Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Media

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Open Access
Action-oriented ESD for community benefit: two sustainability audit case studies
(2024-03-21) Reeves, Andrew; Gretton, S.
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) often uses ‘action-oriented’ pedagogies, which aim to deliver mutual benefit for learners and community stakeholders. This presentation shares two contrasting approaches to partner students with local businesses to evaluate their sustainability impacts. At University of Leicester (UoL), a Sustainability Audit process originally delivered by staff has been adapted into a credit-bearing ‘work-related learning module’, delivered with undergraduate science students from four programmes. Working with real-world data and interdisciplinary approaches, students produce an evidence-based recommendations report for businesses, developing competencies as ‘change-makers’ in alignment with UoL strategy. The UoL audit process was shared with De Montfort University (DMU) in a joint project where students were trained and paid to deliver sustainability audits. The process was revised into a user-friendly self-completion spreadsheet, designed for use without prior training. This entry-level process enables large-scale reach, potentially within hundreds of employer placements taking place through DMU annually, delivering on DMU’s strategic commitment to ‘partnerships with purpose’. Taken together, the case studies demonstrate cross-fertilisation between local universities and formal/informal curriculum linkages, highlighting diverse strategies for pursuing the ESD agenda in alignment with institutional priorities.
Open Access
Almost, If Not Quite, As Good as the W.E.: On Sound Apparatus, 1929-1930
(2017-04-07) Sibanda, Nyasha
1929 and 1930 were years of concentrated change within the British film exhibition industry. Sound cinema had quickly established itself as the essential attraction of the time, and cinemas throughout the country swiftly mobilised to equip for sound, lest they fall behind the tide. During these years, numerous companies – both domestic and international – vied for control of the nation’s sound apparatus market, with the large resources behind companies such as Western Electric and R.C.A competing with smaller British concerns, as well as established domestic manufacturers such as British Thomson-Houston and British Talking Pictures. Taking the apparatus choices of Birmingham as an example, this paper looks at the various methods by which different manufacturers attempted to distinguish themselves on the sound equipment market, including pricing and advertising strategies. Beyond these aspects, this paper will discuss the potential effects of national and local pride in the choices made by both exhibitors and apparatus vendors, including various “Buy British” or “Buy Local” strategies employed; it also discusses the efforts made by the market leader Western Electric to justify their high prices through the attempted creation of community amongst its customers. Through these lenses, this paper hopes to shed some light on how and why exhibitors installed the apparatus they did, and some oft-overlooked the idiosyncrasies of the British transition to sound.
Open Access
'The Americanisation of England’ Anti- American sentiment and the arrival of the Talkies'
(2016-04-28) Porter, Laraine
The arrival of synchronised sound films in Britain between 1928 and 1930 gave a boost to the anti-American sentiment that had been bubbling under the surface for some time. Hollywood films had dominated the British box office since WWI and Hollywood silent films were intrinsic to popular culture and entertainment in Britain. This presentation looks at the diverse ways in which anti-Americanism permeated the popular consciousness and the ostensible reasons for these sentiments, despite the fact that American popular culture, particularly cinema, fashion, music, lifestyles and so on, were so widely adopted, emulated and aspired to in post WWI Britain.
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Beyond (Richard Steinitz)
(2023-02-15) Batchelor, Peter
Beyond (Richard Steinitz Building) (2023) is a multichannel installation produced in collaboration with visual artist Ian Bilson. Consisting of a spherical geodesic structure and containing 40 loud speakers, it builds on research conducted for Beyond (2014) and other previous research surrounding the fabrication of aural landscapes and trompe l’oreille. As in the previous version of the installation, the speakers are conceived collectively as a single sound-producing unit, accommodating the detailed spatial construction of sonic images over the surfaces of the domes. Beyond (Richard Steinitz Building) presents new site-specific compositions which take into account the audio ‘assets’ and idiosyncracies of the Richard Steinitz building at the University of Huddersfield. The presented scenes are designed to extend the sounds of the building, its immediate surroundings and the countryside of the nearby Yorkshire moors, in order to draw the ear outwards and encourage closer listening to the local aural environment.
