Meet Our International Ambassador - Ioan-Alexandru Herdea

Hi all, my name is Ioan-Alexandru Herdea. I am studying Mechatronic and Robotic Engineering with a Year in Industry, it may sound quite long and fancy. But believe me, it is simply amazing. You learn a little from everything - Controlling Systems, Engineering Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, Modelling, Simulation and Programming. Plus, we have a lot of laboratories where we can implement, what we have learned, into real systems. Those moments are funny and demanding because theoretical results are not the same every time with the outputs in real life. What is more, there is the possibility of working in the Engineering domain afterwards.

A lot of people have asked me why I chose this course. Well, the answer is more like a story. Two months before the UCAS applications opened, I saw the movies ‘Real Steel and ‘Ex Machina’ and my first thought was “How about starting to build a robot?” So I went to my Computer Science teacher and asked her if I could join the robotics team in high school. I skipped most of my lectures for two weeks, so I could focus on designing a robot for an up and coming competition. I simply couldn’t see myself studying anything other than Robotics. Even though our team did not win, we had a great time working together and the experience made me more determined to find a Robotic course.

Why The University of Sheffield?

I have to admit that all the universities that run Mechatronic and Robotic Engineering courses in the UK are located in amazing cities. However as Sheffield is a student friendly city, I am able to experience everything that university life can offer, with affordable prices and a wide range of activities. Also, The University of Sheffield is the only university which runs a competition called Global Engineering Week. It takes place over a period of one week where you are assigned to work with a group of students to come up with a solution for a specific engineering problem, set in a particular country. The group consists of students from all the engineering departments.

My hobbies… being an active man, I have tried almost all sports, but what I am most passionate about is squash, mountain biking, and skiing. The city is also well known for one of my favourite sports - squash. There are many squash celebrities who lived here.

In addition to sports, I also enjoy cars, collecting fountain pens and maybe something a bit unusual, disassembling electronic equipment or anything that has screws just to give me a better understanding of how they work.