Academic Marginalia

My out of office message in on, my inbox is empty ... Image by Solen Feyissa from Pixabay My out of office message is on, my inbox is empty ... and mesmerised by Microsoft's floating balloon animation, I thought of writing about how I got here. Keeping up with all the information, requests for action and questions that flow into our email inboxes often seems a losing battle, but it doesn’t have to be so. It is increasingly common to see colleagues share their victory over the deluge of messages by reaching “Inbox Zero” and it is something I have improved my ability to do over the past couple of years.  I don’t always get to zero every day or week, but I can often get to below 10 messages to deal with, and even hit zero from time to time. My method is similar to that adopted by others, but I thought of documenting it here as a way for me to refer to it in the future, and also in case it helps others. Unread e-mails result https://t.co/DdB3jZJ3pp pic.twitter.com/q7hoTFHCUi — PHD...

At a recent research away day, attendees were prompted to reflect on their personal values and share an image that could represent these.  The image I shared was based on the picture shown above, and was inspired a story from Buddhist teachings called the Sedaka Sutta . In the teaching, the Buddha describes two acrobats who were talking about how best they should work together: Once upon a time, monks, a bamboo acrobat,  setting himself upon his bamboo pole,  addressed his assistant Medakathalika:  "Come you, my dear Medakathalika,  and climbing up the bamboo pole,  stand upon my shoulders."  "Okay, master" the assistant Medakathalika  replied to the bamboo acrobat;  and climbing up the bamboo pole  she stood on the master's shoulders. So then the bamboo acrobat said this to his assistant Medakathalika:  "You look after me, my dear Medakathalika, and I'll look after you.  Thus with us looking after one another, guarding ...

from the Mental Health Foundation ( https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk ) This is "Mental Health Awareness Week" ( https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week ) and the theme being highlighted by the Mental Health Foundation is kindness. Often kindness focusses on how we treat others, whether by helping when we see someone in need, or spontaneously. We are also reminded of the importance of being kind to ourselves but this is something that can be more challenging. The following are some personal reflections on kindness to oneself, influenced by talks heard, things read, and words and deeds done and seen over the years. Our kindness aims to alleviate someone's pain, or help them overcome a challenge, or even simply to surprise them with something they enjoy. Whatever the context in which kindness manifests, one thing I've noticed is that it has the greatest impact when it is rooted in a good understanding of the other person's situati...

Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay Normally, when writing this end of year reflection I have focussed on all the successes that I have experienced and not mentioned any of the challenges or failures that always punctuate academic life. From the missed deadlines for research papers or grant applications, to the seemingly inevitable rejections that follow those that do get submitted, and the sense of being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work - these are common experiences to all of us in academia and indeed versions of these experiences are common to everyone. It is not a revelation that challenging experiences and failures in life are important learning opportunities - indeed more important than the successes in some respects.  Reflecting on both types of experience to reinforce positive behaviours and identify areas to adapt ones behaviour when needed, but it is not necessarily a given that this learning happens.  My own practice in this regard has been inconsiste...

I recently had an opportunity to share my STEM Journey with students who attended the Stemettes Monster Confidence event at CDW in Peterborough.  The slides below are from my talk, which highlights how my interest in computing and electronics, and a sustained curiosity that has led me to a career in academia. My STEM Journey - Arosha K. Bandara   from  Arosha Bandara

I recently gave a talk to colleagues in the School of Computing & Communications on my experience of developing a cross-disciplinary research agenda, grounded in software engineering but reaching out to build collaborations with colleagues working in artificial intelligence, human computer interaction, social psychology, policing, health and social care. I discussed some of the differences between multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research together with the opportunities for innovation, impact and inclusion that arise through these activities.  The talk also covered ways of overcoming some of the challenges of cross-disciplinary research at a personal, group and systemic level.  I suggest a credo for this type of research agenda should include openness, competence, courage and curiosity. The slides from this talk are available below. Working at the Edge: Developing a Cross-disciplinary Research Agenda   from  Arosha Bandara ...

UPDATE: Exciting opportunities to join the team for this research project - we have vacancies for a  Software Engineering post-doc:  http://www.open.ac.uk/about/employment/vacancies/post-doctoral-research-associate-15086   and a Research Software Engineer:  http://www.open.ac.uk/about/employment/vacancies/research-software-engineer-15085 I am excited to learn that our bid to undertake a new EPSRC funded research project, "Citizen Forensics" has been successful.  The project sits at the intersection of software engineering, psychology, policing and power/politics/economics, exploring the use of technology to improve collaboration between citizens and the police.  I will be leading the project, which will involve my colleagues Blaine Price, Bashar Nuseibeh, Graham Pike (OU Psychology / Centre for Policing Research & Learning), Mark Levine (Psychology Exeter) and Peter Bloom (OU Faculty of Business & Law). A key challenge of the...