Open Access
Britain’s Screen Inferiority Complex: Union and Institutional Responses to the Coming of Sound, 1929-35
(2015-06-18) Sibanda, Nyasha
Sound cinema came to Britain and the rest of Europe during a period of general decline in national film industry. The end of the First World War had seen capital and investment in British filmmaking decrease, bolstered by the great rise of American cinema during the period. By the middle of the 1920s, American film imports dominated British screens almost completely, with less than five per cent of films shown in the country being of British origin, and the rest being imports from France, Germany, Italy, and, in the vast majority, the United States. The implications on employment and productivity within the industry were stark, but they extended beyond to broader cultural concerns. At a parliamentary reading of what would imminently become the Cinematograph Films Act of 1927, the then President of the Board of Trade Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister asked “Should we be content for a moment if we depended upon foreign literature and upon a foreign Press in this country? […] The greatest proportion of the Press is British, and we should be very anxious if the proportion was in the opposite sense as it is with British films.” This paper examines the relationship between the British film industry, trades union and the Parliament, and the ways in which they dealt with the perceived onslaught of American film product and American cultural values. The paper explores correspondence between the Cinematograph Exhibitors Association (CEA), Federation of British Industries (FBI), Trades Union Congress (TUC), and the Parliamentary Board of Trade.
Embargo
C4D Evaluation Approaches
(Community Media Association, 2018-04-28) Watson, Rob
The use of ethnographic evaluation techniques can illicit stories of social change that other forms of evaluation are unable to identify. The EAR method of evaluation is a tested technique that is used to evaluate community media projects around the word, and can provide useful insight into the development needs and the reporting requirements of community media projects. This presentation outlines the main charactersitics and aims of the EAR approach.
Open Access
Civic collaboration for “Sustainability Skills” and “Green Jobs”: making ESD relatable
(2023-03-30) Reeves, Andrew; Jones, L.
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has an apparent strong fit with other key strategic agendas of universities, including the civic role of addressing regional socio-economic and environmental challenges, and the employability agenda to develop workplace preparedness of graduates. But do employment-related ESD priorities as articulated by policymakers and within universities (“green jobs”; “sustainability skills and competencies”) align with how employers themselves understand their current challenges and future needs and the skills students need to be workplace-ready? This presentation shares findings and introduces questions raised from a stakeholder engagement project delivered in Leicester and Leicestershire in 2022 to explore potential collaborations between tertiary educators and employers to develop sustainability skills on a regional level. Building on two initial online poll questions on attendees’ views on these issues, our talk will highlight how concepts such as ‘Green Jobs’ and ‘Sustainability Skills’ can be understood and highlight challenges around regional employers seeing the relevance and applicability of these issues for their operations and recruitment. We will offer ideas on how to address the employer engagement gap and enhance students’ workplace readiness, including closer university-employer educational partnerships and making professional roles addressing sustainability more relatable for employers and students through engaging case studies.
Open Access
Community Media and Sustainable Development
(De Montfort University, 2018-03-28) Watson, Rob
This paper outlines issues relevant to social and ecological sustainability and the relationship between large-scale media organisations and small-scale, grass roots community media organisations. This paper was presented at the American University of Phnom Penh
Open Access
Community Media Association Wiki Development Planning
(Community Media Association, 2016-06-04) Watson, Rob
This paper outlines key principles and practices in the use of wikis as a development tool for community media.
Open Access
The Conversion to Sound of the Kingsway and the Ideal Cinemas in King's Heath, 1929-1932
(2016-05-24) Sibanda, Nyasha
Business records constitute a fundamental source of primary empirical evidence, which illuminate the granular details that collectively form wider regional and national trends. Their rarity has meant that each discovery offers unique perspectives on different cinemagoing communities and time periods. These records have generally been deployed to determine community preferences and attitudes, as they compare with assumptions regarding national tastes (see Poole 1987, Harper 2004 and 2006, Jeacle 2009, James 2013). The Kingsway Cinema was a super cinema constructed in the Birmingham suburb of King’s Heath to serve its local community. A minute book for the Directors’ Meetings of the cinema has survived, and contains records dating from the cinema’s opening in March 1925 through to May 1938. The record contains weekly profit statements for the Kingsway, which can serve as a substitute for admissions figures as a metric for gauging the relative popularity of films shown (when combined with programming advertising from local press), illuminating the taste community of King’s Heath. Yet the minutes also provide a rare insight into the considerations and rationale behind the business decisions made by the cinema’s directors and management. This paper aims to discuss the potential avenues of inquiry that such a record makes available, focusing on the period around the cinema’s conversion to sound, and the unique challenges this turbulent transition presented to the directors of a suburban cinema.
