Tag: networking

St. Mary’s Christmas Party 2018

by Inne Nauwelaers, PhD student at the National Heart and Lung Institute

On Wednesday, 12th of December 2018, students at St. Mary’s School of Medicine building got together for the second building-wide party. Thanks to the financial aid of the Graduate School, we were able to organise a Christmas party, bringing people together from every department at this campus: the School of Public Health, Virology, Respiratory medicine, Infectious Diseases and Paediatrics.

The reason we took the initiative and wanted to bring everyone together, is due to the fact that there is no communal space for people to gather and therefore interaction between departments is often limited.

This Christmas party brought students from different departments together and made it so much easier to start talking to each other. We decorated the room, putting up a ‘fire place’ and turned on some Christmas music. The relaxed atmosphere, along with the wine, beer, mince pies and snacks helped everyone to have fun and made interacting and talking to new people so much easier. New friendships and connections were formed as a result.

From 4pm onwards people showed up and had their first drink. Within half an hour, the entire room was full and people were eating and drinking, chatting to colleagues and talking to strangers. They enjoyed quiches, mini pork pies, sausages rolls, crisps and of course mince pies with a sip of bubbly, wine, beer or soft drinks. By 7pm, people were still chatting, but we had to start cleaning up. Rubbish was binned, glasses collected and washed, and the room was cleared of left overs. Several people were happy to help and spoke highly of this successful second Christmas party at St. Mary’s. Afterwards, several people moved to the pubs around to keep the evening going with their new friends. Merry Christmas!

CEP Ultimate Team Building Experience

In search of an activity to build bonds and healthy competition between the PhD cohort at the CEP, we found the Ultimate Team Building Experience as the best option. It offered a novel way to explore the City of London helping our first year students to get a taste of what this city has to offer whilst getting to know their peers in an unconventional way. Following up the activity with a lunch discussion helped the students to get familiarized with other research topics and get a sense of the wide variety of topics our department holds. We would definitely recommend this activity to other departments and would love to turn this into an every-year activity.

Our day started at 9:00am at the Escape Entertainment offices (ldn.escape-entertainment.com) where we were split into four teams of four people. This were chosen in a way that would promote teams with members of different research areas. We were given instructions on the outdoor game and a tablet with GPS and the riddles to solve, in increasing difficulty levels. We had the good fortune of having the perfect weather for the activity, and we managed to visit iconic places such as Saint Paul’s Cathedral, The Royal Exchange, and the Guildhall art gallery. Even, one of our groups got a taste of the international jet-set scene and spotted Angelina Jolie!… he couldn’t help himself and bragged about it for a week! The entire activity culminated with a lunch the day after where we had time to talk about how this activity had helped bringing a sense of community and to share the different research topics everyone is involved in.

Overall the activity was a big success. Everyone enjoyed it and said that got more out of it than they expected. As part of the discussion during lunch, some ideas on how to improve came up, such as:

  • Attendance rates could improve. Although at the end we had close to 20 participants,these were the ones that are normally very much involved in departmental activities. In future editions, a bigger effort could be done to promote the event in a way that appeals to those less interested.
  • The activity had to be split in two days mainly because of other research commitments. In the future, supervisors could be more flexible and even encourage their entire teams to take part.

Finally, we would like to thank the Graduate School for providing sponsorship for this event via the Research Community Fund.

Interdepartmental Laser Tag

 

The first Laser Tag event to connect PhD students from different departments, took place at the brand-new facility “Bunker 51” on Saturday 23rd of June. The aim of this initiative was to mix students with various research interests, to develop our research communities within Imperial and foster collaborations inter-departments.

This Laser Tag event, was an icebreaking way of encouraging PhD attendants to work together in a series of mini games played with guns which fired infrared beams. After the team building event, a picnic hangout with pizzas and drinks in Greenwich Park offered a more relaxed ambiance for students to get to know more about each other and their projects.

The whole day was a great success, with a high turnout of 22 PhDs from departments such as: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Bioengineering, Chemistry, Civil Engineering or Medicine.

Everyone had an amazing time, and were very grateful to meet other students and share their PhD experiences so far. They also liked the idea of building teamwork and social skills with new people in such a fun way. All of them were looking forward for the next interdepartmental activity.

Cross-CDT Trip 2019 & World Cup Dinner

On 29th of June 9 CDT PhD students from 2 different CDTs left London for a 3 days trip to the countryside to explore West England.

On Friday morning all of us met at Heathrow airport at the Sixt car rental shop. After everyone arrived and after we got our cars we drove towards Bristol and then turned further left to reach a town called Tauton. There we bought some groceries and continued our journey to finally reached our end destination with was a small farm located between Taunton and Exeter.

