OLEG KOZHURA
What have I been up to?
PhD student at Open University
2018 - current (est.submission - late October)
Implementation of hierarchical triple stars (like the one above!) into the stellar population synthesis codes & simulation of the planned PLATO mission field to estimate the rate of astrophysical false positives in planetary transit surveys.
The project involved writing new code, working with legacy codes, analysis of stellar evolution, detector effects, and galactic extinction.
Other activities:
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Member of the Equality and Diversity team of the SPS
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President of the student society
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Outreach & Communication
MPhys (Hons) Physics with Astrophysics - First-class (distinction)
University of Kent
2014 - 2018
Obtained in-depth knowledge of Physics, Astronomy, Mathematics and Programming, among with other STEM subjects, including but not limited to Quantum physics, Problem-solving, Medical Physics.
Masters project was in theoretical physics; 3rd-year project was in planetary sciences.
Other activities:
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Mentored 1st year Physics students in all subjects as a lead mentor
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Secretary of the Aikido society
ABOUT ME
Programming:
Python, Fortran, C++, MATLAB, SQL.
I have written several new codes during my work, worked with legacy codes
I operated on CentOS 7 computing cluster, worked on other Linux systems, on Windows and macOS
Communication skills:
Excel at presentations; gave talks to academic and general audiences (e.g. guest speaker at "PubhD" outreach event); chaired talks; aided new PhD students and candidates directly and by being on a Q&A panel; assisted during IOP lectures.
Teaching:
Mentored stage 1 physics students in all first-year subjects as one of the lead mentors (2015-2018). The process included creating and checking example exercises, learning materials, and working on the Moodle platform. As a lead mentor, I managed subordinate mentors. Several of my former mentees are currently pursuing their PhDs, of which I am particularly proud. Moreover, I gave feedback to the SPS, resulting in curriculum changes.
Leadership & Teamwork:
Lead mentor for the stage 1 physics students at UKC (2015-2018)
Secretary of the Aikido society at UKC (2017-2018)
President of SPS student society at OU (2019-2020)
Interests & other skills:
Video & board games;
Interested in game development;
Was featured on the "OutsideXtra" YouTube channel
Basic knowledge of the Unity game engine & made some astrophysical visualisations
Experienced chess player
Examples of cards, one per type
"My Dead Neighbour" board game
Some time ago, I made the concept of a board game for my friends. Yes, the premise sounds grim and would not be recommended to anyone under 16 years of age, but it is based on an inside joke and no neighbours were harmed in process.
It is obviously not finished as PhD doesn't leave much time to spare, but friends appreciated the setup, which is what you can see below.
Current projects
Lo and behold, one of our neighbours is dead. Other neighbours, the players, must figure out that the neighbour is dead before they are too decomposed, and the building is overrun by all the nasty business.
Win condition: find the dead neighbour by filling in the "Notice gauge" before the "Decomposition gauge" fills up and players loose.
The filling up of the gauges is monitored by moving a token up or down the gauge.
There are 60 base cards: 10 are neutral, 10 give temporary upgrade, 10 - temporary downgrade and 30 are collectable action cards - (i.e. "Collect 5 of a type to increase Notice")
Additionally, there are mixed in decomposition and notice cards. The number of cards mixed in depends on the number of players and/or the desired difficulty.
There can be 2-4 players, so the standard difficulty mixing is done by these rules:
N. decomposition cards = 4 * N. players
N. notice cards = 2 * N. players
Cards such as notice, decomposition and temporary downgrade have an immediate effect, while others can be kept and used by players' discretion.
For the more accessible mode, one would add more notice cards and remove decomposition cards. I made sure that there are no colour-dependant things so that it is accessible for colour-blind people, and fonts are preferable to dyslexic people. And, due to the grim nature of the premise, it would probably be 16+.
An example of each
type of cards
Generally, the game would go as follows:
Players take 5 cards each and take turns to play.
The player is allowed to perform any amount of actions per turn.
Actions possible are:
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Use action cards, if you have 5 or more of the same type
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Exchange up to two action cards with the player next to them (so, if you want to pass a card to someone further away, you'll have to work as a team!)
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Discard any number of cards
At the end of the turn, one must pick up 1-5 cards. But remember - you may pick up decomposition or downgrade cards that will immediately affect you!
One cannot hold more than 10 cards at a time - if they have more, they must discard down to 10 randomly.