Dr Low Siow Yong teaches MEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering at USMC.  His current research is in the area of acoustics signal processing and, like Alexander Graham Bell, he was inspired to follow this path by his grandmother.  His career has been as varied as analysing forensic audio for homicide investigations to working on technology for hearing aids. 

Dr William Chong teaches MEng Mechanical Engineering at USMC. His research focuses on the study of interfacial interactions between sliding surfaces and he has successfully secured two Ministry of Education grants within his first year working in Malaysia.   You can read the Sun article here.

One of the University’s key objectives is to provide an exceptional student experience. The feedback from the National Student Survey (NSS), a census of nearly half a million final year undergraduate students across the UK, tells us if we are achieving our goals and if not, which areas we need to focus on to improve. NSS measures form part of our University Key Performance Indicators.

Students can fill the survey in using the NSS online or via their smartphone at www.thestudentsurvey.com. The 2015 survey is live until 30 April. 

Staff – particularly academic colleagues – are encouraged to take every opportunity to promote this survey. A slide has been produced for lecturers to use at the beginning and end of their lectures to help students understand the value of filling in the questionnaire. You can download the slide here.

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With over 23,000 students, 6,000 members of staff, and seven campuses – five of which are in Southampton – ours is the largest university on the south coast.

A new report, launched this week, outlines the significant economic and social impact resulting from the University of Southampton’s activities, viewed from a local, regional and national perspective.

Conducted by leading independent economic consultancy, BiGGAR Economics, the study demonstrates how the activities of the University create benefits and impacts for both the economy and for society, underlining the University’s role as a major contributor to the local area of Southampton, the wider region and the UK.

Their report shows that in addition to our activities in education and research and purchase of goods and services, the University drives economic impact through partnership with businesses and the public sector, leading to invention and innovation in products, services, policy, strategy and health care delivery and also the creation and growth of businesses. Our leading-edge research has a tangible impact on individuals, communities and the economy, and our health research leads to advances that benefit millions of people around the world.

The report’s authors estimate that annually the University supports economic activity in:

• Southampton of more than £729 million GVA* and 11,700 jobs;
• the regional area of more than £1.0 billion GVA and over 16,300 jobs;
• the UK of more than £2.0 billion GVA and over 26,500 jobs.

The full report, which runs to 56 pages, can be viewed here. 

*GVA (Gross Value Added) measures the monetary contribution of an organisation to the economy

A groundbreaking Southampton discovery, made 40 years ago, is still impacting on fields ranging from cancer diagnostics and crime scene analysis, to drug and art forgery detection.

The technique, Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), allows scientists to detect molecules in far smaller quantities than ever before. By roughening the metal surface upon which molecules to be analysed are placed, the Southampton team found that the signal produced was increased by a million times.

Together with AstraZeneca, our researchers are now taking SERS to the next level in order to advance stem cell therapy. By inserting tiny particles of gold, less than 1000th of the width of a human hair, as ‘nanoprobes’ into cells, the team can detect abnormalities that could lead to tumour growth.

Find out more from Sumeet Mahajan, Associate Professor in Life Science Interface.

Students Callum Livingstone, George Tuckey, Oli Hampden-Martin and William Sexton have taken on the ambitious task to raise £7,000 through the crowdfunding platform, which will enable them to purchase, repair and transport a 4×4 ambulance to their intended destination.

Through participating in the project, inspired by Go Help Charity Rallies, the team will use the skills they’ve obtained throughout their Engineering degree at Southampton to experience the journey of a lifetime, while also helping the people of Mongolia to get the care they need. So far Callum, George, Oli and Will have raised over £7,300 through the numerous donations they’ve received from their families, friends and their fellow students at the University.

Additionally the Southampton University Formula Student Team (SUFST) is well on their way to reaching their goal of raising £500 to help design and build their very own race car. The car will allow them to compete in the IMechE Formula Student UK competition in Silverstone this July.

The funds they raise will also go towards helping the 100 students involved with the competition. Last year the students attended the competition for the first time, giving each student involved with the project an enhanced student experience beyond just their education. Seeing the team compete for a second time is a testament to their dedication and enthusiasm for the project and its success.

More about crowdfunding

Crowdfunding works through securing financial support from a crowd of many donors, each making an individual and relatively small donation, to support a specific project or idea. In return, supporters are given rewards, of little or no value, that uniquely offer a way for the project to thank their supporters for their contributions. Crowdfunding works best when you have a crowd of a sizeable amount who are not only willing to contribute towards a project, but who are also willing to push the project out to their own networks, soliciting even more support for a project. This is why online crowdfunding platforms have recently gained in popularity.

