June 2024
SciTech BulletinThree Welcome to the latest edition of our SciTech Newsletter, where innovation and curiosity converge through pupil achievements in robotics, environmental science, space exploration, and more.
Stan-X international conference The Stan-X Scholars attended the second international fruit fly conference at Lawrenceville School, New Jersey. The pupils presented their academic posters on their novel fruit fly lines and networked with their American counterparts from Lawrenceville and Chapin Schools. The conference was launched by Professor Seung Kim of Stanford University who welcomed the pupils and gave a rousing speech on scientific endeavour. We are very proud that three of the Stan-X scholars were selected to attend a three-week summer internship at the School of Medicine at Stanford University to continue their research.
CubeSat update Since the launch of the Haileybury CubeSat programme, pupils have been diligently learning spacecraft engineering fundamentals to plan their CubeSat mission. They formed a management structure, developed mission and system requirements documentation, and studied CubeSat specifications. Emilie and James, serving as Project and Engineering Managers, ensured effective communication and leadership. The pupils chose a mission goal involving an Optical Camera for environmental monitoring from low Earth orbit, balancing budget, time, and feasibility. They are now advancing their knowledge in optics and orbital mechanics to determine the necessary technical requirements and select appropriate hardware for the mission.
Oxford Physicist Professor Stephen Blundell visits SciTech On Tuesday 13 February, Haileybury was visited by the eminent physicist Professor Stephen Blundell, from the University of Oxford’s Condensed Matter Physics department. Professor Blundell is a Professorial Fellow of Mansfield College and a former Head of the Condensed Matter Physics department whose research is associated with quantum magnetism, which is the study of magnetic systems where nature has constrained the behaviour of the particles within, leading to some very strange and unique behaviours. A fundamental understanding of these behaviours will have a dramatic impact on the realisation of powerful future technologies, capable of changing society forever.
As well as being a world-class researcher, Professor Blundell is an expert educator and communicator of science.
Professor Blundell had the opportunity to meet with and discuss the research being undertaken by pupils who are part of the Stan-X, CubeSat He is the author of a number of and Vex Robots SciTech texts aimed at undergraduate and programmes, while touring graduate pupils on Magnetism, the new facilities. He Thermodynamics, Quantum Field commented on the Theory and most recently, Muon remarkable opportunities Spectroscopy. He is also the the pupils were provided author of more accessible texts with to develop the same aimed at the public, involving skills that undergraduates two texts in the very short and postgraduates are introductions series of books, one encouraged to develop on magnetism and the other on but in a secondary superconductivity. school environment. He is also a regular guest on BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time where he has spoken on topics such as the Earth’s Core, Absolute Zero and more recently Superconductivity.