Bushy House, Teddington. Part of the National Physical Laboratory. Taken 28 Feb 2009.

Towards the end of my placement at NPL a few months ago, I was asked by Kingston University to write a short bit of text about my time on placement such as how it helped me, and what it’s given me for the future. Then, after providing the uni with a photo of myself the piece was published a few months later in the 2009 Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics prospectus.

Below is an excerpt of the piece;

“I’m nearing the end of my placement at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Teddington. I’ve been working as a technical coordinator in the knowledge transfer team doing web development and managing technical setups at events and conferences…” More…

If you fancy seeing the page it’s on you can download it as a PDF here.

Today was the first Nano Show; a bi-monthly series of science lectures presented simultaneously in real life at NPL and in Second Life. A real life presenter, in front of a real life audience in the NPL auditorium discusses Nanotechnology related topics, while an audience in Second Life, listens and watches the presentations in real time, and all having a chance to participate in voting and questions at the end.

All in all it went successfully, and hidden amongst a tower of cables and computers I came out ok! The set-up was – and is – quite hectic! The speaker, and thier Second Life avatar use and are logged in to the main Auditorium computer on the main screen. Then there’s a moderator taking questions from Second Life attendees and managing the presentation slides on his own computer.

Then there’s me… managing the audio, from three microphones – one for the speaker, one for the moderator, and one for the real life audience when they ask questions, all feeding into Second Life as and when required. I’ve also got 2 laptops, one showing the second life audience for the real life audience to see on a TV, and a second using Wirecast, to record everything as it happens from the computers, and two video cameras.

Here are some photos taken before, and during the event of the real life speaker and audience!

More Photos >>>

I’m glad to say I’ve been accepted as an intern at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Teddington, Surrey and start from mid-August. NPL is the UK’s national standards laboratory who carry out fundamental research and develop measurement technologies, vital to improving quality of life, trade competitiveness, and protecting the environment.

My position within the company will be the Technical Coordinator for Online Media and Communities. I will be using web and online media technologies as part of the Knowledge Transfer Delivery Team as well as providing technical support to the KT Delivery Team, helping to communicate scientific knowledge using the web and collaborative technologies.