSE Business Engagement Team are running education sessions which will give you the advice and support you need.

FFSES0001 Introduction to Business Engagement

Wednesday 26th October 14:30-16:00

Sackville Street Building D35

https://app.manchester.ac.uk/ffses0001

This session will explain why and how the university connects with industry. It will talk through the different support functions available to you within the University.

FFSSES0002 How to get started in Business Engagement

Wednesday 30th November 14:00 – 15:30

Sackville Street Building D35

https://app.manchester.ac.uk/ffses0002

This session will give you tips on how to connect with industry, how to create a business-friendly profile and how to increase your chance of collaboration by understanding industry needs.

#business engagement #university of manchester

Would you like the opportunity to develop an outreach activity and engage with a local secondary school? Are you passionate about your subject area? Are you interested in taking your research into the classroom? Want to develop your outreach skills? Then this free public engagement training opportunity is for you!

Date/time: Thursday 17 November, 9:30 – 17:00. (Registration from 9:15am, ready for a prompt start at 9:30am).

Title: SUPI: Engaging with Schools. This one-day, interactive workshop for researchers explores the why, what and how of engaging with secondary schools.

Where: The University of Manchester (room TBC)

Who: Postgraduate Researchers, Postdoctoral Research Associates, Research Staff and New Academics with little or no experience of school outreach. Open to all disciplines.

Registration: https://app.manchester.ac.uk/FFSES8000

About the Training

This one-day, interactive workshop for researchers from any discipline who are interested in communicating their research to a secondary schools audience. It explores the why, what and how of engaging with secondary schools.

On this practical course you will:

Explore how engaging with schools can benefit you, your research and the schools with whom you engage.

Explore the collaborative nature of developing effective working partnerships with schools and teachers.

Consider a range of methods and approaches for presenting contemporary research and the research process to secondary school students.

Improve your familiarity with the current school environment (including curriculum, operational protocols, and positive learning environments).

Enhance a range of skills including communication, collaboration, and project management.

Generate activity ideas for bringing contemporary and inspirational research contexts into formal and informal learning to enhance and enrich the curriculum.

Develop evaluation and reflective mechanisms for assessing the impact of your activities as well as your own professional development.

And there’s additional funding and support

But we don’t just want to inspire you with great ideas. We want to help you develop those ideas into concrete plans! This course is all about developing confidence, networks, and experience in engaging with local secondary schools.

Following the one-day workshop you will look to develop your ideas for an outreach activity to pitch at the follow up Dragon’s Den event. Winning ideas will be given funds and matched-up with a secondary school. And you will be supported along the way with optional drop-in surgeries, where you can talk through the development of your ideas with experienced engaging researchers.

Take a look at the some the projects we have funded in previous years:

Social Sciences – Your car is not a coat!

Biology – Diabetes

English – Will the real me please stand up

Psychology – Learning to remember

Engineering – Wingin’ It

Applications

Book your place through the Staff Learning page here: https://app.manchester.ac.uk/FFSES8000

If you have any queries please email: [email protected]

What is the School-University Partnerships Initiative (SUPI)?

The Research Councils UK (RCUK) funded School-University Partnership Initiative (SUPI) is a scheme providing opportunities for schools and universities to bring contemporary research to life for young people.

Find out more here: www.supi.manchester.ac.uk www.rcuk.ac.uk/pe/PartnershipsInitiative/

Lord Morris of Manchester Memorial Lecture

As Co-Chairs of The University of Manchester’s Disabled Staff Network, Melanie Sharpe and Hamied Haroon are thrilled to announce the first public lecture focussing on the rights and equality of disabled people, in honour of the late Alf Morris, Lord Morris of Manchester – the world’s first Minister for Disabled People!

The inaugural Lord Morris of Manchester Memorial Lecture event will take place on Thursday 3rd November, 6.30pm-9pm, at The University of Manchester. Our special guest speaker will be Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson!

