Professor Corrina Cory

Corrina is an Edupreneur and Chartered Engineer with over 20 years’ experience in education, engineering and entrepreneurship. She started her career as a Research Associate at Cardiff University where she developed expertise in injury biomechanics while working on civil and criminal cases for legal professionals and the Police. She went on to gain a position as a Senior Consultant and Team Leader (Injury Biomechanics) at Arup by pitching an idea to run a new business within the company. As an intrapreneur at Arup she authored and implemented a business plan providing services to the Metropolitan Police, Transport Security Directorate (TRANSEC), Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Scottish Power, British Land, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Crossrail. Her entrepreneurship journey began when she created 2 companies running simultaneously, a .com social network which she ran successfully for 3 years and an engineering consultancy selling technical services to global engineering companies. Corrina was Managing Director of Cory Scientific Ltd for 5 years, providing innovative services in 3D laser scanning, 3D modelling, injury biomechanics and project management.

As Strategic Curriculum Development Lead (Engineering) she is currently co-developing the new Engineering Programme (Eng2020) using multi-disciplinary Gold Standard Project Based Learning (GSPBL) with a focus on global engineering challenges and entrepreneurship. Engineering education is moving towards more active, experiential, project based learning to prepare graduates for the 4IR so they can adapt to rapidly changing technology, develop 21st Century Skills and apply entrepreneurial competence to solve complex problems.

Digital transformation is fundamental to the success of this methodology and it is hoped that the student experience will be improved through the VLEx (Virtual Learning Experience) proposed by the New VLE Working Group. The vision for the VLEx is to engage students with ‘opportunities to collaborate effectively with peers, educators and researchers through the VLE and other digital tools’ which will help to facilitate blended and collaborative online learning for GSPBL.

Corrina has been a key academic involved in building a team of Entrepreneurs in Residence (EiR, Nick Russill and Steve Senior) through Royal Society funding. The input of the EiR team helps to drive the USP of entrepreneurship throughout Eng2020. Creativity is an essential aspect of the GSPBL/EntreComp methodology as students are required to generate effective novel technological solutions to answer authentic, industry linked driving questions. Prototyping is essential as part of innovation to explore and experiment with concepts early in the design process. Corrina is leading the design and construction of the new engineering maker space and is part of the team developing an ecosystem of maker spaces across the University. These spaces are a key factor in the improvement of teaching and learning, student support and student outcomes by challenging and empowering ambitious, inquisitive, high ability students and improving inclusivity.

Her education philosophy strives to build strong partnerships between staff and students and create a culture in the engineering department where students feel part of an innovative, technology focussed making community and the hierarchy is flat with a start-up, entrepreneurial atmosphere. This environment will develop students with a thirst for life-long learning and inspire them to harness their human potential in preparation for the 4IR.

Teaching

Developing
ENG3010 - Industrial Awareness and Problem Solving
ENG1005 - Multi-Disciplinary Challenge Project

Module Lead
ECM2121 - Entrepreneurship 2
ECM1111 - Entrepreneurship 1

Previous Modules
ECMM102 - Group Project (MEng)
ECM3101 - Individual Project (BEng)
ECMM103 - Computer Aided Engineering Design (50% of module, SolidWorks)
ECM3171 - Computer Aided Drawing (50% of module, SolidWorks)
ECM3163 - Mechanical Engineering Design Studies
ECM2112 - Professional Studies & Skills Development 2
EMP9001 - Grand Challenges

Research

Educational Research 

Corrina has developed a new methodology to equip students with the 21st Century Skills required for success as professional and entrepreneurial engineers. Modules are designed using the GSPBL process and the EntreComp standards are used alongside AHEP learning outcomes for assessment. The EntreComp progression model is used as a target in Entrepreneurship modules and encourages students to spot commercial opportunities, create a learning community, develop emotional intelligence, build resilience, adapt to changing situations and transform the word failure into ‘progress through iteration' to solve complex and ambiguous problems. Early data from Entrepreneurship 1 and observations of students suggest that this practice builds confidence and changes how graduates think about themselves and their ability to have impact in the world.

