We look at how big world events, political decisions and societal change impact on people and their communities and try to better understand the world we live in.
Working collaboratively across key research themes, we can tackle big problems together. Here’s eight examples of how we’re doing just that:
The role of online support for people with breast cancer
Research developed within the Faculty of Social Science’s Information School and the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), investigated new developments in online technologies and the potential to change experiences of living with breast cancer.
‘A Shared Space and a Space for Sharing’ explored people’s experiences of interacting with online health platforms for support when living in extreme circumstances (ranging from dangerous and addictive drug use, life-threatening illness, to suicidal ideation and natural disasters).
Peter Bath is Professor of Health Informatics in the Information School. He said: ‘The research we undertook in Sheffield examined how people affected by breast cancer use the Breast Cancer Now online health forum to share information and their experiences with each other and how they get emotional support from other people. We designed the research in collaboration with Breast Cancer Now and shared the findings of the study as we progressed. The study provided important insights into how people affected by breast cancer gain important emotional support from online health forums, which are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Some people develop new friendships in the forum and this can help the person through a very difficult time.’
Developing blue green infrastructure for water management, human health, and wellbeing
Researchers from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Landscape Architecture and the School of Medicine at the University of Central Lancashire are investigating the ways in which enhancing green features to improve water management can also improve health and wellbeing for the community. The green spaces and semi-green built systems, including fields, woods, rivers, lakes and gardens that we find between and within our cities and built-up areas can provide noise reduction and improved air quality, but research suggests that these infrastructures can also create stress-reducing environments, improve social interaction, engage people in physical activity and create better wellbeing.
Dr Liz Sharp is a Senior Lecturer for the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. She said: ’We have been fantastically privileged in this research to work with local authority flood risk and public health managers to explore what information they needed and what format they needed it in. There is a wealth of relevant science; this report we are systematising and synthesising it into a format designed to inform urban policy making, master planning and blue green infrastructure design.’
80 percent of Indonesian rainforest vulnerable to palm oil destruction is not protected
A team of experts at the University of Sheffield’s Institute for Sustainable Food, Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures and the National University of Singapore developed a model to explain and predict the expansion of oil palm plantations.
The study, co-authored by Dr Jolian McHardy, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics, found that more than 80 percent of the Indonesian rainforest, mangroves and peatlands most vulnerable to being cleared for palm oil production is completely unprotected by the country’s Forest Moratorium.
Distance learning project launched to help people develop skills in robotics and autonomous systems
Dr Becky Parry, Lecturer in the School of Education, is working with researchers within the Department of Computer Science to pilot a new way of learning in robotics education. The project uses cloud computing and state-of-the-art robots to develop distance learning activities in robotics for people across all educational levels, enabling students to write programs from home, test them using a simulation and then run the program on a remote robot to see if it works in the real world. It’s a first for robotics teaching.
Dr Parry said: ‘Working collaboratively and across disciplines in the context of this project has opened up opportunities for women, who are under-represented in computer science, to develop their understanding of the implications of technological innovation. This is critical to ensuring that women are not invisible in design processes, but instead are in a position to contribute to public debates about the development of robotics.’
Tackling loneliness among migrant and ethnic minority groups
A cross-faculty team from the University of Sheffield, including the Department of Sociological Studies and the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), collaborated with colleagues from Brunel and De Montfort Universities on a major new project focused on better understanding loneliness among migrant and ethnic minority groups.
Funded by the National Institute for Health Research’s public health research programme (NIHR PHR), the project aimed to identify successful approaches to reducing loneliness among these social groups.
Sarah Salway, Professor of Public Health in the Department of Sociology, and chief investigator on the project, said: ‘To our knowledge, this is the first research to examine in detail what we know about tackling loneliness among migrant and ethnic minority people. This was an exciting project in which we worked with members of the public to assess and summarise the existing research evidence. The project was unusual in looking beyond older people to consider loneliness at all ages and life-stages.’
Plastics: redefining single use
A diverse project team from all faculties at the University of Sheffield are working with The Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures to redefine single-use plastic, in the fields of food, healthcare and agriculture.
The project is trying to shift the agenda from the recycling of single-use plastics to processes of re-use. In particular, Dr Rorie Parsons, Post-Doctoral Research Associate within the Department of Geography, has been exploring the demise of historical systems of reuse as a result of changing social, technical and economic structures, whilst also conducting field research (in store and in people’s homes) in understanding how consumption practices of reuse systems (specifically refill methods of reuse) are performed and engage with other associated everyday practices.
Could artificial intelligence techniques be the answer to an Alzheimer's cure?
Researchers in the Faculty of Social Sciences’ Information School and the School of Health and Related Research are embarking on a research project to tackle Alzheimer’s disease with artificial intelligence techniques.
The project will focus on designing new computational techniques and testing different strategies to explore under what conditions designed molecules are active against desired proteins, in particular on proteins known to be involved in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr Antonio de la Vega de León is leading the project and is collaborating closely with Professor Beining Chen within the Department of Chemistry to further understand the most common type of dementia in the UK.
Manufacturer helps local pupils make moves with university education scheme
A Sheffield-based postural support equipment specialist is helping to engage children across the city in engineering after partnering with an outreach scheme launched by the University of Sheffield. The hands-on mobile workshop is designed to engage children in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) in educational and community settings.
The scheme is part of the University’s Maker{Futures} programme, an ambitious scheme driven by the University’s School of Education and supported by the Faculty of Engineering. It aims to support and promote maker education in schools, libraries and museums.
Dr Alison Buxton, of the Maker{Futures} programme, said: ‘The build a bike activity allows children to get hands-on to see how bikes are put together and mix the pieces up to create their own design.
‘The best bit about the activity is that children can then actually ride their creations – they start to think like an engineer, figuring out why it's not working and trying something else. Brilliant!’