Northumbria University students have been given the chance to talk to a European
astronaut and one of the world’s leading aerospace medical experts as part of
an exciting lecture.
Dr Andrew Winnard, who is part of the University’s Aerospace
Medicine and Rehabilitation Laboratory, delivered the interactive session to
final-year applied sports science students, focusing on the topic of
biomechanics in space.
He introduced students to guest speaker, Professor Simon
Evetts, who talked about his journey from being a sport student at
Northumbria University, to becoming medical projects lead at the European Space Agency
(ESA). For eight years he supported Europe’s astronauts in space
and now leads an extreme environments research company here in the UK, called
Blue Abyss. Simon also worked very closely with UK astronaut Tim Peake.
He was then joined live via telecom by Romanian cosmonaut,
General Dorin Prunariu, who flew as part of an eight-day space mission aboard a
Soviet spacecraft and the famous Salyut Space Laboratory – the world’s first
space station – in 1981.
“This lecture was about bringing astronauts and one of the
world’s leading medical scientists from the aerospace industry to talk to our
students so they could see the real-world impact our research has,” said
Andrew. “We invited Simon to talk in person to the students about his work and
that was followed by a live Skype call with Dorin. After which, students could
ask both guests questions about their work. For those students who didn’t feel
comfortable asking questions out loud in the classroom, there was the option to
Tweet their questions anonymously and they would be answered.
"We’re able to establish these relationships with exciting
guest speakers through networking and attending events. We work with the ESA on
a lot of research projects, so we are able to build and maintain relationships
with astronauts and medical staff.”
Research-led teaching, bringing a network of world-leading
researchers into the classroom, was a key feature in Andrew’s lecture, showing
students the steps involved in producing their own research project, from
planning and implementation to communicating their findings in an exciting and
engaging way.
Kieran Spencer, 21, an applied sports science with coaching
student, said the lecture was inspiring. “The way Andrew puts presentations together is always
engaging and interactive for students,” he said. “For me personally, it was
hugely beneficial to hear from Simon who discovered one of the medical methods
that I’m studying as part of my dissertation, ‘Comparison of CPR methods in simulated micro-gravity.’ As a space dissertation student with the
Aerospace Medicine and Rehabilitation Laboratory, Kieran also had the
opportunity to sit and talk one-to-one with Simon about his dissertation work.
