September 5, 2013, by Linpo

2013 Summer Project in ETG (2)

After Yaoyao’s experience sharing, the other two undergraduats, Miss Qingxin Zhang and Mr Feng Zheng, write down their story  about the 2013 Summer Project in ETG.

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             Qingxin ZHANG

I was given the opportunity to do a voluntary placement at George’s supercapacitor group during the summer vacation. Throughout the project, the group completed many different tasks, from the initial stage of synthesis to the construction of a supercapacitor, which were all beneficial to me.

From this project, I acquired some new knowledge, but the most important thing is it helped me improved my experimental and learning skills. Also what I have learnt from the project is to think independently, relate the phenomena I saw to knowledge and ask questions to seek help from others, rather than simply repeating the task given. Additionally, I have learnt to take advantage of the time to find a better solution, never forget safety issues in a lab and always think like an engineer.

The most impressive part of the project was the kindness of the senior members and the teamwork. They taught us a lot about the subject and guided us to do many tasks though they were busy, and helped us when we had difficulties in completing the task. Also I made many new friends during the project. At the stage of washing, we repeated the same work for a few days which was quite annoying; however, the members helped and trusted each other which made the team efficient. Although the lives of PhD students are tedious, the atmosphere of being a family is attractive to me.

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my tutor George as well as Grace, Junghoon and Linpo who gave me the opportunity to do this project on the topic of supercapacitor and thanks for their help. Also thank for the help from all the other members in ETG.

 

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      Feng ZHENG

I worked as a volunteer in the ETG this summer with other three students, specifically in Junghoon’s project which was building a supercapacitor in large scale. At the initial stage of this project, I felt incredibly nervous and knew very few about the topic. Fortunately, senior members were so helpful and were willing to explain our questions and to teach us the underlying theories. Also, with their careful illustrations of the whole processes as well as showing us how they conducted these experiments, we were able to do most of the experiments by ourselves such as synthesizing. As well as that, we learnt the usage of different instruments and realised the importance of strict rules in the laboratory.

This project also offered me an opportunity to experience what PhD would be like before I truly decide to do a PhD. I have realised from this experience that PhD is not always about research, however, many minor things would possibly take up most of time. And the working as a PhD student would be challenging, both for experimental theories and involvements of physical labour. In addition, the group worked in a very friendly circumstance as everyone were willing to help each other which encouraged the process of the project. Clearly this project was very meaningful to me and I enjoyed the work experience here in this summer.

Thank you for all the guidance from senior members of the group! Especially the advice from Junghoon, Grace and Linpo, Thank you!

 

 

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