Category: Master’s Students

Women in Physics Go Ice Skating

Tuesday 4th of December saw 61 Physics Student go ice skating at the Natural History Museum. The event organised by the Women in Physics group and open to all genders was aimed at building a cohort of open-minded students promoting gender equality in STEM.

The event was a huge success! After Meeting in Blackett at 16:15, tickets were distributed and the group set off to the ice rink. Seasoned regulars provided tuition for the less confident, with everyone making huge progress during the hour. After some fun, some photos, and a few tumbles, the group headed upstairs to warm up, claim the free drink and share skating stories.

The Ice Skating was very popular, with lots of mingling between different cohorts, across years and research groups. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with 61 requests for a repeat again next year. Thank you to the Graduate School for funding the tickets, and to all the participants for making it such a fun evening!

British Isles Graduate Workshop: Singularities and symplectic topology

The second edition of the British Isles Graduate Workshop took place on Jersey Island between the 14th and the 20th July. The mission of the workshop was to bring together a group of around thirty international graduate students with experienced researchers, to participate in a five-day mathematically intense exploration of a focused topic in an area of current research. The informal environment and the joyful and collaborative atmosphere was the key of its success.

A challenging project

Three years ago, Andrea, one of the organisers of BIGW, was just returning to London from an exciting conference, and was sharing his enthusiasm for it. Listening to his stories, we were tantalized by the idea of designing our own workshop: it would have had a special focus on PhD students, encouraging exchanges and sharing of knowledge. Since we were looking for a venue far from distractions, but at the same time welcoming, regenerating, and suitable to host participants coming from all over the world, we chose to organize it on one of the British isles. The first meeting took place on the Isle of Wight in April 2017. After the first successful experience, we decided to repeat it on the island of Jersey. The organization was challenging but very instructive. In particular, we have always felt the encouragement and the support of the London School of Geometry and Number Theory, and of our affiliated institutions, Imperial College London and University College London.

An original format

A typical day on Jersey Island started with informal math discussion over breakfast and finished late by night with some participants still filling whiteboards with computations and drawings. We used to have four scheduled talks per day, the majority of which delivered by junior speakers, and evening discussion sessions. In the after lunch break many people took the opportunity to have a swim or explore the island.

All the participants had an active role in the workshop. Everybody was responsibility for the progress of the group during the week. Both young and senior participants were very kind, approachable and keen to interact or help.

In the British academic landscape, this workshop stands out for the unique focus on PhD students.

A remote venue

In the free time we had the opportunity to discover the beaches of Jersey all together, explore the cliff of the beautiful and sunny island and admire the impressive tide in the Channel. Our cosy venue was Durrell Hostel, in the kingdom of the celebrated conservationist Gerald Durrell. Free entrance to the zoo was included!

International participants

The workshop was attended by PhD students and members of the most renowned universities all over the world. The total number of participants was 32, including 2 organisers and 3 senior speakers. Among them, 13 attendees were UK based: 7 from the London School of Geometry and Number theory, 1 from London, 2 from Cambridge, and 3 from Oxford. The other 19 non-UK-based participants came from US (17), Portugal (1), and Russia (1).

We are particularly proud of the large participation of women to the workshop: the percentage of female participants reached the 47%, largely above the average.

Future

The long-term aim of the workshop is to create an international network of PhD students. Hopefully, the workshop helped to develop a common language and lay the basis of future collaborations. It was a unique opportunity to tie professional bounds with colleagues all around the world in a friendly and informal environment. We strongly believe that this warm atmosphere can enhance the exchange of ideas.

Comments of the participants

We received enthusiastic feedback from the attendees:

There was a lot of time for us to discuss (or take walks) and the atmosphere was very open to discussions.

The people were so friendly and fun! Everyone was just so cool. I already want a reunion!

The math was super-interesting. I’ve never been to a workshop which made me so much more interested in different flavours of math.

Very interesting topics, excellent organization.

Great atmosphere: easy to interact, discuss math, and make good friends.

