It's that time of year when things get very busy in the academic world - final examinations for the undergrads. It seems strange to think that a whole academic year has already gone by - but the academic year is very short for Cambridge undergrads (a whole 21 weeks!) so in essence it's actually about half of the year for myself. The summer holidays are somewhat of a blessing in disguise as there are no undergrads running around, which means no interruptions, no marking and no supervisions or tutorials!
Oxford has the slightly perverse tradition that undergrads wear gowns to their examinations - thankfully Cambridge does not share the same tradition. Unfortunately, the examiners have to wear the gowns - which means that myself, as an invigilator, will have to wander around Cambridge for a few days in my BA status gown. This is one of the put-me-downs of the system - as I did not get my undergrad degree from here, I'm not entitled to 1) wear my colours of my subject (MEng) and 2) wear the gown corresponding to my status (Masters graduate; but <24 years old so have to wear a BA gown). So I shall walk around the exam room and no doubt the undergrads will know that they are being examined by a "dirty" academic!
Although the joke is on them. I attended a student-supervisor dinner at Robinson College last week (food/wine was excellent as always) and most of the fellows on the table are fellow "dirty" academics. My supervisor, who was previously the head of department and is now the pro-vice chancellor for research, graduated from Bristol as an undergrad before doing her PhD at Cambridge. She told me that when she applied for her PhD, she was told in no unerring fashion that "if a Cambridge student wants to do it, then we will give it to them instead." Luckily it wasn't the case, and Cambridge didn't lose one of the brightest academics of that generation! It perhaps explains why she told me the first time I met her that they preferred to take on non-Cambridge undergraduates for PhD positions in the department - I presume that it's probably a "fresh blood" sort of thing as well.
My other supervisor is filthy in comparison - St. Andrews undergraduate and UMIST (now University of Manchester) PhD student. Transferred to Cambridge soon after and has stayed there since, becoming a Professor recently. It's all a confusing game!
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Losing sight of the loss leaders
The phrase "loss leading product" really came to a head this weekend. My partner likes the Muller Corner yoghurts (far too sweet for me - I'm hippyish enough to by pro-bio yoghurts, and cheap enough to buy the Sainsbury's basics version at 28p/4 yogs) and we went to Morrisons this weekend. In the shop front was a big POS (point of sale, not piece of . . . ahem) saying 2 for £2 on 6 packs. For those who don't buy them, they are usually around £3.80 ish for 6. I figured that the POS was wrong and that it was intended for another product. But lo and behold, at the yoghurts section, the offer is emblazoned all over the products there. Truly a loss leader - almost half the price for twice as much! By contrast, Sainsbury's has an "offer" of 2 packs for £5. Not to be complaining too much, we bought 2 packs and double- and triple-checked the receipt.
Another close loss-leader this month was my college bill for residence charges, who tried to charge me almost £1000 for accommodation that I have already paid. Thankfully the finance lot here are easy to deal with and it was refunded straight away. If only multiphase flows were as simple to resolve . . .
This is the time of year when the first year PhD students give a 20 minute presentation and complete a CPGS essay about their work so far in order to progress into the second year as a fully-fledged PhD student. I missed the presentation sessions last week to meet both of my supervisors (you can count the days in the year when they are both free on one hand) and I shall miss next week's one due to an exam invigilation meeting. I shall make tomorrow's one and my own one (of course) - hopefully the talks will be interesting, and there won't be too much biotechnology!
All the Chemical Engineering departments around the country now seem to be incorporating biotechnology / biochemical engineering (trojan horse word I think to let them into the Chem Eng world!) and it's all a little odd. Here in Cambridge they have their own building so they don't really incorporate themselves that much - I always thought it made more sense to merge with either biochemistry or biology. Cambridge has a very large school of biology so I figured that it would merge that way. Thankfully with me being over in the Engineering building I avoid bio stuff for the most part - I was somewhat shocked at having to do 3 biology courses during my undergraduate years as a chemical engineer, especially since I had last picked up a bio textbook at the age of 16!
Although apparently, to do Chem Eng you just need to do maths + a science at A levels. I graduated from the University of Sheffield and I was fairly shocked to see people with only biology as their science - I presumed that physics was pretty much a given for any engineering subject, and that chemistry was the natural second science to take for Chemical Engineering! 1 chemistry module and 3 biology modules later spoke differently in the end though . . .
Another close loss-leader this month was my college bill for residence charges, who tried to charge me almost £1000 for accommodation that I have already paid. Thankfully the finance lot here are easy to deal with and it was refunded straight away. If only multiphase flows were as simple to resolve . . .
This is the time of year when the first year PhD students give a 20 minute presentation and complete a CPGS essay about their work so far in order to progress into the second year as a fully-fledged PhD student. I missed the presentation sessions last week to meet both of my supervisors (you can count the days in the year when they are both free on one hand) and I shall miss next week's one due to an exam invigilation meeting. I shall make tomorrow's one and my own one (of course) - hopefully the talks will be interesting, and there won't be too much biotechnology!
