Loughborough Institute of Advanced Studies Podcast

Professor Helena D Cooper-Thomas - The trials and tribulations of entering a tournament workplace: The case of new Members of Parliament

IAS Visiting Fellow Professor Helena D Cooper-Thomas delivers a seminar on their research - 
Workplace tournaments are characterized by competitive environments where individuals vie for resources and advancement. Tournaments are particularly prevalent at senior levels, yet little is known about how elite newcomers experience and respond to such adversarial contexts. To address this gap, we conducted qualitative research with new members of New Zealand’s Parliament, drawing on interviews and media case studies. Our findings shed light on both the key tournament challenges faced by elite newcomers and how these newcomers use promote and protect reputational strategies to navigate such challenges. We also show that the most successful tournament newcomers develop sophisticated patterns of reputational strategy use early on. Our research raises intriguing questions about the practical implications of exposing elite newcomers to workplace tournaments. Is “trial by fire” an efficient process for forging effective performers, or does it unnecessarily burn up those who could have contributed?
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias
 

Professor Niels Ørtenblad - Muscle failure: the role and mechanisms of energy in skeletal muscle fatigue

As part of the IAS Festival of Failure, IAS Visiting Fellow Professor Niels Ørtenblad delivers a seminar, with an introduction on sporting failure from Pro Vice-Chancellor for Sport, Professor Jo Maher.
Skeletal muscles have an impressive force and power generating capacity. However, with intense or prolonged activation muscle function is reduced, termed fatigue. Despite a broad interest of the scientific community, fundamental questions remain unsolved about how activation per se is affected by exercise or disuse and how metabolism affects muscle regulation. It is herein remarkable how precise skeletal muscle fibers with a high and fluctuating energy-turnover, balance energy utilization with production, preventing loss of energy and thereby cell integrity. With an integrative approach, i.e. combining data from whole body human experiments, including high level athletes, though to more mechanistic models, I will discuss metabolic factors contributing to impaired force generating capacity. I will particularly focus on the role of muscle glucose stores (glycogen), as we and colleagues in the field, have recently demonstrated that the muscle glycogen, serves as an energy sensor, contributing to muscle function and fatigue.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Professor Ruqiang Yan - Physics-Informed Deep Learning Empowering Intelligent Fault Diagnosis

As part of the IAS Festival of Failure, IAS Visiting Fellow Professor Ruqiang Yan delivers a seminar -
The Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) system revolutionizes the management of complex high-end equipment throughout its entire lifecycle, enabling intelligent operation and maintenance in the era of Industry 4.0. Within this system, fault diagnosis plays a pivotal role and is undergoing significant transformation. Presently, data-intensive science, propelled by deep learning, has surpassed the constraints of physics-based models in handling big data, emerging as a crucial approach for diagnosis. However, the lack of intuitive comprehension of physics models presents challenges to data science in terms of interpretability and reliability. This talk focuses on a collaborative approach that integrates data science with physics models to achieve intelligent fault diagnosis through collaborative deep learning structures known as physics-informed deep learning. This collaborative approach offers advantages in interpretability, controllability, and knowledge discovery, allowing for a more comprehensive understanding of the evolution of physical systems in the big data era.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Associate Professor Wyke Stommel - (Resolving) failure in interaction with a robot

As part of the IAS Festival of Failure, IAS Visiting FellowAssociate Professor Wyke Stommel delivers a seminar on their area of research -
In this presentation, I argue that failure is an endogenous phenomenon, something participants establish locally and collaboratively in social interaction. Failure in social interaction may consist of misunderstandings, disagreement or some other social problem, reaching the interactional level in retro-sequences (Schegloff, 2007) of ostensibly noticings, either overtly or indirectly (e.g., laughter, initiation of repair). I examine fragments of interaction between a robot, a nurse and an elderly person, in which the participants notice some environmental prompt (talk or other perceptual feature) as problematic with respect to the progressivity of the interaction and/or socially. Finding a way out of the trouble sometimes includes questionable solutions. This type of analysis provides insights in how technologies may involve failure on the microlevel of their use.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Professor Antulio J. Echevarria II - Conflict & strategic policy failure

As part of the IAS Festival of Failure, IAS Visiting Fellow Professor Antulio J. Echevarria II delivers a seminar on their area of research -
This presentation draws from a monograph (under development) that contributes to debates concerning the West's failure to deter Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the implications for Integrated Deterrence. First, it describes the deterrence policy and supporting strategy the US and NATO implemented vis-à-vis Ukraine. If the West had no deterrence strategy in place, there's no point critiquing it. Second, it offers an alternative to the West's risk-averse approach to deterrence. This alternative uses a risk-consequence decision-calculus rather than a traditional cost-benefit one, since authoritarian regimes may not have cost ceilings that democracies can threaten given moral and material constraints. Finally, it offers some initial recommendations for NATO/EU militaries.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Festival of Failure Launch - Dr Michael Shaw

