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25 Jul 2005 16:25:02
The walls of the hat Factory gallery were filled with art of a very different kind last week, as staff from the University of Luton displayed their research projects at the annual Research Poster Exhibition.
The event gives academics and research students the opportunity to exhibit their research on large laminated posters using diagrams and graphs to explain their findings.
Organising the event was Professor Carsten Maple, who is acting Head of Computing and Information Systems. He said: “It was great to see the gallery walls filled with so many research projects from the University. The number and variety of entries this year shows the high level of research being undertaken at Luton. We are very proud of everyone’s achievements.”
Some of the projects were carried out in conjunction with academics from other institutions, with the help of funding from private companies and research councils. The entries varied from health and social research to IT and geology.
Presenting the prizes was Vice Chancellor, Professor Les Ebdon, and Professor Angus Duncan, Head of Research in the Graduate School, who praised the winners for their hard work and for presenting their findings it in such an informative way.
First prize went to research student Andreas Braun, who carried out a comparative study into trilingual families in England and Germany.
The study revealed that parents in England were much more likely to raise their children with just one language than their German counterparts, and that older children in England tended to drop their parents’ indigenous languages, even if they started trilingually.
Speaking about his win, Andreas said: “The results of my research gave an interesting insight into the different approaches to teaching languages in England and Germany and I’m delighted that the judges enjoyed my poster. Winning this prize is a great boost for me personally.
“My research identified parental strategies for home language maintenance and the influence of educational institutions on trilingual families.
“The beginning of school seemed to be a decisive moment in a child’s language development and German parents regularly used a method where one parent is responsible for teaching their child a language. This method is not widely used in England.”
Runner-up was fellow research student Jon Hitchcock, who is working on a computer-based processing and screening project to detect the improper use of prohibited drugs in sport. His work is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and HFL Ltd – a Newmarket firm that provides analytical chemistry and research services around the world.
Jon said: “This research is still in its early stages but once complete it will change the way drugs are detected in blood and urine samples. At present, human intervention is required to check which compounds are present in samples, but advanced computing techniques may allow the identification to be automatic and therefore speed up the process considerably.
“We are working on the use of automatic pattern recognition which may allow newly developed, as yet unrecognised, drugs to be detected. If this project succeeds HFL will use it to improve its screening service and it may well be implemented for the 2012 London Olympics.”
The event was attended by staff, students and members of the public, including students who have applied to study at Luton in September 2005. To find out more about studying at the University, call 0800 389 6633 or visit www.luton.ac.uk.
Latest news» 2005» Jul» Luton’s Researchers Awarded at Annual Poster Exhibition