Acknowledgement

We express our gratitude to the Research Community Fund and the Graduate School at Imperial College London for helping to support this initiative. We thank also our sponsors: the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Geometry and Number Theory, Foundation Compositio Mathematica, G-research, and the European Research Council (European Union’s Horizon 2020, research grant agreement No 682603).

Welcome from the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU)

by Ute Thiermann, GSU President 2018/19

I am delighted to welcome you to Imperial College! Let me introduce you to the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU). We are the representative body defending your interests as a post-graduate student in major decisions taken by the College. Beyond that, we work towards building a thriving post-graduate community that spans faculties and where students effectively communicate in an interdisciplinary way. Our committee is comprised by motivated post-graduate students like yourself, who have been appointed in university-wide elections and volunteer to make your experience at Imperial as fulfilling and enjoyable as possible.

So, what are we up to for this coming year 2018/19? We are going to focus on three major areas of action:

  • Continue improving post-graduate well-being by increasing the quality of supervision and by creating strategies to tackle common mental health challenges in higher education.
  • Develop the GSU to become central to the post-graduate community by improving the two-way flow of information, between the GSU and you.
  • Organise exciting events around the topics of well-being, interdisciplinary research, and entrepreneurship.

As the GSU president, I would like to emphasise that Imperial College London is relying on its post-graduate students to maintain its position as a front-runner in world-class research and teaching. For us, the GSU, to be successful we need to receive as much of your input as possible. We want to work with you, for you!

Finally, I hope that you have a fantastic time here at Imperial and take advantage of the richness of opportunities that awaits you. If ever you have questions or ideas to share with us, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us and we are looking forward to seeing you at our events!

Ute Thiermann, GSU President 2018/19

gsu.president@imperial.ac.uk

Infectious Diseases and Immunity “The Bench and Beyond” Career Talks and Summer Party!

By Grace Birch and Kristin Krohn Huse, PhD students in Infectious Diseases and Immunity

On Thursday June 28th, the postgraduate representatives for the Section of Infectious Diseases and Immunity hosted a series of talks on careers entitled “The Bench and Beyond” followed by a summer party for the entire section, to celebrate the arrival of summer and provide a more laidback opportunity to network between research groups.

After identifying a lack of speakers in careers outside of traditional bench science at other career sessions, speakers with connections to the section from a wide variety of careers were invited to attend. Some of the speakers had previously completed their PhDs or Post Docs in the section of Infectious Diseases and Immunity or currently work within the section. The talks were well attended, including not just students from our own section but also some from outside the department as we decided to advertise the talks to all Department of Medicine postgraduate students. Feedback from students was very positive, and one of the speakers even remarked that they had learned something!

Talks were kicked off by Dr Mick Jones, Reader in Molecular Medicine and the current section cohort leader for IDI, who highlighted how sometimes a research career doesn’t always go to plan but works out in the end. Following that, Dr Katherine Fox described her work as a Policy Officer at the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the challenges of consulting on science policies in the current post-Brexit environment. Dr Zoe Seager explained her role as the Vaccines Programme Officer at the Wellcome Trust and emphasised the importance of embracing and making opportunities for yourself. Dr Debra Smith then took us on the journey of how her career brought her to work as Senior IP and Commercial Research Manager at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust. Finally, Dr Stephanie Ascough, who did her PhD in the section and has now returned by way of The Gambia and Pirbright, wrapped up the talks by stressing how it is essential to choose a job which allows you to maintain and pursue your own personal goals and values.

Following the talks, the entire section of Infectious Diseases and Immunity was invited for drinks and nibbles provided by the Graduate School Research Community Fund. Everyone always appreciates a chance to chat away from the lab coats and computers, especially as it had been nearly seven months since the last time we had an opportunity to come together like this.

We think the event was incredibly successful, and thank the Graduate School for their support. Hopefully section events such as this will continue to be held in the future!