Tickets are priced at £1 each, plus an optional donation. Please join us for this hugely important and ground-breaking occasion! All welcome: colleagues, students, volunteers, community groups, friends and allies, members of the general public (adults only), etc.

Please go to https://nadsn-uk.org/LMMML2016/ for details and to book your ticket!

Please help us to advertise/publicise this event amongst your own networks and other channels. Please don’t hesitate to email Melanie or Hamied on [email protected] if you have any queries.

We are so excited to be holding this event and look forward to seeing you there!

The Faculty of Science & Engineering media report, outlines where we have appeared in the media in the last month and highlights some successful stories. All of the figures are based on our top tier outlets list, which is made up of major regional, national and international media.

#Faculty of Science & Engineering #media report #university of manchester

Closure of Brunswick Street

Bringing you the latest on the closure of Brunswick Street, a reminder about the Oxford Road bus gate and news on other works affecting the campus area

From Monday, 10 October, there will be a permanent ‘No Entry’ restriction at the junction of Brunswick Street and Oxford Road. This will prohibit all vehicles from turning into Brunswick Street from Oxford Road. However, access will be maintained for cycles. The works to implement this change will include a temporary full closure of the junction from 14 to 22 October.

Additionally, from Friday, 14 October, access to Brunswick Street from Upper Brook Street will also be closed to enable the continued development of the Schuster Building. This closure will be maintained for the duration of the Schuster Building works (at least 12 months).

Diversion routes will be put in place to enable pedestrians and cyclists to access Brunswick Street. Vehicles that require access to the frontage of buildings on Brunswick Street will be able to do so via the National Graphene Institute (NGI) off Booth Street or via the Chemistry service yard off Dover Street.

Oxford Road bus gate becomes fully operational

Remember, if you’re driving into the city, there is a permanent change to Oxford Road between Hathersage Road and Denmark Road which prioritises buses, bikes and pedestrians. The introduction of the bus gate means that general traffic must turn right at Hathersage Road between 6am and 9pm, seven days a week.

Camera enforcement is in place and from Monday, 10 October, the City Council will be issuing penalty notices to all drivers contravening the bus gate.

Here is a local access map to help you navigate the changes along Oxford Road:

NOTE: If you use Dover Street Car Park and want to head south, you are allowed to turn left onto Oxford Road past the Stopford Building despite the bus gate, but you must then turn left up Grafton Street.

Traffic congestion around Booth Street/Oxford Road junction

There is traffic congestion in the Booth Street/Oxford Street area, particularly in the morning and evening peaks, due to lane restrictions which have been introduced during the bus priority works and other developments. TfGM's Urban Traffic Control team are monitoring and actively managing the timing of the temporary signals on a daily basis. Every effort is being made to complete these works as quickly and safely as possible.

Work in other areas

Further up the corridor, work will start outside the Palace Hotel to introduce further cycle infrastructure. From Monday, 10 October, northbound lane reductions will be in place between Charles Street and Whitworth Street, and a southbound contraflow lane will be introduced from Tuesday, 18 October. Pedestrian management on the footways will be in place while the work is carried out.

Local access map

Here is a local access map to help you navigate the changes along Oxford Road:

Oxford Road: Local access routes

#brunswick street #university of manchester #Oxford Road bus

Staff benefits update – October 2016

This week’s update has restaurant, fitness and travel offers plus the last few days to enter the prize draw to win tickets for Breaking the Code at the Royal Exchange Theatre!

Food & drink

You can save 20% at leading Northern Quarter restaurants, Tusk, Rosylee, Infamous Diner and Walrus. Family friendly Frankie and Bennys also offers 20% off at a number of local locations and you can save 10% at popular Zouk Tea Bar, just off Oxford Road. Did you know that FoodInAdvance allows you to top up your staff ID card with money to spend in the 29 FoodonCampus outlets located across campus? It's the cheapest way to buy food and drink on campus as you receive a 10% discount on purchases in FoodonCampus outlets and 5% in Starbucks on Sackville Street.

