Mark So we're on to our second of our episodes covering the postgraduate research conference at Durham University and being played through the Pedda Godzilla on tour special episodes. And we've got the banner outside, the podcasting suite and all that sort of stuff. we're really I you made a rod for your own back there. Yeah, because we're really on tour because all I've done is walk from one side of the office to the other. Anyway, at the conference, Pete is one of the organisers. So I thought I'd grab him to chat about the conference a bit and what it's all about and about him. So Pete, do you want to introduce yourself and explain what your role here is? Pete Yeah sure, my name is Pete Whitton and my day job is working at Durham University running the Research and Development Programme and the Research and Development Conference is one of the key events of the year that we run for PhD students here. And the idea is it gives the PhD students a bit of time to kind of reflect on their development plans. They get to go to lots of interesting sessions all crammed into one day. And one of the ideas is, I guess, is that lots of our PhD students aren't on campus all the time. So gives them a good excuse to come in, see us maybe one day and then stay over and see their supervisor or whatever on another day. so they're coming in from all over, basically. Yeah. And this used to be more so back in the day. We used to actually advertise it as the part-time and distance learners conference when I first started. And we did used to literally, this is pre-COVID of course, we did literally get people flying in from all over the world to come to it. And they would use it as an excuse to meet up face to face with their supervisor, to speak to the research librarians, you know. all the kind of stuff that it's a bit difficult to do at a distance or was back in those days. Before everyone became so adept at using Teams and Zoom and all that kind of stuff. And what sort of sessions have you got lined up for them during the day then? Being aware that if you miss anyone, they will come hunt you down. Oh gosh, well obviously I've memorised the programme not. Most of our sessions are around... creative ways to look at your PhD. I think we've got, I think our most subscribed session so far is Paul's one on AI storytelling for PhD students. We have a couple of panel sessions as well. And I think probably the highlight of the day for me anyway is gonna be, we've got a number of student talks, we've given them. We've called them lightning talks or lightening talks as you pointed out. source of contention about how you spell that. So I think that'll be really good because we've drawn these people mainly from the three minute thesis competition and given them a bit more time so they can, because I think all of them did a great job on the 3MT, but it's always nicer to be able to speak in a bit more detail about your research. So I think some of them will be really, really good. And there's a poster session as well, isn't there? Yeah, so it's not a they're not presenting to their posters, but we've been running a poster competition over the last few weeks. We had 30 entries. We've narrowed it down to the final 10. We have a winner. We have our runners up, which I will reveal later on today. Drum roll and all that. think we have a 200 pound prize for the winner and a 75 pound prize for the runner up, which obviously is nice. And after the conference, we will be putting the 10 finalist posters up online so staff and students in the university can vote in what we call the people's choice vote. So sometimes they agree with the official judges, sometimes not. So, you know, and it helps with the outreach obviously of the... the PhD students work. So is that that's part of it as well is to get students used to the whole idea of outreach and communication and dissemination and it's their first stab at doing that then? Yeah, so it is an academic poster but one of my criteria that I set up in the rules was it had to be an academic poster that could be understood by a general audience member. So you've got to be quite careful about the language that you use, perhaps some of the complex data sets that you present on the poster, you've got to do a bit more legwork perhaps than a discipline specific poster would need. and that's possibly why you encouraged me to help out with the podcasting and do a podcasting strand is again that gives them a taster on disseminating their research through a different medium as well. Absolutely and if you come along to any of my sessions I often start them regardless of what the subject is with a little exercise saying “Right, I just want you to say a hundred words about your research in a way that your grandmother could understand. And in that, I want you to say why you think your work is important. Right. You know, is it important politically, societally? Is it important for other theorists? Is it important because the maths that you're doing will lead to better battery? know, why is it important?” Yeah. Because I think if you can think about that early on in your PhD, you're laughing when you come to the Viva. Mark Yeah, because that is often the most difficult question to try and encapsulate. And also it means you rethink what your research is about because you're presenting it in two or three sentences or whatever. Pete Another good question that I like asking PhD students is, you know, why have you decided to do this research? Yeah. Because that's often the kind of... opening question that an external examiner might ask. really? And they're doing that because they think it's a really nice easy question that everyone will be able to answer. Of it's not. But if you've never really thought about that or articulated it before, it can actually throw people and then set them off on a kind of panicky viva. gosh, I couldn't even answer that easy question. Mark Yeah, well, no, it's actually sometimes the most difficult question when we're doing learning design. first thing we do is, “well, what is the intention behind this degree? What