This month I decided to ramp up my running, to take advantage of the longer and warmer days… and, then, managed to injure myself. It’s just pain in the heel, but it came in addition to other ongoing niggles. So, I decided to book an appointment to have it checked. I called the GP surgery to book the appointment, and they sent me a link to complete an online, pre-appointment questionnaire. This was a new feature. I filled it, submitted it and, a few hours later, I received a call offering me a physio appointment. It’s certainly not the AI-enabled triage app mentioned in the news, recently, but I found it really helpful to organise my thoughts about what exactly I wanted to discuss and achieve, and to not feel that I was wasting the GP’s time.
This month, there was also my MBA 25-year reunion. I was feeling a bit anxious about going, thinking that no-one would remember me, and that I would feel out of place with my colleagues who all have high flying executive jobs and earn a lot more than me. But, of course, I was being very silly – most did remember me, and I had a lovely time catching up with colleagues, remembering key moments, and making plans to meet again.
Other than that, there was child 1’s birthday. Wimbledon started. And I have been taking advantage of the outdoor swimming pool at our gym, to help cope with the heatwave (and give a break to that sore heel).
Research
The research highlight this month was the SPRITE+ & CRANE sandpit, online and in Oxford. This sandpit was focused on AI challenges to Trust, Identity, Privacy, Security and Safety, and had a really interesting mix of engineering/ computer sciences and social sciences researchers. During the sandpit, I joined a team developing a research proposal related to AI sovereignty. We are now waiting to hear if we have been shortlisted for the next stage. All fingers firmly crossed!!!
I also received the news that I and two colleagues had been awarded a small pot of money to run a workshop and write a position paper on “AI in Advertising: Trust, Identity, Privacy and Security Risks in AI-Driven Marketing”. It will take place in London, in mid-October, and I will share news / link to register, as soon as possible.
Lastly, a colleague and I ran the pre-tests for a study on customer interactions with chatbots. We are now fine tuning the study.
Writing
In June, I worked on revisions to a paper on using AI in research, and the AI sovereignty grant proposal.
Teaching
On the teaching front, there was marking, dissertation supervision, and reading and commenting on a full-PhD draft.
I was also invited to join a supervisory team, as one of the other supervisors has moved on to a new job. I taught this student when they first joined Sussex and followed the early iterations of the idea. So, it was quite a full circle moment to now be invited to join the team.
Service
This was a busy month on the service front.
In my SeNSS role, there was the Management board, preparing for the annual conference, and getting the ball rolling on the plans for an Employability Bootcamp for doctoral researchers.
In my ethics role, I completed a report for the research and innovation committee, and reviewed numerous proposals.
I also participated in the mock visits for Sussex’s AACSB accreditation, ran a session for early career researchers on turning their PhD manuscripts into journal articles and creating a publication pipeline, ran a workshop on using GenAi in teaching, reviewed two papers, and wrote a couple of references.
What did June have in store for you?
Ana Canhoto 