Summer Team Enterprise Programme (STEP) 2021-2022
Now open for student applications - apply by 17 May!
What is STEP about?
STEP provides a developmental opportunity for students through working on a real-life project which presents a challenge to a University Service Unit. We anticipate that alongside enterprise skills student will also develop a range of graduate attributes including remote team-working, digital literacy, organisational skills and professional conduct. The programme involves weekly online workshops, group coaching, and individual and team reflection.
How does it work?
1. If selected, you will be placed in a team of six-seven students, based on your time-zone and project preferences.
2. Each team will be given a real-life project to work on, each owned based in a University School or Department.
3. You will commit to viewing/attending a recording/workshop each week, themed around the University’s six enterprise capabilities. Each team will complete a reflective log on Moodle each week reflecting on how their team project is helping to develop that week’s highlighted skill.
4. Each team will aim to produce an output for the service unit sponsoring their project, e.g. a video, report, PowerPoint presentation etc. but the outputs of the project are secondary to the programme's focus on your individual skill development.
5. If you complete all the skills workshops and reflective elements of the programme you will be issued with a certificate and electronic badge for your LinkedIn profile, along with guidance as to how you can articulate your experience in future job applications. STEP will also be listed on your University HEAR transcript. There are also individual and team prizes on offer.
We only expect you to commit 4-5 hours/per week to the project, at least two of which will be spent completing the skills workshops and reflective logs.
How do I apply?
Current undergraduates can apply to take part by reading about the projects and completing this online application form.
Key dates:
- Deadline to apply: 17 May
- Notification of outcome: 21 May
- Projects run: Week commencing 31 May - week commencing 5 July
- Deadline for project output submission: 31 July
STEP 2021 Projects
The following 16 projects are accepting student applications for STEP 2021-2022. Please read the project descriptions carefully before submitting your application.
1. Mandatory Student Training project
Project Sponsor: CEED
We welcome applications from students across all schools and disciplines for this project
As part of the matriculation process, incoming students are required to complete a set of mandatory workshops that contain important information for members of the University community. The workshops include Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training, Got Consent training, Good Academic Practice training and Environmental training. Currently the workshops look and feel very different to each other, and there’s not a clear explanation as to why the University considers these crucial areas for students to learn about.
This STEP project aims to reimagine these mandatory workshops into a joined-up package that helps students understand the importance of the subject areas, and makes them feel welcomed and engaged members of our St Andrews community. The STEP team might want to do this by creating introductory videos with student and staff voices, writing a narrative that links the training together and sets it against the context of the University strategy, and enhancing the look and feel of the workshops themselves. To do this the team will need to engage with some of the project stakeholders including the staff and students who have created the workshops, and members of the Principal’s Office and Students Association. The STEP team’s output will hopefully be utilised in time for the coming academic year, giving immediate impact to the team’s work.
2. Online Engagement A – Student
Project Sponsor: Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), CEED
We welcome applications from students across all schools and disciplines for this project
It is expected that some teaching in 2021-2022 will again be delivered to hybrid classrooms, involving in-person students at the same time as students joining in via online platforms. This STEP project aims to examine the opportunities as well as the challenges posed by hybrid learning for both staff and students, with the overall aim of highlighting good practice that encourages online engagement.
This STEP project will be carried out in two stages. The first stage will involve surveying targeted students and staff about their experience of online teaching over the last few months. The second stage will involve using these findings to create:
- A series of hybrid learning “recipes”; taking the form of either written case studies or interviews
- Top Technical Tips
- Guidance on establishing ground rules
- A list of actions that will address any issues raised
Skills to be gained:
- Interviewing and communicating with key stakeholders
- Conceptualising a guidance document which will have tangible impact on learning and teaching in the University context
- Creating an accessible set of guidelines that can be used across schools and disciplines
3. Online Engagement B - Staff
Project Sponsor: Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), CEED
We welcome applications from students across all schools and disciplines for this project
This project has the same objectives and skill development opportunities as the 'Online Engagement A' project, however this project will focus on creating guidance for staff. The Online Engagement A & B teams will both comprise of 6-7 students each.
4. Defining Student Resilience
Project Sponsor: School of Management
We welcome applications from students across all schools and disciplines for this project
As part of university life, we often talk about being resilient when faced with adversity. Resilience is commonly understood as a capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. Resilience helps students to better cope and thrive when faced with challenges, and creates a positive impact on mental health and well-being. However, the definition of resilience is said to be context specific. This means that how we understand resilience at the University of St Andrews is dependent on how students perceive adversity, and how they respond to challenging situations to form positive outcomes.
