Reporter

Bike Pool scheme trialled

27 July 2012

In an effort to make transport to and from the College easier throughout the Olympics, Facilities Management with Commercial Services have been trialling a Bike Pool trial scheme which allows support service staff to borrow bikes free of charge.

Senior staff members Simon Harding-Roots, Chief Operations Officer, Jane Neary, Director of Commercial Services, Neil Mosley, Assistant Director of Commercial Services, and Paul Noke, Head of Residential Operations, each borrowed one of the 10 newly purchased bikes to take a tour of the College’s residential accommodation.

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Tags: Commercial Services, Facilities Management, London 2012
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Ethos wins FLAME 2012 Award

29 June 2012

Ethos, Imperial’s sports centre in Prince’s Gardens, South Kensington has won the Educational Club of the Year Award at the Fitness Industry Association (FIA) FLAME 2012 Awards.

This is the second time that Ethos has won this award and the third time that they have reached the final three.  Finalists for the Educational Club of the Year award were put through a vigorous three stage assessment process, which began in March.

Members of Sport Imperial’s management team together with Neil Mosley, Head of Sport and Assistant Director of Commercial Services, attended the FLAME 2012 Awards evening at the Magna Centre and Ponds Forge, Sheffield on 27 June.

Mr Mosley said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive the FLAME award for the second year running.  Since winning in 2011 the team have worked extremely hard to keep Ethos up to the standard celebrated by the Fitness Industry Association (FIA) and to win again at the industry’s most prestigious awards ceremony is a really outstanding achievement.”

Tags: Commercial Services
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Festival fever!

24 May 2012

It’s midday on Saturday 12 May on the South Kensington Campus – the sun is shining, bunting and balloons frame the buildings, 1920’s jazz music is floating through the air and the site is alive with staff, students, alumni and their families and friends – all here for the inaugural Imperial Festival.

On 11–12 May the College opened its doors to the public and invited them to take part in hands-on demonstrations, music, dancing, stand-up comedy, street performances and art.

“The idea of the Festival is to provide an annual glimpse into some of the exciting work going on in Imperial laboratories today,” explains Tom Miller, Director of Communications and Development. “It gives people a chance to quiz the scientists on the front line about their discoveries and to learn or discover something they didn’t know Imperial was involved in.”

Conceived two years ago as part of a review into the membership and purpose of the College Court, the original idea for a festival event was born out of the desire to engage people, institutions and organisations outside of Imperial. Its potential to reach broader audiences including staff, alumni and supporters as well as the general public, was met with the decision to run it over two days and partly on a weekend to make it family friendly. The final format had four key elements, starting with a gala dinner on the Thursday night to celebrate staff achievements over the year, the launch of the new Court on Friday, an Alumni Reunion on Saturday, and the Festival itself on Friday evening for adults and on Saturday afternoon for families.

The event was organised in- house by a team led by Natasha Martineau – Head of Research Communications (Communications and Development) – who took on the mammoth task of creating the College’s biggest ever public event working with colleagues including Harriet Martin and Katie Weeks, and colleagues from across College, especially those in Commercial Services and Facilities.

We wanted to lift the lid on the amazing work that goes on at the College

“The main thinking behind the programme we put together was to lift the lid on the amazing work that goes on at the College, and to make it available to anyone who might be interested in what we do and how it affects their daily lives,” explains Natasha. “When you work here you sometimes forget what a privilege it is to have access to this work, and the passion of the people who do it.” Research undertaken by the team revealed that lots of staff and students across College were already involved in public engagement activities. Hoping to draw from this group, an invitation went out to all departments and institutes. Each one came back with a suggestion or two of something they wanted to contribute to the festival – leading to over 30 interactive displays in and around the marquee on the Queen’s Lawn.

Along with a call for proposals came a set of guidelines for the demonstrations. Each group had a relatively small space and was asked to focus on talking with visitors – from young children to members of the Council – and giving them something to handle. “We wanted to move away from the Power Point and posters you might find at academic conferences,” explains Natasha, “and create an environment where our many audiences could have a two way exchange with the scientists and where their questions and ideas might inform or stimulate the way we do research”. Professor John Seddon (Chemistry) got his first taste of public engagement at the Imperial Festival and explains how he enjoyed considering what demonstrations might work using his 14-year-old son as a testing ground to ensure they would be interesting to a public audience. “We had to put on demos that were within the constraints of being safe, nontoxic, non-explosive and not too smelly, but that would make people stop at the stand and think ‘that would be a fun thing to do’.”

John enthusiastically presented a range of experiments at the Festival – including a petri dish full of ferrofluids that, when you applied a magnetic field from below, formed beautiful spikes aligned along the magnetic field. He also did an experiment with corn flour and water to illustrate the properties of materials that could make flexible body armour for soldiers or skiers but would immediately solidify in an accident and offer good protection on impact.

Outside the context of the Festival, public engagement is becoming an increasingly important part of the expectations of public bodies that fund research. “In a way I welcome this approach,” says John, “We get public funding, so we have to justify what we are doing, and it’s also a good way to encourage a new generation of scientists to come forward.”

Dr Sandra Shefelbine (Bioengineering) is a big fan of public engagement and has worked with the BBC, the Dana Centre and the Wellcome Trust. Sandra was keen to get involved in the Festival and gave a lecture on how bones work (called Skeletons out of the closet).

