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ASHRAE UCL Student Branch hosts alumni career talk in the built environment
31 January 2024
UCL Alumni share diverse career journeys and insights with current MSc and PhD students
On 29th January 2024, the ASHRAE UCL Student Branch hosted an alumni career at the UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering whose purpose was to share experience and learning with current MSc and PhD students about how academic and industry work and can be successfully navigated. The event was open, informal and complemented by refreshments that allowed speakers and attendees to mingle and forge connections in a relaxed environment.
As President of the Student Branch, Cheng Cui opened the event which began with Rodrigo González Morra, a current student in the Smart Building and Digital Engineering MSc course (hereafter, ‘SBDE MSc’), recounting how he secured the ASHRAE UK Scholarship. Current PhD candidate Joanna Xie spoke next, discussing a career that began with her SBDE MSc in 2019 before moving to the real estate development industry before returning to academia. Joanna explained that current work focuses on examining user interactions with Digital Twins and their implementation in demand response. Joanna underscored the potential for career path uncertainties at various stages, emphasising the importance of experiential exploration in professional development.
Denis Fedosov, another MSc SBDE alumnus, spoke about his career path next. Now a Building Physics Engineer with Mott MacDonald in London, Denis emphasised how his UCL education equipped him to address complex sustainability challenges, contributing to the creation of green and efficient spaces in the real-world context.
Next, Duncan Grassie's presentation covered his transition from petroleum engineer (a field he worked in for a decade) to PhD candidate at UCL. Having graduated in 2023. Duncan noted how he could deploy the expertise he accrued in his petroleum engineering career during his doctorate about the health impacts of pollutants and climate-induced overheating in UK schools. Having detailed how this work led to his securing his current position at the UK Health Security Agency, Duncan provided personal insights about the contrasting work environments of small versus large organisations.
UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering lecturer Valentina Marincioni spoke next, focusing on how she has set out to achieve tangible impacts in her academic career. In balancing her joint roles as both researcher and educator, she described standing at the crossroads of both traditional craftsmanship in building design, and the digital revolution thereof. Valentina noted that her work, which focuses on moisture-safe construction and the evaluation of energy and hygrothermal performance in historic buildings, matters both for the preservation of, and innovation within building fabric solutions.
The event finished with another refreshments / networking event in which the participants shared ideas and experiences about their careers, their work and life beyond UCL as future innovators and leaders in the built environment. The overall consensus was that the Alumni Career Talk proved engaging, highlighting the myriad of career paths available and the importance of continual adaptability in students’ professional journeys in building services and sustainable technology.
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Image credit: Cheng Cui and Alex Fung