Appraisal and development

conversations (ADC) form

Researcher 2020-21
Name: Dates of discussions (3 per year):
Abhilash Sreekumar

Job title: Date of end of year discussion:

Post Graduate Researcher 09/07/2020

Job level:

Faculty/School/Department: Start date of current role:

Faculty of Engineering 1st October 2018

Attendees:
Jelena Ninic and Abhilash Sreekumar

Signed as agreed (appraiser) (end of year): Name: Date:

Jelena Ninic 10/07/2020

Signed as agreed (appraisee) (end of year): Name: Date:

Abhilash Sreekumar 12/07/2020

This form has been modified from the standard to accommodate as best as possible the
impact of the COVD-19 pandemic and is intended to be used as a guide to facilitate the
structure of the discussion and should cover the following areas:

Reflection Looking forward Future objectives

Constructively review Discuss personal Agree future objectives
past activities and how development and career which balance with/
achievements have aspirations including contribute to the priorities
been realised career advancement of the faculty/
school/department
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Reflection
Constructively review progress/achievements/delivery against objectives including how these have been
achieved (reference can be made to the Building a Culture for Success guide) and how they have contributed
to the Faculty of Science and the School as outlined in the relevant balanced framework. In considering this
section please be mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the role to date and going forward.
Traditional benchmark data is not as relevant in this period.

Objectives – teaching and learning Appraisee comments: Appraiser

comments:
School fixed goal: Consider if gaining 1st in-year review comments:
experience in an aspect of (on-line) These courses proved useful in effective Abhi successfully
teaching could be beneficial. dissemination of work done, especially in supported teaching
academic contexts like conferences. of MATLAB and
SAP2000 workshops.
Individual Objectives:

Attending short courses for developing

technical writing and presentation skills.
Developing accelerated computing skills 2nd in-year review comments: We agreed that it
by taking the UoN High Performance An understanding of high performance might be useful
Computing short course. computing helped me run large problems taking some online
on clusters effectively. courses in the
For further details on learning, please see
follow-up semester
list attached
on HPC or
stochastics.
End of year review comments:

Objectives – research and knowledge Appraisee comments: Appraiser

exchange comments:
School fixed goal: Delivery of primary 1st in-year review comments:
research project objectives with
consideration given to the impact of the All project deliverables were handed in All research
COVID-19 pandemic. within deadlines. objectives were
achieved.
Examples of evidence: Research
publications, conference/online
presentations, development of
intellectual property. 2nd in-year review comments: Due to exceptional
Project deliverables are proceeding COVID-19
Individual Objectives: according to plan. circumstances Abhi
did not attend three
Journal Publications: Two of the three conferences planned for conferences,
this year were postponed due to COVID- however this will not
1. Sreekumar, Abhilash, Savvas P. 19. The third conference is scheduled as a affect his overall
Triantafyllou, Francois-Xavier virtual one in September. research project
Becot, and Fabien Chevillotte. "A goals nor
multiscale virtual element Academic secondment with Columbia dissemination.
method for the analysis of University planned for October-November.

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 heterogeneous media." End of year review comments:
International Journal for
Numerical Methods in
Engineering 121, no. 8 (2020):
1791-1821.

Conferences: please see list attached

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 Objectives – contribution Appraisee comments: Appraiser
comments:
School fixed goal: If workload allows 1st in-year review comments:
contribute to the mission of the school Extensive meetings were held to plan
through appropriate citizenship activities concerning model aircraft One of the identified
activities, inclusive of engagement with building for school students. weaknesses at the
School staff events. beginning of second
Several parts were procured and used in year was the
Examples of evidence required: Details of helping students build these aircrafts. difficulty to clearly
citizenship activities and the value to the share ideas,
School, eg. outreach, public engagement, especially with non-
hosting conferences.
experts in the field.
Meetings and
Individual Objectives:
presentations (e.g.
seminar for CSEI)
Christmas lectures in Dec 2018 and Dec
helped improving in
2019.
this area.
For details, please see:
https://no2noise.eu/christmas-lecture/
2nd in-year review comments: A Christmas lecture
https://no2noise.eu/christmas-lecture-2019/ was delivered as
A similar event with extended activities well to wider
demonstrating aerodynamic lift, propulsion audience.
effects etc was done.