is the point of somebody doing this and what do they take away from it?” And they go, “oh, why are you asking me this question?” Pete Absolutely, because it might be quite a long time if ever that conversation had been had. Mark: Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately. Yeah. And I was going to say also encapsulating it in a few sentences or for me, encapsulating it in a few words, because if I was going to tell my grandmother about it, I'd have to be communicated via a Ouija board. Yeah. Yeah. Or Derek Acora. Derek Acora is dead now as well, isn't he? Pete: Yeah. He's no use to us either, isn't he? Mark: You'd need a medium to get through to the medium to get through to my grandmother. Okay. Pete: So- We could have Mystic Meg. Oh no, she's dead too. Mark: So how does being involved in the conference feed back into your own- work as far as your own research, your own interests, and that sort of thing? Pete: So for me, this year I've taken a bit of a back seat in the conference. Other members of staff have kind of led the development of the program. And this year, for the first time, we've had quite a lot of student representation designing the program and all that kind of thing, which I think is great. And what that's given me is a bit of time just to mooch around, to actually have chats with people, get to know some of the PhD students a bit better. Because often what happens is they come to my sessions, have a little chat afterwards and I don't see them again for months or sometimes at all. Because there's definite peaks and troughs. People tend to come to our workshops in the first year of their PhD and towards the end of their PhD, but there's this whole chunk in the middle where we often don't see the students so much because They're doing their PhD. They're doing the work, aren't they? Hopefully. So it gives me a real good chance to find out what people are working on, find out what they're worried about, find out whether we're doing a good job in a nice, informal setting. everyone's job has sort of peaks and troughs, but one of the really good things about my job is chatting to PhD students, chatting to really... really bright people who've got interesting stuff to say. That's like the big perk of my job. And finding out about all the huge, just the massive range of stuff that goes on in Durham. I was looking at posters and there's some... Every time we run one of these competitions or a three minute thesis competition, it's just like, wow. Mark: Are there any particular PhDs that stand out then? Pete: So over the years we've had some really, really interesting ones. So there was a PhD student called Beza Unsten and her research was amazing. It was all about unborn babies. So she did scans of babies in the mother's womb. But what she did was she fed the mother sweet things and sour things. I think carrots were the sweet thing and kale was the sour thing. And then she looked at the scans of the babies and you won't believe this, like, you when the mum ate the carrot, there was like smiley faced fetuses. And then I went, the mum ate the bitter kale, like, not so keen on that. So that was an amazing piece of research. know, she got quite a lot of traction. I think she was, you know, in the science media about it and stuff. Cause it's like an interesting story that lots of people can relate to. Let's see. Lauren Miller, she's one of our 3MT’s from a few years ago. She developed a, how can I put this, an electronic nose. So you know how we use sniffer dogs to locate drugs or we use, sniffer dogs sometimes are able to locate particular cancer markers or markers for other diseases. So it was kind of replicating the power, that kind of extreme sensory capability that a dog's nose has, electronically. So that was a really interesting one. This year, our winner, Miranda. Gosh, this is almost in the science fiction realm, but she's interested in the, she's a lawyer, but she's interested in the legislation around some of the new lie detector testing equipment. When I say lie detector, you'll probably think of like a polygraph. But no, some of the new ones can tap into kind of the neurons within your brain. Mark: And actually tell whether you're lying or because a polygraph is famously completely inaccurate. Pete: But this actually does work. So these are far more accurate. And she's interested in where that sits legally, if they tap into other ideas in your subconscious, where does that leave the law? So you can imagine this being some sort of science fiction. Mark: Minority report stuff, isn't Pete: exactly. So she was our winner of the three minute thesis this year and just a mind blowing kind of bureaucracy. crime. Complexity and just that was really good. She's done some really big thinking about what this might mean. Brilliant. Mark: OK. Sounds like a hoping I'll get to see some of the some of the sessions. I'm going to sit in on the zine workshop. that sounds quite interesting. But yeah, that's the downside of both being a chair and being doing the podcasting is that you don't actually get to see any of the conference directly. But it sounds like this year you're getting to see quite a lot. Pete: so I am chairing in the afternoon and I'm really topping and tailing the event. You know, I the welcome this morning and I'll do a kind of, you know, a summing up. Yeah. If there's anyone left because it's, it's the hottest day of the year so far. It is. And the building will heat up over the course of the day as the sun moves around the building. Well, you know, as well as I do, it can get pretty stuffy in some of those classrooms. Mark: Podcasting suite here because there are no windows. But also it's the lure of the outside and the sunny day and all that sort thing really which I'm surprised you've got as many as you have really but there we go just goes to show how useful and interesting and creative the conference programme is so yeah. I had to get that in. Right then okay so thanks Pete and I think hopefully we'll grab some more people during the day to talk a bit more about their research. Pete: Brilliant.