Project Directory 20-21

Summary

One PhD student who has experimental expertise with guided wave based acquisition and sensing and Labview in particular would be required to set up the equipment, and code the interface for the students to run the programme. The benefit to the student will be hands on experience with designing an experimental work, and set up equipment in the lab.

The second student will help develop the course work. This will be more based on signal processing and analysis, using programmes such as Python/MATLAB. Course work material will be generated with Jupyter notes. The students will analyse different data and generate the course work (with solutions) so it is parametric and can easily be changed for each student and also help with the assessment. The benefit for the PhD student will be to hands more hands on experience in teaching and I would also like to engage the student as GTA during the carry out of the course. This will help with preparation for an academic career.

Project lead

Zahra Sharif Khodaei, Reader in Structural Integrity

Further Details/Experience Required

Two students already selected upon collaboration. 

Summary

While the world has adopted remote teaching and assessment practice, greater emphasis has been placed on a crucial part of student life cannot be re-created remotely: Sense of Belonging. The aim of this 3-week workshop is to invent, develop and test dozens of methods of teambuilding interventions (including remote interventions) to foster cohort building. The outcomes of this workshop will be converted into a compendium format and made available throughout college for staff and students of all programs.

Approaches could include analysis how this is done quantitatively across college, benchmarking within the creative industries, talking to experts, and drafting own interventions using gamified approaches such as Gathertown or Among us (APP).

Students and staff will work together in the project though students will be full time. Students will receive some training but will be expected to co-own the project development. This project involves five sprint phases: Research, Invent, Validate, Design, Deploy

Project lead

Elena Dieckmann, Teaching Fellow, Weston Baxter, Lecturer

Further Details/Experience Required

8 students from any Department, working full-time over summer break for three weeks.  2 of these students will have the opportunity to continue for a further two weeks. 

Summary

The key aim of this project is to work with a student partner to create a web interactive application that students can use to develop/strengthen their practical skills in identifying various mineral species and rock samples. The principle of the app is to present students with an unknown mineral that they need to identify by analysing clues provided by the app (e.g. pictures, mineral properties, key characteristics etc.). Importantly, the aim is to train the users to recognise the key properties of minerals and use them effectively to identify minerals correctly. One of the app’s advantages is its accessibility since web applications run on a web browser, so they can be accessed from any device with internet connection. Also, there is no need to download any files on the hard disk for the app to work properly. Additionally, the app is highly interactive so that users will be able to choose their preferred level of difficulty and what kinds of minerals they would like to be tested on (based on mineral category or abundance). The users will also be able to use a custom selection where they can choose individual minerals from all mineral species available. Another app’s feature will be a comparison table, where users can compare 2 minerals side by side for a better recognition/characterisation of differences between the 2 varieties.

Project lead

Valentin Laurent, Senior Teaching Fellow

Further Details/Experience Required

1 Undergraduate ESE student with coding skills, working across 32 weeks part-time, during term-time. 

Summary

The long term benefit for the department, the College, and the wider teaching community, will be a teaching tool that automates 'low level' feedback improving timeliness, granularity, personalisation, and accuracy, all of which will improve the student experience directly, while also potentially freeing teachers for more high quality discussion with students.

This project is framed around collaborating with students to identify the key features, in software for maths learning, that add the most value for students. The scope is to appraise the current state of the art, including Mobius and other software (WebWork, STACK, Graide), and identify features, benefits, and limitations. We would then pursue the creative process of exploring new ideas, and consolidating them into a list of desirable features. Each feature would have a justification from the student- or teacher-user point of view, and we would likely rank the features.
   
The project is targeted at improving feedback, specifically providing, more, finer, timely, personalised feedback - all of which aligns with the Learning and Teaching Strategy

Project lead

Peter Johnson, Mechanical Engineering

Further Details/Experience Required

2 students from any Faculty or Department, working full-time over the summer break for six weeks. 

Summary

The aim of this StudentShapers project is for a group of ESE students to work alongside the instructor of the Low Temperature Geochemsitry course and a GTA from that course, and the instructors from the other courses relevant to chemistry in the department, to review and improve the existing Low Temperature Geochemistry.

