The Cambridge Engineer: Easter Edition 2020

Cambridge Engineering Society Easter · May 2020

From the Editor

Photo by Zichuan Han from Pexels

Celebrating Women in CUED -International Women's Day

The Phoenix Partnership

THE CAMBRIDGE ENGINEER CUES MAGAZINE W W W. C U E S . O R G . U K

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Sponsor s

Table of Content

From the Editor Celebrating Women in CUED

-International Women's Day The Phoenix Partnership Crossword

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t has been great to work for CUES as the magazine editor, and I

his work around. I don’t know whether it is politically correct or

genuinely appreciate having been given this opportunity. I would

not but being a Cambridge student makes me more aware of

like to share some of my thoughts regarding the last two years of

the ideas created by people working or studying in Cambridge.

my magazine editing work.

When it is your mission to disseminate those ideas, your com-

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o start with, I thought it could be a good excuse to temporarily put my engineering work aside and to practice my design

skills. I exaggerated a bit when doing the magazine interview to

From the Editor

successfully get the role. I only knew the basics of Photoshop,

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prehension levels go up.

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n addition, after discussing with team members, I decided to include a puzzle page and an interview panel. I interviewed

my DoS, also the Dyson centre manager, Dr Richard Roebuck

so I secretly panicked a bit when starting. I talked to the previ-

for and recorded his response on the third magazine issue that

ous magazine editor for bits of advice after reading the handover

I made (Easter Edition 2019). It took many pages to cover the

documents. I was recommended to follow a specific template,

story. I still remember how he humbly depicted the fact that he

but I decided to break the rules and be creative. It is sometimes

became a DoS as a PhD (student) before obtaining the “Doctor”

a bit risky to break convention but if you are determined, you can

title. With great minds like Dr Roebuck around us, I feel ashamed

amaze yourself. It took me 2 weeks to learn the basics of InDe-

that I procrastinated the menial tasks and avoided putting all my

sign and to get a few magazine samples for design references.

energy for more important assignments. The more you give up

Gradually I grasped the way to imitate the design patterns of sam-

before achieving perfection, the farther you become from leading

ple magazine pages and adapted them to fit the CUES topics, so

a fulfilled life. It is a regret that I only did the interview once and

I am sure now our magazines look more artistic. However, some-

have forgone the opportunity to learn more about other great

times my passion went too far; one professional content designer

minds in this way.

once complained that my ‘artistic’ text wrapping was ugly. Being aware that I was representing CUES, I corrected my design to be more rigorous-looking for future versions.

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ver the last two years as the magazine editor, I have developed a complex feeling towards this role. I feel that

have created some values for the magazine, but I might have not

o enrich the content, I contacted researchers in the depart-

achieved the best result. If you rate my magazine quality with the

ment for article contributions, included some grant articles

standard rating method for Cambridge exams, I am probably just

and initiated article competitions. It is quite interesting to read

above 2.1. It is quite far from the first honour. The saddest thing

through those articles, and it is a good networking opportunity.

is not that you did not achieve the best, but that you could have.

Unlike reading articles from normal magazines or newspapers,

This passage is mainly for self-reflection. I will really appreciate

when you spend time collecting the content and try to frame it

it if you have followed me to this line. From now on, I will always

with pretty designs, you resonate with it more and the core idea

remind myself: if you decide to undertake a task but you don’t

stays longer. Once I obtained an article from a researcher depict-

put your mind onto it, you are risking whiling your life away. I

ing a game that he designed for electrical engineering education;

hope you, who are reading it now, can also do whatever you un-

I deeply felt how passionate he was and I couldn’t wait to share

dertake with all your might and passion. ♦

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- Lettice (Lai) Wei CUES MAGAZINE W W W. C U E S . O R G . U K

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Celebrating Women in CUED

International Women’s Day Here at CUES, we love celebrating the amazing people in the department! For International Women’s Day 2020, we collected some shout-outs of amazing women in CUED who inspire us! Here are some of the responses: As many of you know, Maria is our amazing Departmental Outreach Officer who also puts on an amazing programme of events to get more people into engineering!

Shout out to Maria Kettle for changing the world into a fairer place and for bringing so much positivity and advice into my life!

Areeg is CUES’ very own Access Officer (the first ever!) and there isn’t a person in CUED who knows her and doesn’t love her ! – Thanks for all you do!

Areeg, all I want to know is how you do it? How are you so constantly amazing?

Megan is a researcher in environmental fluid mechanics and also the lead of the Department’s Athena SWAN team which works towards the advancement of gender equality in research.

To Megan, thank you for being such an amazing advocate for Women in Engineering and a fantastic lead of Athena SWAN! I'm sure we all know the wonderful team of ladies in the reception who are always a friendly face to help us with our questions and problems!

Lili, Joanna, Sara and Jane, this goes out to you.

Emma Findlay, a PhD student in Electrical Engineering, is one of the most well known and loved supervisors who has helped so many students understand the crazy world of MOSFETs.

