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.

MY GEC EXPERIENCE 2017 - by Muhhamad Zainudin

It’s been two weeks since the first day of Global Engineering Challenge (GEC) week but I can still vividly remember every single detail of it. After a month of not having to care what time to wake up, I had to be ready by 9 in the morning. I was not exactly sure what to expect from GEC but there was one thing I was hoping for, great teammates. As I was walking through the misty cold morning, I encountered a friend of mine and we walked to the St George’s Church Lecture theatre endlessly talking about our Christmas Holiday experiences. As we arrived, people had already started to find seats and fortunately we managed to grab empty ones. There were a lot of new faces I hadn’t met before because people from different courses across the Engineering faculty were grouped together in this lecture theatre.

Prof Harm Askes started the morning with an energetic introduction and invited a guest speaker from Jaguar Land Rover as an industrial speaker. He was very experienced and wise, telling us about what to expect in the industry. After that, came a speech from Engineers Without Borders (EWB) from an enthusiastic speaker named Dan Craddock. He shared with us some of the projects that EWB has engaged in and it really broadened my horizons about how people are in dire need of help all around the world. Then, we are introduced to Bambui, Cameroon, the small village that everyone was going to work on, finding the best solutions for 26 different problems. My group was tasked with designing an electrical supply infrastructure based on renewable energy sources. The one hour GEC introduction ended with us being briefed about our logistics such as the hub we were in, where it was located and the time management. So, I went to my designated hub which is CIV Workroom 2 on the E floor of the Mappin Building. It was quite challenging to find the room. As the students of The University of Sheffield would know, the Mappin Building could be quite tricky.

I sat down and was introduced to my group mates, Matthew Morrel, Matthew Harding, Matthew Owen, Christopher Liu and Brian Githiga. They were very welcoming and we became friends in a split-second. Morrel and Owen were from Chemical Engineering, Brian was from Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, Christopher and Harding were from Aerospace Engineering and Computer Science respectively. Our facilitator was a very nice man, his name was Matthew Dwyer, another Matthew.

We had team building exercises to know more about our team mates before proceeding with the project. It was a bit awkward to work as a team because we were asked to build a 75 cm tall tower with straws and newspapers and everyone was giving ideas. Out of 8 groups in the hub, none won the challenge. Our facilitator said not to worry about that as we would see the beautiful result at the end of the week and I was looking forward to what he meant.

The days went on with us exchanging ideas and giving our equal contribution to get the project done. We started with Understanding the Problems in Bambui which really helped us get moving. We discovered a whole new world. If we thought 5,000 kWh of electrical consumption and annual income 41,000 USD per capita was normal, then imagine Bambui with a contrast of 200 kWh and 500 USD. We also got familiarized with the proper steps in creating a perfect solution. After we knew the problems, constraints and the stakeholders of the project we moved on to the Design Questions. Asking ourselves what will our design achieve, listing down all the data we have researched and using ballpark estimation for important data we couldn’t find from any sources.

On the next day, we focused on the Design Criteria and each one of us gave our own Design Concepts based on the criteria we had agreed on. We had 6 design concepts and we had to choose the best one by weighing out all the options carefully. It seemed difficult at first, as all the designs proposed by each of our team mates were perfectly reasonable, but our facilitator paved the way as he showed us how to use Decision Matrix to evaluate all our options. Finally, we came up with Biogas Power Plant as the ultimate option. We acknowledged the disadvantages of Biogas Power Plant and we even came up with great solutions to tackle them.

We got our laptops on and started to Develop the Design, laying out all the pros and cons of the idea, the solutions to all the problems, how to implement it, who is funding the project and how to approach them, will it be sustainable and the short and long term effect of the project in terms of politic, environment, economy and social. We submitted the report at the end of the fourth day, feeling exhausted but extremely satisfied with the result. On Friday, we came to the presentation. We had a bit of experience talking in front of an audience because for the last four days, there had been some presentation exercises and we learnt a lot from it. By 4 pm, all the groups finished their presentation and received valuable feedback and comments from our facilitator and the Alumni presented on that day.

For the closing ceremony, we had to go to the St Georges Lecture Theatre and the Vice Chancellor of the Engineering Department gave us few words of wisdom and presented the prizes for the winning team. Even though my team did not win, I felt happy because I can finally understand what our dear facilitator meant on the first day of the GEC. From not being able to work as a team and messing things up, my team and I did finish the project wonderfully and apparently still kept in contact with each other even after the week had ended. I would recommend GEC to be implemented every year as it teaches new students that teamwork is important part of the future and I am thankful for this beautiful experience.

