Our talented Product Design students are holding a Work in Progress show at 4pm on Thursday 23 March. If you’d like to find out more about the range of projects each year group are working on at the moment, come along to the heavy engineering building and have a look around.
We have a number of events for offer holders and applicants giving you the chance to chat to staff and students to help you in your decision making. They’re a great way to learn more about the course you have applied for and get to know us better.
When you book we’ll show you relevant dates for your course and which campus to come to. You can also check the campus where your course is based using our course finder.
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About your applicant event
Our applicant days vary but typically include a subject session, an interactive session, facilities tour, student experience talk, campus tour and accommodation tour.
You can also find out more about student life through our advice desks which are available on the day.
The University of Brighton’s graduate shows have been announced for 2023 – the undergraduate shows kick off on 3rd June 2023 and the MA show starts on 7th July.
Graduates from the following courses will be showing their work at the University of Brighton’s 2023 graduate show:
University of Brighton researcher Julia Meister will showcase her ground-breaking work to MPs and Peers as a finalist in this year’s STEM For BRITAIN competition.
Julia is studying for a PhD in Computing in the University’s School of Architecture, Technology and Engineering, and is among a group of rising young scientists, engineers and mathematicians chosen as finalists in this year’s STEM For BRITAIN competition, which will take place at Westminster on 6 March.
STEM for BRITAIN is a major scientific poster competition and exhibition which has been held in Parliament since 1997, and is organised by the Parliamentary & Scientific Committee as part of British Science Week. It aims to give members of both Houses of Parliament an insight into the outstanding research work being undertaken in UK universities by early-career researchers across the UK. Prizes are awarded for the posters presented in each discipline which best communicate high level science, engineering or mathematics to a non-expert audience.
Julia’s submission was a poster setting out her ground-breaking research to drive down healthcare waste and help the healthcare sector reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
She said: “Two years ago, my grandad passed away without access to the medical care he urgently needed because our hospitals were overwhelmed by COVID-19. Ever since, I have aspired to develop digital health solutions during my PhD, combining robust mathematical models with data-driven systems.
“Since last year, I have worked closely with the NHS and international healthcare providers to develop a new carbon emissions framework for hospital equipment. This impactful research has helped the NHS reduce the number of single-use devices and inspired me to share our results at the STEM for BRITAIN exhibition. The event is a unique platform for me to connect to government policymakers directly, enabling my research to address the pressing Net Zero challenge facing us all.
“I’m very grateful to my supervisor, Dr Khuong An Nguyen, for encouraging and supporting me to share my research at STEM for BRITAIN. Ultimately, I wish to contribute to a more sustainable, unburdened, and accessible healthcare infrastructure so that patients like my grandad can receive the care they deserve.”
Julia’s PhD supervisor, Dr Khuong An Nguyen, said: “STEM for Britain is a fantastic opportunity for rising research stars to showcase their work to politicians on a national stage. I’m incredibly proud of Julia for making it through to the final and I know she’ll do a great job of showcasing her ground breaking research.”
Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chair of the Parliamentary & Scientific Committee, said: “This annual competition is an important date in the parliamentary calendar because it gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country’s best young researchers.
“These early career engineers, mathematicians and scientists are the architects of our future, and STEM for BRITAIN is politicians’ best opportunity to meet them and understand their work.”
Brighton graduate blasts off for six-month mission on the International Space Station
University of Brighton graduate Dr Sultan Al Neyadi will make history as the first Arab astronaut to take part in a long duration space mission on 26 February.
Dr Al Neyadi will be part of a NASA/SpaceX crew bound for a six-month stay on the International Space Station, blasting off on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, USA.
Dr Al Neyadi, 41, said he “felt ready and excited” for the launch, scheduled for 07.07am GMT on Sunday 26 February. “Just the idea of waking up every morning and having access to a window you can see and scan the whole world in 90 minutes is amazing,” he said during a recent NASA media briefing.
Continue reading “Brighton graduate blasts off for six-month mission on the International Space Station”
We spoke to Alex Witty, who graduated in 2022 with a Product Design BSc(Hons), and is the Founder of The Piezo Project, to find out about his Brighton Effect story.
