Graduate School News
Published: 7 November 2019
Graduate School initiatives and events to enhance our Postgraduate student learning experience
Ludovica Victorious at Science Slam!
The 7th Science Slam event was held on 11th July 2019 at Cottiers Theatre and 8 PhD students presented in front of an audience of 130. This year the presentations ranged from the origins of life (via messy chemistry), DNA nanostructures, underwater wi-fi, the psychology of swearing and singing! It was a wonderful evening, with some very impressive and interesting presentations.
As always, there was much heated discussion from the audience when it came to selecting the winner but the prize for this year went to Ludovica Credendino from the School of Chemistry. Ludovica says of her experience:
“I'd say the Science Slam gave me the opportunity to look at my own research from a slightly different angle and make my friends and family a bit more involved in what I do. I also really enjoyed learning about what people from different schools are doing in a fun way and just generally the positive and supportive environment both at the training sessions and at the event.”
The runners-up were Jiajia Zou from Engineering and Sophie Boyd from Geographical and Earth Sciences (we were very excited to have our first human geographer in 7 years of events presenting her work)! Sophie told us: “I really enjoyed the opportunity to creatively interpret my research. Getting a room full of people singing was so exciting and a real highlight of my PhD so far!”
Many congratulations to all our fantastic PhD students presenters! Relive the event with the brilliant photos and videos which are all available at: https://www.facebook.com/UniversityofGlasgowSEGradSchool/
Early volunteers for the 2020 event are welcome!
New Supervisor Workshop Programme Launched
Following a successful series of College seminars, the University has launched a new training programme for supervisors from across the University. The programme involves some really useful sessions on supporting students with their writing, coaching skills, resolving conflict and supervising students with industry (led by the Dean of Graduate Studies, Professor Richard Hartley and industry partners from Optos) and supporting students’ work/life balance. You can find information about all sessions here
EPSRC Innovation Placements
The Graduate School was awarded significant funding from EPSRC to support students to undertake Innovation Placements.
We are very keen to encourage additional applications to this scheme. Students who are funding by EPSRC can either undertake a defined project with our industry partners NXP or Spirit Aero, work with an existing industry contact or approach a new organisation with whom they wish to work.
Michael Allan Millar from Engineering is one of the first students to undertake an Innovation Placement:
“I am a second year PhD student in the School of Engineering. I work on integrating renewable technology into district heating networks. Most of my work at the university is computational, with little opportunity to engage with real systems or to understand the design and construction processes. As a result, I started looking for external engagement early in my PhD in order to obtain this experience. When I heard about the internship scheme I was able to approach industrial contacts with a different offer — a fully funded internship where I was only asking for in-kind contributions. It wasn’t long until I found sponsors at Hoare Lea who was interested in my work and wanted to collaborate.
From day one, I was made to feel welcome and part of the team at Hoare Lea. The company was very keen to assist with my research, while offering exposure to the office project work. I was paired with the most senior member of the team in Glasgow who was on hand to help whenever I needed it. He has been able to point me in the direction of company resources and tools, offered daily feedback and constructive criticism— much more than I would have received if I was based at the University. As part of the team, I have been invited to office and group days.
My managers at the company have been very supportive in producing outcomes, both qualitative and quantitative. They have encouraged me to produce publishable work that can be used as a reference point for members in the company, as well as academic papers which can support my PhD. This has manifested in two conference papers, a technical paper and a literature review.
Overall, the internship has definitely been challenging but has provided invaluable links with industry, experience with new software and has made me a more competitive candidate in the job market. I have been able to appreciate and look at my work from different angles and draw on a much broader pool of knowledge that has accelerated my work. In my opinion, an invaluable opportunity for anyone considering a career in industry or non-academic research sector.”
It is clear that undertaking placements has considerable benefits for students and that it will become an increasingly important part of the PhD experience for all funders, and not only EPSRC.
Should you wish to discuss the Innovation Placement scheme please contact the Graduate School.
Yalinu = Plutonium!
Yalinu Poya has been selected as one of 118 chemists around the world to feature on the Periodic Table of Younger Chemists (she was awarded plutonium as her element). This project was part of the celebrations of IUPAC 100th anniversary of the IUPAC and the 2019 International Year of the Periodic Table.
The table celebrates the diversity of careers, creativity and dedication of the chemists. The link is available at https://iupac.org/100/pt-of-chemist/
And you can see Yalinu’s profile at: https://iupac.org/100/pt-of-chemist/#yalinu-poya-pu
By Royal Appointment
It was not enough for Yalinu to achieve the above honour, but she was also given the opportunity to meet the Queen in Edinburgh!
“I was given this incredible opportunity to attend Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Garden Summer Party in July. I was nominated by the Papua New Guinea High Commissioner to the United Kingdom to attend this event alongside one other Papua New Guinean. I met the Queen, was in the presence of her son Prince Edward and most of all I was introduced to Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon by one of the Queen’s Guard of Honour. I had a 10 minute conversation with Nicola Sturgeon and spoke about my research at The University of Glasgow.”
PhD student hits the high notes
Congratulations to Human Geography PhD student Sophie Boyd who was nominated for Project of the Year in the Self Management Awards 2019. Last July, along with practice nurse Janice Merrick, she set up the east end community choir with the aim of helping local people beat various chest conditions using breathing techniques that support their singing as well as helping them manage their breathing techniques. Read more about this.