Workshop on Advanced Topics in Complex Networks

A large amount of the research carried out at Imperial College is highly interdisciplinary in nature. The field of Network science is no exception to this. “Network scientists” study the behaviour of complex interconnected systems which are often represented mathematically by graphs or complex networks. Examples of these systems include: social networks, transportation networks, such as the London Underground, and even the vast network of neurons in our own brains. The disadvantage of working in such a multidisciplinary field is that individuals performing similar research can often become scattered across different departments in the college without any idea that others working on similar issues exist! Imperial College’s Networks Networking group was created as a way of bringing together those working on graph theory, complex networks and related subjects in different departments.

On Wednesday the 23rd of May Imperial College’s Networks Networking group held a workshop entitled Advanced Topics in Complex Networks which was funded and supported by Imperial College Graduate School’s research community fund . The aim of the event was twofold. Firstly, it was an opportunity for PhD students and early career researchers to gain some insight into the “state of the art” mathematical tools being employed by researchers in the area. Secondly, it was to provide a networking opportunity for those in the field. The event was attended by roughly 3040 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from Imperial College working on a variety of topics. Attendees came from a range of departments including Ecology (Silwood park campus), Physics, Mathematics and even Economics meaning that the event was truly interdisciplinary.

Imperial College’s mathematics department who are both active researchers in the field of graphs and complex networks. Professor Barahona spoke about “highdimensional
data, graph embeddings and multiscale community detection” while Dr Colijn gave a talk entitled “Comparing tree with new metrics and features: applications in evolution and infectious
disease.” Both talks explored ideas that related to the analysis of large graph data sets and also gave insight into how techniques from machine learning are beginning to creep into
network science as well. The talks were followed by a break for lunch which provided an opportunity for the attendees to network with researchers and discuss any questions raised
in more detail.

The first talk of the afternoon was given by Professor Reimer Kühn, a Professor in mathematics at King’s College London. His talk entitled “Spectra of Random Stochastic
Matrices and Relaxation in Complex Networks” gave details of the mathematical machinery which can employed of study graph spectra. This is an important topic in applied network
science where researchers are often interested in dynamical processes unfolding on graphs. These may include: the spread of disease, models of opinion formation or perhaps the
synchronization of stations in power grids. The final talk of the day was from Dr Cornelia Metzig, a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College who gave a talk concerning her recent
research on dynamic network models. This provided an opportunity to learn about the type of questions that practicing researchers in network science are trying to answer.

In future the Networks Networking group intends to organise more events for the benefit of researchers at Imperial working in network science and graph theory. These meeting will
allow individuals working in the area to keep up to date with the latest research and potentially to foster collaboration.

St. Mary’s Summer Party

St. Mary’s Campus does not really have a common room where students from different research groups get to know each other. Trying to break down the barrier, there was a Christmas party organised for all students working in the Medical School Building. Based on the huge success and numerous thank yous for organising this party, we decided to put together another party. A summer party this time, with the presence of the British summer drink of choice: Pimm’s with fresh fruit.

Besides Pimm’s, we provided prosecco, two kinds of beer, non-alcoholic bubbles and lots of water thanks to the Graduate School Cohort Building Fund, who sponsored this event. Because of the high temperatures, everything was kept cool with ice and people could enjoyed a cold beer, refreshing prosecco or the very popular Pimm’s. At 5 pm on Tuesday 22nd of May 2018, everything was ready to receive guests in the Committee room on the ground floor of the Medical Building at St. Mary’s Campus. Drinks were cold, some nibbles were on the tables and Bill Nye the Science Guy started explaining science on screen.

Within 5 minutes the first people showed up to start celebrating summer and looking for those people they talked to last time. Several people thanked us for organising even before they got their drinks. By starting at 5 pm, we managed to catch the people with families before they went home and we also got people that work late by having the party still going at 7 pm. People from the School of Public Health, Virology, Respiratory Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Paediatrics all showed up. Master students joined the party as well and could casually ask those questions about PhDs they did not want to ask in the lab.

At 8.30 pm it was time to start cleaning up and everyone that was still hanging around helped out by throwing out trash, collecting glasses and bottles, and cleaning the tables. Within 15 minutes, all signs of a party were gone. I’m already looking forward to the next one!

