FOS Lecturers attended FOS Workshop "How to Get the Best Out of Research Student" by Prof Eran (Loughborough University)
Research students, whether they are Masters or PhD, can be an invaluable asset to academics. To early career academics who have just completed their PhD and have taken up their first academic post, a research student can provide an extra pair of hands to support research. However, to get the best out of a research student, some careful planning, thoughtful project initiation, and management is essential.
The Faculty of Science organised a one-day workshop entitled "How to get the best out of Research Student" by FOS visiting professor, Professor Eran Edirisinghe. The workshop was held on the 16th March 2016 at Room 3, Ground Floor, ILIA Building and around 20 young academics from different faculties and programmes at UBD attended the workshop. During the brainstorming discussion which was conducted in groups, the participants were able to identify;
- how to attract the best research students and keep them motivated
- projects that will be appropriate to a student’s qualifications, experience and ability
- how to effectively plan and efficiently manage a project
- how to manage the student’s and academic’s personal expectations
- how to deal with a project’s resource and data needs
- how to mitigate risks, manage collaborations and stakeholder involvement
- how to measure research outcomes and know when a student is ready to defend
- how to help the student write up and defend the thesis
The workshop also allowed the facilitator to share his own experiences with the participants on the topic.
About the facilitator: Prof Eran A Edirisinghe is the Professor of Digital Imaging, Loughborough University, UK and holds the post of the Associate Dean for Enterprise, School of Science, Loughborough University. He has published 120+ research publications and has received research grant income in excess of £ 8M from the UK industry and funding councils to support his work. Further Prof Edirisinghe’s research team at Loughborough University won two, prestigious, Loughborough University Enterprise Awards for Knowledge Transfer in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Since the start of his academic career in 2000, Prof Edirisinghe has successfully supervised 29 PhD students to completion and 100+ Masters projects. These students currently hold high profile posts in industry and academia, internationally. He is currently supervising 17 full-time PhD students in his areas of research expertise. Prof Edirisinghe is currently responsible for creating and delivering the Enterprise Strategy of the School of Science, Loughborough University comprising of Departments of Computer Science, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematical Sciences and the Mathematics Education Centre.
