The conference aims to share and celebrate the university’s high quality research and help postgraduate students to develop their oral and visual presentations skills.

Students from all four of the University’s faculties: Business School; Creative Arts, Technologies and Science; Education and Sport; and Health and Social Sciences were given 10 minutes to give an oral presentation, with five minutes  allocated for questions from the audience. There were also poster presentations from almost 40 of the University’s postgraduate students.

Presentations were given on research as diverse as the identification of novel antigens in reactive colon cancer to developing an immersive experience for mobile gaming.

Vice Chancellor Bill Rammell speaking at the conference said: “Look at some of the work presented here today, on social media, on sustainability of SMEs, on virtual reality, on performance practices, on disclosure of HIV, on social media and social work, and much more.

“You see that the research we do has a real potential to effect change in the world around us, whether here in Luton and Bedford, or across the globe.”

The conference concluded with a prize giving sponsored by Finmeccanica and included an audience vote for best poster and best oral presentation.

The winners of the Postgraduate Research Conference:

• Best Oral Presentation, Thinking outside of the box: Re-figuring ‘mixed-race’ identity, Michelle Balach-Ali
• Audience choice – Best Oral Presentation, Influence of emoticons of communication behaviour in social media, Sajeel Ahmed
• Best Poster, Decentring modernism through postcolonial interrogation to espouse its pluralism, Clement Akpang
• Audience Choice – Best Poster, Does workplace activity specific to culture, gender and age improve health and productivity, Samson Ojo