For the post-grad Women in Physics Christmas social we organized an ice skating outing to the rink at the Natural History Museum. This event was also open to PG women in Computing, as we hope to run many events together in the future. The group was a mix of physics, maths and computing students and we had a mixture of all years of students and a couple of post docs. This was the first event combining the two departments. We all met and introduced ourselves in the Physics Department before walking over to the Natural History Museum together. Within the group there were a few girls who have never ice skated before and the rest of us have been at least a few times before. This made for a nice group. The inexperienced skaters were shown what to do and helped around the rink by various other girls. Everyone really enjoyed the skating! We skated for 50 minutes and then headed up to the bar for mulled wine to warm up and chat. The event was a great success and we will be holding it again next year. It was also a positive start for what we hope to be a collaborative and supportive community between the PG women in physics, maths and computing.
Did you ever wonder what most of PhD students at the College have in common? They need to compute to finish their degree. The task can be as simple as a quick data analysis or as complex as creating a new software package. Did you also know that most of the students arrive with a minimal background in computing? A lot of them find themselves in a “sink or swim” situation. After experiencing this ourselves, we decided that we don’t want others to suffer the same fate and make the same mistakes. To bring the issue into the spotlight, we decided to organise a Fair that featured exhibits dedicated to essential computing skills that every student should know before they attempt to “swim”.
The Fair happened on October 11th, 2017 and it was a success. We had at least 60 visitors – after that we lost count. We invited CDT cohorts as well as PhD students across the College to come, network and pick up useful tips. The event started on a high note, almost everyone showed up right when the door opened. The visitors dispersed around the exhibits and listened to what we had to say. The ones that needed a bit of help with getting enthusiastic got cookies coffee or tea. We had an incredibly busy three hours at the exhibits as well as giving short talks.
After picking up useful computing tips and hints, the audience had a chance to visit a poster session at the Fair. We invited open source software projects from the College to present to the students. Many of these packages can be applied to various types of projects. Who knows, maybe we encouraged future collaborations.
The pizza and beer arrived just in time, one could not keep this pace much longer. The networking part that followed went very smoothly.
With the Fair out of the way, we intend to continue our effort to educate the cohorts via the Scientific Computing Support Network. There is a good chance that we’ll organise the Fair again. Note to self – keep it simple and order more pizza.
Thomas Bendall, MPE Eduardo Ramos Fernandez, TSM Matthew Garrod, MPE
Thomas Gibson, MPE Michael Haigh, MPE
Hemant Khatri, Math Department Smitha Maretvadakethope, Fluids Josephine Park, MPE
Sergio Perez, Fluids Matthew Taylor, HiPEDS The Computational Methods Hub
Abstract
On Thursday 22nd June 2017, Earth Science and Engineering Graduate Society (Grad Soc) begun their Stress Less campaign, made possible by funding received from the Graduate School’s Research Community Fund. A recent Grad Soc survey had highlighted the number of PhD students within the department who felt that work-related stresses had a significant impact on their daily lives. This campaign aimed to foster discussion about such issues and provide activities that introduced coping techniques.
PhD “stress less” lunch
A sandwich lunch was set out informally on picnic blankets and was very well attended, drawing more than 30 PhD students, and providing an opportunity for all to voice concerns relating to any aspect of PhD life. One of the most positive aspects was the number of students present who had not previously attended any Grad Soc event. On the whole the mood was positive but concerns as to finance, demonstrating pay, the tidiness of the department and general organisational issues affecting welfare of students were raised. These issues have now been brought to the attention of staff and the head of department. Lunch also gave time for newer students to integrate into the departmental “social scene”, contributing to a peer support network.
Mindfulness
The mindfulness session though short was enjoyed by attendees. It also gave the opportunity to raise awareness of the regular mindfulness sessions run by the college.
Yoga
Maria provided an excellent introduction to yoga for stress relief. Attendees had varying degrees of experience from complete beginners to experienced yogis. Talking afterwards to those who went, the class was enjoyed and a few people are now considering taking Maria’s regular class at Ethos. A follow up email will go out to students providing details of this.
