The Research Mentorship Programme, or RMP for short, has been a highlight of Connect.ed since the society’s launch, being able to ‘connect’ approximately 40 eager arm-chair experts in academic research with equally eager, more experienced mentors, for the first time! Being a mentee myself this year, I can say that it is an experience worth trying at least once while at UCL! The RMP Symposium brought in a large number of mentees and mentors, proving that there is hope and interest in the undergraduate research field; this year’s symposium was a fusion of knowledge fueled by topics ranging from Neuroscience and Genetics to Law to WWI Toy History to Smart Cities, Common Affairs and more! But for those who missed the sessions, here is a quick chronological sum-up of everything that happened: (with a slideshow below of some of the visual posters that went along with the presentations) 1st Session: How to Prevent an Escape of the Inescapable… Reading Neuroscience Papers by Nicole Vissers, Ria Badiani, Matthew Bazley, Sermila Ispartaligil, Lelia Jeilani, Jaimie Leung, Advaita Srinivasan & Parth Tagdiwala The team met up weekly to discuss academic papers on Neuroscience, choosing for the Symposium to focus on the topic of Depression: a clinical syndrome recognized for over 2,000 years. The researchers mentioned the long lasting effects of depression while tackling various solutions to depression by analyzing the structure of the limbic system, the theory of Monoamines and therapy with hallucinogens. Inhaling Genes: A Non-invasive Route to Deliver Therapeutics to the Body by Savvas Dimiou & Szeching Fung The aim of their project is to create inhalation of gene aerosol formulation (lipid-based vectors) in order to:
The team mentioned the challenges that they might face such as:
Gene Hunting in Patients with Rare Inflammatory Disease by Alice Burleigh & Francesca Montesi The team discussed the rare and complex Behcet’s disease (BD) and its traits. They also mentioned how the disease is affected not only by multiple genes but also by the environment which it develops in. Moreover, although it is often triggered by an infection, this is not the case in all patients. Given that BD spreads systemically in the body and it leads to chronic and relapsing tissue inflammation, monogenic rare inflammatory diseases may present such BD-like symptoms, leading to misdiagnosis. Research in this field is needed since there’s no diagnostic test for the disease, rather only some criteria available to aid the diagnosis and some BD treatments could actually be harmful. This mentorship investigated one patient in particular who was diagnosed with BD but has shown two significant reasons which point at potential misdiagnosis. Designing a Socio-emotional Cognition Task in a Sleep Paradigm for Neurodegenerative Diseases by Jade Lucas The team worked on a study concerning sleep, especially frontotemporal dementia. They tested online (due to COVID-19), purely based on audio, patients before and after sleep. They conducted a study linked to how people perceive sarcasm in the tonality of other people to test the socio-emotional cognition of patients. 2nd Session: Role of Ion Channels and Mitochondria in Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy by Matthew Bazley, Varenya Jalan, Neha Khawaja, Cyril Lemerle, Molly Martin & Kseniia Panteleeva The team discussed the importance and use of Ion Channels and Mitochondria in Induced Peripheral Neuropathy and Chemotherapy. They have analyzed multiple studies on the topic and then presented them in detail in their presentation. Understanding the Relationship Between Participation in City Planning and Urban Governance by Aleksandra Milentijevic, Justine Bandegas, Elena Colonna & Dale Connellan They explained the importance of global collaboration & implementation in city planning and urban governance while analyzing different worldwide cases on the topic. Unboxing Recipe Boxes: Using Social Media for Generating Insights into Recipe Box and Food Subscription Services by Sonja Tilly, Anirudh Lakra & Hiru Ranasinghe The team discussed how they conducted their market research for Recipe Subscription Boxes on social media. They converted tweets from Twitter into vectors for an AI machine to read them and searched the most common # in foods such as: chicken, soup, rice. Based on how common # were it was easier to see the trends for the boxes ex. People start searching more for calories, then it made sense that boxes with lower calories would sell more. Courts and Stability in Consociational Systems of Power-Sharing: The Case of Northern Ireland by Haocheng Fang, Alexandre Gliott, Anthi Sotiropoulou-Nassika & Matilde Placci The team discussed the stability of Northern Ireland courts in consociational systems of power-sharing. Session 3: The Various Intentions of the Multilingual Book: Reception, Handling, Uses by Daria Chernysheva, Sermila Ispartaligil & Maria Stoica The team discussed the materiality of books as objects how hierarchies are imposed through bilingual text and what problems these rise:
The impact of Public Diplomacy on Foreign Policy and A Reflection on the study of Cultural Diplomacy by Firdevs Bulut, Henriette Tabbert (wasn’t present) & Alex (Zi) Won Mentees had the opportunity to be immersed in 21st century British and German Cultural Diplomacy and how these are taking policies and translating them into culture projects. The mentees came up with their own topic related to cultural diplomacy and they came up with topics ranging from cultural diplomacy between the Trump administration and Germany to UN vs Asean governmental blocks. Interpreting Cultural Artifacts: British and German Toys and Games from the Age of Empire by Les Newsom, Stephanie Cunningham & Matilde Masetti-Placci The team compared cultural artifacts such as toys, games, books from the Age of Empire to analyze what effects these had on children. The children who played with these toys (before the WWI) would go on to participate in WWI and maybe even lead in WWII and participate in the post conflict world. They analyzed how a German company making toys for Britain could have marketed racist toys; how red indians were sold with fantastical/familiar figures in order to perpetuate stereotypes and how the toy industry was very aware of what they were selling. The Puzzle of High-Risk Participation: How do Peace Movements Emerge in the Midst of War? by Vaania Achuthan, Lia Goldman, Nathalia Gonzalez Gutierrez, Richard