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Stand Out Skills Webinar Series
Overview
Stand Out Skills was a webinar series for early career researchers working in materials science disciplines. Hosted by experts, each episode explored useful presentation, communication, or career skills for researchers which aren’t normally taught as a part of traditional education pathways for materials scientists.
Throughout the Stand Out Skills series, you can learn a host of new abilities to complement your research career, including how to build your own research website, improve your academic CV and utilise new technologies to present your work more effectively.
The series can support your early career journey and help you to build a repertoire of valuable new skills to distinguish yourself and thrive in your research community.
Watch the Series
Episode 1: Build Your Own Academic Website
Websites are a great way to promote yourself, your research, or other projects you participate in. Adapting one of the many freely available website templates allows you to build a personal brand and communicate effectively.
In Episode 1, Dr Lucy Whalley (Northumbria University) describes how you can set up a free, static, website using Github Pages, highlight some effective examples from materials science research.
Episode 2: 3D Scientific Visualisation with Blender
Data in many scientific fields are often complex, and rendering those data in 3D can provide new views with visualization.
In this talk, Dr. Brian Kent (National Radio Astronomy Observatory) will walk you through how to use Blender to start your workflow toward data visualization and rendering in 3D.
Episode 3: Writing Academic CVs – What You Need to Know
Getting your CV right for academic roles can feel complicated, but it doesn’t have to. Whether you need a traditional CV or one with a narrative focus, the foundations are simple and easy to put into practice.
In the third episode of our Stand Out Skills Webinar Series, Jess Popplewell, Careers Consultant at Imperial College London, will walk you through the process of composing an academic CV and making sure that it helps you stand out from the crowd.
Episode 4: An Introduction to Standards
Standards are an agreed way of doing something; built through consensus, standards impact on almost all aspects of our lives. The British Standards Institution is the national standards body for the UK, and by defining good practice, they help people, business and the economy. Furthermore, in a heavily regulated space such as the built environment, standards can be used to demonstrate compliance with regulations.
In this session, Emma Glass provides an overview of the role of the national standards body, highlighting key standards to be aware of and how to get involved in standardisation. The aim of the session is to provide an introductory taster to standards, imparting the knowledge and tools needed for future innovation.
Episode 5: Materials Science Outreach – From Lab to Audience
In this talk Dr Chris Hamlett, National Outreach Officer for Discover Materials, discusses his pathway through materials science, from a less than perfect start as an undergrad, through to discovering materials science. He describes how his multidisciplinary research background in chemistry and physics helped on his path to making a career around inspiring the next generation of materials scientists.
As well as covering Chris’s own experiences in outreach, the talk goes into how you can apply for funding towards your own outreach and supporting others in their own development.
Episode 6: Roadmapping for Strategic Navigation and Alignment
In this talk Rob Phaal, of the Institute for Manufacturing, introduces roadmapping concepts and practice, and discusses its applicability to scientific research. Roadmapping emerged in US high tech sectors more than five decades ago and has since been widely adopted and adapted around the world, in different sectors, geographies and contexts.
Rob also addresses the relevance of roadmapping to materials science, with a suggested short activity that can be undertaken after the webinar.
Episode 7: Open Data in Materials 4.0
Open data has been a fixture of life sciences for over two decades now, with it now being routine to make research data publicly available. A similar effort is now being made in materials science, with Royce’s Materials 4.0 roadmap and other activities looking to address this gap. This digitisation of materials data through open access, digital twins and lab automation is becoming ever more prevalent, but what does it mean for you as a PhD researcher?
In this talk, Royce data curator Stephen Pryce addresses the question “what is Open Data?” while exploring benefits to scientific progress, the public, and individual researchers. He also provides information about open data policy for government-funded research; how researchers can comply with this and share their data. Finally, Stephen explores the obstacles between current practices and achieving the successful adoption of a cultural shift towards open data. The seminar includes a live demonstration for uploading datasets to the Zenodo open-access repository.
Episode 8: PhD to Industry: The Critical Role of Project Management Skills
Making the transition from academia to industry can be a challenging experience, with situations that may have been familiar to you as a PhD student, such as managing complex projects, meeting the expectations of industry, working in a fast-paced environment, now taking on a new complexity and urgency.
This webinar delves into these obstacles, highlighting how project management skills are vital for to making this transition as smooth as possible. As someone who has successfully made this transition herself, Dr. Valentina Guerra explores in her talk how these skills help organise research into actionable industry projects, enhance team collaboration, and boost employability. She also shows that by equipping yourself with the right tools, you’ll be better prepared to navigate and thrive in the industry.