Reporting from the ECR Winter School 2015 – Group presentations, prize giving and wrap up.

This blog was provided by Nuhu Musa, University of Hull, whose attendance at the ECR Winter School 2015 was supported by the UKCCSRC.

Another highlight of the winter school was the group presentations and prize giving (for best student talk, best posters and best group). The participants at the winter school were distributed into five groups A – E. Five topics were suggested by the organisers of the winter school, out of which each group selected a topic of their choice except group C, who came up with their own topic (Creation and optimization of a continental grid for EU interdependent energy production). The topics suggested for the group presentations were:

• What are the limitations on the extent of biomass utilization in power generation?
• How much further can efficiency be improved realistically in power cycles?
• Where and when will unconventional gas have a significant impact other than USA? What are the technology and geo-political implications?
• Where will CCS be deployed and when?
• Where are the bottlenecks in developing improved capture processes?

Each group came up with a different style of presentation, even though the presentation was limited to 20 minutes and only two slides, and each group did justice to their topic. According to the judges, each of the five groups did very well, but in every competition there must be a winner. Group A emerged the winners of the group presentation after their entertaining FOOD VS FUEL debate.

Thomas Hoey (University of Nottingham) won the prize for best student presentations, and Mihaela Stevar (Imperial College London) won the prize for best student poster.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to give a big thank you to the UKCCSRC for their financial support to all participants sponsored by the Centre. To all participants, thank you for making the winter school a success.