Blog posts

A White Beginning

MEng Aeronautical Engineering

White.

They say white is the combination of all colours. This is an ideal concept to welcome you to join me on my journey or at least, its beginnings. I promise it will be colourful, but for now, let’s stick to white. 

A white envelope was the first thing I ever received at my arrival at Woodward Buildings. It contained a few documents, but most importantly, a white card. Had I known that I would soon be locked out of my room because of forgetting it, I would have grabbed it tighter. Besides that unfortunate event, all the ones that proceeded it were far from disappointing. 

Can you Pass on Experiences?

MRes Biomedical Research

More and more research is suggesting that our environmental experiences can be passed down generations. Here’s a brief introduction to the weird world of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (yes, it is a bit of a mouthful).

So… What is it?

Epigenetics investigates mechanisms that change gene expression separate from the A’s, T’s, C’s and G’s of the genetic code. These changes are often environmental.

It’s the reason why, if you start having a glass of wine every evening with the 10 O’clock news, you’re going to start needing two glasses of wine to get the same relief as you listen to Huw Edwards delicate drawl.

Freshers’ Halls VS Senior-year Halls

MSci Geology and Geophysics

Hi guys,

As you (might) know, I’m a second year now (yayy… not so much T.T) and this year I’ve decided to stay in Evelyn Gardens.

For those of you who don’t know, Evelyn Gardens is an Imperial-owned student residence for returning undergraduate students (meaning second years and above). There are three halls in Evelyn Gardens, namely Willis Jackson, Holbein and Southwell. Unlike freshers’ halls, it has a 51 weeks contract period (instead of 39 weeks). You can read more about it here.

Having lived (and am living) in both a first year hall and a senior hall, I decided to compare these two so it’ll be easier for those of you who might decide to consider staying here next year.

Women in Maths

Mathematics and Statistics

And my experience at Imperial

Studying Maths at Imperial does not only mean living in one of the most vibrant cities in the world, but also being a part of a top world ranking Mathematics department, boasting two field medalists. However as a woman in this department what I have appreciated the most is having female role models such as Professor Emma McCoy. Through lecturing me in first year, she not only taught me statistics in such a thorough and engaging manner, but who has also inspired me to focus my studies on statistics. By bringing in real life scenarios, including her own passion for cycling statistics, marathon times and rather controversially road traffic accidents, McCoy managed to convince my entire cohort that statistics was one of the most enticing areas of mathematics with countless applications in the real world.

Simulation Training at Medical School

MBBS Medicine

Final year is going at full speed- with only (gulp!) 7 months to go until our finals exams are done. We have received our GMC numbers now and from Monday will have our account details to apply for our first job in the NHS.   So as the real life stuff is ramping up, so is the training to help us be junior doctors. I am currently on my emergency medicine attachment and as part of this we had a simulation day based at West Middlesex Hospital. It was fantastic!    The aim of the day was to give us experience handling emergency situations in a “safe” environment.

Write away!

Mathematics of Planet Earth

You picked Imperial to become a scientist, engineer or a medical doctor. What do these careers have in common? You’ll need to write a lot: scientific papers, grant applications, lecture notes, popular science articles. Unfortunately, university curricula lack writing courses, so we end up with thousands of unreadable scientific papers. In my research I’ve chosen some mathematical methods just because the authors made them easy to understand; nobody has time or energy to look for interesting science hiding behind word clutter.

I’m a mathematician, not a writer, and my writing is far from perfect. Let me share five tips to improve your writing so that you can learn from my mistakes.

Feeling British

Mathematics of Planet Earth

I haven’t written for a while as I recently moved to Exeter for a summer internship in Met Office. If you’re interested in what the research here involves, check out my popular science blog. However, my Exeter adventure involves way more than work.

While London and Imperial are as international as it gets, Exeter has a very British (or rather English) feel. Today I spent ages queuing for cream tea and discussing with English colleagues what being British actually involves. Here’s the list of very British things I experienced only today.

  • Queuing. I come from a Central European country, where your place in the queue depends pretty much only on how cunning you are.

Speed Dating for Researchers?

MSc Sustainable Energy Futures

Is it even possible?

That was my first thought when confronted with the challenge of the Imperial College Graduate School Masters 3.60 competition. Can anyone actually present their research project to a panel of judges and an audience of peers in only 3 minutes? That was indeed the challenge of the competition and I have to say that initially I doubted if it were possible. However, since I was at that time very much mired in the ‘slough of despond’ with my project, trying to figure out what my research design was really supposed to be, I thought that condensing the whole thing into a three minutes overview might help focus my mind on which elements were really critical.

It’s all over…

Biological Sciences with year in industry

Four years of hard work, finally completed. Sitting on the coach on the way home from London seems like a fitting place to write this blog post…

A little over a week ago I officially handed in my final piece of work for my Imperial undergraduate degree – my dissertation. It was a huge piece of work, entailing many hours in the library, last minute meltdowns and far too much coffee. On the day of hand-in I was exhausted, having given it my all, handing in the 44 page document was a bit of an anticlimax. Let’s put it this way, my friends and I celebrated completing our dissertations with some time at the union – we all ordered soft drinks and food.

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