{"id":1853,"date":"2020-05-20T21:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/?p=1853"},"modified":"2020-04-29T11:33:30","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T10:33:30","slug":"edm-a-nurturing-familial-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/edm-a-nurturing-familial-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"EDM, a \u201cnurturing familial environment\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Picture features (L-R) April Coombes (UWE), Professor Melvyn Smith (UWE), Dr Gytis Bernotas (UWE), Dr Mark Hansen (UWE), Geraint Jones (Innovate UK), James Theobald (Agsenze) at the Agri-EPI Centre in Shepton Mallet. (Originally published here<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Senior Research Fellow in EDM\u2019s Machine Vision group, Mark Hansen<\/a>, researches machine learning and computer vision, with a particular focus recently on agritech applications. This has included successfully moving many technologies into industry, from dairy herd monitors, to facial and emotional recognition in pigs, to counting and sizing potatoes as they come out the ground. (Read this blog post<\/a> on the latest developments from the Machine Vision Team).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark worked as a software engineer in industry for 10 years, before coming to the BRL in 2008 for his PhD. And he’s never looked back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of freedom and I direct a lot of my own work. I never feel micro-managed or that someone is breathing down by neck at any time. I will get the work done and my line manager knows that. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel very trusted, it\u2019s a nurturing familial type of environment to work in.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Mark\u2019s children were much younger, he made use of the nursery on campus and adaptable working hours to schedule work around his childcare responsibilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s flexibility if I need it for my family. I have two children, 10 and 7, and my wife is a successful solicitor, so she works a lot.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crisis in the family<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark highlights a particular occasion when UWE\u2019s flexibility was invaluable for his family: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy wife had just left to go to court in London, when my eldest fell on the youngest, embedding his tooth into his forehead.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although initially stitched up okay, Mark\u2019s son soon developed a very serious infection. He was hospitalised on intravenous antibiotics, and there was a real fear he might develop sepsis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAs opposed to many other jobs I\u2019ve had in the past, I was just able to tell my line manager I\u2019m not going to be in for\u2026I don\u2019t know for how long. And I knew I didn\u2019t have to worry about work at all.\u201d <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark\u2019s son made a full recovery, and the experience has given Mark an acute appreciation for EDM\u2019s staff support, \u201cit would be hard to get that level and trust and balance anywhere else.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The friendly, international culture<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside EDM\u2019s culture of supporting family life, Mark points to the great collegial and collaborative working culture within the department, which drives its success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI get to work with people who are all really passionate about what they do and have a very wide range of skills to call on.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark enjoys the international diversity and friendly atmosphere within the department, fondly remembering an international lunch where 40 different dishes were authentically prepared, \u201cI think it was probably the best meal I\u2019ve ever eaten!\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Picture features (L-R) April Coombes (UWE), Professor Melvyn Smith (UWE), Dr Gytis Bernotas (UWE), Dr Mark Hansen (UWE), Geraint Jones (Innovate UK), James Theobald (Agsenze) at the Agri-EPI Centre in Shepton Mallet. (Originally published here) Senior Research Fellow in EDM\u2019s Machine Vision group, Mark Hansen, researches machine learning and computer vision, with a particular focus … Continue reading “EDM, a \u201cnurturing familial environment\u201d”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":1864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversity-and-inclusion","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1853"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1879,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853\/revisions\/1879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}