Three undergraduate students from our QMCUR team have had their abstract accepted for an oral presentation at the prestigious UK-wide British Conference for Undergraduate Research, being hosted by the London School of Economics (LSE) on 25-26th April 2024.

The students set to present at the conference are:

• Barbaros Zeren (1st Year Aerospace Engineering) and Yash Vaghela (1st Year Aerospace Engineering) with their project titled 'Sway and Play: The Mathematics of Playground Swinging.' Supervised by Dr Rehan Shah, the project involves modelling a playground swing system as an elaborated pendulum to investigate the mechanism of the frequently adopted standing-squatting swing pumping strategy. The aim is to increase the amplitude of swinging and address the fundamental research question: "How do children swing?" The conference review panel commended the research as "a really interesting and well-explained piece of research" that is engaging and accessible to multi-disciplinary participants. Impressively, this marks the second conference acceptance for Barbaros and Yash, following their previous success at the Institute of Mathematics' (IMA) Tomorrow's Mathematicians Today (TMT) undergraduate mathematics conference.
• Ms Emma Nicolai (2nd Year Aerospace Engineering) presents 'Optimizing Hybrid Airplane Propellers for Sustainable Air Travel: A Path Towards Climate-Neutral Aviation.' Supervised by Dr Hussain-Ali Abid, the project is framed within a European competition and is aligned with the EU Goals for Climate Neutrality by 2050.
• Ms Xiang Li (2nd Year Materials Science) presents 'Enhancing Electrical Conductivity in Polyaniline (PANI): A Comprehensive Study on Doping from Acids to Metal Halides and Embedding Carbon Dots for Advanced Applications.' Jointly supervised by Mr Jesus Chavez and Prof Ana Sobrido, the project aims to develop novel materials for energy storage devices with improved performance.

The QMCUR team expresses immense pride in their students' success, acknowledging their motivation and enthusiasm in submitting the abstracts amid the challenges of their first-semester exams, and wishes them the best of luck for their presentation. The conference is anticipated to host over 300 undergraduate students, primarily from the UK, and some international participants, ensuring a highly exciting and memorable experience for all participants.