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#MadeAtUCL Marquee

This exhibition and series of talks at our It's All Academic Festival #MadeAtUCL marquee on Saturday 5 October 2019, was an opportunity to meet the minds behind some of UCL’s most disruptive discoveries, featured on the Made at UCL website.

UCL Quad marquee tent
Marquee Talks

All talks were open to all and will soon be made available as podcasts. Watch this space.

10am: Revealing Brain Activity with Neuropixel Probes

Neuropixels
Speaker: Matteo Carandini, Institute of Ophthalmology / Brain Sciences, UCL
Talk description: Matteo Carandini explains the how “Neuropixels probes”, developed at UCL, allow researchers to record from thousands of neurons simultaneously throughout the brain and how these new probes are changing the way we think about brain function.

Read more about this discovery #MadeAtUCL  

10.20am: Apps and games for Maths and English primary pupils #MadeAtUCL Knowledge Lab 

Speaker: Manolis Mavrikis, Institute of Education, UCL
Talk description: This talk will present example apps and games from research projects at UCL Knowledge Lab for primary pupils' mathematics and reading. By drawing attention to the opportunities that new technologies offer, the talk will also give pointers to how parents and educators can choose good quality apps based on sound research and evidence.  

Find out more about this discovery #MadeAtUCL

10.40am: Are public services better when the public design them? Learnings from Lebanon

multiple hands reaching into a central point
Speaker: Dr Ala'a Shehabi, Institute for Global Prosperity, UCL
Talk description: This talk will explore the approaches and methodologies used in the RELIEF Centre to engage with publics in Lebanon in co-designing public services. Using examples from research, Dr Ala'a Shehabi will present their citizen engagement work and the interventions it has enabled in this space.

Read more about this discovery #MadeAtUCL

11am: A touch of prosthetic devices

diagram of haptic feedback illustration
Speaker: Helge Wurdemann, Mechanical Engineering, UCL
Talk description: This talk will give an overview of the journey from the idea of a purely mechanical haptic feedback system to developing actual prototypes of prosthetic hands with haptic feedback for amputees. The team have received support from UCL Grand Challenges and the Royal Academy of Engineering and worked with international communities and with colleagues in low- and middle-income countries - an inspiring and exciting talk!

Find out more about this discovery #MadeAtUCL

11.30am: Design for Learning - as easy as ABC!

Piece of paper with various learning objectives on
Speaker: Clive Young, Information Services Division, UCL
Talk description: This talk will explore UCL's fast, fun and effective way to design courses with learners in mind. The UCL Digital Education Advisory team has developed an effective and engaging hands-on workshop called ABC, which uses a game-style format and is particularly useful for developing new programmes or for those changing to an online or more blended format.

Read more about this discovery #MadeAtUCL

12noon: Comet Interceptor

Solar System
Speaker: Geraint Jones, Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCL 
Talk description: Comet Interceptor - a mission led by UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory - was recently selected by the European Space Agency as a new mission to be launched in 2028. The mission's aims are to visit a comet that is approaching the Sun for the first time since the solar system's formation, giving us important clues to the origin of Earth and the other planets. In this talk, the Geraint Jones will describe the scientific aims and planned observations of this ground-breaking €150M international project, and the scientific instruments that we plan to build for the spacecraft.

Find out more about this discovery #MadeAtUCL

12.30pm: Therapy apps for patients with acute brain injury or dementia

Hands of elderly person
Speaker: Alexander Leff, Professor of Cognitive Neurology, UCL
Talk description: This talk will explore the UCL Institute of Neurology's approach to co-design and show some results from our therapy apps.

Read more about this discovery #MadeAtUCL

1pm: Learning about English grammar with Englicious

School students in the classroom
Speaker: Bas Aarts, Department of English Language and Literature, UCL
Talk description: The talk will present the Englicious project whose aim is to make the teaching of English grammar in schools easier with the online resources offered by the Englicious, an entirely free online library of original English language teaching resources.

Find out more about this discovery #MadeAtUCL

1.30pm: Artificial Intelligence for Art Investigation

Speaker: Miguel Raul Dias Rodrigues, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, UCL
Talk description: The cultural heritage sector is experiencing a digital revolution driven by the growing adoption of non-invasive, non-destructive imaging and analytical approaches generating multi-dimensional data from entire artworks.  This talk will explore how recent advances in artificial intelligence technologies are advancing the field of art investigation, conservation, and presentation.

Read more about this discovery #MadeAtUCL

2pm: “Look Mum no hands!”

driverless car
Speaker: Tom Cohen, Dept of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering, UCL 
Talk description: What can we expect when road vehicles start to drive themselves?

Find out more about this discovery #MadeAtUCL

2.30pm: The Women We See: Gender, Diversity and Advertising in London

Me No Pause text with images of women
Speaker: Jessica Ringrose, Institute of Education, UCL
Talk description: Following public outcry over a body shaming advertisement in the London transport network, the Mayor of London commissioned a multimedia documentary-style study that involved 16 commuting interviews with women throughout London, two “talk back” art projects with school girls, and a survey of 2000 Londoners. The research culminated in the Report: The Women We See, Women and Girls Experiences of Gender and Diversity in Advertising. The talk discusses the process of engaging in feminist public change with a range of industry and government stakeholders to challenge and transform invisibilities and exclusions in public advertising.