The goals are to:
   i) identify which part of the course needs to be improved most, removed, or what topics should be added, so as to improve the student experience, streamline the curriculum and reflect latest developments
   ii) help develop material for practicals and homework sets that cater better to the interest of our student community, better train students and link to other courses more effectively.

Project lead

Yves Plancherel, Lecturer

Further Details/Experience Required

4 students; 2 student partners that have taken the Low Temperature Geochemistry course this year and 2 from more advanced third - and fourth-year students who have taken either of Paleoceanography or Biogeochemical Cycles. 

Working full-time over Summer break for five weeks. 

'Low Temperature Geochemistry' recruitment ad

Summary

The Academic Integrity in STEMM module ran for the first time this year for a small cohort (mostly students from Medicine). Next year, it is open to more students and I would hope for a larger and more varied intake. One of the most successful parts of the programme was the research presentations from previous students I have worked with previously. I would like to develop more examples to show the groups in the iExplore module and to include different research methods. I would also like this to use this as an opportunity to co-publish.

The proposed project will follow on from a partnership working approach used previously. A previous project focused mainly on developing resources from existing research, but this project will aim to generate, document and present new research. The exact research topics will be agreed with the students, but the intention is to cover research methods that will work for different disciplines and which are not clearly represented in the current teaching materials, including digital ethnography. The plans match several strands in the Learning and Teaching Strategy, including the research base, the use of evidence, building capacity and being outward looking.

Project lead

Thomas Lancaster, Senior Teaching Fellow

Further Details/Experience Required

2 students, ideally from different departments, working full-time for 10 weeks over the Summer break. 

'Academic integrity research' recruitment ad

Summary

As part of the undergraduate curriculum review, one of the changes to the first year curriculum was to adopt industry standard Computer Aided Design (CAD) software specifically relevant to Aeronautics. Consulting with external industry professionals as part of the Curriculum Review process revealed that these software skills are a sought-after requirement amongst graduate employers in aeronautics.
   
This student shapers project aims to develop digital learning aids for first year undergraduates to support their development of their CAD software skills as part of the Engineering Practice 1 module. The content of the learning aids is to be determined by the student partners through engagement with the student body, but will likely include video tutorials and other interactive content to support the delivery of the module using active learning techniques that are suitable for both in person and remote delivery.

Project lead

Roderick Lubbock, Senior Strategic Fellow

Further Details/Experience Required

Four students from the 2nd and 3rd years of the undergraduate MEng Aeronautics programme.  Working full-time during summer break for eight weeks. 

   In this project, we will do the following:
   1) Categorise the difficulty level of questions and identify gaps in progression
   2) Identify questions which can fill the gaps
   3) Identify the appropriate resources and context which can be added to the questions
   4) Code in the questions and resources on the platform
   5) Design a survey to assess the outcome of the project
   
   In this project the participating students will act truly as partners and their feedback and perspectives will be valued and implemented.

Project lead

Vijesh Bhute, Teaching Fellow

Further Details/Experience Required

Three students from the Chemical Engineering 1st of 2nd year, working full-time over the Summer break, for six weeks. 

'Bridging the Gap' recruitment ad

Project lead

Amy Picton, Wellbeing Advisor

Further Details/Experience Required

Four students from the Aeronautics department, one from each year group (1-4).  Open to all genders- encouraging applicants from a range of backgrounds and experiences- including but not limited to BAME, LGBTQ+, non-binary students.

Engaged for four weeks full-time during the Summer break.

'Gender and Mental Health' recruitment ad

Summary

The student shapers will help in the co-design of a new interactive material for an I-Explore module in Earthquake Engineering. Their participation will ensure that the views and perspective of students are incorporated at all levels of the delivery and assessment of the new module.

We are committed to building a module that incorporates innovative teaching practices and assessment approaches that improve student learning. The student partners responsibilities will include critical screening of module content and assessment, co-scripting of multimedia material to support the delivery of the module, participating in interviews with inter-disciplinary specialists, and co-production of instruction/assessment material.

