School of Psychology research seminar: Real-world impact of psychological research (Prof Miles Hewstone)

Wed, 26TH SEPTEMBER, 3-4pm

GUEST SPEAKER: Prof Miles Hewstone

Title: Real-world impact of psychological research: What it is, and some tips for how to achieve it

Prof Miles Hewstone (Oxford University and UON Global Innovation Chair on Social Cohesion) will share his experience from the UK REF (equivalent to our own ERA) research assessment process, and the increasing importance attached to research impact. Research impact is the effect that research has on “the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, environment, quality of life that is beyond academia”.

Two illustrative case studies will be considered – one from clinical psychology, and one from social psychology. Emphasis will be placed on how long it takes to have impact, and hence the need to identify potential impacts early, the need to work closely with people in the worlds of policy and practice, as well as government, and the need to document ‘impact’ as objectively as possible.

The seminar will be interactive, and we can hopefully discuss some of your own actual or developing impacts, and how to maximise their effectiveness.

Location: Keats AVLG-17

zoom conference to Ourimbah science room SOE.131-132 via link: https://uonewcastle.zoom.us/j/786538107

No rsvp required. Light refreshments will be provided

School of Psychology research seminar: Modeling Dynamic Social Networks

The UoN School of Psychology is proud to present:

19TH SEPTEMBER GUEST SPEAKER: Dr MOHSEN ZAMANI

Location: Keats AVLG-17 

and video conference to Ourimbah EXSA-102 Room

No rsvp required

Light refreshments will be provided

Date: Wednesday 19th September 2018 Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm

Title: Modeling and Analysis of Dynamic Social Networks

Mohsen did his undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering at the Shiraz University of Technology. He then did his master studies again in Electrical Engineering at the National University of Singapore in 2009. He did his PhD under supervision of Prof. Brian. D.O. Anderson at Research School of Engineering inthe Australian National University in 2014. He iscurrently a post-doctoral researcher at the NewcastleUniversity, Australia. His research interests includesecurity, control, estimation and optimization for cyber-physical systems and analysis of social networks.In the past, social networks consisted of a limited number of individuals discussing an issue. However, with the ever-growing speed of technology, this number has increased exponentially. Individuals in a social network can influence each other's opinions on various topics. Hence, it is of utmost importance to comprehend the underlying structure of opinion dynamics in social networks. Understanding how opinions are formed in a social network and the patterns of relationships among individuals can help us realize the weaknesses, strengths, and interests of individuals. In this talk, I introduce some of the existing model sets that have been proposed for capturing evolution of opinions within social groups. Several model sets will be introduced and relations between them will be analyzed

Cognitive Group seminar on Aviation Cmmunication

Dr Dominique Estival from the University of Western Sydney will visit Newcastle this coming Thursday and will present her work on Aviation Communication.

WHEN: Thursday Sept 6, 12-1pm

WHERE: Keats room, Psychology/Aviation building

WHAT: Cog seminar on 'Aviation Communication'

Abstract:

Between 1976 and 2000, more than 1,100 passengers and crew lost their lives in accidents in which investigators determined that language had played a contributory role.Although Aviation English has been established as the international language of aviation, communication between pilots and Air Traffic Control (ATC) is still not always error-free. Problems can be exacerbated when one or more of the speakers use English as a second (or third) language.  Conducted from a human factors and a linguistic perspective, research on communication errors made by pilots investigated the factors impacting on communication accuracy (including workload, information density, rate of speech and native language). Results from experiments conducted in a flight simulator and results from a recent study of LiveATC recordings at Sydney airport will be presented.

Bio:

Dominique Estival holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. As a linguist, her research spans the computational modelling of language change, machine translation, linguistic engineering, spoken dialogue systems and aviation communication. As a pilot and a flight instructor, she has first-hand experience of student pilots’ difficulties with radio communication and she studies how pilot training, language background and contextual factors affect pilots’ ability to communicate while flying. Her recent book “Aviation English: A lingua franca for pilots and air traffic controllers” will soon appear in paperback.