Monthly Archives: December 2020

11Dec/20

SEPnet Summer Placements 2021 – Do you have a project/work experience for a physics or maths undergraduate or PhD student?

SEPnet organises over 70 summer placements a year for all 2nd and 3rd year physics, and now maths, students and is seeking 8-week plus projects in industry or research in areas such as data analysis, mathematical modelling, product design and testing or science communication.

The scheme is aimed at any organisations interested in recruiting physics or maths graduates, or who can offer valuable business experience, including large companies, SMEs, start-ups, research institutions, charities and NGOs.

Benefits to employers:
• Early access to bright, numerate students with excellent problem-solving and IT skills
• Enables you to carry out projects you would not normally have time for
• Provides a fresh perspective on your business challenges
• All advertising, administration and placement support is handled by the SEPnet team
• Some funding available for SMEs
• Read our short placement case studies here: Placement Case studies – SEPnet.

Register your placement project, or projects, online here: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/SEPnet_Employer_Registration_2021/ by Friday 12 February. Early projects will be prioritised.

10Dec/20

A fantastic group of panellists and ambassadors joined our recent joint IOP SEPnet Career Panel for Women in Physics

Over 100 students signed up to hear inspiring stories from a diverse range of women who described their varied career journeys and the challenges and triumphs along the way.

These wonderful role models from NPL, Met Office, Nordson, University of Surrey, Micron, Semiconductor, Equiniti, NHS, Venner Shipley, University of Sussex and Reaction Engines shared their tips and advice for how to pursue your career ambitions despite the setbacks and highlighted the importance of supporting each other and building strong networks to sustain you along the way.

Join our SEPnet Careers Forum for Women in Physics to connect with inspiring women in business and research: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12096544/

04Dec/20

Fancy a complimentary surgery with the Product Doctor?!

One of the highlights on my calendar is running the “Turning Science into Business Workshop” for your PhD participants. Now in its 4th year, we all went online and with fast moving content, lots of lively group exercises and a real life case study to work on, I’m pleased to say that maintained our high level of participant satisfaction! 

Here’s a snippet from the feedback: 

“…Short, simple, practical, useful and fun…Excellent opportunity to learn about business models…Very useful in explaining the marketing and customer side of things, which scientist often lack…Well structured, well delivered, good overview with a positive delivery…Teaches a structure to test whether business ideas are worth pursuing…”

The reason I particularly like working with your gang is that the science brain embraces the method of developing a hypothesis, identifying the biggest risks and then running a test to discover missing evidence. And it’s just this approach that I use to help all sorts of people from all walks of life to move their ideas forward. 

This year I launched my new book, The Really Good Idea Test published by Pearson. As I write, I’ve just found out that today it has made it into WHSmiths as their 6th best-selling business book; so it really is a recommended read for anyone who wants to work through a new idea and find out if it has legs. 

To celebrate the launch, I would like to offer up a free hour of my time to anyone who buys the book in 2020. Perhaps you want to talk through how to commercialise your research? Or perhaps something more general – a career in business, product or innovation? 

You can find the book here on Amazon, you can find me at productdoctor.co.uk and email me direct: julia@productdoctor.co.uk

Article written by Julia Shalet, Product Doctor

04Dec/20

How to commercialise your research?

SEPnet postgraduate researchers were given the opportunity to learn how to commercialise their research and get a better understanding of innovation in practice at the Turning Science into Business online workshop 1-2 December 2020. 

The workshop was run by Julia Shalet, Product Doctor, experienced innovator and author. Julia has run very highly rated workshops for SEPnet and has also worked with thousands of innovators across a very broad range of sectors and environments. Julia’s latest book is “The Really Good Idea Test“.

Working in teams, with a real-life case study from , Mason Rowbottom, Chief Executive at Addisol Ltd, delegates created a meaningful value proposition offering solutions to Mason in an interactive session.  They discovered how to reduce their biggest risks before building anything. 

Delegates thought the workshop was an “excellent opportunity to learn about business models and broaden your possibilities on industry” and “very useful in explaining the marketing and customer side of things, which scientist often lack”.

Thank you to Julia and Mason for your contribution to a great workshop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

03Dec/20

SEPnet Diversity Webinar Nurturing community & belonging – particularly during Covid-19

Academics, EDI champions and PGRs joined SEPnet’s recent annual diversity workshop, hosted by University of Kent, to discuss issues including the effect of online/remote learning on widening participating students; links between attainment differentials and student engagement; early career researcher mental health.

Amy Low and Adam Tweed of AbilityNet described how online learning has offered benefits for many disadvantaged students but has highlighted challenges for others. Researchers Diego Bunge and Dan Hartley showed evidence of how early engagement and attendance are key to improving outcomes for BME students and Zoe Ayres stressed the importance of the need for institutions to take more responsibility for improving the culture in academia to support PGRs’ mental health.

Request to join the discussion at (3) SEPnet Equality & Diversity Champions Network | Groups | LinkedIn

03Dec/20

SEPnet Career Development Webinar – Business awareness for physics and maths students – a crash course, Tuesday 15 December 13.00 – 14.00

Now is a great time to focus on identifying your employability skills and developing your knowledge of how businesses work. This session will help you understand more about working in a business environment and how companies operate.

This webinar for physics and maths undergraduate and postgraduate students will cover:
• the bigger picture – a company’s mission and vision – having sight of the end product
• understanding the customer’s needs
• why perfection can be the enemy of good
• what skills companies are really looking for
• the importance of networking.

Presented by Riham Satti, CEO of MeVitae. Riham is a keynote international speaker, business leader and entrepreneur. She co-founded MeVitae in 2014 – a deep tech company aimed at solving the biggest recruitment challenges – removing algorithmic and unconscious biases from the hiring process. Riham has expertise in the business-technology ecosystem, including natural language processing and artificial intelligence. She is a business mentor including the London Business School entrepreneurship course and holds a Master of Research in Clinical Neuroscience from the University of Oxford and a First-Class Honours Master of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering from Imperial College London.

Places are limited. If you would like to join this Zoom webinar, please register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sepnet-webinar-business-awareness-for-physics-maths-students-tickets-128995407737 as soon as possible and we will send you further details and instructions for how to join the meeting.