Adrian and Jasmine show that academic success runs in the family
AN award-winning Edinburgh Napier researcher and his daughter have completed a graduation family double.
Adrian Smales, 52, who first attended the university in 1992, returned here to do a PhD in Healthcare Informatics.
And his second time around graduation this week has coincided with 22-year-old daughter Jasmine being awarded a first class BMus (Hons) music degree.
Adrian, of Lasswade, Midlothian, said: “Jasmine is very independent and didn’t need much guidance from me during her course, but we did meet up for the occasional coffee at the Merchiston campus which was always nice.
“Now we hope to celebrate our double graduation with a barbeque with family and friends.”
Adrian originally graduated from the University with a B Eng (Hons) in electronic and computer engineering in 1998.
He returned to Edinburgh Napier to research a PhD thesis titled “Test-bed and evaluation of a home-based adverse event prediction infrastructure”. He has won a string of awards for his work, which in simple terms prevents falls in the home by predicting the increasing risk of significant inactivity, and has led to the development of wearable technology in collaboration with commercial partners.
Jasmine, though like her father a well-known face at Merchiston, has gone down a different academic route.
She said: “I was drawn to the music course at Napier because of its versatility and wide range of module choices.” Jasmine added: “In the past academic year I have written an inclusive music guide for children, and for my final project I have written and created a demo EP that explores mental health.”