Ismay Mummery crowned winner at Bake Your Research

We had another fun and fascinating Bake Your Research Event yesterday. You can see all the bakes mentioned below on the Bake Your Research 2024 Padlet. 92 votes were cast by the OU community.

Ismay Mummery won 'Graduate School Star Baker'

Engineering and Innovation PGR Ismay has competed in the past with beautiful bakes, but scooped the prize this time for her fabulous Gingerbread Men(ders) Cake. Ismay's research topic is 'Garment Mending: Drivers, Challenges and Opportunities for Different Communities'. Her cake took the form of a t-shirt with a cupcake mending mushroom atop connected by icing threads to gingerbread people who represented the personas identified through her research. About her research, Ismay says:

"Mending of garments has a greater reduction in environmental impacts than recycling, making it a priority for Net Zero initiatives, yet receives little funding and discussion."

Liz Danner won 'Tastiest Bake'

Liz's research project is on 'Impacts of the UK Engagement and Impact Agenda: Exploring institutional and individual priorities, practices, and professional development'. Her bake was deemed both signficant and delicious with a 3-tier soaked sponge. Liz said of her research and bake:

"How is impact valued and actioned across the different layers of the research system, and how has this changed across REF 2014 and REF 2021? Is impact embedded within research practices (like a delicious soaking syrup), or just the icing on top?"

But we all won in terms of cake and knowledge

Other bakers, on and off site, delighted with their witty interpretation of the brief and fabulous creations:

• Lucy Moore (WELS) with her epic 'Baking Olympic Dreams: A Celebration of Strength and Collaboration' multiple-bake creation.
• Jenny Alcock (STEM) with her depiction of her research project 'Droplet Dynamics On Smooth Geometries' in rice krispies and swiss roll.
• Jane Stevens (FASS) with her European Gingerbread Community Cake.
• Lorna Stevens (WELS) with her 'Can you say feminist phenomenology when you fall off your bike?' flapjack.
• Marilyn Long's 'Rainbows and Potholes' multi-bake representation of challenges faced by autistic students.