![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/files\/2021\/03\/21-02-Imperial-People_Twitter_Dr-Yilun-Xu-1024x512.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I came to the UK to do my postgraduate study, choosing Imperial because it looked like some interesting things were being done here. I did my Master’s and PhD here and now I am conducting post-doctoral research within the <\/span>Department of Materials<\/span><\/a>. I also teach in the\u00a0<\/span>Department of Mechanical Engineering<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and am a postgraduate mentor to students in the department.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lockdown has\u00a0<\/span>a<\/span>ffected both my teaching and research but in slightly different ways. Most of my research is computational based and\u00a0<\/span>to begin with, my colleagues and\u00a0<\/span>I had some issues\u00a0<\/span>carrying it out\u00a0<\/span>remotely<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>However, w<\/span>e have\u00a0<\/span>worked closely together and looked at new ways\u00a0<\/span>to<\/span>\u00a0collaborate remotely a<\/span>s well as<\/span>\u00a0new software we could use. We can now use our computers in the lab remotely from our homes so are able to continue our modelling work.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The virtual community we created also means that we can continue to socialise with each other on\u00a0<\/span>Microsoft\u00a0<\/span>Teams. We have virtual pub nights, play cards together and also just have somewhere to chat.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is the first year we\u2019ve had dedicated\u00a0<\/span>postgraduate<\/span>\u00a0mentors and it\u2019s been\u00a0<\/span>really good<\/span>. We\u2019re more accessible than staff and as well as helping with their research, we can<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>help in other ways. One of my students tested positive<\/span>\u00a0for COVID-19<\/span>\u00a0and was\u00a0<\/span>very<\/span>\u00a0anxious.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>I was able to give him\u00a0<\/span>an\u00a0<\/span>extra level of support\u00a0<\/span>by<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>signposting him to<\/span>\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>right people\u00a0<\/span>advising him on what <\/span>steps to take.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Teams helps a lot\u00a0<\/span>when\u00a0<\/span>working with students as well as my colleagues. It\u2019s so much better to have conversations with video as I can see my students\u2019 reactions, tell if they\u2019re understanding what we\u2019re talking about, and so on<\/span>, a<\/span>nd they prefer being able to see me<\/span>\u00a0too<\/span>. When we did voice calls to start with, students said it just felt like talking to a robot, but with video calls, we <\/span>can create<\/span>\u00a0a proper connection.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One piece of <\/span>advice<\/span> I give to students is to try to separate their work and living spaces as much as possible. It\u2019s not always\u00a0<\/span>easy, but<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>it\u2019s good to\u00a0<\/span>put things away at the end of your\u00a0<\/span>work<\/span>ing<\/span>\u00a0day<\/span>. There\u2019s nothing worse than lying in bed and looking over at a desk full of books you feel you should be reading instead of sleeping!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cOne\u00a0piece of advice I give to students is to try to separate your work and living spaces as much as possible.\u201d\u00a0 I came to the UK to do my postgraduate study, choosing Imperial because it looked like some interesting things were being done here. I did my Master’s and PhD here and now I am […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[294815],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-staff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1075"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1077,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions\/1077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}