Ramez Siddiqi - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Ramez is getting on with his STEM placement! 

Week One

"On Monday this past week, I started my placement at KBC Advanced Technologies in Walton-on-Thames. KBC are a leading technology based consulting company in the energy and chemical industries, they offer a range of modelling based services to their clients such as PETROsim, Maximus and Multiflash which are used to simulate oil and gas production and extraction and aids clients to make improvements to their systems based on recommendations using the simulations. 

Over the past week, I have been training in the Maximus software program learning how to create oil and gas production, extraction and transportation systems in an attempt to get me ready for the aim of the project which is to build and simulate case studies in Maximus and a rival program called PIPEsim and then run the models on them and compare the two programs in terms of speed, accuracy and also record any limitations they have. Later in the week, after I completed my training; I started looking at real life past case studies in Maximus and have been running tests on them. Next week, I will be constructing the same sort of models in PIPEsim and then comparing the two programs. I have really enjoyed seeing what it's like working as a chemical engineer in a consultancy environment so far and looking forward to gaining more knowledge over the coming weeks and seeing my project take shape." 

Week Two

"This week, my second here at KBC, was where the real work began that would help shape my final project. I got my PIPEsim license on Monday and I finished my training on Maximus, now I could start building models of oil production and storage sites in the two pieces of software and compare them, looking specifically at the features available and the similarities and differences in the functions and capabilities of the two programs. I started with my first case study which was an off shore oil extraction site, it was difficult when I first started building the model onto PIPEsim as I have never used it before, however having completed my training in Maximus last week I managed to pick it up quickly due to the similarities of the two programs.

 I really enjoyed the process of building the model into the program and seeing it take shape and it was really interesting to see the different ways the programs go about solving the same problems. I soon started building the next model which was a gas extraction site in morocco and I am in the process of completing the two models by adding the final touches and correcting any mistakes or bugs that I find. So far in my findings I have found Maximus to be the superior product however my views could change when I complete my report and do a full scale investigation."

Week Three

"I have just completed my third week here at KBC in Walton. Throughout this week I have built two more oil and gas production models in PIPEsim and Maximus, taking my total up to four. The latest model ‘Khazzan’ was by far the most difficult to build simply due to its sheer size, it consists of 325 wells alone and even more pipelines, however I really enjoyed the challenge. 

As the weeks have gone by I have gained a lot of invaluable and useful insight into life as a chemical engineer in a consulting environment. I have also gained some credible proficiency in both PIPesim and Maximus and I am learning a lot about chemical engineering in the oil and gas industry. 

Towards the end of the week I started running the models I have built and we fixed any errors that we have found, now the testing begins, the results of which I will use to compare the two pieces of software, as the results come in my report is also slowly progressing. I have really enjoyed working here and building the models, working and seeing what life is like as an engineer rather than having to do menial tasks, I look forward to seeing how my results from my simulations and comparing the pieces of software in the future."

Week Four 

"I just completed the last week of my summer placement here at KBC advanced technologies; I have really enjoyed my time here over the past four weeks. It has been great seeing what life is like as a chemical engineer in a consulting environment and the knowledge and experience I have gained here is invaluable. 

Over the last week, I gathered my results and started writing up my report and started making my poster for the STEMX awards. It was really great to see all the hard work from the past 4 weeks pay off as my report came together. I'm really glad I got the opportunity to use both Maximum and PIPEsim make different oil and gas production sight models, it's a great skill to have and one that I might revisit in the future during an engineering career. 

I would definitely recommend to anyone who is considering to do a summer placement with SATRO to do it as it is not only something that looks good on your personal statement for university, but also something that you will enjoy, learning about a career that you might want to do in the future and you will meet some great people along the way and gain a detailed insight to life as an engineer." 

- Ramez Siddiqi 

Jennifer Barclay - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Jennifer's getting on with her STEM placement! 

Week One

"During the first week, I was given the opportunity to travel to the Network rail headquarters in Milton Keynes where I helped do a data transfer from the server. I thought this was a really good opportunity and I got to see the offices there which were very nice."