End of year review comments:

Objectives – culture and climate Appraisee comments: Appraiser

comments:
School fixed goal: If workload allows 1st in-year review comments:
commit to ongoing personal and
professional development to support Future plans were not yet well formulated.
career aspirations. There existed a vague idea hinting at
remaining a researcher.
Examples of evidence required: Up to date
cv, consideration of potential future career
pathways

2nd in-year review comments:

The rough plan and
Individual Objectives: A clearer picture has emerged: completing vision is to stay in
a post-doctoral study in computational academia, but in the
Currently the future career plan is to methods applied to mechanical/vibro- next six month it
find a post-doctoral fellowship in the acoustical problems. would be worth
field of computational methods in identifying more
mechanics/acoustics. specific
groups/institutions
CV: please find attached. and establishing
some preliminary
contacts.

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 End of year review comments:

Previous personal development undertaken (appraisee comments): Comments (appraiser):

Attending workshops in research ethics and intellectual property rights
helped me understand the importance of transparency and adequate
acknowledgements/citation

Additional comments (appraisee): Additional comments (appraiser):

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Looking forward
Personal and professional development and career aspirations including career advancement. In considering this section
please be mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the role to date and going forward.

Appraisee comments:
1st in-year review comments:
Develop a stronger awareness of standards of research and practice within the research group

2nd in-year review comments:

Maintaining a polite and professional workplace environment with colleagues

End of year review comments:

Appraiser comments:
1st in-year review comments:
I think this has been achieved by participating in ITN networking evens as well as in group and
university activities. Also, publishing research papers, both journal and conference are sort of
confirmation of successful achievement of this objective.

2nd in-year review comments:

You should keep participating in in ITN networking evens as well as in group and university activities and
perhaps in a more structured way exploring the future carrier perspectives through it. Of course, the
main goal for next year is successfully delivering your PhD, as well as follow-up journal publications.

End of year review comments:

Personal and professional development identified: How this will be met: Priority/time scale:
The following training is mandatory for your role. Please confirm
completed and any related updates.

Data protection Moodle training

http://moodle.nottingham.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=12093 I have completed all these
modules. Well done.
Diversity in Learning and Teaching
Equality and Diversity in the workplace
Implicit bias
https://nottingham.learnupon.com/users/sign_in

Legal compliance
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/legalservices/podbriefings/
index.aspx

Research integrity
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/graduateschool/
traininganddevelopment/research-integrity.aspx

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Individual Objectives:

Maintaining professional courtesy with all

colleagues at the workplace

Future career development/promotions discussion notes and agreed next steps (appraisee/appraiser):
Extended interactions with the CSEI and ITN research groups are encourage to broaden horizons and
develop an awareness of progress in fields not immediately related to mine.

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Future objectives
Objectives should be SMART and include proposed interim review dates (where applicable), timescales for completion
and desired outputs/outcomes aligned with the current and future priorities of the faculty/school/department as outlined
in the relevant balanced framework (including strategic and operational priorities, contribution and culture and climate
priorities). When discussing objectives please also consider how work will be achieved (reference can be made to the
Building a Culture for Success guide) as well as what will be achieved. Again in considering this section please be
mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the role to date and going forward.

Objectives – teaching and learning

Objective: Completion date: Review date:

Attending online courses on HPC, stochastics and uncertainty quantification

Objectives – research and knowledge exchange

Objective: Completion date: Review date:

Having an academic secondment and establishing collaboration with Columbia
university.
Competing PHD
Preparing and submitting one or two high impact journal papers
Objectives – contribution

Objective: Completion date: Review date:

Christmas lecture in Dec 2020

Objectives – culture and climate

Objective: Completion date: Review date:

Currently the future career plan is to find a post-doctoral fellowship in
the field of computational methods in mechanics/acoustics.

Additional comments (appraisee):

Currently the plan is to focus on publishing work in high impact journals and conferences. Developing
methods to help with work at the Columbia secondment is also underway. It will prove useful in
developing collaborations and contacts for the future, especially with regard to a Post-Doc fellowship.

Additional comments (appraiser):

It is clear that the priority in the next year should be on successfully completing PhD and producing
additional one or two high impact journal papers. However, in the next six month it would be worth
identifying more specific groups/institutions and establishing some preliminary contacts for the future

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carrier perspectives .

Date of next discussion:

09/07/2020