Inspiring Curiosity:
Small Projects at Heriot-Watt University
Each year, Heriot-Watt’s alumni and donor community helps fund dozens of small (but no less exciting) faculty and student projects across the University’s global campuses. In this series, we shine the spotlight on a few standouts from the last couple of years.
Thank you to everyone who supported our project funds. Every project marks a step towards discovery, fellowship, and a better, brighter future.
Emily Hague presents at IMPAC 5 in Vancouver.
Scottish Vessel Project
PhD student Emily Hague, co-leader of the Scottish Vessel Project (with Dr Lauren McWhinnie, of the WAVE Project fame), recently published (alongside her co-authors) a summary of the project’s findings, “AIS (automatic identification system) data underrepresents vessel traffic around coastal Scotland”, in the Marine Policy (178) academic journal.
The publication represents the culmination of the Scottish Vessel Project’s progress since its launch in 2021. The project’s objective—to gather information on the presence, distribution, and type of vessels sailing around coastal Scotland so as to better understand the extent to which seals, dolphins, and whales are exposed to these vessels—is closely related to Emily’s PhD research, which focuses on the cumulative impacts on marine mammals in UK seas.
Thanks in part to Heriot-Watt University’s Small Projects Grant scheme, Emily was able to travel to Vancouver, Canada, to attend the Fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5) in 2023, where she presented a talk titled “Same species, same space, different practice: reviewing the non-uniformity in assessment of cumulative impacts to marine mammals”.
Thanks in part to Heriot-Watt University’s Small Projects Grant scheme, Emily was able to travel to Vancouver, Canada, to attend the Fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5) in 2023.
Societies Development Fund
The Societies Development Fund (SDF) is available to Heriot-Watt University student societies to support projects, events, ideas, and materials that advance the aims and interests of the society. Eighty-one student societies have benefited from this fund, including the Robotics Society, Ice Skating Society, and Multimedia Society.
Another society that benefited, the Actuarial Society, used SDF money to host an actuarial conference for over 100 students on Actuarial Sciences and Finance degree programmes at Heriot-Watt University. The event was also attended by several business representatives and speakers.
Meanwhile, the Multimedia Society printed and distributed a sustainable campus magazine, Loch-In, taking contributions of articles, art, and opinion pieces from students across all courses and year groups as well as the wider Edinburgh community. This landmark publication saw them win the New Society of the Year award and led to them being nominated for the Community Engagement Award at our Annual Volunteer Awards.
SDF funding allows many of our societies to operate without charging membership fees, which is the only way to be fully inclusive and accessible to all students. With the cost of living continuing to spiral, the SDF provides opportunities for students from all socioeconomic circumstances to pursue hobbies and extracurricular activities.
A conference for over
students on Actuarial Sciences and Finance degree programmes at Heriot-Watt University
The Lyell Centre Coral Flume
Postgraduate Researcher Eleanor E. Mawson received funding from the Small Projects Grants Fund to conduct research at the Lyell Centre in Edinburgh into how rising sea levels (caused by, amongst other things, climate change) threaten coral reefs, which require gentle and steady water flow to survive and feed.
To understand how different species and shapes of coral are affected by different speeds of flowing water, Eleanor and her colleagues constructed, with the help of engineers from Heriot-Watt University’s EGIS Technical Services team and Bonnyside Engineering, a custom flume (a long tank that creates controlled water flow) in the Wolfson Aquarium at the Lyell Centre.
They used an acoustic doppler velocimeter (ADV) to record water speed and turbulence and then filmed the behaviour of the different species of tested corals (i.e., whether they opened to feed, remained closed, or behaved in some other way). The experiment revealed which coral shapes and species were best suited to future ocean conditions and provided insights into how rising sea levels and changing water conditions are likely to affect coral reef ecosystems.
The custom flume used by Eleanor and her team.
Coral reacting to fluctuations in current.
To learn more about helping Heriot-Watt enact targeted change in the world through small projects, please contact Senior Development Executive Eve MacDonald at E.MacDonald@hw.ac.uk.
