Tag: escaperoom

Cross-CDT PhDs @ Escape Room

On Wednesday 13th of February 2019, the second event in the Cross-CDT series took place – a total of 14 PhD students from different 3 different CDTs gathered to face the tasks that needed to be solved. The students divided in to two teams and were required to work together to solve different puzzles in order to beat the clock (and each other), to escape and unlock their respective ‘rooms’. As this was the second of the scheduled activities, many of the students were already acquainted and were able to jump to the tasks at hand instantly.

The theme of the first room was “Project D.I.V.A” and the second, “Dark side of the moon”. Both adventures had their own unique set of fun challenges, questions and tasks which needed to be solved and which put our team work and skills of inquiry to the test. It was a welcome distraction from our PhD work and a reminder that from time to time, we also need to enjoy ourselves.

After an initial struggle both teams managed to escape their respective rooms – rooms. It was great to receive the “Mission accomplished” announcement!

Following the escape room activity, the students who still had some energy left, decided to go to the pub to reward their hard work. This gave the group the opportunity to chat and share experiences.

Overall it was a great event and we are all looking forward to the next!

We would like to extend our thanks to the Graduate School for financially supporting this cohort building activity.

Bioengineering PhDs go for an escape room and dinner!

On Saturday the 2nd of February 2019, the first-year PhDs from the Bioengineering Department went for a nice evening out, that started with an escape room followed by a nice Italian dinner.

The objective of this activity was fomenting a good relationship and friendship between the first-year PhD students from the Bioengineering Department, as we don’t all know each other despite constantly crossing each other in the hallways. We are all now starting a 3-4 year journey where these relationships are going to be invaluable, not only on a personal level but also on the professional one, as thriving engineering usually requires (besides obvious personal effort) help/knowledge from others and team effort. Now we’ll know who to ask for help if we run into a problem that it is not in our main domain or field!

The evening started at 6:25pm as we gathered in the entrance of the escape room. For some it was their first time on an escape room, while for others it was another opportunity more to prove our intellects. We randomly divided into four teams and the game masters of HintHunt London led us to the entrance of our respective rooms and introduced us into the story we were going to play: for some of us it was about stopping an embezzler from doing a transaction while for others it was about getting out of a Japanese-themed room in less than an hour. After some stress because the time was running out, through teamwork and deduction skills, all the teams managed to get out of their rooms!

After this, we walked to Franco Manca, our destination for dinner, while getting to know each other. Once there, our lovely waiters led us to two adjacent tables where we had some great burrata as a starter, delicious pizza for main, and tiramisu for dessert, all accompanied by some wine. Even our Italian peers were satisfied with the feast!

After the dinner, some decided to retreat home, tired from the evening out, while some of us decided to move the evening to a pub, where we continued to get to know each other and had a few more drinks.

The event was a total success! We had lots of fun, used our heads, filled out tummies and had an overall great night! A big thank you to the Graduate School for funding this event, we’ll be making it an annual or even semesterly event!