Month: July 2015

Why Water? And Comms at CDP

In this blog I thought would write a bit more about the background of why I came to choose the CDP water team for my Charity Insights internship and how CDP communicates its work, as I think this is one of the most vital elements to its output and an area I imagine a lot of people could be interested in working in.

So first off, why do I think water is so important?

This year, the World Economic Forum listed water crises as the biggest Global Risk in terms of impact, based on a survey of nearly 900 global leaders in business, academia, and government. Future water issues are seen to have a more significant potential impact than failure of climate change adaptation, economic crises, weapons of mass destruction and infectious disease. See this article for further on the results of the WEF report. 10 years ago, water risks barely registered on the WEF risk report, but over the last few years, has unfortunately steadily climbed to the top as awareness has increased.

So what’s going on with water? I think the problem is perception and awareness. It appears that a lot of people and companies perceive water as an unlimited resource and/or are unaware of how much water is used and embedded in everyday processes and products.  But fortunately that perception is changing and awareness is growing. I was definitely unaware until recently and still am learning all the time about our relationship with water and how important it is. It might seem obvious that water is essential to live, but I was really clueless about the wider facts and want to try and express some of them here.

The truth is freshwater is a finite resource, and unfortunately as with a lot of other resources, human activity is depleting the supply faster than it can be replenished, with water reserves in 21 out of 37 of the largest underground global aquifers decreasing since 2003. Industry and agriculture has also been responsible for polluting the water supply to the point where it is no longer fit for human consumption, as in China where almost 1/3 of surface water and over 2/3 of underground supplies are unsuitable for humans. Finally I want to note that water is also often a cross-border issue. For example the building of Dams across the Euphrates river in southern Turkey is leading to increased water scarcity and raising tensions in neighbouring Iraq, who heavily rely on the water from the Euphrates flowing across the border. It is conflicts like this that lead to a lot of diplomats, writers, politicians and economists predicting that wars in this century to be fought over the precious resource of water, not for oil or conquest.

This does not look encouraging when combined with the effects of Climate Change that are increasing the frequency and severity of droughts and so I think it is essential to act. That’s why it’s been so exciting seeing the inner workings of CDP, where everyone is focused on getting companies to act in the best interests of the people and the results are definitely encouraging.

 

A big part of the work done at CDP is communications or ‘comms’. The comms team works on ways to put across the work done at CDP to the media, the public, investors and companies. The team will help shape the annual reports CDP writes, as well as produce press releases and encourage media uptake of the stories that come out of the reports, showing where and how companies are responding (or not) to the issues of water, climate change and deforestation. CDP deals with a huge amount of data so delivering these messages in a concise yet meaningful way requires ingenuity to attract attention and generate impetus to make other companies act. In that vein, the role of the investor team at CDP is to reach out to investors who have significant stakes in these companies, and try and get them on board with CDP, to further encourage companies to shift attitudes and take actions against the dangers faced.

I would recommend looking the CDP website for some really interesting information about company commitments in the run up to the Paris climate change conference in December; data and graphics, visiting the twitter to see some of the output of the comms team and links to other articles, as well as the reports.

 

And now a final thought about how much water is ’embedded’ (used in the production of) our everyday products (see this link from national geographic for more). I’d just like to highlight the massive impact of meat production on the environment, with a kilo of beef requiring a staggering 15,000 litres of water to produce, 1kg of pork requiring 4,800 litres whilst crops like wheat require relatively little, at 1,100 litres of water per kilo. I think that’s worth thinking about that next time there’s a choice between weetabix and a bacon butty for breakfast.

Asha: Final Thoughts

After four weeks of effort and hard work, I have finally reached the end of my internship with Asha. In this final week, I finished my project report – 6 research papers, full of 100s of statistics and images all summarised in 10 pages. My report highlights the severity and importance of youth unemployment and the need for skills development programs in India. I am currently waiting for feedback from the project leader to make any final changes required before I end my involvement with this project for Asha.

The report forms part of a bigger set of papers that will be presented to various organisations – Asha’s project partners – to ensure that Asha gets the help and recognition required to make an even bigger impact than at present. As a first step, it will be presented to the Education secretary at the Indian High Commission in London to create tie-ups with government based agencies in India. In particular, in the news recently, the Indian government has launched a new “Skill India” initiative to tackle the very problem that I cover in my report – Asha hopes to get involved with this scheme and this is a good first point of contact.

However, this is only the beginning. As a charity, Asha is always on the lookout for volunteers. At Imperial in particular, there is a lack of undergraduate presence.  Once the academic term begins again, I hope to continue my involvement with Asha by liaising with the Imperial Indian and Hindu Societies to encourage more undergraduates to volunteer in their free time. It is immensely rewarding and hopefully my experiences can encourage others to undertake similar projects in the holidays.