To Emma F, the craziest thing is that no matter how good of a supervisor I think you are, I will find someone who also had you as a supervisor and appreciates you even more! You've really helped a lot of us wrap our heads around electrical engineering.

Besides keeping on top of the Teaching Office emails, Mary is one of the most amazing people you could ever meet! Always up for a chat and a laugh!

Shoutout to Mary Wilby for being a rock of support and happiness in the lives of so many!

The wonderful ladies at reception who are always eager to help students in any way they can and are just so lovely all the time! We love seeing you excited about our projects just as much as we are! x Shout to some of our amazing undergraduate peers (and friends) who inspire us everyday with their dedication, resilience and bubbly personalities!

Priyanka Patel of Pembroke! She is amazing in every way! Possibly the most resilient and hard working person I have ever met xox

Kirsten, is the administrator of the UseLess Research Group who keeps the group running as well as manages some of the additional projects they do such as the 88Pianists project!

To Kirsten S, you're amazing and honestly keep us going!

Cassi and Lucia are post-graduate students at the CEB and the IfM respectively and have also been amazing mentors to student teams.

To Cassi ad Lucia, thank you for being such amazing mentors for us during our project!

The amazing team of librarians are always there for us during any research/academic crisis and also just to have a chat and we love them for it!

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To the ladies in the library, thank you so much for your never-ending patience and C Uwillingness E S M A G A Z Ito N Ehelp me navigate the world of academia and referencing.

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Shout out to my college wife Nikita. An absolute queen who does everything and always wants to help people. Keep going xx

Cassie - you are a massive ray of sunshine.

Thank you for always getting involved and helping out.

And last, but certainly not least – Claire Barlow – who served as the interim Head of Department in 2018; we are grateful for all the work you put in behind the scenes to make the Department run smoothly.

To Claire Barlow, thank you for all you do for the department!

Dr Barlow said this in response: “It’s a great privilege to work with so many wonderful students in the Engineering Department: thank you for all your help and support!”

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CUES MAGAZINE W W W. C U E S . O R G . U K

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coding, so I decided to look for jobs in software develop-

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ment.

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PP stood out to me in my job search because it wasn’t

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studied Physics at Trinity College, Cam-

just about making software, but making software that

bridge, where I’d had chance to do a little

had a huge impact on people’s lives.

bit of coding and really enjoyed it. I applied

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orking at TPP actually feels more relaxed than uni-

at TPP as they offered a Software Develop-

versity. Because of the way uni was structured, I

er role, with no experience required, and the

never really had “time off”, as I had to carry on studying even

description seemed to fit everything I was

through the holidays. At TPP, there’s no pressure to continue

looking for in a career – challenging, with new things to learn.

I

working past the closing time, and we are not allowed to take work home. This means that you can

n some ways, working at TPP is a bit like

it’s immediately obvious that the work that I’ve

spend the day being focused on working efficiently, and then truly have the evenings and week-

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interesting problems every day. The biggest

I’ve worked on cutting-edge machine learning

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The other main difference is that work is much more structured – which means I can go home at 5.15pm every day and spend all evening (and all weekend) not thinking about work at all.

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ith all this free time, I’ve been able to

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ince joining TPP, I have worked on a number of projects. Every couple of months, we change teams, and that certainly keeps things exciting! My first project involved developing machine

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he extracurricular side of TPP is great. I enjoy playing the guitar, and TPP actually has a free guitar lesson once a week, which I go to, and it’s been really useful. ♦

join a friendly local running club where

I get to explore the Yorkshire countryside. I’ve also started climbing with some friends from work – there are three indoor walls within a 15 minute drive and plenty of opportunities for climbing outdoors too!

Moji – Software Developer

I

studied Engineering at Cambridge, and started at TPP straight after graduating. I really enjoy

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Crossword Source: RF Cafe

Crossword

Across 5. Forerunner to NASA 7. What do mathematicians call an angle having more than 180 degrees but less than 360 8. Crystal face 10. Luminous atmospheric phenomenon 11. Integrate data onto a carrier wave 12. Impurity in a semiconductor 14. Unintended frequency product from a mixer 15. Semiconductor device type (abbr.)

16. Mr. Gauss' first name 18. Reduced in amplitude 19. Unit of magnetic flux 22. Vacuum tube type for a high power, high frequency transmitter 24. Unit of processor calculation speed, abbr.

26. A disk operation

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27. Part of a gyroscope that facilitates free movement of the reference sphere (pl.)

28. Mate to a bolt (pl.)

Down 1. _____-Carlo analysis 2. Added an attenuator 3. Brightest star in the Aquila constellation 4. An ellipse has two of them 6. Surfaces 9. Type of current 13. Polymer having the elastic properties of natural rubber 14. International phonetic alphabet letter 'S' 15. Imperfections in a crystal lattice 17. Modulation type (abbr.)

20. A line on a map which joins points of equal pressure 21. Enclosure for electronics system or assembly 23. Last statement in a BASIC routine 25. Metal or plastic rod that connects a potentiometer wiper to a knob (pl.)