This STEP project aims to develop a shared student-centred definition of resilience in the context of studying at the University of St Andrews. The STEP team will need to engage with their student peers (and potentially also staff members) to gather experiences of resilience. This could be achieved through 1-2-1 or focus group interviews, or by facilitating an online event. Using a diverse range of perspectives, the STEP team will work towards creating a shared student-centred definition of resilience. Additionally, the team could disseminate their findings using creative multimedia outputs, for example, a short video or podcast that gives voice to student experiences of resilience, and can be used in University wide induction, toolkits and training materials.
Skills to be gained:
- Independent qualitative research skills
-Interviewing and communicating with key stakeholders
- Analysing data and using evidence to develop shared resources that can be used in University training and induction materials
- Creativity and innovation – devising and creating a multimedia output (video or podcast series) that gives voice to student experiences of resilience.
5. Re-plaquing St Andrews
Project Sponsor: School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Film Studies
We welcome applications from students across all schools and disciplines for this project
The project will identify one to two (max) landmark locations of St Andrews and look to update their plaques keeping in mind what histories are absent from the text provided. These absences could be of gender, race, class, disability or of any other history that may have been forgotten or ignored. The purpose here is to see how communities who engage less with historic heritage in St Andrews (and indeed in Scotland) can be rightfully included. Are there stories that give them an investment in the heritage? How can we tell those stories? As a result, the output of the project will be presenting an updated text for the plaques and a report and a presentation of the process they went about in identifying the historic/heritage sites, their historic engagement, and their final decisions when editing the text.
Students will develop independent research skills, as well as engage with questions of how research can be presented to the general public in an accessible and inclusive way. Participation in this STEP project will help students develop attributes of social responsibility, and valuing diversity, in addition to entrepreneurialism and leadership. In particular, they will gain practical experience of undertaking historical research, synthesising that research, and communicating it to wider audiences.
6. Who were the early women in History at St Andrews?
Project Sponsor: School of History
***We welcome applications from students across schools, but this project would be particularly attractive to students in Arts, especially those taking modules in History***
Today, just over half of History undergraduate students at St Andrews identify as female, as do 45% of the academic staff. The School of History is nonetheless aware that significant gender inequalities and imbalances remain. As part of our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusivity, the School is investigating the history of women’s involvement in the study of History at St Andrews. The STEP team will investigate what [digital copies of] the University Calendars can tell us about the presence of women – as students, teachers, researchers or subjects – of History in the period from 1900 to 1970. If time and Covid allow, they will explore other sources that will shed light on the experiences of those women historians at St Andrews.
We would like to know:
· Who were the earliest undergraduate and postgraduate women History students? What did they study, and what did they go on to do?
· Who were the first women staff members in History? What was their background, and what sort of professional career did they have?
· How did the numbers of women in History change over the time period?
A skeleton website for the overall project already exists. It will be linked from the School of History’s EDI page, and will be part of the School’s public face. The STEP team will help to develop the website; and it will be the channel through which they will present their findings.
Participation in this STEP project will help students develop attributes of social responsibility, and valuing diversity, in addition to entrepreneurialism and leadership. In particular, they will gain practical experience of undertaking historical research, synthesising that research, and communicating it to wider audiences. They will also gain a greater understanding of the historical experiences and treatment of women within the University of St Andrews, and academia more broadly. The project will also help gain practical experience working in a team, including opportunities for developing management and leadership skills.
7. Mathematically Curious St Andrews
Project Sponsor: School of Mathematics
***We welcome applications from students across schools, but this project would be particularly attractive to students from Computer Science, Mathematics, and History. The project will also be of interest to students interested in tourism.***
This project team of students and postgrad coach will collaborate with the supervisory team of the Curious St Andrews VIP project. The STEP project will benefit from this interdisciplinary expertise and use of the Curious St Andrews platform. The VIP project will benefit from: ongoing activity which will maintain momentum and public interest in the Curious St Andrews website through the summer, from a fully developed tour which provides a concrete example for future VIP students, and from a thorough test of the functionality of the platform. The STEP team will produce a walking tour on the Curious St Andrews platform, an interactive online map, and other online content. Ideally, there will also be recorded content that may be accessed via mobile phone, either via QR codes or dial-in, from a location in St. Andrews of some significance to the history of mathematics. The online international history of mathematics conference hosted by St Andrews in mid-July will provide an opportunity for the STEP project to engage with users and solicit feedback.