Publications

• Cory CZ, Howells CH, Curriculum design using Gold Standard Project Based Learning (GSPBL) to develop 21st Century Skills for success in the 4IR, Advance HE STEM Conference, Manchester, 29 January 2020.
• Cory CZ, Carroll S, Sucala VI, Embedding project based learning and entrepreneurship in engineering education, Presentation at the Engineering Professors’ Council (EPC) and Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) joint conference - New Approaches to Engineering Higher Education in Practice, IET London, 18 November 2019:32-35.
• Cory CZ, Sucala VI and Carroll S, The development of a Gold Standard Project Based Learning (GSPBL) engineering curriculum to improve Entrepreneurial Competence for success in the 4th industrial revolution. Proceedings of the 47th SEFI Annual Conference - Complexity is the new Normality. Budapest: 16-20 September 2019: 280-291.
• Sucala VI, Carroll S and Cory CZ, A new model of entrepreneurship education for engineering students. Proceedings of the 47th SEFI Annual Conference - Complexity is the new Normality. Budapest: 16-20 September 2019:1107-1112.
• Cory CZ, Project Based Learning (PBL) for developing technical and entrepreneurial 21st Century Skills in engineering students, Video presentation at the AMPS conference Education, Design and Practice - Understanding skills in a Complex World, Stevens Institute, New York / New Jersey, 17-19 June 2019.
• Cory CZ, Keynote Presentation: Project Based Learning (PBL): Equipping Students With 21st-Century Skills, Presentation at the EduExe Conference, University of Exeter, Exeter, England, 3 May 2019.

Injury Biomechanics Research

Corrina is striving to create a multidisciplinary research area to combine current expertise at the University of Exeter with injury biomechanics. Joint research grant applications are planned to undertake research that focuses on the provision of wellness and injury prevention as well as the treatment of illness in the form of green, blue and yellow (safe) spaces. This research can be applied to the design of healthcare facilities, the built environment, SMEs and the natural environment support healthy, independent living.

Publications

• Hatton AL, Brauer S, Cory CZ, Haslam C, Brown W, Cresswell A, Brownjohn J, Wyat, K, Garside R, Bell S, Langley J, Woolrych R, Goodwin VA. Using stakeholder engagement through co-design to develop innovative solutions to enhance safe built and natural environments for ageing well, BMC Research Involvement and Engagement. Submitted.
• Cory CZ, Design of healthcare facilities utilising established injury biomechanics techniques for injury prevention, Hospital Engineering and Estates Management, 2008;6:7-10.
• Cory CZ and Jones MD, Development of a simulation system for performing in situ surface tests to assess the potential severity of head impacts from alleged childhood short falls, Forensic Science International, 2006;163(1-2):102-114.
• Jones MD and Cory CZ. A Fatal Fall from a Balcony? A biomechanical approach to resolving conflicting witness accounts, Medicine, Science and the Law, 2006;46(3):233-44.
• Norton C, Rolfe K, Morris S, Evans R, Jones M, Cory CZ, Dunstan F, Sibert J, Head injury and limb fracture in modern playgrounds, Archives of Disease in Childhood, 2004;89:152-153.
• Cory CZ and Jones MD, Can shaking alone cause fatal brain injury? A biomechanical assessment of the Duhaime shaken baby syndrome model, Medicine, Science and the Law, 2003;43(4):317-333.
• Jones MD, James DS, Cory CZ, Leadbeatter S and Nokes LDM, Subdural haemorrhage sustained in a baby rocker? A biomechanical approach to causation, Forensic Science International, 2003;131:14-21.
• Cory CZ, A Biomechanical assessment of the Duhaime Shaken Baby Syndrome model, Doctor of Philosophy Thesis, University of Wales, Cardiff, U.K. 2001.
• Cory CZ, Jones MD, James DS, Leadbeatter S and Nokes LDM, The potential and limitations of utilising head impact injury models to assess the likelihood of significant head injury in infants after a fall, Forensic Science International, 2001;123:89-106.
• Cory CZ, Assessing the severity of child head impacts onto various domestic surface mixtures, Master of Philosophy Thesis, University of Wales, Cardiff, U.K. 1998.
• Cory CZ and Nokes LDM, The use of head impact injury models, Journal of Karnataka Orthopaedic Association, 1997;11(2):51-54.