I ended my last blogpost with:
I'd also like to do more blog posts that aren't just updates. That would be good.Yeah, that didn't really work out! It's been a busy year, and I have managed exactly zero blog posts that aren't updates. And this is the only one that is. I nearly left it til next year, but I thought I'd better get one in before 2024 closes its doors!
So, how did the year go? Pretty well, all told. I've had a couple more papers submitted and accepted, including an entry in the British Medical Journal's Medical Humanities imprint: Beyond the fingertips: imagining haptic technologies for a deafblind future
I've had trips to Aberdeen, Helsinki, Boras, and Frinton for the itDf project. I've attended EuroHaptics in Lille and the Gothenburg Book Fair in... well, Gothenburg, where I had the honour of chairing a panel on technology and inclusivity. I felt very Melvyn Bragg!
Perhaps most importantly, we held a four-day ACM Europe Summer School on Accessible and Inclusive Technologies. We're hoping it will be the first of many - it was an excellent four days with great presentations, and lots of great early career researchers.
More Grant proposals have gone in, including another Doctoral Training Network with the EU, and an unsuccessful bid to the NIHR's call for research on the effectiveness of technology for people with deafblindness - we'll be having another crack next year! We'll also be starting a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Procter and Gamble in Newcastle in February, so I will be seeing a lot more of my home city in 2025!
And, of course, we drew a line under itDf which finishes its fifth and final year today. Having spent a good two years before that preparing the bid, it will be funny not to have it as part of my life. Though, of course, there are lots of threads to build on.
There isn't enough space to give details of everything here - this is where writing as I went would have been helpful! Still, blogging is always the first thing to go when work gets busy. I'll have another crack next year.