PhD Coffee
PhD coffee was well attended by around 25 students. Materials for known activities to reduce stress were provided, such as mindfulness adult colouring. It was hoped that by introducing students to these activities some might implement them into their routine as a way to provide stress relief. A comments box was also provided for students to anonymously voice any concerns they were currently having relating to their PhD. Comments were then processed by Grad Soc and referred to the head of department. As we have no common space for PhD students within the department, coffee enabled students a rare chance to talk freely of their concerns.
Massages
All of the massage sessions on the day were booked out, 18 students receiving a 10 minute hand and forearm or neck and shoulder massage each. The feedback from this was extremely positive!
The success of the day is also now to be published in the Departmental Newsletter raising awareness of student welfare and mental health.
Continuation of the Campaign
Within the department, Grad Soc have continued the Stress Less Campaign on a monthly basis by providing an afternoon PhD-only coffee session. During the summer months this has been extremely well attended and enjoyed. As a PhD-only event it provides a safe, friendly environment to voice concerns. We are all realising that stress and difficulties with work-life balance affect many people and there is a more open attitude to discussing this with peers among the PhD Students.
A word of Thanks
Grad Soc would very much like to thank the Graduate School for the funding they provided; without it this campaign would not have happened. Through the discussions facilitated by the Stress Less series, we have seen evidence of the classic statement “a problem shared is a problem halved”. It is refreshing to have a more open attitude to discussing problems that affect so many people, and we hope the mental health of the PhD students will improve as a result of this.
It’s been quite the ride so far. Since being elected into the role, it seems the Graduate Students’ Union has undergone quite the transformation, hopefully destined for something new and exciting. Thanks to the hard work of both th e outgoing and incoming committee, we’ve developed a new logo, promotional flyers, a website and more recently a strategy for our year ahead! And we are only getting started…
Yet I must be honest, it’s been quite the challenge. As a Constituent Union representing 7000 postgraduate students, our productivity has been limited by having only 3 members of our committee elected over the summer period: Paul and Alex, our two Vice Presidents, and I. Thank goodness, we now have the rest of our committee in post, ready to execute our plans for the year ahead. We thank Imperial College Union and the Graduate School for their continued support in that respect.
Despite challenging circumstance, I’m realising more and more how much potential our postgraduate members truly have. My impression is that these are bright, talented individuals admitted from all corners of the globe, working day in day out to contribute to the ever-growing repository of knowledge at Imperial and beyond. The question which puzzles me is how we can truly bring together people with differing perspectives to make amazing things happen?
What does the GSU Stand For?
It was this very question which led me to believe what I felt the Graduate Students’ Union stands for. That for me was the breaking down of barriers, and it was the capture of this vision in a formal manner which ultimately led to the recent development of our strategy for the year ahead.
I’ve been at Imperial for 5 years now and I must be open and honest about how intense this place can be at times; that’s the inevitable reality of putting a population of driven, ambitious individuals under the same roof for a prolonged period! We may all have our own ambitions and plans, but there’s no excitement in hiding all that energy and creativity! I compel you to reflect on your life as a student so far and remember at which points in the past your best ideas have been sparked. For me, those moments have occurred in the presence of others, whether that’s a group of friends in a bar, or during a discussion with a supervisor guiding me through my work. There’s something quite special about collaboration, the merging of minds, the formation of ideas.
Get Involved and Meet Other Students
So how can we develop a culture which is more collaborative and perhaps a little different to institutions elsewhere? Well we must start by seeking comfort in leaving our disciplinary silos. We also need to recognise that difference is the root of innovation; whatever nationality, gender or culture, we all have something unique to offer, and it may just be that your offering is the missing piece to the jigsaw.
So, our efforts as GSU this year will be led by our aim to bring people together. We have an exciting series of events planned – one of which is centred around forming research connections, the other of which is related to enterprise and the final of which will entail multidisciplinary activity with industry members! I encourage you to watch that space and look out for our promotions…
Despite making some progress so far, we acknowledge that there is always room for growth and improvement as a GSU. We therefore invite you to share ideas and get in touch: contact us at gsu.president@imperial.ac.uk
by Daniel Hdidouan, PhD student in the Centre for Environmental Policy
The second annual Environmental and Sustainability Mixer took place on Wednesday 27th of September. The mixer is a cross-departmental initiative, the aim of which is to encourage the postgraduate research student community working in environmental and sustainability research to get to know each other. It was a fantastic event which saw high turnout for the social; students enjoyed pizzas and drinks in the Physics common room on Level 8 of the Blackett Building.
