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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.

Workshop On Numerical methods in KomplexitY (WONKY)

Workshop On Numerical methods in KomplexitY (WONKY) 08.10.18 to 10.10.18 Amberley, South Downs Way

Our group of 13 doctoral students at the Centre for Complexity Science at Imperial College held a trip of three days in the National Park of the South Downs Way. We stayed in a bunkhouse in Amberley, where we carried out a little workshop on numerical methods and combined it with long strolls in the green countryside. We had a good time and plenty of discussions.

Some years ago, a few of us had the idea of organising a small workshop to share tips and tricks for numerical methods in our research. 

My experience in developing an online Allied Health Professional (AHP) research and peer support community.

by Janet Deane, Research Assistant in the Department of Surgery and Cancer

On Thursday 18th October at the MSK LAB at Imperial College London, we started the development of a secure and moderated peer support Facebook Group for AHPs in academic research.

Natasha Wallace from Trilogy Consulting, an external expert in the creation of online professional platforms was invited to provide training.  At the training session, AHPs could discuss their needs, learn how to share knowledge using innovative technologies, and collectively help to determine the vision of the group.

AHPs (Physiotherapists, Radiographers, Occupational therapists and Speech therapists) are becoming increasingly involved in research that has the potential to change the quality of lives of patients with various health conditions.

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.

Strengthening links among Brazilian academics at Imperial

by Lorena Fernanda dos Santos de Souza, PhD student in the Department of Chemical Engineering

We are the Student Committee of the Imperial College Brazil Forum, and on June 20th (Wednesday) we organized a happy hour to promote the Brazilian culture and foster networking among Brazilian students and international members of the Forum. In a ‘Festa Junina’ themed event, we gathered 26 people in a cross-department get together in the authentic Brazilian restaurant ‘Made in Brasil’, in Camden Town. In Brazil, June is the month to commemorate St John’s day with a “Festa Junina”, the second most important popular celebration in the Brazilian culture.

Data and Algorithms: Good or bad? Spoiler alert: It’s more complicated than that!

By Victor Pedrosa, PhD student representative

Few things are more effective in motivating PhD students and researchers to take a break from their ‘Nobel Prize-winning’ research than pizza, drinks and the promise of an interesting talk.

The Bioengineering PhD student representatives organised a talk on data ethics on Friday 9th of March. The topic was widely popular and the event was well-attended. There were some lively discussions over pizza and drinks in room 301.C at the Royal School of Mines Building.

Is data science intrinsically ethically good?

People mingled before the start of the talk, to get the food distraction out of the way, then Dr.

CSM Summer Social, Research Community Fund

The CSM Summer Social BBQ that took place on the Friday 8th of June in Prince’s Garden was a real success. About 70 persons came along that afternoon, from 12.30 pm to late at night. The aim of this informal lunch was to give a chance for the PhD students to catch up with their peers, discuss some of their research projects with more expert persons, or even to find career advices.

To facilitate the discussion, each PhD students had to chose three subjects that he felt like he needed help with. On the other hand, each staff had chosen three subjects in which they could give advices to PhD students.

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.

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.

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.