Departmental news

As the UK reels from recent fruit and vegetable shortages, scientists are advising how to increase homegrown produce – benefitting the economy and the environment.

Press release (9 March 2023)

Once again, we proudly report on the publication of 14 student papers on the Warwick Monash Economics Student Papers (WM-ESP) portal which contains some of the most exciting undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations of Economics students from Warwick and Monash.

This is the fourth round of student papers published on the WM-ESP portal, launched in September 2021, showcasing now 56 dissertations which have been carefully selected based on their academic quality and originality. They cover a wide range of topics from all areas of economics, and focusing on some of the most pressing global issues that young economists are trying to understand and solve: inequality, poverty, the pandemic, climate emergency, obesity and healthcare, and many others.

We congratulate all the students selected and wish them every success in their future careers.

Below we feature six Warwick MSc graduates and their research papers:

STEM for Britain is a major scientific poster competition and exhibition with an aim to give members of both Houses of Parliament an insight into the outstanding research work being undertaken in UK universities by early career researchers and was held at the House of Commons on Monday 6th March, 2023. Dr Lauren DoyleLink opens in a new window was selected as a finalist within the Physics category, to represent her research on stellar flares from solar-type and low mass stars where she found these events don’t correlate with starspots like they do on the Sun. Overall, this suggests other stars have much more complex surfaces compared to the Sun which posses questions when thinking about the habitability of other planets. The event was attended by people from across the UK with representation from many institutions and organisations including The Institute of Physics and Warwick. During the event, Lauren got the opportunity to chat to lots of researchers across Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry about their research, with lots of interest from the judges about her own research. Although Lauren didn't place in the competition she told us:

"Despite this, I am really glad I went as it was an amazing experience where I was one of 20 finalists selected to represent Physics research in the UK. I was extremely proud to represent the Physics department at Warwick University and hope that others from the department will apply to attend next year."

Congratulations to Lauren for representing the department and her research at the event.

Find out more about STEM for Britain.Link opens in a new window

Territorial Bodies: World Culture in Crisis 2023 - Report

We would like to thank the Humanities Research Centre at University of Warwick for generously funding Territorial Bodies: World Culture in crisis 2023, a one-day interdisciplinary conference which took place at university of Warwick on 25^th February 2023.

Territorial Bodies

Territorial Bodies: World Culture in Crisis 2023 was based around the notion of ‘territorial bodies’, a concept which drew inspiration from the Latin American feminist transnational concept of ‘body-territory’, which has been used as a ‘strategic’ tool to engender new forms of global solidarity, linking multi-form violence at various scales (Gago, 2020: 95). By bringing together interdisciplinary research, we hoped to critically evaluate the terms “body-territory” as a lens through which to critique overlapping forms of violence in an era of socio-ecological crisis. In particular, we invited critical discussion surrounding the extent to which the ‘territorial body’ offers an analytical tool for addressing urgent social, ecological, and political challenges, from ecological breakdown to the rise of statelessness, to violence against women and racial exploitation.

The conference brought together 55 delegates from across the world, synthesising diverse research from various disciplines such as geography, sociology, history, visual arts, comparative literature, politics and international relations. The conference programme encompassed wide-ranging perspectives on the concept of ‘territorial bodies’, from the extractive plunder and dispossession of land, to the violation of gendered bodies, to the exploitation of racialised bodies and uneven flows of migration.

The conference included two keynote addresses from field-defining interdisciplinary scholars, Dr. Lauren Wilcox and Prof. Kathryn Yusoff. Dr. Lauren Wilcox’s keynote entitled “On the map, the territory, and the body” unpacked the “entanglements of ‘the map,’ ‘the territory’ and ‘the body’ in modern international and political thought in order to provide an understanding of their co-constitution”. Prof. Kathryn Yusoff’s address entitled “Geologic Bodies, Planetary States”, argued that Geologic Life substantiates a key “analytic for geography that positions inhuman forces in political terms as preceding biopolitical concepts of life and understanding changes of state as a political domain”.

The day also included eight panel discussions on themes including Embodied Extractivism; Aquatic Bodies; Gender; Body, Space; Mining Bodies; Travelling Bodies; Bodies and Accumulation; Reimagining Territories and Travelling Bodies. The papers presented in these panels concerned varied research interests and geographies, from, “The Science of Mining in the Himalayan Rivers” (Saumya Pandey), to “The Case of Sperm Smuggling in the Occupied West Bank” (Gala Rexer), to “Aquatic territorial bodies as submerged sites of ecological (re)existence and peace” (Beatriz Arnal Calvo), and so many more. Each of the papers presented brought new perspectives to bear on the notion of “territorial bodies” as a framework for deciphering crisis in the twenty-first century.

