The Digital Economy Network (DEN) Annual Meeting 2019 for Digital Economy CDT staff and CDT/PhD/EngD Research Students will be held onMonday 25 February 2019, from 10.30am – 3.00pm. You can register now athttps://denannualmeeting2019.eventbrite.co.uk
The DEN annual meeting provides Digital Economy CDT Directors, Managers and CDT/PhD Students an annual opportunity to:
Hear about recent Digital Economy Network (DEN) events and initiatives that have been delivered for Digital Economy CDT/PhD students and associated staff.
Provide valuable input into discussions to help shape future Network (and related) training events and conferences.
Get an update from the EPSRC Digital Economy Theme on current and future research funding opportunities.
Meet with other colleagues and doctoral students from across the Network and share good practice
*Free to attend for currently registered PhD/EngD students/those writing up thesis within the Digital Economy Network Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT) and within Digital Economy related research groups/institutes at Universities*.
25 places are available for CDT students within the Digital Economy Network on this 2-day residential time-facilitated writing retreat, which will held on Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 February 2019 at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor.
These very popular events provide doctoral students with an ideal environment and a beneficial opportunity to have dedicated time to specifically focus on writing or projects relating to their PhD/EngD, and in particular writing up their thesis or producing research/conference papers to publish their research.
Day 1 will start with a short discussion on writing objectives in pairs, and individuals will set their own short, medium and long-term writing goals, including what they want to achieve at the retreat over the time facilitated sessions.
PhD students from across multiple EPSRC-supported Digital Economy Centres for Doctoral Training and relevant research groups recently benefited from a two-day residential facilitated writing retreat, which was held at Beamish Hall in County Durham on 27-28 November 2018.
The aim of the residential retreat, which was attended by 28 PhD students from across 10 Universities, was to create a positive, quiet and productive environment in order to maximise writing productivity via eight time-facilitated sessions over the two days.
When registering for the event, attendees were required to specify what they would be using the retreat for, and they also discussed their short, medium and longer term writing goals in pairs at the start of Day One.
PhD students at various stages of their programmes, from across the following nine EPSRC-supported Digital Economy Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs)/relevant research groups benefited from this event:
Cloud Computing for Big Data (Newcastle University)
Digital Civics (Newcastle University)
Embedded Intelligence (Loughborough University)
Healthcare Innovation (University of Oxford)
HighWire (Lancaster University)
IGGI: Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence (Goldsmiths)
Media and Arts Technology (Queen Mary University of London)
Web Science (University of Southampton)
The Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Loughborough University London)
Above: The Beamish Hall venue, County Durham
The majority of PhD students present were concentrating on writing or editing their thesis, although other writing goals included drafting conference papers or journal articles, literature reviews, preparing for an annual review and coding.
Student feedback included the following:
“During this writing retreat I wrote an abstract for a conference. The DEN retreat helps create an ideal environment for producing quality writing material” (PhD Student – 2016 cohort, Embedded Intelligence CDT, Loughborough University)
“I set a challenge of writing the introduction to my thesis over the first day. The writing sessions helped me to focus on the goals and made the writing more manageable. I was able to achieve my goal of writing my introduction” (PhD Student – 2015 cohort), Digital Civics CDT, Newcastle University)
The feedback from the PhD student attendees indicated that they also specifically valued the opportunity to talk and network with peers over the breaks and dinner, share common research interests and expertise, as well as providing and receiving advice. This retreat provided an opportunity to meet with other CDT students they may not have necessarily have met, would it not been for an event such as this.
The next bi-annual DEN CDT Managers/Administrators Meeting will be held on Wednesday 7 November 2018, from 10.30am to 2.30pm at TheWesley, 81-103 Euston Street, London.
Refreshments and pastries on arrival will be provided, along with a buffet lunch.
We are aware that the Digital Economy Network (DEN) PhD Student community is ever changing, with new CDT students joining the EPSRC-supported Centres to embark on their PhD journey, as well as graduates and alumni moving on to their postdoc career destinations.
