Brain Detectives Experimental Research Task Design
I am a second year Biomedical Engineering student at UCL and currently a Laidlaw scholar.
I’ve always wanted to become an academic so when I saw the scholarship being advertised at university I thought it would be a good experience for me. I learnt more about the academic world and this confirmed to me even further to persue a PhD. I love to interact with the new first year scholars to help them get the most out of their experience and to gain even more experience than I did.
Leadership
I was very excited about the leadership training as I had never done anything like it in the past. The Laidlaw experience has deepened my knowledge of teamwork so now I can be a better leader as I am able to organise and analyse situations better so the team can thrive. The program combined both theoretical and practical activities which allowed us to put into practice what we were learning. The things I have learned will come in very useful as employers are looking for people with leadership skills and this experience will help me stand out.
Research
My two summer project revolved around Autism Research. During the first Research Project, I carried out an experimental psychology task that would enable us to understand the differences of perceptual capacity in autistic and neurotypical individuals. Throughout my research I have given many different presentations to a variety of audiences, which has allowed me to develop my communication skills. Being led by fantastic academics was very helpful as they were always providing constructive feedback on all my tasks. During my second Research Project, I explored Autism Research from a Medical Imaging perspective, in which I carried out a Brain Imaging experiments to identify early markers of autism in infants aged 6-11 months old. I deeply appreciated that both research facilities provided me with my own space to work as it gave me a sense of authority within the team and helped me be accessible to my mentors.
Networking
The network that I have created from Laidlaw scholarship is not just that of friendship but one of useful academic contacts. I have kept in touch with people from my first research project who have continued to help me in my second year project. It was good having built a community as we could all keep in contact and meet up throughout the scholarship to discuss the different experiences we were having.
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