The SME-DTN and GRADnet Training Day was held on Wednesday, 19 June 2024 at International Students House,  London, W1. This was a great opportunity for our SME-DTN cohort, SEPnet postgraduate researchers and undergraduates to network and learn new skills they can put into practice.

Thank you to our presenters for delivering informative and insightful workshops:

Short talk, Lasting impression by Dr Jamie Gallagher:  Being able to describe what you do, and why, is an essential skill for any researcher. Our trainer is a Science Communicator and previous international 3MT winner who will show researchers how to turn research into the most interesting, engaging and memorable presentation possible. Discover the hints and tips that will make their talk stand out from the crowd, understand the use of body language and visualisation in presenting, how to banish nerves and engage your audience to give a confident performance.

Skills for life by Julia Shalet, Product Doctor: Persuasion is all about swaying the opinions of others and influencing is how you motivate them to act, without coercion! The goal of this session is for you to feel comfortable, confident and in control when trying to persuade and influence others. We’ll work through a simple process that you can apply to any situation and explore a model to help you vary your style to suit different personality types.   

Python/Data Analysis by Dr Tim Kinnear, University of Kent: The ability to interact with data and to present data in a way which communicates understanding about those data is a vital part of research science. This workshop aims to provide an opportunity to work with some example datasets and use guided programming in Python to access, process and produce plots of these data, with a goal of discovering features worth exploring and determining how to explore those features.  This is intended to help one develop skills in approaches to working with diverse data and understanding how to effectively use Python for such investigations in a way which should be able to be transferred to one’s own work.

Delegates feedback was very positive:

• Thank you so much for today’s session. The entire package was fabulous!;
• Great to have a Python refresher;
• Thought-provoking day;
• I enjoyed taking a day away from my research and to learn some new skills!

Thank you to Jon Goff, RHUL and David Voneshen, STFC for delivering the GRADnet Advanced Materials workshop on 24 April 2024 at Royal Holloway, University of London.  

Phoebe Meadows, Postgraduate Researcher at RHUL attended the workshop and shared her thoughts on the day:

“The day was run by Dr David Voneshen and Professor Jon Goff and provided an overview of subjects integral to the study of materials.

The day consisted of lectures and tutorials covering topics of structures, excitations, and large-scale facilities. This was a very useful exercise that allowed us to first learn the key principles of the subjects, and then apply that knowledge by going through tutorial questions and worked answers together.

We also got the chance to observe practical experiments using the x-ray diffractometer here at Royal Holloway. Short practicals were run so we could see in action the range of capabilities x-rays have when investigating powder or thin film samples. Following this, a brief overview of how you would typically analyse the collected data was demonstrated.

To conclude the workshop, we had the opportunity to use the information we had learnt throughout the day to present a short experiment proposal to the rest of the cohort. This was a chance to learn more about each other’s research interests and use our strengths to produce a compelling proposal to get beamtime for our thought up experiment.

Overall, the day was very beneficial and an occasion to bring together students from different universities and academic backgrounds, but with a shared interest in the study of materials.

Phoebe standing by an X-ray diffractometer, or XRD machine  at RHUL.  This is a device for analyzing and measuring the structure of materials.

GRADnet’s in-person workshop, Developing Knowledge and Skills in Public Engagement, was delivered on the 20^th March 2024 at the Royal Astronomical Society. The workshop was led and facilitated by SEPnet Director of Outreach and Public Engagement, Laura Meade, and SEPnet Outreach and Public Engagement Officers, Nuala O’Flynn (University of Hertfordshire), Dr Darren Baskill (University of Sussex), and Dr Eliza Hunt (Queen Mary University of London).

The interactive workshop was attended by enthusiastic postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers and aimed to ignite their passion for public engagement and act as a catalyst for fostering meaningful connections between researchers and the wider community. 

Throughout the afternoon, participants were encouraged to discuss their own research, and worked in groups to plan out the beginnings of a public engagement project linked to their work. The afternoon included:

• An introduction to public engagement: defining and discussing what meaningful public engagement is, showcasing a range of public engagement projects that have been developed at SEPnet universities, and signposting where to find more examples.
• Exploring why and how we engage with different audiences: considering different groups of people, what their interests are, and how to link this to your research.
• Tips on logistical aspects of planning an activity: signposting to grant schemes, budgeting advice, and guidance on the best times of year to engage with different groups of people.
• Evaluation advice: thinking about how to measure the impact of your activities, and the different purposes and motivations behind reporting.

Thank you to the Outreach team for delivering this useful and insightful workshop on behalf of GRADnet.

