Month: March 2018

Inter-group Bowling Event 2018

by Adrian Brown, Clinical Medicine PhD student.

We originally decided to organise a social event to try and help our fellow colleagues beat the January blues! Once we had a spare moment, and to stop the students going on a New Year’s strike, we decided to organise an after-work bowling event. We invited students from Investigative Medicine and the Division of Brain Sciences to attend the inter-group networking event on Friday 12th January 2018. We were very fortunate and extremely grateful as this event was funded by the Graduate School. Attendees were randomly divided into teams across the three bowling alleys hired and participated in some friendly competition to find the top scoring team and player. We also shared some delicious pizza and drinks. After one game, the teams were reshuffled and play resumed. While the bowling skills among the group varied Jamie was the bowling champion among the group!

Aygul Dagbasi, a 1st year PhD student in Investigative Medicine particularly enjoyed the event commenting “I had a great time at my first PhD social event! It was a fantastic way to get to know people from the lab in a more informal setting”. Katerina Petropoulou, a final year PhD student also added “I haven’t bowled in years but the event was the most fun I’ve had at a social event during my PhD”.

Thank you again to the Graduate School for funding the event. As you can see from the photographs, everyone had a lot of fun and we look forward to the next event!

 

A Different Kind of Laser Experiment

by Sarah Ho, Department of Chemistry.

Lasers have had various uses in science, for example in the study of atoms and molecules via spectroscopy. On the 15th of January 2018 however, a group of postgraduates and staff from the Department of Chemistry were interested in very different way of using lasers. Physical and mental abilities were put to the test in the warzone of Bunker 51, a Laser Tag franchise in central London. Fast-paced action, military tactics and an out-of-breath professor were some of the highlights of our social initiative that spanned across both the Britovsek and Romain Groups where stronger bonds were formed over the course of several cooperative team deathmatches and a lovely dinner at Steak and Co.

Laser Tag Missions (Bunker 51)

Each mission featured a time limit of usually 20 mins, an objective, and a coloured light to indicate if it was teamplay or free-for-all. Over the course of 8 exciting but gruelling missions, we got to experience everything from tag-team elimination to overpowered free-for-alls where a “juggernaut” was empowered to have more armour and firepower but lost their status to their slayer. Having the opportunity to play in a mixed team of postgraduates and staff saw us being able to work together more, communicate more effectively and trust one another better (or in one particular case, discover how willing someone is to shoot you in the back for more points right after forming an alliance with you). All said, it was a fantastic time of team-building and bonding where we got to learn a bit more about each other and how to work as a cohesive unit.

A Job Well-Done but Not for My Steak Please (Steak & Co.)

After such a strenuous workout, we proceeded for a relaxed dinner at Steak & Co. where we could hold a civilised conversation without trying to shoot each other. Between the warm food and fizzy drinks, it was easy to begin chatting about various things and open up to each other.

Conclusion

As an event organiser, I have built up my leadership skills via organising this networking event. This event is a very good opportunity for the people in the research group to communicate and understand each other better. Moreover, each participant can improve their planning and strategy building skills through this activity. In each section, each team member needs to give their input and follow the game plan approved by the team leader. To score points, tackle opposing team’s strategy and win the game. Overall, this activity will improve communication and team working skills as well as planning and strategy building skills.

We want to say a big thank you to the Graduate School for giving us this funding opportunity. This is such a great opportunity to improve our research group to a friendly and healthy research community.

Three things I learnt at the Global Postgraduate Retreat

by Selina Cao

This January I signed up for the Global Postgraduate Retreat – Impact and influence at Cumberland Lodge, Great Windsor Park. It is such an elegant lodge with long royal history. This is my first retreat experience and I would like to share with you the three things I learnt from it.

Bold and systematic answer for why

This retreat helps me start to think early in my academic career why I am doing what I am doing now – the potential outcomes and impact of my research. While you might think that we have this figured out already when we applied for Ph.D. programs or when we started our research, however, this retreat enables me to think more boldly and systematically how my research can make a difference not only in my chosen field but also, more importantly, for the whole society and human beings. Specifically, I found the four-audience framework (academic, business, government, and public) very helpful in guiding me to develop my impact statement and strategies for different audience. The group-based and interactive activities further deepened our understanding of our own research. For example, we were asked to draw our own impact statement and then present to team members in a straightforward and plain manner. Since the students came from a variety of disciplines, we are also developing our communication skills through describing our research and impact in a way that anyone without a related background can understand. This mirrors the real time scenario since most audiences in real life possess less knowledge in your field. For example, how can we convince government officials with less scientific background to provide funding by framing our research impact in an easy-to-understand manner and in line with their political objectives? What’s more, interactions and peer-learning enabled us to further refine our initial plan and expand our impact. In the end, answering this why question boldly and systematically built up my confidence and motivated me to make a contribution.

Real-life exercises for how

One of the most precious parts of this retreat is that the learning is very interactive and situated. Instead of walking through slides after slides of normative guidance, we are learning through real life cases and working in different teams to solve problems originated from our own research. For example, during the first day, each group was asked to provide detailed plan to engage one of the four audiences for a real life project called “Tiger Toilets”, a no-frills latrine which uses composting worms to convert human waste into useful fertiliser. The principle investigator of this “Tiger Toilets” project gave us feedbacks on our results after our presentations. For the second day, each group was asked to pick one research topic from their own team members’ fields and try to present to four audiences for funding. The one-hour preparation time put us under huge pressure. This activity is organized in a competition format and all judges are acting in a very professional and real-life setting. During the interactive exercise, we developed our negotiation and communication skills. I still clearly remember all the tough questions we obtained during the competition. Being the only Ph.D. student from business school with research interests in Entrepreneurship, I think the experiences I can gain from this competition are no fewer than the Dragon’s Den or Shark Tank pitching. Key takeaway is the importance of understanding audience’s need: different strategies for different audiences! Knowing your research is important but knowing how to sell your idea is equally important. The winner is the one who secures the most funding and luckily our group won the competition with a box of chocolate!

Opportunities arising from diversity and interactions

Lastly, this retreat impressed me with the backgrounds of the participants in terms of their nationalities and chosen disciplines. Diversity entails great opportunities to expand knowledge base, build network, and innovate through interdisciplinary collaboration. Personally, being the only one from business school, this is my first time getting exposed to so many interesting scientific research outside my field at the same time. Through discussion, their studies inspired me to think differently about the taken-for-granted principles in my field that no one ever asked me before. We were very often amazed by so many interesting facts about cultural differences. We were also enjoying each other’s company through playing Ping Pong, table tennis and other recreational games. Quite many students had a walk to the beautiful park and enjoyed a moment of quietness outside busy city life. These close interactions and knowledge sharing in such a relaxing environment indeed provided us great potentials for future collaborations. For the final part, we were asked to present in any format a summary of the learning from this retreat and our group provided this poem. Hope you enjoyed it.

We went to Cumberland house the 22nd and 23rd,

To do a bunch of stuff of which we never heard.

Making our plans bigger and bolder,

Thinking about all our stakeholders.

We heard about cancers, faeces and germs,

All gobbled up by hungry tiger worms.

We all stand in lines, us girls and us boys,

Trying to speed network despite the noise.

We worked hard and fast, ok with mistakes,

Worried we might miss out on the next round of cakes.

We all tried our best but when ready to can it,

We got another nudge from Bethan, Amy, Valentina, Elena or Janet.

Half of us met on the way from the station,

Proving invaluable for ensuring negotiation.

Connecting made here are no coincidence,

As we go out into the world to have impact and influence.

All in all, I had a fantastic time in this impact retreat and met many new friends there. I really appreciate ICL for providing me such a great training program. And I am very grateful for all the knowledge and encouragement from my teammates. Now I know who I can reach out to for a coffee break at campus through our “Martians of Cumberlodge” WhatsApp group chat!

Next Global Postgraduate Retreat – Impact and influence is from 19 July 2018 – 20 July 2018. So hurry up before it is fully booked!