Public Engagement & Outreach
We may impart research impact through conveying our scientific findings to the public in an accessible, understandable manner.
During April-July 2024, for the outreach component of the MEMVIE project we worked with Science Animated to make a four-minute long, 2D animation on “How can modelling inform vaccination strategy?”. Describing the MEMVIE project and the importance of interdisicplinary collaboration, the animation was released on 05 July 2024. It is available to watch on the Science Animated YouTube channel via this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ucOuW3K5J0.
In May 2024, myself and several MEMVIE project colleagues put on an evening outreach event as part of the Resonate Festival. Our event was titled `Scientists help policy-makers make public health decisions, but who helps the scientists?’. The purpose of the event was to help illustrate the importance of public and patient involvement in modelling and wider health research. Through such events we would like to create a more open and democratic process in research, which values and embeds the public perspective within research methods. For further details, please see the event webpage and the Resonate story about the event.
In May 2022, Myself and Laura Guzmán Rincón co-created the SBIDER Podcast Hub, supported by a Royal Society Rapid Assistance in Modelling the Pandemic (RAMP) Outreach Innovation Award (UKRI Grant EP/V053507/1). We are producing two podcast series:
- SBIDER presents - researchers from the Zeeman Institute for Systems Biology and Infectious Disease Epidemiology Research group (SBIDER), based at the University of Warwick, share their research and we present recent group news;
- SBIDER Careers Podcast - exploring the career trajectories of SBIDER researchers, their collaborators and those who carry out important work that enables and supports the research being conducted.
I am a member of the Warwick Institute of Engagement Network and have contributed to a University of Warwick family day, in which a collaborative group across SBIDER and Warwick Medical School ran a set of “have a go” activities under the theme of “Outbreak - Learning how diseases spread”.
I have been a co-organiser of Databeers Warwick, a series of public engagement events around the topic of data science. These events brought together data experts from industry and academia with talks at a level accessible to a wide audience in the West Midlands.
For Pint of Science, a science festival which brings researchers to local venues to share their scientific discoveries with the public, at events in Coventry & Warwickshire I have made the following contributions:
- 2019: Event venue volunteer
- 2022: Presenter at the “Our Amazing Body” event. Delivered a talk titled “Disease detectives: how maths can help us against disease outbreaks”. For further details, visit the associated blog post.
Another method of communicating my research with the general public has been through `Behind the Paper’ type articles: