Tag: Graduate School

12th-15th September 2019 – Synthetic Biology Snowdonia Retreat

Successful early and late stage PhD assessment submissions mean only one thing… escape from the fast pace of University life is required. In mid-September, a dozen graduate students from the Centre of Synthetic Biology packed their bags and made their way to the beautiful and dramatic mountains of Snowdonia National Park in North Wales for a long weekend away from the city. The purpose of the trip was for the current graduate students to bond over some of the UK’s best hikes, while also spending some quality time with some of the 2019 master’s students before they leave Imperial to do their own thing, ensuring long lasting connections.

On the first day, they climbed the largest and most formidable mountain (in Wales), Snowdon. The unpredictable weather of the British Isles managed to hold out, and they all made it up, taking many stops along the way to absorb the magnificence of the Welsh outdoors. The day was finished off in one of the seemingly infinite number of awesome pubs Wales had to offer, to refuel and numb the aching legs.

(Top left) The hut on the north eastern edge of Snowdonia National Park. (Top middle) There were a lot of bugs in the bedrooms. Modern problems require modern solutions. (Top right) Hiking up the Pyg track to the top of Snowdon. (Bottom left) “Candid” photo opportunity overlooking llyn llydaw. (Bottom middle) Getting a quick group photo at the summit of Snowdon before the cloud came in. (Bottom right) Who?

On the second day, they made their way to the quaint village of Beddgelert, where one group took a peaceful walk through the valley, past waterfalls, and around Llyn Dinas. The other group took on the challenge of the Moel Hebog loop, where the majority of the conversation was predicting the incline of the slope (between heavy breaths). That evening, they headed back to the hut to cook up a feast and to play board games.

Before heading back to London life, they made one last trip to one of the most picturesque lakes in Snowdonia, Llyn Idwal. Although luck had run out on the weather, the mist that slowly drifted past only added to the enchantment of the lake.

(Top left) It wouldn’t be a trip to Wales without at least one dragon themed bench. This one was well and truly conquered. (Top middle) Scrambling up the steep slopes of Moel Hebog was especially challenging. (Top right) Summiting Moel yr Ogof. The clouds had all cleared and celebrations got out of control. (Bottom left) With low visibility it wasn’t obvious some paths led to a wet ending. (Bottom middle) Walking around the beautiful Llyn Idwal. (Bottom right) The result of 3 long days of hiking. Maybe another retreat is needed?

Overall, the trip was a great success. A fantastic bonding experience for the graduate students and a well needed refresher before heading into the next academic year. Thursday to Sunday turned out to be the ideal length of time to enjoy a variety of the walks Snowdonia has to offer. 12 people was also the perfect number of people in regard to transport (minibus), accommodation, eating out, and organising the day trips. The Synthetic Biology summer retreat will definitely be a new annual tradition!

Thank you to the Graduate School for agreeing to sponsor this event.

Key locations in Snowdonia National Park.

 

Year 1 PhD student ESA rehearsal & social

With the help of funding from the Graduate School, we put on a seminar and social event for first year PhD students based at the St Mary’s campus. Given that most first year PhD students have their early stage assessments due in June and July, we wanted to create an event where we could share our research and improve our presentation skills in a relaxed and friendly environment. Additionally, we hoped that the event would help us get to know each other and to develop a supportive network of peers throughout our PhDs.

The first part of the event started in the afternoon and consisted of a seminar hosted by Professor Wendy Barclay. All first year students and their supervisors were invited to attend, resulting in a small and friendly group of roughly 20 people. Each student gave a 10-minute talk followed by 5 minutes of questions. Topics ranging from Bioinformatics, diagnostic tools, mechanisms of viral infection and vaccines were covered, stimulating some interesting questions and discussions. Understandably, we were all nervous, however the talks were all fantastic and we found it a very positive experience. It helped everyone to gain confidence in their presenting abilities, which will undoubtedly help our ESAs.

