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Archive for January, 2019

UCL IRDR PhD student Forum 2019

By Claudia Sgambato, on 24 January 2019

When was the last time you talked about your research in an informal and/or original way? Last week, UCL IRDR doctoral students had this opportunity when they met for the annual PhD forum, to present their projects to their peers and discuss research and new results.

A total of 26 students from all over the world presented on some of the most recent and interesting topics: from all the possible aspects of seismic hazard, to detailed methods to study tsunami deposits in Indonesia, passing through post-disaster management of toxic waste, and volunteering in Oman. Wouldn’t you be amazed to hear about the effects of climate change on ice sheets and the importance of financing climate change adaptation in small islands? These and many others were the topics discussed by the IRDR PhD students.

First year students were bound to one minute for their presentation and forbidden to use any technical jargon; it might seem like an easy task, but trying to squeeze a four-year project into a minute turned out to be a hard challenge.

Have you ever thought about finally putting your dance lessons into practice? Do you want to show off your great rap skills? Everything is possible for second year PhD students, who had four minutes to present their project without using a computer. Better start writing your rhymes, because the competition is high!

Chiko presented her project on ‘Measuring Vulnerability and Resilience to Disaster Impacts in Indonesian Cities’ (photo by Ilan Kelman)

Back to normal for third year students, who must practice for conferences and the approaching thesis writing. They successfully presented their research in a technical and professional way. Presentations included topics such as earthquake forecasting, Emergency Management Systems, informality in disaster governance, community vulnerability to Tropical cyclones in Mauritius, and many others.

Justine is reading his tweet on ‘Effectiveness of Nigeria’s disaster management system with respect to building collapses, human stampedes and electric power failures’(photo by Ilan Kelman).

Finally, fourth year students had to demonstrate their communication skills, using one of the most used social platforms to disseminate science: Twitter. Using a maximum of 280 characters, students demonstrated their capacity to synthesize their innovative results.

The PhD forum is one of the many opportunities that IRDR offers to help students test their ability to communicate science to a diversified audience and encourage critical analysis and innovation.

Visit the page ttps://www.ucl.ac.uk/risk-disaster-reduction/people/phd-students to find out more about IRDR PhD students and their projects.