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A Cottage on Dartmoor (Anthony Asquith, UK, 1929)
(2016-05-24) Porter, Laraine
A presentation prior to a public screening at the MacRobert's Arts Centre at the University of Stirling as part of the British Silent Cinema and the Transition to Sound symposium 23-24 May 2016
Open Access
A Creative Photographic Approach: Interpretation and Healing Through Creative Practice
(Phototherapy Europe, 2010-10) Simmons, M.
Our lives are negotiated through our relationship to others, and understanding our position within that social setting is informed by lived experience, making sense of whom we are, and what has happened to us, is achieved through the stories we tell and hear about our lives. This narrative process informs our position in the world by developing a sense of self, which creates a memory structure through which to establish order and create meaning from experiences. Successful communication however, requires an intermediacy process of expression, in order to share information and shape understanding. Language can provide a frsutrating barrier to these activities, which may often leave individuals isolated or unreachable as a consequence. Employing 'a creative photographic approach,' utilizes photography's unique ability to both describe and express, providing an alternative vocabulary to connect with, describe and evaluate our lives, bringing insights that might otherwise remain hidden through more tradtitional, non-visual modes of enquiry. The term a creative photographic approach is used here to describe a method whereby individuals formerly engage in the process of reflection, interpretation and expression of personal expereince, through the creation of original photographic artwork. The creation of interpretive artefacts can assist in the development of critical distance for the maker, a term that describes the means whereby an experience or event can be understood, and its implications appreciated from a more informed perspective. The artefacts produced also act as a catalysts for additional dialogue, in a broader social context, as the work engages with an audience. By connecting visual methods to issues of social concern, participants can provide responses, which speak powerfully about the challenges of living, in ways not possible using words alone. This paper presents the ideas and methods, which support the practical use of creative photography, as a core strategy. for the enhancement of personal wellbeing.
Open Access
Directing The Kingsway Cinema, 1927
(2016-04-29) Sibanda, Nyasha
The Kingsway Cinema in King’s Heath, Birmingham, opened in 1925 as a super cinema to serve a localised, habitually attending audience. It showed second-run screenings at low prices, and handily out-performed its only local competitor the Ideal. The minute book of the Directors of the Kingsway Theatre Company reveal a striking and unique picture of what the running of such an establishment entailed, and the considerations made by its Board of Directors. Previous business records for cinemas have been instrumental in the furthering of study into cinemagoing and programming practices (see Poole 1987, Harper 2004 and 2006, Jeacle 2009, James 2013), and their rarity highlights the clear value they hold for researchers in the present. The particular characteristics of the records from the Kingsway, namely their detailed minutes of monthly board meetings, allow for yet another perspective on the operation and function of local cinemas. This paper aims to examine a single year in granular detail. 1927 was a year where the cinema seemed to defy the grim forecasts of the depressed economy, where cinema musicians variously rebel and excel, and where the expansionist ambitions of its Directors were tested amidst the threat of competition. I intend to largely let the records speak for themselves, whilst situating them within the context of the pre-Quota British film exhibition industry. By exploring the richness of this dataset, a more specific and particular picture of the life of late-silent period exhibition might be illuminated.
Metadata only
Empowering the Next Generation
(DMU Made, 2024-11-05) Lahiri, Indrani
Introduction: Imagine a world where every child grows up resilient, confident, and equipped to face life's challenges head-on. Now, imagine if the key to unlocking this potential lies not in grand, external innovations, but within the very organisations we work for every day. I'm here to share my journey of harnessing the power of intrapreneurship to build a brighter future for our children, all while balancing a full-time career as a university lecturer. The Spark of Intrapreneurship Every innovation starts with a spark—a problem that demands a solution. As a lecturer, I saw firsthand the struggles many children face in today's fast-paced, ever-changing world. Issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, and a lack of coping mechanisms were common, and it became clear that these challenges needed to be addressed early on. But how? Intrapreneurship is often described as entrepreneurship within an organization, but it's so much more. It's about finding that spark of innovation within yourself and using the resources and networks available to you to create change from within. For me, that spark was the idea of building resilience in children. The challenge was figuring out how to bring that idea to life while fulfilling my role at the university. The Birth of Bric2022 Bric2022, a Community Interest Company (CIC) that I developed with the mission of fostering resilience in children. The