| 14:15 | Workshop: Improving the quality of our lives as we grow older |
| Presentations and discussion of research into the ageing population. The Foundation funds research and the majority is focused through the Royal Society of Edinburgh and is aimed at improving the quality of life in the ageing population. Requiring no background knowledge, presentations by three researchers will cover their work on different areas that affect our lives as we get older. Each presenter will answer questions about their work and its practical application. A poster display by past and current research fellows and students will also run throughout the day. Welcome: Professor Peter Holmes FRSE, RSE Research Awards Convener and Professor Joyce Lishman, Trustee, Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland |
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| 14:20 | Dr Norman Alm: Supporting people with dementia using advanced technology and engaging design |
| Dr Norman Alm held an RSE/Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland Support Research Fellowship in 1999. Norman is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computing at the University of Dundee. After taking a first degree in English with a minor in Oriental languages at the University of California at Berkeley he moved to the UK where he worked at a therapeutic community in England and then devised support programmes for young people in trouble in Scotland. He completed a PhD in Computer Science at Dundee University. His research interests include conversation modelling, systems to assist people with physical and cognitive disabilities, older people and computing, art/technology collaborations, and computers as interaction partners. | |
| 14:40 | Dr Irina Erchova: |
| Dr Irina Erchova currently holds an RSE/Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland Personal Research Fellowship and will be speaking about her research project which examines if some of the age-related deficits in memory might be explained by the very same brain processes that control learning and memory. Most of Irina’s recent work, including the project funded by Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland, has been in application of computational techniques to biological questions and in combining experimental and theoretical approaches to address those questions. Her undergraduate degree, that she received in her home town from St. Petersburg State Technical University, Russia, was in Computer Engineering. After graduation, Irina worked for 3 years in software development, database management and system administration. She entered the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA; Trieste, Italy) to do her PhD in 1996 after becoming fascinated with the computational possibilities of the brain, and her major findings from her PhD (the demonstration of the ability of brain oscillatory rhythms to gate signal transmission and plasticity; Erchova and Diamond, 2004) determined her future research interests. Since then Irina has worked in the area of computational neurophysiology, studying the cellular mechanisms of rhythmogenesis in Humboldt University (Berlin) with Prof. Andreas Herz and Prof. Uwe Heinemann, and the contextual integration of spatiotemporal patterns in Paris, France (CNRS research centre, Gif-sur-Yvette) with Dr. Daniel Shulz and Prof. Yves Fregnac. Irina moved to Scotland in the beginning of 2005 following her partner, and since then has worked as a researcher in the Institute for Neural and Adaptive Computations, School of Informatics, Edinburgh University. |
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| 15:00 | Dr Lesley Jessiman: |
| Dr Lesley Jessiman held an RSE/Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland PhD Studentship from 2000-2003. She is currently working as a psychology lecturer at Paisley University but does her Parkinson's disease research at Dundee University in the Cognitive Neuropsychology Research Lab. Working with Professor Trevor Harley. Lesley will be speaking about her work on “Language & Communication in the Ageing Population: Past & Present Research.” | |
| 15:20 | Closing remarks by Chairman |
| 15:30 | Close of Workshop and the Forum |
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