Q: How did your experience at Brighton bring you to where you are now personally or professionally?
Brighton enabled me to think freely and really explore my true interests and passions, which enabled me to grow in confidence and start my own business off the back of my final year project. Brighton allowed me to be extremely creative and frankly, just pretty weird which allowed me to explore my passions without any judgment but instead, support and backing. I can say for sure that without being at the University of Brighton I would not be doing my dream job right now in running my own business.
Q: Share a memory from your time at Brighton:
One of my favourite moments at Brighton came during my final year in lockdown actually. I was in a house just off Lewes road with three of my best mates (and also coursemates) and I was just hit by a wave of happiness one random day as we all emerged from our rooms to converge in the living room to work on our final year project. Everyone was doing completely different projects but all trying to work together in the same space. For example, John was on a zoom with the founder of Club Penguin whilst Fergus was holding himself upside down on some handstand bars he’d made in the workshop and Gamal was 3D printing a water fuelled oscillating shark for his weekly catch-up meeting. I remember looking up from my laptop and noticing the hilarity in the stark difference in interests between me and my friends and how The University of Brighton had brought us all together into this shared space to explore our weird and wonderful passions together. I think perhaps the cabin fever of lockdown twinned with the sleepless nights caused by final year deadline stress made this memory a lot funnier in my head, but hopefully, a slither of that comes across through this story.
Q: Tell us something you are proud of that you have achieved since graduating:
Launching my own business in 2021 after building the foundations in my final year at University is something I’m immensely proud of. I’ve been able to involve my parents in my work which has been incredibly rewarding as well as being able to work alongside designers and artists that I referenced and wrote about in my dissertation.
Q: What does success mean to you?
Success to me means saying you’re going to do something and going through with it and getting it done. It may well not bear fruit but at least you have exhausted that avenue and you know more for it now. Ultimately, if you are improving exponentially day after day, whether it be tightening up your sleep pattern or simply eating cleaner, I think one should only judge success based on one’s previous self, any external comparison is mentally taxing, unjust and destructive.
Q: What wisdom or advice do you have for someone embarking on their own Brighton journey?
Try as many different interests, passions, and curiosities as possible. Don’t be scared of rejection, failure, or embarrassment because ultimately no one cares or remembers what you do besides you. Everyone is too worried about what they’re doing to worry about what you are doing or did. Embrace the uncomfortable, explore your limits, and delve into your curiosities.
“It’s crazy to think that a small sketch during my degree has turned into a product that is now on the market. It’s an inventor’s dream!”
That is the view of University of Brighton graduate and entrepreneur Liam Murphy, who celebrates a major milestone this week as his mindfulness product for kids goes on sale.
Liam has launched his product, The Stix Mindfulness Remotes, to market on 2 February 2023 with the aim of improving children’s mental wellbeing through fun, interactive mindfulness activities.
Continue reading “Brighton graduate celebrates as mindfulness product for kids hits the shelves”
Hannah Wood is a Principal Lecturer in the built environment subject area, focusing specifically on construction and project management. Hannah’s experience in the construction industry began in topographical surveying, moving into construction engineering and management.
My interest in engineering and construction goes back to my childhood, my father was a topographical surveyor and I used to spend a lot of my school holidays accompanying him to work which I always enjoyed. Initially I was planning on studying to be a civil engineer, but after attending some university open days and finding out more about the industry I decided that Construction Management would be the best fit for me.
I grew up just outside of Brighton and have always loved the city, so much so that I did both my undergraduate degree and PhD here at the University of Brighton. Brighton is an amazing city to be a student, it is a vibrant, diverse and inclusive city and has something to offer everyone. Teaching was never something I had really considered before doing my PhD, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to teach alongside my PhD studies and this is when academia became my primary career objective. As much as I had loved working out on construction sites, I found teaching to be just as interesting and challenging and equally satisfying when you can see the progress that your students have made.
