All posts by Cristobel Soares

17Feb/17

PhD Students examine the Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster

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This year’s Winter School, entitled “Building your leadership potential”, took place on the 13-15 February 2017 at Cumberland Lodge.  The former royal residence set in the heart of Windsor Great Park was host to 21 postgraduate students who enjoyed being immersed in its fascinating history dating back to the 17th century.

The 3-day residential school focussed on the skills required for  effective leadership and team-working. Different leadership styles were explored and each student attendee was given the opportunity to have their preferred team-working style evaluated using the Belbin model.

The core activity involved Columbia’s fatal final mission. The multi-media case tracks the Columbia Space Shuttle mission from launch as NASA engineers and leaders sought to understand the nature and threat associated with an anomaly that occurred on launch. Participants were given an opportunity to analyse the case using materials supplied by NASA under the guidance of Dr Trevor Long, Consultant.

Dr Stephen Haywood, Leader of the ATLAS Collaboration, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Dave Harrison, Galileo KMF Project Manager, CGI Group,  gave their perspectives on leadership styles from an employer’s point of view.  Prof Pam Denicolo, University of Reading, Dr Julie Reeves, University of Southampton and Dr Laura Christie, Royal Holloway University of London presented the Belbin Model and sessions on developing personal leadership awareness and skills.

Students also enjoyed the recreational activities available in the games room in the cellar at Cumberland Lodge as well as the historical ghost tour which took place in Windsor town centre.

A 3rd year postgraduate delegate stated the reason why they chose to attend this year’s winter school was because: “SEPnet events are vibrant, engaging and fun. A great way to network with fellow physicists while learning useful employability skills and personal growth”

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Delegates, trainers and SEPnet staff at Cumberland Lodge.

Photographs from the event can be accessed here: https://goo.gl/photos/8ueimQdAAnuU2ugVA

16Nov/16

Planetary Science School a great success!

conference, GRADnet

23 SEPnet PGRs attended the 2-day planetary science school at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, Middlesex. The school was led by senior researchers in the SEPnet region and comprised four sessions exploring different aspects of planetary science through a mix of lectures, seminars and tutorials.

Thank you to the following contributors:  Dr Susanne Schwenzer, Frances Butcher and Jack Wright , Open University; Dr Rob Fear and Dr Catriona Jackman, University of Southampton; Dr Simon Green and Dr Stephen Lowry, University of Kent and Dr Setnam Shemar and Dr Tian-Hong Loh, NPL.

Joint winners of the poster competition were Paul Hallam, Queen Mary University of London: “Investigating the Depth of Gaps formed by Planets in Protoplanetary Discs” and Daniel Staab, Open University:  “The Dispersed Matter Planet Project”.  Both winners were awarded Amazon vouchers.  Chris Malliband, Open University , received a special mention for his poster:  “1:3m Mapping of a quadrangle on Mercury”.

Overall feedback was very positive and one PGR said the school was a “very interesting intro to planetary science as a whole”.

Thank you to NPL for hosting this event on behalf of GRADnet.

01Nov/16

A PGR’s perspective on the GRADnet Induction Day

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Michael Hubbard, a first year postgraduate researcher at the University of Surrey gives his perspective on the GRADnet Induction Day held on the 26 October 2016 at the Park Crescent Conference Centre in central London.

“The GRADnet induction day was an enjoyable day out of the office. The day presented a brilliant opportunity to meet new people, even from your own university; not to mention networking with old friends from our undergraduate years. The workshops I attended provided me with an insight into the world of getting a paper published and explored the world of MATLAB”.

GRADnet Induction Day Photo 2

31Oct/16

GRADnet Induction Day 26 October 2016

GRADnet, PhD

The GRADnet Induction Day was held at the Park Crescent Conference Centre in central London on Wednesday, 26 October. 115 postgraduate students attended the day and participated in 5 workshops:

Getting your research published: Simon Harris, IOP Publishing; LaTEX:  Dr Paul Stevenson, University of Surrey; MATLAB:  Prof Peter McDonald, University of Surrey; Python:  Dr Timothy Kinnear, University of Kent and Organising meetings and conferences:  Kay Pearson, Employability Advisor University of Surrey.

Professor Peter McDonald, GRADnet Director, gave an introduction to GRADnet and details of the free training opportunities available in this academic year.

This was an excellent opportunity for first year postgraduates to network with their SEPnet partners. One student reported that the speakers were “brilliant” and the event was “top notch”.

Cristobel Soares-Smith, GRADnet Administrator, said “this was one of the best attended events by physics postgraduates and I hope to see many of the attendees at future GRADnet residential schools and one-day workshops”.

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