For the third consecutive year, students from the Queen Mary Centre for Undergraduate Research (QMCUR) participated in Posters in Parliament. This prestigious event brings together the most innovative undergraduate researchers from across the UK, offering them the opportunity to present their work directly to legislators, policymakers, and leading academics.

This year, QMCUR showcased the following selected posters:

1. "A Search for New Physics: FEA-Driven Modelling of a Liquid Cooling System for the Belle II iVTX Detector”, by Dhyey Joshi (2nd-year Mechanical Engineering), supervised by Prof Oliver Fenwick.

This project is in collaboration with the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences at QMUL and other partners abroad, including KEK (Tsukuba, Japan), IPHC (Strasbourg, France), IJC Lab, INFN (Pisa, Italy) and University of Bonn (Germany). Dhyey has impressed all collaborators by the progress he has made in only few months of research.

Based on his experience, Dhyey commented: “It was a valuable opportunity to present my work and connect with passionate researchers contributing significantly on solving vital challenges. I am grateful to Professor Oliver Fenwick and Professor Adrian Bevan for their guidance and support, and Dr Giuseppe Viola for helping organise these opportunities”.

2. “Designing Microfluidic Devices for Drug Diffusion Testing” by Rindhiya Vishnu Shankar (3rd Year Biomedical Engineering), supervised by Davide Carta (PhD student) and Prof Julien Gautrot.

This research tackles a critical challenge in pharmacology, by developing a microfluidic chip for efficient, reproducible, and scalable drug diffusion testing. The device incorporates hydrogel-based barriers to replicate biological tissue characteristics, with the long-term objective of reducing reliance on in-vivo animal testing.

After winning the internal selection by a substantial margin, Rindhiya’s poster was shortlisted among the eight best submissions nationally and ultimately received a Commended Poster Award, placing it among the top three posters presented at the event. This remarkable recognition, introduced this year for the first time at the event, was awarded for the strength and clarity of the scientific poster design, excellent subject mastery, a compelling long-term research vision, and a clear pathway for continued development.

Feeling excited for the award, Rindhiya commented: “PiP was an incredibly rewarding experience. Meeting researchers working on innovative and emerging projects was truly inspiring. The event also encouraged me to view my research through a regulatory lens, helping me better understand its future impact. I am grateful that my work was recognised, which further motivates me to continue working for better results. I would like to sincerely thank Prof Julien Gautrot, Davide Carta, and Dr Giuseppe for their guidance, support, and for providing this valuable opportunity”.

QMCUR extends its warmest congratulations to Rindhiya for this tremendous achievement and thanks to Davide Carta and Prof Julien Gautrot for their excellent supervision, which made such a significant accomplishment possible. Congratulations also to Dhyey for the excellent posters presented, and Prof Oliver Fenwick and Prof Adrian Bevan for their guidance on this impactful research.