Project lead

Christian Malaga-Chiquitaype, Senior Lecturer

Further Details/Experience Required

2 UG students from any department.  For 4 weeks full-time during Summer break, and 16 weeks part-time. 

'Earthquake Engineering module' recruitment ad‌

Summary

This project aims to work with student partners to:

1. Critically review lecture materials to create a suite of student-led “how-to” videos, which will expand the current archive and create a repository of teaching material for the future.
2. Create an ongoing “open-book” assessment datasheet for optical mineralogy, by developing new supplementary exam materials
3. Contact recently graduated alumni (via LinkedIn) who are undertaking further study/working in industry, to supply current examples of ways that they are using classic mineralogy practical skills in their research/work, to give the subject more real-world context

You will have the opportunity to use your skills and experience to shape how this course looks for future learners, working in collaboration with your lecturers.

Project lead

Emma Passmore, Senior Teaching Fellow

Further Details/Experience Required

2 ESE UG students, from either Year 2 or 3 so that they have already completed the Optical Mineralogy module.  

4 weeks full-time over Summer break. 

'Optical Mineralogy' recruitment ad

Summary

   The Faculty of Medicine is the first within Imperial College to initiate curriculum review across all of its Postgraduate Programmes, taking place in the previous academic year and currently completing its implementation phase.  Therefore, we have developed an online, non-credit bearing online short course (Adapt To Postgrad, or ATP) designed for students in PG Medicine to complete prior to the commencement of MSc/ MRes study (launching 1^st September 2020).  The StudentShapers will act as partners in evaluating Adapt to Postgrad (ATP)’s first year of release, by evaluating data analytics and feedback from the first cohort of student’s engagement with ATP. This will not only identify room to improve ATP for the next year’s cohort, but also contribute to educational research output focussing on how successful ATP is in aiding the transition between previous and postgraduate-taught study.

Project lead

Anna Maria Jones, Faculty of Medicine

Further Details/Experience Required

3 students for 22 weeks at part-time engagement. 

Summary

Working alongside staff partners to develop a game for enhancing medical education

Project lead

Renee Ewe, Faculty of Medicine

Further Details/Experience Required

Two students at Phase 1b level in Medicine, or students from the Computing department.  Part-time work from January to the Summer of 2021. 

'Serious Games' recruitment ad

Summary

The Longitudinal Community Clerkship (LCC) is a new Year 5 GP course currently being designed and due to launch in the academic year 2021 for 48 students, with plans for the course to roll out to the whole year group over the coming years. The course is a cornerstone of the new undergraduate curriculum following the institutional wide curriculum review as per the learning and teaching strategy. The course is based on the principle of longitudinal integrated clerkships, an evidence-based method of developing continuity through undergraduate medical placements, which in turn allows students to develop transferable skills such as empathy, clinical risk management and develop their professional identity.

We are currently in the planning stages of the LCC course, and we feel this is an ideal opportunity for a student shaper to partner with us in the development of this new course. A student shaper would be able to bring a learner experience to the project; adding unique insights that will shape the future of the course. We believe a student shaper could offer key insights into perceived curriculum gaps, challenges that may be encountered in undertaking the course as a student as well as views on adapting current teaching methods. In order for the course to be as student-centred as we envisage, we feel that student input from the earliest stages would therefore be vital.

Project lead

Vanessa Sivam, School of Public Health

Further Details/Experience Required

1 student from the Faculty of Medicine (at Year 5 or above), for 20 weeks working part-time during term-time

Five months part-time.  The time commitment for the students will be 3 hours per week in term time, with a break built in over the Christmas period.

'Equality Diversity and Inclusion' recruitment ad

Summary

Student and staff partners will examine the current LP2 theoretical material from the perspective of students with little theoretical understanding of molecular biology techniques. We will look at both the structure and content of the eModules with a view to ensuring that future LP2 students understand why they are performing particular techniques, how that technique works, and how to apply the results to their ongoing experiments. 
    
   Any student with prior experience of working on in Lab Pod 2 would have a good understanding of where there are gaps or a disconnect between the theoretical and practical aspects of the module. They will have insight into in the material lie, and how improvements could be made. In addition, their own experiences may offer up creative solutions to problems that have plagued LP2 for the past two years.

Project lead

Jacqueline Dickson, Teaching Fellow

Further Details/Experience Required

Four BSc Medical Bioscience (Faculty of Medicine) students who have completed the Lab Pod 2 module.

