Digital Healthcare: A vehicle for capacity building in ICT skills and public engagement

The EPSRC Public Engagement ICT Champion grant was awarded to Professor John Terry. Co-designed with Dr Caroline Gillett, this project aims to build digital skills confidence in young people and show them the real-world application of ICT skills in healthcare and medicine. We also aim to support and encourage public engagement skills, discourse and networking in the ICT community to instil a more sustainable public engagement culture.

Our Project Team

Professor John Terry

John Terry

Professor Terry is an EPSRC Established Career Fellow in Healthcare Technologies, as well as Interdisciplinary Professorial Fellow and Director of the SMQB. As an Interdisciplinary Professorial Fellow, John’s post uniquely spans mathematics, computer science and medicine. He is a passionate public engagement champion, supporting his team to undertake both engagement and involvement activities.

He’s made appearances at local festivals, Pint of Science, ran pub quizzes to raise awareness of epilepsy, and co-designed and co-directed Beyond My Control: a unique piece of theatre that brings to life what it is like to have epilepsy, the mathematics behind understanding brain networks and how this can be used to better diagnose epilepsy. 

 

Dr Caroline GillettCaroline Gillett

Dr Caroline Gillett is an Assistant Professor in Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement. She has supported public engagement culture change for the past decade including delivering the University of Birmingham’s RCUK Catalyst Seed Fund (2015-17) and playing an instrumental role in the University’s acquisition of the NCCPE Engage Silver Watermark Award, conferred in 2018 and updated to a Gold award in 2022.

Beyond engagement, she is also passionate about the meaningful involvement of patients and members of the public in the design and delivery of research which affects them – including young people’s perspectives. In SMQB she established and manages the creative Artist in Residence programme which has resulted in 23 artist collaborations since 2020 and two public sci-art exhibitions.

 

Dr Aileen DelaneyAileen Delaney

Dr Aileen Delaney is the Public Engagement Officer for the SMQB and is passionate about sharing and communicating science, particularly to those across Birmingham with limited opportunities. During her PhD in Physics, Aileen regularly delivered outreach, communicated science through social media, and hosted events within the University. Working now with Professor Terry and Dr Gillett, Aileen is delivering this project, hosting workshops for young people across Birmingham and supporting public engagement in the ICT community.

 

Workshops and Events

Public Engagement in the ICT Community

We aim to increase the public engagement skills and experience of those in the ICT community, so they can also better recognise the benefits of engagement and be empowered to share their learning with the wider ICT research community through best practice activities.

These activities are an important part of inspiring others and driving sustainable public engagement culture change within higher education institutions and the wider community. We first launched a survey in Spring 2024 to assess the current perception of public engagement in the ICT community, the skill levels, and what support people would like in this area.

The results of this survey will be published soon.The result of the survey were also used to aid us in designing a symposium with and for the ICT community, using their feedback and suggestions to guide our programme.

On 16th Dec 2024, SMQB hosted the free online Public Engagement x Computer Science Symposium which brought together those in the ICT community who are interested in learning more about public engagement in this field.

This event aimed to bridge the gaps highlighted in the survey mentioned above,  by providing training opportunities, case studies, networking, and advice from EPSRC around impact and funding.

Recordings of the symposium sessions can be found below:

Case Study and Inspiration with Professor John Terry

In the first session of the day, we heard from Professor John Terry sharing his thoughts and experience of Public Engagement.

Professor John Terry opens the first session offering valuable and personal experiences in Public Engagement.

Workshop 1A: Engaging Diverse Communities with ICT

How do you begin to talk to different communities about your computer science?

How do you build the confidence to do so?

In this workshop, we learnt all about how to Engage Diverse Communities with Professor Keeley Crockett and Dr Sarah Linn from Manchester Metropolitan University, and Jo Brodie from Queen Mary, University of London.

Our EPSRC Public Engagement Champions guided us through the process of engaging diverse communities using ICT.

Workshop 1B: Creating Engaging Events: tips, Tricks and Advice

Wanting to participate in public engagement is one thing, but how to you actually host events and make sure people will actually turn up?! 

In this workshop, we heard from Jessie Pearce from the Alan Turning Institute, and Dr Wendy Yanez from UoB, who both have years of experience hosting public engagement events, particularly in the Computer Science field.

Workshop 1B: Creating Engaging Events

Coding for Change: Panel Discussion with EPSRC ICT Public Engagement Champions

In this session we hear from 3 EPSRC ICT Public Engagement Champions from across the UK: Professor John Terry (University of Birmingham), Professor Keeley Crockett (Manchester Metropolitan University), and Professor Paul Curzon (Queen Mary University).

With decades of Public Engagement experience between them, this is an insightful discussion about personal experience, and the future of engagement in the ICT community.

Three EPSRC ICT Public Engagement Champions deliver an insightful discussion on their experiences and the future of engagement in the ICT community.

Workshop 2: Engaging for Impact featuring EPSRC

In this session we hear from Dr Michelle Lascelles (EPSRC) and Dr Nikolaos Venetsaneas (University of Birmingham) as they tell us how public engagement can help with research, how to incorporate into grants, and how to measure this as impact.

Dr. Michelle Lascelles and Dr. Nikolaos Venetsaneas explore how public engagement can enhance your work and provide guidance on measuring its impact.

Workshops for Young People

Workshops for Young People SMQBTo achieve our primary goal of equipping young people with digital skills confidence and to inspire interest in ICT in healthcare applications, we developed three workshops for Year 7 – 8 students, each with a different healthcare focus. These workshop resources are freely available for download for anyone to use and inspire young people.

Workshops resources coming soon…