News in brief – 18 June

A new learning system has been developed by a University of Warwick PhD student, and could soon be providing children with easy access to multi-lingual educational materials. The system, called M-Thuto, is the brainchild of Ms Mmaki Jantjies, and works by providing children with multi-language educational materials on their mobile phones.

Gibbet Hill Road is set to be closed from June 23 for major roadworks aimed at relieving traffic congestion in the area around the University. The roadworks will disrupt travel to and from Warwick University campus, but are scheduled for completion by the beginning of October, before the new academic year begins.

A swarm of angry bees forced the suspension of a golf tournament in Coventry for over an hour on Thursday 12 June. A number of players and officials suffered stings as they retreated from the twelfth tee of the PGA Powerade Assistants’ Championship at Coventry Golf Club in Finham.

A team of researchers from the universities of Warwick, Leicester, Aston and the Open University are soon to start a research project to look at the often “unstable and fragmented” experiences of young people as they begin their careers. The researchers predict that unpaid work could soon become the norm for all young people trying to enter the job market.

Warwick Crop Centre has been awarded a five year contract from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to continue to host the UK Vegetable Genebank at the University’s Wellesbourne Campus. The Genebank is an internationally significant collection of almost 14,000 seed samples from different vegetable crops including carrot, onion, lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli, and closely related wild species.