name "Bric" stands for Building Resilience in Children, and the year 2022 marks the official launch of our initiative. Bric2022 is not just a programme; it's a movement designed to empower young minds to navigate life's ups and downs with confidence and strength. The journey from idea to implementation wasn't easy. It required balancing my responsibilities as a lecturer with the demands of setting up a new organization. But here's where intrapreneurship came into play: by leveraging the skills, networks, and knowledge I gained from my academic career, I was able to lay a strong foundation for Bric2022. I used my expertise in education to design programs, my connections to find collaborators, and my position to advocate for the importance of resilience-building. The Power of Intrapreneurship Intrapreneurship isn't just about starting something new; it's about creating value within the ecosystem you're already a part of. By launching Bric2022 as a CIC, I was able to create a social enterprise that operates within the community but is deeply connected to the educational landscape. This dual approach allowed me to test ideas, gather feedback, and iterate quickly—all while maintaining the stability of my academic career. This journey taught me valuable lessons about the power of intrapreneurship: 1. Start with What You Know: Leverage your existing skills and networks to build something impactful. For me, that was using my background in education to create Bric2022. 2. Balance is Key: It's possible to pursue your passion without sacrificing your career. Intrapreneurship allows you to innovate within your existing role, giving you the security to take risks. 3. Collaboration Over Competition: Intrapreneurship thrives on collaboration. By working with colleagues, students, and community members, Bric2022 has grown into a resilient force for good. The Future of Resilience As Bric2022 continues to grow, so does my belief in the power of intrapreneurship to drive social change. My dream is to see resilience-building programs like ours implemented in schools and communities across the globe, creating a generation of children who are not just academically prepared but emotionally strong. But beyond that, I want to inspire others—especially those who, like me, find themselves torn between a stable career and a burning desire to make a difference. Intrapreneurship is the bridge that can connect these two worlds, allowing you to innovate within your existing role and create lasting impact. Conclusion: Intrapreneurship isn't just a business strategy; it's a mindset. It's about recognising the potential for change within the systems we operate in and taking bold steps to make that change a reality. Through Bric2022, I've learned that you don't need to leave your job to make a difference—you can start right where you are. So, I ask you: What spark of innovation is waiting inside you? How can you use the resources and networks around you to create something truly transformative? The power to change the world doesn't always lie in starting something new; sometimes, it lies in reimagining what we already have.
Open Access
Enabling local climate action towards net zero at community level: evaluating toolkits for SMEs and the voluntary sector
(2022-06) Reeves, Andrew; Mistry, A.
Enabling local climate action towards net zero at community level: evaluating toolkits for SMEs and the voluntary sector With countries and municipalities across the globe making climate change commitments towards ‘Net Zero’ carbon emissions within their region, there is an increasing need for strong engagement by all sectors of society, including citizens, businesses and communities. In parallel, the civic role of universities is creating a driver for them to support place-based responses to the climate emergency within their locality by leveraging their knowledge, skills and resources. This paper offers an example of where these agendas coincide, with two UK universities in the city of Leicester collaborating with the local municipality and business development networks to enable small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and voluntary sector organisations (VSOs) to develop net zero decarbonisation plans. The two target sectors both have significant roles to play – SMEs because they account for 60% of private sector employment and VSOs because as member-led or community-oriented organisations, they have strong opportunities to support public engagement processes. Over a one-year period, a self-service toolkit for organisations to develop decarbonisation plans was piloted with ten VSOs and forty SMEs. The toolkit includes a series of prompts and questions along with supporting guidance that can be used to devise a stated commitment to reducing carbon emissions and an annual plan of actions addressing energy in buildings, transport, procurement and learning. The engagement and evaluation process enabled each organisation to share views on their support needs, to pilot using the tool and to share evaluative feedback through surveys and/or interviews on its effectiveness. The findings highlight some of the key learning and resource needs articulated by organisations in these sectors and their priority actions on a pathway towards net zero. The widely differing levels of existing knowledge and engagement within these organisations also highlight the need for a broad range of support approaches, from entry-level to context-specific technical guidance.
Open Access
ESD for all? Do Sustainability Competencies need Decolonising?
(2024-02-07) Reeves, Andrew; Salvi, Shweta; Kettle, E.
