The first week of the Global Fellows programme was spent just outside of Beijing and was packed full of team activities and discussions. Each of our groups contained a mixture of Imperial and Tsinghua students from many different backgrounds and disciplines. I learnt a lot about working in different kinds of teams, and the different kinds of research that happens across the world. We were united by the theme of "Climate change and energy" and in small groups of 4 we developed innovative project ideas that we could pitch at the end of the week (which our group won!). Our group members chose to work with each other because we realised that we have complimentary backgrounds, in the field of biomass conversion reactions: myself, a fellow Chemical Engineering student from Imperial, and Yuchen, a Chemical Engineering student from Tsinghua.
Myself and another Global Fellows participant from Imperial stayed on after the week-long programme in Yuchen's research group at Tsinghua. For the first time ever I was based in a Chemical Engineering, not Chemistry, department. I realised however, that we were working on similar kinds of reactions, and used similar kinds of techniques, albeit approaching the topic from different angles. Therefore, I really enjoyed using my chemistry background and applying it in an unfamiliar way to my day-to-day research. I also found that I was able to introduce parts of my chemistry background to aid with their research and understanding. Whilst three weeks is a relatively short amount of time to produce a large body of work (especially in a foreign country in a different language!), I felt very engaged in the ongoing work in their group, and I felt actively included in the experiments as far as possible. Perhaps most valuably, I gained a deep insight into how scientific research is conducted in a foreign country, with key differences, but also many similarities. Previously, my only university experience had been at Imperial, but now I would relish further opportunities to collaborate with, and to work in, other research groups from across the world.
Tsinghua University is extremely different from Imperial College, most notably in terms of its huge, all-encompassing campus. During our time there, we had extreme downpours of rain, and extremely high temperatures (compared to London!). It became to feel like home for the three weeks, despite the large cultural differences. It was great to really gain a flavour of what it would be like to live in Beijing, far beyond that you would experience on a typical holiday. I truly enjoyed my experience at Tsinghua, and would strongly recommend the opportunity to anyone.
"Previously, my only university experience had been at Imperial, but now I would relish further opportunities to collaborate with, and to work in, other research groups from across the world. "