Read more about this discovery #MadeAtUCL

3pm: Original Research By Young Twinkle Students (ORBYTS): When can students start performing original research?

Speaker: Jonathan Tennyson, Massey Professor of Physics, UCL
Talk description: This talk will explore the work performed by school students who have been helping to prepare for the Twinkle Space mission which will characterise nearby exoplanets (that is planets orbiting other stars).

Find out more about this discovery #MadeAtUCL

3.30pm: Map-making by City-makers

three Peruvian women with landscape in the background
Speakers: Adriana Allen and Rita Lambert, The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL
Talk description: This interactive session draws from two action-research projects, ReMap Lima and cLIMA sin Riesgo. It explains how invisibilised processes that put local communities at risk can become visible and tackled through a combination of mapping methods applied from the sky and the ground. The session zooms into how this was done and with what consequences in the context of Metropolitan Lima, where the use of drones and community-led mapping allowed impoverished local communities to make visible how, where and why they live in precarious and hazardous conditions.

Read more about this discovery #MadeAtUCL   

Marquee exhibition stands

The exhibition stands showcased a selection of the most exciting research taking place at UCL. Attendees had the chance to see a life-sized model of the Rosalind Franklin rover that will be sent to Mars in 2020, learn to speak Mandarin and manipulate a prototype of a prosthetic hand, amongst others. 

Degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering and maths 

group of children looking through a microscope
Exhibitor: Rebecca Mckelvey, Founder and CEO of In2scienceUK
Stand description: Find out about different degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering and maths.

Read more about In2science here

The RELIEF Centre Roll of Research

multiple hands reaching into a central point
Exhibitor: Annelise Andersen, Institute for Global Prosperity, Bartlett, UCL
Stand description: Did you know that we work with entrepreneurs in Lebanon who are making surfboards out of used cigarettes? Or that we curate music events with Lebanese musicians to understand how sound affects space? The RELIEF Centre Roll of Research invites you to get to know our work better. Spin the wheel, and find out about what we do, what we have found, who we work with, where we work and more. From helping Syrian teachers improve their skills through online technology to conducting the biggest ever household survey in Hamra, Beirut with UN Habitat, and many things in between – come and talk to the researchers behind The RELIEF Centre and discover something new about life in Lebanon. 

Find out more about The RELIEF Centre here

Map-Making by City-makers

three Peruvian women with landscape in the background
Exhibitors: Adriana Allen, Rita Lambert and Julia Wesely, The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL
Stand description: The exhibition stand displays maps, videos and panels that invite a reflection on how local women and men can play an active role in mapping preventable risks that impact negatively their everyday lives and the current and future development of the city. Through the innovative combination of mapping methods in Lima, the world’s second-largest desert city, this experience shows can collective mapping and action can play a crucial role in activating strategies towards urban resilience and justice in Lima and elsewhere.

Read more about this research here

With science and research, we beat diseases

image of a human skeleton head
Exhibitor: Dr.Yara Hassan, Institute of Neurology, UCL
Stand description: Huntington's disease has a broad impact on a person's functional abilities and usually results in movement, thinking (cognitive) and psychiatric disorders. Find out about some of the functional and cognitive disabilities caused by Huntington's disease through interactive games, assessment tools, and brain and spine models.

Find out more about this research here

UCL at the Final Frontier

comet in space
Exhibitor: Chris Owen, Dept of Space & Climate Physics, UCL
Stand description: This stand will show results of Solar System and astrophysics research, scale models of hardware for engagement in space engineering and a life-sized model of the Rosalind Franklin rover that will be sent to Mars in 2020, which carries onboard a stereo camera system developed at UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL). Visitors will be able to talk with our scientists about research at the cutting edge of space science, our hardware, watch videos and animations and take away handouts for further learning. 

Find out more about the research at the MSSL here

Learn to speak Mandarin 

teacher writing Mandarin on a whiteboard
Exhibitor: Greg Walker, Institute of Education, UCL
Stand description: With over 1.5 billion speakers, Mandarin Chinese is officially the most widely spoken language on Earth and since 2006 the UCL IOE Confucius Institute (IOE CI) has been leading the way in teaching it to thousands of school pupils around the country, including enabling more than 5,000 students to travel to China for a life changing summer of study. Visit the stand to find out more about how the IOE supports schools, about their extensive teacher training programmes, the success of the Mandarin Excellence Programme and to learn to say a few things in Chinese. It’s easier than you think!

Learn more about the work at IOE CI here

Gender, Diversity & Advertising: Craft Back Collaging

Me No Pause text with images of women
Exhibitor: Jessica Ringrose, Institute of Education, UCL
Stand description: This stand will display the collaging artefacts from my gender and advertising research project for the Mayor of London; It can also feature materials for audience members to participate in collaging craft back to challenge gender norms in advertising themselves.

