This year, I was really happy to be back at Sport Accord, speaking about all things technology. We covered artificial intelligence, immersive tech, and gaming to talk about the future of sport.
This year, I was delighted to host an event within ESF focused on the future of artificial intelligence, featuring Madhumita Murgia, AI Editor for the Financial Times.
It was my pleasure to co-host the University’s TEDx event again this year, such a remarkable number of people involved!
What a fantastic week at The University of Salford. We had our The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures livestream event with great talks from Marieke Navin, Dr Helen Whitehead, and Dorien de Vries, each discussing how artificial intelligence is shaping their work.
We even managed to align that event with the Greater Manchester Institute of Technology inaugural conference, which brought students and staff from across the colleges and university together. I was delighted to give the keynote talk and proud to have so many of our colleagues supporting the event. It was fantastic to hear from Jo Purves, Claire Foreman, and GCHQ about all the exciting things that are happening.
Finally, we went up to the STEM Learning UK and met Séverine Trouillet FRSA and the incredible team to take part in the second of the The Royal Institution livestreams.
So many people helped to make all of these events happen, especially anthony stephens, Tina H-Mistry, Andre Davies, Maria Dickinson, Daniel Williamson.
We also launched our Salford 360 campaign, which brings together each of our schools to speak about key areas of interest. This month, we've focused on artificial intelligence and you can read
https://lnkd.in/e58n8qu4
One more week to go! Have a great weekend everyone!
https://lnkd.in/ez4hjJFM
I was delighted to be the keynote for this amazing, first event, bringing together all of our college partners to talk about the latest innovations in science and technology. We focused a lot on artifcial intelligence and immersive technologies.
It was a pleasure to speak at the Brilliant Festival in Liverpool, where we got into all the ways in which technology is fostering new skills within education. This new event is likely to develop a major legacy for the region, so well worth a follow.
I was delighted to give the keynote at this year’s Luxembourg National Research Fund science communication conference, speaking about artificial intelligence and immersive worlds. Such a fantastic community with some incredible work. Find more about them here
Fantastic visiting Oxford University to speak about innovative practices in science communication, harnessing the potential of digital to engage people differently.
Very pleased to Chair a panel at the SEG3 conference in London, focused on the metaverse.
Panel: The Road to an Interoperable Metaverse
Thursday, June 29
An open metaverse is the long term goal of many within the space, but what would this look like, and how can it be achieved? This session will explore:
The technological framework that needs to be in place to support the vision
The timelines to achieving an open metaverse
The role of blockchain
The role of universal game development standards
Ownership of digital assets in web2 and web3 environments
The impact of interoperability on consumers and enterprise
Very pleased to be featured in this new podcast presented by by Ghislaine Boddington. Here’s the overview and links
Are you planning a summer holiday? Maybe you will have some time to relax on a lounger listening to the near future narratives I am presenting in the Fast Forward Season 2 podcast!
Join me as we explore the transformative shifts that emerging technologies are bringing to our bodies, minds and behaviours. This international series features engaging conversations with global experts, unlocking future visions. From avatars to women in gaming, to technology's impact on family dynamics, Fast Forward Season 2 covers it all.
The first 3 episodes are available:
Ep. 1 - "The Metaverse Blend - hyper-enhancing our hybrid future": Explore the I and the We of our new virtual realms, from the creation of individualised avatars that shape our virtual identities/self-expression by Michaela Larosse (The Fabricant) to how we can/will participate in groups with Professor Andy Miah, Chair of Science Communication & Future Media at The University of Salford explaining the advanced methods in e-sports.
Ep. 2 - "Women in Gaming - empowerment leads to engagement": Dive into the history of gender representation in the gaming industry, witness the inspiring transformations happening today. With life stories from Ghada Almoqbel, CEO of GCON, and Jennifer Donahoe Donahue, Head of Publishing & Marketing at HiDef, Inc.
Ep. 3 - "Telegram to Telepresence - is the family being swept away on a digital tidal wave?" Explore the concerns surrounding data transmission within our homes and its impact on parental care. And what happens when digital touch is also an option? Guests: Sonia Livingstone, Prof. of Social Psychology at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Sly Spencer-Lee, Co-Founder/Co-CEO at Emerge®.
And there's more - here's what's coming up:
Ep. 4 - "Extended self - our future digital twins": Uncover the transformative power of personalised body data and the boundless possibilities it offers. What about the lack of diversity of the data available? Guests: Michael D. Geer, Co-Founder of Humanity Inc. and Marija Butkovic, Founder of Women of Wearables (wearables, health tech & femtech).