Students will gain mathematical, historical, and computing skills. They will make decisions about interpreting unfamiliar mathematics for the public. They will develop historical research skills and learn about the use of databases in powering websites and apps. Students will exercise creativity and innovation in problem solving and developing a strategy for engaging digital interaction. They can recognize and create opportunities to engage with the local community, e.g. the Tourist Bureau or St Andrews admissions. The team will implement their ideas on the Curious St Andrews platform and evaluate their outputs to enhance the platform where needed to best communicate to a wide audience.
8. Decolonising teaching in Biology
Project Sponsor: School of Biology
***Students should ideally have taken BL1001 and/or BL1002; however, we are not limiting this project to students who are in the School of Biology. We also encourage people from all ethnicities, not just those who identify as BAME, to apply.***
This project will offer students the opportunity to research diversity-related issues in Biology and set general guidelines on how the School of Biology can decolonise their curriculum. We would also ask students to make an "example lecture" if they wish, but the scope of the project is open to interpretation. Students will present their recommendations to the School of Biology's Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity Committee at the end of their project.
Students participating in the project will gain skills such as:
- Understanding the approaches to decolonizing a curriculum.
- Understanding methods of structuring a module.
- Independent research skills and report-writing skills.
- Presentation skills.
- Communication skills
9. Preserving cultural heritage: creating a sustainable business model for the “Save Wemyss Ancient Caves Society” (SWAC)
Project Sponsor: School of Management
We welcome applications from students across all schools and disciplines for this project
The Save Wemyss Ancient Caves Society (SWAC) is a community-led charity that works to protect, promote, and preserve the culturally important Pictish carvings in East Wemyss (https://wemysscaves.org/). Established in 1986, the society is funded via donations and operates a Visitor Centre and Museum, also engaging in preservation of the caves and the surrounding landscape. Education, cultural engagement and environmental protection are key goals for the charity and this project invites students to work with SWAC to offer innovative and creative insights on current and future practice.
The aim of the project is to create a sustainable business model for future generations to engage with this important site of Scottish heritage. This model may include opportunities to engage new audiences, create educational opportunities and liaise with partner organisations such as the Scottish Government on the preservation of Scottish heritage sites. Students will analyse the current arrangements for marketing, resourcing and pricing of merchandise, branding and fundraising, using this knowledge to suggest enterprising solutions for the future of SWAC and the caves.
Skills development:
This project facilitates student learning in organisational analysis and consultancy, using marketing, accounting and strategy knowledge in a practice-based context. In addition to acquiring teamworking skills through knowledge-sharing in an interdisciplinary project, students will be able to apply concepts learned in the classroom to a “real-world” organisation, also learning about the third sector context and exploring notions of value in creative organisations. The intangible value of Scottish heritage and third sector organisations will allow students to confront concepts that are often more suited to the private sector (e.g. relying on the capacity of volunteers, engaging with partner organisations, fundraising activities, merchandising, environmental preservation, creative economies). Many of our graduates aspire to careers in consultancy and this project will provide an important experience from which to draw in applications for internships and professional roles, enhancing student employability.
10. Using historical literary texts to understand Scotland’s colonial past
Project Sponsor: School of English
*** All students are welcome to apply, but this project will be especially attractive to students in Classics, English, Film Studies, History, Modern Languages, IR, and Politics***
Students will research public engagement and impact strategies and produce a sample output relating to the seventeenth-century poetry and polemics of Scottish writer and colonist-settler, William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, who participated in the colonisation of Port-Royal, Nova Scotia and Long Island, New York. Students will explore how Alexander employs ancient history to comment on contemporary political debates, before investigating how to communicate his legacy effectively for various target users, including students and tourists in Scotland and North America.
To do this, students will learn about “activist adaptation”, investigate recent discussion of imperial legacies and the responsibilities of universities and heritage industries in the dissemination of history, decolonisation, and social justice, consider the ethical stakes of these texts’ intersection with the history of, for example, the Mi’kmaw Nation, and research how to generate effective impact metrics, including questionnaire design and tools. They will create resources including a research bibliography of scholarship on Alexander and Scottish colonial literatures, and a sample public-facing output (e.g. a podcast, interactive map, or recorded adaptation/excerpt). They will also compile a report on venues and ready made networks for engagement, in a variety of relevant locations including MUSA, Menstrie Castle, Stirling Castle, the University of Glasgow, Port-Royal National Historic Site, Historic Richmond Town, and Garvies Point Museum and Preserve.
