Second Annual CPE Winter School

Plastic electronics PhD students — including the entire second cohort of the Plastic Electronics DTC, Postdocs and Academics from Imperial College were joined by guests from ETH Zurich.

Between the 15^th to the 21^st of January the Centre for Plastic Electronics went on their second annual winter school to Bergün in Switzerland.

Plastic electronics PhD students — including the entire second cohort of the Plastic Electronics DTC — Postdocs and Academics from Imperial College  were joined by guests from ETH Zurich.

Bergun's world famous sledge run attracts many. Some less talented than others.

The week's activities included seminars by CPE academics and the visitors from ETH on current research topics, covering a broad range of fields.

 This year, in addition to lecture courses, the PhD students attending the winter school were divided up into groups and set a current research topic to investigate. The students enthusiastically took to the challenge. Topics included: “Stability for Organic Photovoltaic devices”, “Non-fullerene based OPV”, and “Graphene Edge Functionalisation”.

 Each group produced a 5 minute presentation on their topic which was presented to the whole winter school and were judged by a panel made up of Professor Paul Smith from ETH, Dr Paul Stavrinou, Prof. John De Mello and Dr Thomas Anthopoulos of IC. The winning group were Ed Lofts, Andy MacLachlan, Jonathan Marshall, Yaqub Chaudhary and Rob Hewlett who spoke about their topic "Design a more efficient solar cell via the directed self-assembly of block copolymer composites", a set for them by Alisyn Nedoma.

Of equal importance to the scientific discussion and learning was the social side to the winter school —specifically: the social and outdoor activities on offer.

Bergün is famous for its seldge runs and ski slopes. Special mention goes to Chaz Kiederling, of the Plastic Electronics DTC who, as a total novice skier, impressed all and sundry with his “No-Mercy, No-Regrets” approach to learning the winter sport.

CPE socialising involves a lot of Hat wearing

Further special mention also goes to Dr Paul Stavrinou, for his impressive darts skills; Dr Natalie Stingelin, who expertly taught us how to enjoy Swiss hospitality; and her parents, who brought us delicious local food and drink for the train journey.

Our thanks go to the staff at Bergün Sports Hotel for such a lovely stay, and to the CPE for organising such a brilliant event.

The winter school was a great experience for the students. It allowed them to meet more of their fellow CPE researchers as well as researchers in their field from different institutions; apply their knowledge to novel and different problems to those that have a good time together as a cohort free from the confines of the college.