Before finishing off, I would just like to say a quick thank you to Vidhya Sridhar and Anant Jani, my Imperial supervisor and project leader respectively, who have helped and guided me over the last month. It has been an excellent “introduction to the workplace” for me as this was my first internship and I hope to continue working with Asha in the future.

My project report (which is subject to change as mentioned above) is available from my Department of Computing website here – http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~vk714/InsightsReport.pdf

Week 2 with Samaritans

My second week at Samaritans has been largely populated with reading and organisation.

I’ve received some responses to the survey I designed last week, which is promising, and hope to get some more soon. The branch at Hereford is fairly small, so I don’t anticipate a huge amount of responses. However the volunteers who have contacted me seem very keen, so we’ll see!

In my briefing for the volunteers I also asked if they would be interested in taking part in some interviews, which would be either face to face or over the phone. Thankfully the response to this has been rather positive, and I have a few lined up for the following week. I hope that by speaking to individual volunteers I can get a better idea of what motivates these individuals to volunteer, and what might hold them back.

I’ve also scheduled an interview with the Volunteering Services Officer from HVOSS (Herefordshire Voluntary Organisations Support Service) in an attempt to get a wider picture of volunteering in the local community, and what position Samaritans has in that.

As part of my project’s role in outreach and recruitment I have found some fascinating studies on the subject, conducted only earlier this year. They provide a very revealing picture regarding what motivates a volunteer, and what are the main inhibitory factors. I look forward to seeing whether my results will match theirs.

Next week I should be meeting some volunteers, hopefully in person, before analysing and writing up my findings in the final week!

shop

Asha: Project Review

It has been a long and productive week, having had no less than 3 review meetings! By the end of last week, I had read through 5-6 key papers in the fields of youth unemployment and skills development challenges facing India. My task for the rest of the internship is to condense that information into a succinct 10 page report – no mean feat considering I have read more than 200 pages of interesting, useful and relevant information in addition to all the statistics collected. I am making good progress on the report and am on track to finish it by the end of the week.

Saturday was a big day as I met the entire team for a project review. Each member had focused on pulling the metrics from one of the papers – in this context, my summary was extremely important as it acts as the link between their metrics. It was discussed and scrutinised in some detail; I have receive feedback on it so as to improve and add to it in the final week. The biggest addition – a product of the meeting – is the finalised metric which is a set of 8-10 questions that each Asha project dealing with skills development has to answer when requesting more funding. This is then used as a measure of success, comparing it to other Asha projects and published averages from third party schemes before a final decision is made on approving the funding.

Here is a sneak preview of the report (not that you can see much…). The full version will be online next week, see my final blog post for the link!

Asha project

And here is the Imperial team of Asha volunteers – Vidhya, Himadri (PhD students, EE Department) and me with Himadri’s daughter who made a guest appearance at our team meet!

Team

First week at Rathbone

As my first week working with Rathbone comes to a close, I’ve found a few minutes to blog about some of the things I’ve done and would like to share with you.

My first day at Rathbone was spent getting acquainted with staff, facilities and the projects I’ll be completing over the course of my placement. I soon felt at ease and part of the team: the charity has only four full-time staff working at the Old Library site, who were all extremely welcoming and helpful, taking time to explain what their roles in the organisation entail and the many services offered by Rathbone.

My fundraising work this week started with completing an application for the Achievement Awards grant by the Jack Petchey Foundation. If successful, the foundation will provide Rathbone with regular £200 awards to be given to a young person, as nominated by their peers, who is a good role model, has overcome personal challenges or has helped others over and above expectations. The money will be reinvested in the form of equipment, trips or anything the young person feels would benefit the organisation. This has given me a unique insight into the inner workings of the charity, particularly into management structure and finances, as in the process of gathering the required information I analysed a number of financial reports and statements from the Board of Trustees.

Preparations for the programming workshop are already under way; I’ve set a start date and designed a poster to be hung on the main noticeboard close to the entrance – I’m quite happy with the result! I will be getting in touch with young people and signing them up over the upcoming week.

poster_workshop

Along with the personal satisfaction that comes with learning a new skill, I wanted this workshop to give young people the chance to gain formal recognition for their achievements; to this end I’ve found a suitable proposition: the AQA Unit Award scheme. Originally devised as a way of accrediting the achievement of students who were disengaged from education yet who still could achieve short units of work, it is now used in a wide variety of organisations and in a diverse range of subjects, from budgeting and debt management to employability skills. I came across a group of 8 units aptly named “Programming with Scratch”, with a structure ideal for teaching over the course of three weeks, starting with basic if-then constructs and gradually leading to the creation of a fully-fledged game.

I look forward to starting the final preparations next week, and hope young people will be as enthusiastic about it as I am!

Part 3 (at the CAT)

My time being based at the Collegiate Academy Trust is now over. The resources I have created will hopefully assist lessons and revising students for years to come!