Kresina, Maria Patouna, Annita Petrides, Aaditya Subramanian & Bianca Voican Peace communities are outliers and thus it’s important to analyze how people mobilise across different contexts. Different sources might result in different outcomes. Lots of members of different communities are in danger because people are detained by the police and some are arrested and kept in prisons without access to any family contacts or lawyers. Session 4: Investigating the Association of the Oral Microbiome and Parkinson's Disease by Eva Lymberopoulos & Alessandra Quigley The team discussed the studies they conducted on the connection between Oral Microbiome and Parkinson’s Disease while presenting other relevant academic papers on the same topic. Literature Review and Data Analysis of Literature on Self-Healing Infrastructure Systems by Michael Chan, Noella Kalasa & Ainiah Masood The team discussed the importance of self-healing systems in Infrastructure from the lenses of transport, energy and green energy such as Water Energy-Nexus! Project-Based Research Development - Smart City Development by Shade Adepeju-Joseph, Renee Etokakpan, Kirtana Krishnakumar, Alexia Mihaila & Tori Simpson The team which went by the name Project White Swans managed to analyze how important privacy and security are when implementing smart cities projects by analyzing different case studies such as the failed Waterfront Toronto Project or by carrying and composing worldwide online surveys to gauge the public’s trust with smart city technologies. All in all, the Symposium was an absolute success and displayed the importance of research in expanding the horizons of undergraduates with the help of other graduate UCL students. We can’t wait to see what the next year’s RMP has to offer!
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It’s the middle of March, spring is finally here. Now that the weather is getting warmer and the second term is coming to an end, it is finally possible to go out for a walk without the need of covering ourselves in countless layers of sweaters and coats. But while doing all this, it might be worth to stop for a second and think about our relationship with nature and start to feel the life that surrounds us in all the trees and grass. And its fragility. And also our own.
Of course, this is the part where normally the author of an article like this would start to speak about climate change, the need for sustainability and preserving nature, all topics that are extremely important and popular nowadays, especially among younger audiences. We are all aware of the severity of such problems, so I won’t list the specific predictions and statistics about global warming, the ongoing mass extinction of species or the rising sea levels – you can hear about that in all the speeches of Greta Thunberg or thankfully, almost everywhere by now, thanks to challenges like Veganuary of Plastic Free July, the work of newspapers or organisations like the XR demonstrating effectively. However, both Veganuary and Plastic Free July focus on the decisions of the individual within society, similarly to what we can hear in awareness campaigns about turning the lights off, boycotting fast fashion or recycling our plastic waste. Of course, all of these initiatives are great, and the world is better off with them than without since they all focus on important aspects of a more sustainable future. But unfortunately, acknowledging such ideas doesn’t change the fact that they are essentially insufficient – even if the hip young professionals could be all convinced to not eat meat anymore on the basis of how much water is needed to produce it (or any other moral or environmental reason), we simply don’t have the time to persuade everyone. Even though it is easy to think that ‘everyone’ is vegan or at least vegetarian - if we spend all our time in a comfortably small and woke bubble -, it is important to remember that the majority of the world is located outside of this very limited personal perspective. And, of course, there are also reasons for that, partially awareness, but mostly the lack of easy-to-afford alternatives, the necessary knowledge about how to break with traditions while maintaining identity, and simply, in the case of older generations, habit and familiarity. In reality, above all the campaigning for awareness, it is crucial to keep in mind that most of these problems stem from the fact that the well-meaning individual is forced to live in a socio-economic system that is designed to assist the wants of the elites and those in power instead of focusing on what would be best for the many. This is what allows nature conservation aspects to be swept away by the needs of agriculture and this is what creates useful loopholes for big industries whenever possible – for example, with Brexit just three months ago. Another recent example is the February winter storm in Texas - since private power companies only focus on maximising their profit, they haven’t spent a dime on winterising their power plants, even though they knew the risks from history. They simply weren’t legally enforced to make changes, so at least 57 people died in hypothermia. These are only two examples, but there are countless others that all point in the same direction. Persuasion, taxes or offsets are not enough: the only way forward is with clear and strict bans. But those only come if there is political will; if the societal pressure is strong enough to make it impossible for leading politicians to get away with secret deals and empty promises instead of taking action, and if we elect parties and politicians who are willing to stand up against corporate forces and lobbying powers. So here is the most important takeaway of this short article I wrote on a Wednesday morning: if you want to have the chance to enjoy spring (or even to just _have_ spring and not only winter and summer) in the future as well, if you want to grow old, if you want to go on walks and be able to take a deep breath from the clean air, if you really want to have Earth as a shared home in the future as well, then we must push for constant change and innovative actions. Ban fossil fuels, try to eat less animal products, be mindful of your presence in this world – unlike the generations before us, we just cannot afford to turn a blind eye to these threats any longer. |
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March 2021
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