Week Two  

"Over the past two weeks, I have been working with the asset management team at Jacob's researching two BIM programs developed by Jacobs; ProjectMapper and TrackRecord. I have been using them both in order to see how well they work. I have also been researching alternative programs that Jacobs could potentially use." 

Week Three

"My third week at Jacobs has also been fascinating. This week, I focused on getting all of the ideas and information that I found out over the past two weeks into one place and writing them up in report form. I also continued researching many alternative programs that Jacobs could use and after a lot of researching, I finally found a few that would meet their needs. I didn't realise how many programs there were on the market that are all so similar. 

As my placement comes to an end next week, I will need to finalise my research and will then present it in front of the asset management team that I have been working with." 

                 - Jennifer Barclay 

Kieron Lintott - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Kieron's getting on with his STEM placement! 

Week One

"My first week at SSTL (Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd) has been a massive success.

I’ve learnt a lot about coding on MATLAB through online courses, the book “Essential MATLAB for Engineers and Scientists” and hands-on experience with MATLAB.

My main task this week was writing code to loop through folders to process files and convert it to HTML to automatically update SSSTL’s MERRBYS website that showcases their satellite data (http://www.merrbys.co.uk/)."

Week Two

"My second week at SSTL has seen a lot of progress and on the Friday I finished the task of writing code to automatically update the MERRBYS website.

I’ve continued to learn more about MATLAB as the task progressed and overcame various obstacles and found more and more ways of refining the code to create a better presentation for the webpages I was writing code for, such as titles and page layout.

I also found out a bit about how I’ll be spending the rest of my placement; it will involve processing and analysing data from a GNSS Reflectometry satellite."

Week Three

"After a few weeks of writing code, running it, fixing bugs and other activities. I've finally finished my first task at SSTL of writing code that takes data that was processed from a satellite to automatically update the Data Explore section of the MERRByS website. This can be found on the MERRByS website under Data Explore. 

Once I finished my work on the website, I went straight into my second task of processing the vast array of data collected by the TDS-1 satellite, through using pre-written code that filters the data down to process only what I want it to."

Week Four

“My final week at SSTL has been the best yet. It’s been very busy, working on a code to process satellite data into Sea and Ice through using different data filters that could be found in an online product manual (also on the MERRByS website under Documentation) that supplied corresponding data that could be used to filter out anomalous data points and extracting information from plots. I found that GNSS-R data could be used to predict the surface of a reflected signal to astounding accuracy, correctly predicting Ice over 93% of the time I got data from.”

- Kieron Lintott

Alfie Gibson - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Alfie's getting on with his STEM placement! 

Week One

"I spent the first day surveying the birds, the idea was that it would take 10 minutes for each area of the school but my inexperience meant it took a while longer to identify all the birds. Tuesday and Wednesday were routines of sweep netting, moth trapping, long worth trapping and pond dipping - I caught a variety of interesting critters. Thursday was very helpful as Dr.Harvey took us through the data we’d collated and quizzed us on writing the report, any problems with ideas and details we might’ve been unsure about which really helped me plan a structure for it"

Week Two

"We spent the second week at Hythe school across the road from Magna Carta. There was a much greater variety of plant life and we took a while to do the bush/tree surveys on Monday as well as the sweep netting on Tuesday. The rest of the week was a comfortable routine of longworth trapping, camera trapping and moth trapping. I also went back to Magna Carta each day and did bird surveys at both schools as to acquire more substantial data on the levels of bird biodiversity." 

- Alfie Gibson

Alli Wilkinson - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

Week one 

"This week I spent most of my time collecting data about the physical and chemical properties of several chlorinated solvents. I used several reference sources and recorded all of the data using excel spreadsheets. I then started constructing a spreadsheet showing the ranges in values for each property so that i can choose which values to use in a model,  which will generate generic assessment criteria to be used to evaluate the levels of chlorinated solvents found in soil samples based on the risks to human health."

