1st Prize for CDT Student in Science Communication Competition

Alastair Shipman (centre) at the competition

Congratulations to Alastair Shipman for his victory in the 4Cs Science Communication Competition on 15 May 2019.

CDT student Alastair Shipman achieved 1st prize in the competition last month. He was also the winner of the People's Choice award.

Alastair's presentation was titled 'How Lose Friends and Scare People: Practical Aspects of Researching Terrorism'.

His talk focused on his work looking at pedestrian movement in emergencies such as terrorist attacks, and the various practical, theoretical, and ethical considerations needed for thorough research in this area.

Alastair said of his three minute presentation: "There's only so much I could talk about in three minutes, but the aim was to say that the topic is particuarly difficult to analyse, as there is little data out there, and it is difficult to generate data.

"This is partially because 'pedestrian dynamics' is a fairly new area to Civil Engineering, and it had not been seriously looked at from a terrorist attack point of view.

"Also partially because of the sensitive nature of the work, and the ethical concerns surrounding it.

"However hopefully by working on this, we can use this area of research to keep people safe."

The 4Cs competition, run by the Graduate School, aims to develop the writing, presentation, and communication skills of the postgraduate students at Imperial College.

Competing students were required to demonstrate the '4Cs': Creativity, Content, Clarity, and Charisma, in communicating science and research. A panel judged the talks on these criteria.