Brian Houston

04/10/24 • 27 min

This week Catherine and Mike meet Brian Houston, Knowledge Exchange lecturer based in the Aura Innovation Centre, discussing his academic journey through research, teaching and knowledge exchange (KE).

Brian is a Mechanical Engineering Knowledge Exchange Lecturer, and Manager of the Aura InventX initiative. As a KE advocate he is passionate about facilitating collaboration through the delivery of multi-disciplinary Research, Development, and Innovation projects; and bringing together the Aura Innovation Centre (AIC) facility and team, academic and technical colleagues from across the University, and external stakeholders over real world innovation challenges. He aims to increase utilisation of, and accessibility to, University Research and Development capabilities; and to combine them with academic expertise to support Knowledge Exchange initiatives, increase research impact, and to encourage progressive education.

“The ethos of Knowledge Exchange is integral to both research and education [...] whenever I was standing in a lecture theatre projecting to a group of students, you could generally always be confident you were the most knowledgeable in that subject in that room at that particular time. In the Knowledge Exchange domain, I find myself standing in front of public audiences and you just look into the audience, and you could have someone there with 40 years in the industry, an expert in that particular area. At the same time, he is probably there to understand what I know about the subject at that time because he is open minded to be engaging in that way. So I tend to, as a result, go into a conversation humble, expecting to understand the person you are speaking to, before you are expected to be understood... and I think that works for the other domains as well. You need to know what level of understanding of your subject students have.“

You can contact Brian on LinkedIn.

InventX brochure

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You can contact Brian on LinkedIn.

InventX brochure

Thank you for taking time to listen to the podcast. We hope you enjoy it.

Please do subscribe and share it with anyone you think might enjoy.

Cup of TEA artwork created by Layla Jabbari

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Clare Whitfield

In this podcast, Catherine and Mike meet Clare Whitfield, Lecturer in Advanced Practice in Faculty of Health Sciences.

Clare's focus is on teaching healthcare students and registered practitioners research methods and the use of research to inform evidence-based practice. Clare has over 20 years’ experience teaching research and research methods, across a range of academic disciplines, including Social Sciences and Education. She works with a wide range of student, including undergraduates, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research candidates. Clare is enthusiastic about using innovative approaches to teaching and learning and has recently achieved senior fellow of AdvanceHE. Clare is an active qualitative researcher, with an interest in teenage sexual health and pregnancy, women’s health and distance care and enjoys using her experiences as a researcher to inform her teaching practice.

“i thought if I could get the students to really think about the assignment, they would start to make some connections about what we learn across the module... [an extra] way of going through an assignment... not just ‘that’s what you are expected to do"... it’s a really important moment when students make it their own assignment... and using pictures to make things just every day where people feel they can be comfortable with the idea.”

Assignment burger

Thank you for taking time to listen to the podcast. We hope you enjoy it.

Please do subscribe and share it with anyone you think might enjoy.

Cup of TEA artwork created by Layla Jabbari

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Next Episode

Hannah Worthen and Asher Donaghy-Roering on inclusive education

In this podcast, Catherine and Mike meet Hannah Worthen, early career academic based at the Energy and Environment Institute who also teaches in the School of Environmental Sciences. She was recently awarded Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, the application for which drew on her work developing inclusive and participatory teaching practices.

Asher Donaghy-Roering is a second year student in the School of Environmental Sciences just returning from a fieldtrip to Tenerife.

www.queeringthemap.com was referred to in the recording.

Hannah: "Just listen and be willing to learn... accept that there are gaps in your knowledge and in your experiences... there is always more work to be done and in particular if there is any work that we can do as teachers that gives students a voice, then I think that's really important"

Asher: “... include trans people in the conversation, have their input rather than you think might be best for them!!

Thank you for taking time to listen to the podcast. We hope you enjoy it.

Please do subscribe and share it with anyone you think might enjoy.

Cup of TEA artwork created by Layla Jabbari

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.