- Alli Wilkinson

Year 8 Construction Challenge - Royal Grammar School, Guildford - Press release by Beard Construction

80 Surrey pupils take on a bridge-building challenge

Eighty Year 8 students from eight different schools in Guildford, Woking and Carshalton have taken part in a bridge-building challenge, with a little help from regional construction firm Beard. 

The youngsters, aged 12 and 13, were taking part in educational charity SATRO’s Year 8 Construction Challenge at the Royal Grammar School in Guildford. The learning initiative aims to bring science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) lessons to life through fun, hands-on projects working with industry professionals, such as Beard.

The schools taking part were Guildford High School for Girls, Guildford County School, Christ’s College and the Royal Grammar School, all in Guildford, as well as St John the Baptist in Woking, Ash Manor School in Ash, Heathside School in Weybridge and Carshalton Boys Sports College in Carshalton.

Split into groups of eight, each pupil was given a specific role and job to do – just as on a real construction site. Then, using rolled up paper, masking tape and nuts and bolts, the students had to design and build a model bridge able to span a 1.5 metre gap. The project involved each team pricing their project, buying their construction materials and making sure that their scheme was delivered in the most cost-effective way.

Representatives from Beard – which sponsored the event – were on hand to provide expert advice and guidance on construction techniques.

At the end of the challenge, each bridge was tested with 500ml bottles acting as weights and judged on its performance, the team’s project management skills, design and cost-efficiency. The winning team was presented with a Beard ‘Construction Challenge Winners Pack’ which included high street shopping vouchers and Beard mugs and pens.

SATRO is one of three local charities selected by Beard’s Guildford staff to benefit from its £20,000 fundraising campaign, in celebration of the construction firm’s 125^th business anniversary.

“These events are a fantastic way to show young people how exciting and rewarding a career in construction can be,” says Joachim Daniel, assistant quantity surveyor for Beard. “We have really enjoyed watching the students using their problem-solving skills and being creative. We strongly value our partnership with local charity SATRO, so much so that we’ve chosen it as one of our staff charities we’re fundraising for this year as part of our 125^th business anniversary celebrations. I hope the students had fun building their bridges and that the challenge will encourage some to think about construction and engineering careers.”

"It was our great pleasure to partner with SATRO and Beard to host the Year 8 Construction Challenge," comments Tom Shimell, assistant head of partnerships at the Royal Grammar School Guildford. "It was fantastic to witness so many boys and girls from different schools working together to design and build their structures. The inherent stretch and challenge in the task combined with the focus on leadership, teamwork and problem-solving chime closely with our ethos here at the Royal Grammar School and we certainly hope to be able to host such inspirational events in the future. Everyone agreed that SATRO and Beard organised and led a fantastic programme so ‘thank you’ on behalf of all of the students who learned so much while having great fun."

Alma Hadzihasani - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

Week One

"This week I was introduced to my project on simulating revolutionary transistors composed of semiconducting nanowires, used for quantum computing at higher temperatures (temperatures higher than is currently possible). I was made familiar with the simulation program known as Silvaco, and I began to learn the language (2D and 3D) by going through examples. I carried out research on how transistors and semiconductors function, and modern industry processes. By the end of the week I had finished the 3D structure of the actual nano-wire, with correct dimensions/meshing/material, simulating it for different temperatures, fixing a variety of bugs."

Week Two

"This week I got to improve and explore my previously built nano-wire transistor simulation. I have been busy trying to solve unexpected problems (such as solution convergence errors) by researching and learning of different quantum models available in the program and whether they may be appropriate to my simulation. Learning some of the ideas of quantum models/equations and transportation has proved to be very interesting and thought-provoking. I have also expanded my knowledge on Silvaco syntax."

Week Three
"During week 3 I created more simulations in the interest of solving a simulation of the nano-wire transistor. This included various 2D structures, a range of quantum and low temperature models, and refined meshing. Through this I experienced more errors that required logical and systematic approaches to attempt to solve them. By the end of the week, and after many attempts, we concluded that using Atlas to simulate the nanowire transistor was not an appropriate method."

-Alma Hadzihasani