For over thirty years, SCI has supported and recognised the excellence of early career people, by aiding their studies in the form of an SCI Scholarship.
Since 1985 over 80 scholarships have been awarded which have not only given the recipients financial assistance, but have enabled them to broaden their network, and strengthen their skills and knowledge. SCI Scholars receive access to publishing and mentoring opportunities and are given a platform to present their work amongst esteemed scientists and industrialists, thus raising their profile within the scientific community.
Paulina Quintanilla was awarded an SCI Scholarship in 2020. At the end of their first year, SCI Scholars present an end of year report to SCI. Read on to find out more about what Paulina has done in his first year as an SCI Scholar.
"In January and February 2020, I installed new instrumentation in the laboratory rig to be able to measure more process variables. In September/October 2020, experimental tests were carried out at the laboratory at Imperial College London to calibrate and validate the proposed dynamic model. I also collaborated with Dr Daniel Navia from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Campus San Joaquín, Santiago de Chile. This collaboration aims to further implement the dynamic model developed into advanced control and optimisation strategies, using sequential methods of optimisation.
"I wrote an extensive literature review paper, which was sent for publication in the Minerals Engineering journal. The topic of this review is an exhaustive and analytical literature survey on modelling for flotation predictive control, in which the status of research progress towards optimal control is discussed.
"From April to September 2020, I participated in a doctoral course supported by EIT RawMaterials. This course is called “CEE-SIMP, the Circular Economy and Entrepreneurship”, and it is equivalent to a 6 ECTS (credits) for successful participation. It consists of 12 hours of online lectures, 70 hours of group work (project), 27 hours of Summer Camp and 27 hours of independent work. The summer camp was remotely hosted at Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland, from the 1st to the 3rd of September 2020. We presented the outcomes of our project, in which I have been working together with doctoral students from Aalto University and LUT University, Finland.
"The SCI helped me expand my networking, as well as allowed me to present my work to a wider audience."
Paulina Quintanilla
PhD student
Imperial College London
Visit Blog