Outcomes

Our hope is that the conference will lead to an edited collection via the Warwick Series in the Humanities, Routledge. We have already released a call for papers for this collection. The edited collection is tentatively entitled Territorial Bodies: World Culture in Crisis.

We were also fortunate enough to receive additional support from The Centre for Women and Gender; BCLA and GRP (connecting cultures). This funding allowed us not only to deliver the conference but also to provide travel bursaries and fee reimbursement for our speakers.

The EV-elocity project, involving engineers and researchers from WMG at the University of Warwick, has won a Collaborate to Innovate Award, from The Engineer magazine, in the Energy & Environment category.

The Awards celebrate the very best engineering collaborations and innovations across the UK.

EV-elocity is a research and development project looking at increasing the uptake of electric vehicles by helping consumers to monetise their investment using vehicle-to-grid (V2G) innovation.

With vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, electric vehicle (EV) batteries could store electricity - when there is an abundant supply - to power homes and businesses and to discharge it back to the national grid when it is most needed.

Researchers at WMG developed a new model that quantified the degradation in the vehicle’s battery because of different EV charging strategies. The model highlighted that it was possible to manage the battery to mitigate much of the degradation and it was possible to even extend battery life through proper control and battery conditioning.

This enables better use of renewable energy, lower carbon footprint, less pressure on the grid and financial savings, which can help electric vehicle owners pay back their investment.

The EV-elocity project has deployed V2G chargers in a range of locations across England as part of large-scale trials to gain technical, customer and commercial insights on the emerging technology. It is also investigating if, and how, additional use from V2G charging may affect EV battery life.

Professor of Systems Modelling, James Marco, explains: “One of the unique aspects of EV-elocity, was the integration of EV technology with future energy infrastructure, such as vehicle-to-grid, to demonstrate at scale how novel methods of EV charging can provide multiple benefits for both the consumer and the environment.”

The project, led by Cenex, a not-for-profit consultancy specialising in delivery of low carbon vehicles and energy infrastructure projects also involves the Universities of Nottingham and Warwick; Leeds and Nottingham City Councils; and CrowdCharge, a platform that integrates and optimises smart electric vehicle charges.

EV-elocity is funded by the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV), in partnership with Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation.

Read more about the award-wining EV-elocity project here: EV-elocity Project | vehicle-to-grid (V2G) innovation with electric vehicles

In the next feature in our series focusing on our undergraduate entrepreneurs, we meet the team behind Butterfly, a new app taking flight on campus.

Alex Reid, Zain Mobarik and Josh Okusi (pictured above, left to right) are a team with an ambitious vision – they plan to “put the social back into social media” with their app, Butterfly.

Second year Economics student Alex and his friends were workshopping ideas for a new sorting algorithm Josh had developed. They realised that they had a bigger vision than simply ranking undergraduates according to their popularity – why not make an app that would help to bring digital friendships off the screen and into the real world?

Alex explains: “We all felt that social media has lost its way – far from being social, these days it is about passive scrolling and the consumption of entertainment, often far removed from our own day to day lives.

“We decided to create a social media app that is grounded in our community, with all the content shared on the app being relevant to the real lives of its users – and which puts the focus on enabling friendships in the real world.”

Butterfly is only available to users with a Warwick student email, which keeps the content grounded in the realities of campus life. As well as creating their profile pages – the Butterfly ‘Flashcard,’ – and posting thoughts and confessions, users can chat with their course-mates or explore societies and campus events before deciding to attend, taking a bit of the anxiety out of trying something new.

Regular giveaways and prizes keep the community engaged, and there are perks for registered users such as discounts. Alex says “We now have over 60 discounts at partner stores, exclusive to Butterfly users. Our partners now include Kasbah, Tenpin, Phat Buns, Royal Pug, and Boom Battle Bar Coventry.”

“We also have a fantastic partnership with Benugo,” Alex added. “Butterfly users can get 10 per cent off anything on the menu and we ran a competition last year where the app’s most enthusiastic users won a free meal with a plus one. That really captured our ethos of supporting students to grow their real-life friendships.”

Commenting on the app, first year student Sofia said: “Butterfly has completely changed my university experience at Warwick. It has built my confidence and encouraged me to go to loads of events.”

Since its launch in September last year Butterfly has been downloaded 3,000 times. Its creators have won Warwick’s Student Enterprise Competition and been accepted onto Google’s Startups for Cloud Programme.

The app is available in the App StoreLink opens in a new window and Google PlayLink opens in a new window .

Professor Robin Allaby gives his perspective in Science, on the evolutionary events that led to grape domestication. The article made the front cover.
Read the paper (3 March 2023)

Ruth Ntumba (BA History, 2021) has spent her first 18 months since graduating helping drive engagement and culture at one of the world’s leading media corporations, Warner Brothers Discovery. Ruth shares why you should go at your own pace and trust your gut instinct when searching for your next role.

Read this interesting piece hereLink opens in a new window