I have to say Monday 6 January 2020 was absolutely memorable
it was the most fantastic experience, standing in the
building finally welcoming students and staff in for the first time.
Seeing everyone's faces literally light up as they saw the amazing space ahead of them.
We transferred, just before the Christmas holiday, about 200,000 volumes of books
and some print journals as well and that was all
done in about eight days.
Reaction, prior to lockdown, was all very, very positive, enthusiastic.
There was one day where we had something like 900 students in.
60% of library visits now go through Town House.
So, we've seen a real shift towards this building and people clearly love working in it.
We advised the cabinet office on how to engage with ethnic communities
who have been disproportionately represented by Covid-19.
The advisory work with the Government and Public Health England
is ongoing. We've also received funding from UKRI and NIHR to
carry on research and design culturally appropriate interventions
for ethnic communities to mitigate this risk.
We hope our findings will have a huge impact.
At the start of the lockdown, the Kingston University
technical team wanted to try and do their bit to help in the pandemic.
We assembled all of our spare PPE which
we then organised to be sent out to the NHS.
Once we'd done that, we wanted to see what else we could do,
because we have some really fantastic equipment here at Kingston University.
So we formed two teams of three staff and started to produce visors
using our laser cutters and our 3-D printers. In all we made 3,558 visors
over three months, of which 2,625 went out to over
35 different organisations across the region.
We were very proud to be able to make the visors as
we were really keen to do our bit to help tackle the pandemic.
It's absolutely fantastic to receive this award and
when I think, how did I get here?
I think it s a real testimony for all those people
who have joined me on this journey for the students and for the staff,
and so it's a big thank you to you all.
With Studio KT1 we've been given the opportunity
to really pitch to clients, so for this project we had to pitch to Kingston First.
I feel so lucky because instead of just having a massive advert or
something commercial, we were able to actually put our artwork out there.
I've always felt that swans represent Kingston.
Going down to the River with my friends,
there's always a massive herd of swans and
I just feel they are really distinctive in Kingston.
It's amazing to have that opportunity to really bring the
artwork from Kingston School of Art more into Kingston.
I was preparing to write up my thesis at the
beginning of the year when we were sent in to a lockdown.
I decided to volunteer with the Covid-19 testing at the
National Biosample Centre at Milton Keynes.
I was doing 12-hour shifts, days and nights, following the pattern.
I feel I have managed to fulfil my duties, both as a muslim as well as a
British citizen, to help my country get back to
a form of normality as soon as possible.
I have gained many skills and various techniques experienced
at Kingston University and one of them is QPCR or Quantitative PCR
which is the key technique in detecting the virus causing this pandemic.
I'm hopeful for 2021, as a vaccine is out in record time.