Travel

SuperBreak’s October offers include Rome, Christmas markets in the UK or Europe and various packages including Christmas cruises and Disney on Ice. Hotel Exclusives provides you with 20% off a wide range of hotels plus save up to 67% off your next Autumn getaway including Edinburgh Christmas market from £28pp, Gloucester spa break from £55pp, 4* London stay from £75pp. They have also been nominated for their first British Travel Award! Cottages.com offers include October half term and Halloween short breaks from £259, Christmas and New year deals and 10% discount off all France for 2017. Hoseasons has autumn breaks from as little as £89, Oct half term Lodge breaks from £249 and boating holidays up to 20% off

Theatre

Visit the Opera House and Palace Theatre page for details of the latest offers including All or Nothing, the Mod musical on 18 & 20 Oct and Keep Dancing with (4-8th Oct). To book, please call 0161 245 6666.

Fitness

The LivingWell Health Club is based within the Deansgate Hilton and provides you with access to the public sector member rate of their gym (30% off standard rates). Nuffield Health offer discounted rates and by joining the Manchester Printworks site as your home club, for no additional cost you can enjoy multi-site access to other fitness centres. The spa and gym at The Midland has reduced membership rates for the gym plus discount on all their 55 minute spa treatments on Tuesdays plus other seasonal spa offers.

Other favourites

10% off at Blackwells on campus

Chill Factore – 25% off

Sugden Centre – off peak rates from £10.75 pm

20% off at Trevor Sorbie

15% off at Ginger Nutrition

Special rates with Bupa Eduhealth

15% off at the Gro Company

Prize draw

The play, Breaking the Code, tells the story of Alan Turing. To win one of two pairs of tickets to see this play at the Royal Exchange on Wednesday 2 November at 7.30pm please answer the question below:

Q.1 Who is the alumnus of the University of Manchester who played Alan Turing in the film The Imitation Game?

A. Benedict Cumberbatch

B. Clint Eastwood

Please email your answer to [email protected] with the subject Breaking the Code and your full contact details by midnight on the 9th October.

Have a great week. Keep up to date with all your benefits!

Science Spectacular 2016

Spectacular Science: Manchester Museum Takeover!

Free event on Saturday, 29 October 2016 (10am-4pm) at the Manchester Museum

The University of Manchester will be running its Spectacular Science event on Saturday 29th October, offering a fun-filled family day of science challenges, live experiments, and hands-on demonstrations to delight children and adults alike.

Help us create a superhero, become a cell explorer, or build a world of fungus. Investigate our universe, make a mini robot dance, explore new wonder materials, and much, much more.

At the same time, our science buskers will be lining Oxford Road dishing out dazzling displays of scientific wizardry. So bring your mum and dad, your kids, and your friends to this free event.

Sheena Cruickshank, University of Manchester’s Academic Lead for Public Engagement with Research said: “this award winning event is a treasure of delights showcasing the variety of amazing and excellent science at The University of Manchester.”

What you have said:

"The whole event was such good fun and the hands on stuff was great. We all want to be scientists now!”

“I left having really enjoyed the day. I would definitely recommend others taking part."

Manchester has a proud history of scientific discovery and by coming to the Science Spectacular you’ll be able to make some discoveries of your own!

So come on down to the Manchester Museum for some Spectacular Science!

Further information

See our 2015 Video

Engagement@Manchester

Twitter page #ScienceIsSpectacular #msf16

This event is part of the Manchester Science Festival (MSF). Part laboratory, part playground, MSF is a showcase for the most creative, surprising and hands-on science for people of all ages.

Manchester Science Festival

Twitter Page

#manchester museum #university of manchester #science spectacular

MICRA Seedcorn Funding Call 2016

Applications are invited for the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing (MICRA) seedcorn awards for 2016 for research on ageing with up to £6K available per project. We’re looking for research that is clearly ageing related and interdisciplinary; all discipline areas are encouraged to apply.