Purpose
The event was devised because students in the past have found it difficult to find informal events for research students to build cross-departmental and cross-College relationships. As such, the event was funded by the Graduate School’s Research Community Fund.
From previous experience shared by the alumni, a College-wide neutral platform (i.e. funded by the Graduate School) with students from other departments was needed to facilitate interaction and foster collaboration at an earlier stage in our careers. A lot of work is done in the environment and sustainability at Imperial but often people don’t realise the wealth of the network until it’s too late.
Numbers
With over 45 registered attendees, and a turnout of 71% (32) we were able to welcome in the new academic year with some familiar and fresh faces to Imperial’s environmental and sustainability research area. The mixer was designed to encourage Imperial’s environmental and sustainability research community to get to know each other and increase awareness of the breadth of research undertaken in this field across all of Imperial’s departments. A total of 9 departments were represented across Imperial’s four faculties, including: the Centre for Environmental Policy, Physics, Mathematics, Business School, Earth Science and Engineering, Public School of Health, and Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Pie chart showing break down of registered attendees’ departments
Outcomes
This cohort building exercise introduced attendees to other departments, topics of research and new friends. We are in contact and are aiming to meet up again in the next few weeks. There is also an initiative to formalise an environmental and sustainability network here at imperial that was further floated at the mixer. We also have some leftovers which we plan to put towards another mixer in the coming weeks! If you would like further information regarding the mixer, or potentially organising your own cohort building activity and would like to learn from our experience, please get in touch: d.hdidouan15@imperial.ac.uk (Daniel Hdidouan).
by Seth Wilson, PhD Student, Mechanical Engineering
After the successful completion of the ICL-TUM Global Fellows’ Programme 2017, entitled Cities of the Future, I was fortunate enough to remain in Munich, Germany for a further three-weeks. During this time, I carried out a short research project within the Lehrstuhl für Nuckleartechnik (Chair for Nuclear Technology) at the Technische Universität München (TUM) under the supervision of Professor Macián-Juan.
Germany has decided to discontinue its use of nuclear energy and will have phased-out its remaining functioning nuclear power plants by the end of 2022. Without wanting to completely abandon nuclear, research within this field has become more general to processes and systems, such as to have a wider range of applications.
During my research internship, I worked with two best-estimate thermal-hydraulics systems codes: TRACE, developed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the United States; and ATHLET, developed by the Gesellschaft für Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS), Germany’s central expert organisation in the field of nuclear safety and radioactive waste management.
These computer codes are used to simulate typical pressurised-water (PWR) and boiling-water (BWR) nuclear reactors during normal operation; and more interestingly for the general analysis of abnormal transients and accident situations, in particular the Loss of Coolant Accidents (LOCA). Furthermore, ATHLET couples neutronics and nuclear reactor physics with thermal-hydraulic engineering for a coupled multi-physics analysis.
At the very best, computer codes provide good approximations; it is therefore necessary to quantify and rank any sources of uncertainty that may propagate through into the output. I performed such uncertainty and sensitivity analysis with SUSA, another piece of software developed by the GRS.
I am very grateful to have had this opportunity to collaborate with researchers from further afield. As a result, I now have a better appreciation for my own work at Imperial College. I have increased my network of engineers and researchers, as well as maintained old contacts; I was pleased to discover an old colleague of mine, from my school in Paris, was working on his PhD in the Nuclear Technology department at TUM.
By Firdous Ul Nazir, PhD Student, Electrical Engineering
I got a chance to participate in the ICL-TUM global fellows programme: Cities of the future, thanks to the Imperial Graduate school. This was a week long course involving 51 participants from 7 globally renowned institutions. The first day of the course was mainly aimed at acquainting the participants of the practical challenges and expected transformations in cities of the future which was aptly conveyed through presentations by experts of the field. In the remaining four days we were involved in a lot of group activities which culminated in a collaborative group project from each group. The groups involved students from different universities and diverse disciplines which helped us to improve our communication, team work, idea generation and collaborative skills. During the course of time the efficiency of each group improved drastically as the group supervisors were constantly helping us to overcome our mistakes in the previous tasks. We also had a guided visit to the Munich city which helped us to understand its digital transformation planning.