This project will foster the following transferable skills:
• Creativity and innovation: devising an innovative response to an open brief
• Opportunity recognition: researching and identifying effective public-engagement strategies
• Communication and strategy, and decision making: organisation of group tasks, time management, self-directed project design, clear presentation of materials
• Ideas implementation through leadership: assignment of group roles, project completion
• Reflection and action: staged tasks with opportunities for peer review and discussion
• Discipline-specific capabilities including facility with subject-specific research resources, analysis of literary language and genre, and understanding of pertinent historical context and theoretical frameworks will be developed.
11. ‘First in family’ academics at the University of St Andrews
Project Sponsor: School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Film Studies
***All students welcome to apply, but we especially welcome students who are the first in their family to attend university***
The University of St Andrews is committed to increasing the socio-economic diversity of applicants to the University. This project will highlight the diversity that exists amongst our staff members and provide role models for incoming students and their families. The STEP team will contribute to this goal by conducting interviews with members of university staff from the School of Philosophical, Anthropological and Film Studies who were the first in their family to go to university. These interviews will be used to build profiles of these staff members and will contain basic biographical details, but also more detailed accounts of the interviewees’ background and how they came to work at St Andrews. The team will work on two outputs in parallel: the interviews that they conduct will be recorded and edited for release as a podcast series, and written profile of answers from the interviews will be turned into a digital book for publication via PURE.
Representation matters. You cannot become what you cannot see. The podcasts and written profiles will demonstrate that there are many people at St Andrews that were the first in their family to go to university. Both would provide concrete evidence that St Andrews is a place for someone who is the first in their family to go to university. Those undergraduates chosen to make up this STEP team would ideally consist of an interdisciplinary group who were also the first in their family to go to university.
This project will provide opportunities for development across all enterprise capabilities. In developing the interview questions and designing the digital book, students will need to be creative. They will need to decide what questions to ask by drawing on existing research and publications. In designing the profiles, students will need to work with the source interview material and decide what to include. To effectively complete the project on time, students will need to work and communicate with each other, leading where necessary. Finally, they will need to reflect on interview technique best practice.
12. Academic Writing Beyond Assessment: Developing a Student-Led Publication
Project Sponsor: School of Management
We welcome applications from students across all schools and disciplines for this project
The project will explore the development of a student-led journal published (online) by the School of Management (the School).
Project Rationale: An online publication could offer students the opportunity to practice research skills, providing space for learning outside the classroom and enhancing the School’s pedagogical commitment to developing critical social scientists in the field of management. It is hoped that the publication would not only allow students to showcase their learning but also to expand their understanding of management studies by exploring theories, concepts and authors beyond their set curriculum. The publication could then also contribute to the School’s ambitions to decolonise our curriculum, reinforce our commitment to responsible enterprise, and contribute to and broaden the School’s inclusive research culture. However, an online publication would potentially require significant student (and staff) input. This project will therefore explore the feasibility of a student-led publication and provide an evidence-based strategy for development.
There will be 3 stages in the project:
1. Reviewing Context
- Identifying, reviewing and evaluating existing student-led journals
- Desk-based review of research on extra-curricular student research projects
- Identifying potential publication model(s) for the School publication
2. Analysing Risks and Opportunities
- Desk-based review of decolonising the curriculum projects
- SWOT analysis of proposed publication model(s) highlighting potential resource commitments
3. Implementation Strategy
- Evaluating findings and identifying research limitations
- Identifying need for further resources and/or research
- Presenting next steps for the School
Students will gain an increased understanding of organisation in a “dynamic and changing global environment” including the “management of risk” and developing their research and communication skills, and commercial acumen: elements identified by the QAA (2019) as central to the business and management curriculum.
In stage one and two of the project students will enhance their capabilities in opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation as they investigate and evaluate potential publication options for the School. In stage three students will have the opportunity for reflection and action as they evaluate their findings. In production of the report for senior management, students will have the opportunity to enhance their capabilities in communication and strategy.
13. Diverse Classics: creating a resource for students and teachers
Project Sponsor: School of Classics
***Applications are especially welcome from students in History, Philosophy, Social Anthropology, English and Geography/Sustainable Development***
There is a clear recognition that diversity in the Classics curriculum in universities is an issue in need of action: the recently-published report on Equality and Diversity in Classics published by the Council of University Classics Departments in November 2020 included among its recommendations a suggestion that course co-ordinators should set targets for the inclusion of works by female scholars and scholars of colour in their recommended reading.