I try to include as many real life projects and examples in my teaching to help student understand how things happen in the industry. My modules also involved lots of practical work so that students can apply the knowledge from lectures into practice to help them deepen their understanding of concepts. Drawing on my research and experience in industry allows me to broaden students’ horizons by providing them with lots of different examples which demonstrate how diverse and exciting the construction industry can be.
Achieving my PhD alongside teaching part time is one of my proudest achievements personally. In my career overall I am probably most proud of the success our students go on to have. Seeing students graduate after three of four years of hard work is a great moment and it is always mice when graduates keep in touch and update us with what they are working on now – to have been a part of their career journey is great feeling.
We spend so much of our time in buildings and therefore they have a huge impact on how we live. Buildings play a role in many aspects including climate change and sustainability, equality and inclusivity and wellbeing of users and occupants.
One of my research interests is specifically around inclusivity and diversity in the construction industry and involves investigating the experiences of women and people from minority ethnic backgrounds in the construction industry in order to increase representation of these groups at all levels in the industry. I am also passionate about encouraging more young people to consider the construction industry as a career option. My research interests also cover new technologies in the construction industry and how they can be applied, many of which can be used to make construction more sustainable.
I always tell prospective students to consider the whole University experience, obviously the course is a major aspect of your university life but being somewhere that you feel comfortable and happy is just as important. Make sure you get involved with clubs/societies or other social activities to keep a good work life balance!
One of my favourite things about teaching is seeing the development and improvement in a students confidence and ability, it is a very rewarding part of the job of an academic. Students are supported in so many ways at university, not just in their academic life but in many different aspects. In my role as a lecturer I support students through their academic work and am always happy to spend time with students if they are struggling with any of the course materials.
Dr Sanaz Fallahkhair is a Principal Lecturer in Human Computer Interaction. Sanaz’s research interests include human-centred development of new technologies that incorporate studies of user’s experiences, cognition and collaboration in designing a novel intelligent systems delivered via multiple platforms: mobile devices, interactive television, tag-based technologies, wearable technologies, and robotic interactions.
I always been interested in understanding the universe in scientific, and artistic perspectives. It may sound controversial but to me the combination of science, art and humanity together can only triumph. Exploring a potential of novel technologies into designing something useful, usable and accessible was my aspiration when started to purse career into software engineering through my UG degree and later to PG and PhD.
What drew me to teaching was not something that I started to explore during my PhD studies, however, it had been started when I started my UG studies. I have started to pursue teaching Maths, and Physics to GCSE and A level students.
Another aspiration to pursue teaching, is the social and collaborative nature of teaching that I appraise. Teaching enables me to work in an environment surrounded by enthusiastic minds.
The important and stimulating interplay between research and teaching is one of the defining aspects of studying at university as it enhances the student experience, facilitates learning novel and cutting-edge knowledge, and improves student employability. It also enriches research culture and environment. So, I do endeavour to inform my teaching by research.
What I am most proud of in my career is to be in the position to educate young minds as well as to push the knowledge acquired by research and innovations. In addition, I am also proud of being a woman in STEM – leading and working in an advanced computer science field developing an innovative technological solution and addressing global challenges.
I have received various awards and recognitions in the capacity of being a lecturer and researcher, i.e. a teaching excellence award from a UK higher education institution (University of Portsmouth) in the past, and best paper award at various highly ranked international conferences, including IEEE Advanced Learning technology in Japan.
I was invited to speak at Meta (Facebook) in the US. I was on a panel of data scientists – we were addressing, the keynotes on the topic of “Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ethics of AI and how will it affect our lives in the new decade? “ I’ve also delivered a keynote speech at IBM Research in Brazil on Augmented Reality Applications for Contextual Learning with Mobile and Wearable Technologies.
My research and teaching relate to the addressing important global challenges – designing and developing a human-centred technologies in the domains of healthcare modelling, cultural-heritage and e-learning. By designing technologies around human needs, experience, cognitions, and collaborations, we can design and develop human-centred technologies. The significance of our work also comes from our deep understanding of software engineering and computer science and how to model an intelligent system. Systems that can think and learn – the machine that can evolve which also can be accessible via multiple platforms: mobile devices, interactive television, tag-based technologies, wearable technologies.
