Friday 25 March 2016

Pop-O-Matic at Lampton School

Recently, after completing the second out of the four Pop-O-Matics (balloon-popping laser system used for Outreach events), Lampton School, a local school in the area I grew up in wanted to borrow it for #ScienceWeek. I was so excited to see the Pop-O-Matic in a school near my home!

The Pop-O-Matic was shown as a demo at the end of a whole school assembly about Science. I was told there was a huge roar of applause after the balloon was popped with the Pop-O-Matic I built. This was music to my ears as I spent many long hours in the lab trying to make it perfect and to hear positive things like that about something I built was magical. When I went to collect it I got a showering of Pop-O-Matic compliments which made me have the cheesiest grin on my face on my journey to university!

'Thanks for letting us borrow the Pop-O-Matic - it worked great in the assembly and the students loved it!'
- Lampton School -


Aww, this was so lovely and I cannot wait for the Pop-O-Matic to go on more Outreach adventures! The Pop-O-Matic was also used in Lampton's Science Club that day and the students loved it - it definitely spiced up their science club session! Check out their reaction in the video below:


Check out how I made the Pop-O-Matic by following the hashtag #PopOMatic on Instagram and Twitter but also by checking out the Pop-O-Matic Facebook page here

Follow @meriameberboucha on Instagram and @MBerboucha on Twitter for more Pop-O-Matic updates!

Here are some pictures of me and my precious Pop-O-Matic in Lampton School's Science Department ;)


Add caption

The Pop-O-Matic in all its glory

#Caution (don't worry it is totally safe for use in schools)

Am clearly so excited about the Pop-O-Matic being in the Science Department at Lampton School!




How can you not love a laser? #Awesomeness

Launch of Women in STEM Student Society Network

It was the last day of term for me on Wednesday, after I did a presentation for one of my courses, I had celebratory lunch and was then off to King's College to meet the legend that is, Jess Wade to celebrate the LAUNCH of a NEW Women in Science and Engineering Student Societies Network! #Awesomeness



So what's the Women in STEM Student Society Network?
Well, it was founded by Jess Wade, who is on the WISE Young Women's Board. It's a huge network for all those that are a part of Women in Science and Engineering student societies to share resources, experiences and just support each other! It's a great initiative and I just had to support Jess with this AMAZING project!

So the launch was held at King's College London which was the most picturesque university setting I have ever seen. Large chandeliers, Roman looking statues and wooden floors filled the stone buildings - it was just be-a-utiful!

Forgot to take a picture of all the chandeliers and statues but here's the room where the launch was held..

..pretty neat! #Artistic

But before the start of the launch I joined Jess for her session on how undergraduates can get involved with Outreach for the King's students. She told them how they could get involved at King's and with other schemes, where they could get resources from and she gave them general tips to help them on their way to becoming Outreach stars! She invited me along to share my experiences with Outreach, in particular my experience of setting up my own Science Club at my old school. The students that attended were so keen to get involved with Outreach and I was particularly impressed by the fact that one of the undergraduates set up a Robotics Club at his old school which entered the Big Bang Fair this month! #Awesomeness

Sharing my experiences of setting up a Science Club at my old school. #HopingToInspire

The clock struck 6pm and it was time to start heading over to where the launch was about to start. Jess and I made sure the room was ready for when our #WomenInSTEM visitors arrived.

Wine,

...beer, and nibbles.

Projector all set up

6:30pm: The guests were arriving! I saw a lot of familiar Imperial physics undergraduate faces which was so lovely. A few UCL #WomenInPhysics members who I had met at an Imperial event were also there and it felt like a huge reunion. As soon as they walked in they immediately began chatting and it was so lovely to see all the #WomenInSTEM supporting each other - it was an irreplaceable feeling. #Awesomeness 

Whilst we were chattering away, a lovely first year undergraduate from King's spoke to me about her ambitions of becoming a medical physicist. It was like talking to a younger version of me - we were both passionate about medical physics! I told her about my experiences of shadowing medical physicists and she had already secured a shadowing experience so I told her to go for it! I love events like these where everyone can help each other in positive ways - such an incredible feeling! :)

