20 Minutes With STLE United Kingdom Student Chapter

By Rachel Fowler, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief | TLT 20 Minutes October 2023

STLE’s newest student chapter discusses why they started the chapter and what they plan on doing in the future.
STLE United Kingdom Student Chapter - The Quick File
The aim of the STLE United Kingdom (UK) Student Chapter is to connect students and those in an early-stage career in tribology with established industrial bodies, to increase the awareness of ongoing research and to promote careers in the field. It was started by STLE members Roshan Lal, Laure Kyriazis and Nicole Rosik, who are all doctor of engineering students at the University of Birmingham, with the Centre for Doctoral Training in Formulation Engineering. As opposed to most existing local chapters, the STLE UK Student Chapter targets all research groups and industries working in tribology and lubrication in the whole UK and is not limited to the University of Birmingham where it was created. This chapter hopes it will lead the way for other local chapters to be created in Europe.

TLT interviewed the STLE UK Student Chapter to discover what other local groups can learn from its innovative programs and approaches. For more information, visit https://stleukstudents.org.


STLE United Kingdom Student Chapter. From left to right: Nicole Rosik, Roshan Lal and Laure Kyriazis.
TLT: What made you decide to start the STLE UK Student Chapter?
UK Student Chapter: Roshan, together with another colleague from the University of Birmingham, attended the 2022 STLE Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla. They felt that the UK-based tribologists were lacking the strong network provided by STLE in the U.S., and the individual research groups mostly kept to themselves. At the World Tribology Congress (WTC 2022) in Lyon, France, Roshan and Laure were prompted to start a student chapter in the UK by STLE Fellow Raj Shah, who sits on the STLE Board of Directors.

TLT: What motivates you to volunteer your time and energy to STLE?
UK Student Chapter: We started the STLE UK Student Chapter initially to provide more opportunities to young tribologists than we had when we started our doctoral degrees. As it turns out, we ourselves benefit a lot from this enterprise since it not only provides us with a good opportunity to develop extracurricular skills (e.g., project and people management, communication, teamwork) but also greatly expands our own professional network within the tribology field. Additionally, organizing successful events is quite rewarding, and we have a lot of fun attending them and engaging with the other attendees.

TLT: How do we encourage other young people to pursue careers in tribology?
UK Student Chapter: Tribology is a key sector in the transition to a more sustainable future. Young people are quite concerned about their uncertain future and are willing to make a change for a better world.

Tribology being an interdisciplinary subject, there is always something more to be learned, and we can benefit greatly from each other’s perspective and expertise on different aspects of the same application.

TLT: What lessons have you learned that may be useful for other local sections and chapters?
UK Student Chapter: Do not hesitate to seek STLE’s support—they are always willing to help. For instance, finding sponsorships is very difficult, especially when you start a new organization from scratch. We utilized the STLE membership directory as a starting point to contact companies in the UK and expanded to include the network we developed attending tribology-focused events. It can take a long time, but it is worth it in the end. Many thanks to our conference sponsors for their invaluable trust.

One common mistake we were doing at first was not allowing enough time ahead of events to plan and advertise them. It resulted in a lot of stress and rushing before the events. We now are a bit more realistic in the deadlines and are a bit more prepared and organized.

Recruiting more people on the committee is very time consuming but ends up being rewarding in the long run. We started off just the three of us, but it rapidly became a lot of work for such a small team. We recommend having a clear idea of the different positions and responsibilities available, to divide the workload more easily.

Lastly, don’t underestimate the importance of working on your communication. We use our custom-made logo and branding for all platforms (emails, social media posts, business cards, leaflets, posters and the website).

TLT: What are your plans for the future?
UK Student Chapter: After two successful themed seminars, we are organizing TriboLink 2023, the first edition of our annual Conference & Careers Fair, Nov. 6-7, at the Exchange (Birmingham, UK). The aim is to provide young tribologists with the opportunity to present their research and enhance their network by connecting with other researchers and experts in both academia and industry, in a two-day event.

TriboLink 2023 is our first fully in-person event and will feature technical talks, careers workshops, opportunities to network with our sponsoring companies, drinks reception and conference dinner. You can find all information about TriboLink 2023 at the dedicated page on our website (scan the QR code), with the links for abstract submission and registration. Make sure to register—we are looking forward to seeing you at TriboLink 2023!



Acknowledgements:
Many thanks to our conference sponsors: Formulation Engineering CDT, PCS Instruments, Afton Chemical, TriboTonic, Cargill, The Lubrizol Corp. and the Royal Society of Chemistry, and our media partner: Surface Ventures. We also acknowledge our future sponsors who were not fully confirmed at the time of this article being published.

We also would like to thank the School of Engineering (University of Birmingham), the Tribology Group (Imperial College London) and the University of Sheffield for hosting our hybrid events throughout the year.



You can reach Roshan Lal, Laure Kyriazis, Nicole Rosik and their team at uk_students@stle.org, and visit their website at https://stleukstudents.org to find out more.