QMUL PhD students who are part of a programme to combine research with digital creativity took part in a research showcase in East London.

On 22 October PhD candidates from Queen Mary’s Media and Arts Technology (MAT) programme took their work to the Rich Mix Cinema in the heart of London’s creative and digital hub as part of the Digital Shoreditch ‘Digital Economy Research Showcase’.

QMUL’s Mile End campus, where the MAT programme is based, is just down the road from the area known as Tech City, where many of the UK’s most exciting new companies base themselves, and where Government invests tens of millions of pounds in supporting innovative tech businesses. The close proximity means that students have great opportunities to link up with businesses and investors and find practical applications for their research.

The showcase was an opportunity for the students to demonstrate their work which combines rigorous scientific research with practical applications. Among those projects exhibited were Yulia Silina’s The Distant Heart which is part of the current trend for wearable technology. Yulia’s necklace uses research into the internet of things and human centred design to create a keepsake which can match a distant partner’s heartbeat to reflect it and their emotions through touch and light sensations. Yulia, who gained a masters at QMUL before transferring to the MAT PhD programme is interested in computational, or ‘smart’, jewellery and her research has shown that people who wore the necklace felt more connected to their distant partner.