The 2016 seedcorn call is our biggest yet, with joint awards with external partners the Centre for Ageing Better, Care & Repair England, the Greater Manchester Ageing Hub, Manchester Metropolitan University and Manchester Health and Social Care Team. Awards are also on offer with the Manchester Regenerative Medicine Network (MaRM) and Dementia@Manchester network. Specific topics highlighted in the call include housing adaptions, transport, regenerative medicine, dementia and health.

The deadline for applications is 1 December 2016 with a requirement that funds are spent by 31 July 2017. Proposed activity must lead to at least one specific outcome such as a research proposal for a research council or a working paper. The commissioning panel will meet in December with the aim of communicating decisions before Christmas.

Further information: Full details of the call and examples of previously funded projects seedcorn projects

#university of manchester #micra #Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing

Technical Apprentices get on-board to help bronze medal winner train for Tokyo 2020

Caption: Andy Small, wheelchair athlete from Nantwich celebrates Rio Paralympics bronze medal

Andy Small a wheelchair athlete from Nantwich, Cheshire, picked up a bronze medal in the T33 100m race at the Rio Paralympics. Thrilled with the result Andy has already committed to Tokyo 2020 and started to progress his training plan.

FSE to manufacture training aid FSE is delighted to have the opportunity to support Andy with his training for Tokyo 2020. Our Specialist Technical Apprentices, alongside students and staff from EEE have formed a project team to manufacture a new training aid to help him prepare. The team will seek to manufacture a new chair which includes a set of rollers and updated speed display which is capable of displaying both speed and power data in real time. The new chair will mean Andy can undertake mock races away from the track.

Paul Jordan, Faculty Project Manager with special responsibility for the Specialist Technical Apprenticeship Programme said: “We are excited to form a project team to support Andy. We hope that over the coming years our training aid development programme will mean Andy can shave a few tenths of a second off his time. This is great project as not only will our apprentices, and students learn new skills, we can also support a local athlete compete on the world stage”.

Updates on the development of Andy’s training aid will be featured in future editions of Beeline.

FSE welcomes a new intake of Specialist Technical Apprentices This month FSE will also welcome a fourth intake of Specialist Technical Apprentices who will begin the four year training programme The programme consists of both academic and on the job training as well as a rotation of three month placements across all three of the University’s Faculties.

Welcome to (pictured from left to right): Leah Irlam, Aimen Fatima, Bradlee Eyres, Daniel Moore, George Printy.

Colin Baines, Faculty Technical Resource Manager and Specialist Technical Apprenticeship Lead comments: “We are pleased to welcome another five apprentices who will take up mechanical and laboratory placements. With the new intake we will have over 35 apprentices across the University taking part in highly specialised technical training”.

Colin continues: “This programme is really important for Manchester’s technical workforce as we do estimate that nine per cent of our technicians will retire every year. We must therefore continue to grow our professional network of apprentices and in turn develop a future workforce of well rounded, experienced and qualified technicians”.

#WhichWay will Manchester take you?

On Saturday we held our first undergraduate open day of the 2016/17 academic year. FSE welcomed thousands of prospective students and answered many questions on our courses, the career paths these could lead to and what Manchester University life is like.

Ken Evans, FSE Student Recruitment Manager comments: “We were delighted to have the opportunity to have so many conversations with prospective students and their parents about what it’s like to live and study at Manchester.”

“We know from market research that three-quarters of those questioned say that attending an Open Day made it likely or very likely they would apply to the Faculty, which is great tribute to all the hard work staff put in to making the day as successful as possible.”

He continues: “We have our second open day this coming Saturday where we look forward to welcoming even more prospective students and discussing their options with them.”