I completed my three week research visit in renewable and sustainable energy systems group which is under electrical and computer engineering department TUM, thanks to my host supervisor Prof. Thomas Hamacher. I got to know about the research activities in Prof. Hamacher’s group and had a chance to discuss with his students about their upcoming micro-grid lab in the department which helped me to have a better understanding of micro-grids. I was given the freedom to carry out my own PhD research during the research visit. This was a very unique experience and would certainly like to recommend the course to all the future aspirants.
Finally I feel highly grateful for being given this wonderful opportunity to participate in the global fellows workshop and undertake a three week research visit.
As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change claims, the warming of the climate system is unequivocally supported by scientific evidence. It is a vital task of human beings to work out practical solutions and put them into real effect in this century. This year, the Imperial-Tsinghua Global Fellows Programme, co-organized by Imperial College London and Tsinghua University, focused on climate change and energy, through 5 days of intense communications and collaborations amongst early stage Ph.D. students in multiple disciplines from both universities. As a third year PhD candidate in finance, I was honoured to be part of the programme. It impressed me in three important aspects.
First, highly interactive and inspiring group challenges. We were separated into groups to take part in some well-designed interactive activities. In one, we had a simple collaborative task. It did not take long before all groups figured out an efficient way to achieve it, but suddenly, the coaches made some alterations. We soon started conversations, built up mutual trust and carried on with the task. This challenge put me in deep thought and reminded me of my own experience of joining a new research project two years ago. Such changes had put me under huge pressure but I finally managed to fit into my new surroundings. Positive communications and active adaptations are the keys to successful accommodation in a new research project with new collaborators.
Second, jargon-free academic communications. With the poster fair, we got opportunities to learn about each other’s research while improving our own presentation skills to tell research ideas to a general audience. The students are indeed from a variety of disciplines, from chemistry to electrical engineering to arts and design. I had my doubts at the very beginning over how we should present academic research to someone not in the area. But luckily, the organizers put an emphasis on “no jargon” and everyone followed it. With a finance and economics background, I found little difficulty in understanding presentations about electricity generating systems or ultrasound therapy to cure cancer. Also, I followed the very useful researcher pack provided by the programme to frame a presentation in an academic way: from the question it aims to answer, to the impact it may have, to its methodology and how it is related to climate change.
Third, remarkable collaborative research proposal presentations. For the final presentation on collaborative research, we chose teammates and came up with our own research ideas to offer possible solutions to climate change. In my team, we had one engineer, one policy research expert, one business model analyst and one financial analyst. We set up a research plan to evaluate the economic and political feasibility of substituting coal with natural gas in China’s energy consumption, via a new pipeline system. Shortly after our presentation, on July 12th, the National Development and Reform Commission in China released a report on “medium to long term plan over oil and gas pipeline system”. Although there seems to be not much causality here, we are glad that what we aimed to research into is actually what the government cares about. Other teams’ presentations were also more than great, of which a particularly interesting one was a video game incorporating data simulations about global climate change and providing players with realistic experiences of the catastrophes caused by global warming. I would definitely invest in this game if I were a venture capitalist.
All in all, the 5-day program was a most rewarding experience for me. Besides the training and academic communications, I made quite a few nice friends. I want to offer my special thanks to my teammates. They encouraged me to be bold in expressing my ideas whenever I wanted to shy away. Also I’m grateful for their company every morning when jogging around the most beautiful Easthampstead Park area.
Next July, the Ninth Imperial-Tsinghua Global Fellows Programme will be held in Tsinghua University. Looking forward to seeing you in Beijing, an enjoyable city with rich history, friendly people, tasty food and numerous places of interests to visit.
My name is Holly, I’m a second-year PhD student in the Section of Neonatal Medicine. This July I was fortunate enough to represent Imperial College at the League of European Research Universities (LERU) Doctoral Summer School, held at University of Zurich. LERU is “an association of 21 leading research-intensive universities that share the values of high-quality teaching within an environment of internationally competitive research.” The topic this year was: Citizen Science – nexus between research and public engagement. If you are scratching your heads wondering what citizen science is it can be broadly described as the involvement of non-professional scientists in research. This can range from small-scale projects like bird watching to large-scale international projects like Zooniverse (https://www.zooniverse.org) and due to the rapid boom in technologies, citizen science is becoming available to a much wider audience.
