Photo by schrierc
Post by Anna
Established in 1994 ScHARR's Information Resources team has established itself as a key national player in providing information support to health technology assessment and health services research. The team is made up of professional, highly trained Information Specialists who are involved in the forefront of research, teaching, support and development. This is our blog where we talk about the diverse work we do: #Teach #Research #Search #Support
Friday, 25 February 2011
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
New Zealand
Our thoughts go out to our colleagues in New Zealand, particularly those in Christchurch in the aftermath of the recent earthquake.
ScHARR IR Group have links with New Zealand due to providing FOLIOz e-learning courses to NZ librarians in association with ALIA.
Posted by Anthea
ScHARR IR Group have links with New Zealand due to providing FOLIOz e-learning courses to NZ librarians in association with ALIA.
Posted by Anthea
Friday, 18 February 2011
The Joy of Beautiful Statistics...
Image courtesy of Information is Beautiful.net
Not one, but two things to draw your attention to! First of all, the fantastic, pretty, clever and quite-cheap-depending-on-where-you-buy-it 'Information is Beautiful' by David McCandless- its a book and a website, so I'll let you find the book, but the website is at: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/ Basically, David is fascinated by the myriad of ways of displaying data visually- from nerve endings in the body to genome sequencing, via maping music and charting the causes of cancer. And his website allows you to 'play' with some of the visualisations for your own entertainment!
Which leads me nicely on to the marvellous Hans Rosling, Swedish statistician/doctor/genius and creator of some fantastically engaging visualisations of statistical trends which challenge our perceptions and preconcieved ideas about the world and how it is changing. Watch his seminal TED Lecture above and be converted.
Posted by Claire with thanks to Andy and Simon for bringing these to my attention.
Thursday, 17 February 2011
Students record video of the Earth from edge of space
Posted by Andy
A little break from the normal but I thought I'd post this brilliant video made by two enterprising students from The University of Sheffield.
Alex Baker and Chris Rose, both PhD students from the University´s Department of Mechanical Engineering, sent a helium-filled balloon with two video cameras and a tracking device up into the atmosphere, filming video and taking pictures as it went.
The balloon was launched from Ashborne, Derbyshire on 17 December 2010, and was in flight for approximately two hours and 50 minutes, before landing in a field in Strethall, Cambridgeshire, a journey of over 100 miles. The location, which is Chris´ home town, was chosen specifically, as it was predicted that launching there would result in the device landing in a rural area.
The video footage, which lasts for two hours, shows the balloon being launched at sunrise and rapidly climbing above the clouds, filming the ground below and eventually showing the curvature of the Earth´s atmosphere. The balloon, after swelling to many times its original size, eventually burst, allowing the parachute to open and the box to descend back to Earth. It is thought that at its maximum height, the balloon reached an altitude of 37km.
The device, which was built by Alex and Chris in their spare time, consisted of a foam box, a parachute for the descent and the balloon. The electronic equipment had to be well insulated due to the extremely cold temperatures at such high altitudes, with duct tape and a small heat pad used to keep the cameras warm. A GPS tracking system, CATtrack, sent a text displaying its location when rung, allowing it to be collected. However, the whole device cost only £350 to build.
The video also shows the box being built from scratch, and the journey to collect the device from a snowy field in Cambridgeshire.
The video footage, which lasts for two hours, shows the balloon being launched at sunrise and rapidly climbing above the clouds, filming the ground below and eventually showing the curvature of the Earth´s atmosphere. The balloon, after swelling to many times its original size, eventually burst, allowing the parachute to open and the box to descend back to Earth. It is thought that at its maximum height, the balloon reached an altitude of 37km.
The device, which was built by Alex and Chris in their spare time, consisted of a foam box, a parachute for the descent and the balloon. The electronic equipment had to be well insulated due to the extremely cold temperatures at such high altitudes, with duct tape and a small heat pad used to keep the cameras warm. A GPS tracking system, CATtrack, sent a text displaying its location when rung, allowing it to be collected. However, the whole device cost only £350 to build.
