Category: College News & Updates
Move Imperial are taking a snapshot of how active the College community is.
Our goal is to enable every member of our community to reach 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week. To do this, we need to guarantee a high-class user experience with outstanding facilities, services and programmes. We also need to reach people who have found it difficult to integrate physical activity into their daily lives and, in the process, make it feel more approachable and enjoyable.
To do this, we need to regularly check in to understand the community’s current levels of activity. That is why we’re launching the ‘How Active Are You?’ survey as a quick, annual check-in, so that we can keep what works going and, crucially, understand how we can motivate further progress.
You’re invited to participate in the survey now. It should only take a couple of minutes to complete, every single entry will be read and used to improve how we work and, what’s more, you’ll be entered into a prize draw to win £500!
We are delighted to announce that applications are now open for the PhD Summer Showcase!
The challenge for this year’s competition is for students to communicate their research to a lay audience. This will be assessed across two stages:
- a research poster or video presentation to be submitted in advance.
- a three minute presentation pitch at our in-person Showcase event on Thursday 13 July 2023.
We have spaces for 80 PhD students to take part in this competition and a top prize of £500! This is a great opportunity to communicate your research and meet students and staff from across the College community, so read on to find out how you can get involved.
The deadline for entries is Monday 12 June 2023.
We recommend that authors ask fellow academics in their department for discipline-specific advice on where to publish monographs and edited collections. For authors with a particular interest in publishing open access, the Directory of Open Access Books is a good resource for finding trusted publishers, and can be searched by subject, language, and publisher.
If you are funded by one of the research councils that make up UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), their new Open Access Policy requires that monographs, books chapters and edited collections agreed with publishers from 1 January 2024 are made open access with a Creative Commons licence within 12 months of publication. This can be via a publisher’s website, platform or a repository, such as Spiral. Please contact the Open Access team (openaccess@imperial.ac.uk) for more information if this applies to you.
If you hold a grant from the Wellcome Trust, their policy requires that you approach them about making any books or book chapters you author available from NCBI Bookshelf and Europe PMC. Where an open access publishing fee has been charged, works should be immediately available without embargo and licensed to support their re-use, preferably with a CC BY licence.
Imperial is looking for alumni, staff and PhD students who are willing to become mentors as part of the College’s Activate Mentoring Programme. Activate supports the College’s PhD students of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic heritage as well as UG and Masters recipients of the President’s Scholarships for students of Black heritage.
Activate, now in its second year aims to improve experiences, increase retention, develop a peer community and support the career development of students. Applications from any staff, alumni and PhD students who can offer experience and guidance to support the aims of the programme are welcome.
PhD students who mentor as part of Activate will be remunerated for their time.
To find out more about the Activate Mentoring programme and apply to be a mentor, please see our webpage. The deadline for applications to become a mentor is 5pm Friday 9 June 2023.
If you have any queries about Activate, or if you are responsible for organising a similar mentoring programme elsewhere in College and would be interested in collaborating with us on activities and events, please get in touch with Syeda Razzak, Student Mentoring Programme Coordinator, activate.mentoring@imperial.ac.uk.
The Graduate School would like to invite all students and staff to join our official judging team for the PhD Summer Showcase.
The challenge for this year’s competition is for students to communicate their research to a lay audience. This will be assessed across two stages – firstly a video presentation or poster to be submitted in advance and then via a three-minute presentation at our in-person Showcase event.
There are two ways that you can get involved as a judge – you can judge the video presentations and research posters, or you can come along to the Showcase event on Thursday 13 July 2023 and assess the student’s three-minute presentation pitches in person. Or you can opt to be a judge for both aspects of competition!
- Poster/Video Presentation Judging
Judges will be allocated approximately five videos and posters to assess against the following categories: ‘Visual Impact‘ and ‘Content‘ ‘. These will be sent to judges on Monday 26 June 2023 and you will have one week to assess your allocated entries.
- In-Person Showcase Judging (Thursday 13 July 2023)
Judges will be allocated approximately four presenters to visit and assess their three-minute presentation pitches. There are two judging time slots to pick from: Morning (11.00–12.00) or Afternoon (13:30-14.30).
This is a fantastic opportunity to hear more about the sorts of research taking place across the College. Please contact Sarah Faux if you would like to volunteer or find out more – all students and staff are welcome!
Imperial has signed up to the SocialBox.Biz Scholarships for Refugees and Homeless People campaign, hallmarking the organisation’s dedication to giving back to those in need while also reducing environmental pollution.
ICT are leading this sustainability drive which is another great way for Imperial to get to NetZero for pollution by 2030.
When you donate old, but still usable technology, to the initiative, they will clear the device of any sensitive data, install open-source software on it, and donate suitable items to refugees and people experiencing homelessness to reuse in their learning.
What and how can you donate?
If you are doing a home or office Spring clear out, please give us your old, but still usable:
- Computers and laptops (i5 processors and above)
- Smartphones
- iPads
- Servers
- Routers
Don’t forget to disable any face ID or PINs from your devices before you donate, and include power leads.
If you donate personal devices (non-college items) it is your responsibility to wipe them or back up data from any hard drives.
It’s really easy to donate, you can drop your items to ICT or they can collect from your office – just complete this form.
Do you study or work in tech at Imperial? The Tech Hangouts programme is aiming to engage youth groups from the White City local area to the wide world of tech and technicians through fun, interactive game-based sessions. The young people will have the chance to meet technicians and tech professionals, find out more about them and their careers, get hands-on with some tech, and understand how they can have a say on what goes on in the tech world.
If you’d like to get involved, please find out more: bit.ly/tech-hangouts
The ICU Advice Service is a free, confidential, non-judgemental and independent service for all students studying at Imperial College. If you are experiencing a problem with your studies, your halls or you are looking to make a complaint against the College – the Advice Service is here to help. If we are unable to advise you with your query, we can point you in the right direction. Our advice Caseworkers can signpost you to the relevant service or organisation. Additionally, if you are a student facing financial hardship and are finding it difficult to afford food, the Advice Service can issue you a food bank voucher.
To access the Advice Service, students will need to email advice@imperial.ac.uk and complete the registration form sent. A team member will be in contact within 3 working days to arrange an appointment or provide information. More information on advice areas can be found on the Advice Service website.
Now accepting video and multimedia submissions, the improved Imperial Award is open to all students at Imperial, and can help you:
- Develop practical self-reflection skills
- Improve your ability to pitch yourself to various audiences
- Gain a formal recognition from the College
The Imperial Award is designed to help you make the most of your experiences and activities while at University by reflecting on them against the 12 Imperial Award attributes.
Graduate School course mapping to Imperial Award
The following course mapping has been made by the tutors and programme leads for the Graduate School courses to highlight courses that may assist in recognising and developing attributes for the Imperial Award.
This list is not exhaustive but allows those attending these courses to consider the highlighted attribute when writing a reflective commentary or preparing other evidence for the Imperial Award.
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“Imperial award gives you the opportunity to realise how much you’ve gone through, reflect on yourself, and more importantly makes you passionate to do more and make a difference! Being recognised not only by your educational achievements but also by your life experiences is something very unique and wonderful.” – PGT IA Achiever (2020)