March 6th saw the latest of the CDT film nights with the theme being “firsts” to mark the first movie night arranged solely by new organisers Emily Glover and David Newman. The winning film was “Shaun of the Dead”, the first of Edgar Wright’s “Cornetto Trilogy”. About 25 of the XM2 PGRs (and a few guests) gathered in Physics SCR to watch the zom-com whilst enjoying a vast offering of free pizza.
Category: Social Activities
CDT Movie Night: Films from the 2010s
The first CDT movie night of the year took place on Friday 24th January, with the theme of films from the 2010s. The winning choice was Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, with 30 PGR attendees.
A big thank you to organisers Ned Taylor and Elizabeth Martin, who are now stepping down to focus on writing up their thesis. The new organisers of the film evening are David Newman and Emily Glover.
CDT’s Christmas Movie Night
To round off 2019, the CDT PGRs chose Home Alone for their Christmas movie night. Third year PGR Ned Taylor, one of the organisers, says of the event:
Some of the CDT gathered at the top of the Physics building to celebrate the festive period. The evening commenced with the watching of the animated short The Snowman, a charming old short film to get everyone into the festive mood. We then moved onto watching Home Alone and eating pizzas. Unlike Kevin McCallister, there were plenty of pizzas to go around and no one’s evening was ruined by someone else eating their pizza.
XM2 Graduation Winter 2019
Congratulations to Thomas Collier, Henry Fernandez, Cameron Gallagher, Santiago García-Cuevas Carrillo, Ben Hogan and Cheng Shi, who graduated on Friday 13th December. We held a post-graduation celebration in Physics SCR, attended by their fellow PGRs and supervisors.
These graduates have gone on to a variety of destinations, including both academia (three of our graduates have stayed on with University of Exeter) and industry. We wish them all the best for their futures:
| Graduate | Thesis | Supervisors | Next destination |
| Thomas Collier | Double-Gated Quantum Rings and Nanohelices: From Theory to Novel Applications | Misha Portnoi, Euan Hendry and Geoff Nash | Patent Attorney in Brighton |
| Henry Fernandez | Optical and Electronic Study of Hybrid Light-Matter States | Bill Barnes and Saverio Russo | Postdoctoral Researcher at the Aalto University (Finland) |
| Cameron Gallagher | Microwave Characteristics of Particulate Magnetic Composites | Alastair Hibbins and Roy Sambles | Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Exeter |
| Santiago García-Cuevas Carrillo | Reconfigurable Phase-Change Metasurface Absorbers for Optoelectronics Device Applications | David Wright and Geoff Nash | Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Exeter |
| Ben Hogan | Fluid-Dispersed 2D Material Composites for Integrated Optoelectronic and Photonic Devices | Anna Baldycheva and Monica Craciun | TBC |
| Cheng Shi | Metasurface Based Mid-infrared Devices | Geoff Nash and Isaac Luxmoore | Research and Processes Engineer at WaveOptics |
They join fellow alumni from the CDT who graduated in Summer 2018, Winter 2018 and Summer 2019.
Photos from this event below:
CDT Film Evening: Catch Me If You Can
The theme for this month’s film social was Nostalgic 00’s. 30 PGRs gathered to watch the poll winner, Catch Me If You Can, suitably refreshed by pizza!
CDT Team Building Away Day!
Third year PGR student and SAG rep Emily Glover reports on this year’s CDT Away Day, a team building activity which rounded off Induction Week:
Following on from the tradition which was started last year, the last day of Induction Week (20th September) found PGRs from all years taking part in a variety of activities for team building and get to know the CDT’s newest cohort. It was a welcome change for the older cohorts, taking a break from their normal days in the lab or at the computer, and a chance for the newest cohort to get to know people the best way possible, by lifting them through rope holes in the name of team building. This year, we went to Shillingford Organics farm for a day of activities hosted by Exeter Forest School.
Splitting up into four groups, we took part in a range of activities to improve our communication, team work, and mindfulness to stop life from becoming overwhelming. Lunchtime gave everyone an opportunity to relive a staple of British secondary school PE (and show those who didn’t go to school in the UK how no-one remembers the rules of secondary school sports) with a quick game of one-hit rounders. While it might not have been a professional game of rounders, with many missed throws and a few bruises, everyone had a smile on their face and were ready for their afternoon activities.
Overall, everyone enjoyed themselves, learning new faces and skills that we will be able to bring into our day-to-day lives, and some survival skills should we ever find ourselves lost in a forest, needing to build and subsequently set fire to a woodland creature made out of willow (which a whale clearly is, according to our panel of physicists).
More photos from the day below:
CDT Movie Night: Terminator 2: Judgement Day
On 30th August, the PGRs held another of their regular movie night socials. This time the film was classic 90s films- a tough choice with Toy Story 2, Groundhog Day and The Matrix all in the running. The winning choice was Terminator 2: Judgement Day. All 23 attendees enjoyed the evening.
It was ‘hasta le pizza’ as all 
attendees were suitably refreshed by many boxes of pizza.
CDT Celebrations-the first ever CDT Summer Ball
On Saturday 13th July we held the first ever CDT Summer Ball. The ball was a formal black tie event for all students and staff associated with the CDT. This was a great opportunity for everyone to socalise outside of the office enviroment and build lasting relationships. The night consisted of a drinks reception, followed by a delightful 3 course dinner. Students and staff worked together to solve quiz questions and take pictures using the fun props at the photography corner. It was a wonderful evening, celebrating the many sucesses of the CDT this year. We hope that this was the first of many such events!
A huge thank you to the organisers of this event- our PGRs Conor Murphy, Hannah Barnard and Katie Lewis- for their hard work and making it such a success.
CDT Film Evening 7th June- Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Following the success of March’s film night, the theme for the CDT’s second film night was the 80s. After watching an episode of Police Squad, they watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, feasting on pizza!
Overall 28 CDT students, plus some plus-ones and non-CDT students, attended.
More photos below:
CDT Film Evening 29th March- Kong: Skull Island
CDT PGRs had a film evening on Friday 29th March, with the theme of ‘scientifically inaccurate fun movies’, complete with pizza. The chosen film was Kong: Skull Island and our PGRs were joined by some Physics PGRs based outside of the CDT, as well as a few plus ones.
Everybody had a great time and as you can see from the below photos, they got through quite a lot of pizza!
