20
Science & Tech
SEPTEMBER 2019 | ISSUE 3
Middlesex win Innovation Award at robotics competition final hosted in France Eurobot is an international amateur robotics competition which challenges contestants to create autonomous robots that can perform specific tasks. In 2019, Middlesex University’s robotics team, Brainstorm, competed in the Eurobot finals held in La Roche-sur-Yon in France. Johnathan McGrath-Osborne covered the event.
Middlesex University’s Brainstorm team consisted of six students: Artur Graczyk, Camille Croci, Chibuike Okpaluba, Muhammad Ali Hussain Javed, Szymon Klimek and Szymon Malecki. PHOTOGRAPHY FROM PLANETE SCIENCES
Middlesex University’s robotics team, Brainstorm, were given a special prize for innovation at the Eurobot 2019 finals. The task was to programme a robot which could identify and pick up different coloured picks without bumping into other robots in the process. While they did not win the overall competition, the judges had high praise for the innovative use of a robot operating system as opposed to traditional programming language. Further standouts were a powerful Latte Panda circuit board and a single pull cord system to wirelessly control the competing robots. The competition was vast with over 200 teams competing from institutions throughout the world. Brainstorm were identified as one of the few institutions who allows students to compete in the competition outside of their academic course. Alongside this award, Brainstorm managed to place in the top 20 teams at the end of the competition. Brainstorm stated that they were able to benefit from the competition despite not winning overall.
The team were able to obtain high value sponsorships from Rapid Electronics and Maxon Motor, which will enable them to complete higher quality work for future competitions. They hope that it will also provide a pulling factor for bringing new Middlesex students into the fold, which will enable the passing of the torch for future competition strategies. The team have stated that they believe it was the combination of students with various backgrounds, including computer science and robots, which enabled them to win this recent prize. Michael Heeney, Technical Tutor of Physical Computing at Middlesex University and a Eurobot committee member, commented on the team’s “fantastic departmental and collaborative effort” and “novel uses of technology” which contributed to their success in the competition and played a large part in the decision to award them this prize. Middlesex University is not only a competitor in the Eurobot competition but is also acting as Official National Organizing Committee and, in April 2019, hosted the UK Eurobot Finals.
ONCONANO GROUP STUDENTS A “HEAD Natalie Rose sits down with some of the members of OncoNano Research Group at Middlesex University to discuss their aims and achievements so far. The OncoNano Research Group was founded in 2018 by a small group of PhD students at Middlesex University. Their aim was to set up a platform for research students to share knowledge and news, and to encourage more students to undertake research. In August 2019, we sat down with them to discuss how they felt their first year had gone, and what they have planned for the year ahead. The interview was led by Fahim Hayat, one of the founding members of the group and a PhD student at the university, looking at antibiotics resistance research using nanoparticles. With him was Nakul Patel and Nirusha Weerasinghe, two more of the original members. The final member, Amrinder Singh, was not present. Fahim was immeasurably proud when he introduced the group to us, and he passionately described the story of their founding. “There was no communication between students,” he explained, “so we thought it’d be a good idea to get together and do something that can set up a platform.” The platform was intended for newly graduated students, or undergraduates, who were considering future participation in research, or thinking about doing a PhD. To create this platform, the group began publishing newsletters to send out to students. “The reason for newsletters was to put out news of whatever was happening within the department or within Middlesex University,” Fahim explained. “We were doing that for a year before we realised we were giving more information out than actual news, so we thought we would change it to a magazine.” In May 2019, the group released the first issue of their magazine, Research Matters, which replaced
their monthly newsletters. Students can access it by signing up to receive a PDF copy via email. Alternatively, all of the OncoNano Research Group’s newsletters and magazines are archived in print copy in the Sheppard Library (Hendon campus). The group were proud to boast of the magazine’s success so far. “Each magazine has been read by other 3,000 people,” Fahim explained, excitedly showing us this data on his computer. “This morning, looking at it, we’ve got 3,700 reads on our third magazine.” Inside each magazine is a wealth of information for students, including an insight into the life of a PhD student, details of what work a PhD might require, and much more. The group present it in a way “that even the school kids will be looking at it and reading it to see what it’s like to be a scientist or what it’s like to be an economist.” The magazine also marks a significant change of audience for the group. Initially, the group aimed itself
at science-related fields, which is why the name OncoNano was chosen, to reflect the members interests in oncology and nanotechnology. The decision to focus on these fields came from a collective fear of failure, as Fahim says that they “thought [they] might not get support from other people.” However, the support they’ve received has been “enormous”, leading them to want to rebrand the group entirely so that they “will read more students and hopefully cross disciplines as well.” This rebrand is planned for Christmas 2019, and will include a change of name and logo. The group also hope to continue running their events alongside the magazine. Some of the events they have run in the past include My Research Story, which they are hoping to continue in the year ahead, and other workshops and seminars for undergraduates. They also hosted a talk at the STEM Festival this year.