Working full-time over the Summe break for four weeks. 

'Coherent links for the LP2 BMB Module' recruitment ad

Summary

The Chemical Kitchen project explores the concept of learning across disciplines, taking advantage of how insights into the practices of work can be beneficially shared between apparently unrelated fields. Gastronomy is an amalgam of procedural rigour (ensuring consistency and reproducibility with tight deadlines), creativity and art. It is widely recognised that skilled chefs require high levels of craftsmanship, dexterity, co-ordination, and the ability to respond to the unexpected – all within the complex social settings of the kitchen and the dynamics of the front of house.

The clear overlap in the attributes of chefs and those of professional scientists/clinicians formed the basis for a pilot study in the Department of Chemistry (developed in collaboration with student partners) where year 1 undergraduate immersed themselves in the world of gastronomy, receiving skills training in a number of key areas.

A new set of exciting challenges based on cooking and food science (no pre-requisites required) will be developed to allow training in a variety of areas including:
   • The mindset of Mise-en-place
   • Physical organisation and planning
   • Professionalism and safety
   • Respect for materials and colleagues
   • Teamwork and timing
   • Close observation
   • Detailed record keeping
   • Commitment to reproducibility
   A new and exciting concept being introduced to the i-Explore module is the concept of students reflecting on themselves as being professional “performers”. Student partners will work alongside experts from Centre for Performance Science towards developing activities that will facilitate pupils’ journey to re-framing themselves as skilled performers and applying best practice of performance in order to meet the distinctive challenges of their work.

Project lead

Jakub Radzikowski, Culinary Education Designer

Further Details/Experience Required

3 UG students from any Department, ideally from a higher year of study.  Working full-time over the Summer break for six weeks. 

'Science Cooking and Performance ' recruitment ad

On the Lifestyle medicine and prevention programme and one of the things we teach about is the importance of physical activity in health and wellbeing. This year, with the majority of students and faculty sitting behind cameras for teaching and the general effect of the pandemic – most of us are less active.

The Chief Medical Officer guidelines suggest breaking up sitting time, even by 1-2 minutes regularly and this is what we teach about in the module. Yet the environment we create for the students is inherently sedentary, even from primary school age we tell children to sit down and stop fidgeting in a learning environment. Inactivity is a really difficult behaviour to change and innately humans want to be inactive, it's our default behaviour. We know as people age, they become less active and that behaviours that are formed in early adulthood, shape behaviours for future years. So in short, we need to get students moving.

We know that physical activity has many benefits – which include but are not limited to improving and protecting cognition and in optimising memory and learning. Physical activity leads to neurogenesis in the hippocampus – a part of the brain that, alongside other functions, plays a vital role in short- and long-term memory. In children and young people, there is evidence to suggest that physical activity improves productivity around homework and revision. Movement breaks can boost mood and reduce stress too. When students are active, they don’t just feel better, but are more likely to perform better too.  There’s also evidence to suggest that clinicians’ self-awareness of their own health behaviours and commitment to a healthy lifestyle are important in providing more effective support to patients. So in demonstrating the importance of this to future clinicians, we aim to foster a culture of prioritising one’s own health and wellbeing, to better serve their patients and align with the NHS forward plan.

When we discussed our students’ own barriers for behaviour change to include physical activity during the module, the consistent answer was 'lack of time' and 'busy schedule' which reflects responses from the British Active Students survey and similar work by UK Active and Sport England.

As we transition towards new teaching approaches, we must take student physical activity into account. And think about how can we provide the opportunity for students to be more active, creating a new social norm around physical activity in the university and within the module.

This project aims to co-create meaningful, physically active learning experiences for students and faculty, a really exciting new concept. In building this into our teaching style, we as a medical school are setting the agenda as to how we want to interact with the learning environment, but also more broadly, how we should expect to the environment in which they live and work- a culture that prioritises their health and wellbeing.

Rough outline below (which again is to be co-created and flexible around students ideas):

Plan (flexible in response to students’ ideas)

• Week 1: Workshops sharing expertise around physical activity interventions and behaviour change and expertise on student experience of the module and student behaviour. Literature review on the use of physical activity in academic environments with current content. Project plan and mapping out workstream.

