Insights & Innovations: Student Led Research

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Join us on June 10 for a vibrant and interdisciplinary Student Research Showcase, celebrating the innovative work of students across a range of academic fields.

This dynamic event offers an opportunity to explore student-led poster presentations, engage with peers and professionals, and gain insights from expert speakers including Professor Judith Squires, Deputy Vice-Chancellor & Provost, and Professor Harry Mellor, Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Postgraduate Research.

Open to all, the event encourages collaboration, idea-sharing, and professional growth in a relaxed and welcoming setting. Whether you’re presenting or attending, come discover new perspectives, connect with the research community, and be inspired.

Free lunch will be provided!

Agenda

Speaker 1 (12:00 – 12:30pm): Professor Judith Squires, Deputy Vice-Chancellor & Provost 

Fostering inclusivity and excellence in student-led research: Reflections on personal and professional researcher development at the University of Bristol.

Speaker 2 (1:00-1:30pm):  Professor Harry Mellor, Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor: Postgraduate Research

Top 10 Tips for a Successful PhD

Training to be a researcher is so much more than training to be an academic.  In a good PhD, you should gain research skills, but also the skills you need to be an effective person in the world, with a clear sense of your own strengths and values and a confidence in your abilities.  In this short talk, I'll set out the 10 most important tips for getting value from your PhD.  

Poster presentations (11am – 2pm)

Kerry Shen

Investigating the Effectiveness of Bristol’s Clean Air Zone on nitrogen dioxide (NO2) Concentrations.

The research investigates the change in nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) levels at two locations at the City Centre of Bristol, both within and outside the Clean Air Zone. Comparing data from 2021 to 2023, it evaluates how effective the policy has been in improving the local air quality. 

Meherab Hasan 

Exploring the Impact of Handheld Scanners on Unplanned Buying: The Moderating Role of Working Memory Capacity Differences

This research examines the role of handheld scanner (HHS) use in shaping unplanned buying behaviour in grocery settings, moderated by individual working memory capacity. Integrating Compensatory Control Theory with executive attention literature, it proposes that HHS enhances perceived control and reduces impulse purchases among low-working-memory shoppers, with minimal effects on high-working-memory individuals; data collection is ongoing via a field experiment (N=300). 

Elena Venturelli

Hormones are Central to our Health and Happiness

Hormones are the chemical messengers between all the systems in our body, including our brain. The way we experience life is shaped by the dance of these hormones. 

Jonny Magnay, Fazeed Kotta & Bex Pike 

How Social Hierarchy Affects Anemone Use in a Captive Clownfish Population

We investigated the relationship between dominance status and anemone-use in a high-density captive population of the common clownfish Amphiprion ocellaris, finding that low-ranking fish spent longer in anemones compared to high-ranking fish. These findings suggest that in high-density captive conditions, anemones may function more as refuges from aggression than as resources controlled by dominant individuals, with implications for the welfare of captive populations.  

Chaojie (Jay) Liu, Richard Harris & Manuela Pedio 

Human with Robots: More Behavioural Biases or Less?

 In this AI and algorithm era, questions like how we will be affected, how we should work with robots, and what we can learn from robots are yet to be answered. In this paper, we investigate these questions in financial investment settings, to understand how robots will affect retail investors' behavioural biases.  

Freddie Burns 

Quantum Computing for Photochemistry

The poster will detail current strategies for calculating excited-state molecular energies. It will include real results obtained from quantum computers. 

Jack Greenwold 

Understanding Modern Ethical Challenges in Oncology

This poster aims to explore and deepen the understanding of the current ethical dilemmas faced by oncologists in their daily practice. With evolving therapies and trials, oncology is at the centre of modern medical ethics debates, this poster aims to highlight this.  

Heba Masood

Psychological Therapies of TMD

My poster explores the effectiveness of psychological therapies, including cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and biofeedback, in managing temporomandibular disorders (TMD). It reviews current evidence on how these interventions alleviate pain and improve patient outcomes, highlighting their role in multidisciplinary TMD management.  

Kat Nelms, Charles de Kergariou, Jemma Rowlandson, James Armstrong, Neha Chandarana & Fabrizio Scarpa

Building Blocks for Mechanical Intelligence: Bio-Based Neurons in Feedforward Networks

First, I will introduce the basic concepts of feedforward information processing that occurs in neural networks and the neuronal function that inspired these algorithms. Then, I'll discuss how I'm applying these concepts to develop biobased electromechanical devices, or 'neurons', for processing mechanical information using a network of these small devices.  

Tamir Halevi

A New Crystallisation Method, Applied to Organic Solar Cells

Crystals are found all around us and their structure affects their properties in many ways. Here, we use a novel approach and find a new crystal structure for a state-of-the-art organic semiconductor, with applications in solar energy and lasers.  

Amber Stiby, Rong Fu, Dr Nobue Itasaki

Investigating YAP/ TAZ Activation and Its Effect on Stemness in various Culture Conditions using the Melanoma Cell Line MEL624

YAP/TAZ are mechanosensitive transcription factors that respond to changes in the extracellular matrix by entering the nucleus and altering gene expression, with their overactivation linked to poor cancer outcomes. This study explores how mechanical cues in different 3D environments (liquid vs gel) influence YAP/TAZ activity and stem cell gene expression in melanoma, uncovering potential pathways for targeting cancer stem-like cells.  

Megan Parks

Understanding PANS: A Neuropsychiatric Puzzle in Paediatrics

This poster explores Paediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS), a complex disorder characterised by the sudden onset of psychiatric symptoms such as OCD, anxiety, motor and verbal tics and eating restrictions following infection or environmental triggers. It summarises current research into its proposed neuroimmune mechanisms, clinical presentation, and emerging treatment options, while highlighting the significance of early recognition, interdisciplinary care and raising awareness to improve outcomes for affected children and adults. 

Toni Milla

The Misogynist Boundaries of Philosophy

Women are excluded from philosophy based on how the discipline is delineated and thus perceived. We should redefine both philosophy and political theory to include more unconventional practices and apply philosophy to more gendered interests, in order to combat exclusive societal norms.  

George Hobart

Proving that Yesterday Really Happened

This philosophy of science research uses simple probability arguments to disprove "sceptical scenarios" such as the ideas that you might be living in a simulation, or that you might be a disembodied brain. This shows us that we really can trust our memories and records of the past, proving that history really did happen.  

Alaa Alkadir, Emily Arceo, Karnikka Mahendran, Nadjwa Binti Nur Firdaus Seet, Segun Bamidele, Sharan Khemlani & Wisdom Adzakor

Addressing Barriers Faced by Student Men of Colour to Accessing Non-NHS Mental Health Support

This presents the identified barriers faced by student men of colour in accessing non-NHS mental health support as well as the recommendations to ensure wider access for them and other minority groups.

Richard Blows

Hadrian's Wall 180: Using Digital Twins to Reconstruct the Past

The poster will present early research into the digital reconstruction of past landscapes. It will focus on the world's first complete digital reconstruction of the Hadrian's Wall system, presented using Microsoft's Flight Simulator platform.