Blog posts

Travel and learn!

Mathematics of Planet Earth

Best part of doing a PhD? Conferences! When you finally manage to do some meaningful research, it’s time to present it to a wider audience. In other words, pack your suitcases and bon voyage! I know that attending conferences might be a bit overwhelming in the beginning, so here are a few tips to make the most of them.

  • Find a good conference. If you’re as lucky as I am and have a great supervisor, she or he will suggest interesting events to you. Otherwise you’ll need to do the work yourself. However, at Imperial we’re flooded with e-mails advertising scientific events, there’s also Google and your colleagues who can give you some advice.

Behind the scenes of Imperial Medicine Interviews

MBBS Medicine

Twitter: @malamawks | Instagram: @malamawkin

It is always a very humbling experience being the student panel member at interviews for the MBBS 6 year Medicine course here at Imperial. Candidates come from a range of backgrounds with really interesting and unique passions and skills. I was lucky enough to sit on the panel again this Tuesday and had such a great day!

Behind the scenes a lot of work is done to ensure that the day runs as smoothly as possible. I was called in a bit earlier than my afternoon slot so that I could run some tours for the candidates.

Making money as a student

Electronic and Information Engineering

So I’ve done various things to make some cash on the side:

  • Private tutoring
  • Turinglab (Tutoring at imperial)
  • Undergraduate teaching assistant
  • Internships
  • uTest
  • UserTesting
  • Blogging

and for those keen students looking to make money on the side I’d definitely suggest private tutoring, UserTesting and uTest. If you haven’t heard of uTest, its a website where you test any app possible: games, payment, echo etc and based on your bug finding skills you get paid. Some test cases give you payment just for following the steps, even if you don’t find any bugs.

UserTesting is basically talking about your opinion of a website for around 10-15 minutes, for 10 USD which is pretty good.

End of term EE/Computing Rant

Electronic and Information Engineering

Last year, as part of EIE (EE + Computer Science) cohort we took 2 computing modules, which I find easier compared to EE. Looking just at coursework, my experience in computing was far better than EE. It’s possible for everyone to get close to 100 marks (all my friends have A*  80-100) whereas in EE the moment we get marks above 70ish it gets moderated down. Of course, the computing mark is pre-moderated as well. (I have my doubts that they lower it, who knows?)

I favour the computing side, not only because of the marks, but because I find some EE things slightly tedious (too much maths!),

Deck the Halls!

Mathematics and Statistics

The guide to a perfect student Christmas dinner

So for the perfect Christmas dinner in halls, you ideally need: a good number of hungry students, at least two types of meat, a vat of gravy and a mountain of pigs-in-blankets. To be that little bit extra, like us (and the royal family), you could also add a lobster centre piece! Between 6 kitchens and 8 people cooking, we were able to feed 12 people, for only £8 each!!

Rather surprisingly, the dish that was eaten up first was the Brussel sprouts, traditionally a vegetable that gets slightly neglected! However, here are my top tips to preparing and cooking these surprisingly edible greens, in a recipe otherwise known as “sprouts drowning in bacon”.

Welcome to the Medic Life

MBBS/BSc Medicine

One term down, seventeen to go.

Something I was often told during Freshers’ Week (or Freshers’ Fortnight for the medics) was that my six years at Imperial will fly by. I saw no truth whatsoever to that statement at the time.

However, now that the winter holidays are finally upon us and January exams are alarmingly close- where exactly has first term gone? Honestly- what happened? The wrath of medical school interviews have begun for brave souls across the country, and it’s odd to think that it’s been a year since I was in that position!

After much procrastination and a degree of reflection, I finally pull myself together enough to write up my very first blog about my past 11 weeks at Imperial before it all becomes a blur to me.

Christmas Spirit: An Epidemiology

Master of Public Health (MPH)

The Christmas spirit is absolutely infectious in London.

After making it through a term of epidemiology and medical statistics, I think I’m at least qualified to say that. [95% CI crossing fingers, crossing toes].

Call me a Grinch but I’m not usually one to celebrate Christmas. Back in Singapore, the streets get all gussied up with lights and decorations but it’s hard to really get into the whole snowman thing when it’s 33 degrees Celsius all year round.

I hadn’t given it much thought here in London either, even as the temperatures started falling. Then one foggy Christmas eve day we went to our local laundrette and discovered that it’d turned into the neighbourhood Christmas tree purveyor overnight.

An Ode to the Tube

Biological Sciences with year in industry

London is a big place, 1,572 km² to be exact, so you definitely need to know your way around. Whether it’s to shave off those precious seconds on the morning commute so you can lie in bed that bit longer or simply because you don’t want to walk in the rain, one of the most iconic transport systems has got you covered.

The Underground: A.K.A The Tube

Riding at high speed in a metal tube down a very dark tunnel, miles underground sounds like a great way to travel, right? Well, that’s basically the Tube! The massive network of underground tunnels crisscrossing all over London is one of the quickest (and more pricey) ways to get round on public transport.

My day taking over Imperial College Social Media!

MBBS Medicine

Twitter: @malamawks | Instagram: @malamawkin

On the 11th-12th December I took over the Imperial College instagram and snapchat accounts (@imperialcollege) to give a peak into my day as a 5th year medical student here! It involves our Medics Winter Ball (Snow Ball) and a glimpse into my paediatrics rotation at Chelsea and Westminster! Broadcasting to over 30k people meant there were quite a few nervous bloopers that I am sure I will share soon too!!

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