A Cardiff postgraduate student has been awarded first prize for the best scientific presentation at a national MRI conference.

Jess Steventon, a PhD student in the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC) fought off stiff competition at the annual postgraduate conference of the British Chapter of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine to claim the prize.

At the event, Jess presented findings from her research which is looking at the impact of environment enrichment on the macrostructure and microstructure of the brain in a model of Huntington’s disease, along with the results of data she’d collected at the University’s Experimental MRI Centre.

Professor Derek Jones, MRI Director of CUBRIC which is based in the School of Psychology and Jess’ PhD supervisor said: “This is a fantastic accomplishment for Jess, and she should be duly proud to have achieved this award so early in her PhD. The translational MRI pipeline is becoming increasingly important in neuroscience, and so it is very fitting that Jess has been recognised for her efforts in championing this work at Cardiff.”

Niall McCann, a researcher within the School of Biosciences, will seek out fantastic animals in far corners of the earth in his new programme, Biggest and Baddest, airing 9pm on Monday, 18 February.

The series, which has already aired in Canada and the US, will see the Alberta-born biologist-come-adventurer use every mode of transport available – by land, sea, on planes, in a Jeep, by canoe, and on elephant back – to seek out the world’s largest animals.

Read the full story here.

Imitation Game (IMGAME/Masquerade)
·        Jan-Philip Meyer, PhD Pharmacy
·        Samuel Woodford, MPhil Architecture
·        Charlotte Seymour, MA Journalism
·        Yongru Wang, MSc Business
·        Satyam Gupta, MSc Computer Science
·        Mengran Zhang, MSc Business
·        Fang-Ming (Zhu) Zhu, MEng Engineering

The winning team worked well together to quickly get to grips with the technology and to identify the business opportunity. They developed a strong business plan identifying relevant applications and target markets. They had some constraints on primary research, but contacted as many organisations as possible to validate their ideas.  The judges felt that the team produced a very professional report and a strong presentation with some well considered recommendations to aid the project in its future development.

All the iSolve participants have worked extremely hard, and dedicated a considerable amount of their time to the programme. They have developed their team working and interpersonal skills as well as their commercial and business skills and we hope they’ve had some fun along the way! In recognition of their efforts, all participating students receive a certificate for their involvement in the programme and the work they have carried out for the Principal Investigator.

Find out more about iSolve here.

Samuel Sequeira from ENCAP was awarded £2,920 for ‘Engaging with Diversity: Developing Skills in Public Engagement and Research Impact’. He received funding for a programme of training activities, held in collaboration with Butetown History & Arts Centre, which will develop skills related to practical partnership working and public engagement.  Its primary aim is to train PhD students and other early career researchers working in areas related to multiculturalism in how to engage effectively with ethnic minority community groups and make impact central to their research activities.

Sara Sylvester from JOMEC, was awarded £2,500 for her project, ‘Making Media Matter for 21st Century Teachers and Learners: Demystifying Representational Theory at KS5 & Promoting Pedagogical Excellence in Media Education’.

The project will involve up to 10 PhD students who will collaborate with practitioners in the Department of Media at Whitchurch High School to develop and deliver a programme of study to A-level students to enhance their media literacy skills.  This project identifies media literacy education as an intentional and essential framework in which to develop and catalyze essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions for 21st-century teacher preparation and Key Stage 5 film/media students (A-level).