Soft Matter Research Internship (SMRI) Network

The DSOFT Soft Matter Research Internship (SMRI) Network is aimed at facilitating connection between undergraduate and master’s students seeking research experiences in soft matter with professors/PIs interested in supporting soft matter internships. The overarching goal of the SMRI Network is to build bridges between students and professors across the globe to broaden participation and provide more equal access to opportunities in soft matter research. PIs and students who submit their information via the forms below by Friday, May 24, 2024 will become part of the 2024-25 DSOFT SMRI Network.

Are you an undergraduate or master’s student looking for a research experience for summer 2024, fall 2024 or spring 2025? 

Complete this application to share your profile with PIs with open positions. Upon review of your application, you will receive a link to the list of PIs in the SMRI Network and their research projects.

More information can be found here: https://engage.aps.org/dsoft/resources/smri-network

Call for applications: 2024 Research Experience Placements (REPs) – paid undergraduate student opportunity

The Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Partnership (SSCP DTP) has now opened the call for student applications for REPs for Summer 2024.

NERC recognises that there is a shortage of individuals with quantitative skills coming into environmental science. They also recognise that there are demographic and diversity-related challenges in the environmental sciences. The undergraduate research experience placements (REPs) will focus on these quantitative skills gaps and underrepresentation by offering funding to support paid summer placements for undergraduate students for 6 weeks up to 10 weeks, during which they will carry out research projects within the scope of the environmental sciences.

Full details of the projects, student eligibility and the application process can be found here.

Deadline for applications: Friday, 17 May

Europe Regional Terminal

Citadel and Correlation One are inviting students to compete in this Spring season’s Europe Terminal, where participants will virtually compete for $15,000USD in our competition for students across Europe!

Terminal Live is an online game where software engineers and computer scientists (or anyone else interested in coding!) build an algorithm to play a tower defense game in a team-based setting. Watch this video to see Terminal in action!

When: May 13 - 20 

Where: Virtual

Who: Undergraduate students

Prizes: $15,000USD + Exclusive recruiting opportunities with Citadel and Citadel Securities 

APPLY FOR EUROPE TERMINAL

Y Combinator at Imperial

Y Combinator is coming to Imperial on May 2^nd! Join us for a talk with Group Partners Tom Blomfield and Surbhi Sarna, on May 2^nd at 5 pm in CAGB 200.

Sign up here: https://events.ycombinator.com/ycaticl

Tom was co-founder of Monzo, one of the first app-based challenger banks in the UK. Monzo raised more than £500m, counts 10% of the UK population as customers, and was the #1 recommended brand in the UK for two years running. Previously, he founded GoCardless (YC S11), an online payments processor for the Direct Debit system. In 2019, he was awarded an OBE for increasing competition in the banking sector.

Surbhi was the founder and former CEO of nVision Medical, which developed a first-in-kind microcatheter for the detection of ovarian cancer. After raising $17M in venture funding, completing three clinical trials, and obtaining two first-in-class FDA approvals, nVision was acquired by Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) for $275M, more than 15X money-in. Surbhi stayed at Boston Scientific for two years, running the 150+ person commercial organization in preparation for launch. She sits on both private and public company boards.

Both will share their founding stories and answer questions based on their experience and what they’ve seen from advising YC startups. Time for Q&A and a reception will follow.

Ever thought about founding a start-up? Sign up for Office Hours with Tom and Surbhi, where they will help you develop your idea!

Sign up here: https://events.ycombinator.com/ycaticl

Advancing Physics Student Ambassadors

New MRes Computational Cell Biophysics Programme at UCL

MRes CCB Slide

Student facing newsletters and communications: Learning Analytics Student Consultations

The College is developing its use of data to support and enhance the student experience, referred to as Learning Analytics. As part of this a team of staff and students are running consultation sessions to capture students’ opinions on how they would like to be supported using data analytics and attitudes about data privacy through a project: “Shaping Learning Analytics”

As part of this student partners are running 90-minute consultation sessions with a short questionnaire and focus groups where we hope to discuss how you would like data about your learning experience to be used. Would you be interested in taking part in such a focus group? These will be held over lunchtime on a convenient date and pizza will be provided at the end.

If you are interested and would like to know more about the study please see attached participant information sheet and consent form, before replying to Dr Camille Kandiko Howson, Research lead, at c.howson@imperial.ac.uk or register you interest via this QR code/Microsoft form.

Astrorock - a Cosmic Voyage through the History of Rock with Prof Pal Brekke

Prof Pal Brekke, Head of the Norwegian Space Agency is visiting Imperial next week and on Thursday 2nd May at 16:30. He will be undertaking will be a public engagement talk called 'Astrorock' where Prof Brekke uses music from Queen, Elton John, Iron Maiden and others to explore the Solar System and wider Universe.

We would be delighted for you to join us and tickets can be ordered (for free) via Eventbrite.

Fantastic Engineering Programme at one of the UK’s largest transport companies Stagecoach!

