Weekly Update

for a full list of training and events coming up at the Graduate School, please see our Events page.

Training provided by the Graduate School can be booked via MyFuture.

Once logged in go to: Events > Workshops (Careers, Grad School & LDS) 

Type 'GS' as a keyword to see all Graduate School activities.

QUBSU: Support the Strikes Campaign

Queens Students’ Union is committed to supporting students throughout the strike and have developed a campaign that students can engage with throughout the 14 day duration. Please checkout full details of the campaign at https://qubsu.org/studentvoice/Campaigns/SupportTheStrike/

No Tuition Fee Increase

Last week, I had the opportunity to be part of the NUS-USI joint talks with UCU at Stormont campaigning on ‘No Tuition Fee Increase’. Of particular interest for me was bringing forward issues around postgraduate funding. More talks are underway as this campaign progresses. See below photos.

Call for Postgraduate Abstracts

The TCD Research Committee proudly presents Demystifying AI as the theme for our annual Research Week Conference. This is your chance to showcase your research and how it is linked to AI at the upcoming TCD Postgraduate Research Conference on the 3rd, 4th & 5th April 2020 in Trinity College Dublin - run by postgrads for postgrads. 

Prizes include €200 for each successful presenter and the best postgraduate presentation will be given an accolade by the Dean as well as winning €2,000.

Students travelling to Dublin for the postgrad research conference will have their travel and accommodation covered.

All abstracts should be submitted via email before the deadline (24th February 2020 at 12pm) To find out more please email pgconference@tcdgsu.ie. 

Date for your diary

18.02.20 - UCU Strikes: Students Town Hall Meeting, 4.30pm.

Join UCU and students in the upcoming town hall meeting for a co-hosted event to talk to the leaders and have your questions answered.
More details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1526545084170026/   

Drop in Session

Every Tuesday in GR7, the Graduate School, 2.00pm-4.00pm. Come along for a chat. I look forward to seeing you there.

Thought for the week

"Problems cannot be solved by thinking within the framework in which they were created."
- Albert Einstein

Announcement

I would love to have your contribution for future updates and blog posts so please email me your thoughts, ideas and suggestions. You are welcome to suggest a great book you have read or even if it’s a resource that would be helpful to other postgraduate students, or you just want to see a topic featured, just send an email. 

Please keep an eye out on future Graduate School Weekly Updates, where I will be keeping you up to date on upcoming events.

As always, if you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to ask. If you have any queries or you are a postgraduate that would like support, please get in touch at  su.postgraduate@qub.ac.uk

Stay blessed.

Gift Sotonye-Frank #Gift4All
Postgraduate Student Officer
Email: su.postgraduate@qub.ac.uk
Phone: 02890971068

Peter is the Managing Director of a new small drinks company called The Bucha's Dog. The Bucha's Dog specialises in producing craft tonic brews, and makes a fermented tea drink, known as kombucha! Peter does all the brewing, bottling, labelling and packing himself. He named his company after the British phrase “Feel as fit as the butcher’s dog“, which, especially when spoken with a Northern Irish accent, sounds like someone is saying The Bucha’s Dog.

When asked why he started his own kombucha company Peter says, 'I started the company basically because I personally wanted to drink this product and figured I wasn’t so weird as to be the only one in my area who wanted good kombucha too. There were no kombucha producers in Belfast or Northern Ireland so I figured why not do it and share the kombucha love!' - Komucha Brewers

'With kombucha being a product of a souring process, it has a bit of an acquired taste. So not all reactions are good. But nothing is better than getting a good response. And some of the early feedback has been overwhelming.' - Peter's interview with Ulster Grocer in 2019

Peter has been working in the agri-food sector his whole career. An alumni of Queen’s, he graduated with a biological BSc in 1997 and PhD in agronomy in 2000.

Find out more about March's speaker here.

You could be someone with an idea for an exciting new product and need a team to make it happen. Or you might have experienced success in your career to date but want to help someone else get their idea off the ground.

The programme has attracted diverse participants such as: software engineers, data scientists, sales and marketing experts, medical professionals, mechanical engineers, researchers, undergraduates and PhDs as well as professionals with many years’ experience.

If you’re an established team, you can still apply but need to go through the Hothouse process to meet the rest of the cohort and potentially add further expertise to your team.