On Monday 15th June I set off with my colleague Dr Clare Taylor for a day trip to London to participate at the Athena SWAN awards ceremony for all who made successful Athena SWAN award submissions in November 2014. It was a long day: I was up before 4:00am to be sure to catch the tram to the airport in time for the 07:20am flight to London City Airport.
Flight BE1329 to London City airport
Edinburgh Napier University was granted an Athena SWAN bronze award earlier this year. This was following the assessment of a detailed application document that I submitted on behalf of the University in November 2014.
Athena SWAN is the Equality Challenge Unit’s charter for women in science. The charter recognises the commitment of universities to the advancement of women’s careers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM). As part of its work the Equality Challenge Unit grants bronze, silver and gold awards to organisations that can demonstrate increasing levels of good practice in recruiting, retaining and promoting women in STEMM in higher education.
Alongside my research and teaching activities at Edinburgh Napier University, I am the University’s Academic Champion for Athena SWAN. This week I was pleased to hear that much of the work that I have led in this role since 2013/14 has been recognised externally.
John Mowbray’s winning poster
We currently have eight research students undertaking doctoral studies in the Centre for Social Informatics (CSI) working on a variety of projects. While the goal of our students is to complete their theses within the degree registration period, it’s also important that they share news of their work as it progresses. A number of our current students have recently been busy taking advantage of opportunities to disseminate their research. New work on success factors in information systems projects co-authored by a PhD graduate has also been accepted for publication.
Professor Blaise Cronin
Many congratulations to Blaise Cronin, Visiting Professor to the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University, who has today been named as one of the winners of the 2014 Jason Farradane Award.
Patrick Notz
At the exam boards this week it was announced that one of the projects that I supervised in 2012/13 has won the Institute of Informatics and Digital Innovation award for knowledge exchange.
The winning work examined the application of social media in the heritage sector, drawing on a case study of social media practice at the National Museum of Scotland. It was completed by final year undergraduate student Patrick Notz.
Aga’s poster describes work for the Acquisition for VFX module
Today two Edinburgh Napier computing students are competing for an award at a BCS event at the University of Nottingham.
Two months ago in February 2013 Aga Banach and Tracey Binney responded to a call for students to submit a 250 word abstract for a poster presentation at the BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium.
The colloquium is the UK’s main event for women undergraduate students of computing. Now in its 6th year, the day features talks from industry and academia, a panel-based careers session, stalls from employers, and lots of networking opportunities.
Like many others at this time of year I am now thoroughly sick and tired of the winter. Last weekend in Edinburgh was particularly poor with dismal dark skies overhead and a damp chill at ground level that seemed to rise up and penetrate my clothing no matter how well wrapped up I was. Each morning at this time of year I step out of my front door wondering whether this will finally be the day when I get a first real sniff of spring. As yet, no such joy.
Hazel Hall 