Grantham Qing Hua Summer School

As part of being a CDT research postgraduate at Imperial College London we are required to attend professional skills development courses before our early stage assessments. This allows us to grow our skill base to become higher quality researchers.

Our graduate school works in conjunction with the Grantham Institute to put on international doctoral summer schools with international universities. The current partnerships include Michigan Institute of Technology, University of Cape Town and Qing Hua University. Each doctoral summer school have specific themes associated with them. This year I chose to attend the Qing Hua summer school in Beijing who’s central theme was ‘Global Climate Change and Energy’. The aim of the summer schools is to allow students to foster friendships, create collaborations and to gain experience working in international groups.

The summer school consisted of 20 early stage doctoral students from both Qing Hua University and Imperial College London. The evening of our arrival we were welcomed on Qing Hua campus to have dinner with and meet the other students (Qing Hua students have amazing food on campus!). The following day we all got a coach together out of Beijing to a resort where the summer school was to take place.

Our large group was split down into smaller project groups to work during the week. Each of the smaller groups had to come up with their own name, logos, ethos and dance that showed what made us a team. We spent a lot of time working together as a group and ended up becoming great friends. We socialised as a large group to eat dinner, relax and enjoy the evening entertainments which included drinking, games and calligraphy!

The day to day activities were fun and engaging. The main learning outcomes were how to work better in a team, improve our communication and how to engage with all of our team’s wide range of skill sets. We bonded through team activities, some of which were serious pieces of research and others were team building games that were highly entertaining. Nothing bonds a team together like being blindfolded and guided by somebody who you haven’t known for long!

Among some of the smaller activities were the larger parts of the program. We visited the Chinese National Grid test facility where we saw the latest technologies being built and tested. We also worked for two days for a competition on a proposal for an innovative collaboration project to combat climate change. My group ended up coming runners up with our living building concept. At the end of the school we returned to Beijing where we had a final day trip with all the students to the Summer Palace. That was fantastic way to wind down a great week.

Altogether the summer school was an amazing experience. Not only did I get to go to an interesting place, but I also met, made and fostered a great number of friendships. Some of which I may work with in future and others of which I will remain friends with. My participation also grew me as a researcher and taught me a lot about my strengths and weaknesses. I highly recommend anyone in their early stage career to attend one of the schools as it will be lots of fun and very enriching!