Engineering You’re Hired ! – 2018 by Ioan-Alexandru Herdea

“How was your EYH?” This is the second most common question for a University of Sheffield student.The first question is “How did your exams go?” I would like to  clarify that EYH stands for Engineering You’re Hired. As my IEA colleagues, Rishi Parwani and Hui Choo  have already written it is the second week-long project for engineering students. All first year engineering students at the University of Sheffield take part into GEC (Global Engineering Challenge) and in the second year they take part in EYH.

At the beginning of the week, all attendees are informed that the final award is a box of chocolates. Well, I can assure you, that it is a lot more than that. You are assigned to work in a group, alongside six other students who you may not know or have ever met. The only common aspect is that you have all selected to work on the same project. By the end of the week by Friday, you and your group have to come up with a solution to a project and then present this to a panel of judges. In addition to this you have to produce a report based on your findings. The report needs to be a maximum of 1700 words, bearing in mind there are 6 members in the group, means it’s a lot less words per head! You do gain a lot of skills from this competition namely working in a team, critical-thinking and research skills, which are excellent for any CV.

The project begins from the very basics and you gradually work through to the final product, which has to include details about costings, materials required, components, type of workforce and so on. The project my team was working on was about swarm robots for agriculture, we had to agree on how many drones the system would require and also research what materials would be the most effective to use in California, as it gets very hot during the summer. Nobody wants a drone to start melting whilst fertilising the fields. So, there was a lot of research involved, or in other words, a lot of time spent scrolling on Google.

It was a great experience attending the interview and to have the opportunity to talk about your team-working abilities and to discuss our conclusions. EYH is such a useful week in terms of employability as you have to use terminology and language which is frequently used by employers.This is significant as there are very few Universities in the UK that offer this kind of programme. The experience will not guarantee you a job, but it will help you to adapt easier in the future, when working with new team members from different cultures and engineering disciplines. In addition to this, it makes you look at things in a different way as you have to consider other people’s way of thinking and finding a way of working together.

In conclusion, EYH is extremely useful, not only on a personal level in the enjoyment and the taking part, but you also develop and enhance many different skills other than academic ones.

Rishi Parwani : http://ieasheffield.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/engineering-youre-hired-or-one-step.html 
Hui Choo : http://ieasheffield.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/engineering-youre-hired-2016.html

Meet our IEA - Andrei Ciobanu

Hello everybody, my name is Andrei Cosmin Ciobanu and I am originally from Romania.  I am currently in my second year of studies at the University of Sheffield, Department of Automatic Control & Systems Engineering.  Actually, it is the only department in the UK and one of the best in the world dedicated to Control & Systems Engineering.  Standing at the border between Electrical & Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, my degree provides some of the most exciting career perspectives.  Moreover, being in a constant development, it provides some of the best future technologies in a wide range of industries: Automotive, Electronics, Artificial Intelligence.  In my opinion, having the opportunity to contribute to its growth would represent an extraordinary experience for any present or future engineer!

What truly fascinated me about this area was the creativity and the rational way of thinking involved. Over the years, while developing a thorough understanding about the subject, I have set a resolute target: to build a rewarding career and become a great Systems Engineer.  As I describe myself as a very competitive person, during high-school I have participated in many national engineering contests obtaining praiseworthy results, which reinforced my enthusiasm and motivation to have a profound approach on these subjects.

Regarding my university life, I still remember that awkward feeling that I got in my very first day here in Sheffield. Even though it was the first experience far away from home, like many others, I quickly adapted. Surprisingly, I met a lot of kind people and I have made great new friends in a very short period of time which was amazing. In my opinion, Sheffield is the right place to live during your studies. Even though it is a quiet and peaceful city, it provides all the facilities you need. So far, this is the best experience of my life and I am really grateful for this opportunity that had been offered to me.

I am the social officer within the Romanian Society, so I am responsible for organizing parties and many other recreational activities! Regardless of the problems that may occur during the semester or approaching deadlines, we inevitably forget about all of these and really have fun when we get together. Actually, one of the most intense experience of my life was participating in the International Cultural Evening last year. We successfully performed a traditional Romanian dance, obtaining the 3^rd prize! Even though the rehearsals were really intense, I definitely enjoyed it as I got the chance to know all the others much better!

1st Year at The University of Sheffield by Ioan-Alexandru Herdea

My First Year as an Engineer Student at The University of Sheffield

In my country, Romania, we have a word when something is super mega extraordinary. Concrete. Yes you read it correctly. My first year at Uni was “concrete”.

When I returned to my home country, I had to answer a stream of endless questions, one of the most common being: “What is your life like there?” All my family and friends were eager to find out about my journey and to be honest I didn’t expect it to be so hard to answer them. There were so many things to say, and I soon realised that this would be useful to tell others who were also thinking about studying in the UK. I’d like to share this with you now.