Fancy starting your graduate career – one of the UK’s largest transport companies (portfolio of transport and infrastructure assets managed by DWS Infrastructure) who are market-leaders in their field?

Who is Stagecoach?

• Transport is at the heart of a strong economy, a strong society, a strong environment and a strong community – and they’re at the very heart of the transport industry.
• Stagecoach has a privileged role in connecting individuals and communities across the UK to healthcare, to employment, to education, to leisure – and most importantly to each other.
• They’re proud to be one of the UK’s biggest and best transport businesses, and their people are at the heart of delivering their exceptional service to our customers.
• With around 23,500 colleagues they have operations throughout the UK, and every year they provide travel services to 1 billion customers across over 100 major towns and cities.
• Their values are built around growth and sustainability because it is right for their business, their customers, our people and our planet.

What is the role?

The Engineering department ensures sufficient safe and reliable vehicles are available daily for operational use. As a department, they ensure 8,000 vehicles go out each day and deliver their customers safely and in comfort. In this Engineering Programme, there will be a mix of technical learning opportunities to ensure you fully understand the complexities of operating Public Service vehicles.

Some responsibilities of the role may include the following:

• Learning about the functionality of a PSV, vehicle design principles, Transport law and regulation, Health, Safety & Environment practices within a commercial workshop, alternative fuels such as electric drive and Hydrogen fuel cells.
• Spending time at their partner suppliers working as part of the production facility to understand how a PSV is constructed.
• You will gain an insight into how Stagecoach standards are implemented to ensure operational excellence.
• Meeting with suppliers to procure vehicle components and services.
• Analysing data to benchmark vehicle types, route effectiveness and extend vehicle life.
• You will learn the importance of vehicle presentation to deliver excellent customer service, scheduling shift patterns to ensure planned and reactive maintenance is achieved.
• Once technically competent, their graduate will have the opportunity to manage engineering or central technical operations using their state-of-the-art asset management system to drive efficiency, improve vehicle reliability and reduce overall total cost of ownership.

Of course, they won’t throw you in at the deep end without support – a buddy, a mentor and great managers…you can count on them to give you everything you’ll need.

About you

• You must have a passion for engineering and demonstrate a commitment to innovation and sustainability.
• Those with any engineering/scientific background will be considered for this opportunity, and ideally you will have previous experience within a vehicle related industry or heavy commercial engineering.
• We are looking for graduates who thrive from continuous development and are not afraid to get stuck in with the team and get their hands dirty!
• The ideal candidate will need to learn all the role responsibilities and competencies of the varied engineering workforce before being able to progress their career into managerial responsibilities. This will take patience, commitment and hard work – but will be absolutely rewarding, entertaining and lead to endless opportunities.

I,Science call for website features

I, Science, Imperial’s leading science magazine, is looking for feature writers for the I, Science website, www.isciencemag.co.uk. This is a great opportunity to sharpen your science communication skills and have your work published on the website of a multiple award-winning student-led magazine.

To get involved, please send a 100–300-word pitch for an article you'd like to write to emilia.griffin23@imperial.ac.uk and olive.bradshaw23@imperial.ac.uk.

There is a guide to pitching attached to this email. Features are longer-form articles (800-1200 words) with a focus on analysis and interviews. Don't worry if you haven't written anything like this before; Feature editors Emelia and Olive will be available to guide you through the entire writing process. They'll also work with you to copy-edit your features before posting them on the I, Science website.

Recent features have included titles such as Learning language through detective stories, How nature nurtures: poetry and conservation, and Can cold water change us for the better?

I, Science aims to publish features on a weekly basis throughout the year, and we are flexible with deadlines, encouraging ongoing submissions. The website has a target audience of the general public who aren’t necessarily scientists!

Funded PhD studentship for Home students in Light Community in Advanced Light-Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy

Light-sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) is a high-speed 3D fluorescence imaging method capable of imaging at up to 1000s of frames per second and 10s of volumes per second. However, conventional LSFM requires two microscope objectives placed at 90 degrees to one another to provide orthogonal illumination and detection, which restricts how the sample can be mounted. Oblique plane microscopy (OPM) is a (patented and commercialised) technique developed in the Light Community at Imperial that uses a single high numerical aperture microscope objective to provide both the illumination light sheet and collection of fluorescence from the sample and can image in a wide range of standard sample mounting methods including multi-well-plate arrays.

This project will focus on the development and application of a dual-view OPM system optimised for 3D imaging of arrays of optically cleared fixed tissue specimens. The project will include detailed optical design, alignment, testing and characterisation of systems built around Nikon and/or openFrame microscope frames. The system will be applied to image arrays of optically cleared biological samples with collaborators in biology. Potential collaborators include studies of Drosophila brains (CNCB – Oxford), zebrafish (Francis Crick Institute, London), ovarian cancer tissue (McNeish Lab – Dept. Cancer, Imperial), mouse colon (Riglar Lab. – Dept. of Infectious Disease, Imperial), lymphatic and blood vessels in mouse heart and small intestine (Birdsey Lab. – NHLI, Imperial), liver cancer needle biopsies (Goldin Lab.  Dept. of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction, Imperial).