“I think any time you try to describe your science to a lay audience, it benefits how you look at it, and events like this help to spark the intrigue of science at an early age.” she says. “I could describe everything in terms of equations or super-complicated modelling but in order to explain it in a way in which everyone can understand, you have to break it down into what is really important. That often leads me to start thinking ‘Why do we normally talk about it in such a complex way – is it really necessary?’”

The Festival attracted around 7,000 people over the weekend, which is a clear sign of the public’s interest in science, and the event is being fully evaluated by the team over the next few weeks. The hope is that this will become an annual event. “We had so many suggestions, I hope we can return to them in coming years. I also hope the Festival will continue to help public engagement become an integral part of the life of a researcher at Imperial,” says Natasha.

“I think it was the sense of wonder that captured people’s imagination,” muses John, “and as a demonstrator it was also a lot of fun!”

Read what some of our visitors thought of the Festival here

See a slideshow of images from the day here

— Emily Ross-Joannou, Communications and Development

Tags: Alumni, BBC, Bioengineering, Chemistry, Commercial Services, Communications and Development, Facilities Management, Festival 2012, Wellcome Trust
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Double Paralympic champion trains at Imperial

4 May 2012

British paralympian swimmer Ellie Simmonds (pictured right with Neil Mosley, Assistant Director of Commercial Services), was at South Kensington Campus on 27 March to train in the swimming pool at Imperial’s Ethos sports centre during a trip to London.

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Tags: Commercial Services, Ethos
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Prince’s Gardens halls recognised

4 April 2012

Steve Howe, Director of Capital Projects and Planning, and Jane Neary, Director of Commercial Services, picked up a Civic Trust award for the new halls of residence in Prince’s Gardens at a ceremony on 2 March.

The Civic Trust recognises excellence in the built environment and its awards are given to projects which make an outstanding contribution to the appearance of the local area. The halls, which were completed in 2007 and 2009, were described by the panel as high quality, attractive, contemporary buildings which respect and respond to their surroundings.

Tags: Awards and Honours, Commercial Services
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Master chefs

29 March 2012

Three of Imperial’s chefs have won the main course category in the British University Chef’s Challenge, held in Blackpool on 26 and 27 March.

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Tags: Commercial Services
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London 2012 Inspire mark

20 December 2011

Imperial has been granted the London 2012 ‘Inspire’ mark which recognises innovative projects inspired by the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The mark will be used to market Olympic-related activities which the College has been organising and to promote future ‘Sanka Days’, events at Imperial offering children from local schools a taste of Japanese culture, for example by trying Japanese dancing. Lord Coe, Chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, said: “I congratulate everyone involved in Sanka Days for securing the Inspire mark and wish you every success with your work.” Sanka is Japanese for participation.

Tags: Commercial Services, London 2012
Posted in College, Students, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Celebrate the festive season Imperial style!

16 December 2011

As term draws to a close, staff are looking forward to a week away from campus, celebrating in their festive finest and spending time with friends and family. To help you kick off the season in seamless style, Reporter shares top tips on how to prepare, with the aid of experts from around the College.

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Tags: Commercial Services, Early Years Education Centre, Ethos, Library Services
Posted in College, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Imperial mince pies

14 December 2011

Steve Robertson, Imperial’s Senior Sous Chef (Commercial Services) has been working at the College for 12 years and says the secret to a perfect mince pie is getting the filling right – he shares his recipe below:

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Tags: Commercial Services
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Postgrad housing opens its doors

13 October 2011

The first residents of the brand new postgraduate accommodation complex for Imperial students began moving in last week. Griffon Studios is a development of 566 studios in Battersea, which was developed by the College together with Berkeley First. Its aim is to expand the limited provision of accommodation available to postgraduates in London, with priority given to Imperial students.

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Tags: Commercial Services, Computing
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Imperial gets set

13 October 2011

Next July, as you tuck into your morning muesli in the SCR or work up a sweat in Ethos, the tracksuited person eating or powering the treadmill alongside you might just be an Olympian. With events for the London 2012 games happening on the College’s doorstep in Hyde Park and Earl’s Court, Imperial will be hosting a number of Olympic teams on the South Kensington Campus. Reporter finds out how the College is gearing up for the challenge.

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Tags: Commercial Services, Ethos, London 2012
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Team spirit

27 September 2011

Completing major building projects, generating record levels of income and collecting a trophy cabinet of awards are some of the successes achieved by the Commercial Services team over the past five years. It has been a year since Jane Neary took over the helm as Director. Here she speaks to Reporter about the highlights and the importance of exceeding student expectations.

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Tags: Commercial Services, Ethos
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Warm Welcome

22 September 2011

Every October over 2,500 new undergraduates, and over 2,500 new postgraduate students arrive at Imperial lugging boxes of soon to be read books, sparkling crockery and mountains of freshly washed clothes, to begin their life at the College. As Imperial gets set for the start of a new academic year, Reporter discovers how important those first seven days are to the students’ experience and their views of the College.

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Tags: Commercial Services, Communications and Development, ICT, Imperial College Union
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An exhibition of fine Taste

24 May 2011

Q ) What do a pot of marshmallow fluff, a kissing couple on a park bench and a snail have in common? A ) They are all arguably a matter of taste.

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Tags: Blyth Gallery, Commercial Services, Health and Safety, School of Professional Development
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Meet the Reader: Leena Barrett (Commercial Services)

1 February 2011

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Tags: Commercial Services, Meet the Reader
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