The chit-chatter could be heard all the way down the corridor! #EpicWomenInSTEM #Networking

A range of #WomenInSTEM attended from a variety of universities (King's, Imperial, UCL, Queen Mary's)

7:00pm: Pizza arrived! And of course this just meant that the lovely #WomenInSTEM were all charged up for more conversations! It was great - they all inspired each other. It honestly made me want to say Awwwwww... this is so cute! (Jess would probably be a millionaire if she got a pound for every time I said that that evening ;)

Mmmmm... Tasty

Once our stomachs were filled with scrumptious pizza, Jess, kicked off the launch with an introduction to the Network how the #WomenInSTEM could benefit from it and how they could get involved. More info about the Network can be found on the website here. Also, check out Jess' blog post about the event here.

Jess doing her thang #Inspiration

And our special guest, the co-founder of the STEMettes, Jacquelyn Guderley, made an appearance too! She spoke about how we could all get involved with the STEMettes and the whole room of #WomenInSTEM were behind this idea and were eager to get involved! #ExcitingTimes

Jacquelyn talking all things the STEMettes

And in the words of Beyonce, Who run the world? Girls! #WomenInSTEM

And the launch came to an end but the conversations continued! Even when we were kicked out by the cleaner I saw all the #WomenInSTEM visitors talking to each other outside even though it was coming towards 9:30pm! I cannot be more proud of Jess - I think it's safe to say that the launch was a success!!

'I think we're onto something big'
- Jess Wade -

Are you a part of a WISE Student Society then why not get involved! Check out the WISE Student Network website here. Don't forget to like the Facebook page here. Thanks for your support and we hope to see all of you get involved! Together we can make a difference.

Sunday 6 March 2016

Stylish Academic

Stylish Academic, is an online lifestyle and fashion magazine for academics. I noticed they had lots of posts on what to wear for conferences but no posts on what to wear in the lab. So I contacted them via Twitter and we arranged a post to be written, titled 'Style Laboratory with Meriame'. This was an opportunity to turn the research labs at Imperial College into a photoshoot environment! #OhYeah #Fashionista #Fashion&Physics #StyleLab

After getting the okay from my supervisor from the Plasma Physics group at Imperial (and after a roar of laughter after he heard what I was going to turn his labs into) I got to work with a first year PhD student, Sam Eardley, to get those 'fashion in the lab' snaps! It was great fun just working out artistic shots and trying to mix laboratory physics and fashion! Who says fashion and physics don't go hand in hand?! ;) 

The founder of the magazine loved my article so much that she turned it into a series of articles! This was such exciting news! :) Never thought I'd have my own series of articles with Stylish Academic! Thanks Stylish Academic! :)

Find the articles below and subscribe for more:
Look 1 #SophisticatedFashionista
Look 2 #ParisianChic
Look 3... (coming soon)
Look 4... (coming soon)
Look 5... (coming soon)
Look 6... (coming soon)

Here are a few #StyleLab snaps that didn't make the final article - shout out to Sam Eardley for the brilliant photography skills:



















Feel free to tweet your lab outfits with the hashtag #StyleLab on twitter to @MBerboucha and @Stylish_Academi and tag your pictures on instagram with @meriameberboucha and @Stylish_Academic followed by the same hashtag #StyleLab - I look forward to seeing your outfits!

Institute of Researchers in Schools Launch at the Science Museum

This Thursday was a whirlwind of a day! Had a french exam and straight after I rushed over to the Science Museum where I had the opportunity to represent the Young Scientists Journal at the Institute for Research in Schools (IRIS) launch - what a day! I honestly feel like I'm living two lives like Hannah Montana! ;)

So what's IRIS all about?
IRIS is all about getting young scientists (as young as 12 year olds or even younger!) engaged and involved with scientific research! IRIS is a charitable trust that helps supports school students and teachers with getting more research into schools. Check out what research related projects are out there for you/your students here.


What's the Young Scientists Journal?
The Young Scientists Journal is the first peer reviewed journal, edited and written by 12-20 year olds from across the globe! There are a group of adult mentors, the International Advisory Board that supports the journal and is led by the founder of the Journal, Christina Astin.

