Month: March 2020

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COVID-19 Update

david.ruttenberg.18Blog

In addition to my PhD endeavors and responsibilities within both the Knowledge Lab and Development Diversity Lab, I am also a UCL Student Trustee, Board of Governance member and Post Graduate Student Representative. As I actively stand for students throughout UCL (both on the ground in London and internationally at a distance), I want to use this space today in an effort to update my constituents on the following as it relates to academic matters, specifically:

  • Our student union (SU) officers have been diligently working with UCL administrators to carve out an Extraordinary Extenuating Circumstances (EEC) procedure. The union hopes that this information is robust enough to cover almost all circumstances, however, you are welcome to reply with your questions and comments at reps@ucl.ac.uk.
  • Similarly, the SU has created guidance detailing Illness and Unexpected Disruptions to Your Exam or Assessment information. While many Post-Graduate Research (PGR) students will not be affected by assessment, per se, there is important information related to illnesses that you may want to consider.

As was mentioned in a memo to UCL Academic Reps, Ashley Slanina-Davies (UCL Students’ Union Education Officer) offered that “we are meeting with UCL to represent the interests of students and raise student concerns every single hour of the day and if you have any concerns, have feedback from your peers to pass on or think there is something that can be improved with information being communicated, please do get in touch with me and the team at the Union.

 

Q&A with David Ruttenberg

david.ruttenberg.18Blog

UCL Ruttenberg Q&A Screen CaptureUCL’s Institute of Education recently conducted an interview with me and published the same within their websites along with a link to this blog. Within the article, I am hoping to bring attention, not only to my research, but to my richly deserving supervisors Prof Kaśka Porayska-Pomsta, Dr Sarah White and Dr Joni Holmes.

I do hope that this promotion helps emphasize the importance and stature of the faculty at the IoE. It is an equally great “get” for the Centre for Doctoral Education, the Culture, Communication and Media department, the Knowledge Lab and UCL’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, and in particular, the Development Diversity Lab. I enjoy promoting our Knowledge Lab Seminar Series too.

So do have a read and let me know your thoughts.

PPI PhD Starter Grant

david.ruttenberg.18Funding

NIHR UCL Biomedical Research Center

Overview

The National Institute for Health Research–UK’s largest funder of health and care research–recently awarded one of two grants to David Ruttenberg to carry out Patient Public Involvement (PPI) research for the SensorAble project on Adaptive Wearable Appropriateness as an Autistic intervention. This award is made possible through the generous support of the University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre.

About the research

90% of autistic adults report that sensory issues cause significant barriers at school/work. Wearable technologies offer the possibility to monitor environments and adjust user-experiences. A PPI co-produced with individuals that incorporates their lived-experiences may well translate into a prototype aiming to squelch unwanted sensory-stimuli and deliver early-warning/alerts of distracting and anxiety-producing events.

“By targeting an often-neglected group, this project contrasts with other interventions that focus on ‘fixing’ socio-communicative difficulties by ‘teaching’ individuals to conform to their surroundings,” Ruttenberg reports. “Instead, my study aims to empower users with customized supports for their particular needs and may increase their comfort, productivity and autonomy.”

Find out more

You can learn more about that SensorAble project here at the project website.

For more information, you may also wish to contact David.

Updated: 14 March 2020