FoNS students hold Imperial’s first–ever research–a–thon

Imperial’s first ever research–a–thon was held by Physoc and Mathsoc on the weekend commencing 16th November. 100 students worked in small teams to research and present their findings in front of a panel of judges representing the four streams of natural sciences: Physics, Maths, Chemistry, and Life Sciences.

Tickets sold out in minutes as a variety of students across the Faculty of Natural Sciences competed against each other. The overall theme of the research–a– thon was “Environment”, and students were given six different prompts to inspire their research. Projects included the radiation budget of the Earth, the carbon-14 ratio in the atmosphere, and “MethaMorphosis” a reduction of methane emissions. Students were judged on subject score, holisticness, innovation, and professionalism.

Elias Fink explained how students approached their prompts: “there was quite a large range” of projects “and people did all sorts of stuff. They went in different directions. Some people used machine learning.”

Judging the panel were members of staff from the Department of Physics and Mathematics, as well as Physoc president Elias Fink, and Mathsoc President Victor Kojey-Merle. Initially, there were plans to have judges from all five departments, but constraints led to Fink and Kojey-Merle taking on the role of judges. In order to prepare and balance out the judging team, Fink and Kojey–Merle read up on chemistry and biology beforehand to prepare.

The idea was conceived by RCSU Vice President (Events) and Mathsoc Vice President Rehan Baig. Elias Fink hopes the success of the event will “make it a regular thing.”