EXCHANGE

Two Scottish government ministers announced boosts to Scottish jobs during two separate events hosted by Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) on Tuesday (May 14).

Health Secretary Alex Neil revealed that 150 Ambulance Technicians are to start work across Scotland following a £6.8 million investment while deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, unveiled plans for a £1.9 million funding package which will be used to develop new business facilities on Skye while supporting up to 80 new jobs.

Scotland’s economy grew by 0.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2012 according to latest official figures from the Office for National Statistics.

In its latest statistical update the ONS said the production sector grew by 1.1 per cent in the fourth quarter “primarily driven” by growth of 8.8 per cent in gas and electricity supply.

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Our new edition of Exchange, Winter 2012, is now out! Take a look at our recent news, including our £1.2m deal with engineering firm Doble, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) and our Social Innovation events on campus at GCU in Glasgow and London. 

http://view.vcab.com/?vcabid=cneSpclcScgchaal

For a print copy, email Fiona.Ramsay@gcu.ac.uk

GCU’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with Shearwater Marine Services has been receiving a bit of attention after we went to the ITF Technology Showcase in Aberdeen.

Take a look at some of the coverage:

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/sectors/electronics/news/system-enables-real-time-viewing-of-subsea-inspections/1014451.article

http://www.pennenergy.com/articles/ogfj/2012/11/gcu-unveils-subsea-video-and-data-storage-system.html

GCU’s unique UKAS accredited food sciences labs analysed the first nutritionally balanced pizzas, developed by Scottish company Eat Balanced.

The work was funded by a Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher award. GCU regularly works with companies to offer food testing, shelf life analysis and nutritional analysis.

The pizzas are said to contain 30% of an adult’s guideline daily amount of vitamins and minerals.

Eat Balanced also worked with Glasgow University’s nutrition experts to develop the pizzas.

GCU’s new Summer 2012 edition of Exchange magazine is hot off the press!

The magazine features upcoming events on GCU campus and the latest education, research and consultancy work with our partners – Transnet Freight Rail, the Scottish Centre for Telehealth and Telecare and FMC Technologies.

The Applied Knowledge Exchange has information on business funding, KTPs, research and consultancy services.

If you would like a print copy, email appliedknowledgeexchange@gcu.ac.uk

We attended an interesting Perceptive Communicators’ evening this week, with the topic of how organisations use social media.

This session featured an overview from Clare Meikle, Communications Manager at First ScotRail, and Ruth MacLeod, Communications Manager at Lothian & Borders Fire & Rescue. 

Interesting to hear about the challenges of keeping customers updated on train problems and fires in Edinburgh through the medium of Twitter! The advice of the night was to keep Tweets chatty to help engage your customers - say it aloud before you post.

STV chief executive Rob Woodward was the guest speaker inspiring Glasgow’s businesses at Dunning’s Communications Breakfast this morning.

Rob outlined his ‘three Cs’ for STV – Connectivity, Community and Creativity.

He described the opportunity for broadcasters to engage with consumers on multiple platforms – mobile, web and TV – by creating more local content and using data to provide targeted advertising. STV will soon launch STVGlasgow.com, a local portal including news, restaurant listings and reviews. 

He outlined his list of key leadership attributes, which included a clear vision, ambitious goals, ’relentless’ communication, humility and confidence. 

He said he was working with Scottish universities, including Glasgow Caledonian University, for a ‘closer relationship’ with potential future employees – ensuring that our students are harnessing the right digital media skills for the future development of STV.

GCU’s engineering students gathered to hear from FMC Technologies about potential careers in the oil and gas sector.

FMC Technologies hosted a recruitment stand on campus to encourage students into engineering. The global technology leader for the subsea industry recently launched a recruitment drive. Increasing exploration and production spending by FMC’s customers around the world supports its expansion. In addition, the recruitment campaign also reflects FMC’s corporate strategy to continue growing its business.

Danny McStay, of FMC Technologies, launched the FMC Technologies Subsea Optoelectronics Laboratory at Glasgow Caledonian University with presentations attended by engineering students, GCU staff and business guests entitled Heritage to Hydrocarbons – The Role of Applied Optoelectronics.

The growing global demand for oil and gas is driving producers to increase the overall efficiency of the production process and to operate in more extreme conditions with minimal environmental impact. Optoelectronic technologies are seen as one of the key technologies in enabling the industry to meet these challenges. In his keynote speech, Dr McStay focused on optoelectronic technologies developed over the last decade for applications ranging from heritage to pharmaceuticals, along with examples of how they have been adapted to meet oil and gas industry requirements.

The event was led by Professor Brian Stewart of GCU’s School of Engineering and Built Environment.