The aims of the LERU Summer School were twofold: to explore the importance of engaging citizens in research and to highlight the ethical, technical and legal issues associated with doing so. Over the week, we examined various definitions of citizen science, designed our own projects and ate a lot of cheese!
Day 1:
I had high hopes of exploring Zurich city centre before going to the LERU Welcome Event …but after my crazy experience on the Piccadilly Line at 2.30am to Heathrow, I successfully managed to sleep away my free hours in the hotel.
After a short, yet incredibly wet walk to the welcome event we were greeted by the organisers. As the evening progressed and the ‘organised fun’ became more elaborate we learnt more and more about each other including several embarrassing PhD stories!
Day 2:
Monday morning kicked off with presenting our PhD projects in the style of the ‘Three Minute Thesis’ competition. In the afternoon, we listened to two keynote speakers. Professor Bruno Strasser’s talk “The Rise of the Citizen Sciences: Rethinking Public Participation in Science” focused on whether citizen science projects will change the way we ‘do’ science (answer = yes!) Professor Effy Vayena’s talk “Citizen Science: Ethical Challenges and Opportunities” then highlighted the issues of quality, accountability, trust and autonomy.
Left: Identifying our unique selling points which ranged from being confident to thinking outside of the box. Right: One of the keynote speakers, Professor Bruno Strasser.
In the evening, we travelled to another campus – Irchel, where a Citizen Science Exhibition was running. A number of university projects were showcased (http://www.grc.uzh.ch/en/focus/exhibition/CitizenScience.html), a personal favourite of mine was a project involving citizens in mapping plant diversity around the city. The aim of this project is to show the public that the city air is filled with plant seeds that repopulate very quickly. Plant trays filled with sterilized soil are distributed to citizens and are placed somewhere in the city – the garden, in a school, on a balcony or on a roof terrace. It is then simply a waiting game! Photos of plants growing spontaneously in their trays can be uploaded to an online platform where it is possible to compare them to their neighbours or other people in the city.
After the Exhibition, we had a BBQ which stayed outside for several hours before a freak thunderstorm caused us to seek refuge inside or brave the weather with broken umbrellas and sodden shoes.
Top: Citizen Science Exhibition at Irchel Campus. Note the commissioned art on the sides of each poster – such a fab idea! Bottom Left: Agnieszka, Judi and Ray taking shelter during the monstrous thunderstorm.
Day 3:
On Tuesday, we attended one of three workshops: Improv, Storytelling or Crowdfunding. I chose Storytelling run by Dr Mirko Bischofberger, a respected filmmaker who works in science communication and science policy. The workshop was designed to improve and apply basic storytelling concepts to our scientific writing. In the evening, we went to the Uetilberg mountain for a traditional fondue dinner. Post cheese and veal, we decided to attempt the 30 min ‘walk’ (if you can call it that) down the mountain…It’s safe to say we all hurt the next day!
Left: The beginning of a very cheesy night. Right: The panoramic view from the top of Uetilberg mountain.
Day 4:
HACK DAY! Today was dedicated to working on our Citizen Science Projects. We laughed when one of the organisers said we could stay at the Graduate Campus until 11.30pm….until it got to 10.30pm and my group was still there suffering with acute cabin fever! Thankfully we managed to turn our alarm clock idea into a demo app (LetsWakeApp) in under 24 hours!
We chose to focus on an alarm app because over the last few years there has been an explosion of sleep related apps. There is however, a lack of research on the types of sounds that wake you up and how they make you feel once you’re awake. The LetsWakeApp project aims to bridge this gap in knowledge by allowing citizens to rate random alarm sounds each morning e.g. did this sound make you happy or sad? Without giving too much away, through citizen participation, machine-based learning, and some snazzy statistical methods, the app will provide the user with a personalised alarm that wakes them up in a positive mood.
The LetsWakeApp team in action.
Day 5:
After some last-minute pep talks we presented the LetsWakeApp project to a panel of judges that included the likes of Professor Deketelaere (Secretary General of LERU), Professor Kevin Schawinski (co-founder of Galaxy Zoo) and Professor Daniel Wyler (former Vice President for Medicine and Science) Despite some tough competition, our project was picked by the jury and we won 2500 CHF (£1,900), to develop our project!! In the evening, the winning teams (LetsWakeApp and AstbeSTOP – the student choice) presented at the Graduate School’s Annual Ceremony.
