University of Warwick Podcasts

Prof Graham Wilson, Department for Political science, Boston University & Prof Wyn Grant, Department of Politics, The University of Warwick, discuss their joint political workshops and how the strategic partnerships between the two universities is progressing. Part of a series of conversation pieces that demonstrates the strategic partnership between the University of Warwick and Boston University.

This year celebrates 30 years of WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group) - an international multi-disciplinary group that was established by Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya in 1980 in order to reinvigorate UK manufacturing, through the application of cutting edge research and effective knowledge transfer.

The group started small - just an office, the Professor and his secretary - but has since grown into an international group, with collaborative centres in the UK, India, China, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore and Thailand.

This video looks back over the history of WMG and some of the headlines it has made over the past 30 years

Warwick Medical School (WMS), originally established as part of a partnership with Leicester Medical School, celebrated 10 years of achievement in September. A celebratory event took place at the University on 30 September, attended by invited guests, providing an opportunity to reflect back on the past ten years and to look forward to the future. This video, celebrating the School’s ten years, was shown at the event.

Dr Rodger Charlton Associate Clinical Professor in Medical Education and Lead for GP Specialty Teaching at WMS and Dr Chris Andry from the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine explore the issues surrounding End of Life Care and how patients, families and medical staff cope with events during the stressful and often traumatic time when a loved one dies.

Dr Chris Andry came to Warwick during 2010 as an IAS Visiting Fellow.

PVCIT (Premium Vehicle Customer Interface Technologies) is a Centre of Excellence part funded by Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to provide support to industry based within the region.

The centre is a unique research and development facility that provides companies direct access to the latest product evaluation technologies and processes along with the expertise to identify solutions appropriate to real world engineering problems.

Along with project partners, the aim is to build a facility that will stimulate the local economy and help to sustain the technical capability of the region.

A medieval system of marking stone in building work could be a cheap and effective way of ending the modern day frustration of constructing ‘flat-pack’ furniture, according to a University of Warwick academic.
Mason’s Marks refer to marks made on the blocks of walling stone and on moulded stone as part of the construction process, and have been in use for centuries.
Academics studying the use of the marks at the University of Warwick claim self-assembly furniture manufacturers could learn a lot from the ancient system and save thousands of pounds in production costs.

IAS Visiting Fellow Prof Cathie Jo Martin, Professor of Political Science at Boston University and chair of the Council for European Studies talks to the University of Warwick's Professor Wyn Grant about her research and new book which focuses on the origins of coordinated capitalism and the circumstances under which employers are persuaded to endorse social policies, promoting economic productivity and social solidarity.

Warwick PhD students Andrew Hammond and Ben Jacoby from the Department of Politics and International Studies interview IAS Visiting Fellow Professor Vivien Schmidt about her research in political theory, the role of the state and democracy in Europe. Professor Schmidt also explains her search for better methodological approaches to studying politics focussing on the interactive processes of discourse.

The Department of Politics and International Studies hosted the third annual Warwick RIPE Debate in IPE in collaboration with the Review of International Political Economy. The main speaker at the 2010 debate was Professor Vivien Schmidt of Boston University. She spoke on the theme of 'The Fall, Rise, Fall and Rise of the State within Modern Capitalism - and how to explain it'.

The debate was chaired by the Head of PaIS, Professor Ben Rosamond. Additional speakers were two other hugely influential political economy scholars, Professor Colin Hay (University of Sheffield) and Professor Colin Crouch (Warwick Business School), speaking on the same theme. The event took the form of a roundtable discussion about the state and global capitalism.

Professor Charles Sheppard from the Department of Biological Sciences talks to Peter Dunn about his research into the biogeography and biodiversity of Indo-Pacific coral reefs, including the development of wide scale reef monitoring programmes. He discusses how important these government protected areas and their wildlife are to sustaining the lives of millions of people living around the Indian Ocean rim. Part of a team of international environmental marine researchers Professor Sheppard aims to preserve a fragile but healthy network of islands that make up the Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The team are confident that this special remote area of the world will now avoid the threat of overfishing, pollution and climate change that threatens the life of coral reefs across the world.

Rob Carpenter (TNS Magasin) presents on the high tech methods used by TNS Magasin, a pioneer in the field of shopper behavioural research. One of a range of research techniques demonstrated included "eye tracking". Eye Tracking utilises an infra-red beam, shone into the back of the retina to track the wearer's eye movements and fixations, offering far superior data on shoppers' attention than cameras that merely record field-of-view. Marketers can benefit from analysing exactly what the eye is drawn to on shelves, packaging and at point of sale.

Professor Paul Jennings, WMG presents on the neuroscientific research his Experiential Engineering team undertake to analyse the end users experience of products within key public sectors. The automotive industry, looking at sound quality in vehicles including hybrids, public places, Civic Engineering, looking at city centre design and the quality of public environments and the newer area of Healthcare looking at improving the experience within hospitals and care homes.

Professor Gemma Calvert, Chair of Applied Neuroimaging presents on the methods and technology that is enabling science to help marketers eliminate much of the risk in new product development. Demonstrating the potential to accurately predict and steer success in branding, advertising and packaging. Neuroimaging is about mapping brain responses to multi-sensory stimuli. It is one of the powerful neurosciences that are just about to revolutionize the way we market.

During a visit to the university to present a lecture, David Willetts MP, Shadow Minister for Universities and Skills, spoke to Peter Dunn about his new book "The Pinch: How the baby boomers took their children's future - and why they should give it back" which looks at intergenerational relations in Britain and argues that the baby boomer generation born between 1945 and 1965 have thrived at the expense of their children.

In response to the ongoing sub-prime crisis, the recently published Crosby Report recommends that the Government uses public money to swap bank’s seriously damaged mortgage-backed securities for pristine government bonds. Matthew Watson from the Department of Politics and International Studies at Warwick University talks about these recommendations, and how the global ‘credit crunch’ is affecting Labour’s popularity with the electorate.

Dr Jackie Sturt, from the Health Sciences Research Institute at Warwick Medical School, talks about the trial of the Diabetes Manual, the first one-to-one structured education programme for people with type 2 diabetes in the UK. Alongside her is Debbie Durk the practice nurse at a GP practice in Birmingham, who was part of the trial, and Angela Jones, a person with diabetes, who has been helped by the Diabetes Manual.