The Journal publishes original research carried out by young scientists and other articles are published on their blogs, the website and news outlets.

If you're aged 12-20 years old and have carried out some research of your own then why not publish your work in the Young Scientists Journal! Find out more info here.


How did I get involved with the Journal?
When I was 17, I applied for a Nuffield Science Placement and luckily, I was fortunate to get a placement with the Comprehensive Cancer Imaging Centre at Imperial College London! This was the most exciting thing to have happened to me in my life so far and I was SO excited to get my hands stuck into some original research work! I carried out some work on the effects of different sized cancer cell drug molecules on cancer cell growth. This research work then went on to be displayed at the Big Bang Fair in 2013 where I entered the National Science and Engineering Competition and met Prof. Brian Cox! I was also awarded the Highly Commended Prize in the Senior Science and Maths category. So all in all, it was an amazing experience that I'll never forget and I hope other young scientists can experience too - so why not enter your research work into the National Science and Engineering Competition here. Good luck! :) 

So once the hectic-ness of the Competition died down I received a leaflet through the post that was all about a chance to publish my research work in the Young Scientists Journal - how could I say no?! So I had to condense my 24 page report down to four pages for the Journal! This was the first time I had ever written a scientific report before for original research so it took a bit of time but I finally got there. A few months later and my work got published in the Journal - this honestly made me cry, it was the first time I had achieved something as grand as this outside of school and coming from a state school I honestly became a celebrity at my school and so many young students knew my name and would come and speak to me when I was walking from class to class. Some even expressed the fact that I was a huge inspiration for them and that I showed them that they could achieve something regardless of the fact that they came from a state school - another tear-inducing moment!

So, I became an author of the Journal and now that I am out of the age-range to still be an author I have recently been promoted to a more senior position and am now part of the International Advisory Board after being spotted by Christina Astin on Twitter! I now work to check the scientific accuracy of the articles submitted to the Journal, act as an Ambassador and help promote it and encourage other students to get involved.

Find out more about the Nuffield placement here, more about the Big Bang Fair here and here's my research work in the Young Scientists Journal here (p. 42). 

Little Meriame working in a biochemistry lab in the Comprehensive Cancer Imaging Centre, Imperial College London

Met Greg Foot and Liz Bonnin at the Big Bang Fair whilst I was getting my award #LifeEqualsMade 


What was I doing at the Science Museum?
As part of IRIS Launch, the Young Scientists Journal was invited to hold a stand at the event to raise awareness of the Journal so that all those young scientists doing research in schools can have a place to show off their work! As an ambassador for the Journal I was invited by Christina to promote the Journal at the event and I was buzzing with excitement! #ExcitementOverload


Here's what went on at the Science Museum in pictures - enjoy! :)
Christina Astin (founder of YSJournal) and I at the YSJournal stand in the Information Age Gallery in the Science Museum

Christina and Rose Meddings, an A Level student that is involved with the work of YSJournal was also there at the stand promoting the Journal and just being a great, inspiring Ambassador! It was great to meet her! :)

After a quick set up of the stand it was time to enter the IMAX theatre for the talks and the launch of IRIS! WOOO! :D

We were greeted by a wonderful choir #SoPosh


The talks were held in the IMAX theatre which is 24.3m by 16.8m large!

Dr. Becky Parker hosted the event and is the Head of Physics at the Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys and Director of the Langton Star Centre. One of the projects to have come out of the Centre was the Langton Ultimate Cosmic Ray Intensity Detector (LUCID)

Dr. Parker was so enthusiastic about IRIS which I loved and it was certainly contagious! She wants all schools to have the opportunity for their students to partake in research. Woop! Woop!

Next up in the line up of talks was Lord Martin Rees - leading astrophysicist and senior figure in UK Science! He mentioned that when he was young he would tinker with radios and do his own experimenting by taking apart and reassembling it. He also believed that the young ones of today should also have the freedom of experimenting on their own and testing their ideas rather than being restricted to the syllabus.