Interview with a student who secured a Graduate role

By Muhammad Shuja

This blog is a transcript of an interview I took with a final year Engineering student, who successfully secured a graduate role. This will give you an idea of the firms you can land in if you are a student at Sheffield. This particular student did various placements to gain enough experience for his graduate job. However, not all students prefer going through the same process. Therefore, I’ll post another interview with a student who secured a full-time job but didn’t do any placements to let you explore all the options students have.

Question: Tell me about yourself. (Name, course, where you’re from etc.)Answer: My name is Shoaib Rana, I am a final year Mechanical Engineering student. I am from Oman.

Question: Where have you secured your graduate role?Answer: I have secured my graduate job at Rolls Royce. It was a company I always wanted to work for and by obtaining good grades and gaining industrial experience, I was able to secure it.

Question: Have you completed any placements during your course? If yes, where? If no, how did you compensate with the lack of industrial experience?Answer: Yes, at General Motors UK. I also completed a summer placement at Bahwan Engineering, Oman, in my first year, and another summer placement after my second year in Oman United Engineering Services. So I got a comprehensive work experience during my degree.

Question: How did the entire process of job applications, interviews, assessment centers and finally securing your position go for you?Answer: I sent many applications and had some assessment centers. I accepted the job offer from Rolls Royce as I had aimed for it at the start of the year.

Question: Where did you look for firms offering graduate roles suited to your preference?Answer: Gradcracker, Sheffield University Careers Service. I also attended the university careers fair and a careers day that had been organized by my department.

Question: What advice would you give to prospective students or students who are currently looking for graduate positions?Answer: Try to gain experience through a summer or industrial placement. These are easier to secure as they are less competitive as compared to graduate jobs. This placement experience will give them an edge over the others who apply for graduate jobs.

Question: Do I have your consent of posting a transcript of this conversation online?Answer: Yes

Thanks a lot for your time!


Click here for more information about careers: https://www.shef.ac.uk/careers

Interview with a student after their Placement Year

By Muhammad Shuja

This blog is a transcript of an interview I took with a final year Bioengineering student at Sheffield who came back after completing her industrial placement, to give you an idea about the application procedures and how degrees with placement years can be beneficial.


Question: Tell me about yourself.
Answer: My name is Hira Nayyar and I am currently in my final year of Bioengineering. I was originally born in Pakistan but moved to the UK at the age of 7.


Question: Where did you do your placement year?

Answer: After successfully completing my second year of Bioengineering, I was able to secure a placement at Philips Healthcare.


Question: How was your time at the firm?

Answer: Being one of the global leaders in Healthcare, I could not have asked for a better place to start my career in engineering. I was given various opportunities and experiences that developed into a better engineer. Philips gave me a platform to showcase my existing skills, yet further enhanced and added to them.


Question: On a scale of 1-10, 1 being very easy and 10 being very difficult, how would you rate the difficulty of the application procedure? And why?

Answer: I would rate the application procedure a 7 as the process was lengthy and challenging due to the mixture of video interviews and competency based application procedures.


Question: Where did you look for placements?

Answer: I used various sites like GradCracker, prospectus and the University Careers Service.


Question: What factors do you think should be considered before applying to a firm?

Answer: A related degree, similar past experiences and if the chosen firm can develop on an applicant’s existing skills.


Question: How would you say graduating with a placement affects your employability after graduation?

Answer: In my opinion having placement experience affects employability immensely, as employers look for graduates who are well groomed. Someone that has had business exposure and knows how to apply their technical knowledge from University to real-life problems.


Question: What advice do you have for prospective students or students looking for placements?

Answer: If you’re looking for placements, apply as soon as possible and don’t be disheartened at the first few rejections. Keep updating your CV and tailor your application and it eventually gets through.


Question: Do I have your consent of posting a transcript of this conversation online?

Answer: Yes.



Thanks a lot for your time!

Click here to get more information about placements: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/placements

Interview with a Postgraduate Student

By Muhammad Shuja

This blog is a transcript of an interview I took with a Postgraduate Engineering student to give you an insight about postgraduate study at Sheffield.

Question: Tell me about yourself.

Answer: My name is Fahad Zulfiqar and I am from Pakistan. Currently I am enrolled in Masters in Advanced Computer Science at University of Sheffield.

Question: What did you study at undergraduate level and where?

Answer: I completed my Bachelors of Engineering Sciences from Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology in Pakistan.

Question: Why did you choose to pursue a postgraduate degree?

Answer: I was greatly intrigued by the Engineering Sciences stream and felt a need for Master’s Degree to further hone my skills. With computer science stream on the boom and the paucity of computer scientists, I strongly felt a need to differentiate myself from the masses with a postgraduate degree from the reputed institute.

