Deep Studies of the Resolved Stellar Populations in the Outskirts of M31

We discuss the first results from ongoing studies of the resolved stellar populations in the outskirts of our nearest large neighbour, M31. Deep HST/WFPC2 archival observations are used to construct colour-magnitude-diagrams which reach well below the horizontal branch at selected locations in the outer disk and halo, while a panoramic ground-based imaging survey maps spatial density variations through resolved star counts to a projected radius of ~50 kpc.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in proc of "New Quests in Stellar Astrophysics: The Link Between Stars and Cosmology", eds. M. Chavez, A. Bressan, A. Buzzoni, D. Mayy

Work-In-Progress Paper: WebXR to support student wellbeing and anxiety

The COVID-19 pandemic social distancing measures had immense evidenced impact on student life in higher education affecting their mental health in many ways. In addition, remote working measures taken by Higher Education organizations to protect students and staff created an additional barrier for students seeking support at a stage they feel the most vulnerable. This paper presents a work-in-progress study that focuses on investigating ways of designing an online system for self-assessment symptoms of anxiety based on which available support is provided in a personalized and emotionally engaging manner. The project builds and compares three prototypes: a conventional web site; a VR immersive environment with a single virtual human playing the role of a student life advisor; and an immersive environment with more than one virtual humans interacting with the user aiming to study which system engages and assists vulnerable students more effectively, contributing to a better user experience. The paper presents that project motivations, its aims and objectives, the proposed research methodology and the expected contributions to knowledge

Food Preservation by Freezing

PDF pages: 2

Work-In-Progress Paper: 360-degree immersive storytelling video to create empathetic response

Open days are organised by Universities to give potential students the opportunity to visit the University premises, talk to staff and student ambassadors and develop a sense of how it feels to study at a University something difficult to be conveyed via a prospectus. However, visiting open days requires investing time, travelling and can be expensive. The resent years there has been an increasing demand for open days to be delivered online. The social distancing measures imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic enforced this mode of delivery of open days as the only option. Many Universities created VR campuses to help students experience their campuses, but those fail to capture the actual vibe of a place and lack of empathetic response. New tools such as 360-degree immersive storytelling video (VR) and 3D interactive media present new opportunities for effectively delivering open days capturing not only a realistic representation of the place, but the actual feel of a place. This paper presents work-in-progress focusing on studying if 360-degree immersive storytelling video can create empathetic response. It achieves this by creating a 360-degree immersive storytelling video that effectively and realistically captures student life. This paper presents the project motivation, discusses the proposed research methodology, presents the research instruments and finishes with expected contributions to knowledge and future work