Open House for Research, July 2025

The final Open House of the academic year was Chaired by Professor Wulf Livingston who started with a couple of announcements about opportunities to present at Open House for Research next academic year (please contact the Research Office if you are interested) and a reminder that the Visualising Research competition is open until Monday 14 July. 

 
It was then over to the first of three speakers for the session, Dr Sanar Muhyaddin who is researching the traceability in food supply chain management during wartime. In particular, the dairy supply chain in Iraq and Ukraine and role it plays in business wellbeing and food security amongst other factors. Sanar provided a brief history of Iraq including that agriculture was the primary activity in ancient Mesopotamia since the start of civilization due to the freshwater supply, and an overview of the conflict history of the country which includes the Iran–Iraq War (1980s), Gulf War (1990s) and the US led Iraq war (2000s). By the end of the 1970s, Iraq was a hotspot for food production for the Middle East but following the conflicts grain crops have been confiscated and land destroyed and an estimated revenue loss of over $200 million US dollars. There is a call for investors so that the country can diversify and not rely on oil production so heavily. 

Ukraine is currently in active conflict, which is having an impact on dairy production, with 42% of all milk having been produced in regions that came under the greatest shelling and occupation and in 2022 the number of cows decreased by 12%.

Sanar and his research colleagues are using a mixed methods approach to explore three research questions with the aim of being able to advise Governments and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) to aide farmers in the affected countries:

1.    How does the war affect traceability in the Food Supply Chain?
2.    What obstacles and challenges do Iraqi and Ukrainian dairy processors and farmers face during wartime?
3.    How are Iraqi and Ukrainian dairy processors and farmers practicing traceability in the food supply chain? What are the factors affecting the process?

The team have designed a questionnaire for gathering data and are working on Ethical Approval and seeking funding currently. We wish Sanar and his colleagues the best of luck with the research. 

 
Up next was Andrew Sharp who shared a conference publication that forms part of his PhD research. The paper titled Numerical Optimisation of Air-cooled Heat Sink Geometry to Improve Temperature Gradient of Power Semiconductor Modules was presented at the International Symposium on Industrial Electronics in November 2024. 

Andrew’s research is on Temperature Gradient Improvement of Power Semiconductor Modules Mounted on a Forced Air Heat Sink. Component failures in power electronic devices often occur due to the failure of power semiconductors. A solution to this is forced air-cooled heat sinks which are typically a block of aluminium with fins cut into the bottom, to transfer heat away from the semiconductor device. A fan is located at one side of the heat sink to provide airflow through the fins, however the heat sink configuration causes a temperature difference (gradient) along the length of the heat sink as air gets warmer as it travels along the heat sink meaning some components get cooler than others which affects the stresses and strains on the components causing premature failure.

Andrew’s research considers whether by making a simple modification to a standard heat sink, even distribution of temperature across the heat sink can be achieved. The conference paper discusses how making a wedge-cut in the fins of the heatsink causes the components closest to the fan to be hotter which keeps the temperature gradient more even as the air moves through the heat sink, this is however just one of three methods that Andrew is researching. Andrew shared that there has been good correlation between the physical and simulation measurements of the effectiveness of the wedge-cut. Andrew ended by sharing that one of the things he is most proud of is being able to provide his undergraduate students with the opportunity to be involved in the research, with one of his students being a co-author on the conference paper. Well done Andrew and best of luck with your planned PhD submission later in the year.

Lastly, was Maddy Nicholson who talked through the second part of her PhD research A mixed methods cross sectional service evaluation of physiotherapist and Motivational Interviewing (MI) perspectives in Musculoskeletal (MSK) service delivery. 

Maddie explained that MSK conditions are usually treated by physio and the conditions have an impact in terms of people suffering but they also impact the economy in various ways. One approach taken alongside physio is MI which helps guide people towards change in partnership and with acceptance. Maddie’s aim is to evaluate current MSK physio practice to inform an MI training intervention and explore perspectives of MSK physios, informed by the evaluation of current practice, to optimise the training intervention. 

Maddie talked through the mixed methods cross sectional service evaluation using convenience sampling that she used, which was co-created by an advisory group of patients, managers and physios. Physios recorded patient consultations which were then analysed and the Physios then engaged in semi-structured interviews which were analysed using thematic analysis. It was identified that consultation questions mainly used simple reflection and conversations included providing information rather than opening up discussion on making change. Patients were often viewed from a biological aspect rather than as a person. Maddie concluded by sharing that the results have informed an MI physio training intervention for use in a future feasibility study. We look forward to hearing about the future study.

Professor Wulf Livingston concluded proceedings by commenting how nice it is to get to see the breadth of research taking place across the University. Thank you very much to all of the speakers, and we look forward to seeing everyone when the series resumes in the new academic year. Happy summer one and all!