VERU works with local charity to help people with low vision
back left-right are Prof Shahina Pardhan, Dr Matthew Timmis, Mr Daryl Tabrett, Dr Keziah Latham.
The Vision and Eye Research Unit (VERU) is a key part of Anglia Ruskin University's Postgraduate Medical Institute (PMI). VERU, directed by Professor Shahina Pardhan, offers a collaborative environment for all vision and eye research within Anglia Ruskin by building on existing and developing new collaborative research links amongst the different Departments and Faculties within the University. VERU is also keen to develop collaborative links with organisations outside the University, one of which includes CamSight, a local charity supporting around 2,000 visually impaired people within Cambridgeshire.
An important area of research within VERU is to understand the factors that cause the disability in patients with low vision and to try to find ways of improving their quality of life. The appointment of two new Research Fellows facilitates this important area of research: Dr Andrew Kolarik completed his PhD from Cardiff University on binaural resolution and is currently working with Dr Silvia Cirstea and Steven Harris (both in the Department of Computing and Technology) and Professor Pardhan to investigate how the brain adapts to visual impairment by enhancing hearing abilities, such as distance perception and sound localization, and on the development of virtual environments to simulate the interaction between vision and hearing in spatial orientation. Dr Matthew Timmis completed his PhD from the University of Bradford, which gave him valuable research expertise in quantifying motor movements including step descent. Matthew's research, in collaboration with Professor Pardhan, is focused on understanding the affect that different degrees and magnitude of visual impairment has upon everyday movements such as reach and grasp or in navigating their environment. This has important clinical implications for patients trying to navigate around in the supermarket or in negotiating steps or stairs. This will provide important information to various bodies including social services in planning the rehabilitation of patients with visual impairment.
Dr Keziah Latham and her PhD student Daryl Tabrett (both in the Department of Vision and Hearing Sciences) are investigating factors in addition to vision, such as depression, that influence the self reported ability of patients with visual impairment. The team (Latham, Timmis, Tabrett, Pardhan) are also investigating reasons for reports in the literature of poor associations between self reported difficulties in carrying out various tasks and actual measurements obtained objectively.
An important area of research within VERU is to understand the factors that cause the disability in patients with low vision and to try to find ways of improving their quality of life. The appointment of two new Research Fellows facilitates this important area of research: Dr Andrew Kolarik completed his PhD from Cardiff University on binaural resolution and is currently working with Dr Silvia Cirstea and Steven Harris (both in the Department of Computing and Technology) and Professor Pardhan to investigate how the brain adapts to visual impairment by enhancing hearing abilities, such as distance perception and sound localization, and on the development of virtual environments to simulate the interaction between vision and hearing in spatial orientation. Dr Matthew Timmis completed his PhD from the University of Bradford, which gave him valuable research expertise in quantifying motor movements including step descent. Matthew's research, in collaboration with Professor Pardhan, is focused on understanding the affect that different degrees and magnitude of visual impairment has upon everyday movements such as reach and grasp or in navigating their environment. This has important clinical implications for patients trying to navigate around in the supermarket or in negotiating steps or stairs. This will provide important information to various bodies including social services in planning the rehabilitation of patients with visual impairment.
Dr Keziah Latham and her PhD student Daryl Tabrett (both in the Department of Vision and Hearing Sciences) are investigating factors in addition to vision, such as depression, that influence the self reported ability of patients with visual impairment. The team (Latham, Timmis, Tabrett, Pardhan) are also investigating reasons for reports in the literature of poor associations between self reported difficulties in carrying out various tasks and actual measurements obtained objectively.
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