On Saturday, 20th June, the RCSU held the Awards Ceremony for its annual Science Challenge. The RCSA was there to support.
The RCSU Science Challenge is an annual competition, designed to give young scientists the opportunity to develop the skills to talk about science in a way that is engaging and fun to people who don’t necessarily have a science background.
Originally founded and funded by the RCSA, the Science Challenge asks entrants to produce a short piece of science communication in answer to a question set by one of the four guest judges, and serves as a cornerstone of outreach and engagement with both current and prospective students of Imperial College.
This year’s theme was The Butterfly Effect – Exploring how small changes can lead to big impacts in science
and society.
Our very own Jenni Munroe, lept at the chance to represent the RCSA as our judge for this year’s competition.
The Awards Ceremony was the culmination of months of work by the RCS Union organising team, the judges/ reviewers and, of course, close to 200 high school and Imperial students who entered the competition. Visitors to campus were delighted that the ceremony was held in an otherwise ‘normal’ second floor lecture theatre, but with a fabulous view looking onto the iconic Queens Tower. Guests were treated to short speeches from the judges in attendance (Professor Lesley Cohen and Jenni Munroe) before the presentation of the awards, the taking of a few photographs, and the opportunity to mingle over drinks and canapes.
The competition proved as popular as ever this year, and the high standard of entries gave the judges a bit of a headache when selecting their winners. Jenni’s question “AI and science communication – Use AI tools and personal perspective to explain an inspiring scientific idea.” was exceedingly popular and Jeni decided to award three school winners for the RCSA question: one for best video (to Vidushee Shekhar) one for best essay (to James Son) and an honourable mention (to Grace Ryan ). The Imperial award went to David Chen (pictured above). Other winners are listed here…… Many congratulations to you all.
After the event, Jenni remarked: “What an absolute joy it has been, to be involved in this year’s RCSU Science Challenge. Reading and watching the submissions, and then meeting so many of the winners and their families at the awards ceremony, has been a wonderful experience.”
Huge congratulations to the RCSU team for helping to make the event happen (in particular Shama Sasikumar, who did such a great job throught) and all the winners/ runners up for such great work. Best of luck with your next steps – your successes will be well deserved!
(If you like our outreach and engagement activities and the support we offer to our students why not help us do more? Sign up for RCSA membership here, and your annual subscription will be a great help, or consider making a donation to the RCSA Trust here. With no staff and no building costs or other outgoings, you can be assured that every penny of your donation will be gratefully received and faithfully applied to assist the students of the Royal College of Science).
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