DEN keeps your CDT Managers and Administrators informed on all the Network’s relevant events and activities that are taking place that will be beneficial and of interest to you, but new doctoral students can also join the DEN mailing list via the sign up form below, so that you can also be informed directly of any DEN opportunities. You can also choose to unsubscribe from the list at any time.
Summer School Venue: The Italian Villa, Compton Acres, Poole (Near Bournemouth), Dorset, BH13 7ES
Start time: The Summer School programme will start with a networking/social evening with a BBQ, drinks and nibbles at Urban Reef Seafront Restaurant and Beach Bar in Bournemouth at 7.00pm on Sunday 1 July .
Finish time: The event will close at 5.00pm on Tuesday 3 July 2018.
The Digital Economy Summer School 2018 for DEN CDT Students will be hosted by the EPSRC Centre for Digital Entertainment of Bournemouth University and the University of Bath.
Overnight accommodation (single occupancy, bed and breakfast) for the nights of 1 & 2 July 2018 has been organised for attendees at the Ramada Encore Hotelin central Bournemouth, which is located within walking distance of Bournemouth Train Station. Coach transport will be arranged by the organisers to take delegates to and from the hotel to the Summer School venue.
ATC Boardroom, Aerospace Technology Centre, University of Nottingham, Innovation Park, Triumph Road, Nottingham, NG7 2TU
The bi-annual Digital Economy Network (DEN) CDT Managers/Administrators Meeting will be hosted by the Horizon CDT in My Life in Data at the University of Nottingham.
The meeting will start at 10.30am, and finish by 2.30pm. Refreshments and lunch will be provided.
The Digital Economy Network (DEN) hosted their second PhD writing retreat of 2018 at the idyllic setting of Thrumpton Hall; a spectacular 17th century English country house, set in the village of Thrumpton near Nottingham. PhD students from across seven EPSRC-funded Digital Economy Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) signed up for this event to have the opportunity to focus on research writing or associated work relating to their doctoral study.
18 CDT students from the Network’s Cloud Computing, Embedded Intelligence, Horizon, HighWire, Media & Arts Technology, and Web Science CDTs attended the two-day retreat.
The retreat, which facilitated by Andy Darby of Lancaster University, is a structured programme which aims to establish a highly productive and healthy relationship with writing over the two days. Each day is broken down into four writing sessions of either an hour or ninety minutes, with set break times, including an hour slot for lunch to allow people to move away from their work, talk with other CDT students from across the Network, have food and refreshments and to take walks in the surrounding gardens and parkland.
Above: The gardens of Thrumpton Hall
Attendees paired up at the start of day one and discussed with each other their specific writing objectives for the event, and then individuals evaluated their progress against their set goals at key points during the retreat.
CDT students used the retreat to work on various tasks including thesis chapters, literature reviews, interview transcription, data analysis, coding, journal submissions, conference papers, blogs and annual review reports.
The majority of the 18 students who attended, also enjoyed an evening meal in the Hall’s impressive and grandiose dining room and stayed overnight in the country house, and were extremely well looked after by the Thrumpton events staff. DEN had exclusive use of the Hall and various rooms for the duration of the event, which provided ideal conditions for people to focus on their work, and base themselves in different rooms across the two days.
Above: CDT students at evening meal in Thrumpton Hall dining room
Cat Morgan, PhD Student at the Web Science CDT at the University of Southampton wrote a blog article entitled ‘To writing retreat or not to writing retreat’ about her experience of the event.
The next two-day retreat will be held on 15-16 May 2018 at Elmore Court in Gloucester.
Thanks and acknowledgements:
DEN would like to thank Andy Darby of Lancaster University for facilitating the retreat, and providing writing coaching and advice to the individual delegates who required this. Thanks also to Paula, Lynn, Nancy and the other staff at Thrumpton Hall for doing such a great job of looking after us during our stay. Thanks to all the CDT students who attended and I hope you made the progress you aimed for.