The School of Classics has adopted this recommendation to facilitate greater diversity in the scholarship to which our students are exposed, but recognises the need for resources to assist staff in achieving change. We therefore propose to create a webpage of diverse voices in Classics, spanning ancient history, literature, archaeology and philosophy and drawing not only on traditional scholarship but on the work of other academic and associated practitioners (including, for example, dramatists, activists and museum curators).
The proposed project would engage a team of undergraduates to identify relevant resources such as online journals and fora, podcasts, exhibition webpages and heritage outreach projects, and present them as a searchable webpage. Change of this kind, in order to be successful, needs to be collaborative rather than top-down, and engaging students in the process would be beneficial both in broadening the reach of the School to include contemporary topics and interests, and in gaining input from other academic disciplines. The resulting webpage could potentially be developed through CUCD as a resource for a wider academic audience.
Students engaged in the project will gain:
· An overall conception of the discipline of Classics as it stands and of the potential for its transformation; moving beyond simple ‘decolonisation’, the project will task students with discovering marginalised voices and new perspectives.
· An understanding of how Classics is viewed from outside the academy, coupled with research skills in identifying and assessing the teaching/learning value of diverse resources.
· Skills in the organisation and presentation of online material (creation of a searchable database, web design and accessibility), facilitated by the School’s Computing Officer.
· Experience of communication and teamwork
14. Videos of the student experience in St Andrews for Postgraduate Taught students, with a focus on TESOL
Project Sponsor: International Education Institute
We welcome applications from students across all schools and disciplines for this project
We would like the group to create two short videos, to be used to promote PGT studies in St Andrews, and in particular TESOL. One would focus on the student experience of life in St Andrews, the non-academic side of living here. The second would focus on life in PG halls of residence. Prospective students can find information about their intended course of academic study quite easily but there is less information about living in St Andrews, particularly from a student point of view. Prospective students are curious about what it’s like to live in the town, social life, shopping and eating, getting to know other students and making friends, sports facilities and so on – but from the student rather than staff viewpoint. The second video would show life in halls: accommodation, food, social opportunities, safety, support, distance to classes and so on. The focus would be DRA and FP as that’s where the majority of PG students live. Clearly, as the videos would be used for University promotion globally and would be available via the University’s Youtube channel, messaging has to be thoughtful and positive. The aim would be to show what an attractive, welcoming and safe place St Andrews is.
Transferable skills
- planning a project from start to finish, within a specific and tight time frame
- creating story boards to plan a video
- following the brief from the project sponsor
- planning and delivering a high quality product to promote the University
- interviewing appropriate people to collect video clips
- filming, editing and producing high quality videos
- working a part of a group to create a finished product, and managing the various needs of the group members
- sharing tasks, listening to and learning from other group members, negotiating skills, conflict resolution skills
- developing an awareness of the intended audience’s cultural sensitivities
- time management skills, potentially including working with group members living in different time zones
15. Video documenting Year One of VIP @St Andrews
Project Sponsor: CEED
We welcome applications from students across all schools and disciplines for this project
The University of St Andrews is only the second University in the UK to offer VIP modules. A Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) is a multi-disciplinary, multi-generational and multi-semester research project led by one or more academic supervisors. Students from different disciplines and levels of study join the supervisory research team and work together, earn credit and receive a grade for their contribution to the project. Currently, the VIP programme at St Andrews comprises twelve projects supervised by academics from Schools across both Arts and Sciences. This STEP project team will create a video documenting the establishment of VIP at St Andrews and highlighting this radical curriculum innovation.
The project team will develop a variety of transferable enterprise skills through tasks such as:
- Creating story boards to plan a video
- Interviewing key individuals instrumental to the setting up of VIP at St Andrews
- Interviewing select VIP supervisors and students
- filming, editing and producing high quality videos
- working a part of a group to create a finished product, and managing the various needs of the group members
- sharing tasks, listening to and learning from other group members, negotiating skills, conflict resolution skills
16. Art Reproductions in the University of St Andrews Library Photographic Collection
Project Sponsor: School of Art History
*** All students are welcome to apply, but this project will be especially attractive to students in Art History, Classics, English, Film Studies, History, Modern Languages and Politics***
This STEP invites students to participate in 6 two-hour-long seminars, which will focus on various problematic aspects of the early photographic art reproduction: the interrelation between the original and the copy, the technical challenges of making a photographic reproduction in the nineteenth century, the ways the reproduction reflected the artistic tastes of the day, etc. In the seminars, we will discuss a weekly set reading in relation to the 5-7 reproductions from the University of St Andrews Special Collections that each of you will have selected in the first week.
