Departmental news

WMG students put diversity and inclusion in the spotlight at The CyberWomen Conference 2023 last month. With over 200 industry professionals, academics, and students coming together to learn, network, and collaborate, the second annual conference was a resounding success.

This year the Conference was jointly organised by two branches of CyberWomen Groups Community Interest Company (CIC), CyberWomen@Warwick and CyberWomen@Coventry. CyberWomen@Warwick is a student-led initiative, founded by staff at WMG’s Cyber Security Centre in collaboration with students on WMG’s Cyber Security undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The initiative aims to inspire more women into the cyber security industry and promote inclusivity and positive change within STEM.

The Conference welcomed cyber security experts from across the UK, including Chani Simms, Illyana Mullins, Vanessa Eyles, Janette Bonar Law, and Matt Treadwell, who shared insights and facilitated interactive workshops, providing attendees with a chance to delve deeper into the cyber security industry.

Alongside inspiring talks, the Conference also offered an Opportunities Hub to connect non-profit organisations with students and industry professionals, showcasing the diverse opportunities within the cyber security sector.

Elise Ghent, BSc Cyber Security student and President of CyberWomen@Warwick, said: “It was an amazing day, a really great turnout, and hopefully more eyes on why diversity in cyber security is important. A big thank you to everyone that attended, as well as the support that we have had along the way from so many different people.”

To keep the audience on their toes, prizes (sponsored by cyber security training platform, TryHackMe) were up for grabs through several social media competitions.

Building on the achievements of the inaugural CyberWomen@Warwick Conference, the 2023 event represents another step forward in promoting diversity, knowledge, and collaboration within the cyber security community.

Dr Elizabeth Titis, Assistant Professor and Academic Lead for CyberWomen@Warwick, said “I am extremely proud of CyberWomen@Warwick. I have been involved in this fantastic initiative from the outset and have seen it grow exponentially. This event is evidence that with appropriate support our girls can do absolutely remarkable things!

"Congratulations to all the students and staff involved who together worked on CyberWomen@Warwick to address the gender gap in cyber security by creating long lasting career choices for women."

Find out more about the CyberWomen Groups CIC.

The dramatic global impact of the coronavirus pandemic has increased consideration on epidemiological progressions of pandemics. Measures implemented to reduce viral transmission have been largely historical, comparable in nature with the 1918 and 2009 influenza pandemics, demonstrating the importance of clinicians’ awareness on historical pandemics.

Read the paper here.

The Christmas Lectures are back this year and audiences can challenge AI to write a Christmas card, discover how animals inspired engineering, explore the colour spectrum, be surprised by snow and wish Sir Isaac Newton a Happy Birthday!

The lectures are based at Warwick Arts Centre and take place on Thursday 30 November and Thursday 7 December. Get your tickets.Link opens in a new window

Congratulations to Assistant Professor in Technology Management and Systems Engineering, Dr Devon Allcoat; and Head of eLearning, Chris Evans at WMG at the University of Warwick, who have co-authored a new text book entitled ‘Meaningful Game Design.’

Routledge, publisher of professional and academic books, approached Dr Allcoat and Mr Evans after hearing about specific modules that form part of WMG’s e-Business Management and Games Engineering full-time Master’s programmes, and the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning's (IATL) undergraduate offerings.

The book provides readers with the tools and methods with which to create effective tabletop games. It covers the design and development process guiding readers through the necessary mechanics, messages, and motivations of games that must be understood in order to build successful tabletop games, including educational games for teaching or training.

It includes chapters on design methodology, narrative, accessibility and playtesting, and aims to support students on game design courses, as well as appealing to designers, teachers and hobbyists.

Dr Allcoat explains: “This book teaches core principals of game design, applicable to all types of games. In our increasingly digital age, it discusses hybrid games and digital elements, but doesn’t forget the human component, also exploring psychology and accessibility.”

Meaningful Game Design is widely available online and in book shops. A 20% discount code EFL03 is available if purchased directly via www.routledge.com. This code expires on 31 December 2023.

Dr Charlotte Woodhead takes a unique and exciting approach to examining how law and non-law instruments look after cultural heritage in the UK in her new book, 'Caring for Cultural Heritage'.

The Humboldt Research Award is given to outstanding researchers whose discoveries and insights have had a significant impact

Jianfeng Feng, a Professor of Computer Science at Warwick University, has been selected to receive a Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

The award is granted to fewer than 100 researchers each year across all disciplines. It recognizes academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights, across their careers, have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future. Winners receive a prize of 60,000 Euros and are invited to carry out research projects of their own choice, in cooperation with specialist colleagues in Germany, in the hopes of promoting international cooperation.

