Gifted and Talented Rian and Samuel Secure

Prestigious Nuffield Placements

 

New-Bridge Integrated College students Rian Owens and Samuel Trimble were two out of 70 students in Northern Ireland who were successful in gaining much coveted Nuffield Research Placements.  Over two hundred students across Northern Ireland applied for the placements and both Samuel and Rian had the qualifications and profile that allowed them to win through to gaining a placement.

 The Nuffield Research Placement Programme is managed by Sentinus in Northern Ireland and funded by the Nuffield Foundation.  It involves a four to six week summer placement for the successful Lower Sixth students in a research environment.  Significant benefits accrue to students who are successful in gaining a placement in that they receive the Nuffield Research Placement Certificate and the CREST Gold Award.  Both of these awards will add an extra dimension to the students’ UCAS applications and Personal Statements. 

 Samuel Trimble was successful in gaining a placement in Civil Engineering at Queens University, Belfast where he worked on research on ‘Surface Engineering of Metal while Rian Owens carried out his research at the Observatory in Armagh.  Rian’s research was on ‘Polarimetry of Asteroids’. 

 Both students received praise from their supervisors who said that they had shown great initiative and commitment to their research.  There is no doubt that the experience that both Rian and Samuel had in both their areas of research will give them an invaluable insight into the real world of research and provide them with the impetus to achieve greater things in their A2 examinations.