Amongst the winners are:
Engineering - Dr Alice Haynes
In Touch; Affective haptics for embodied communication and connection
We rarely consider the importance of touch until we are starved of it. But, as the pandemic showed, touch is an important part of our health, relationships and communication. Dr Alice Haynes’ research focussed on designing and making devices that promote connection and well-being through touch.
Her favourite project (funded by the University’s Brigstowe Institute; with assistance from textiles designer Annie Lywood) was a cushion that expands and contracts to simulate breathing, leading to a calming effect similar to mediation.
Dr Haynes said: “We also explored how the cushion could provide couples with a means of staying connected when in long distance relationships by feeling each other’s breathing through the cushion.
“It offered a way for couples to feel present with one another without the need for a screen - which could be supportive at quiet times of day like going to sleep or watching a movie on the sofa 'together’.”
The PLOS ONE publication (about the calming cushion) was featured in several news stories such as CBS news, New Scientist and Neuroscience News. Dr Haynes also had publications in IEEE-RAL and CHI.
Dr Haynes is now doing a postdoc at Universität des Saarlandes, western Germany, with the HCI Group led by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Steimle.
Dr Haynes’ supervisors were Professor Jonathan Rossiter and Dr Chris Kent.
Life Sciences - Dr James Daly
Molecular Insights into the Role of Endosomal Recycling in Health and Disease
Recycling isn’t just important on a societal level, but also on a cellular level. While we recycle plastics and glass, our bodies are recycling important biomolecules such as proteins and lipids, reducing demand for raw materials and limiting the build-up of toxins.
Dr James Daly’s PhD focussed on endosomes, which act as waste management and recycling stations inside cells. He suggested a model for how a protein complex that regulates this sorting process protects against neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
When the pandemic hit, Dr Daly became involved in a project investigating how a receptor protein at the surface of cells, Neuropilin-1, interacts with SARS-CoV-2 – the strain that causes COVID-19.
“Together, we demonstrated that Neuropilin-1 facilitates the infection process, which represented a significant advance into the understanding of this virus during the pandemic,” he said.
Dr Daly has now been awarded a Welcome Early Career Award to further explore the role of Neuropilin receptors in viral infection in Professor Michael Malim’s lab at King’s College London.
Dr Daly’s supervisors were Professor Pete Cullen and Professor Jeremy Henley.
Arts - Dr Luca Castaldo
Truth and paradox: a (mostly) proof-theoretic investigation
Truth and paradoxes have been fundamental to the development of philosophy. Paradoxes led to the foundational crisis of mathematics in the early 20th century, while truth is one of the key concepts inspiring philosophical investigations.
Dr Luca Castaldo’s thesis moves around two underlying questions:
- Can different forms of reasoning capture the same conception of truth and paradox?
- Can we provide a unique formal framework modelling the behaviour of both concepts?
The main contribution of Dr Castaldo’s was introducing new concepts and criteria for comparing different forms of reasoning, and in providing a unified theory of truth and paradox.
Dr Castaldo said: “Research is a collaborative enterprise, and this thesis could not have been written without the expert guidance of my supervisors Johannes Stern, Philip Welch and Leon Horsten.
“By providing invaluable suggestions over the years, they contributed immensely to the development of this work. I owe them my deepest gratitude.”
Dr Castaldo has had publications in several journals, including Studia Logica, Review of Symbolic Logic and Erkenntnis.
Dr Castaldo is now Assistant Professor in the University of Warsaw’s Department of Philosophy. His supervisors were Dr Johannes Stern, Professor Philip Welch and Professor Leon Horsten (Prof Horsten is an external supervisor).