Professor Feng has spent much of his career working on developing new mathematical, statistical and computational theories and methods to meet the challenges raised in neuroscience and mental health research. He has made considerable contributions to the modelling of single neurons and neuronal networks, brain-inspired machine learning algorithms, stochastic control and causality analysis. He has many publications in journals that include Nature Medicine, Nature Human Behaviour, Nature Aging, and Nature Mental Health. His recent research interests are mainly in exploring the human brain, based upon data and experiments, carrying out simulations of the entire human brain (86 billion neurons), monkey and zebrafish brains, and developing brain-inspired AI algorithms for applications in automatic cars and medicine.

Jianfeng Feng was awarded the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2011, as a scientist “being of great achievement or potential”. He was also invited to deliver the 2019 Paykel Lecture at Cambridge University.

Times Higher Education covers Warwick’s spin-out company, MedheranLink opens in a new windowt, and Prof Dave Haddleton's aim to launch a testosterone patch for menopausal women.

Professor of Visualisation, Alan Chalmers, an expert in flavour simulation at WMG at the University of Warwick, discusses the most famous creations of Willy Wonka ahead of the film premiere this December.

“While we may not have discovered the source of snozzberries, our research invites everyone to wonder about the extraordinary possibilities within the science of flavours” – Professor Chalmers.

Professor Chalmers is the creator of an exciting new flavour experience in a virtual way, with the opportunity to taste almost anything in a sip. The process takes samples of food for analysis, to accurately simulate a real flavour by extracting its tastes, aromas, and mouthfeel. His research has placed him as Warwick’s Willy Wonka.

“We can take a person on a journey through the vast flavour space from the start flavour to a variant that they enjoy”.

Three-course meal bubble-gum:
“Flavour is just the sensation of the taste, aroma and mouthfeel of food or drink in your mouth. If you take the real food or drink and analyse them to extract these components – then they can simply be authentically simulated with UK Food Standards Agency food-safe chemicals.

“So, you take a fork full of roast turkey, gravy, Brussel sprouts and a bit of roast potato … and analyse it with specialist devices to extract exactly what the taste, aroma and mouthfeel components are for this food ensemble. Once you have this “recipe” you simply recreate this exact flavour with the food-safe chemicals – with a specific food-safe chemical for each component, for example, sucrose is used to simulate the sweetness component.

The correct combinations of these chemicals can then be embedded in chewing gum … and voila – as you bite down on the chewing gum – you will experience the same flavour – as if you just had eaten the real roast turkey, gravy, Brussel sprouts and roast potato.”

Lick-able Wallpaper:
“This would be quite straightforward to do. You simply need to embed the food-safe chemicals for each of the components of the desired flavour into the wallpaper – and as it is licked – so the flavour will be perceived.”

The Everlasting-gobstopper:
“I could imagine a ball of eg hard plastic which is impregnated with a sweet flavour. The sweet won’t get smaller - but at some point the sweet flavour will have to be replenished. This will depend how often the gobstopper is sucked and how hard! I could imagine the centre of the plastic ball contains the liquid and this is drawn out as the person sucks. The liquid could be replaced when required.

“Not sure it is a sweet I would want – I think I will stick to chocolate!”

ENDS

Notes to editors
For further information please contact
Bron Mills
bron.mills@warwick.ac.uk
07824540720

The technology was not originally created with inspiration from the infamous chocolatier. The theory behind the invention is that changes in a person's taste and smell senses could be an early indication of Alzheimer’s before signs of memory loss arise. The easy-to-use low-cost dispenser could be used by a nurse as part of an annual health check, in pharmacies, care homes, community centres and even in the home. Researchers hope to achieve UK-wide screening services where members of the public can take a simple smell and taste test. Those who perform poorly can then be referred for further tests which could result in an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Professor Chalmers said: “At the moment, people who present with symptoms of memory loss are referred for MRI scans and spinal fluid tests to confirm a diagnosis. By the time memory loss occurs, things are often too late; pioneering drug treatments only perform well in the early stages of degeneration.

The Department of History seeks to appoint an Assistant Professor in Modern History on a full-time and indefinite basis from 1 September 2024.

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of one of the largest History departments in the UK with a thriving community of teachers and researchers covering a range of disciplines and geographical areas.

The advert and job description for the post can be found via the Human Resources webpage. For informal enquiries, please contact Professor Tim Lockley (Head of Department) at t.j.lockley@warwick.ac.uk.

The closing date for applications is 14 January 2024.

Dr Peng Wang (Microscopy group) has been named as a Highly Cited Researcher in the Clarivate's 2023 list.Link opens in a new window The researchers are those whose publications are most often cited in academic journals that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year.