All the Chemical Engineering departments around the country now seem to be incorporating biotechnology / biochemical engineering (trojan horse word I think to let them into the Chem Eng world!) and it's all a little odd. Here in Cambridge they have their own building so they don't really incorporate themselves that much - I always thought it made more sense to merge with either biochemistry or biology. Cambridge has a very large school of biology so I figured that it would merge that way. Thankfully with me being over in the Engineering building I avoid bio stuff for the most part - I was somewhat shocked at having to do 3 biology courses during my undergraduate years as a chemical engineer, especially since I had last picked up a bio textbook at the age of 16!
Although apparently, to do Chem Eng you just need to do maths + a science at A levels. I graduated from the University of Sheffield and I was fairly shocked to see people with only biology as their science - I presumed that physics was pretty much a given for any engineering subject, and that chemistry was the natural second science to take for Chemical Engineering! 1 chemistry module and 3 biology modules later spoke differently in the end though . . .
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Credit cards and tea
Well it was definitely an interesting weekend! On Friday I went to a "party" to celebrate the Royal Wedding at the house of my partner's boss. Nice to meet some different people, and I'm totally glad that I do Engineering. It turns out that her boss's wife is a high school teacher who despises any sort of degree/career that doesn't involve science or mathematics. To be fair, she has a point - how many psychologists/photographers/media studies graduates do we need? (except for those keeping the engineers from committing suicide / taking photographs for wall hangings / making rubbish daytime TV)
I saw my Dad on Friday after the party in central Milton Keynes - he had come over from France that week as my half-brothers were all on Easter holidays (I shall not go into the details of my confusing family structure!). Just as we got to the centre MK, a clap of thunder shuddered overhead and bang! A downpour. Apparently there was no thunder at all in Cambridge that day. It was a typical British storm - appeared in no time, poured down for 10 minutes, and then dissipated into nothing as the sky turned back to its azure blue again.
On Sunday my partner's company was hosting a delegation from a publishing press in Chongqing at the University of Cambridge and (for reasons I probably shouldn't go into) I was required to sit in the meeting and listen through a couple of presentations and good old fashioned business. It makes me glad I'm not in business and firmly entrenched in academics - the politeness (English and Chinese!) was overwhelming, but neither side was budging from the position of "we want you to help us, but we can't help you for a certain reason right now". Awkward times aside, I pilfered some of the excellent tea they serve at the University Centre, and was given a couple of tins of Chinese green tea, so a good haul all round there!
We're all back here working now that the seemingly-endless bank holidays have finished. I'm meeting up with both of my supervisors tomorrow to go through this journal article that we want to publish, and also meeting to discuss another topic that is fairly linked to my topic. It's been a while since I've done any work on that topic though so I am going to have a read-up this afternoon. Lunchtime first I think! Incidentally, the Sainsbury's Taste the Difference seeded batch bread on offer at the moment (£1) is far better than any other supermarket-bread on the shelf. Bakers bread is top-tier of course, but it's all very expensive here. I'm fairly sure that London is not really any more expensive than here!
BBC Weather has once again lied as well, it's a much nicer day here than the weather forecast would suggest. I think the old rule is take what BBC weather says and expect the opposite - I would have thought that they would have cottoned on by now as well!
I saw my Dad on Friday after the party in central Milton Keynes - he had come over from France that week as my half-brothers were all on Easter holidays (I shall not go into the details of my confusing family structure!). Just as we got to the centre MK, a clap of thunder shuddered overhead and bang! A downpour. Apparently there was no thunder at all in Cambridge that day. It was a typical British storm - appeared in no time, poured down for 10 minutes, and then dissipated into nothing as the sky turned back to its azure blue again.
On Sunday my partner's company was hosting a delegation from a publishing press in Chongqing at the University of Cambridge and (for reasons I probably shouldn't go into) I was required to sit in the meeting and listen through a couple of presentations and good old fashioned business. It makes me glad I'm not in business and firmly entrenched in academics - the politeness (English and Chinese!) was overwhelming, but neither side was budging from the position of "we want you to help us, but we can't help you for a certain reason right now". Awkward times aside, I pilfered some of the excellent tea they serve at the University Centre, and was given a couple of tins of Chinese green tea, so a good haul all round there!
We're all back here working now that the seemingly-endless bank holidays have finished. I'm meeting up with both of my supervisors tomorrow to go through this journal article that we want to publish, and also meeting to discuss another topic that is fairly linked to my topic. It's been a while since I've done any work on that topic though so I am going to have a read-up this afternoon. Lunchtime first I think! Incidentally, the Sainsbury's Taste the Difference seeded batch bread on offer at the moment (£1) is far better than any other supermarket-bread on the shelf. Bakers bread is top-tier of course, but it's all very expensive here. I'm fairly sure that London is not really any more expensive than here!
BBC Weather has once again lied as well, it's a much nicer day here than the weather forecast would suggest. I think the old rule is take what BBC weather says and expect the opposite - I would have thought that they would have cottoned on by now as well!
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