Blog posts

Second Set of Stripes

Week 1-2

Pitch Side Banners

In June 2014, London Tigers Sports Complex was opened – a £2.2m state of the art facility which offers training, sports, youth, intergenerational and community facilities. As the centre of all of London Tigers’ sporting activities, it is home to:

  • 2 tennis courts
  • 2 cricket pitches
  • 3 lane cricket nets
  • 11-a-side artificial grass football pitch
  • Athletics running track

The park sees over 600 people pass through the complex daily and during summer it sees up to 1000 people per day. One of the ways in which the organisation could make use of these facilities and generate an additional income, is by displaying banners on the pitch side which local businesses could advertise on.  

Week 1 at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability

If you’re reading this as a fellow engineer, I have a challenge for you. Strike up a debate with a doctor about which of your two professions is best, and I guarantee you that the doctor will rebut with the indisputable repost: ‘the human body is the ultimate engineering’. Try and counter that one!

This is exactly the realm I entered upon starting my first day at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability for my Charity Insights placement this summer. I received several slightly surprised looks as I introduced myself not as a medical student eager to delve into the world of neuroscience, but as a student of mechanical engineering with no inclination to becoming a doctor.

Roaring to go at London Tigers

1/4 done…nearly! I am currently in the process of designing and putting together  a sponsorship brochure to send out to corporate firms. This then can be used to obtain sponsors for the Annual Achievement Awards as well as for pitch side banners.

So, what is London Tigers?

LT is an award-winning charity based in London that targets young people aged 9-25 from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities who are socially or economically disadvantaged. They engage with young people through sporting activities, youth clubs and offer employment and training to young people. They are also involved in international development programmes having opened two cricket centres, a football Academy and fund a school in Bangladesh.

20 students taking part in Charity Insights 2015!

After a competitive application and interview process, we’re delighted to announced that 20 Charity Insights bursaries are being awarded to students this year! With a very high standard of entries, successful students will be heading out to complete a 4-week project with their chosen charity over the summer vacation. Yesterday saw a number of the students going out on Charity Insights attend a preparation workshop to meet fellow participants and to learn more about making the most of the experience (plus just a little bit of admin).

This year’s participants are:

  • Albert Miquel (Computing, 1st Year) – Lambeth Elfrida Rathbone Society
  • Alhasan Al-Habib (Life Sciences, 2nd)  – Kensington and Chelsea Foundation
  • Anna Lawson (Chem Eng, 1st) – The Long Well Walk
  • Benedict Conway-Jones (Earth Sciences, 1st) – Collegiate Academy Trust
  • Chris Worsfold (Physics, 2nd) – Sense About Science
  • Daniel Gordon (Medicine, 3rd) – Samaritans
  • Farzana Islam (Biology, 1st) – London Tigers
  • Hossein Rezaei (Civil Eng, PhD) – Birmingham Friends of the Earth
  • Jodie Denmark (Chemistry, 2nd) – Rosa
  • Jonathan Dong  (Chem Eng, 2nd) – Wild Hearts
  • Mollie Gupta (Life Sciences, 2nd) – Bedfont Lakes Country Park
  • Nathan Cheetham (Physics, PhD) – Carbon Disclosure Project
  • Philip Sayer (Mech Eng, 2nd) – Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability
  • Ryan Sandhu (Civil Eng, 2nd) – FitzRoy
  • Sandra Okala (Medicine, PhD) – Public Health England
  • Scott Tyler Hobbs (Chemistry, 2nd) – YMCA LSW
  • Stephanie Mellor (Physics, 2nd) – Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI)
  • Vaibhav Krishnakumar (Computing, 1st) – Asha for Education
  • Visakan Balakumar (Physics, 3rd) – Centre for Community Development / Tamil Women Development Forum
  • Xenia Karlsson (Life Science, 2nd) – Pro-Cancer Research Fund

Finally, I’d just like to issue a well done and good luck to all our participants!

Week 1&2 at the Collegiate Academy Trust

I came into the CAT (Collegiate Academy Trust) wanting to inspire young minds and show them that there is a world behind the geography and geology they study, and I have left everyday with the same urge. My time at the CAT, based at their flagship school, is to be spent creating resources and developing connections with the geological community; as well as getting a feel for teaching on a day to day basis.

I spent my first few days being introduced to the latest resource creating software and settling into life in a school. Once I got over the novelty of seeing a school (and teachers) from the other side, its a place I felt right at home.

Statistical Internship Opportunity at SCI

Based at Imperial on St Mary’s Campus, the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) works to improve the health and development of the world’s poorest populations. SCI is offering an internship for Imperial students, which is eligible for the Charity Insights bursary from the Careers Service.

Working with biostatisticians, the internship will involve data analysis using R, providing an excellent opportunity to develop programming skills. Depending of the statistical and programming experience of the post holder, the role can be further extended to test impact analysis recommendations and determine how these can best be applied in ‘real world’ settings using linear mixed models and sample size calculations or simulations.

Charity Insights Drop-Ins over Spring vacation

Your Placement & Internship Advisers, Helen and Barnaby, are running 20 minute Charity Insights Drop-In appointments Monday – Friday over the spring vacation. On the day, book a slot via JobsLive if you have any questions regarding Charity Insights or want some help with your application. We’ve already been helping students with their CVs, speculative cover letters and getting ideas of what type of project may be successful at application stage. These appointments are available Monday – Friday from 2 – 3pm in the weeks of the 13th and 20th of April 2015. We look forward to answering your questions and seeing your final applications!

Launch of Charity Insights 2015

With the spring term in full swing, the Careers Service is very pleased to announce the opening of applications for Charity Insights 2015. This is an opportunity for returning UG and PhD Imperials students to be awarded a bursary to complete a 4 week long internship with a UK registered charity.

Last summer placements ranged across the charity & not for profit sector, including organisations such as Shelter, Barnado’s and RSPB’s Wild About Hampstead Heath. To mention a few, projects involved investigating the feasibility of renewable energy installations; analysis and research into coffee production; through to creating and launching social media campaigns.

Sense About Science – thoughts after 4 weeks

Here I am at the end of my 4th week at Sense About Science.

What can I add to what I have already said? This internship has been an incredibly positive experience, both from a personal and a professional point of view. I cannot say I am sorry it’s over because I don’t think of it as something that’s over for me. I have been rethinking much of my research work in light of what they do here. I believe it helped me deciding what I want to do next, where I want my science to bring me.

So, here are my 2cents for any postgraduate student wondering whether the Charity Insights project is worth trying or not.

Sense about Science – second half

At the end of the third week of this pleasantly sunny and warm September, while helping with packing some books for an upcoming event, I found myself mentally going through my to-do list, thinking what I have done and what still needs to be finished.

At the end of October Sense about Science will be awarding the Maddox prize I already mentioned, a recognition to people who are committed to clear communication of science despite adversity. The nominations for this prize were 55 this year and needed to be read through, their information checked and summarized. I had gone through the candidatures carefully, looked for the material on line, put together a summary of each profile, trying to be at the same time accurate and complete, but synthetic.