Event schedule

Get ready for a fast-paced, high-energy session that brings the University’s strategy to life! 

The Strategic Slide Slam is an exciting new addition to this year’s Summer Showcase. Inspired by the spirit of a rap battle (with a scholarly twist!), this dynamic session features our Associate Pro Vice-Chancellors, each representing one of the University’s strategic themes. 

In just 20 minutes, they’ll take the stage to deliver sharp, engaging 5-minute presentations that: 

• Introduce a key strategic theme 
• Explain why it matters 
• Highlight how doctoral researchers contribute to its success 

It’s strategy made real, relevant, and just a little competitive — all in the friendliest way possible. Whether you're joining us in person or online, this is a session you won’t want to miss! 

Taking the stage:  

• Professor Steve Christie – Doctoral College 
• Professor John Downey – Climate Change and Net Zero 
• Professor David Fletcher – Sport, Health and Wellbeing 
• Professor Emily Knightley – Vibrant and Inclusive Communities  

This is the first of our Rapid Research Relay – a key skill in academia is summarising our research succinctly and making it real yet simple. So this is a 90 second challenge that 9 DRs have decided to take up!

So how will it work?

Like a relay… our researchers will pass the baton and… oh, but not an ordinary relay baton! Ours will be more special – the microphone!! Like a relay, we will wait to applause until the very end – once the baton has made it round all 9 of our DRs. 

During this relay you will be hearing about research from a variety of Schools and disciplines across campus.  

At the end of the 90 seconds you will hear the horn - toot! - and you will need to safely pass the baton to our next DR. 

At the end, we will randomly choose our prize winners for taking part! All will receive a participation certificate too.  

Meet our brave 90-second ‘baton’ bearers
(in running order)

1. Grainne Kelly, from School of Design and Creative Arts, will be telling us about how occupational health and safety consultants can work effectively with small and medium enterprises.  
2. Jiaying Xue, from School of Social Science and Humanities, polycentric urban regions and geographies of innovation: a case study of China’s Greater Bay area. 
3. Timipado Silikowei-imomotebegha, AACME, future of mentoring. 
4. Sun Keyki, School of Design and Creative Arts, constructing parasocial relationships in virtual influencers – the interplay of authenticity and storytelling. 
5. Neda Abbasimaleki, ABCE, Home as Her voice: women, Space and Everyday acts. 
6. Cellan Sheldon, Loughborough Business School, trust in artificial intelligence. 
7. Jessica Green, Science, early maths learning. 
8. Fiona Hughes, SDCA, the power of the musical. 

A highlight of this year’s Summer Showcase, the Poster Exhibition features the work of over 75 Doctoral Researchers across a wide range of disciplines.

Attendees are invited to explore the posters throughout the day and engage with researchers during this dedicated interactive session, where presenters will be available to discuss their work and answer questions.

An online gallery of posters is now available for a pre-view. In addition to formal judging, attendees can vote for their favourite poster during the event. A social media competition on LinkedIn will also take place—look out for posts using #LboroDRShowcase and help your favourites win by liking their entries before 1pm!

Exhibitors & posters

1. Qirui Zhang – Silent walls: exploring knowledge silos in global firms

2. Hengshuo Zhang – Comparison of intramedullary nail and locking plate in tibiotalocalcaneal arthrodesis: A finite element analysis

3. Joseph Hutchinson – Intersectional inequality in general and central obesity: a cross-sectional UK Biobank study using multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy

4. Ellie Gunner – Elevated obesity rates in UK HGV drivers: insights from a socio-economically matched population analysis

5. Harriet Holden – Life after prison: The importance of post-release studies on sports-based interventions (SBIs)

6. Mohamed Mahmoud – Mapping Loughborough's pedestrian activity using wifi

7. Kuldeep Sodha – Extending the theory of planned behaviour to investigate pedestrian red-light violation intentions in front of autonomous vehicles

8. Oscar Hutton – Body illusions provide a novel and effective route to accessible pain science education

9. Rachel Dennis – LA-ICP-MS Analysis of fingermarks developed using vacuum metal deposition: A preliminary investigation

10. Nada Yusuf – A Place For All of Us: Inclusive placement and employment opportunities for diverse engineering graduates

