Anna Cox talks to Professor Ann Blandford, who is an expert in digital health technologies. We talk about the importance of progressive teachers who could see where technology was heading and how they helped shape her early choices, how her rebellious streak led her to study maths at Cambridge before embarking on a career in computer science, and the challenges she faced as a woman managing a career and a young family – which meant that at one point her baby was sleeping under her desk in the office while she worked. We also discuss her research – from designing computer simulations so that nuclear engineers could try out their ideas safely, to developing safety-critical systems, to her current research in digital health that's empowering people with long COVID to try out what works for them when managing their health.  

Ann Blandford is Professor of Human Computer Interaction in the Department of Computer Science at UCL and a member of UCLIC,  the UCL Interaction Centre. She served as director of UCLIC,  director of the UCL Institute of Digital Health and Deputy Director of the Institute of Healthcare Engineering. She was a Suffrage Science Award holder, a winner of the prestigious IFUPTC Thirteen Pioneer in Human Computer Interaction awards, and has been elected to the SIG CHI Academy.  


Find out more about eWorkLife, including tips for managing your own wellbeing and work-life balance, on our website https://www.eworklife.co.uk/  

Episode transcript and show-notes: https://www.eworklife.co.uk/podcast/  

Follow us on twitter @_e_worklife and @annacox_ 

Music credit: ScottHolmesMusic.com 

Producer: Clare Casson

5 eWorkLife: Prof Ann Blandford, digital health pioneer, on her career journey & work on long COVID

Hear first-hand from some of the UK’s leading coronavirus experts about what it’s been like tackling the virus, treating patients and advising the Government throughout the pandemic - and what we’ve learned along the way.

Hosted by UCL alumna, writer and broadcaster Vivienne Parry OBE, this event is your chance to put your questions to UCL’s researchers, including infectious disease specialists and advisors to the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).

Sign up here: https://bit.ly/CTWSlive 

This event will be recorded for the final episode of Coronavirus: The Whole Story, UCL’s podcast series that looks at the pandemic through the lens of the university’s multi-disciplinary research - from cutting-edge treatments and vaccines, to the impact of the lockdown on schools and our mental health.

Invitation to the LIVE finale panel event - Coronavirus: The Whole Story - 21 July 4PM

In this month’s episode of #MadeAtUCL we’re growing. Join us as we explore three unique perspectives on growth and how it can be both a positive and negative concept. We chat with Dr Michelle Heys and Dr Simbarashe Chimhuya and hear about their technical solution to newborn healthcare, with Dr Philip Pogge Von Strandmann about how we can reduce the growing levels of co2 in the atmosphere, and lastly with Dr Seb Coxon to learn how beards of medieval Germany can help us understand masculinity today.

Find out more and listen to the transcript here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/made-at-ucl/podcasts/s2-ep8-growth

Date of episode recording: 15/07/20
Duration: 36:27
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Cassandra Martin
Guests: Michelle Heys, Simbarashe Chimhuya, Philip Pogge Von Strandmann, Seb Coxon
Producer: Cerys Bradley

#MadeAtUCL Podcasts - Growth

This month we are exploring recovery. As Cassidy has been busy finishing her dissertation, join Cerys as they learn how to recover through stories about long Covid community led research, transformative technology in the NHS, and a memorial garden built by students in the Institute of Education.

With thanks to our guest speakers:

Dr Owain Rhys Hughes is the founder and CEO of Cinapsis. He has over 13 years of experience working as a doctor and he is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Cinapsis SmartReferrals is an NHSX-approved platform that makes it easy for clinicians to communicate and share information to make smarter patient referrals. Currently used by 16 NHS Trusts across the UK, Cinapsis' secure platform gives GPs, paramedics, optometrists and NHS 111 operators immediate access to specialist advice, resulting in more efficient triage, faster decision-making and fewer unnecessary referrals.

