All four have been involved with the Engineering Experience Programme (EEP), which links school students with STFC science and engineering, where students work on real engineering projects over several months.
Nayan Kumar (below, left) was the EEP Graduate Lead from 2023-24, expanding, leading and refining the Engineering Experience Programme in its third year. Working with the public engagement teams, and in particular Leah Thomas, Nayan led on major aspects of the programme – including its planning, development, delivery and evaluation. He worked across STFC with the Graduate and Industrial Placement teams to identify mentors and supported all 36 mentors throughout the programme.
“His positive attitude, commitment and enthusiasm coupled with a high level of organisation and excellent communication skills resulted in the programme being a huge success," said Preeti Kaur, ISIS's Public Engagement Manager. She added: “this made a real impact on the students' career aspirations while also playing an important role in the development of our early careers staff."
Brian Strugnell (above, right) originally joined the ISIS Magnet Power Supplies Group as an industrial placement student in 2021 and then returned in September 2023 after finishing his MEng at the University of Nottingham.
He is part of the team that manages the maintenance and repair of the pulsed magnet power supplies. “I enjoy this role because it allows me to solve problems and immediately see the positive impact on the facility." he says. Brian was awarded a Rising Star award thanks to his proactivity within the role, but also for his public engagement work acting as a mentor for the EEP and volunteering during Harwell Open Week.
Brian has been proactively taking on additional responsibilities and training and hopes to recruit a placement student in the future. During the open week, he was unexpectedly called upon to act as a guide and supervisor for visiting students; “At first, I was comfortable working behind the scenes as a volunteer. Stepping up into a public-facing role was an unexpected challenge, but I found it both rewarding and enjoyable"
He adds; “I've always been focused on the technical side of my work, but the graduate scheme given me the opportunity to get involved in public engagement activities, which I've really enjoyed. Mentoring the EEP students was especially rewarding—not only did I get to support their growth, but I also improved my own skills in leadership and management while balancing the program with my own work."
Niall Smith (below, left) is also part of the ISIS Magnet Power Supplies Group, joining in May 2023 to work in the Electrical Design & Test section. His work involves the design of new power supplies that could be applied to the ISIS magnets in the future. “I find the role very validating as it allows for a lot of freedom, as we're starting a design process from scratch."
Niall was also a mentor for EEP, working with Brian and Jake Sawyer to work with a group of students to design a monitoring system for the ISIS main magnet system. The project was very successful, with the students completing their project, enjoying themselves and the group even won the High Sheriff of Oxfordshire Young Engineer Award in 2024.
As well as being an EEP mentor for two groups of A-level students, devising exciting and challenging engineering projects, Samantha Fedorenko (above, right) has also been heavily involved with STFC's Sustainability Principles and Advice for Design and Engineering (SPADE) initiative, which started as a graduate project in July 2022. It has since developed, receiving funding from the STFC Environmental Sustainability Concept Fund and more recently being financially supported by the STFC Environmental Sustainability team.
The aim of SPADE is to provide a hub of information about sustainability that STFC employees can apply directly to their work. Samantha has always been interested in sustainable design, including doing a course/module at university. She joined as part of the second phase of SPADE and has been able to apply work from her university module to input into creating a guide for carrying out life cycle analysis. She is also working with some of the SPADE team on developing LCA training in partnership with the STFC Environmental Sustainability team.
More recently, Samantha has been working on a pilot project which has been rolled out across ISIS and RAL Space, aiming to embed sustainability into the design process in all projects, big or small. “RAL Space operates very differently to ISIS, so it's been interesting to see how the same guidelines can be applied across the two departments."
“It was nice to receive the commendation – I got involved with these projects because they were really interesting to me, and I didn't really realise the impact of them while I was doing it. I am continuing the outreach, with the aim to embed sustainability practices in the culture of all areas of design across STFC."