How should practices in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) take into account the critique offered by the Decolonising agenda of higher education pedagogy, assessment and euro-centric perspectives? This poster focuses on one aspect of this challenge – the long-established aim of ESD to develop cross-cutting learner competencies to empower them to effect transformative change for societal benefit. Most recently, an 8-competency framework put forward by UNESCO was enshrined in the joint AdvanceHE/QAA guidance on ESD curriculum design for the UK HE sector. These competencies include systemic thinking, collaborative working and adopting a reflexive and values-driven approach. Such ESD competency frameworks have been criticised as being overly Eurocentric, both in terms of who put them forward and the contexts in which they can be successfully applied, and little research has proposed sustainability competencies in broader societal contexts. This poster aims to initiate dialogue on sustainability competencies as viewed through a Decolonising lens, by: introducing the concept as currently used; highlighting potentially under-represented key competencies; and outlining principles for developing relevant competencies for global learners in any context. This work is relevant for any taught course which seeks to empower diverse learners, including international students, to effect transformative social change professionally or personally.
Open Access
The Evaluation of Audio in Britain in Early Sound Cinema
(2017-06-30) Sibanda, Nyasha
The coming of sound was a swift and decisive moment in cinema history. In the space of half a decade, the paradigms for film production and exhibition underwent a sea change largely unparalleled elsewhere in the medium’s history. In Britain, this change was primarily concentrated in the years between 1929 and 1931, when cinemas around the country rapidly transitioned to the new standard. With this new technology serving almost to effectively create a new medium, there grew a need to define it and to understand the effects and meanings of sound in both popular and industrial discourse. This paper intends to discuss the ways in which sound was mediated to the public and the trade in the earliest years of mainstream sound cinema, drawing from local news sources, trade publications and film magazines. During these formative years, sound was discussed both stylistically – such as with early critiques of the musical, vocal acting styles and dialogue – and as a physical phenomenon. Physical qualities discussed were diverse, including the apparatus used for sound recording and theatrical reproduction, the quality of performers’ voices and accents, accommodations made for the deaf and blind, and the ways in which apparatus manufacturers and cinemas advertised the acoustic benefits of their wares. Exploring the priorities of early sound cinema practitioners and critics lends some insight into how sound was understood during these early days of the talkies, and may provide an early touchstone from which later thinking on sound outside of academic discourse might better be understood.
Open Access
Evolutionary computation for dynamic optimization problems
(ACM Press, 2013-07) Yang, Shengxiang
Open Access
Evolutionary Computation for Dynamic Optimization Problems
(ACM Press, 2015-07) Yang, Shengxiang
Many real-world optimization problems are subject to dynamic environments, where changes may occur over time regarding optimization objectives, decision variables, and/or constraint conditions. Such dynamic optimization problems (DOPs) are challenging problems for researchers and practitioners in decision-making due to their nature of difficulty. Yet, they are important problems that decision-makers in many domains need to face and solve. Evolutionary computation (EC) is a class of stochastic optimization methods that mimic principles from natural evolution to solve optimization and search problems. EC methods are good tools to address DOPs due to their inspiration from natural and biological evolution, which has always been subject to changing environments. EC for DOPs has attracted a lot of research effort during the last twenty years with some promising results. However, this research area is still quite young and far away from well-understood. This tutorial aims to summarise the research area of EC for DOPs and attract potential young researchers into the important research area. It will provide an introduction to the research area of EC for DOPs and carry out an in-depth description of the state-of-the-art of research in the field regarding the following five aspects: benchmark problems and generators, performance measures, algorithmic approaches, theoretical studies, and applications. Some future research issues and directions regarding EC for DOPs will also be presented. The purpose is to (i) provide clear definition and classification of DOPs; (ii) review current approaches and provide detailed explanations on how they work; (iii) review the strengths and weaknesses of each approach; (iv) discuss the current assumptions and coverage of existing research on EC for DOPs; and (v) identify current gaps, challenges, and opportunities in EC for DOPs.
Open Access
Examining the behaviours of recent malware exploiting the COVID19 pandemic
(2020-11-24) Yerima, Suleiman
The current COVID-19 climate has led to an increase in social engineering-based malware infections worldwide, as malicious actors exploit people’s anxieties and changes in working patterns brought about by the pandemic. Cybercriminals have been using COVID19-themed emails and fraudulent websites to entice Internet users into downloading malware so as to gain a foothold on their systems or networks. These types of malware attacks are set to continue as the pandemic is far from over, with many parts of the world experiencing resurgence of the COVID-19 virus after the easing of lockdown measures. Hence, this talk will focus on recent malware that have been designed to exploit the pandemic to inflict damage to individuals and organizations. The infection methods used by such malware will be discussed, and their various techniques, behaviour and impact will be analyzed. This will not only raise our collective awareness about the COVID-19 related malware but will also provide some technical insight that will enhance preventive and defensive efforts to curb the spread of such malware.

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