Dr Athena Akrami 

Dr Athena Akrami joined the faculty at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, UCL, in October 2018. She obtained her BA in Biomedical Engineering from Tehran Polytechnic (Amirkabir University of Technology) and her PhD in Computational Neuroscience from International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA, Trieste), with Alessandro Treves.  She was a postdoctoral fellow at SISSA where she worked with Mathew Diamond, and then at Princeton University where she was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellow and worked with Carlos Brody on Parametric Working Memory. 

After contracting COVID-19 in March 2020, Athena developed long COVID and was integral in uniting long COVID sufferers and conducting research that has been key for the understanding and treatment of long covid symptoms.

Dr Susan McGrath 

Dr Susan McGrath is an Honorary Fellow of the Centre for Post-14 Education and Work at the Institute of Education.  Her research focus on young people’s decision-making shows how teachers, parents, schools and employers influence education and career choices.  In the wider UCL community, Susan is better known for her work as project lead of the IOE Gardens, including Sarah’s Garden and the Bar Terrace. The gardens make a significant contribution to the UCL Biodiversity Plan and, in keeping with the IOE’s global status, operate as an outdoor classroom with a distinctly international flavour.

For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/made-at-ucl/podcasts/s2-ep9-recovery

Date of episode recording: 15/08/20
Duration: 30:51
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Cassandra Martin
Guests: Owain Rhys Hughes, Athena Akrami, Susan McGrath 
Producer: Cerys Bradley

Our Names Engraved by Duck Lake

#MadeatUCLPodcasts - Recovery

This month's episode is about awareness and the activism it can lead to. Join us as we talk to three members of the UCL community who are making meaningful change to combat the problems they have been confronted by. Cassidy spoke with Hope Oloye, a PhD student whose programme Thinking Black is breaking down barriers to higher education, Virginie Le Masson, a geographer working with women across the world to understand the impacts of climate change through a feminist lens, and Emilia Molimpakis, a neuroscientist and entrepreneur who is revolutionising mental health care. 


For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/made-at-ucl/podcasts/s2-ep10-awareness-and-activism 

Music Credits: 

Basketliner by Bitters 
Sorry Linus by Limoncello  
The Onyx by Glass Obelisk

Date of episode recording: 15/09/20
Duration: 32:42
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Cassandra Martin
Guests: Hope Oloye, Virginie Le Masson, Emilia Molimpakis 
Producer: Cerys Bradley

#MadeAt UCL Podcasts - Awareness And Activism

Date: 26 October 2021
Speaker: Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science at UCL Geography Department

About the UCL lunch hour lecture:
Climate change is the most critical and controversial issue facing the world in the twenty-first century. Everyone agrees we must keep global warming to under 2˚C, and under 1.5˚C if possible. But how can we do this while dealing with the other great challenges of our age: global poverty, population growth, environmental degradation and global security. COP26 in Glasgow is almost upon us and Prof. Maslin shows us how we can save our Planet from climate change while improving everyone’s lives.

This event is part of UCL’s climate campaign ‘Generation One’.  Together we are the new generation taking responsibility for climate action and turning science into actionable ideas. 
Join our new era of climate action at ucl.ac.uk/generation-one

How To Save Our Planet

We’re back for the second episode of Generation One: The Climate Podcast and this week we’re behind the scenes at COP26 in Glasgow.  

Our hosts Matt Winning and Mark Maslin recorded on the run, live from COP to catch guests in the hubbub of the main areas of the conference. Tune in to experience a slice of COP from a whole host of guests and hear them chat about everything from the wins at COP so far, melting ice caps, to sinking islands, to the amount of coffee at the conference... 

For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/climate-change/podcast

To get involved and pledge your action visit: www.ucl.ac.uk/climate-change/generation-one 

We’ll see you next week as we discuss what happens after COP26.

Date of episode recording: 03/11/21
Duration: 27:33
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Helen Czerski, Matt Winning, Mark Maslin
Guests: Jhenelle Williams, Robbie Mallet, Angelica Johansson, Christoph McGlade, Jim Watson, Gary Faulds
Producer: Adam Batstone

Behind the scenes at COP26

This week we are talking COP26: what happened, what it means and where we go from here. Join our hosts Helen Czerski and Mark Maslin in conversation with Prof Kate Jones, Dr Priti Parikh and Ryan Phillip from the St Kitts and Nevis delegation, and they are discussing the COP agreement, what was missed, the big wins and the big misses.  