International Student Mobility
Angela Daisley, School of Chemistry
I was very kindly granted the Graduate School Research Student Mobility Award, which allowed me to spend a week in May 2019 at the Unite de Catalyse et Chimie du Solide (UCCS) in Lille, France. The purpose of this visit was to characterise my materials by using Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (ToF SIMS) to gain a greater understanding of my catalysts in my PhD research. Unite de Catalyse et Chimie du Solide (UCCS) is an institute that focuses on catalysis and they develop and use advanced characterization techniques.
The experience of attending this institute had a highly positive impact on me as I gained knowledge on other research being carried out in my area and I got the chance to explore other research facilities. It also gave me the opportunity to meet other students and experts from Europe in my field of research.
The work that I performed during this week has been useful for my PhD research and will be included in my thesis.
Giulia Viavattene, School of Engineering
I am delighted that I will be sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA) to attend the 70th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Washington D.C. in October 2019. This represents the major milestone of my first year of PhD at the School of Engineering at the University of Glasgow.
The purpose of my PhD project is to develop techniques for designing space missions to visit multiple Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) using a low-thrust propulsion system. To this end, an artificial neural network, which is one of the most promising techniques of Artificial Intelligence, is employed for a quick and smart estimation of the cost and time of flight of low-thrust transfers between asteroids. This topic is of particular interest across the aerospace community; indeed, the Global Trajectory Optimization Competition (GTOC) proposed the mission design of multiple asteroid exploration problems in four out of nine of its known-worldwide competitions. The analyses conducted during the last year have shown successful results, which confirm the advanced methodology used can reduce the computational time and effort to design a preliminary multiple NEA rendezvous mission with respect to the previously investigated methods.
Attending the IAC 2019 represents a valuable chance to present my work at a technical session of an annual congress that gathers all the space professionals. It will provide me with the opportunity to create a network for future collaborations, from which my work would benefit. The congress will allow me to meet and interact with experts from other universities and space agencies, whose feedback and unique perspective will foster my personal and professional growth. Also, being sponsored by the ESA Education Office through a prestigious award to attend the IAC make it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
An additional, valuable dimension to the experience is added by the IAC sessions on space policy and the future of Space exploration, which, together with the highly technical sessions, will give me the opportunity to listen to and interact with the most influential space authorities. Last, but not least, the space-oriented discussions and the chance to share my experiences with experts and students, which the programme offers, will be key to develop my critical analysis and problem-solving skills.
School of Chemistry
- Emily Cross was awarded the ABTA Doctoral awards 2019, UK Science and Engineering PhD of the year and also received first place for oral presentations at the RSC Scotland and Northern England Electrochemistry Symposium 2019 (Butler meeting)
- Valentin Fell won a poster prize at the14th International conference on materials chemistry.
- Ana María Fuentes Caparrós published the following paper: Fuentes Caparrós, A, Dietrich, B, Thomson, L and Adams, D: Using cavitation rheology to understand dipeptide-based low molecular weight gels, Soft Matter (2019)
- Moya Hay has published three papers from her PhD work as first author, passed her PhD viva and moved to take up a PDRA position at the University of Melbourne.
- Emma Regincós Martí is co-author on two publications from the Murrie group.
- Kathleen Kirkwood published the following paper: Alshehri, F, Feral, C, Kirkwood K, Jackson, S D.Low Temperature Hydrogenation and Hydrodeoxygenation of Oxygen-Substituted Aromatics over Rh/silica: Part 1 - Phenol, Anisole and 4-Methoxyphenol. Reaction Kinetics, Mechanisms and Catalysis, (2019)
- James McAllister won a poster award at the RSC Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Dalton Poster Symposium (this event provides an opportunity for talented young inorganic chemists (PhDs and postdocs) to present their work to the wider community and senior representatives from industry and academia.
- Andrea Carolina Ojeda Porras won the Best communication prize for a short talk (May 2019) in the 24th Lakeland symposium (Grasmere).
- Yalinu Poya won 1st place in this highly competitive competition organised by SCI Scotland for PhD students to write an article on any area of science in Scotland. Her article on ammonia synthesis research will be featured in Chemistry & Industry (C&I) magazine.
School of Computing Science
- Ibrahim Alghamdi won the Best Paper Runner Up Award for “Time-Optimized Task Offloading Decision Making in Mobile Edge Computing“ at the 11th IEEE Wireless Days Conference 2019 in Manchester
- Frances Cooper is currently doing an Internship at Google in Munich
- Patrizia Di Campli San Vito had her research highlighted by a press release by Jaguar: https://media.jaguarlandrover.com/en-gb/news/2019/05/sensory-steering-wheel-keeps-your-eyes-road?q=&start=0&brand=corporate which was picked up by Edgadget and other media: https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/29/jaguar-sensory-steering-wheel-heat-notifications/
- Sofiat Olaosebikan won the best poster award for 3rd year PhD students at the SICSA PhD conference for her poster titled: “Algorithmic Results on the Student-Project Allocation Problem“
School of Engineering
- Abdoalbaset Ali Yusef Abohmra was awarded the best workshop paper award at the IEE Science and Technology Conference in Fukuoka, Japan and the best paper award at IEEE IMBioC in China.
- Ahmed Morsy Mostafa Salem was awarded Best Paper at the 3rd International Conference of Energy Harvesting, Storage, and Transfer (EHST’ 19), Ottawa, Canada, June 18-19, 2019
School of Mathematics & Statistics
- Michael Currie, whose poster Modelling and monitoring the environmental impacts of aquaculture, won best poster at the Royal Statistical Society conference.
In this edition:
Welcome from Professor Muffy Calder
Research, Impact & Knowledge Exchange Feature
News Roundup across the College
First published: 7 November 2019