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Loughborough University

Loughborough University
Leicestershire, UK
LE11 3TU
+44 (0)1509 263171

The View - Autumn / Winter 2007

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The View round up

Loughborough in running to host Team GB for 2012 Olympics

The University has been shortlisted as one of three possible training camps for Team Great Britain ahead of the London 2012 Olympics.

Representatives from the British Olympic Association, whose director of elite performance is Loughborough graduate and former England rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward, have already visited the campus to inspect facilities. They will make a number of return visits throughout the year before a decision is made in December.

“If we are successful this will be a very big deal indeed,” said the University’s Director of Sport Chris Earle. “It will effectively mean the eyes of the world will be on Loughborough, Leicestershire and the East Midlands in the 10 to 12 weeks before the games when the British athletes will be here.”

“Loughborough probably has the best facilities in one square mile anywhere in the world.We would hope to work with the BOA to make additional improvements to help our Olympic team perform at its very best.”

Andy Borrie, Head of Performance Sport at Loughborough, said many of the British athletes who are likely to feature next year in Beijing and at London in 2012 are either already studying at Loughborough or using its world-class facilities and support services.

“Loughborough would be a known and very comfortable environment for them in the weeks leading up to London 2012,” Andy added. “The key for the next few years is to attract those student athletes who will be looking to compete at London in 2012, and who will be well acquainted with the facilities and coaching at the University.”

Chris Earle added that there had been considerable interest from other countries that are already scouting possible venues for training bases ahead of London 2012. However Team GB remains Loughborough’s main priority.

As well as leading the way on the sporting field, the University is also at the forefront in sports science research. The campus is home to the Centre for Olympic Studies and Research, a joint initiative between Loughborough and the British Olympic Foundation, and boasts a wealth of internationally acclaimed academic experts in this area.

Helping children to cope with cancer

Research by a Loughborough PhD student into the information needs of children of cancer patients could help young people learn how to cope with the emotional turmoil of having a sick parent.

Suzanie Adlina Mat Saat, who is based in the Department of Information Science, was inspired to conduct the research after joining the National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM) as Marketing Manager.

While working at the NCSM, Suzanie noticed that many cancer patients who visited its Resource and Wellness Centre in Kuala Lumpur would bring their children along. She soon discovered that there was a lack of support material for children of cancer patients, and that they were often the least informed when it came to sickness in the family – particularly when it concerned their parents.

She said: “Many parents are so concerned about their own health needs that they unknowingly push their children aside. Many also want to shield their loved ones from fear or hurt, but this can be very harmful to children.

“Children can begin to blame themselves about their parent’s illness, or feel resentment towards their mother or father for pushing them away. In some cases children can develop a dislike of hospitals or doctors because they associate them with their parent becoming sick.”

To try and bridge the information gap Suzanie is carrying out a survey of cancer patients with young children in Malaysia. This will involve working with both the parents and the children to explore a number of innovative information solutions.

It is hoped the findings of the survey will help her to develop more material for children that can be used to explain to them about cancer, both in Malaysia and across the world.

Taking mobile phone health monitoring to India

Mobile phone health monitoring systemLoughborough University engineers have forged a partnership with experts in India to develop their unique mobile phone health monitoring system.

The device, which was first unveiled in 2005, uses a mobile phone to transmit a person’s vital signs, including the complex electrocardiogram (ECG) heart signal, to a hospital or clinic anywhere in the world.

Created by Professor Bryan Woodward and Dr Fadlee Rasid from the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, the system enables a doctor to observe remotely up to four different medical signals from a freely moving patient. Signals that can be transmitted include the ECG, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and blood glucose level.

Now Professor Woodward has been awarded a grant by the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI), enabling him to join forces with experts in India on the project. Working with the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University and London’s Kingston University, he is hoping to miniaturise the system, designing ‘smart’ sensors and mini-processors that are small enough to be carried by patients and able to acquire biomedical data from them.

The network of sensors will be linked via a modem to mobile networks and the internet, and to a hospital computer. The device would then be used by doctors to remotely monitor patients suffering from chronic diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes, which affect millions of people across the world.

“Such a ‘Mobile Disease Management System’ is long overdue,” says Professor Woodward. “In the UK it will allow a more patient-driven health service, as promoted by the Government to improve the efficiency of health care delivery. In India, the project will link clinics and regional hospitals in remote areas to centres of excellence. As in the UK, the Indian Government is encouraging the integration of new and existing networks, much needed because of a large population spread over a vast area.

Clinical trials of the system will take place in the UK and India over the next three years.

Calculating the cost of children’s services

The Centre for Child and Family Research (CCFR) has developed a new computer application, designed to help local authorities monitor the costs of providing services and placements for children in care.

The application, called the Cost Calculator for Children’s Services (CCfCS), allows agencies to make use of the information already available in their system to accurately compare the value and benefits of different types of care. It offers a variety of report options and analyses that produce annual costs, costs for specific placements or individuals, and costs for different groups of children.

Developed in collaboration with seven local authorities and funded by the Department for Education and Skills, the flexible system is easy to implement by purchasing a user licence, which also includes the software, user guides and a consultancy service.

The CCfCS has already received a great deal of interest, both in the UK and overseas.

Loughborough’s Jean Soper, lead developer of the application, said: “Our aim is to equip local authorities with this tool which will enable them to commission better and more effective care services and improve decision making processes. It’s a very exciting time for this project and we’ve been encouraged by the positive response received so far.”

For further information about the CCfCS visit the website: www.ccfcs.org.uk

Students’ inventive ideas win top design awards

The imaginative designs of three Loughborough Industrial Design and Technology students have claimed top awards at this year’s RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) Design Direction Awards.

Richard Andrews received the National Patient Safety Agency Award of £1,500 in the ‘Design for Patient Safety’ category, for his self-service food catering system for hospitals, developed to give nurses more time to care for those who most need it.

Lauren Brooking’s design, ‘Sleepz’ – a system designed to maintain personal wellbeing through improved knowledge and understanding of sleep patterns – won her the GlaxoSmithKline cash award of £1,875 in the ‘Designing Wellbeing’ category.

Alert system for hearing impaired swimmersRichard Linford was presented with the BT Award worth £1,000 in the ‘Inclusive Worlds’ Category, for his alert system for hearing impaired swimmers, which notifies athletes of race starts and alerts them to their coach’s instructions during training.

Another student, Nikita Golovlev, was awarded ‘highly commended’ in the ‘Inclusive Worlds’ section, and a further six Loughborough University students were shortlisted in their chosen categories.

Paul Wormald, a lecturer in the University’s Department of Design and Technology, said of the students’ success:

“Our Design and Technology students performed excellently in the RSA competition. It is a significant achievement to have so many students do so well in this prestigious international design competition, and we’ve even improved on last year when we had seven students shortlisted and won two awards.”

The RSA highlights the best of British and European design. The Design Directions Awards, launched in 2003, are the RSA’s student awards scheme that challenges young designers to respond to projects with a strong social context and intend for them to question the role of the designer in the modern world.

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The View highlights the important and original research that takes place at Loughborough University – research that matters.

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Editor: Judy Wing
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E: J.L.Wing@lboro.ac.uk