I still remember that my first week in Sheffield baffled me, especially my assumptions about British weather. Just to clarify, I had never been to the UK before and I arrived to a surprisingly sunny week with an average of 16 degrees. It was so perfect, I couldn’t ask for a better start to my 5 Years at University. Then came all the formal activities. Registration, where I had to queue up in Goodwin Hall to and show documentation including my A Levels Diploma, English Exam Proof, my Student Loan confirmation letter and so on. I soon found out that this very same hall was where some exams were held later in the semester too.

After the formalities of registration the fun can begin. During Intro Week you can attend different types of Fairs in the Octagon Centre. Firstly, there is a fair which is run by all the societies that exist here. You can even find your country’s society. I found mine, RoSoc (Romanian Society), but there are many many others such as PakSociety, Arab Society, German Society, the list goes on! There are so many things to choose from such as the International Students Committee, The Women in Engineering Society and not to forget International Engineering Ambassadors (IEAs). There is also a Sports Fair organised by the University Sport Clubs. There are a lot of clubs to choose from including Squash, Swimming and Water Polo, Cycling and last but not least our highly regarded Ice Hockey Club. The ice hockey club is so crucial because every Varsity ends with an Ice Hockey Team game.  To find out about this thrilling game read one of our previous blogs here.

Most of your time will be spent in The Diamond if you are studying engineering. It is a huge cubic, diamond shaped building situated next to a church. Apparently, it cost (please keep calm) 81 Million Pounds. Quoting “the University of Sheffield’s largest ever investment in teaching and learning“. Honestly, it is an amazing place, moreover it is open 24/7, which is very useful when you suddenly remember that you have an assignment due the following day. The lectures mainly take place in the same building and every lecture theatre is equipped with 3 projector panels, 3 brand new projectors and Bose sound systems. Lecture Theatre One is the biggest room in The Diamond with 400+ places, 3 huge 3D video projectors and the same Bose speakers. The Diamond also has cheese-wheel shaped Computer Rooms which are supposed to look like the moon. Personally, I always see them as a Tom & Jerry cheese wheel.

Now, what more can I tell you? Before exams, we are given time to study and during revision week, you really have to be ambitious if you want to study in one of the University’s buildings. Sometimes it can be hard to find a space to study as it gets very busy. I did some revision at home and occasionally got together with my classmates to study together in a lecture theatre. It is very important to order any books from the library well in advance so you are not disappointed. Otherwise you will end up using hundreds of Gigabytes on the internet looking at Youtube, Wiki-How, WolframAlpha, KhanAcademy and other websites for studying. There is no point in buying the books if you can borrow them for free.

I play squash for the University team. This means that every Wednesday I travel across the country to play in the University BUCS League against other Universities and finish the day with a well-deserved Squash Social in ROAR. It is really good fun to be part of a sports club. Going to other cities to try and beat other teams and finally coming back to Sheffield victorious, is a great feeling. Let me explain about ROAR, every Sheffield student knows that on Wednesdays, the Foundry club in the Students’ Union hosts a sports party called ROAR (see photo of Roary the Lion our mascot)  It’s a great party and I have many fantastic memories of some wonderful times.

Finally, as a Fresher, you will hear things like “You are a Fresher, you are allowed to skip lectures!” or “The first year doesn’t count towards the final grade!” or “Come on…there’s plenty of time before the exams!” Yes, all of this may be true, but you should bear in mind that modules are designed in a 30:70 split. This means 30% of your module is taught  in class and 70% is independent learning. As you may know, the minimum passing grade is 40% but everyone wants to do better than that. Sometimes you will have to take a break from the parties and focus on studying. Otherwise you will get behind and could end up having too much to learn in a very short period of time. But this doesn’t mean you can’t have fun and make new friends and socialise,  you should  just need to manage your time carefully to make the most of what student life has to offer.

Meet our IEA - Diana

Name: Diana

Department: Automatic control systems

Course: Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering
Nationality: Romanian

Hello

I would like to share a little something about myself and how I got into the University of Sheffield:

I am Diana and I come from Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Before University,  I had considered studying abroad but I wasn’t sure how to go about it. What course should I do? Which university? How would I cope in a foreign country? What country do I even want to go to?

Three days before the closing date for applications on the UCAS website, I decided to apply to a university in the UK. My parents were very supportive and told me to go ahead. It’s an English speaking country, in the EU ( back then ☹ ) and so easy to get to. I knew quite a bit about British culture and history and of course that it is famous for its universities.

I started writing my application using tips from any website I could find and asked my friends and teachers to proof-read it for me. I was eager to look at the University rankings, global rankings, UCAS rankings, specific course rankings, and learn how UCAS works. The process of applying to Universities with little guidance from anyone was a hectic time for me!

I sent in my application and waited for the results. Sheffield was my firm choice, but why?

Because I love the Arctic Monkeys. Oh, and the course was pretty good too.

I knew I wanted to do Robotics when I stumbled across a YouTube video about people who play one of my favourite video games - League of Legends. One of the people they followed was a Korean man that created robot replicas of characters from the game. That was when I realised: ‘I want to do this too! This is what I want.’

This newly sparked interest, combined with a love for Maths and Physics in school and a bit of a twist of fate is how and why I chose my course and this University.  I have never regretted my decision, it was the best choice I could have made.