02 - The University of Nottingham Open days 2018
Hi all,
It's been 9th months into the project and as I reflect on the past months, I realise that one of the most important and unexpected lesson that I have learned is that in research, communication is almost as important as science. Once the research is done, it needs to be effectively shared and communicated. There is plenty of ways to do that: scientific papers (obviously), conference presentations, research posters, social media, videos... Follow this link to a short video to see what the European Commission thinks about Science communication.
However, beyond research, it is important to share our passion for science, inform the general public about technological developments, and try to inspire the next generations (even though I am not that old, yet ^^). For this reason, I took part in the 2018 Open Days of the University of Nottingham (my host institution for SMARTI) last Friday and Saturday.
During the Open Days, universities welcome prospective high-school students and their parents to help them picture the university environment and the different aspects of their future degrees. Basically, it is a way to go beyond university rankings and written information to see for yourself. The visitors have the possibility to visit all the facilities that the university offers (classrooms, laboratories, gyms, restaurants, halls, etc) and chat with both current students and their future professors. On the university side, of course, it is a way to advertise the degrees and the campus, and attract the best students.
At this event, I acted as a ‘Demonstrator’ in the laboratories of the Department of Civil Engineering. My role was to give a small presentation to introduce the visitors to Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering. Following my talk, I demonstrated the phenomenon of resonance using a small steel structure and a "shaking table" representing a skyscraper and the ground vibrations due to an earthquake, respectively! On Fig 2., you can see me in action with the shaking table on the right.
It's been 9th months into the project and as I reflect on the past months, I realise that one of the most important and unexpected lesson that I have learned is that in research, communication is almost as important as science. Once the research is done, it needs to be effectively shared and communicated. There is plenty of ways to do that: scientific papers (obviously), conference presentations, research posters, social media, videos... Follow this link to a short video to see what the European Commission thinks about Science communication.
However, beyond research, it is important to share our passion for science, inform the general public about technological developments, and try to inspire the next generations (even though I am not that old, yet ^^). For this reason, I took part in the 2018 Open Days of the University of Nottingham (my host institution for SMARTI) last Friday and Saturday.
During the Open Days, universities welcome prospective high-school students and their parents to help them picture the university environment and the different aspects of their future degrees. Basically, it is a way to go beyond university rankings and written information to see for yourself. The visitors have the possibility to visit all the facilities that the university offers (classrooms, laboratories, gyms, restaurants, halls, etc) and chat with both current students and their future professors. On the university side, of course, it is a way to advertise the degrees and the campus, and attract the best students.
At this event, I acted as a ‘Demonstrator’ in the laboratories of the Department of Civil Engineering. My role was to give a small presentation to introduce the visitors to Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering. Following my talk, I demonstrated the phenomenon of resonance using a small steel structure and a "shaking table" representing a skyscraper and the ground vibrations due to an earthquake, respectively! On Fig 2., you can see me in action with the shaking table on the right.
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| Fig 1. Current students (students helpers) showing the lab to prospective students |
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| Fig 2. Me giving a presentation about Structural dynamics and Earthquake engineering |
That's all for today ^^
See you all,
Philippe S, ESR9