The resources I have created cover some of the trickier areas of geography, such as rivers, exam questions and volcanism, topics that even the most talented geographer can find testing at times! Working with these areas created an extra challenge, not only to create the resources in the first place, but make them as interesting and enjoyable as possible.

As you can see I’m only on part 3, so, what’s to come in the final chapter?

My spare summer time will be spent creating, what I hope to be, an all-inclusive guide on my rock loaning scheme. I intend to have a page for every specimen, describing the specimen itself, describing and explaining where it is relevant in the curriculum and suggesting how it could be taught in order to fully utilise the specimen. I have completed my ‘wish list’ for the local geology museum and so should be going there any time soon to photograph and log the available specimens for my guide.

hqdefault
A picture of the Lapworth Museum of Geology. Unfortunately I don’t think their dino head is for loan!

 

I also intend to reflect on my time working for the charity.

 

Week 1 at Samaritans

As my first week draws to a close, I’m beginning to feel a little more confident with my project’s structure and its aims.

Following discussions with my supervisor and sending off the relevant documentation (I don’t know what I expected, but the ethics form was a bit of a nightmare!), I have designed and posted my questionnaire. It is my hope that this will give me a better idea of what encourages a person to volunteer with Samaritans.

I have also attended a volunteer information evening to meet some potential listening volunteers and make them aware of my project. Thankfully they were very welcoming and seemed eager to be involved. In the coming weeks I hope to amass responses to my survey and also lead some telephone and face to face interviews.

Even after one week I have learned a substantial amount about operations within the branch, the support it receives and, more importantly, the support it needs. This has helped shape my understanding of how charitable organisations in general struggle and get by from day to day. Due to insufficiencies within the branch, some volunteers have had to spread their roles to cover many different areas.

Finally following talks with my supervisor I’ve learned how the ethos of the organisation has changed and evolved since its inception in 1953, and look forward to becoming a fully fledged volunteer myself in the autumn.

60-years-stamp

Fourth and final week at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability

My final week at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability (RHN) has revealed that inevitably I’m not the only person examining the possibilities for improved seating design. From car seats to desk chairs to wheelchairs, the message is always the same; using new technologies future seats can and need to be better designed around the human body. There’s an asterisk on the end of that phrase though: the sheer amount of variation doesn’t make this an easy task. To this end a great deal of time this week has been spent reading through academic papers examining different aspects or users of all sorts of chairs, and obtaining the many papers referenced in each. The result is that I have more papers to go through than I started with earlier this week, and I run the risk of adding to an exponentially increasing stockpile!

To summarise my findings so far; the prevailing opinion is that spreading the person’s weight as evenly as possible over the seat contact area is the best way to prevent long-term seating injury for the reasons discussed in my Week 2 post. On the other hand a few papers suggest that reducing the pressure over certain weaker parts of the rear and maximising the pressure around the area underneath the strong pelvis bone is the best way forward. Depending on which theory was supported, various researchers have developed methods and devices to shape the seat to best fit the patient. One example used an array of sliding upright rods fitted with pressure and location sensors on which the patient sat to create a set of points in 3D space that represent the contours of the chair. A linked computer would then examine the measured pressure at each rod location and slide the rods up or down while the patient was still seated to achieve a better pressure distribution. The adjusted 3D point set would then be used by automated tools to manufacture the seat. The biggest problem with many of these solutions is the cost and practicability of implementing them alongside recommendations by trained therapists, who are conventionally responsible for gauging a disabled patient’s mobility and seating needs.

This project was always intended to be a first step in investigating possible solutions to future wheelchair designs for severely disabled patients. After conducting research towards this aim, focussing in particular on improving the seat design, I can confirm that there is a great deal more juice in this project yet. The hospital has therefore agreed that I continue this project, with the aim of submitting a report on the progress of the project and possible design solutions at the end of the summer. Some prototyping along the way is a strong possibility!

I have definitely enjoyed the last 4 weeks, meeting new people at the hospital and engaging in fascinating discussions with them. These have opened not only my eyes to the reality of caring for disabled patients, but have also caused the staff to ask themselves new questions and challenge the conventional ways of designing wheelchairs and wheelchair seats. As well as reading a great deal into the research topics, I have through trial and error experimented with new ways to organise and structure my research that will no doubt help in the years to come.

Best of luck to all those also completing their Charity Insights placements this summer. If you’re reading this while considering completing a Charity Insights placement in the future, believe me it’s well worth it!

