EEE staff thank and celebrate our colleagues

The latest round of awards honouring staff contributions to life and work in the Department took place last week at 170 Queensgate.

Electrical and Electronic Engineering staff are nominated by their colleagues twice a year, for awards across five categories that reflect our mission and the College values.

The winners are selected from a Department panel made up of staff from across our job families.

Colleague Appreciation Award

Lina Brazinskaite

Postgraduate Manager Lina was recognised for the support she provides to our Graduate Teaching Assistants, PhD students across the Department and to her colleagues.

“Lina has paved the way in the Department to restore a sense of normality back to postgraduate life while maintaining a high level of support during the cost of living crisis. Lina has taken the lead on clarifying pay rates, pay categories and support for GTAs - including the reinstatement of the three pay rate scheme.”

“Lina has been vital to my growth and confidence in the Department and I know she will always support me, while providing invaluable advice to ensure my development.”

“Lina is excellent at her job. She has worked very effectively to improve student experience for postgraduate students in the department, and as a member of the Education Support Office is a fantastic colleague.”

Aurelio De Sousa Ferreira

Aurelio’s nominations not only reflect his colleagues’ appreciation for his dedication and hard work as our General Technician, much of which happens ‘behind the scenes’, but he is also valued for the positive and friendly approach he brings to our department.

“Aurelio is always the first person I think of when I need help with setting up, clearing down, moving, finding, borrowing anything! He does so much for the department which a lot of people don’t notice until he is on holiday and these thankless jobs don’t get done. He is a great work colleague and a good friend to us all.”

“Aurelio is always available to help. He replies immediately with a time he will come by to see you to sort any issue you have – especially one with heavy lifting. He insists on doing all the lifting himself and goes out of his way to make things easy for us.”

“We are lucky to have him in our Department. He brightens our days with his singing and a friendly chatter.”

“He does his job with a constant smile and always brings sunshine wherever he goes. I feel confident whenever I ask him for help as I know it will be done. I believe he deserves to be rewarded for his professionalism and his teamworking spirit.”

Teamwork/Collaboration Award

The Department made two awards in this category.

Undergraduate Admissions Test team:

Kay HancoX

Eric Kerrigan

Emma Rainbow

Ella Greenhalgh

Eric, Emma, Ella and Kay ran the Department’s first admissions tests this year, with over 600 students taking the first tests in November.

“It was a huge amount of work for them all, and they came across numerous challenges and hurdles that they tackled together such as figuring out how to invigilate all these students remotely and organising all the invigilators and troubleshooting the issues that arose during the tests. The tests were a success, thanks to their efforts and collaborative approach to working. Having these admissions tests should save us all time reviewing student applicants and make sure we are able to select the very best students to be here.”

The second Teamwork Award was made for a cross-department collaboration.

Undergraduate Recruitment Brochure Team:

Jane Horrell

Emma Rainbow

Charlotte Parkins (Student Marketing and Recruitment)

Helen Davison (External Graphic Designer)

Imperial’s student recruitment campaign was launched this spring. It came with over 60 pages of guidance on the new visual identity, writing style and branding to comply with. We were the first department to produce our own material in the new style, with a brand-new brochure written and designed for the June Undergraduate Open Day.

“From an initial decision to produce a brochure on 5 May to the finished product arriving on 23 June, the team worked collaboratively… taking our very rough ideas and providing us with what we didn’t know we wanted.

The team worked hard and speedily to create a glossy brochure that fully implements the new student journey identity.

Helen also worked with the new branding elements to produce roll up banners, and Jane created matching animated video and slides for digital display. We were the only department to deploy the new branding [on Open Day] and it proved very eye catching to prospective students and their families.” 

Rising Star Award

Saritha Udayan

Saritha joined our Computing Support Team in April as a Software Developer, and has already made a big impact within her immediate team and the teams she works with, helping us transform some of our student systems such as attendance and mitigating circumstances.

“Saritha has adapted to the College workplace with extraordinary rapidity. She was given multiple time-critical jobs immediately, and made them all her own. She has been an exceptionally enthusiastic, capable, member of the Computer Support Team.”

“Saritha's achievements have high impact. These were implemented by her from scratch and are revolutionising our departmental automation, successful from launch and rapidly enhanced based on user feedback. She has shown herself to take full responsibility for her work, to be a very fast learner, a great communicator, and she listens to others carefully while asserting her own views when they are better.”

“Saritha is professional, highly competent, and has been able to "own" her role more quickly than any would have expected. “

“Saritha clearly applies the College value of 'excellence' to her work. She is certainly a rising star in the Department!”

Avery Kitchens

Avery started with the Department in June in a newly created role as the Executive Assistant to the DUGS. His work involves supporting the GTA processes, reviewing data and undertaking analysis and looking after many of our education committees. He has settled into the Department quickly, and has successfully brought his experiences from his previous role in the Student Union at St Andrews and applied that to his role here.

“Avery has only been with the Department a short while but has made a massive impact. He is very pro-active in providing information, and his work is always of high quality and engaging. Avery always comes up with great ideas and thinks outside the box. Alongside this, he's a great person to have in the team, always smiling and laughing.”

Award for Citizenship and Community

Imad Jaimoukha

Imad has been awarded this prize for his tireless work supporting both our staff and student community. His roles as Postgraduate Tutor and Exam Marks Officer are two of the most important and challenging roles in the Department, which requires dedication and care, and an enormous amount of time and energy.

“Imad has been  one of the pillars of the Department's undergraduate teaching for as long as I can remember. Kind, dependable and modest, Imad is always present to offer a wise word or a helping hand to those who need it.”

Susan Brace

Susan's award recognises her continuous dedication and support over many years, not only to the OSD group in her role as Senior Research Group Administraror, but more widely to her colleagues in the SRGA team and other groups. Susan is frequently the first one to offer support when an extra hand is needed, and takes on additional duties over and above her day to day role to keep the Department operating smoothly.

“Susan has been a positive presence in the department for many years, and by being so effective is often overlooked. She works behind the scenes assisting multiple groups in the department in everything ranging from day to day cover when other SRGA are on leave, through to minute taking and organising meetings.”

Inspiration Award

Steve Wright

In addition to his work in his research group and Department Safety role, Steve’s award celebrates the many responsibilities he takes on as Teaching Fellow, and his dedication to the success of the department combined with his kind and friendly approach to everything he does.

“Steve seems to be, and has been for the longest time, behind every aspect of our undergraduate teaching and research, from undergraduate labs to timetabling, student projects and departmental work safety. Steve is quiet, modest and kind and selflessly offers his time whenever and where it is needed.”

“Supporting and helping others is so much embedded into his character that it is easy to forget how much of a credit to our community he is. He is always positive and goes out of his way to find solutions. This is regardless of the people he is helping, students or staff.”  

“Steve does a fantastic job producing and managing the timetables for the department. I really appreciate the care he takes over this daunting task, always striving to come up with a timetable that takes into account the varied needs of the students and the staff. Thanks Steve!”

Congratulations to all our award winners, and thank you to all our staff who made nominations.