You can read more about these projects and get involved with their success by visiting the University’s crowdfunding platform. To find out more about putting up your own project on the platform email crowdfunding@southampton.ac.uk.

What has been the impact of the REF results on the University in general? 

The REF results are a major morale boost for the University community. Inevitably as the crucial day approached in December it was a bit like waiting for exam results. Despite your very best efforts, you can never really tell how well you have done.

Those two crucial results’ days confirmed that Southampton performed extremely well, with our leading subjects enhancing their national positions. We have much to celebrate. The University is 11^th in the UK (up three places from 2008) in the important Power Rankings (which determine the funding we get). Plus we are 8^th in the new Research Intensity ranking that reflects our quality related to the percentage of eligible staff whose research was submitted (for Southampton, a 90% submission).

The results confirm that we have strength in depth across the University. We have the best Music Department, the leading Health Sciences activity, and the most powerful General Engineering, and Electronic and Electrical Engineering. We are in the top 5 for Ocean and Earth Sciences, History, Modern Languages and Social Policy.  84% of our research outputs, 97% of our research environments and 90% of our research impact were assessed as world-leading and internationally excellent.

What will change as a result of the results in some of the areas that did well.

The REF outcomes not only drive the amount of QR (Quality Related) funding that we receive (currently £45M per year based on the last Research Assessment Exercise),  but are a major boost to reputation. Like it or not, the REF has become central to academic lives. Where you work as an individual and how good your department is, as judged by REF, will impact on the winning of future research funding, perceived standing in the field, and so potentially impact on future career prospects. As a research intensive university, how we perform impacts our League Table rankings, and our ability to attract world-leading researchers and, of course, students.

We will not know how much QR we will receive from 2015/16 onwards until later in the spring. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) are currently modelling the REF results against the money available. Amongst their considerations are questions about funding for different disciplines, not least in the medical and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) areas.

The recent grant letter from the government to HEFCE confirms that it should seek to fund excellence ‘wherever it is found’ and suggests that the ratio of funding for 4* (world-leading) and 3* (internationally-excellent) research might remain about the same. However, as there is more 4* and 3* research across the sector and no more money to be allocated we are cautiously assuming that at best Southampton’s allocation will be ‘flat cash’.

When will the next REF take place?

The current understanding is that the next REF is likely to require institutions to make submissions in November 2019 with the results known in 2020. So, just over 4 years away possibly. Everyone who contributed to the submissions in 2013 will know that this is not long to prepare. We have already commenced work to put us in a good position to start the preparations, including procuring a new Research Management Information System.

HEFCE is undertaking much work to help inform a future REF, including gathering experience and views from institutions and from those who sat on the Assessment Panels; and completing work to assess whether, and how, metrics might play a greater role in the future. We hope to get greater clarity on the shape of the future REF later in 2015.

We are coming up to a general election, if the political landscape should change, will this make any difference to REF?

I am sure that the outcome of the General Election, regardless of the composition of the next government, will have a wide range of impacts on universities.  The Comprehensive Spending Review that will follow will of course be impacted by the strength of the economy and likely further government spending cuts. How higher education will fare is not clear, although the Science and Innovation Strategy published in December makes strong and long-term commitments to maintaining Britain’s world-leading science position, including to the dual-support system and to infrastructure investment.

What is clear is that the REF, as the biggest research assessment exercise in the world, is a major means of demonstrating the international competitiveness of UK research. Data confirm that the UK has increased its world-leading and internationally-excellent research activity over the period covered by REF2014.

The inclusion of Research Impact in REF2014 is an important tool for government to understand the social, economic and environmental outcomes of university research and hence of the value of public spending.  The case studies that have been generated are already being analysed widely. I am sure that Impact is here to stay!

One of the University campaigns is Connectivity.  How does the REF link in with this? 

The University’s campaign around Connectivity links perfectly to our research impact. Our research collaborations and partnerships with other institutions and with industry and government agencies underpin a significant proportion of our research funding and our PhD studentships. The impact of our research on clinical outcomes and health service performance, technology development, industrial innovation, policy implementation, and the arts and cultural life of the UK are all examples of how our research connects with the wider world. Southampton’s ‘we are connected’ stories draw heavily upon our world-leading research. Being connected is vital to maintaining our leading research and enterprise standing.