My fourth and final week at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability (RHN) has revealed that inevitably I'm not the only person examining the possibilities for improved seating design. From car seats to desk chairs to wheelchairs, the message is always the same; using new technologies future seats can and need to be better designed around the human body. There's an asterisk on the end of that phrase though: the sheer amount of variation doesn't make this an easy task. To this end a great deal of time this week has been spent reading through academic papers examining different aspects or users of all sorts of chairs, and obtaining the many papers referenced in each. The result is that I have more papers to go through than I started with earlier this week, and I run the risk of adding to an exponentially increasing stockpile of papers! To summarise my findings so far; the prevailing opinion is that spreading the person's weight as evenly as possible over the seat contact area (i.e. minimising the peak pressure) is the best way to prevent injury. On the other hand a few papers suggest that reducing the pressure over certain weaker parts of the rear and maximising the pressure around the area underneath the strong pelvis bone is the best way forward. Depending on which theory was supported, various researchers have developed methods and devices to shape the seat to best fit the patient. One example used an array of sliding upright rods fitted with pressure and location sensors on which the patient sat to create a set of points in 3D space that represent the contours of the chair. An attached computer would then examine the measured pressure at each rod location and slide the rods up or down while the patient was still seated to achieve a better pressure distribution. The adjusted 3D point set would then be used to manufacture the seat. The biggest problem with many of these solutions is the cost and practicability of implementing them alongside recommendations by trained therapists, who are conventionally responsible for gauging a disabled patient's mobility and seating needs. This project was always intended to be a first step in investigating possible solutions to future wheelchair designs for severely disabled patients. After conducting research towards this aim, focussing in particular on improving the seat design, I can confirm that there is a great deal more juice in this project yet. The hospital has therefore agreed that I continue this project, with the aim of submitting a report on the progress of the project and possible design solutions at the end of the summer. I have definitely enjoyed the last 4 weeks, meeting new people and engaging in fascinating discussions with them. These have opened not only my eyes to the reality of caring for disabled patients, but have also caused the staff to ask themselves new questions and challenge the conventional ways of designing wheelchairs and in particular wheelchair seats. As well as reading a great deal into the research topics, I have through trial and error experimented with new ways to organise and structure my research that will no doubt help in the years to come. Best of luck to all those in the process of completing their Charity Insights placements this summer and for those reading this in considering completing a Charity Insights placement themselves in the future.
The Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, the location of my adventures in research and design for the past 4 weeks. To be continued…

Part 2 (at the CAT)

Spending time on the other side of a school is something I cannot recommend enough. As strange as it may sound, I have begun to appreciate that teachers and staff are human – sounds like an obvious statement but up until the age of 9 I assumed they lived in their classrooms! Not only are they human, but some of the most hard working and dedicated people.

I digress. The resources I have produced are now seeping into lessons. My regenerated school rock collection, along with factsheets, has been used in several science lessons with great feedback – supporting students (and staff) who lack complete understanding and appreciation of rocks.

 

Factsheets
I also had the chance to teach my own lesson, allowing me to test drive the resources I have created. From this I gained not only fantastic expirence but also valuable feedback  from the people who will ultimately benefit from my work.

My grand plan to create a rock loaning scheme is now in full flow. I have met with the curator of a local geology museum who is willing to lend rocks, fossils and other specimens to the school. I am now spending my time creating a ‘wish list’ of specimens which is tailor-made for the school’s specifications.

I am looking forward to working with and overseeing the lending of world-class specimens and seeing them in lessons.

An Introduction to Lambeth Elfrida Rathbone Society

With less than a day left to start my placement with Lambeth Elfrida Rathbone Society, I thought it would be a good time for me to introduce the charity, the work they do and outline the projects I’ll be involved with.

The organisation, based in West Norwood and locally known as just “Rathbone”, provides social, educational, and welfare services for young people with a learning disability and/or from disadvantaged backgrounds in and around the borough of Lambeth. Whilst the bulk of their activity encompasses outreach services – the provision of residential care and supported living – I will be working with their Youth branch, which coordinates group activities for young people aged 11-19 at the Old Library site, pictured below, as well as residential trips off-site.

rathbone-west-norwood
The charity is based in the former West Norwood library building, which retains the “Free Public Library” sign.

The main project I will be involved with concerns the planning and delivery of various activities within their Summer Programme, which lasts until September, with a focus on learning new skills and informal tutoring. In particular, I’m excited to organise a programming workshop which will revolve around the creation of simple games through visual languages such as Scratch and Alice. A similar workshop I took part in several years ago originally sparked my interest for computing, and I’d be very pleased if this helps a young person catch the coding bug! (Pun intended).

In addition I’ll be working with Rathbone’s project fundraiser to approach organisations and donors who could potentially fund the costs of running the programme. With the borough having the 15th highest number of children in poverty in the UK, the goal is to provide most activities free of cost, so young people can all take part in the wealth of activities and trips this programme offers regardless of their background.

I’m very lucky to have the opportunity to work with an organisation doing invaluable work for disadvantaged youth and having such a positive impact on the local community, and I aim to make the most of it. Roll on, next week!