Tag: Cohort 2

Cohort 2 student Immi speaks at the European Digital Medicine Conference in Luxembourg

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Cohort 2 student Immi Biswas had this to say about her experience:

‘I was a speaker, and I presented my PhD project which is a part of NHS run clinical trial Rested Study investigating remote sleep monitoring in patients with Neurodegenerative diseases.

It helped me to put some of my initial research findings to the research community to make people more aware of the importance of understanding user experiences to better plan clinical trials in the future. This activity is having a positive impact on the study design and enabling me to gather richer data.’

Cohort 2 student Neshika attends the MARSS Conference in Toronto

Posted on by emily.barraclough

Neshika Wijewardhane had this to say about her experience:

The conference was 4 days long with over 200 participants at the University of Toronto. Participants included micro and nano robotistic, clinicians, engineers, and physicists, across all research careers, masters, and PhD students, to professors and industry partners. Each day started and ended with 3 plenary talks from leaders in the field with a series of parallel talks in the middle from the authors of the submitted papers. The general themes of the talks included swarm robotics, medical applications for micro-robots, automation and characterisation, and control by optical, thermal, and mechanical stimuli. I presented my paper entitled ‘Long-term Imaging and Spatio-temporal Control of Living Cells Using Light’ at a special session on ‘Optical Based Automated Micro-Manipulation’ about our robotic device ‘Dynamic Optical MicroEnviroment’ which can now visualise living cells and project light to facilitate closed-loop control of cells. Between sessions, there were breaks and lunch which lead to interesting conversations between new peers. As this was my first conference it was hugely beneficial in making new connections for future collaborations and building my network of micro/nano roboticists as well as opening my eyes to the vast amount of research being conducted in the field. I also had the opportunity to explore the beautiful city of Toronto and Niagara Falls.

Cohort 2 student Immi publishes a Systematic Review in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease

Posted on by emily.barraclough

Cohort 2 student Immi Biswas publishes a Systematic review entitled ‘Secular Trends in Dementia Free Cognitive Function in Older Adults’ in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Immi had the following to say about the publication:

‘The objective was to systematically evaluate the published data on generational differences in cognitive function in the older population.

Prevalence of vascular related mild cognitive impairment has increased in China. Improvements in cognition may only partially be explained by increased educational attainment across generations. This review provides evidence for generational effects in dementia-free cognitive function, predominately stability or improvements in performance, in later compared to earlier born individuals across different world regions. There is an urgent need to determine the factors driving such changes and whether they are being experienced in all world regions, particularly low- and middle-income countries where the burden of cognitive impairment is greatest and rising.’

Link to Paper: Secular Trends in Dementia Free Cognitive Function in Older Adults: A Systematic Review – PubMed (nih.gov)

Cohort 2 student Neshika is involved with Conference Proceedings at MARSS

Posted on by emily.barraclough

Cohort 2 student Neshika Wijewardhane publishes with ‘Proceedings of MARSS – International Conference on Manipulation, Automation and Robotics at Small Scales’ a paper entitled ‘Long-term imaging and spatio-temporal control of living cells using light.’

Neshika had the following to say about the publication:

‘The ability to optically interact with cells on both an individual and collective level has applications from wound healing to cancer treatment. Building systems which can facilitate both localised light illumination and visualisation of cells can however, be challenging and costly. This work takes the DOME, an existing platform for the closed-loop optical control of microscale agents, and adapts the design to support live-cell imaging. Through modifications made to the imaging and projection systems within the DOME, a significantly higher imaging resolution is achieved as well as the ability to customise the light projection wavelengths. Changes to the fundamental design allow for long-term use in an environment of higher temperature and humidity, facilitating the long-term imaging of live cells.

The Dynamic Optical MicroEnviroment (DOME) robotic device is now able to visualise living cells to aid the control of cells using light. This allows us to implement different light patterns and regimes in a closed-loop manner to initiate different cellular dynamics such as cell migration and thus opens the possibilities for treatments in the fields of wound healing specifically but also in cancer and anti-microbial therapy.’

Link to Journal: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/9870245/proceeding 

Cohort 2 students Megan and Immi attend the SigCHI Conference in New Orleans

Posted on by emily.barraclough

Megan Morgan had this to say about her experience:

‘I went along to CHI alongside many others from the Bristol Interaction Group including Paul Marshall, John Bird, Ewan Soubutts, Pete Bennett, Ollie Hanton, Elaine Czech and Immy Biswas. The conference covered a huge variety of topics involved in human computer interaction ranging from tangible interactions, UX design, ethics of research, health and long-term care. I made a wide variety of new connections with other PhD students, I also connected with entire HCI groups in Bath, Newcastle and Dublin. HCI researchers within my specific field including Madeline Balaam and Adrienne Pichon. As well as speaking to well renowned HCI researchers about my work including Yvonne Rogers, Madeline Tremaine and Roel Vertegaal.

I wrote a paper which was accepted for a workshop called ‘Challenges, Tensions, and Opportunities in Designing Ecosystems to Support the Management of Complex Health Needs’. This was a fantastic opportunity to meet HCI researchers in my field, but also to discuss and understand more deeply how my research can assist with ecosystem creation or support. I connected with many interesting researchers and learnt about how their research can add to the building of mine and discussed and worked together over the course of a day. I know that the connections I have made at this workshop will be invaluable through the course of my career.
I also went to the conference as a student volunteer, meaning I learnt about the workings of the conference and helped with various activities such as running sessions and checking people in at reception for a total of 14 hours through the week. This was hugely impactful to me in learning more about the conference and the CHI community, it also meant through my interactions as a volunteer that I met and could help many interesting people.
I know that through the vast amount on knowledge I have received and the connections I have made that my research with be greatly improved. The conversations I had through the week inspired me , not only about the current study I am doing but also helped me think differently about the future studies I am in the midst of planning. I have also made connections that may well lead to collaborations in the future.’

Cohort 2 student Immi publishes a Systematic Review in ‘Sensors’ Journal

Posted on by emily.barraclough

Cohort 2 student Immi Biswas publishes a systematic review entitled: ‘Wearable GPS and Accelerometer Technologies for Monitoring Mobility and Physical Activity in Neurodegenerative Disorders’ in the ‘Sensors’ Journal.

Link to Paper: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/24/8261