The Ramsay Annual Debate was held on the 4th of May, 2016 with attendees of various ages and professions. The event started after a half-hour drinks reception with opening remarks from the moderator of the event followed by 10 minute presentations from each member of the panel. The general consensus of their presentations was that oil did have a future and various speakers gave their views on how a more sustainable future could be achieved in the long term. They explored areas such as energy policies, emissions, sustainability and the cyclic nature of the oil and gas industry. The event ended with a Q and A session with members of the audience and from the amount of questions/comments raised, it was clear to see that this topic was a really important one to the audience.

The feedback received from the event has been very positive, the event was well-attended, well-received and members of the panel have expressed their joy at being able to partake in the event. This event is run yearly as part of the Ramsay tradition and we hope that the debate next year will be just as successful.
We would like to thank the following people who were instrumental in ensuring the success of the event:
Members of the panel: Professor Paul Ekins (OBE), Myrian Schenk, Abhishek Goswami and John Kemp.

The Moderator: Mr Jama Salimov

And IchemE L&SE YMF Chair, Adriana Vargas for her role in helping to organise and promote the event.
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The first Ramsay careers and speed networking event included presentations from Air products, KBR, MWH Global and PM group. The event aimed to show the wide range of industries and career paths that are available to chemical engineering students today.

We started with short presentations from the companies which each covered an overview of what they do, what types of jobs they offer and what a typical role involves day-to-day. The presentations also gave a detailed insight into what internships they had to offer to the students as well as useful recruitment information.

Air products introduced us to global and large-scale company in gas industry. KBR also is global and large-scale company, however they focus on procurement, construction, petrochemical etc. MWH Group is slightly smaller scale compared with 2 companies mentioned before, but a leading company in water industry and also has various locations worldwide. PM Group is again much smaller scale than first 2 companies mentioned and covers areas such as Biopharma and Food and beverage etc.

This was followed by a question and answer session where students got an opportunity to talk to the presenters and network with company representatives. It was a great chance for students to speak directly to, and learn more about, a particular company.

All-in-all the event was successful, we received good feedback and students were pleased to have been introduced to new and exciting companies and career opportunities. Ramsay looks forward to hosting many more similar events in the future!

You can view the pictures from the careers event here.

Pipes, pumps and power stations! Our trip to EDF’s Dungeness B nuclear power station was a fantastic opportunity to see all that theory being put into practice. We were able to tour the power station and gain insight into the full cycle of generating electricity from nuclear fuel.

 Our first stop on the tour was to view the Radiological Controlled Area (RCA) - here we had the opportunity to view the two reactors and learn about the reactor types, maintenance procedures and employee radiation exposure levels . Usually, when one hears ‘nuclear reactor’ they imagine deadly radiation exposure and dramatic explosions. What we were struck by is the surprisingly low amount of radiation employees are exposed to (0.5% of the UK government’s maximum annual recommendation) and the strict nature that this is monitored in the plant compared to in hospitals.  It was interesting to see the non-chalant engineers dressed in just overalls walking over the nuclear reactors – a testament to the confidence they have for the safety of nuclear technology.

 Next stop was the turbine hall where the electricity is generated. Electricity generation from steam is a concept that everyone on the trip was familiar with having come across it in high school physics or during our first year Thermodynamics module. However, what was particularly impressive was the scale to which everything was on. In addition to this everything in the hall was hand designed without the aid of computers, which is inconceivable to think of now due to our reliance on computer aided process design.

 Finally we stopped at the cooling water pump house. Here we were able to see filtration of  cool water coming in from the sea to remove fish and muscles (much to the delight of some very large seagulls!) before viewing some very large pumps, which pump the cool seawater into the turbine hall. As a little addition to our tour we were taken to see the training control room (which looked exactly like what you can see in the Simpsons) where control room engineers are trained.

 Overall this was an invaluable insight into the nuclear industry and a great opportunity to see chemical engineering principles applied to real-world situations. If you are interested in more things nuclear stay tuned for our nuclear technologies panel discussing on ‘Breaking the Nuclear Cycle’ on February 6th 2015.

You can view the pictures from the trip here.

Thank you to all that attended the Ramsay Ice Breaker! We hope all the UCL Chemical Engineering Freshers that attended had a great time getting know each other and taking part in the activities we had planned; from people bingo to the scavenger hunt around uni! If you did not get a chance to join/sign up to the society, no worries! You can contact either committee member and fill out a short form - a lifetime membership costs just £20 (that's for the whole time you are a student with the UCL Chemical Engineering department). We'd also like to thank all Chemical Engineering students, from older years, who helped make the event successful. 

*UPDATE* 
Pictures are up from yet another successful cocktail party - check them out in our Gallery!