Find out more about Jessica's work here

Haptic feedback for prosthetic hands

diagram of haptic feedback illustration
Exhibitor: Helge Wurdemann, Mechanical Engineering, UCL
Stand description: Come along to the stand and experience wearing a prosthetic hand and haptic feedback! The prototype is a 3D printed body-powered prosthetic hand. The fingertips are modified in a way to accommodate our mechanical sensor. Visitors can experience how haptic feedback is received when manipulating an object with the prosthetic hand. 

Read more about haptic feedback here 

Project Malachi 

black and white photo of a homeless person sleeping on street
Exhibitor: Manni Bhatti, Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, UCL
Stand description: Project Malachi is led by The Salvation Army and aims to house rough sleepers in Redbridge, London. The project involves constructing an apartment complex from disused shipping containers, and aims to be modular, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly. Come along to meet the minds behind the project. 

Find out more about UCL's work with Project Malachi here

Learning about English grammar with Englicious

School students in the classroom
Exhibitor: Bas Aarts, Department of English Language and Literature, UCL
Stand description: Come along to the stand to get a demonstration of the Englicious website. Englicious offers free English language resources, especially on grammar, to primary and secondary school teachers at all the key stages to help them to deliver the specifications of the National Curriculum. It contains lesson plans, exercises, CPD materials, videos, games, and much more.

Read more about Englicious here

First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme and Legacy Projects

first world war solider on the battlefield
Exhibitor: Jeff Marks, Programme Coordinator for the Institute of Education’s First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme, UCL
Stand description: Come along and meet the minds that have been running the award-winning First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme. The team has been providing free tours of First World War battlefield sites to every state-funded secondary school in England, since 2014. They also run CPD courses for teachers and following a tour, students are encouraged to complete a community-based legacy project where participating students create an enduring legacy by impacting upon at least 110 people within their local community. To date, this project has reached more than 15 million people.

Find out more about Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme

Synchronising thousands of computers to within trillionths of a second through optical fibre

Neuropixels
Exhibitor: Kari Clark, Optical Networks Group researcher, UCL
Stand description: Poster exhibition with Optical Networks Group researcher, Kari Clark, discussing his research entitled 'Subnanecond Clock and Data Recovery in an Optically-Switched Data Centre Network'.  Kari will also be providing some demo examples, including an optical fibre and fibre microscope.

Read more about the research from Optical Networks Group

Apps and games for Maths and English primary pupils #MadeAtUCL Knowledge Lab 

Exhibitor: Manolis Mavrikis, Institute of Education, UCL
Stand description: This stand will present example apps and games from research projects at UCL Knowledge Lab for primary pupils' mathematics and reading. By drawing attention to the opportunities that new technologies offer, Manolis will also give pointers to how parents and educators can choose good quality apps based on sound research and evidence.  

Find out how UCL Knowledge Lab and its European partners are building pupils’ confidence in maths through gaming and AI 

Design for Learning - as easy as ABC!

Piece of paper with various learning objectives on
Exhibitor: Clive Young, Information Services Division, UCL
Stand description: The UCL Digital Education Advisory team has developed an effective and engaging hands-on workshop called ABC, which uses a game style format and is particularly useful for developing new programmes or for those changing to an online or more blended format. ABC Learning Design was awarded two- year Erasmus + funding in 2018 and has been used in over 80 universities across the world. Come along and see how it works. 

Read about how the Digital Education Advisory team made developing new programmes as easy as ABC

Helping researchers and people Join Dementia Research

Helping research dementia
Exhibitor: Adam Smith, Institute of Neurology and National Institute for Health Research              
Stand description: Find out about barriers to effective Dementia study recruitment with our giant Ker-Plunk, and how UCL is helping beat dementia through its UK wide, Join Dementia Research Service. Using clever tech, creative algorithms and matching and public engagement.

Find how UCL has helped researchers to find suitable volunteers to take part in their Dementia studies

From Coal Mine Waste to Landscape Painting

photo of ochre saltburn mine water treatment scheme in Middlesborough
Exhibitor: Onya McCausland, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL 
Stand description: Find out more about how Onya turned waste ochre sludge from ex coal mines into pigment for paint. 

Read more about Onya's research here

Revolutionising the use of x-rays 126 years after their discovery

doctor looking at x-ray of human body
Exhibitor: Sadro Olivio, Department of Medical Physics & Biomedical Engineering, UCL
Stand description: Discover how we convert ultra-small x-ray deflections into images of the invisible. Featuring practical demos with laser pointers, invisible balls, and the microfabricated masks that make the science possible. Join us at our stand for a sneak-peak into the future of x-ray imaging technology. 

Read more about this discovery #MadeAtUCL

Apps/games to improve language and visual function in patients with acquired brain injury

Hands of elderly person
Exhibitor: Alexander Leff, Professor of Cognitive Neurology, UCL
Stand decription: UCL minds have developed a series of therapy apps for patients with language disorders due to stroke or dementia, with the help of patients with these disorders. Mass practice has been shown to improve language performance but it takes time, so we have gamified our therapies to maximise engagement. Come and give them a go! 

Find out more about the apps that help patients with acquired brain injury