The subject of human-centred development of technologies also endeavour to address global issues of developing responsible innovations. Responsible and accountable human-centred technological innovations addressing ethical, legal and socio-cultural requirements of humans and incorporates human needs into developing technological solutions.
My advice to prospective students is to be truthful to their own aspirations in learning. It is good to be you, to be bold, to be diverse! Studying at higher education at university-level will give you knowledge, experience, and life-long transferable, social and communication skills that goes beyond knowledge that you can learn from book or online.
My students have developed human-centred technologies that aim to addressed some of the main global challenges such as pandemic, global warming and social injustice. Some of these projects won the best project award at university-level and British Computer Society students competitions held annually.
Our students are highly knowledgeable and skilled and during an industrial placement year or after graduation are much in demand. They have found jobs in high-tech sectors, in corporate companies such as Microsoft, Google, Disney, IBM and so on, and some of them have gone on to work in SMEs or developed their own business in high-tech industry.
Duncan is a part-time Principal Lecturer and Climate Literacy Champion based at the University of Brighton. He is a qualified Chartered RIBA Architect who has practised, researched, and taught around issues of sustainable design, the Circular Economy and closed-loop systems for over 25 years.
When I was younger I wanted to be either a gamekeeper or work for Greenpeace. My mum said that she thought one day the only natural spaces in the UK would be the nature reserves, which slightly terrified me, so I was always aware of environmental issues.
I was always really good at art – my uncle was an architect and it was him that got me interested in architecture – I worked with him at his practice in London.
After I’d studied a postgrad in London I came down to Brighton where I was given the space to do what I wanted, which in 1990 was to look at sustainable design and the way I could merge the environmental activist in me with the designer. Brighton uni has allowed me to do that for 30 years, so it’s been incredible.
In 1993 me and another student from Brighton entered the RIBA’s House of the Future competition which we won, and I was invited back to teach in Brighton in 1994. Architecture is on one level a vocational pursuit but there’s no better way than being involved in an academic environment where you are doing research as you’re having to explain your ideas in a very rigorous way. And with teaching, having students asking questions really keeps you on your toes!
I’ve always enjoyed collaborating. My practice worked on the Greenwich Millennium Village for a few years, we were teaching and also running the Innovation Task Force for the Greenwich Peninsula envisioning what urban sustainability would look like.
In 2008 we took part in a Channel 4 TV show called the House that Kevin Built which was a live version of Grand Designs. We had to design and construct a prefabricated house made primarily out of organic carbon locking materials in only six days. It was the UK’s first A* rated low energy dwelling and it was 90% carbon locking materials. But the frustrating thing was students weren’t involved, so we had this idea to do a rebuild of it at the University of Brighton as a school project.
We changed it and with totally different material sources and the emphasis of it. The design and construction process involved professionals and students as young as fifteen – with over 360 students, plus over 750 school kids. Whatever module they were doing around design, technology, construction, professional practices, they were achieving their module credits by being involved with the design and construction of this live project, which the Guardian newspaper named the Waste House. It is a two-story teaching facility on campus which is also an ongoing research project and laboratory.
I’ve just come back from COP27 where I was speaking, and that was the number one issue there which is why we had success with the ‘loss and damage’ funding decision for climate change impact on the Global South.
Understanding the real social and environmental impact that your decisions as a designer make, is what I’m really passionate about. When you think about where things come from – you need to find out if child/ forced labour is involved in the extraction of the copper you are going to use for example.
You’ll be working quite hard and a lot of the way we teach at Brighton is studio orientated, so you’ll be working with a lot of people. Designing buildings is complex and hugely exciting but you need to learn to work as part of a team.
The great thing about architecture is that you could be designing a door knob or a city -the scale of projects can really be very diverse! And you can bring your own passions that might be outside the built environment into it – for me it’s been 35 years of doing lots of different jobs under the banner of architecture. I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do as I liked art, design, science, nature and architecture is a big enough umbrella – you can bring lots to it.
What I love about teaching is that it’s intellectual exercise that keeps you fit – you realise how unfit you are in that world after a day or two teaching!