#WhichWay Campaign invites students from far and wide to attend One of the ways the FSE Marketing and Communications team have been inviting prospective students to attend is through the #WhichWay campaign. Prior to last Saturday’s open day the campaign has been running to raise awareness that the open days are taking place and encouraging students to register to attend.

The campaign is centred around the #WhichWay hashtag which invites prospective students to think about where their course and University choice will take them. Recent national Youthsite market research, which included the University and many of its competitor institutions (and also over 200 responses from Manchester students in its sample), suggests questions around employability are becoming even more important to applicants than Reputation, for the first time. Therefore, the WhichWay campaign emphasises outcomes in terms of career direction after graduating.

To enable FSE to reach as many prospective students as possible the campaign is running through digital and social assets including:

#WhichWay Microsite

Social media activity on Faculty Twitter, Instagram and School Twitter Facebook pages (where available)

School website banners, linking to the open day registration page

Caption: Tweets from @UoMSciEng

The #WhichWay campaign is one of the many ways we will be encouraging prospective students to find out more about studying within our Faculty.

eLearning Training Opportunities for 2016/17 Semester 1

View more details and book your place via the Training Catalogue - search “EPSELT” and click the course code you are interested in. Need something a bit more bespoke? We are also offering 1-to-1 sessions with a member of the team – to book a bespoke session please visit our eLearning Website. The FSE eLearning team will be running a range training sessions for teaching and support staff through-out semester 1.

Our small group sessions, covering topics such as setting up assignments and creating quizzes for formative assessment, are designed to give you the knowledge and skills you need to incorporate these eLearning tools and support teaching and learning.

To sign up for any of these course, please go to the Staff Training & Development’s online training catalogue and search for “EPSELT” and click the course code you are interested in.

Need something a bit more bespoke? We are also offering 1-to-1 sessions with a member of the team – to book a bespoke session please visit our eLearning Website

Thinking about Promotion this year? Come to a Master Class....

In preparation for this year's academic promotions round, and in support of the Faculty of Science & Engineering’s objectives, we are again running 'Academic Promotions Master Classes' to help potential applicants and those interested in career planning make the most of their application for promotion. The sessions provide insight and information about the promotions process and hints and tips about making an application. The sessions have been very well received by those who attended.

We are running the sessions on each of the following dates:

Thursday 20 October 2016: 10.30 am to 12.30 pm – Room B8, George Begg Building

Tuesday 25 October 2016: 10.30 am to 12.30 pm – Room C15, Maths and Social Sciences Building

To book onto a session, please email Nuala Taberner, no later than 12 noon on Thursday 13 October 2016, specifying the date on which you can attend.

If you are unable to attend either of these dates, you may be interested to view a previous year’s session on the HR intranet pages – link here

We particularly encourage applications for promotion from suitably qualified women and BME staff, who are currently under-represented through the academic grades. Final decisions about promotions will be made on merit.

You can also view more about Academic Promotions at the University of Manchester at this link https://vimeo.com/73690688

#university of manchester #academic #masterclass

Better World Showcase – Call for entries

Following the success of last year’s Faculty Better World Awards, this year we are holding a ‘Better World Showcase’ to not only recognise but also to communicate the outstanding Social Responsibility activities across the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

The aim of the Showcase is to raise awareness of the important contribution our Faculty makes to social and environmental impact and to engage people with that work, hopefully to inspire them to do something themselves, or to tell us about work that they already do.

If you feel that your research, work or fundraising Makes a Difference, or you are aware of student projects that do, please ensure that you make your Director of Social Responsibility, or Institute Director know about this. For staff in the Faculty Office, nominations will come through Rachel Brealey so please feed this information to your line manager. The deadlines for nominations is Friday 28 October and each area can nominate up to 5 people or teams.

Keep an eye out for the Showcase which will be hosted in Alan Turing Building and then the Renold Building during the exam period so that people will be able to see these great projects and find out more about them

#Better World Showcase #university of manchester

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