Immediately the AirBnB owner welcomed us with her lively 3 dogs Bisket, Douglas and Holly. After playing a bit with the dogs which we decided to go for a walk and discover the area of where we would stay the next 3 days. One speciality about this place was that it was so far from any other bigger city or town that there was no internet and mobile connection at all. Everyone felt it as a relieve not being connected to the rest of the world which made us enjoy the beautiful nature even more.

When we returned to the house we prepared dinner where the more talented chefs amongst us prepared a delicious pasta for us. We spoke a lot played some card games and at night we enjoyed watching the full moon and the stars.

On Saturday the highlight of the day was that we took our cars to go to Wimbleball Lake. There we enjoyed the warm summer weather and borrowed some rowing boats to explore the lake. Furthermore, we managed to borrow a football and a tennis ball and played around with them on the grass. In the evening we prepared a BBQ and traditional Shakshuka which one of our friends knew very well how to cook it. We ended the second evening listening to music, playing some board and card games and exchanging other funny stories about our lives.

On Sunday we left the dorm quite early straight after breakfast to drive to a nearby castle called “Dunster Castle”. Although it started raining a bit we found joy in discovering and exploring a medieval town with its watermill, church, a beautiful garden and also the tiny houses and narrow streets. After that we continued with our cars to go to the coastal region in the north to a small city called “Weston-Super Mare”. There we enjoyed the sandy beach and also the mud which was left over due to the ebb of the sea.Finally, we enjoyed a last lunch together after returning back to London.

Here we also want to take the opportunity to thank the Graduate School for their financial support for this really joyful Cross-CDT Trip.

Here some impressions from our Journey

Cross-CDT World-Cup Dinner

To celebrate the end of the term and to also exchange our football knowledge 10 CDT-PhD students from 2 different CDTs met up at a bar to watch the game Argentina against France.

It has been a quite long time that some of us have seen each other and therefore this reunion was very enjoyable by also hearing about the lives of our former MRes colleagues. The world-cup game of the day was France against Argentina. After discussing our bets on who is more likely to win the game and who we thought would score first the game started. While watching we enjoyed our dinner at the bar which was also very delicious, and which made the whole reunion experience even more enjoyable. The football-game was very exciting because throughout the match both teams were showing their best and most creative moves and strategic brilliance. Finally France ended up winning against Argentina 4:3. Since most of us were supporting France we were very relieved about this outcome and discussed the game in more detail also after the referee finished the game.

Here we also want to take the opportunity to thank the Graduate School for their financial support for this very nice reunion at the Cross-CDT World-Cup Dinner.

 

 

NHLI Careers Panel

The National Heart and Lung Institute Postgraduate committee organised a PhD careers panel on the 7th June with great success. The event, which was held at the union bar in South Kensington, was extremely well attended. Students travelled from all the Imperial campuses, which is often a challenge to achieve. Our five panellists were all working in non-academic areas such as industry, medical writing and scientific consulting. Students asked questions about interviews, their day to day life at work and why they chose their career paths.

After the panel session, students had the opportunity to chat one on one with the panellists and ask more specific questions. The atmosphere during the Q&A and networking was made even better with drinks and buffet which were provided thanks to the Research Community fund.

The feedback received by the students and those involved was overwhelmingly positive. Students commented on how it was a great chance to learn about career possibilities outside of the university setting.

We as a committee believe that events like these are an essential part of the PhD experience and for career development in the department. We are therefore grateful to the graduate school for providing funding without which nights like these wouldn’t be possible.

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!

MetID workshop

By Erika Dorado and Kiana West, STRATiGRAD PhD programme, Department of Surgery and Cancer

A workshop focused on the identification of metabolites was organised by the STRATiGRAD PhD programme in collaboration with the Centre for Metabolomics and Bioanalysis (CEMBIO). The MetID workshop took place between 12th and 15th June 2018, in Madrid.

MetID workshop participants

The MetID workshop started with oral presentations given by PhD students from both Imperial and CEMBIO. The PhD students had the opportunity to present their research projects in seven minutes to an audience composed of recognised researchers in this field. We had the opportunity to practice our presentation skills and share our research experience by providing concise information about our PhD projects. On the second day, the workshop started with an introduction by the director of CEMBIO, Dr. Coral Barbas. During the second and third days we attended lectures given by researchers from CEMBIO about fragmentation rules and mechanisms (Dr. Ana Gradillas), data curation (Dr. Javier Ruperez), as well as theory-practical lectures about annotation on MS and MS/MS level (Dr. Joanna Godzien). In addition, Dr. Joram Posma from Imperial presented two lectures about statistical experimental design, bias and confounding, as well as MetaboNetworks and graph theory.