The aim of the ‘Successful External Engagement’ lunches is to support and encourage researchers who are looking for opportunities to take their expertise beyond the academic community.  The lunches programme will provide a window on to various different spheres of external activity and the range of institutional support available.

You can find more detailed information about this year’s programme and the topics covered here.

The usual format is an opportunity for networking, followed by a presentation and discussion and then further networking if time permits.  The sessions are intended to be interactive and attendees are encouraged to participate and ask questions/share their experiences with the group.  The target audience is Early Career Researchers (postdocs) and Postgraduate Researchers, but staff are also welcome to come along.

The lunches take place approximately once a month from 13:00-14:00 in the Hartley Suite.

The programme is run by Research and Innovation Services (RIS) in collaboration with the Institute for Learning Innovation and Development (ILIaD) Professional Development Team.

To book a place please go to:

For PGR  registration – www.gradbook.soton.ac.uk

For Staff registration – www.staffbook.soton.ac.uk

The dates:

13 Feb 13:00 – 14:00 Successful External Engagement: Interdisciplinary Research and the USRGs. Jackie Milne Collaboration Manager Interdisciplinary Research

10 March 13:00 – 14:00 Successful External Engagement: The ICURe Programme. The ICURe Innovation-to-Commercialisation programme, piloted by the SETsquared Partnership and funded by InnovateUK and HEFCE, offers university researchers with commercially-promising ideas up to £50k to ‘get out of the lab’ and validate their ideas in the marketplace. Alan Scrase, Business Acceleration Centre Manager

19 March 13:00 – 14:00 Successful External Engagement: Secondments into Industry:  Opportunities and challenges;  a former secondee shares their experiences.

30 April 13:00 – 14:00 Successful External Engagement: Working with Aerospace:  Taking your research to new horizons. Ben Jones, Aerospace Collaboration Manager and Roger Gardner

19 May 13:00 – 14:00  Successful External Engagement: Health and Pharma: Working with the health and pharma industry. Brigitte Lavoie Collaboration Manager Health and Pharma

28 May 13:00 – 14:00 Successful External Engagement: Social Enterprise: Ever had a business idea (or would like one)? This seminar will provide you with an introduction to social entrepreneurship and why it’s good for you. Pathik Pathak Director, University Social Enterprise Network

2 June 13:00 – 14:00 Successful External Engagement: Intellectual Property in the Real World: Is your Research Protected?  An Introduction to Intellectual Property. Laura Keene IP Manager

Open data experts at the University of Southampton have cooked up a recipe for success in solving a key problem for the institution’s catering service.

EU legislation introduced last December now requires food businesses to provide allergy information on food sold unpackaged including meals served across the many catering outlets like those provided by Southampton’s University Catering Service. The Service has previously provided very broad information about the ingredients in meals by posting a spreadsheet on the wall in food outlets and making details available at cash tills. This information listed whether meals were suitable for vegan or vegetarian diets, contained alcohol or nuts and dairy free.

But Dr Ash Smith, the member of the University’s iSolutions team responsible for Southampton’s linked open data, has found a way of turning a more detailed spreadsheet listing specific allergens into an online menu automatically each day. The result is a new daily menu which provides students, staff and visitors of the University an easy to use and accessible menu online and ‘at source’ in more than a dozen food outlets which features all ingredients and potential allergens.

“I always worry that in a lot of organisations publishing Open Data could be seen as a chore by many members of staff, particularly as doing so has very few tangible benefits,” said Dr Smith. “Thankfully, the University Catering Service saw the potential of Open Data, and together we’ve created a mutually beneficial relationship in which we get access to information that we can publish, and in return Catering have a useful and innovative system that not only makes their jobs easier, but allows them to offer a better service to their customers.”

For James Leeming, the University’s Retail Catering Manager, the new system solves both an operational and legislative headache. It also ensures that the Southampton catering service remains a step ahead of other institutions in the way that open data is used to provide a better service for the thousands of customers served each day at the University across four campus sites in two cities.

“We’ve already been working with our open data colleagues over the last two years to capture and provide a great deal of information about our catering service including our opening hours, the cost and availability of various items and the menus but not the ingredients,” said Leeming. “Using open data to capture and reflect information about potential allergens in the food we serve also creates greater transparency between the Service and our customers and presents a logical refinement in helping to improve our processes.”

“It also means that our chefs, who display incredible individual flair in preparing meals each day, don’t need to have a PhD in computer science to put together and publish their menus,” Leeming continued.

The Southampton University Catering Service open data-sourced menus are available online and updated daily at http://catering.southampton.ac.uk/retail.

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