The GRADnet Student-led Conferences took place on Wednesday, 13 March 2024 at One Park Crescent, London W1.  Prizes were awarded to the following PhD students:

GRADnet Student-led Conference:  Physics is You – Prize Winners:

Best best lightning talk:  Lucy Haddad, PhD Student at Queen Mary, University of London

Best presentation:  Noah Chulu Chinn, PhD Student at UCL.

GRADnet Student-led Conference:  Quantum Futures – Prize Winners:

Petros Zantis, PhD Student at University of Sussex won “Clarity of presentation”.

Anna Migo, PhD Student at University of Sussex won “Most ready for industry”.

Maria Violaris, PhD Student at University of Oxford won “Most creative presentation”.

See here for further details about both conferences.

Congratulations to all the prize winners and well done!

The GRADnet Student-led Conferences was attended by over 50 delegates on 13 March in London W1.  This was a great opportunity for PhD students to present their research to their peers as they don’t get to present externally that often and to network. This is the 7th year that GRADnet has organised a student-led conference.

This year’s parallel conferences were: Quantum Futures: the second quantum revolution and how it will impact research and industry led by PhD Student Joe Aziz at RHUL and Physics is YOU! Celebrating diversity and discussing challenges in physics led by PhD Student Akeem Hart at QMUL and his organising team; Margaret-Ann Withington and Kymani Armstrong-Williams (Queen Mary University of London) Jess Lock (University of Sussex) Mattia Emma and Leah Wolf (Royal Holloway, University of London).

Thank you to our external speakers:   Mr Christopher Bishop, The Quantum Tech Podcast; Dr Marco Ghibaudi, Riverlane; Harriet van der Vliet, Oxford Instruments; Dr Clara Barker, Oxford University, Dr Luke Davis, UCL and Dr Nicolas Bonne, University of Portsmouth.

Delegates said: “it was a great atmosphere to give one’s first presentation”; “the external speakers’ talks were really interesting and useful” and “it’s one of the best events like this they had been to!”

Well done Joe, Akeem, Margaret-Ann, Kymani, Jess, Mattia and Leah for making this year’s event such a success!

Listen to Peter Trussell and Emma Holling discuss how the Space Sector is an exciting career for Physicists. Find out more about the Space In INdustry placement scheme and the types of skills you would need. Click here to watch the video.

Thank you to Julia Shalet, Product Doctor, who once again, delivered a highly enjoyable interactive and practical “Turning Science into Business” workshop for SEPnet postgraduate researchers and undergraduate students this week at the Institute of Physics.

Over the two days, delegates worked in teams with a real case study, learning how to develop ideas & turn them into meaningful value propositions, reduce risk before committing any resource, map up new business models and practise a set of common business skills that employers are looking for.

We particularly appreciated her wide range of stories from working with start-ups through to corporates; and the group were super engaged with the 7 steps going from idea to good idea in her award-winning book, The Really Good Idea Test. 

Here’s what they said about it:

“Valuable insight into the world of business, across multiple different sectors – also useful in mainstream academia for thinking through our projects and revenue streams”

“Introduces an excellent toolbox to progress ideas – by the end you have something you can actually pursue and make a business model for, starting with identifying who you should talk with and what you should ask them”

“A very well-run course with a charismatic engaging facilitator – the stories and practical interactive exercises applying toolkits really deepened our understanding”

The SME-DTN workshop: Shape an inclusive workplace culture through inclusive communication and allyship took place on Friday, 8 December 2023 at the Institute of Physics in London.  This workshop was designed for postgraduate researchers and their industry and academic supervisors as well as the wider SEPnet. 

The workshop, delivered by specialist inclusion training company, Altogether Different helped delegates build empathy with the challenges faced by people in historically marginalised communities – giving them the skills and confidence to support diversity and role model inclusion of all kinds with their team.

Navigating the world of workplace inclusion can be difficult. With ever evolving identity language, understanding unspoken barriers that people face at work and maintaining a culture of belonging, there’s a lot to think about.

Delegates were able to reflect on, and discuss, practical ways to be an ally and understand barriers that people in historically marginalised communities face in the workplace. Attendees learned that allyship comes in many forms, but ultimately, it’s when you’re not personally part of a particular marginalised community or communities but you take the challenges on as your own.

The workshop covered diversity areas such as Race & Ethnicity, Gender, LGBQTIA+, Neurodiversity, Age, Disability, World Religions – and how these facets of ourselves shape our experiences in the workplace.

Thank you to Charlotte Butler, Founder of Altogether Different our workshop leader.  Charlotte specialises in facilitating sometimes sensitive conversations about identity and workplace culture. Charlotte has worked across many different industries and organisations. Her friendly non-judgemental approach helped us to build a better understanding for workplace inclusion – leaving participants with practical tips and knowledge to put into practice right away.