Category: IMSE people

Not a drop in the ocean, households’ potential to reduce carbon emissions

Travelling by public transport, recycling our home waste, using re-fillable water bottles or taking a tote bag to the supermarket. We have all heard about the little changes we can do to reduce carbon emissions and protect the environment. However, the action with the biggest impact is related to food!

Project Drawdown has identified a series of practices and technologies with direct effect on emissions that are scientifically validated and economically viable.

A drop in the ocean?

Their analysis revealed that household activities could contribute to avoid dangerous climate change, defined as an increase in global temperature larger than 1.5°C. Individual actions have the potential to reduce the total emissions needed to avoid that temperature increase by 25-30%. Definitely not just a drop in the ocean! While large businesses and governments are responsible for most emissions (70-75%), our choices also play an important part.

How can we help?

Among the 20-high impact actions we find better home insulation, public transport and recycling. But above all, adopting a plant-rich diet and reducing food waste make up 12.4% of the 25-30% household potential for reductions. Adapting our diet and reducing the food we buy but don’t eat could really make a difference.

Top 20 high impact climate actions for households and individuals.
Top 20 high impact climate actions for households and individuals. Image credit: Project Drawdown.

(more…)

3D printed sculpture, microscope or both?

If you had access to a 3D printer, what would you print? Something fun, something useful? How about both?

Alex Christopherson, a final year undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London and David Samuel, an artist based in Park Royal Design Studios, collaborated to create a 3D printed sculpture that doubles as a microscope and allows you to see a 3D printed Queens Tower 100,000 times smaller than the real one! Engineering and art coming together to 3D print a sculpture.

(more…)

Great Exhibition road festival – Science and Engineering for Cultural Heritage

The Great Exhibition Road Festival is Imperial’s largest public engagement event of the year. Taking place over a full weekend, Imperial runs the festival together with the local museums (V&A, Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Royal College of Music and Royal Albert Hall). Great exhibition road is closed to traffic and becomes full of people. Visitors from all ages and backgrounds engage in diverse activities featuring science and the arts during the celebrations. Over 54,000 people pre-registered for this year’s event!

Exhibition road, closed to traffic and open to people for the Great Exhibition Road Festival. Image credit: David Guttridge.
Exhibition road, closed to traffic and open to people for the Great Exhibition Road Festival. Image credit: David Guttridge.

Imperial researchers spent the weekend running their stands and answering questions from the curious attendees. Georgia Millsom, a PhD student in the Department of Materials, wrote a blog about her experience volunteering at the event.

The Science and Engineering Research for Cultural Heritage Network (SERCH) ran an exhibit at the Great Exhibition Road Festival back in mid-June. Ranging from Mechanical Engineering to Materials, a variety of Imperial’s departments were present with the aim of demonstrating the connections Imperial has to Cultural Heritage. Visitors were also able to delve into a range of objects from the Imperial College Archives.  Many hadn’t considered Imperial’s own heritage before as it is a newer university than Oxford, Cambridge, and St Andrews. The teaching aids were hugely popular, with visitors guessing about their uses.

(more…)

Giving textile waste and dyes a second chance

Following on our blogs exploring circular economy and zero waste, we welcome our new guest blogger, Dr. Antonio Ovejero-Perez. A postdoc from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Antonio’s research is focused on extracting dyes from textiles waste. 

Who hasn’t heard a family member say: “Back in the day, I only got new clothing for Christmas or birthday”? Now, in our fast-paced world things have changed. How many times a year do we buy clothes? Trends come and go quickly, and “fast fashion” has become more and more popular. 

(more…)

IMSE people – Lingfeng Griffin Gui, MRes alumnus

Over 2022, we’re catching up with some of the people who came to study at IMSE on the  Molecular Science and Engineering MRes. They are now going on to a wide variety of exiting jobs in the world. The IMSE MRes has been running since 2017, so there are more than 30 MRes alumni! This week, we speak to Griffin Gui, who studied at IMSE in 2018-2019.

(more…)

IMSE people – Javiera Pérez, MRes alumna

Over the summer of 2022, we’re catching up with some of the people who came to study at IMSE on the Molecular Science and Engineering MRes. They are now going on to a wide variety of exiting jobs in the world. The IMSE masters course in molecular engineering has been running since 2017, so there are more than 30 MRes alumni. This week, we speak to Javiera Perez, who studied at IMSE in 2019-2020.

(more…)