The project has three major outcomes that the seminar discussions are meant to help you achieve. First, you will write short catalogue entries on the selected reproductions, which will then become part of the Special Collections online catalogue. Second, in collaboration with the Centre André Chastel (Paris) the School of Art History is organising an online conference (https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/art-history/news/title-125847-en.php) on the topic, and you will come up with 5 questions to one selected speaker of the roundtable that will follow it. Finally, you will work collectively on the creation of an online conference poster, which will present the STEP findings to the conference audience.
17. Creating a Conference and Exhibition Website
Project Sponsor: School of Art History
*** All students are welcome to apply, but this project will be especially attractive to students in Art History, Classics, English, Film Studies, History, Modern Languages and Politics***
In September of 2021, the School of Art History will host the first conference to focus on the use of blue paper, which emerged as a chosen support for drawing and printing in Venice at the turn of the sixteenth century. To engage the broader public, we are creating a WordPress website to accompany the conference. At the core of the website is an online exhibition to include artworks discussed in the conference, brief descriptions of these objects, and thematic blog entries. The emergence of online art historical resources has increased over the course of the pandemic, and this website will serve as an openly accessible research and teaching aid for the understudied material of blue paper.
The proposed project will consist of building the website, the securing and organisation of image rights, and the creation of a strong social media presence. This conference brings together historians and art historians, conservators, and experts in the dynamic emerging field of technical art history. Students will gain insight into the critical process of generating didactic materials, considering issues of accessibility. They will learn the process of image rights, essential for the discipline of art history, and a useful exercise in project management. Through this project, students will build skills that speak to the enterprise capabilities of creativity and innovation, as well as communication and strategy.
18. Visiting Museums Online Together
Project Sponsors: School of Computer Science, School of Art History and CEED
***Please note that this project is only open to current UG students in the Schools of Computer Science and Art History***
Visiting a museum is an inherently social experience. Most visitors attend museums with friends, family or groups. Even if visiting alone, other visitors influence the museum experience. Visiting a museum with companions gives visitors the platform for spending time together. Covid restrictions have currently removed access to cultural heritage venues to engage in social outings together. Several cultural heritage organisations now provide online digital experiences for their visitors. However, few of these consider the social interaction between companions using the online digital resources. In collaboration with the St. Andrews University Museums and the School of Computer Science, this project will investigate possible digital interactions to support companions’ social interaction while using these remote digital resources. The project will focus heavily on the user’s experiences, drawing on the field of Human Computer Interaction in order to create a prototype.
19. Children’s books online as material culture
Project Sponsors: School of Management and School of Modern Languages
***Please note that this project is only open to current UG students taking RU (Russian modules) and current UG students in the School of Management***
This project comprises two parts: the first involves online research into the dissemination of children’s literature on the Russian-language Internet and the second requires students to develop a new assessment method for the module RU4133: Russian Children’s Literature 1900-2012. In the last ten years, a paradoxical phenomenon of online material book culture has emerged such as, on Booktube and book vlogs that feature the unboxing of new books and footage of people reading aloud from much loved copies of their favourite books. Research into these media is at an early stage and limited to the English-language Internet: students will therefore be breaking new ground in researching parallel or related activities in Russian. They will then apply their findings to create innovative assessment in RU4133, increasing the focus on books as material objects. The student will trial using the digital tool Exhibit to give a presentation on a Soviet children’s book and create a sample vlog informed by existing online presentation strategies. These assessment methods will then be considered for implementation in RU4133 in Semester 2, 2021-2.
20. Machine learning and photography
Project Sponsors: School of Computer Science, School of Art History, School of Physics and CEED
***Please note that this project is only open to current UG students in the Schools of Computer Science, Art History and Physics***
Art and photographic collections are increasingly being digitized, opening up new possibilities for research at scale, moving beyond a single-object or connoisseurship-based model to one that looks to identify archaeological objects depicted in photographs, prints and other visual materials, across different collections. The University’s photographic collections include more than 1 million images that could be a vital and critical research and teaching resource, but less than 10% have the kind of description or tagging that makes them discoverable and available for research and teaching across disciplines, or accessible or available for analysis at scale. We would like students to work together with to do vital scoping-work for this project, to support the start of the process of tagging the University's photographic collections.