The video also shows the box being built from scratch, and the journey to collect the device from a snowy field in Cambridgeshire.
Estimated maximum altitude: 37km
Distance travelled: 168km (104 miles)
Cost: £350
Estimated lowest temperature experienced: - 50 C
Friday, 11 February 2011
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Latest Published Research from ScHARR Authors - January 2011
ScHARR Bite Size - Spring/Summer programme - Learn Something New in 20 Minutes
Image used under Creative Commons Licence - By Attribution - © Leo Reynolds
Posted by Andy
We have programmed a wide variety of 20 minute Bite Size sessions at ScHARR to encourage innovative teaching, research and collaboration. So if you've ever wanted to work and collaborate flexibly on-line, record your presentations, find funding or make your teaching interactive - read on.
Already the Autumn/Winter programme is being populated, but if you have any suggestions of sessions you'd like to see at ScHARR please feel free to contact either myself or Jenny Freeman j.v.freeman@shef.ac.uk
All start at 2.30pm and bite size cakes are available, just bring a hot drink :-)
15/02/2011 Revamped Senate Awards scheme Nadine Wills Eric Wilkes
01/03/2011 Visual Social Bookmarks Andy Tattersall Eric Wilkes
10/03/2011 Echo360 Graham McElearney Eric Wilkes
24/03/2011 Wikis Anthea Sutton Pemberton
29/03/2011 Electronic voting system Graham McElearney Eric Wilkes
19/04/2011 Use the Social Web to promote your work Andy Tattersall Pemberton
27/04/2011 Sympodium Chris Clow Pemberton
11/05/2011 Screencasting - powerpoint recording Claire Beecroft Eric Wilkes
17/05/2011 Dissertation supervision Alan O'Rourke Eric Wilkes
31/05/2011 Research Professional Anna Cantrell Pemberton
08/06/2011 Assessment methods Luke Desforges Pemberton
22/06/2011 uSpace Andy Tattersall Pemberton
28/06/2011 How (not) to display data Jenny Freeman Pemberton
Already the Autumn/Winter programme is being populated, but if you have any suggestions of sessions you'd like to see at ScHARR please feel free to contact either myself or Jenny Freeman j.v.freeman@shef.ac.uk
All start at 2.30pm and bite size cakes are available, just bring a hot drink :-)
15/02/2011 Revamped Senate Awards scheme Nadine Wills Eric Wilkes
01/03/2011 Visual Social Bookmarks Andy Tattersall Eric Wilkes
10/03/2011 Echo360 Graham McElearney Eric Wilkes
24/03/2011 Wikis Anthea Sutton Pemberton
29/03/2011 Electronic voting system Graham McElearney Eric Wilkes
19/04/2011 Use the Social Web to promote your work Andy Tattersall Pemberton
27/04/2011 Sympodium Chris Clow Pemberton
11/05/2011 Screencasting - powerpoint recording Claire Beecroft Eric Wilkes
17/05/2011 Dissertation supervision Alan O'Rourke Eric Wilkes
31/05/2011 Research Professional Anna Cantrell Pemberton
08/06/2011 Assessment methods Luke Desforges Pemberton
22/06/2011 uSpace Andy Tattersall Pemberton
28/06/2011 How (not) to display data Jenny Freeman Pemberton
Thursday, 3 February 2011
ScHARR Library Bite Size #5 Professional Social Networks
Posted by Andy
The next Bite Size session for Research and Collaboration takes place on Wednesday 9th February in the Eric Wilkes Room.
This time we'll take a whistle stop tour of professional social networks. Find out about the connections you can make, groups you can form and research you can follow, whilst enhancing your own profile.
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
February Take Five
Photo by kirstyhall
Post by Anna Cantrell
The latest edition of Take Five is packed full of new websites, research funding opportunities,training courses and current awareness.
You can view it here
You can view it here
To join the Take Five distribution list please contact me, Anna Cantrell by email a.j.cantrell@sheffield.ac.uk or phone 0114 2220894
An archive of the Take Five Newsletter and other research funding updates can be viewed here
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