Imaging arrays of cleared specimens will result in multi-TB datasets, and the associated challenge of data processing and analysis will require the application and development of automated image segmentation approaches, including the application and development of machine-learning based approaches.

This project combines the development of cutting-edge microscopy technology, close collaboration with colleagues in biomedicine and the interrogation of large multidimensional datasets.

Please see this weblink for some background information on OPM: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/photonics/research/biophotonics-group/instruments-and-software/oblique-plane-microscopy-opm/.

Please contact christopher.dunsby@imperial.ac.uk if you are interested and want to know more.

PhD alert 3^rd/4^th year students? !

Want to build cutting edge mid-infrared lasers for precision tissue diagnostics via advanced mass spectrometry techniques? Then come on work on single cell metabolomics with us! I’m looking for a talented, enthusiastic, and hard-working individual to join our team as a PhD student across the Physics Department and the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College. You will work within a multidisciplinary team at the interface of physics,  analytical chemistry, and systems medicine. Fully funded start Oct 24 - home fees status required.

Contact Dr Robbie Murray - Robert.murray10@imperial.ac.uk - for more info on the project.

Beam-controlled phased array fibre lasers with machine learning

Novel multi-functional coherently combined fibre laser amplifiers

We are offering multiple PhD projects that combine state of the art optical fibre laser amplifiers with machine learning control to produce next-generation lasers. These programmable phased-array lasers promise to revolutionise materials processing and other important near-term and futuristic laser applications. In these projects you will design, construct, operate, and characterise these laser systems, including optimising them for control systems designed by machine-learning experts. These projects are based at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton, and are related to the large (£6m) research programme Smart Fibre-Optic High Power Photonics (HiPPo), which has strong research and industrial interests. The ORC offers enhanced PhD stipends (at least additional £2k per year) above standard rates for eligible candidates.

https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/phased-array-fibre-lasers-with-machine-learning/?p167564

https://www.hippo-laser.co.uk/opportunities

Mid-infrared laser amplifiers for tomographic imaging of chemical species in gas turbine combustion and green aviation

We are also offering a PhD project developing mid-infrared fibre laser sources for imaging combustion products, based at the ORC. This real-time analysis of engine performance will enable low-emission engine designs for aviation, amongst other applications, as part of the £7 million LITECS grant. You will develop the laser sources suitable for this chemical species tomography.

https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/mid-infrared-laser-amplifiers-for-tomographic-imaging-of-chemical-species-in-gas-turbine-combustion-and-green-aviation/?p158934

If you are interested in these areas please see our specific adverts, and you can contact the supervisors Prof. Johan Nilsson (jn@orc.soton.ac.uk) or Dr. William Kerridge-Johns (W.R.Kerridge-Johns@soton.ac.uk) for further information.

RAL PhD studentships

In partnership with several universities, the STFC Rutherford-Appleton Lab. (RAL) is now recruiting for 6 funded PhD studentships in Experimental Particle Physics, which will start in Autumn 2024.

We would be grateful if you could advertise these to any final-year undergraduates who may be interested. A detailed description of our PhD studentships & instructions for applying are in https://www.ppd.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/Students.aspx .

A poster advertising the studentships can be found in https://www.ppd.stfc.ac.uk/Gallery/PhDAdvert.pdf  .

Northumbria University Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

Reconstructing and analysing space plasma data using machine learning

https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/reconstructing-and-analysing-space-plasma-data-using-machine-learning-ref-nudata24-ee-mpee-goetz/?p165217

This project is being offered as part of the STFC Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science, called NUdata, which is a collaboration between Northumbria and Newcastle Universities, STFC, and a portfolio of over 40 industrial partners, including SMEs, large/multinational companies, Government and not-for profit organisations, and international humanitarian organisations. Please visit https://research.northumbria.ac.uk/nudata/ for full information.

PhD Postion at Imperial College London, Department of Mechanical Engineering

A college funded PhD position in Mechanical Engineering. During your PhD you will develop LLMs for dialogue feedback in STEM disciplines.

https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/phd-studentship-in-trustworthy-ai-in-education-large-language-models-for-automated-dialogic-feedback-in-stem-education/?p163014

Fire evacuation assembly points for Blackett & Huxley

Dear all,

Thank you for the feedback provided following the triggering of the fire alarm in the Blackett Building last Tuesday. Please see below for the assembly points that should be used when evacuating from Blackett (points A or B) and Huxley (points A or C). You must use the nearest escape route which may not be the same route you normally use. For example, in Blackett there are the east and west stairwells which connect floors 0-7, in addition to the main stairwell which connects all floors. Always use the break glass to release exit doors and keep roads clear in case emergency vehicles need access.

Further information on fire safety can be found here: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/estates-facilities/health-and-safety/fire-safety/