• Week 2-4: Review of current content within the module and co-creating resources for module based on developments from week one. Scoping out how meaningful, physically active learning experiences could be addressed at a broader level within the medical school and wider college.

• Week 5: Write up and creation of presentations on work of project, writing recommendations based on our work for creating physically active learning environments and mapping out how this could be distributed in other areas of the school of medicine and further throughout the college.

Project lead

Dr Amy Bannerman, Stategic Clinical Teaching Fellow

Further Details/Experience Required

2 UG Medical students in their first or second year of MBBS.  Five weeks full-time (this is flexible) for the summer break. 

'Embedding physical activity' recruitment ad

Summary

This project will create a multi-dimensional partnership to re-design two key areas used by Medical students:

•  on the Charing Cross campus: the first-floor mezzanine in the Reynolds building, and ground floor entrance foyer (this area will have a particular focus on creating an educationally productive space with a symbiotic relationship to other (formal) learning spaces.

•  on the South Kensington campus:  The entrance foyer, including orange sofa area to SAF building, not including café area. (Similar in ethos to the Brian Drewe area above)

The project will include peer consultation process, scoping and identifying of key design features, consideration of constraints, student led designs and development of project phasing/roll-out. 

Project lead

James Moss, Senior Teaching Fellow

Further Details/Experience Required

2 UG students, from BMB/MBBS programmes in years 2 or 3. For five weeks full-time during Summer break. 

'Enhancing transitional learning spaces' recruitment ad

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that summative, high stakes school examinations were cancelled last year, for a large number of students in many countries. As a result, several incoming cohorts of undergraduates will now start university having not had these experiences. It may be the case that students do not feel as prepared, confident, or relaxed regarding high stakes examinations, especially when the next assessments to be sat are at university level.

We propose to investigate students’ experiences of sitting high stakes examinations after having had key examinations prior to university cancelled, and to use this data to create resources for future cohorts which will help them with exam technique and performance and build their confidence. We aim to work with first year undergraduates as our student partners, as they have lived experience of disruption to key examinations in their academic studies and can engage well with the current first year cohort.

The project itself has scope to sit within the wider context of the Strengthening Learning Communities project – a collaborative education research project involving the Department of Physics and CHERS, aiming to create a sense of belonging amongst the students in the department, by investigating students’ experiences, attainment, and course delivery and assessment.

Project lead

Jessie Durk, Research Associate

Further Details/Experience Required

2 UG students on any course run by the Physics Department.  Working part-time during term-time for 8 weeks, before commencing to full-time during Summer break for 9 weeks. 

Summary

   Imperial College London historically has a low proportion of WP students with exact numbers depending on the metrics used. The Department of Life Sciences is working to increase the numbers of WP students in the department thanks to new admissions initiatives. With new initiatives within the department targeting WP student access, including new projects this summer, there is a realisation that the numbers of WP undergraduates will hopefully continue to increase to better reflect society and in line with college-wide commitments as part of the Access and Participation Plan (APP).

Staff and student partners will work together to informally assess and analyse questionnaire and focus group results to shape the ‘full-time’ element of the project and decide on appropriate specific outcomes or resources to be generated. These may be curriculum-based resources that student partners can produce or broader level department recommendations (e.g. bursary suggestions or alterations to existing department schemes). Whilst specific outputs will depend on findings from focus groups, student partners will be responsible for elements of these outputs and will work together with each other, staff partners and potentially other stakeholders (e.g. learning technologists or the department Education Office) as appropriate to generate resources/outputs.

These might include videos, workshops or novel schemes e.g. buddy schemes that could support students and help create a sense of belonging and a diverse student community. Students and staff partners will hopefully be able to generate specific outputs within the project timeframe, as well as make recommendations to the department that are shared with senior staff. Students can work with staff partners (who are on teaching and EDI committees) to ensure that any broader outputs are sustained and carried out in reasonable timeframe and the HoD/DUGS will be invited to attend a meeting with students and staff partners before the end of the project.

