Wednesday 28 February 2018

Student Newsletter Issue 63

Saturday Series: Our Mortal Remains (Sat 10 Mar)

Anatomical dissection has been the cornerstone of medical education for many years and the generosity of body donors continues to change the face of modern medicine.

Hear from a female panel of professionals who will discuss the importance of body donation, the impact it has had within anatomy and how it has influenced their careers. 

Chaired by Pennie Latin.

Book tickets.

See the full Saturday Series programme.

Public engagement funding opportunity

The next round of the Life Science Public Engagement Seed Fund is open. The aim is to provide funding to competitive researcher-driven projects to develop novel public engagement ideas that foster cross-disciplinary activity with artists, animators, writers and scientists within the Wellcome Trust remit.

Details of the application process and forms are online.  

Submissions will be reviewed by a cross-University panel with representation from research students, scientists and academics. The deadline is Saturday 31 March 2018.

Please email questions to SLS-PublicEngagement@dundee.ac.uk.

Microsoft slowness issue update

Following a lengthy investigation and testing period, we now have a workaround fix for the Microsoft slowness issues. A test group of over 100 staff has proven this to be effective. Although we're confident that most issues are now resolved, should you still be affected by this, please contact IT using Help4U.

Researcher's aerial photos reveal alpine climate change

New photographs taken by DJCAD researcher, Kieran Baxter have revealed a huge reduction of glacier ice in the Alps, putting into stark focus the effect of climate change in the region.

Kieran took the photos in mid-air from the exact elevation that 20th century balloonist Eduard Spelterini took his famous alpine photographs in 1909. Using modern photogrammetry techniques, Kieran was able to precisely pin-point the exact position he needed to be to replicate Spelterini’s images.

Read the full story and watch the video.

Help train our students and get free dental care

People who are not registered with an NHS dentist can gain access to free dental care at Dundee Dental Hospital provided by students from the School of Dentistry.

Providing routine dental care is a vital part of training for student dentists and dental hygienists. It is important that each one of them gains the necessary experience of routine dentistry in adults and children before they can qualify and practice independently. Students are always supervised by a qualified dentist or dental therapist.

“We are making our services more accessible as we would like patients who are not registered with a dentist to come in for relatively routine dental care which can be provided by our students,” said Colin Levey, Clinical Lecturer in the School of Dentistry.

For more information see https://dentistry.dundee.ac.uk/dundee-dental-hospital.

Venture 2018 - winners of £26k funding announced

Nine members of the University community won £26,000 of funding for their business ideas as a result of the Venture 2018 competition.

As part of Entrepreneurship Week, the winners were announced last Friday. They were:

Undergraduate Student Award Early Stage Idea
Kayleigh MacKinnon (Freedom Street Project) £2,500
Business School Award
Xiaoxiao Zhang (Jing Yu) £1,500
Kieran McIntosh (Kabungo) £1,000
Undergraduate Student Award
Grace Mostyn (Kruh) £2,500
Postgraduate Student Award
Louise Grace (ASD Assist) £3,000
Sara Nevay (Textile Tech Scotland) £2,000
Recent Graduate Award
Jack Hinton (Ox Pak Ltd) £2,500
Staff Award (Non-Research)
Dr Andrew Cook (Laughing Stock) £5,000
Staff Award (Research)
Dr Andrew Woodland (In4Derm) £6,000

Find out more about the Centre of Entrepreneurship.

10th anniversary of the Early Dispute Resolution service

The Early Dispute Resolution (EDR) service is celebrating its 10th Anniversary in 2018 and has expanded its team of trained mediators to 12.

To find out more about the team and how it helps staff and students anticipate, prevent and resolve disputes go to www.dundee.ac.uk/edr.

Volunteering and Work Experience Fair (Thu 8 Mar)

The fair will allow you to meet a range of organisations offering local volunteering opportunities and summer work in the UK and abroad. For a list of organisations attending, visit the website or sign up here. 

Have you got coursework you're proud of?

Last year we had two winners and eight “highly commended” entrants in the international Undergraduate Awards. Will it be you this year?

If you (or someone you know) graduated in 2017, or will graduate in 2018 or 2019 with an undergraduate degree, then consider entering your best piece of work in one of over 25 categories. Register now – enter later.

Read about our successful students and graduates.

Check the list of categories and requirements for this year.

Accommodation photo competition

We’re looking for authentic photos of our halls to use for promotional purposes (such as the prospectus, etc), rather than the very staged ones we currently have (no offence to our two student models!).

We want to see your home from home - we're offering one £25 Amazon voucher for the “best photo of your room” and one £25 Amazon voucher for the “best photo of your kitchen”.

How to enter:

• send your photo(s) by email to photocompetition@dundee.ac.uk
• include your name, and which halls you are in
• deadline 9am Monday 26 March.

Rules:

• only students in University of Dundee halls 2017-18 can enter
• you must have copyright of the photo
• only include people in the photo with their permission
• judging panel decision is final
• you give the University of Dundee permission to use your photo for publicity and marketing purposes.

The winners will be announced on Tuesday 3 April.

Potential environmental, social and economic impacts of a citywide Dundee heating system

Louise Hyde is a final year MA (Hons) Environmental Sustainability and Geography student and is researching her dissertation, which is about the potential environmental, social and economic impacts of a citywide district heating system in Dundee.

If you are over 18, live in Dundee and have 5-10 minutes to spare, please complete the anonymous survey online. 

Attitudes to health and body image

A 4th-year marketing research group is looking for assistance with their project on 'Attitudes to Health and Body Image'. They are offering the chance to win two £50 Amazon vouchers as a prize for those who complete the survey.

Your expectations and opinions of DUSA

A 4th-year marketing group want to know about your expectations and opinions of DUSA, so they can make DUSA even better!

They'd like to know about: 

• your awareness and satisfaction of DUSA campaigns and events
• if DUSA shops and cafés are providing for your dietary requirements
• which DUSA services are most important to you
• what you want for the future of DUSA.

By completing this survey you will be entered into a competition to win one of two £50 Amazon vouchers.

Psychology surveys - maths and language

Maths anxiety study

Donna Guilmartin is looking for participants in her final psychology research project which is on maths anxiety.  Complete the survey online.

Language and decision-making study

Stefanie Ertzinger is recruiting particpants for her dissertation. She needs help from native speakers of German who have no known language or memory problems. The study will be conducted at the University in the form of a short (45 minutes) experimental session involving different computerised tasks in English or German. Detailed instructions will be given at the start of the experiment. Sign up or find out more by emailing s.ertzinger@dundee.ac.uk.

Promoting the University in Malaysia

A staff team visited Malaysia this month to promote our offerings within the STEM and art and design subject areas. as part of our mission to take Dundee to the world.

Read the blog.

Our new prospectus launched on Monday

The new prospectus launched on Monday so we took to social media to share Dundee with the world. Check the Facebook video to see more.

If you wish to communicate around the University, this fortnightly newsletter is just one way to do that. Please check our Methods of Internal Communication webpage, and feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

The next newsletter will be distributed on Wednesday 14 March - the deadline for information to be included is 4pm on Friday 9 March.