Question: What were you reasons of choosing Sheffield to do your postgraduate course?

Answer: With a top-notch faculty and state-of-the-art labs, University of Sheffield is a Premium institute with a top rank in Computer Sciences stream. The breadth and depth on Computer Science curriculum further helped me in my decision. Moreover, an eclectic mix of people would enable me to improve my communication skills and groom myself.

Question: How has your time in Sheffield been so far?

Answer: Considering both academics and extracurricular activities, my time in Sheffield University has been great so far. I got a chance to groom myself together with mastering the concepts in the field I absolutely love.

Question: How would you compare your current course to your undergraduate degree?

Answer: The difficulty level of Masters in Computer Science is immense as compared to my Bachelor’s degree. This was partly due to the fact that the Computer Science program at Sheffield is directed toward the market trends and requirements. Facilities such as 24/7 library access and a serene environment made it possible for me to achieve my goals. Support from my faculty and friends is always available, making it a fun learning experience.

Question: What do you plan on doing upon completion of your course?

Answer: My goal is to work in a reputed software corporate and further hone my skills as a software developer.

Question: What advice would you give to prospective students or perhaps students thinking about going into postgraduate study?

Answer: The most important thing in life is to proceed in a field for which you develop a strong aptitude. With competitive job market and more computer scientists pouring out, postgraduate study is definitely a safe bet at the least. Postgraduate qualification from a Russell Group institute will definitely improve one’s chance of landing in a well reputed corporate.

Question: Do I have your consent of posting a transcript of this conversation online?

Answer: Yes

Thanks a lot for your time.

Department of Computer Science @Sheffield

By Muhammad Shuja

This blog is to give you more information about the Department of Computer Science at Sheffield and the variety of courses it offers.

Sheffield’s Department of Computer Science, hosting about 140 undergraduate students every year was founded in 1982 and is a member of the Faculty of Engineering. It’s situated in the Regent Court building.

The Department offers a huge variety of courses to both undergraduate and postgraduate students so that students can explore every opportunity possible. Though most of the courses might start of the same to lay the foundation for you, they do drift apart eventually. 

Most students tend to go with Computer Science, a fantastic course which mostly deals with addressing a variety of problems in the field alongside understanding the theoretical concepts to tackle them. You are educated to graduate as an analytical thinker with an insight into working as a team. 

Sheffield also offers more Computer Science courses with more emphasis on particular aspects of the field depending on your interests. You could choose Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science if you fancy working with robots or dream of building your own Baymax to fist bump you! Not sure about Baymax but Sheffield does have really cool robots you get to play with in some of the modules! You’re taught “biologically inspired algorithms” along with various specialization opportunities like robotics or speech recognition. 

The Department also offers Computer Science and Mathematics, where you get a chance to realize and appreciate the role of Mathematics in Computer Science and how the involvements of Mathematics have resulted in huge advances for Computer Science. This course is taught in collaboration with the School of Mathematics and Statistics. In summary, you get to experience the mathematical and theoretical side of the field with a taste of hands on engineering as well. 

Another course offered is Physics and Computer Science. As the name suggests, you study a combination of modules from both fields giving you a platform to showcase you skills in a multi-disciplinary and practical environment. This and CS and Mathematics are few of the dual honours offered at Sheffield. 

If you think you’re interested in Computer Science but have an edge in management, we’ve got ITMB (Information Technology Management for Business). This course is Sheffield’s fascinating blend of Computing with business and project management skills where you get a chance to work in a business to get real-life experience of dealing with clients and building business management software. Another similar course is Software Development for Business, which deals more with marketing and business strategy.

Last but not the least, we’ve got Software Engineering, where you learn concepts like software design and work collaboratively in teams through project management techniques to complete projects for clients to develop your team-working skills. In your 2nd year, you get to choose in specializing in 3D graphics, computer security, forensics and many others.

Of course, most of the courses come with an option of a placement year, foundation year and also MEng and MComp degrees. Hence, there’s literally no limit to the number of options you can explore, and this applies to all departments including Computer Science!

More details on the department webpage: https://www.shef.ac.uk/dcs

Employer Fest: Engineering

By Muhammad Shuja

This blog is to let you know about Employer Fest, one of the many career-based events the University hosts every year for its students.

Struggling to find placements or have too many options to decide a graduate career? The answer to every question you might have regarding careers, Employer Fest – your chance to get hands on information about placements or graduate roles through a series of events from February till March. Though the University hosts an Employer Fest for each Faculty, I’ll be talking specifically about Engineering.

