Signed, sealed, delivered

The registration document is in!

It's been completed, checked, signed and handed over to the Research Office. I should know by the end of the week if my ethics form was OK and if I've got ethical approval for the research.

So, it's on with the research and the writing. I'm working on interdisciplinarity and discipline boundaries at the moment.

And so it continues...

The registration document continues.

I've finished my poster and submitted it for the competition. People are coming to support me and it on the day, so that's really good.

My research has recently focused on interdisciplinarity and disciplne boundaries, as I'm writing a paper on this for a conference.

Variety is the spice of life

This week has included a lot of variety. I've been working on my Registration document, conference paper, general research and organising TECH1001, the module I'm a Part-Time Lecturer on.

The week started with a course in Microsoft PowerPoint. I managed to get through the work in half a day, so got on with some research in the afternoon.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was nicely varied; taught in the morning, went to Special Olympics Roadshow to get information about volunteering, lunch, watched a Flash Mob outside the Campus Centre, went to the library with Motje to give feedback about the new research students only rooms, ammended Registration document, went to watch Ben in the BCS Competition, and woohoo, Ben won! Obviously Ben's success required a celebration, so there was a visit to Level 1 for a quick drink.

Today (Thursday) I've been working on my poster and conference paper.

Election Fever

I've just returned from the Announcement of Election Results in Level 1, the Student's Union. Ben and I had gone to Level 1 to hear the results.

Good news, I have been elected as the Postgraduate/Research Student Officer 2009-2010! A huge thank you to all those who voted for me, I really appreciate it.

My term of office starts on the 1st of July, 2009. I'm looking forward to it, it will be good to feel part of the Students Union and that I'm doing my bit. I'm also looking forward to working with the next Executive team and Union staff.

The big question, the PhD question

I've spent the last couple of days pondering and puzzling over my PhD question. My registration document is due in soon and I need to decide on a question that will keep me entertained for the remainder of my PhD studies, as well as being of PhD quality.

I have been thinking about a question for a while and had written down some ideas. I had a meeting with my second supervisor on Monday, which was very beneficial and got me thinking about the question from a different perspective.

So, going from having very few ideas, I've currently got a list of approximately 30 questions. I've narrowed this down and have sent some to my first supervisor, for us to discuss at our meeting tomorrow.

The search for the question continues.

First conference paper accepted

Great news! The first conference paper abstract I have submitted has been accepted. The title of the paper is "The role of discipline boundaries in transdisciplinary research". The conference is "Interrogations - Creative Interdisciplinary in Art and Design Research Conference", to be held at Loughborough University, 1st and 2nd July 2009.

This is really good news as it means my work will be peer-reviewed, a key part of the PhD. So now, I have to put the paper together and produce a PowerPoint to accompany my 20 minute presentation.