Dr. Coral Barbas from CEMBIO giving an introduction to the workshop

On the third day, after finishing the lectures, we attended an exhibition on extended reality space offered by the Telefonica foundation from Madrid. We had the opportunity to experience different realities such as augmented, mixed and virtual reality. After this interesting activity, we enjoyed some sightseeing in the centre of Madrid on our way to have dinner together. During these activities the students from both universities had the opportunity to do some valuable networking.

On the final day, we visited the laboratories at CEMBIO. Dr. Antonia Garcia gave us a tour and showed us all the equipment in their laboratories, including liquid chromatography and mass spectrometers. The final day was concluded with a contest about metabolite identification to allow the students to apply all the knowledge acquired during this MetID workshop. Groups composed of students from Imperial and CEMBIO were organised randomly by Dr. Godzien, each group had the great opportunity to apply what we had learned about annotation on MS and MS/MS level by identifying 12 different metabolites. This contest allowed us to apply our communication and team work skills. The group that won the contest was composed of Vincen Wu and Erika Dorado from Imperial and Cecilia Barbas from CEMBIO.

Visiting the laboratories at CEMBIO
Dr. Isabel Garcia from Imperial, Dr. Coral Barbas from CEMBIO, and the winners of the contest: Cecilia Barbas, Erika Dorado and Vincen Wu

We want to thank the Graduate School for providing generous funding jointly with the STRATiGRAD PhD programme to carry out this workshop. We want to thank Dr. Isabel Garcia (coordinator of the STRATiGRAD PhD programme), all PhD students and researchers from Imperial and CEMBIO for all their effort organising and participating in this workshop. This workshop not only encouraged critical and independent scientific discussion on metabolite identification, but also showed us the importance of networking and scientific collaboration at an international level.

MRC-LMS PhD Workshop & Careers Forum at the Wellcome Collection, Euston Square

The second annual Medical Research Council (MRC) London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS) PhD Student Retreat took place on Friday 25 May 2018. Held at the iconic Wellcome Collection in Euston Square, this event offered PhD students from all year groups the chance to engage and socialise with students from outside of their immediate research section.

Building on the success of the inaugural 2017 retreat held at Kew Gardens, this year’s event had a renewed focus on ‘Career Development and Networking’; prompting students to start considering what future avenues they may wish to explore upon completion of their PhD studies.

In this vein, the day began with a Networking Workshop delivered by Katie Dallison from the Imperial Careers Service, which provides students with free help and advice regarding career advancement, like CV checks and interview preparation. Katie highlighted the importance of making connections in all types of professional events, and shared tips to reduce pre-networking anxiety. During the workshop, students also had the opportunity to practice and refine their “elevator pitches”, get further ideas of recruitment processes, and recognise uses and downfalls of social media.

The students had the ability to use these newly acquired skills in the PhD student poster presentations, facilitating discussion based on current research that PhD students are carrying out at the LMS. The topics ranged from patient-derived neurons to study Down syndrome, to 3D genome architecture and gene regulation, to the evolution of transposable elements. Particularly outstanding posters were acknowledged by the Poster Awards, where this year, the first place was awarded to Helen Paterson for her poster entitled ‘The role of splicing factors in metabolic health and disease’, followed in close succession by Toni Beltran and Holly Simpson Ragdale, in 2nd and 3rd place respectively.

This also gave time for students to visit the vast collection of medical based artefacts from all over the world, collected at the Wellcome Collection. Especially noteworthy in the collection, is the presence of all volumes of the printed version of the first sequenced human genome.

The unanimous highlight of the day however, was an afternoon careers panel which brought together a unique collection of individuals who have gone on to follow a range of post-PhD career paths. The panellists represented diverse fields, including the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, scientific editing, management consulting and patent law industries. Chaired by our own Social Representative, Matt Newton, the panel discussion allowed the speakers to share with us industry-specific insights, whilst also being open to discuss the factors that helped shape and influence their decisions at key moments of their respective careers.  We would like to send a huge thank you to the following individuals for sharing their time and knowledge with us all!

Following the panel, the students received a talk from the day’s keynote speaker, Professor Steve Jackson, who is currently a senior group leader at The Gurdon Institute (University of Cambridge), and fellow of the Royal Society. His talk entitled “Cellular responses to DNA damage: mechanistic insights and applications in cancer therapy” illuminated how basic molecular understanding of cellular processes can be translated into clinical applications, and how he was able to follow the success journey of a drug from the lab bench to the patients in clinic.

The day culminated with a networking reception, where students had the opportunity to continue discussions with panelists and speakers from throughout the day. All in all the day was a triumph for the LMS Student Committee, who put together this event, and we very much look forward to the 2019 Student Retreat!

Finally we would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge generous funding from both the Imperial College Graduate School and Medical Research Council.

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.