10 Research


Student insights help council


A scheme which sees sociology students carry out research projects with Colchester Borough Council is being expanded due to its success.


The first group of students to take part in the scheme presented their work to senior managers in July and another group of nine sociology students are now working with the council on a new range of projects.


The scheme is designed to encourage final year undergraduate students to develop dissertations on topics of interest to the local community, working with the council to gather data.


The projects undertaken so far are now on the council website and cover disability and public access, the effects of CCTV in Colchester, safety and young women, the night time economy and youth crime and space.


Undergraduate Project Co-ordinator Jackie Turton said: “This is a really exciting venture. As a further development we have been discussing arrangements for a half-day workshop for Colchester Borough Council managers to pull together ideas about how the research findings could be used in practice.”


The eyes have it


New research involving Essex academics shows that humans are biased towards looking at eyes − even those of headless monsters.


The findings, published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, rule out the possibility that the well-known human bias to look at eyes is in fact a bias simply to look at the middle of faces where the eyes happen to be.


The study by academics at Essex and British Columbia University involved an experiment using images of people and monsters. Julian Levy, 14, the son of one of the researchers who had the idea for the study, helped scientists to select images from the fantasy game Dungeons and Dragons.


The results show that humans look early and often at the eyes − even those of monsters. For all pictures, the participants looked to the centre of the image first. Subsequent fixations demonstrated a preferential bias to look at the eyes, wherever they were on the monster.


Dr Tom Foulsham, from the Department of Psychology, who was involved in the study, said: “This confirms that the eyes are special and has implications for psychology, neuroscience and research into autism.”


Lighting as nature intended it to be


Scientists at Essex are developing wireless-controlled LED light bulbs which can simulate the exact light pattern of any day, anywhere in the globe, at any time of year.


This could have major implications for the horticultural industry which already uses artificial lighting in a very basic form to improve crop yield.


“But the difference with these new LED lights is they can produce variations of colours and intensity of light mimicking a real day,” explained Dr John Woods, who is leading the project. “It means we can simulate light variations in a natural way which should make the plants grow better.”


The software is able to fine-tune the colour and intensity of the light so it is time-evolving – from recreating dawn and the blue hue of the morning light through to dusk and the red hue of the evening.


Dr Woods, from the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, has developed the lighting system with Dr Tracy Lawson from the School of Biological Sciences, where they are now looking into


Alumni trio launch book at bank


A finance book co-edited by three Essex alumni and Professor Edward Tsang, Director of the University’s Centre for Computational Finance and Economic Agents, has been officially launched at the Bank of Mexico.


The book Simulation in Computational Finance and Economics was co-edited by a team of Essex alumni Biliana Alexandrova-Kabadjova, Serafin Martinez-Jaramillo and Alma Lilia Garcia Almanza, who are all now employees of the Bank of Mexico.


using these LED lights to achieve maximum photosynthesis without damaging the plant’s cells.


They are looking at what light conditions the plants perform best under which is then recreated using the new light software.


“By being able to control the light spectrum and evolution to the levels where there is maximum photosynthesis, we could create an environment better than nature itself,” Dr Woods added.


Picture above shows Dr Tracy Lawson and Dr John Woods and Jonathan Tam from the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering.


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