Lord Rees is an Astronomer Royal and Past President of the Royal Society.

He was one of the first people to predict the uneven distribution of matter in the Universe and his most influential work concentrated on the so-called cosmic dark ages.

There were so many people at the event and it was so nice to see everyone support young research! #SchoolResearchers

Dame Mary Archer, chair of the trustees of the National Science Museum Group spoke a few words about the new launchpad that has been built at the Science Museum with a new Maths section - go check it out!

Dame Archer, spoke about her first research experience at 10 years old where she tied an earthworm into a knot to see if it could un-tie itself! Unfortunately it couldn't. :( She believed that all young people should have the opportunity to test those why? questions that they ask.

Dr. Becky Parker in the promo video for IRIS :) #WomenInSTEM

Cal Hewitt, an A Level student - talking about his project with Medipix detector from CERN. He was honestly such a great speaker that I thought I was at a TED talk! I got to meet him afterwards and we spoke about the YSJournal and he'll be submitting his article soon! #Awesomeness #MyWorkHereIsDone ;)

Cal leads the LUCID experiment where he uses the Medipix detector (CERN Technology) to study radiation in space.

TimPix, a detector that can be used to measure different types of radiation. School students can access the Timepix detector on the ISS to carry out experiments with a chance to do their own experiments too with the TimPix project. Why not get involved!
Here, are some young researchers talking about their research work carried out with Queen Mary University. 

A young researcher working on dark matter! #WomenInPhysics

At age 15, Krtin Nithy developed a new way too diagnose Alzheimers! #WhatALegend #MindBlown #SchoolResearchers 

Krtin's project led him to win the Scientific American Innovator Award from Google! 

Professor Danielle George, Professor of Radio Frequency Engineering at the University of Manchester or who may know her as the 'Queen of tinkering' and presenter of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2014 (Sparks will fly: How to hack your home) was also there! Was so amazing to actually see her and be in the same room as her because I looked up to her so much in the #xmaslectures ! 

Prof. George also expressed her love for tinkering and asking why. 

The IRIS launch couldn't have been complete without an astronaut! #Awesomeness 

Professor Steve Rose (a professor of plasma physics at Imperial College - his office was opposite my office in my recent summer placement!), chair of trustees also spoke at the event.

Prof. Rose thanked all those that are part of IRIS and have made it possible.  The talks then came to an end and it was my time to shine at the YSJournal stand!

Here's Christina networking and getting others to join in with the Journal

Our myriad of leaflets and journals ready for all the visitors to take home!
Loving repping YSJournal at the Science Museum! #Awesomeness 

Had so much fun promoting YSJournal and talking to all the lovely young scientists, professors, dames and all the people interested and passionate about getting more research into schools - something close to my heart and something that blossomed my journey into research.

So lovely to see so many keen young scientists - it totally reminded me of when I was their age and I was buzzing for the next scientific step I was going to take. #Reminiscing 

What a place to have the IRIS launch and to have so many buzzing, scientific minds - it was AWESOME!

My supervisor for the Pop-O-Matic project (see earlier posts) was also there and happened to meet my mother who had worked with the CERN at School detector and was invited to the event - I cannot tell you how much it felt like parents evening when my supervisor was complimenting my work to my mother! #FeelingLikeASchoolKid

The #PopOMatic also came up in conversation because of the power of Twitter and other social media platforms - so glad to hear such positive feedback from the #PopOMatic users (my supervisor had used it earlier that day! And it was a success with not only the students but the teachers too! #MissionComplete)

I had an absolutely great time at the Science Museum and found so many people I knew from the Plasma Group I'm working with at Imperial but I also met some very inspirational young scientists!

This post has come to an end and here are some last few words from me - for all you young scientists out there, including those from state schools, don't be afraid to ask why and let your curiosity lead you to amazing places! Get you hands stuck into some research and I'm sure you'll love it as much as I do! Since my first research experience at 17, I have loved research ever since and I am now thinking of doing a PhD! That young research experience has remained in my blood and is something I will never forget - so why not catch the research bug too and see what you can discover! Happy researching! :)