11. Faith Luciana Imhanze – Unveiling the past: Legacy pollutants and diatoms in UK reservoir sediments

12. Grainne Kelly – Supporting SMEs to improve OHS performance

13. Neve Fields – Multi-Scale planning and governance dialogues in inclusive modelling of devolved energy systems

14. Liaqat Ali Shah – Evaluating reforestation impacts on flood dynamics using long-short term memory (LSTM): insights from the swat catchment

15. Xiuyan Guo – The impact of smartwatch-driven self-quantification on individual well-being

16. Rachael Farayola – Health solutions that already work: A scoping review of positive deviance in the UK

17. Muhammad Zeeshan Asad – Influence of Amines on ZnO Co-Catalyst in Carbon capture and utilization to Methanol

18. Yang Li – Pedagogical approaches for facilitating student voice in secondary school physical education: A systematic review

19. Jonathan Randall – When culture meets code

20. Charuka Herath – Privacy preserving & secure distributed machine learning techniques using federated learning

21. Djema Emir – Mixing processes in the front of gravity currents

22. Greeshma Giridhar – Print. Mill. Recycle. Repeat: closing the loop on 3D printed concrete

23. Samia Qamar – Optimisation of energy efficiency in electric vehicle using eco driving

24. Sai Kulkarni – Seeing wind gusts: Advanced video tracking of tree branch motion captures extreme winds

25. Bibi Samshad Duman – Mapping textile design pedagogy in the UK: undergraduate insights from Loughborough University

26. Jenny Amann – Extra time: enabling climate action in/through football

27. Kartini Vosshage – Volatile organic compounds in breath - A diagnostic frontier

28. Zhuo Si – Information disclosure of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports

29. Doyin Oyerinde – Disconnected by default? Examining the gender digital divide in northern Nigeria

30. Xiaoyu Lin – Friend or Foe? Healthcare workers' perspectives on exoskeletons

31. Misbah Farooq – A trustworthy emotionally intelligent conversational AI

32. Pegah Aftabi – Co-creating and mapping urban heritage narratives on digital urban observatories

33. Mohsin Tunio – Depositor behaviour, bank failure and interbank deposit volatility

34. Eniola Ifeoluwa – Understanding the long-term economic returns of STEM and non-STEM education disciplines in UK

35. Nirosha Ushettige – Spray, set and heal: future of low carbon concrete

36. Hasan Alnoaimi – Foreign investment and European football

37. Tinghui Su – The impact of patent pledging on corporate investment efficiency

38. Jikun Yin – Older adults online risk defence and design affordance

39. Stuart Healy – Accounting for biodiversity by local authorities in England: The impact of the Environment Act 2021

40. Kate O'Neill – Drought’s price tag: cost of water-constraints on nuclear hydrogen cogeneration

41. Emily Cox – Fashion, digitalisation, & the climate crisis

42. Mohammad Tamim Kashifi – Benchmarking intra-driver heterogeneity car-following models using a behavioural and numerical evaluation framework

43. Princess Woy – Tending to the design garden - A path to understanding designing for (psychological) wellbeing

44. Karen Bedier – From vulnerable to resilient: strengthening small island developing states (SIDS) through optimal policy interventions

45. Inish D'Souza – Teaching robots more with less

46. Jordan McConnell – Intelligent and self-adapting ultrafast lasers with AI controllers: taming complex dynamics for high-power mode-locking fibre lasers

47. Dan O'Brien – Augmented reality number lines

48. Jiaying Xue – In what sense a polycentric urban regions?

49. Emma Cooper – Understanding polymer-protein interactions in polymeric nanoparticles

50. Gilbert Kesse Boateng – Assessing the post-implementation impact of Basel III in developing economies

51. Nicharuch Panjaphothiwat – Smart support, safe seniors: smart driving features in Thailand

52. Dantong Yan – Virtual influencers - opportunities and challenges in the context of luxury brands

53. Hoi Ling (Holly) Chan – Sexual violence against older adults in UK news

54. Fiona Hughes – The power of The Musical

55. Yu Zhao – The generation logic of adaptive governance mechanism in the context of compound disaster: a disaster response case from China

