University News Last updated 06 June 2014
Birmingham City University is featuring in a UK-wide campaign next week to highlight the value and importance of university research to our everyday lives.
Universities Week 2014 will be launched on Monday 9 June at the Natural History Museum in London where a week-long public event will showcase some of the best of UK university research.
Researchers from Birmingham City University will join teams from 44 other UK universities represented at the Museum during the week. The exhibition will include research stations, pop-up performances, debates and live research demonstrations, covering a range of research themes.
The research team from Birmingham City University will be demonstrating how bad posture affect’s people’s lives, by showing visitors how an innovative ‘vibrating suit’, developed by Stephen Wanless, Director of the Centre for Posture, Movement and Handling can not only improve posture but also help avoid injury. A team of academics and students will demonstrate how the suit can be worn and assist with correctly rolling a patient on a hospital bed.
Universities Week will be launched officially by the Universities and Science Minister David Willetts MP at the Natural History Museum. As well as the week-long exhibition at the Natural History Museum, there will be a range of other activities taking place across the UK as part of the Week, to promote and engage the public with the value and importance of university research. At Birmingham City University there will be a series of final year art and design shows as well as a university wide Open Day on Saturday 14 June.
Professor Cliff Allan, Vice-Chancellor of Birmingham City University, said: “Universities Week 2014 is an excellent opportunity to highlight how the work going on at Birmingham City University has an impact on people's everyday lives. It is also a chance for our leading academics to engage with the public, bringing their research to life and hopefully inspiring people to go away and find out more about a topic.”
Nicola Dandridge, Chief Executive of Universities UK, added: “The aim of Universities Week is to inspire the public about the world-leading research taking place in our universities.
“Led by some of the top researchers in the UK, the event at the Natural History Museum will be a fantastic showcase event for UK higher education. By hosting this free-to-attend and high-profile event, we hope that members of the public will be inspired and will leave having learned something new about how universities are helping to solve some of the UK’s, and world’s biggest challenges.”