My name is Olivia Jackson and I go to
Woking College. For my AS I took Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, though I am dropping Biology this year. After A-level I would like to
do a degree in Physics and/or Chemistry and go on to do a PhD. If I am not sick
of universities after that I hope to continue doing research and teaching
lectures.
I applied for a SATRO research
placement as I wanted to do something over the summer that helped me become a
better scientist (and also got me out of bed). As well as this, an extra
benefit of the SATRO research placement is that it also looks great on
applications for university and can help prepare you for undergraduate
learning.
I worked with the Advanced Technology
Institute at Surrey University and Altro, a flooring and wall company, to
develop a method in order to print electronics onto flexible floor and wall
tiles for future developments in sensing for hospitals and homes. The issue
with printing using traditional methods such as inkjet printing with rough
substrates is that often the adhesion is very bad and the so the printed
electrics aren’t reliable or long-lasting. For my project I printed with
conductive ink using screen printing and then tested the conductivity of the
prints before and after extreme stress testing. Because the method had not been
explored much there were lots of problems initially such as how to make
templates and clean the screens. However, after experimentation and some
research these were overcome.
My research placement helped me to
develop a lot of skills such as report writing, analysis, and quick thinking.
It was particularly useful for showing me what working in science is like on a
day-to-day basis and how researchers often face unforeseen problems which they
must overcome.
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