56. Haider Syed – An ill wind: modelling the potential impacts of Newhurst incinerator

57. Mia Baig – Misaligned visions: academic–industry divide in graphic design education

58. Timipado Imomotebegha – Human-centred AI mentoring: personalised support for women in engineering

59. Hwa Yeoung (Heather) Lee – Levelling the field: advancing sustainable involvement of adult women in football

60. Danyang Wei – How your brainstem helps control your muscles

61. Niloufar Seyed Majidi – Mitigating fake reviews on e-commerce platforms, from a behavioural strategy perspective

62. Qian Qian – Effects of Tai Chi training on postural control in individuals with chronic ankle instability

We are delighted to welcome you to one of this year’s new displays: Images of Research. Doctoral Researchers were invited to tap into their adventurous and creative spirit by distilling their research into an image for a gallery display. The successful submissions include digital creations, photographs and drawing/ collage/ mixed media.  

Please share your reflections and appreciation of their work on the day. Post its and pens will be made available (to be attached next to the colleague’s work). You can also vote for People’s Choice.  

Presenters

1. Neda Abbasimaleki, ‘Domesticity in [Focus]: The Visual Narrative of Modern Homes and Women’, School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering 
2. Bibi Duman, ‘The Weight of Thread’, School of Design and Creative Arts 
3. Amani Al-Maghrabi, ‘Social Media meets the Supply Chain: from Likes, Loops, to Logistics’, Loughborough Business School 
4. Sai Kulkarni, ‘Seeing Extreme Winds: Using Tree Motion Videos for Urban Wind Analysis’, School of Social Sciences and Humanities 
5. Tom Bennett, ‘Boundary Stone’, Geography and Environment 
6. Hajar Al-Maghrabi, ‘Strategic to ensure the supply of semiconductors in automotive supply chains’, Loughborough Business School 
7. Yajie Hu, ‘More Than Just Sustainability’, School of Design and Creative Arts 
8. Oscar Hutton, ‘Do we need protecting?’, School of Sport, Exercise, and Health Sciences 
9. Eyram Tawia, ‘Play to Participate: Reimagining Civic Engagement in Ghana’s Digital Democracy’, Geography and Environment 
10. Aditya Ranjan, ‘Prison Society and Caste’, Social Sciences and Humanities 

Get ready to experience research like never before! At this year’s Summer Showcase, several doctoral researchers will present hands-on activities and fascinating outputs that bring their work to life. From interactive demonstrations using research tools and techniques to creative artefacts born from their investigations, there’s something for everyone to explore and enjoy. 

As you journey through the exhibits, you’ll also have the chance to vote for your favourite interactive experience — so get involved and help celebrate the most captivating research on display! 

Exhibitors

1. Bibi Samshad Duman, ‘Textile Through Time’ (Design and Creative Arts)  
2. Fiona Hughes, ‘The Power of the Musical’ (Design and Creative Arts) 
3. Timipado Imomotebegha, ‘AI Mentoring’ (Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering) 
4. Danielle Vaughan, ‘Paperpeutic Playtime’ (Design and Creative Arts) 

New to the Summer Showcase this year is the Research Vlog feature - a creative and engaging way to explore the research journeys of our doctoral community through video. 

These short vlogs offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the research journeys of our doctoral community. Whether capturing early ideas, creative processes, personal reflections, or real-world applications, each video presents a unique perspective. Together, they reveal the diverse experiences, challenges, and moments of discovery that shape life as a researcher. 

It’s a fresh, dynamic addition to the Showcase, bringing research to life on screen and offering new ways to connect with the work happening across the University. 

Our doctoral filmmakers

1. Alistair Kidd - ‘Witnessing War Through Research: Emotional Resilience in the Face of Graphic Content’ (Social Sciences and Humanities) 
2. Donna Otchere - ‘PhDonna Diaries: Soft Life, Serious Research’ (Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering) 
3. Odein Princewill - ‘Routed’ (Social Sciences and Humanities) 
4. Eyram Akofa Tawia - ‘Gaming, Gamification and Political Engagement in Ghana’ (Social Sciences and Humanities) 
5. Zihui (Cara) Xu - ‘PhD, Mum, Multi-Tasker’ (Social Sciences and Humanities) 

Developed by the University of Queensland, Australia, 3MT® is a dynamic and inspiring communication competition where doctoral researchers have just three minutes and one static slide to deliver a compelling presentation on their thesis and its impact - all for a non-specialist audience.

