2023 MAPS Embedding EDI in Education Poster Prize Competition Winners Announced

3 August 2023

Congratulations to the winners of the 2023 MAPS Embedding EDI into Education Poster Prize Competition!

Embedding EDI into Education Summer Event

We welcomed several MAPS Faculty staff and students who attended the event held on 21st July 2023. The event aimed to strengthen links between EDI and Education by increasing the impact and visibility of EDI activities across the faculty's departments and institutes.

The audience heard from our fantastic guest speakers: Katherine Holt (Vice-Dean Education), who shared her thoughts on how to align EDI and Education going forward, the opportunities that are already there and the benefits of aligning EDI and Education; Nick Ovenden (Vice-Dean Advancement) who discussed the priorities of philanthropy such as increasing the number of scholarships for underrepresented groups within the faculty and supporting outreach programmes and finally, from Nick Achilleos (Vice-Dean EDI) who shared his closing remarks and vision for Vice-Deans to work together in future to create shared initiatives that can benefit and support more people in the faculty, particularly those who are already working so well in this area.

Embedding EDI into Education Poster Prize Competition Winners

Attendees had an opportunity to read through various fantastic posters and hear from the project leads about their Embedding EDI into Education initiative that had entered the prize competition. The decision was taken from a combination of the judge's votes and the audience's votes, and the 2023 MAPS Embedding EDI into Education joint-first place prize was awarded to Luciano Rila, Vivienne Leech, Javier Bautista, Scott Orr, Hector Garcia-Moreno, and Rhiannon Owen for their project "London LGBTQ+ STEM Conference 2023" and Shannon James and Rose Meadows for their project "Decolonisation of the Curriculum: Digging into its Colonial Roots". The runner-up prize was awarded to Abbie Bray and William Dunn for their project "Orbyts: Teaching Research in Schools". Congratulations!

We asked each winner to share their experience of working on their project and their response to winning the prize:

Joint first place: Luciano Rila, Vivienne Leech, Javier Bautista, Scott Orr, Hector Garcia-Moreno, and Rhiannon Owen

"London LGBTQ+ STEM Conference 2023"

Luciano Rila (on behalf of his team) said:

"The importance of running an LGBTQ+ network to foster an inclusive environment that helps alleviate isolation became evident when organising the London LGBTQ+ STEM Conference 2023.

From the enthusiastic responses when we promoted the conference to the evident joy of the presenters and delegates attending it and the feedback we got, it was clear that people were hungry for that. Strengthening the sense of belonging of minoritised groups in science and mathematics is essential to foster inclusive education.

The MAPS Embedding EDI into Education event was a great way to learn about the amazing initiatives that my colleagues are working on, learn more about good practices and hopefully start new collaborative projects within the MAPS Faculty. Thanks to the MAPS EDI team for the funding that made the London LGBTQ+ STEM Conference 2023."

Joint first place: Shannon James and Rose Meadows

"Decolonisation of the Curriculum: Digging into its Colonial Roots"

Shannon James (on behalf of her team) stated:

“This project was particularly challenging for Rose and me. We looked at taught modules within the UCL Earth Sciences department, webinars, articles, and literature that described both personal and physical barriers within the subject we study.

We had a wonderful team within the Earth Sciences EDI department that supported us by listening to our concerns and promoting objective views so that we could achieve our goal of decolonising the curriculum. We recognise that there is a global community of scientists that passionately work to decolonise the Earth sciences curriculum and welcome scientists from every corner of the world.

After attending the EDI poster event, I am so proud of the work being done at UCL on enhancing Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. I am thankful to have met so many people also passionate about this important topic. I hope to be more involved with the EDI community at UCL in the future!"

Third place: Abbie Bray and William Dunn

"Orbyts: Teaching Research in Schools"

Abbie Bray (on behalf of her team) said:

"Orbyts is a movement that partners scientists with schools to empower school students to undertake world-leading research.

Our goal is to address diversity issues in science and to support short-supply science teachers who have extensive time pressures. We accomplish this through a multi-term partnership that is proven to transform science inclusivity, inspire school students and teachers, and ignite scientists' leadership potential."

Thank you to MAPS we can fund a variety of projects – from Quantum to Jupiter! From DNA to exoplanets!

Thank you to all the other applicants for their efforts in creating great posters and leading important projects. Please see all other posters entered below. If you would like to see any in further detail, please contact maps.edi@ucl.ac.uk.