Resume of the Conference
in 2005 at Trinity College Dublin
Peter Beamen
Wednesday June 22nd
Well I arrived by Ryanair at Dublin Airport 9.30am and met up
with Teeside Members Sylvia and Neil. We had a tour of Dublin’s
Temple Bar area, Castle grounds and checked in at the hotel.
During the evening we had a drinks reception in the Psychology
Department with a welcome by Patrick our chairman followed by
an informal dinner at Mona Lisa, an excellent Italian Restaurant.
Thursday June 23rd
We had registration followed by a talk from Professor Ray Fuller
On Road Safety, “driving by the seats of your pants”
an entertaining account of understanding drivers’ behaviour
and the interface between driving task demands and culpability.
Mary Atkins – Royal Holloway University of London followed
and presented her talk about Issues in Technicians Training.
This came about from a consultant meeting attended by national
technicians and presided over by Bob Hardwick principal associate
for the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education (LFHE).
The findings from the talk showed that the LFHE are promoting
events and programmes to meet technical skills needs. We had
a buffet lunch in the department.
In the afternoon we explored the Psychology Department and
the newly opened Institute of Neuroscience and also a cultural
tour of the old library and famous Book of Kells. Finally Neil
Carter – University of Wales, Swansea, presented The Practicalities
of Computerised Response Timing, in theory and practice. The
talk reflected on software and hardware challenges to measuring
response time efficiently.
The evening conference meal was hosted by the Temple Bar Hotel.
Friday June 24th
We were given a thoughtful talk by Dr Ian Gray – Trinity
College Dublin on Assistive Technology in the treatment of self-injurious
behaviour in Intellectual Disability. The case study presented
was challenging to find an appropriate device for communicating
certain needs of those people with low IQ and Disabilities.
The AGM followed and re-elected the committee from last year.
Topics included whether to increase membership fee, further
contacts with other Universities, Colleges needed, and modification
to the existing email list server. The venue for next year 2006
was confirmed as Teeside University (dates to be decided later),
followed by either Huddlesfield or Endinburgh in 2007/8. Informal
lunch followed at the Bad Ass Café, followed by Sightseeing
in Dublin, including the Jameson’s Distillery!
