For my PDP, I was studying at Loughborough within the Chemical Engineering department. The project was based in the research area of microfluidics (the control/manipulation of fluids at the microscale) and utilising novel ‘lab-on-a-chip’ technology to manufacture polymeric particles, which have wide application in biomedical science, such as drug delivery and tissue engineering. Throughout the project I worked within the Particle Microfluidics research group, under my supervisor Dr Guido Bolognesi. Initially, a project plan was produced with the selection of my specific project and an estimation of what I could realistically achieve within the semester.
During this time, I did a lot of research, to help me understand the larger context of my research and I was also trained in the lab by PhD students from the research group. An interim report followed approximately halfway through the project, detailing my progress to date and finally, a final report - a scientific paper on the findings of my project - was produced. The semester-long project consisted of the production of the microfluidic devices, testing the devices with various liquid-liquid systems and finally utilising the devices to produce polymeric droplets, which were subsequently polymerised to produce the particles required.
I received lots of support from the academics and PhD students working within the research group who helped me to improve and develop my laboratory experiments and further my project.
The PDP has definitely been the most important piece of work I have completed during my degree. As it is the longest independent project I have undertaken so far it forced a rapid development in my research, report writing and time management skills. As only three reports are completed alongside the PDP, I could focus intensely on each report I produced, making sure it was the highest quality and that it was work I was really proud of – these are standards I will now carry through to all other pieces of work in my final year.
The length of the project meant that I was constantly revising timelines and setting personal deadlines to manage the workload over the 15 weeks, a skill which will hopefully translate to placements/graduate roles after I finish my degree. As well as this, liaising with PhD students and academics in a research environment really developed my professional engagement skills, making me feel much more comfortable presenting and discussing my work which I think really showed through in the quality of discussion within my final report. I also learnt that I enjoyed working in a lab, particularly when working with other students in a team and this had really made me think about what kind of role I want to work in after university.