Helen and our guests cover the main takeaways from COP from deforestation to adaptation, loss and mitigation. We get into who was left out of COP, the impacts on the Small Island Alliance and the problem of western countries causing damage and expecting others to fix it.  

For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/climate-change/podcast

To get involved and pledge your action visit: www.ucl.ac.uk/climate-change/generation-one

Date of episode recording: 10/11/21
Duration: 28:48
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Helen Czerski, Matt Winning, Mark Maslin
Guests: Prof Kate Jones, Dr Priti Parikh and Ryan Phillip
Producer: Adam Batstone

UCL Generation One

Post COP26: Where are we now?

Does the earth have to be a fashion victim? This week host Mark Maslin chats with Juliet Russell, Head of Sustainability at Stella McCartney and Max Bittner, CEO of Vestiaire Collective about all things fashion.  

 We’re discussing the fashion industry, from greenwashing to fast fashion and how you can shop more consciously. Join Juliet Russell and Max Bittner as they discuss the current problems in the industry and what needs to change.   

For more information on Generation One and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/climate-change/podcast

Date of episode recording: 19/11/21
Duration: 29:40
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Helen Czerski, Matt Winning, Mark Maslin
Guests: Max Bittner, Juliet Russell
Producer: Adam Batstone

BCC Generaton One

Does the earth have to be a fashion victim?

UKCTOCS (UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening) is one of the largest screening trials in ovarian cancer. More than 200,000 women from England, Wales and Northern Ireland took part in it, and it ran for almost two decades. Designing and running such a large and lengthy trial came with its own challenges. In this episode, Professor Usha Menon discusses the key challenges that UKCTOCS faced in its design, conduct an analysis, and how the team addressed them.

Further information is available on the UKCTOCS website at https://ukctocs.mrcctu.ucl.ac.uk/
Listen to the episode about the UKCTOCS trial results at https://bit.ly/48pK94J
For questions or feedback on the series, message us at mrcctu.engage@ucl.ac.uk
For more information and to access the transcript: https://bit.ly/45XRyWT
As a listener, your opinion is very valuable to us. Please help us to improve the podcast in the future by filling in this short survey: forms.office.com/e/PjfjQ5Mn6g

Lessons from UKCTOCS, a large-scale trial in ovarian cancer screening

Join us for the first episode of UCL’s new podcast, ‘Coronavirus: The Whole Story’ with Vivienne Parry. Each week, we’ll be looking at coronavirus through a different lens. This week we’re exploring what happens inside intensive care. With special guests Professor Hugh Montgomery, Director of the UCL Institute for Human Health and Performance and Mervyn Singer, Professor of Intensive Care Medicine. 

For more info and transcripts, visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-minds/podcasts/coronavirus

Date of episode recording: 18/03/2020
Duration: 29:37
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Vivienne Parry
Guests: Hugh Montgomery, Mervyn Singer
Producer: Cerys Bradley

Coronavirus: The Whole Story - What happens to you in intensive care?

UCL (University College London) is consistently ranked among the world's top ten universities (QS World University Rankings 2010 - 2021). Our excellence extends across all academic disciplines, from one of the world's foremost centres for research and teaching in the biological sciences to world-renowned centres for architecture (UCL Bartlett), education (UCL IOE) and fine art (UCL Slade School).

UCL is London's leading multidisciplinary university, with more than 13,000 staff and 43,000 students from 150 different countries. Founded in 1826 in the heart of London, UCL was the first university in England to welcome students of any religion and the first to welcome women on equal terms with men.

UCL Minds brings together UCL’s knowledge, insights, and ideas through events, activities, and digital content open to everyone. Find out what’s on UCL Minds: www.ucl.ac.uk/minds

5 eWorkLife: Prof Ann Blandford, digital health pioneer, on her career journey & work on long COVID

UCL

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