An Exciting New Project

Today we are starting a new piece of work which I am really looking forward to.  I say we, as it involves a colleague, Laura Meagher, whom I really enjoy working with.  And I say exciting, because both the content and the context are fascinating.

The context is working with the SiDE project, (Social Inclusion through the Digital Economy) who are doing extraordinary multi-disciplinary work across two universities, looking at a range of important issues and coming up with extremely innovative solutions.  Just the other day, I heard one of the SiDE team on the Today programme talking about their SatNav ideas for elderly drivers, for example.

Our project is working with them to explore different ways of getting even more creativity out of the rich mix of people involved in the project, under the auspices of the EPSRC creativity@home project. We are starting today by meeting some of the key figures, and will continue to interview all the researchers on the programme over the next month or so, to build a joint understanding of what will be most valuable for them.

Awayday Feedback

A while back I ran an awayday for the DMOC research group at Newcastle University.  It was a very buzzy day: they seemed a really good group.

So I was naturally pleased to see the feedback they had submitted to the University about the day, which was very positive.  But what was even more pleasing was running into a couple of people this week.  One had attended the day, and said that it had made a real difference.  The other was somebody working in the same building, who hadn't known I'd been involved with them, who commented quite unprompted on how much more vibrant their area seems to be now.

I note these things against those days when I doubt the value of my work, my competence etc, as one does from time to time...