Training

Proteum

Proteum training is for the first 10 weeks of Year 1 the CDT programme (October to December inclusive).

  • Mondays - this is your doctoral project day - please arrange meetings with your supervisors and any project related activities for this day of the week.

  • Tuesdays - online CDT training sessions through Teams from 9am - 5pm.

  • Wednesdays - you mustschedule your travel toarrive at the traing host campus ‘ready to learn’ for 12:30pm. Accommodation is provided for one night. Sessions will also be available online through Teams to those with permission to attend online in the event of illness, or other approved reasons not to travel.

  • Thursdays - you mustarrive on campus ‘ready to learn’ for 9am. Sessions will also be available online through Teams to those with permission to attend online. Travel back to your home campus should be arranged for the afternoon from 1pm onwards.

  • Fridays - this is a CDT Design Project day - the cohort should arrange any online or in-person sessions themselves.

Travel - you must arrange your own return train ticket (standard class, off peak, single ticket each way, using a national railcard) using the KeyTravel process outlined here.

Expenses - we will arrange a Protium Bursary payment in the induction week, to cover two lunches and one dinner (£60 per week) for any week in the Protium training when you are away from your usual campus. All students will need to add their bank account details into MyManchester to recieve the bursary. With prior approval you may claim for exceptional other costs via itemised receipts - see expense claim information here.

Teams etiquette - your camera should ON and your microphone should be OFF at the start of the meeting - and remain so unless the trainer advises otherwise. You must be ready to learn for the advertised start time of the session.

Training Resources

Cohort Design Project

From October to July the cohort work in teams on a challenge that is set in the induction week. This will involve a timetable of activites that the cohort will self-manage;

  • Week 1 - Project Launch, Design Brief issued.

  • Weeks 4 to 11 - Self-directed sessions.

  • Week 12 - Presentation to CDT Mangement Group

  • Week 16 - Industry Presentation (in-person event at UKAEA Culham)

  • April - Draft White Paper submission

  • July - Presentation at CDT Conference

  • September - White paper submission

Training Programme Itinierary

  • Week 1 : Monday 28th September - Friday 2nd October ‘Induction Week’ - University of Manchester

  • Week 2 : Tuesday 6th October - University of Manchester

  • Week 3 : Tuesday 13th October - University of Birmingham

  • Week 4 : Tuesday 20th October - University of Birmingham

  • Week 5 : Tuesday 27th October - University of Manchester

  • Week 6 : Tuesday 3rd November - University of Sheffield

  • 10th November week : Design Project week - no scheduled training

  • Week 7 : Tuesday 17th November - University of Liverpool

  • Week 8 : Tuesday 24th November - University of Sheffield

  • Week 9 : Monday 30th November - Friday 4th December - University of Manchester *full week on campus

  • Week 10 : Tuesday 8th December -University of Liverpool

  • Week 11 : Tuesday 15th Decemeber - University of Sheffield

  • Week 12 : Monday 11th January - visits to industry & UKAEA Culham campus *full week itinerary with a research poster and flash presentation by each student.

Deuterium

This is a blend of training and doctoral research, from January to June of Year 1. Your tasks in this period are;

  1. Design Project -The cohort design project runs from October to July. Students will work in teams to design a fusion energy plant sub-system, with the aim of writing a white paper.

  2. National Student Conference in Fusion Engineering - the CDT hosts an annual PGR event, across two days in early July, at one of the partner universities, to provide an oportunity for PGRs from across the UK to give a presentation about their doctoral project.

  3. Project-specific training - Identify and complete existing courses or training in technical areas that will support your doctoral project. This might be attending lectures for courses that are run at your univeristy in semester 2.

  4. Doctoral progression report - your university will require you to pass a doctoral progression milestone. This milestone is known by different terms (transfer report, confirmation review) and it is very important that you plan for being ready to submit your report in July. Your progression review will be arranged and assessed by your home university supervisor. You will submit a progress report, and have a viva examination. As this process is university-specific, please see below for some links to further guidance at some of the universities in the CDT. The progress report will typically require a literature review to indicate that you understand current state-of-the-art for your research question, a research plan, a list of relevant training that you have completed, awareness of risks and mitigations, and your preliminary results.

  • University of Manchester - Guidance here

  • Univeristy of Sheffield - Guidance here

  • University of Liverpool - Guidance here

  • University of Birmingham - Guidance here

Tritium

This is across Years 2,3, and 4 of the programme, and aims to support the completion of a porfolio of CEng competencies and employability skills.