Ep. 5 - "Cyborg Shifts – embedding technologies into our bodies": Discover groundbreaking advancements in cyborg technology, as prostheses and implants converge, creating opportunities for shifts towards cyborg existences. Guests: Dani Clode, University of Cambridge and trans-species artist Neil Harbisson.
Ep. 6 - "STEM Women are changing the world": Gain insights into women in tech activism and networks, inspiring the next generation of STEM leaders. Hear the experiences of younger women in STEM. Guests: Patricia Peck Pinheiro, PhD, CEO/Founding Partner of Peck Advogados and Dr A-Marie I., CEO of Stemettes.
Listen to explore how these emerging technologies will shape our lives and the world around us!
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eBSjbNbn
Apple: https://lnkd.in/ePPUbAWZ
For new episodes, hit subscribe. If you like the series, rate and review it.
There's a huge amount of talk about the metaverse, but if you're new to this world and wondering what it's all about, then where can you begin?
I've dropped content from a few metaverse worlds into this video, but I'm particularly excited to include footage from a recent PixelMax experience.
I'm really excited to be working with PixelMax and we'll be sharing more about projects we have in the pipeline later, bringing together Salford University and MediaCityUK. In the mean time, if you're a developer wanting to work with their SDK, then you can head over to here for registration.
https://pixelmax.com/products/sdk
If you'd just like to play around and see what's coming around the corner in the PixelMax store soon, then take a look at the demo site: https://pixelmax.com/demo
I was delighted to be the host of the Global Esports Summit, which took place again this year in London.
You can take a look at all the exciting sessions that took place.
Discover more on esports here.
This week, I discovered that an article I published for the Times Higher Education made it into their top 15 articles of 2022. My contribution focuses on the future of knowledge, following 30 years of investment into the STEM disciplines. Here’s the article
and here’s a video piece which speaks to the main thesis:
Some thoughts ahead of #HostCity2022 next week.
"COVID has brought about a step change in audience expectations, which must be seen in the context of a longer history of making our live and remote experiences increasingly immersive, flexible, and technologically enabled. The Web2 era nurtured this desire and COVID embedded the expectation, readying us for web3.
For sure, the error we make is concluding that this is a move away from the importance of physical space as a crucial component of a compelling experience, but what's changing is the capacity to level up the physical world with immersive integrations which have been prototyped during COVID. Audiences expect to be more active and the data driven event economy finds a crucial extension through volumetric and locative audience data.
The future of the elite event experience is phygital - e.g watching digital content layered over a physical swimming pool and seeing the projection of Olympic swimmers live into the space, as it happens, or the transition of triathlons into arena based virtual worlds, or running in your gym alongside athletes as they compete. These are our clues which shed light onto the future and it's as big a shift as was the design of the amphitheatre in ancient Greece.
In this context, rights holders need to massively rethink what they do and what they are in relation to their audience. Simply staging something isn't enough anymore. The Olympic Channel is a great example of how institutions are experimenting to find their feet in a world where the media proposition around events is vastly different. The MVP in this future is to wrangle the innovation community that can remake events for a vastly different set of audience expectations."
Join us for Host City in Glasgow next week!
On 16th November, we’re hosting an event for the AHRC Being Human Festival, giving people a chance to step into the metaverse and explore the world in virtual reality.
“If you liked what you heard at NSL, then follow these accounts to get involved.” Prof @andymiah
I’m really pleased to have published an article in the print and online version of the Times Higher Education, inquiring into the relevance of the STEM acronym, 30 years after it was coined. I’ve worked across many subjects and taught in science and art schools.
What I’ve learned is that the divisions between subjects leave us absent of the kind of holistic world view we need to take us to a future we can really embrace as being the best of humanity. This article discusses the loss that has ensued from a STEMinist mentality in our knowledge systems, while also considering that the underlying vision has led to an impoverished appreciation for what it could have been and meant. Even within the natural sciences, divisions between subjects are rigid in the main part, as researchers are pushed into ever greater competition for resources and this works to our detriment.
Here’s the LINK to the article.
Last month, I was delighted to speak at the cyborg conference, led by Profs Monika Michałowska, Steve Fuller and Veronika Lipinska. The proceedings are now published and free to download and it’s a wonderful insight into what’s been happening in cyborg theory over the last 20 years. Take a look and update your ideas about what the cyborg is in our present times
Download the full proceedings HERE.
And here is MY CHAPTER
The Beijing 2022 Games take place this month and you can catch all of my content over at Culture @ the Olympics with summaries on this dedicated page .
Over the COP26 fortnight, I hosted A LOT of online live sessions for the University of Salford. We brought expertise from around the university