Departmental news

Researchers at The University of Warwick have made significant progress in the search for sustainable alternatives to conventional plastics.

WMG at the University of Warwick has been working with primary schools across Coventry to inspire children and ignite their passion for STEM through its Stitch in Time project, supported by HVM Catapult and funded by STEM Learning.

Stitch in Time is built around the freely available software Turtlestitch, and takes inspiration from Coventry’s historic textile industries.

Turtlestitch teaches computing, maths, and design and technology, with students producing code that then controls a digital embroidery machine to stitch unique patterns into fabric.

WMG’s Outreach team and STEM Learning Ambassadors worked with teachers of year 5 and year 6 children to deliver a series of lessons and challenges , to create embroidery designs by using computer programming.

A total of seven schools and 480 students participated in the project which ran from May 2024 to July 2024.

Professor Margaret Low, Director of Outreach and Widening Participation at WMG explained: “Thanks to the support of STEM Learning, we were able to deliver the Stitch in Time project again. The STEM Ambassadors, Chrissy, Jasleen, Ramona and Shabeer were key to the success of the project, working in collaboration with school teachers. The children created a fantastic range of different designs, and I’d encourage everyone to visit the display at Coventry Transport Museum to see the creativity of the children.

"The funding from STEM Learning, and STEM Ambassadors enabled us to work with these schools to deliver the project."

Each school, supported by WMG STEM Ambassadors, has now produced a beautiful and colourful display on a variety of individual themes. Alongside the display, Gauri Verma, WMG Project Officer became the “Manufacturer in Residence”, running some taster sessions for visitors to the museum in August.

The Stitch in Time exhibition will be on display at the Coventry Transport Museum until December.

Find out more about WMG’s Outreach programmes here: Outreach and Widening Participation (warwick.ac.uk)

Two-dimensional random metal networks possess unique electrical and optical properties, such as almost total optical transparency and low sheet resistance. These properties are closely related to their disordered structure. In this work, Prof. Römer and colleagues from Dresden, Germany, give a detailed experimental and theoretical investigation of these plasmonic properties, revealing Anderson (disorder-driven) localized surface plasmon resonance. This could support the development of design rules for the underlying conduction networks, e.g., in order to further optimize design transparency for envisaged future applications as transparent electrodes.

Many congratulations to Henry Sinclair-Banks for passing his PhD viva today, which was one of the shortest and best in the long memories of the examiners, Dr Richard Mayr from the University of Edinburgh, and our own Professor Ranko Lazic.

WMG students were recently recognised at the Warwick Awards for Public and Community Engagement (WAPCE) 2024 for their efforts in delivering public engagement activities over the last year.

CyberWomen@Warwick, a student-led initiative founded in collaboration with students on WMG’s Cyber Security programmes and staff at WMG’s Cyber Security Centre, received the Student Team Award at a celebration event on campus.

Through initiatives such as school outreach programmes, a national conference, and various competitions, CyberWomen@Warwick aims to inspire more women into the cyber security industry and promote inclusivity and positive change within STEM. Their hard work and dedication has resulted in considerable and long-term gains in knowledge, appreciation, attitude, interest, and participation from all involved.

Maria Motter, Vice President of CyberWomen@Warwick, said “We're incredibly honoured to have received the Warwick Award for Public and Community Engagement. This recognition is a testament to the dedication and passion of the entire CyberWomen@Warwick team. And it strengthens our commitment to continue empowering women and non-binary people in the cyber security field and inspiring the next generation of leaders.”

The WAPCE awards celebrate the vital contributions of Warwick students and staff in engaging the public with learning and discovery, strengthening the University's role in the community. Find out more about the WAPCE Awardees 2024.

Dr Elizabeth Titis, Assistant Professor and Academic Lead for CyberWomen@Warwick, said “I am extremely proud of the work our Cyber Women do to benefit the wider community. The WAPCE award is yet another accolade they have received for bringing considerable and long-term gains in the society. Looking forward to the next big steps together!"

Professor Swaran Singh is one of a group of prominent international academics who has made a significant contribution to the Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health published on 13 August 2024.

In this work, we explored how molecules (e.g., morphogens) move within biologically realistic domains. Our Singapore-based collaborators (Wohland lab) generated subcellular resolution maps of the developing zebrafish hindbrain using electron microscopy. Yi Ting Loo, a MathSys PhD student in the Saunders lab, built a simulation environment to explore how molecules would move within these maps. We accounted for tortuosity, dead-ends and receptor binding. Our results reveal how measurement techniques such as FCS and FRAP can lead to very different estimations of dynamic parameters (e.g., the diffusivity). Hopefully, this work provides a framework for properly accounting for biologically complex environments in estimating dynamics in living organisms.
Read the paper here.Link opens in a new window

Congratulations to Dr Tania Read who received an Honourable Mention in the Masao Horiba Awards 2024 for the development of boron-doped diamond electrodes.