SURE – Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience

By Muhammad Shuja

Are you not SURE what to do after completing your degree? Are you not SURE if a PhD is the right option for you? Are you not SURE why I’m saying SURE a gazillion times? SUREly, you’ll know it all once you read this blog.

The Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE, sorry had to!) is a program run across all the departments at the University of Sheffield where a group of students work on a six-week paid research project over a summer. It is a fantastic opportunity for students to get an insight of what it’s like to pursuing research-based opportunities like a PhD. I myself was part of such a project in the summer of 2017 where I worked in the Department of Physics. My project was to assess the use of thermal cameras to improve building planning and reducing electricity bills in UK households. We were fantastic team of physicists, chemical and software engineers who worked together for six weeks on this amazing project. We built various simulations and models to test our cameras and use those results to present a report, while I worked on building a website for the entire project for future research and surveying purposes (link given below).

A SURE project definitely enhances your CV and your skills to work in a team of people who put their individual skill sets on the table. It also improves your communication skills since you have to ensure that all work is divided among the team with a clear idea of the progress being made.  All projects carried out over the summer are then presented at the SURE showcase in the next year to give all new students an idea of what has been done previously. The showcase then presents awards to the best projects in various categories. I was quite honoured when my team received the award for the ‘Best Networking Project’, since it was one of the few teams who worked with students coming from different disciplines.

For me, personally, this was an amazing experience to explore an entirely new career opportunity, something which I hadn’t considered before. It gives you the confidence of making a sound decision when choosing a career path after graduation.  You get to evaluate whether you’d be more interested in research as an engineer or if you’d prefer working in a team on a more technical project. Unfortunately, for me as a Software Engineer, I’ll prefer sticking to coding projects in a team and telling my friends to restart their computers if they have a problem (trust me, it always works).

Now that you’re SURE about what SURE is, you SUREly would plan to apply to Sheffield to explore these excellent opportunities which SUREly develops your skills and enSUREs that you have a competitive edge in industry once you graduate, which you SUREly will. Please feel free to add the number of SUREs in your head to the point where you start hating me, if that point hasn’t already passed. I’m SURE it has.

Placement Diaries-Derailed in London by Rishi Parwani

In this new series of blog posts, I bring to you a long overdue recount of my experiences so far on my year in industry in London.

I find it funny how I spent more time trying to come up with a pun related title for this post than I did for the actual content. Lost? Don’t worry, I’ll get you back ‘on track’.  

It’s been nearly 6 months now since I’ve been on placement with the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) down in London and I have to say, what an experience it has been so far! I will start by giving you all a bit of background on the company I am on placement with. RSSB is member-funded organisation that carries out research projects, sets standards, promotes sustainable principles and drives to improve Britain’s rail industry. I’ll need more than a year to gain an appreciation for the sheer magnitude of the rail industry in this country – it truly is an engineering marvel and one that is so complex and intricate.

Now, as to my role. What is it that I do, you may ask? I’m currently one of the three Student Research Analysts working in the Research & Development team, writing knowledge searches and contributing to Horizon Scanning activities. Knowledge searches are requested both internally and externally from our members in industry and the topics can range from anything from detailing all the mechatronics engineering solutions used in rail, to geotechnical engineering solutions. Horizon Scanning is a new addition to the department’s portfolio and it’s all about finding what technologies and trends are on the horizon and how we can capture them before they become mainstream in the news. As a team, we’ve been going through all the latest, up and coming emerging technologies and looking at their future impacts on the rail industry and where they are used in other industries. My day can begin by looking at the impacts of driverless cars on the rail industry to figuring out the mechanical processes behind 4D printing (yes, that is a thing).

The other aspect of my job that I love is the fact that I get to live and work in London! The office is in a great location in Central London however I’ll talk more about London life in another post. As much as I do miss Sheffield, I keep thinking that I’ll probably end up missing London 10 times more when I’m back for my final year.

The work here is varied and if you’re as much of a tech geek as I am, then you’ll love this job. This is the time to get your inner engineer to shine and to show off what you know about in areas of technology ranging from driverless cars to additive manufacturing to biometrics and facial recognition.

If this placement opportunity sounds interesting to you, APPLY. The placement is currently listed on Career Connect (https://careerconnect.sheffield.ac.uk/student/jobs.html?execution=e1s2).

The deadline is March 1^st so for those who are still looking for a year-long placement, you have just about a week to send your CV and covering letter to placements@rssb.co.uk