The afternoon seminar was followed by a social event in the evening to which all staff and postgraduates at the campus were invited. The Graduate School funding helped to buy plenty of pizza from Dominos and a selection of drinks and nibbles, which went down well with everyone attending. Everybody mixed, met new people, and chatted around food and drinks; it was an excellent opportunity to meet other people who work within the building, which doesn’t happen often at St Mary’s.

Overall, the event was a big success. As first year PhD students, this was the first time we had all come together and properly talked to the people we had previously just occasionally passed by around the building. The presentations were a great opportunity to share our achievements so far and get a feel for our upcoming ESAs. It is also reassuring to know that we now have a base upon which to build friendships and the supportive relationships that will help us through the PhD experience together. Once the nerves of the presentations were over, it was great to relax and chat over pizza and beer. We are also glad that we extended the social event to all people at St Mary’s: the network of high-security corridors make it difficult to mix on a daily basis, and events like this are a great way to build collaborative relationships between the different sections and groups here.

Thanks to the Graduate School for providing the funding to make such an event possible.

Also, thanks to Wendy Barclay for coming up with the idea for the event and Magda Homa for helping with the organisation.

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.

The Future of the Graduate Students’ Union – a Note From Your President

by Luke McCrone, GSU President

Getting Started…….

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

ICL-TUM Global Fellows Programme 2017

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.

ICL-TUM Global Fellows Programme 2017

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.

 

A Multi-Disciplinary Communication on Climate Change and Energy

By Dapeng Chen,

Tsinghua University

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.

“East meets West to Combat Climate Change!” Imperial College – Tsinghua University Global Fellows Programme

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.

Three-Minute Thesis: From Contestant to Judge

By Sophie Damy

Summer seems to have finally arrived in London and it is hard not to start thinking about the holidays. Imagine, in a few weeks, going back home to visit your family and having to answer the recurring question: “What is it exactly that you are researching?” In my case, I can categorically forget the usual “I am developing algorithms to minimise the bias created by deterministic errors on the position estimated by a satellite-based positioning system.” You will need to keep your explanation clear and concise while trying to share your enthusiasm.

This situation is actually pretty similar to the 3-minute thesis competition! The rules are simple: one static slide, no prop and most importantly, strictly three minutes (timed to the second) to convince a diverse audience of the interest and importance of your research.

Preparing for the departmental competition two years ago, the exercise revealed itself more challenging than I first expected. Three minutes is very short. It forces you to select the essential facts and present them so that they are clearly connected. All this while dismissing the scientific jargon you are so used to employ. In the end, and despite being only three minutes long, this presentation took a long time to prepare.

But these efforts were rewarded and I got selected to represent the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the College 3 minute competition with 18 other students, representing over 10 departments and institutes. That was a total of 57 minutes of diverse and captivating research! But to be honest, while sitting and waiting for my turn to come, these were actually quite stressful minutes.

Fortunately for me, the jury shared my frustration with signal failures and delayed trains and the idea I developed to solve the issue and awarded me the first prize for my presentation “Bringing train travel to the space age!” It was a great honour, especially as the competition was tenacious with a flurry of interesting and entertaining talks.

One of the great things about receiving the first prize is that you are invited back next year, but this time you get to sit on the other side of the table, as a member of the jury! Admittedly, this is a much more pleasant place to be with a fraction of the stress despite the importance of the duty. This year, 23 candidates are waiting to present their research. As each approaches the front of the room, I think of all the work they have done to prepare for these three minutes. The more effortless the presentation appears, the more likely the preparation was rigorous. Thanks to the Graduate School organisation, the event runs like clockwork! The enthusiasm and passion of each candidate for their research are tangible and highly contagious, and the afternoon just flies by.

The time for the deliberations arrives. With so many original ideas and presentations, it takes four judges to make the difficult decision in selecting the three winners. But all presenters should be very proud today, they did an amazing job. I have learnt so much this afternoon and in such an entertaining way!

One thing is clear after having experienced both ‘sides’ of the table: the general public is curious about science and researchers are happy to explain their work. And I believe the 3-minute thesis competition may actually be the best format to fulfil expectations from both sides in an enjoyable way!

Top left: Chief Judge, Rosie Waldron, me and 3MT Chair, Professor