Left: The LetsWakeApp Team. Middle: Ray showcasing a demo of our app. Right: Shauna (L) and I (R) celebrating the LetsWakeApp win.
Day 6:
A morning city tour was met with great enthusiasm by the LERU group on our last day. Finally, after an intensive week, we could actually explore the city. Our tour guide Julian, who was as witty as he was knowledgeable, took us on a whirlwind tour. Did you know Lenin lived in Zurich for a few months after he was exiled from Russia? Apparently, he still has a Swiss bank account with 50 CHF in…
Alas like all good things, the LERU Summer School drew to a close. On reflection, I had an incredible time that I know will lead to some very exciting opportunities (keep your eyes peeled for the LetsWakeApp).
Left: The city of Zurich. Right: My first experience of a double decker tram.
by Ruth Davey – Year 2 PhD Student from Earth Science & Engineering
I signed up to the programme back in the Spring, thinking it sounded like a unique opportunity to collaborate with students from China so I was very excited to find out I’d been accepted! As the programme date drew closer however, I became bogged down with several unexpected and large workloads relating to my PhD research. I began to wonder if losing a week of research time was such a great idea. As it was, I arrived at the coach on Monday afternoon with some trepidation. My worries were quickly dispelled and, as the course evolved, it made me so aware of how much we, as PhD students, become isolated in our own research bubble. Not only within our own departments within a single institution, but also cross institutionally!
By the first evening it was clear that everyone was keen to integrate and immerse themselves into the programme, becoming a single group of like minded peers. My home team composed of four Tsinghua students from varying disciplines (Art and Design, Green Policy, Product Manufacturing and Geotechnical Engineering), plus one other Imperial student studying Electrical Engineering. Quite a diverse bunch! Each day was intense but well organised with several team-building outdoor activities that were super fun (and hilarious, we failed so badly at herding!!). These activities really helped us learn to communicate and understand each other effectively even with the obvious language barriers.
We also had time to present a poster about our own research and question the other students about theirs; the aim of this being to choose a team to collaborate with on a research proposal. This poster event was incredibly insightful. Not only did I have the chance to explain the fundamental theory behind my own research, but I also had my eyes opened to the different ways in which my peers are intend to mitigate the impacts of climate change and reduce carbon emissions. For example, I had never considered that specific trees absorb specific pollutants and that the pomegranate tree could play a key role in cleaning our air!
The course was a mixture of interactive discussion sessions, lectures, team-building activities, team evaluation, as well as self-evaluation sessions. Even though each day was full and intense, the time never dragged. We never spent too long listening to a lecture or too long doing a single activity so the mind was constantly engaged. For me personally, the feedback sessions were most constructive. I have always been vaguely aware of my instinct to jump straight into a task and just get it done. These times of self-reflection allowed me to realise that the old saying of “failure to prepare is preparing to fail” don’t just instruct exam revision or report writing but smaller, everyday tasks.
The absolute highlight of the course for me was the surprise group activity on Wednesday evening. A Tsinghua Researcher showed us Chinese traditional dancing and a group coach showed us all how they rocked it back in 17th century Britain. I have never witnessed such a combination of cultures in an academic setting before! Everyone lost their inhibitions and joined in and it was fantastic.
Working with others is such a key skill, even more so when dealing with cultures that are so expansively different. Instead of seeing it as 5 days “lost” from my individual research, I had 5 extraordinary days to work alongside some brilliant minds and pull together the different, unique strands of each person’s knowledge culminating in an innovative, exciting, collaborative research proposal. Yes, in the short term, I missed out on collecting a few new data points for my PhD project but the long-term benefits for my own personal development and cross-culture understanding, far outweigh this and I was foolish to have these doubts in the first place! I would strongly recommend this course to any PhD student. It reminded me that doing a PhD is not just about the research you produce as an individual but your self-development, your teamwork and collaboration skills and your willingness to learn and open your mind to new cultures, people and experiences.
PhD Coffee
Continuation of the Campaign
by Luke McCrone, GSU President
