The Y&R Seminar series has begun!
SYDNEY, 18 June 2024: The Young and Resilient Research Centre (Y&R) has launched a new seminar series, providing our members with a unique opportunity to showcase their research projects and break down the silos researchers often find themselves in.
Seminar presenters will receive valuable feedback, share their findings, and explore potential collaborations with colleagues.
The first event in the Y&R Seminar Series took place on Tuesday, 18 June at the Parramatta South Campus of Western Sydney University. The series was launched with presentations from our visiting International Fellows, Prof Jessica Taylor Piotrowski from the University of Amsterdam and Dr Ingrida Milkaite from Ghent University.
Young and Resilient Co-director, Professor Amanda Third chaired a broad discussion touching on topics such as the growing influence of artificial intelligence, gaps in knowledge, digital rights, understanding risk and digital competence, skills needed to survive and thrive in the digital space, sustainable technology and the concept of digital wellbeing.
During this discussion, Prof Piotrowski also spoke about the need for global researchers to work with technology creators in order to create ethical, digital rights respecting technologies that build the competence of users.
Image: Prof Jessica Piotrowski, Dr Ingrida Milkaite and Prof Amanda Third
At the event, Prof Piotrowski presented a fascinating talk on Youth in the Digital Society, discussing ways digital technology and children and young people's participation in it has changed over the decades. Prof Piotrowsk talked about how these changes have led to the rise of innovative new approaches and methodologies within academic disciplines, allowing researchers to gain a more nuanced understanding of the complex impacts these technologies are having on the lives of children and young people today.
Throughout her talk, Prof Piotrowski referred to her research projects which have explored potential linkages between online gaming and aggressive behaviour in young people, whether the use of social media can lead to increased attention deficit issues for young people with ADHD and connections between late night access to smart phones and sleep health.
Professor Piotrowski is currently exploring online media consumption in young people aged 18- 25 years of age, via a ‘data donation’ process in Europe which aims to explore potential linkages between social media viewing habits and changing political views.
Access Prof Piotrowski’s research publications here.
Dr Milkaite also presented her new research into the use of voice assistance technology by children in domestic and educational settings in different parts of the world. Dr Milkaite compared the use of voice assistance technologies in Belgium, the Netherlands, the US and Australia where she found that the adoption of this technology is rising exponentially. Unexpectedly, Dr Milkaite found families around the world are using the technology to help reduce screentime for their children, with large numbers (70%) also using the technology to help entertain their children.
Learn more about Dr Milkaite’s research paper here.
As you can see there is a broad range of topics and issues to be discussed as part of this series!
Watch this space for updates on upcoming speakers and seminar topics.