A Traditional Scottish Affair!

A Traditional Scottish Affair!

ESE PhD’s visit a Scottish Ceilidh Dance for Burns Night

The Graduate Society of the Earth Science & Engineering Department organised a trip to the most famous Ceilidh House in London – Cecil Sharp House – in order to celebrate Burns Night. The evening began with students mingling at Imperial College, giving us the chance to unwind after a hard week at work. We then donned our dancing shoes and headed up to Cecil Sharp House in North London for a wonderful evening filled of traditional Scottish dancing.

For those unfamiliar with Ceilidh dancing, this involves a speaker or “caller” who outlines the dance steps for each dance, some with English roots, some more Irish or Scottish but most involving a fair amount of twirling, promenading and galloping! Many dances involve partners or sets of 4 or 8 – as such it was such a fantastic opportunity for PhD students to get to know each other in a fun and relaxed environment, away from the grind of work. The speaker is accompanied by a live band that usually consists of fiddles, flutes, keyboards and violins but also more old school pieces such as the hurdy-gurdy or the accordion!

Similar to line dancing, which is style of dancing associated with the US, Ceilidh dancing as we know it today originated as literary entertainment and “reeling” dances. It was used as a chance for young couples to meet and court, celebrate events such as weddings and keep people occupied during the long winter nights in Scotland. Steeped in history, and even more relevant being held on Burns Night, Grad Soc was able to sprinkle a little culture and history on the ESE PhD students and a fun (and sweaty!) night was had by all.

The live band and speaker generated an exuberant atmosphere, encouraging everyone to get up and dance regardless of ability. We threw ourselves in with gusto. Not only was it a great chance to get to know each other outside of work but it was a great opportunity for international students to get involved in a traditional aspect of British Culture. All the students who grew up outside of the UK and attended the event said they enjoyed submerging themselves in an aspect of British tradition that was previously unknown to them.

We are extremely grateful for the Graduate School for funding the subsidy of 30 Ceilidh tickets, reducing the price from £17 to £7 per person. As PhD students, it’s so important to get involved in activities outside of work and have the chance to shake off the stress of PhD life whilst also navigating the difficult financial waters that is living in London.

Master’s 3.60 – An Opportunity for Public Engagement

by Rosie Dutt, MRes student in the Department of Chemistry

Within academia, each individual is working diligently towards their research aims. It is fair to say there have been many nights where some may be working tirelessly to fix a programming code, whilst others ponder over why their reaction series has not worked. Eventually, we reach the end of our research once our scientific questions have been fully explored, with the aim of a publication into a prestigious scientific journal. However, this results in our work being read by our peers within the field, and on some occasions, by individuals with allied interests into the research area – but seldom by the general public.

This is unfortunate, as most the research conducted at Imperial – and indeed around the world – has significant impact, not only in academia, but also to society, the economy and the environment. Consequently, there has been a lot of emphasis recently to engage individuals outside the discipline and to raise awareness as to how the current research can impact them. I believe the Master’s 3.60 competition endeavoured to do just this, within Imperial itself!

The Competition

This was the second year of the cross-departmental initiative across all the master’s courses at Imperial. The first phase required students to submit a single slide detailing the background, methods and impact of their research; alongside a recording describing their study within 2 minutes. The process of preparing the submission required us to command a detailed understanding of what our research entailed, in order to get the key points across. Hereafter, 16 individuals were selected as finalists, including myself!

The second phase required us to present our research within 3 minutes, to an audience of our peers, and a panel of judges, with the aid of 4 slides. The slides were split such that there was now one for each aspect of the requirements (introduction, background, method and impact). Finalist were required to present in succession of each other, with judges ensuring the 3-minute rule was adhered too. When the results were announced I was awarded second place!

My Experience

My research is in partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital and focuses on investigating traumatic brain injuries in children, to see how this results in structural, functional and cognitive brain changes – as assessed by imaging techniques and neuropsychological assessments. Preparing for the competition required me to assess what I had done, how I had done it, and the impact it would have on society, the economy and academia itself. This allowed me to identify key aspects of my research, and succinctly deliver it in a manner which was accessible to all.

Whilst preparing for the presentation, I attended a Mastering Presentation Skills workshop run by Dr Helal Ahmed. This required contestants to practice their presentations alongside each other and obtain feedback. I found this exercise extremely useful, as I was able to learn more about what further skills needed to be showcased, that being: confidence, enthusiasm, clarity, accessibility and relatability. I also took the opportunity to present in front of my research group, who provided feedback on how to better the presentation.

Personally, the competition helped me to develop my presentation skills by honing in on being as concise as possible; since conveying research conducted over 8 months, in 3 minutes, was quite a task. This has no doubt helped me with the structure of writing my manuscript and to focus on the application, and wider impact of the study. Furthermore, this was a great opportunity to communicate science, develop public engagement skills, and represent our respective departments.

Having a strong interest in science communication myself, I was very excited to hear about the research conducted by my peers. It was truly inspiring to see the amount of impactful research that was occurring within Imperial. Thus, I would recommend everyone to apply to the competition as it is a great way to start thinking about your research in a wider context, develop your confidence and presentation skills, as well as learn about the great research occurring within the university.

Cross CDT Reunion at Karaoke @ “The Star of Kings”

by Martin Prießner, PhD researcher in the Department of Chemistry

On the 3rd of March was the first official Reunion of the Cross-CDT Cohort 2016/17 after the winter break. For this occasion, 15 CDT students from 3 different CDT programmes (CDT Neurotechnology, CDT HiPEDs, CDT Mathematics of Planet Earth) came together to experience an enjoyable night at the famous Karaoke Bar “The Star of Kings” close to St. Pancras Station.

The evening started with a cosy dinner where everyone could catch up what has happened for each of the different PhD students after they have successfully finished their MRes in autumn the year before. After everyone was finished with eating their dinner-burgers or chips, the time had come to prove musicality by at the Karaoke machine. Throughout the night several different music genres were explored. Songs like “500 miles” from The Proclaimers, “Slim Shady” from Eminem and “Let it go” from the Movie Frozen were not missing in the repertoire of their passionate karaoke performance.

After 3 hours of extensive singing, “The Star of Kings” bar offered a free professional performance of the famous Drag-Queen Westend musical performer (“Everybody’s Talking About Jamie”) where everyone was able to admire an unforgettable show performance.

A special thanks goes to the Graduate School of Imperial College London which financially supported this cohort building activity.

Some impressions of this unforgettable reunion you can see here in this movie: https://photos.app.goo.gl/NGpXs9siFalUVKMP2

And in the following pictures:

Flowers Building Wine and Cheese Party, Jan 2018

The Flowers Building Wine and Cheese Party was hosted on the 11th January by the CMBI Postgraduate Student Committee (CPG) and was funded by the Graduate School’s Research Community Fund. As well as washing away some post-holiday January blues this event provided an excellent opportunity for postgraduates both old and new to become fully engaged within the CMBI community. Around 40 postgraduates and postdoctoral researchers from the Departments of Medicine and Life Sciences attended and mingled in this informal setting.
The evening was guest hosted by James, an experienced wine expert previously of the Humble Grape wine bars, who guided us through comparisons of Old-World and New-World whites and reds and provided much highly appreciated wine trivia. The cheese was duly demolished long before the port appeared and we can report that the crowd favourite was a Swiss Mont d’Or “Winter-Cheese”.
The event definitely succeeded at its primary aim of providing research students the space and opportunity to integrate with peers across all floors and research groups as well as meet postgraduate researchers. We believe that events like this will continue encouraging cohort building and development of an integrated CMBI identity as research students will get to both expand their social circles and increase the diversity of research within them. We also hope that this event will help encourage attendance at our more regular CPG events including our monthly student-led research seminars, which provide an opportunity for students to practice presentations in an informal setting.

The CPG would like to thank the Graduate School once again for making the evening possible and we encourage others to make use of this excellent resource.