Applied Knowledge Exchange

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.

GCU is hosting an Open Evening Lecture featuring keynote speaker Danny McStay, FMC Technologies, to launch the FMC Technologies Subsea Optoelectronics Laboratory at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU).

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 this lecture, optoelectronic technologies developed over the last decade for applications ranging from heritage to pharmaceuticals will be described, along with examples of how they have been adapted to meet oil and gas industry requirements.

Tuesday 27^th March
6pm – 7pm

Followed by cheese and wine evening, sponsored by FMC

Click here to register for the FREE event

Global oil and gas solutions provider FMC Technologies is working with Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) to deliver a pioneering five-year research and development collaboration within the subsea oil and gas industry. The collaboration combines expertise in electronics, optoelectronics, electrical power and instrumentation at GCU with that of subsea engineering and optoelectronics within FMC to deliver a portfolio of research and development projects to identify new opportunities for safe and efficient oil recovery and to enhance reliability and integrity in the monitoring of subsea installations. The venture includes Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) projects and PhD research studentships. More information…

Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) client If Only Holidays has been awarded a Scottish Business Insider award for highest climber in the SME300.

The awards celebrate the success of Scotland’s best performing small and medium sized companies.

GCU is working with If Only Holidays on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) to develop and deploy novel computing solutions to automate the generation of tailor-made holiday packages and to improve visibility on the web.

Find out more about how we can help your business by calling 0141 331 3189 or visit www.gcu.ac.uk/business

A happy GCU client working with our School of Engineering and Computing on the iCEaid mobile app project.

Lifesapps CEO, Andrew Mulford said: “The support given by GCU was outstanding, both in the professionalism of their engagement with us and the thoroughness of their testing regime. They understood the app almost immediately and, due to its intended use, wanted to put it through some severe tests, which we welcomed. The usability tests involved individuals with no medical training working through difficult scenarios. iCEaid scored very highly for intuition and ease of use, even though more than 80% of the testers selected by GCU had not used an iPhone before, let alone seen the app. We were very impressed with the scientific thoroughness of GCU’s approach, and of course, delighted with the outcome.”

The project was developed with the help of a Star Grant.

Give the Applied Knowledge Exchange a ring to find out more about our facilities and services for business on 0141 331 3189 or email appliedknowledgeexchange@gcu.ac.uk

Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) is on Stand 21 at City Week, the global forum for senior members of the international financial services community.

GCU is internationally recognised for innovative programmes that combine academic and business excellence with practical experience and globally recognised professional accreditations including:

• CIPD; Institute of Risk Management, Chartered Insurance Institute, Institute of Operational Risk, RICS, PMI, SHRM, CMI, BCS
• Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) Centre of Excellence and home of Chartered Banker in London.

More about us: www.gcu.ac.uk/gsbs

City Week speakers include Rt Hon William Hague MP, Foreign Secretary, Stephen King, Group Chief Economist, HSBC Bank Plc
and Dr. Gerard Lyons, Chief Economist and Group Head of Global Research, Standard Chartered Bank.

Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of NESTA (National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts), and Olivier Rouland, the European Commission’s DG Employment and Social Affairs, were among high profile speakers involved in Glasgow Caledonian University’s Social Innovation: New Pathways and Alternative Solutions conference.

GCU is a leading light in working with Social Enterprises and the Third Sector, developing unique Masters level programmes for people working in these areas. GCU is also home to the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health, involved in pioneering research examining the relationship between social business and health improvement.

Four enterprise areas are to be created in Scotland with an emphasis on some of our most dynamic industries with the greatest potential to create new employment opportunities, stimulate private investment and boost economic growth.

The Government is aiming to support Scotland’s life sciences industries, low carbon and renewables and manufacturing.

More information…

84% of SMEs in Scotland are engaging with higher education institutions, according to Universities UK.

View the full report – Driving Economic Growth

Universities play an important role in providing support to businesses through research and training. This is demonstrated by the breadth and range of industries with links to universities and the variety of activities with which they are involved, including extensive support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).