Month in Review: July 2018

July (like most months, now I think about it) is a funny month. A sort of liminal space: it doesn't have the teaching rush of May or June, and it isn't as full of family holidays and childcare commitments as August. Nor, however, is it a doss: especially if you don't want to be crunching come September.

I always set myself the target of having my handouts ready for the end if July. I haven't *quite* hit that target,  but I'm pretty close (I have a new lecture this year, which still needs tidying up). The rationale behind this is to keep me from fiddling, and allow me to write my exam before term strikes. I also have to double the size of my Mechanical Systems module for 2019-20 delivery, which seems a whole away, but the module proposal needs to go in in November, and if I don't want to be writing it and an exam while trying to teach, both need to be done this summer. It makes for a much smoother transition between term and "not term": it gives me more research time during term, and avoids wildly swinging between teaching and research. I prefer it this way.

The big news this month was the second SUITCEYES consortium meeting, which took place in Leeds. It was good: though we communicate frequently by email, Slack, and teleconference,  you can't beat face-to-face meetings.

One of the main aims of the meeting (other than planning - and the reason for holding it in Leeds) was to introduce consortium members to the Social Model of Disability. After all, Leeds is one of the leading Centres for Disability Studies. We had a session from Leeds Disabled People's Organisation on the Social Model itself, from Professor Anna Lawson (Director of the Centre for Disability Studies) on Human Rights and Legal Frameworks, and from Deafblind UK on working with people with Dual Sensory Loss. All valuable sessions, and very helpful for the stage of the project as we prepare to launch into user engagement and technical development.

Then we had a couple of extra days with Astrid Kappers (from VU Amsterdam), Nils-Krister Persson and Li Guo (both from Borås), to follow up on the thermal testing we did in April. This time we were looking at more conventional vibrotactile feedback, trying out different patterns. A good session, and we're going to be using this to start more formal data gathering in the autumn.

Other than that, both my Laidlaw students have finished - a 3-axis version of FATKAT based on the MagONE is now ready for calibration (barring a bit of resoldering to improve the part fit), and we've been designing some VR experiments on interaction with objects.

We've now rebranded from CAP (formerly PACLab) to ICON (Immersive Cognition), which has included some changes in the way we manage the group and seem (touch wood) to be working.

Now August beckons - always an even odder month. I'm off for half of it with annual leave, so we'll see how fitting in all the work that needs doing (that new handout, the exam, and planning that new module... Oh, and running SUITCEYES and writing publications, and at least one large grant proposal that needs doing) goes...