This prestigious university final brings together the winners from each School’s 3MT® heats to compete for the top spot. It’s a unique opportunity to witness the power of concise, engaging storytelling as our researchers distil years of work into just a few unforgettable minutes. 

Whether you're competing or cheering from the audience, the 3MT® Grand Final promises to be a highlight of the Summer Showcase - celebrating research, creativity, and the art of communication! 

This year’s 3MT® finalists

1. Siyuan Li, ‘How to make Autonomous Vehicles decide like a Human Driver?’ (Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering)
2. Nirosha Ushettige, ‘Spray, Set, Heal: A low carbon solution for repair industry’ (Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering)
3. Bahar Moraligi, ‘Don’t Judge a Leader by Their Reluctance’ (Business) 
4. Ben Keyser, ‘Barriers to repair: Exploring social-economic, accessibility and awareness factors to engagement with product repair in a throw-away culture’ (Design and Creative Arts) 
5. Aisy Irwan, ‘Behind Every Smart Tool Is a Smarter Human’ (Loughborough University London) 
6. Henry Priestley, ‘Computational Modelling and Testing of Inverse Compton Scattering Sources for Medical Applications’ (Science) 
7. Lucy Brennan, ‘Drawing Feminism Ulysses’ (Social Sciences and Humanities) 
8. Matthew Putland, ’Running Wild: The Benefits of Green Exercise’ (Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences) 
9. Shuxin Meng, ‘Knitting Biomechanics into Clothing: A New Technology for Universal Healthcare’ (Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering) 

Judging panel

Our expert judging panel is gearing up for the tough task of selecting the winner. This year’s panel includes: 

• • Professor Nick Jennings, Vice-Chancellor and President 
  • Professor Steve Christie, Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor – Doctoral College 
  • Ffyona Baker, Chief People Officer and Deputy Chief Operating Officer 
  • Dr Joanne Jennings, Visiting Member 

Join us for Demystifying Dan – an insightful session where our Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research & Innovation, Professor Dan Parsons, shares his journey from research novice to doctoral researcher and beyond. Discover the motivations behind his research, the challenges he’s faced along the way, and how those experiences have shaped his current role. Dan will also reflect on the vital role doctoral researchers play in driving innovation, enriching academic communities, and contributing to the university’s mission. Whether you're just starting out or deep into your doctorate, this is a chance to connect, reflect, and be inspired. 

Whether it’s clever, creative, or completely unexpected, the No-Bell Prize is always a crowd favourite. Come along to see doctoral researchers step onto the stage to share their research in the most entertaining, accessible, and surprising ways. Expect big ideas, no jargon, and some (but hopefully not many!) bells! 

What makes NBP special? 

No slides or digital media - presentations rely on voice, presence, and perhaps a well-chosen prop or two. 

Creativity - formats may vary from a song, dance, poetry, mime, or any other expressive approach that brings the research to life. 

Judging Criteria

Primary: Is the explanation accessible and inclusive for a general audience? 

Secondary: Is it engaging, enthusiastic, and entertaining (or intriguing, compelling, and riveting)? 

This year’s entrants & their memorble stories

1. Sadia Bakhtiar - ‘Piezoelectric Wind Energy Harvesting for Environmental Sensing Applications’  (Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering) 
2. Jess Green - ‘Math Roots: Growing Early Thinkers’ (Science) 
3. Charuka Herath - ‘Machine Intelligence and Humanity’ (Loughborough University London) 
4. Megan Huggett - ‘Why is it so Difficult to Define Trauma and Resilience?’ (Social Sciences and Humanities) 
5. Fiona Hughes - ‘The Power of The Musical’ (Design and Creative Arts) 
6. Amy Jennison-Boyle and Oscar Hutton - ‘Don’t Lose Your Head!’ (Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences) 
7. Elizabeth Jane Lovely - ‘Once Upon a Time for a Happily Ever After’ (Design and Creative Arts) 
8. Eyram Akofa Tawia - ‘Politics is Serious! But Who Says it Can't Be Fun?’ (Social Sciences and Humanities) 

Meet the judges (aka The Bell Ringers – ding dong!)  

• Dr Tina Byrom – Head of Enhanced Academic Practice 
• Jennifer Johnson – Director of the Research & Innovation Office 
• Kelly Auty – Head of Knowledge Exchange Development & Evaluation – Nottingham Trent University