The opening plenary session of the Festival of Failure is an opportunity for all to meet, connect and discuss notions of failure across the university’s disciplines; to consider how its disadvantages can be minimised and some of its potential benefits exploited.
Recent events show how failure can affect entire nations as well as individuals be it physically, socially or mentally. From the world’s conflict zones and the migration of peoples, to the welfare of athletes and management of crime, across society and countries there is a pattern of failure to act or failure from acting. With the current Horizon scandal at the Post Office being a prime example. Failure in sport can be understood from the sub-cellular level up to and including failures of governance within organisations such as the International Olympic Committee and FIFA.
This multi-scale view of failure will be highlighted in this introductory session where four international fellows have been invited to focus discussions on the language and psychology of failure, the failure to tolerate exercise from the cellular to the whole organism level, failure in conflict and philosophical belief systems: alongside system failures in engineering and software.
Here one of the Festival leads, Dr Michael Shaw (School of Design and Creative Arts), discusses their thoughts on the topic.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Festival of Failure Launch - Professor Lisa Jackson

The opening plenary session of the Festival of Failure is an opportunity for all to meet, connect and discuss notions of failure across the university’s disciplines; to consider how its disadvantages can be minimised and some of its potential benefits exploited.
Recent events show how failure can affect entire nations as well as individuals be it physically, socially or mentally. From the world’s conflict zones and the migration of peoples, to the welfare of athletes and management of crime, across society and countries there is a pattern of failure to act or failure from acting. With the current Horizon scandal at the Post Office being a prime example. Failure in sport can be understood from the sub-cellular level up to and including failures of governance within organisations such as the International Olympic Committee and FIFA.
This multi-scale view of failure will be highlighted in this introductory session where four international fellows have been invited to focus discussions on the language and psychology of failure, the failure to tolerate exercise from the cellular to the whole organism level, failure in conflict and philosophical belief systems: alongside system failures in engineering and software.
Here one of the Festival leads, Professor Lisa Jackson (School of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering), discusses their thoughts on the topic.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Festival of Failure Launch - Dr Mark Burnley

The opening plenary session of the Festival of Failure is an opportunity for all to meet, connect and discuss notions of failure across the university’s disciplines; to consider how its disadvantages can be minimised and some of its potential benefits exploited.
Recent events show how failure can affect entire nations as well as individuals be it physically, socially or mentally. From the world’s conflict zones and the migration of peoples, to the welfare of athletes and management of crime, across society and countries there is a pattern of failure to act or failure from acting. With the current Horizon scandal at the Post Office being a prime example. Failure in sport can be understood from the sub-cellular level up to and including failures of governance within organisations such as the International Olympic Committee and FIFA.
This multi-scale view of failure will be highlighted in this introductory session where four international fellows have been invited to focus discussions on the language and psychology of failure, the failure to tolerate exercise from the cellular to the whole organism level, failure in conflict and philosophical belief systems: alongside system failures in engineering and software.
Here one of the Festival leads, Dr Mark Burnley (School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences), discusses their thoughts on the topic.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Festival of Failure Launch - Dr Afzal Ashraf

The opening plenary session of the Festival of Failure is an opportunity for all to meet, connect and discuss notions of failure across the university’s disciplines; to consider how its disadvantages can be minimised and some of its potential benefits exploited.
Recent events show how failure can affect entire nations as well as individuals be it physically, socially or mentally. From the world’s conflict zones and the migration of peoples, to the welfare of athletes and management of crime, across society and countries there is a pattern of failure to act or failure from acting. With the current Horizon scandal at the Post Office being a prime example. Failure in sport can be understood from the sub-cellular level up to and including failures of governance within organisations such as the International Olympic Committee and FIFA.
This multi-scale view of failure will be highlighted in this introductory session where four international fellows have been invited to focus discussions on the language and psychology of failure, the failure to tolerate exercise from the cellular to the whole organism level, failure in conflict and philosophical belief systems: alongside system failures in engineering and software.
Here one of the Festival leads, Dr Afzal Ashraf (School of Social Sciences and Humanities), discusses their thoughts on the topic.
For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias

Festival of Failure Launch - Introductory Remarks

The opening plenary session of the Festival of Failure is an opportunity for all to meet, connect and discuss notions of failure across the university’s disciplines; to consider how its disadvantages can be minimised and some of its potential benefits exploited.
Recent events show how failure can affect entire nations as well as individuals be it physically, socially or mentally. From the world’s conflict zones and the migration of peoples, to the welfare of athletes and management of crime, across society and countries there is a pattern of failure to act or failure from acting. With the current Horizon scandal at the Post Office being a prime example. Failure in sport can be understood from the sub-cellular level up to and including failures of governance within organisations such as the International Olympic Committee and FIFA.
This multi-scale view of failure will be highlighted in this introductory session where four international fellows have been invited to focus discussions on the language and psychology of failure, the failure to tolerate exercise from the cellular to the whole organism level, failure in conflict and philosophical belief systems: alongside system failures in engineering and software.
Here the session is opened by Professor Ksenia Chmutina, Director of the IAS, Professor Dan Parsons, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation and Dr Michael Shaw, one of the Festival of Failure leads.
For more information about the IAS, please visit  - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias