Blog posts

How interventions are spread: Winning second prize at the Research as Art Summer Showcase

By Sophie Spitters, PhD Student, Department of Medicine

The Imperial College London Graduate School organised their annual Summer Showcase on Friday July 13th. The showcase aims to celebrate research undertaken by PhD students at Imperial and invites staff, students and visitors to find out more about their work via a poster and a research as art exhibition. I joined the research as art exhibition, showcasing my NIHR CLAHRC NWL research, and won second prize! First prize was won by Iman Ibrahim, who demonstrated what it takes to get clean drinking water to our taps in her mandala called ‘the ripple effect’. And third prize was won by Laura Braun for her ‘sludge cake’ made from sewage, demonstrating the value of faecal waste treatment in order to return it safely to the environment as a natural fertiliser.

 

How interventions are spread

My art installation, titled ‘How interventions are spread’, aimed to communicate the reality of spreading healthcare improvement interventions, which often does not follow the expected trajectory. Healthcare improvement is often depicted as a linear straightforward process. First, a problem is identified. Then, a potential solution or intervention gets implemented in one area. Finally, if that intervention has shown to be successful, it is spread to other areas. The aim of spread in this context is to replicate the successful intervention exactly as is. Big investments are made to demonstrate that positive outcomes are linked to a particular intervention. So why change a winning formula? Why change an evidence-based intervention?

My research shows how in reality, the process of spread is a lot more complex. Evidence-based interventions often get presented as nicely packaged products with a clear step-by-step manual, not reflecting the messiness of interpersonal relationships, hard work and contextual dependencies underpinning its development. Hence, interventions do not just get picked up in one place and dropped off in another. When spreading to other areas, interventions change and develop depending on local priorities, capabilities and resources. This work is based on the spread of an allergy service improvement initiative.

I tried to communicate these issues through my art installation via two components: the video below and an interactive element encouraging people to build their own intervention with the (flawed) information and materials provided in the black box.

 

Exhibiting at the Summer Showcase

Joining the research as art competition was a great opportunity for me to communicate one of my research findings in a creative way. During the creation of the project, I realised that replicating a simple playdoh sculpture (which I used as a visual analogy) had many subtleties in common with replicating interventions in real-life quality improvement efforts. I never actually expected to see that. The Summer Showcase gave me the chance to explore these similarities and differences further with the visitors. It was great talking to people from different disciplines and different backgrounds about my research and to hear about their thoughts and insights. The art installation proved to be a great vehicle to start discussion, explore connections with people’s own experiences, and to visually demonstrate a key take home message from my research.

“Dream Today, Do Tomorrow”: Reflections from a cross-cultural, climate change-themed summer in Beijing

By Shiladitya Ghosh, 2nd Year PhD Student, Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London

In the modern day, students (especially PhD students) tend to have a crippling fear of committing to future plans because – “what if I end up needing those extra days to finish this report or do repeats for my experiments?” As the 2018 edition of the Imperial – Tsinghua Global Fellows Programme (GFP) on Climate Change and Energy drew near, I too had misgivings. Who was going to write my reports for me?!

However, a change in setting and scenery helps to calm and settle the mind – and I experienced this upon landing in Beijing in the sweltering 36°C early morning sun. Meeting other participants reassured me that we would have an enjoyable and meaningful time one way or another, away from the otherwise-incessant worries of our degrees. In fact, it turns out that several of the Imperial students were still writing their ESA (first year assessment) reports! And I thought I had problems…

When it came down to it, those 5 days completely flew by. As we formed inter-university teams and took part in various tasks, the time spent on learning to effectively communicate while also attempting to work towards common goals took up more and more of our waking moments – even infringing upon mealtimes, as we sought the cooperation of our Tsinghua colleagues in helping us identify the various sumptuous dishes on offer. In return, we also invited our counterparts to join our evening board games crusades, watching the World Cup finals late at night (it came home a little too early…), and even yoga sessions!

Considering that the aims of the programme include facilitating cultural exchange and fostering collaboration, you realise how much of that takes place (and needs to take place) outside of the official programme just as described above. Just like in a professional collaboration, everyone involved will only get the most out of it if they first take the time to understand and connect with the other parties. The actual (technical) work of the collaborative project may only be half the job – the personal connection and groundwork is the other, bigger half!

Without revealing the specifics of the course, I can confirm that there were ample opportunities for mental stimulation whether in finding ways to collaboratively tackle specific issues pertaining to climate change or global energy demands, or through introspection to understand more about themselves, what their personal strengths are and what soft skills they still can develop in. Sure, maybe not every team completed every task, but it was never about that. A line from a poem penned and presented on the final day perhaps sums up both this programme and our own PhD experiences: “It’s about the journey, not the win.”

No single activity felt like a self-contained episode; every session was connected to past and future activities. We learnt about how we function as individuals and how we can best play a role in any team we may work together in. These are very important professional capabilities that I can recommend to any graduate student to consider inculcating in themselves – unsurprisingly perhaps the reason why a GFP course is allowed to fill up the Graduate School course requirements for Imperial students prior to their ESA/LSR/final submission.

Perhaps the most important takeaway from this programme for all of us as individual specialists in our own particular fields was that it opened our eyes and minds to the potential of every discipline to play a significant part in a concerted effort to tackle climate change. My accelerated project team (水星 or shuǐ xīng; Water from the Stars) and cultural exchange team (Imperial Dragons) consisted of members with backgrounds in fluid hydraulics, meteorology, energy storage, membrane technologies, art and systems design, signals monitoring, and cancerology (medicine).

I’d never have expected students in most of those areas to have much of a professional interest in, or even having a way to meaningfully contribute towards, solving the world’s biggest problem lying ahead – but by the end of the week, I had never been happier to have been so wrong in my life.

To everyone reading: thank you for your time reading this. For each person that makes it to this page, that’s one more person that has at least the slightest interest and curiosity about playing a part in tackling climate change. And from what I’ve learnt this summer – no matter what your academic background is, we want and need every single one of you onboard!

Imperial College squad!
Panel discussion
Boat trip
Finale!
Finals!

Our experience organising SciFun

Inception

A couple of us postgraduate students came together and decided that it will be a great idea to have a mini-conference-type event within the department that could foster learning and networking. There are immensely valuable resources available within the department, with subject matter experts and we thought it would be great to capitalise on that and get these experts to share their experiences in characterisation techniques with the postgraduates.

Event

Since the purpose of the event was to foster learning and networking, it was necessary to have a social event to it as well. Ultimately, we managed to secure 6 speakers to share on characterisation techniques. This was followed by a 5 minute PhD pitch competition opened to all PhD students. We felt that this was a good addition to the event as it allowed students to share their work instead of being a single-faceted event where students were just taking in information. Most of the talks were followed by lively Q&A which fostered learning.
We ended the event with the networking dinner which allowed for more in-depth conversations on topics that was shared during the talks as well as opportunities for further collaborations. More importantly, it was a good chance for people from different groups within the department to gather and get to know each other.

Conclusions

SciFun is a student-initiated event targeted at PhD students which leveraged on the resources within the department. We had a lot of fun planning the event and more importantly, many found the event useful for learning as well as intra-department networking. We are happy that the event was a success and it would not have been possible without the help of our speakers and the attendees. It was our pleasure that we could bring people together for an enjoyable Friday evening of learning and fun.

Eduardo, the winner of the PhD competition during his pitch, and him receiving the prize, a £20 amazon voucher!

 

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.

Inter-group Bowling Event 2018

by Adrian Brown, Investigative Medicine

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!

Connections and Collaborations: The Global Fellows Programme on Cities of the Future. Charishma Ratnam, PhD Candidate, University of New South Wales Australia

by Charishma Ratnam, PhD Candidate, University of New South Wales, Australia

Introduction

It is becoming a household statistic: by 2050, 66% of the world’s population will live in cities[1]. This statistic holds much value for me as I pursue my research on migration (specifically in regard to refugees and asylum seekers) and how migrants settle in places. When I was given the opportunity to apply for the Global Fellows Programme: Cities of the Future with this year’s focus on health and well-being, this statistic resonated with me even more. The current state and future of our big cities has become contentious, and the programme was able to offer a space for interdisciplinary discussions to take place.

The Global Fellows Programme was held from June 10 to 15, 2018 at the Velodrome, Olympic Park, London, a place that saw much victory for England in the 2012 Olympics. Before arriving in London, each participant was placed in a team, and each team was allocated a theme for the week: health, mobility/transport, smart data/interconnectivity, housing, and business/infrastructure. These themes would form the framework for our project ideas and pitches. On entering the Velodrome, I was excited by the opportunity and motivation, as I saw the cyclists making their way around the track. The first day was about meeting and connecting with the group and the teams we were placed in. The most challenging task of the day: coming up with a team name. Our team (after much deliberation) settled on ‘The Lazy Foxes’! Lazy, defining some of the members of our group, and foxes, being the clever strategies and initiative we would take throughout the week. The second day tested our teamwork skills, where we undertook five fast-paced team-building exercises, followed by a period of reflection. After these team-building exercises, there were several outings that took place for the rest of the week. A few highlights included a visit to The Crystal – one of the world’s most sustainable buildings by Siemens, showcasing an exhibition about the future of cities – next to London Royal Docks, the Emirates Cable Car trip to North Greenwich where we were able to see the scale of redevelopments occurring in East London, and a visit to Imperial’s new White City campus.

After absorbing all the information delivered to us, we were left to our own devices. Although overwhelming and challenging, my team managed to come up with a concrete idea that focused on business and infrastructure. I gained important experience and knowledge from this collaborative process. Working together with other interdisciplinary, inter-institutional and international PhD researchers, academics and industry professionals meant that we learned a lot from each other. Delivering our final team pitch was a highlight for me – we were given feedback from a range of academics and industry professionals from different fields.

I would encourage PhD researchers to apply for similar professional development opportunities when they are offered. I was able to build networks, collaborations and connections with participants in the programme, and also benefit from the professional/personal development, team-building skills and interdisciplinary exchanges. I have gained a wider perspective on research that engages with the cities of our future, and I am interested in expanding on this area of concern further with the new friends, collaborators and research networks I have fostered at the Global Fellows Programme on Cities of the Future.

[1] https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/publications/files/wup2014-highlights.pdf.

Photos

UNSW PhD researchers (L to R): Malshika Dias, Henrique Benites and Charishma Ratnam and UNSW Visiting Researcher Daniel Lu (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore).
Cycling track at the Velodrome, Olympic Park, London.
View of East London redevelopments from the Emirates Cable Car from Emirates Royal Docks to North Greenwich.
My team that worked on a business and infrastructure idea for the week (L to R): Stephanie Hewitt (ICL), Kahar Abula (TUM), Charishma Ratnam (UNSW), Heba Awadh (ICL), Clare Hunt (ICL), Shreyash Hadke (NTU), Mayu Sakuma (TUM), Mudussir Ayub (TUM), and Christopher Voss (TUM).

 

Rising Scientist Day

by Anwar Sayed, PhD student in the Department of Medicine

The Department of Medicine celebrated another successful Rising Scientist Day event following on from last year’s success. Rising Scientist Day is aimed at all PhD research students within the Department of Medicine. The event was held at the Wolfson Education Suite with 57 posters submitted and displayed both in the Café Area and the break-out space.

Andy Pritchard, Technician, Faculty of Medicine Centre, took many wonderful photographs of the day: here (above and below) we can see the research students explaining aspects of their research and posters to the judges and attendees.

Following the poster presentation sessions and refreshments, everyone went up to Lecture Theatre II for the welcome by Professor Kevin Murphy, Director of Postgraduate Studies (Research). Then the 3 minute thesis presentations began. There were presentations from 12 PhD Students representing the Sections of Virology, Brain Sciences, Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Immunology, Genomics, Microbiology, Haematology and Experimental Medicine. After the presentations there were talks given by the following Post Doctorate Researchers:

1. Dr Claire Byrne, Research Associate, Department of Medicine. Dr Claire Byrne was a PhD in the Department of Medicine, her research interests are in “The role of colonic short chain fatty acid production in appetite regulation and how they signal to the brain” and “The impact of spices and herb consumption on the composition and activity of the colonic microbiota and establishing a potential gut-brain signal”.
2. Dr Myrsini Kaforou, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Medicine. Dr Myrsini Kaforou was also a PhD in the Department of Medicine, received a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship on “understanding and diagnosing infectious diseases using multi-level ‘omics data”.
3. Dr Michal Barski, Research Associate Department of Medicine. Dr Michal Barski’s research is in structural biology and biochemistry of retroviral integration. Dr Michal Barski offered his help again after last year and the Department is very grateful for this.
4. Dr Alex Thompson, Research Fellow, Department of Medicine. Dr Alex Thompson completed his PhD in the Physics Department at Imperial College London. Dr Alex Thompson is now a Research Fellow investigating the use of optical spectroscopy as a tool for non – invasive assessment of gut health.

The Post Docs gave honest and insightful briefs into their journey from PhD to their current posts.

The audience was comprised of PhD students, Post Docs, Academics and Administrative staff. The Presenters were engaging and did very well answering questions about their research.

The process was very competitive. Prizes were awarded as follows:
For the poster presentation:
Helen Groves in 1st place for – “The impact of respiratory infections on the gut microbiota”.
Nathalie MacDermott in 2nd place for – “A GWAS in West Africa: early serological evidence for a genetic susceptibility to Ebola virus disease.”
Hannah Maude in 3rd place for – “Type 2 Diabetes risk loci regulate nuclear encoded mitochondrial genes.”

For the 3 minute Thesis competition
Hannah Maude 1st place for – “Type 2 Diabetes risk loci regulate nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes.”
Maria Lucey 2nd place for – “Food for Thought: Inhibiting Appetite with Prokineticin”
Michael Ankcorn 3rd pace for – “Identification, diagnosis and management of persistent hepatitis E virus infection.”

Professor Kevin Murphy presenting Hannah Maude with the First Prize for the 3 minute Thesis Competition

Rising Scientist Day concluded with a drinks & crisps reception which provided a great opportunity for students to network with one another. The Post Docs Speakers also attended the reception making themselves available to any questions. These types of events are extremely important to the Department of Medicine as they enable us to bring our Research Students together from all of the different sections and campuses.
In conclusion I would like to thank everyone involved (a special thanks to Professor Kevin Murphy for devoting all day to this event) for their valuable time and note that Rising Scientist Day would not have been possible without the generous support of the Graduate School.
We are looking forward to next year’s Rising Scientist Day!