Project lead

Catherine Mansfield, Strategic Teaching Fellow

Further Details/Experience Required

Ideally 3 students to conduct work over the summer term and part of the summer vacation. The project would ideally involve students from the department who fall into the category of working class/first-gen/WP students (self-identified). It’s worth noting that there is no accepted definition of WP students and some prefer to identify as first-gen/working class (Imperial Union has recently adopted the ‘working-class’ definition). This project takes a broad definition but focusing on UK students from under-represented backgrounds (specifically focusing on socioeconomic background and first-gen students rather than disability or BAME). It would be ideal to work with WP students across all different year groups (Y1/2/3) in the department, and across our two major degree streams (Biological Sciences and Biochemistry) as their differing experiences will be invaluable in this project and they are also in a unique position in terms of carrying out focus group interviews with other students who have identified as working class/first-gen/WP.

Working part-time during Summer term for seven weeks, followed by full-time work during Summer break for four weeks. 

'Improving Support for First-Gen/WP students' recruitment ad

Summary

The project has two main areas. Student Shapers will:
   1. Work in partnership with academic staff to review blended learning approaches and analyse data on students' engagement in blended learning environment to identify strengths and weaknesses of blended learning, as well as similarities and differences compared to traditional methods of teaching.

2. Develop a guide to support current and incoming Mathematics students' learning and teaching needs. This will expand on previous work, drawing on StudentShaper projects in Maths in 2019 and 2020, and include a video on "Life in the Day of a Blended Learning Student" as well as a written guide with data from the research done in part 1.

Project lead

Ioanna Papatsouma, Teaching Fellow

Further Details/Experience Required

4 Mathematics students, ideally one from each year of UG study.  Working full-time for six weeks during Summer break. 

'Engagement in Blended Learning' recruitment ad

Summary

The aim of this project is to provide a range of case studies from current students and recent graduates who have been developing their careers during Covid-19 and the challenges this has presented. The rational for this is born out of concerns expressed via student feedback about how easy it would be to find work or an internship during Covid 19.  Working collaboratively Careers staff and the student shaper will identify the types of case studies students will find helpful, look at structure and content of questions, consider how the case studies could be presented and carry out research involving focus groups or one to one interviews.  Once an agreed number of diverse case studies have been collected and finalised the student shaper will work closely with Careers staff to work these into a format which will have the most impact on the student body – ideas could include a featured section on the careers webpage, an online booklet, blog articles, short video clips - with the student shapers perspective on this issue being a key factor in reaching as wide an audience as possible.

Project lead

Victoria Sood, Careers Service

Further Details/Experience Required

One student from any undergraduate year group or department, working full-time over the Summer break for six weeks. 

'What I wish I knew' recruitment ad

Summary

This project aims to promote inclusion and support success for STEMM students from underrepresented groups at Imperial through producing and disseminating a range of authentic, tangible and evidence-based insights and resources for inclusivity and diversity.  To achieve this goal, the design of this project includes two phases with a mixed-mode approach for student engagement and partnership:

•   Phase 1 (during summer vacation) – resources development based on the key findings from the SIDUS research.
• Phase 2 (during term time) – resource dissemination across the College to assist student transition from school to university.

Project lead

Tiffany Chiu, Senior Teaching Fellow

Further Details/Experience Required

3 student research partners. Level 5 and 6 students across faculties (i.e. Engineering, Medicine and Natural Sciences).  Working full-time for nine weeks during Summer break, before commencing to part-time for nine weeks during Autumn term-time. 

'Promoting inclusion' recruitment ad

Summary

During this project, students and staff from ImpVis and the ITI will come together to design and develop a combined STEMM module, focussed on creating effective designs of visual learning tools. Together we are planning to:
   1. Design the structure of the individual 10 sessions of the module.
   
   2. Develop the learning materials for the three streams of ‘expertise’ that I-Explore students will develop during the module: pedagogic, graphical and technical design.
   
   3. Identify the learning platform for the module (and develop it where necessary).
   
   4. Create assessment criteria and rubrics.
   
   5. Trial the learning materials and improve their content with other summer students engaged on content-creation for ImpVis and the ITI in other (concurrent) projects.

Project lead

Caroline Clewley, IExplore STEMM Module Stream Lead

Further Details/Experience Required

6 students who have worked with either the Immersive Technologies Initiative or ImpVis before – they can be from any department and any year. An even split between the two projects would be ideal. 

Eight weeks, the time commitment to be agreed upon.