Achieving strategic objectives through stop motion animation at UCL Energy Institute away day

The away day was a much needed opportunity for all academic staff and researchers to catch up in person, and for some it was a chance meet their colleagues in the flesh for the first time.

The day kicked off with a group activity to foster reconnection and creativity, allowing everyone engage and have fun together after a long and trying period of remote working.

Groups were challenged to create a unique digital stop motion animation sequence based around a theme. They first had to create a storyboard, then take their chosen objects and digitally record them moving through a series of small sequential steps. The winning team were given the theme ‘Increasing Societal impact’ and created an animation called ‘Navigating choppy waters’ using a lighthouse analogy to show how our taught and research programmes can be the impetus for solving real world issues.

A playlist of the videos created at the away day can be viewed below or on our YouTube channel.

UCL Energy Institute Director, Prof Catalina Spataru, opened the afternoon programme with a brief reminder of the milestones and achievements. Each research theme lead presented their strategy and future plans for their theme, exploring how the existing assets and methods will be expanded, and how teaching, outreaching, and collaboration between groups/labs will be carried out in the next period.

Finally, all staff and researchers engaged in discussions on future priorities, collaboration mechanisms, capacity and consolidation, and other collaborative topics.

BSEER Director Prof Neil Strachan said: