This year we are running summer In2ScienceUK placements online
10 August 2020
UCL Biochemical Engineering has worked with In2ScienceUK for several years to run summer studentships, but this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, Cheng Zhang (pictured left and Stephen Morris (righty) have been mentoring students virtually on In2ScienceUK's new online platform.
In2ScienceUK creates opportunities for young people, aged 16 - 18, from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve their potential progress to science, engineering and technology (STEM) degrees and careers to become the next coder, engineer, and biomedical scientist.
Cheng is mentoring five students, most of them chose chemistry and biology in the A-level. “I talked about research work and some general activities in our department,” says Cheng. Stephen is mentoring another group of five students, with similar background but including one also studying economics, who would normally be taking part in activities in the UCL Biochemical Engineering Labs, but this year are participating entirely online.
“We’ve been doing mentoring sessions, at least two sessions of 45m-1h for each group. It gives them a chance to ask direct questions about how the department works, how degrees work, anything they want to know. It’s been challenging as we normally use lab session to break the ice with students and welcome them to the department, but that’s not been possible this year. What we’ve also done is organise online discussion groups where they can ask questions and we can discuss ideas, we’ve used the three taster lectures as a jumping-off point to start conversations around subjects such as vaccines, synthetic biology and cell and gene therapies.”
In2ScienceUK are also running a huge range of online skills workshops and courses, as part of the Virtual Placement Programme covering a range of subjects such as how to write a CV, how to prepare a personal statement or how to work in a laboratory.
CEO of In2scienceUK Dr Rebecca McKelvey said "We are delighted to be working with UCL's Faculty of Engineering this year to give students from disadvantaged backgrounds access to the passion, knowledge and cutting edge research of UCL's engineering researchers. We know the impact this support makes on the lives of the young people we work with. Each young person will progress from the programme with better knowledge and confidence needed for progression and success in Engineering. I would like to thank all of the researchers in the Faculty of Engineering at UCL who signed up to give their time and support In2scienceUK students at a time when they really need the help."
Links
- UCL Biochemical Engineering taster lectures
- in2science placement programme
- Dr Stephen Morris
- Dr Cheng Zhang