Regardless of whether you’ve secured a placement or have no idea what the word means (I’m pretty sure it’s something you take when you’ve got the flu), Employer Fest will help you through each stage of the process. There’s loads of workshops from the Careers Service, regarding all the options you can consider, a year-long placement if you want to get hands-on experience of the industry, a summer-placement if you don’t want a gap from studies, or perhaps a placement in a country abroad which is quite an experience in itself. Furthermore, there’s lecturers from staff working at various firms who give you an idea about the application process, to give you extremely vivid information narrowed down to specific firms. The firms are multinational firms who are leaders of their specific fields. I’m talking about Google, Apple, Accenture, PWC etc. You can have the event tailored to your requirements. For instance, international students might want to know more about immigration policies before they get searching for placements. The JobShop runs regular workshops for exactly that. For finalists, you might be more interested in graduate positions than placements. For postgraduate students, you might want to look for postgraduate placements and you can find specific event to suit your needs. For those of you who are nervous of performance issues during interviews and assessments, there’s a great load of events from both employers and from the Careers Service who will be more than happy to give you one on one advice about interviews, assessments, CVs and absolutely any worries you might have. Last but not the least, the main highlight of Employer Fest: Engineering is the Engineering Placements Networking Event. Employers from world-class firms all gathered around to ask any questions you might have – applications, interviews, the work environment, further opportunities or even how much you can earn (*ahm ahm* I sense a twinkling of the eye)! To conclude, with a whole month jam-packed with career-based events, you’ll definitely maximize your chances to get an awesome placement to earn some dolla while you do what you love!

Global Engineering Challenge 2016

By Muhammad Shuja

This blog will give you an insight about the Global Engineering Challenge in general, something engineering undergraduates take up in their first year at Sheffield.

This will be the time you realise the impact engineers and engineering itself has on the real-word and how much the world is in need of engineers for various aspects of the industry, all the way from healthcare to agriculture.

Teams of 5 or 6 students from different engineering disciplines will be asked to come up with a solution to real-life problem, which they have to present to an audience of other teams, a facilitator and some alumni of the university. Each team is assigned a work space in a hub where they have a facilitator to guide them through the decision-making progress. This seems daunting at first but a lot of support is offered to students in the form on introductory lectures and first hand help from facilitators since the university realizes that the students haven’t transformed into perfect engineers to come up with solutions to such tough problems after just one semester. The whole point of GEC is to allow you to push your comfort zone through working in a multi-disciplinary team where you work with total strangers from different backgrounds and experiences. You deal with both the merits and hurdles of this situation, a skill which is very necessary after graduation since this is what engineers do a lot. All team members get to be the leader for a day which allows to boost leadership and communication skills as you have to work with people with different leading strategies. There are awards for the "Best Professional Behaviour" and the "Best Communicated Solution" at the end of the week.

Another very interesting part of GEC is the Alumni Day. This is when you get to meet graduates from the University who are working for various firms in the country and get to know their experiences and explore various opportunities for summer placements or industrial placement years. The best thing about this event is that you get to have face-to-face information about a particular company from someone who is currently working there, which allows you to make a sound decision when it comes to applying for placements or even graduate jobs.

To summarize, the Global Engineering Challenge allows you to work in a multi-disciplinary team, work on a real-life project, learn about different branches of engineering, have an experience to talk about in interviews or job applications, and explore various employment opportunities … all of this in just one week!

I’ve posted a link to this year’s GEC website where you can get an idea about the sort of projects students work on and also a video about this year’s GEC.

GEC Website

1st Semester at Sheffield

By Muhammad Shuja

This blog is about my personal experience of the first semester at Sheffield, and what you can learn from it.

Intro Week (also known as Freshers’ Week):

Ready to Step in the pitch!

The week starts off with a welcome event at the Octagon where all freshers are invited and welcomed by various staff of the University, and are introduced to the SU Officers. Soon after that, you’ll have a lecture hosted by your department where you will get a brief idea about different aspects of your course, like where you’ll have your lectures (for Engineering Students, this will probably be the Mappin Building or the Diamond) and information about placements if you’re on Industrial Placement courses. This is also where you get to know if you have any optional modules to choose. The next day is the official Registration and Module Enrolment (no, just paying your fees is not enough), the day when you get your UCard. Most Engineering departments end Intro Week with a cool activity. My department hosted a football competition … with ROBOTS!  For the record, Intro Week is not just about filling forms and getting your UCards, the Students’ Union and Residence Life host awesome events and nights out for everyone to enjoy. Log on to the Students’ Union website for more details. (Link below)

1^st Week of Lectures:

Soon after Intro Week you’ve got lectures (BOO!). However, you’ll notice your lecturers realize it’s probably the first time you’re sitting with almost 200 students listening to one person talk. Therefore, you won’t start learning concepts on day one. Instead, you’ll mostly be given introduction about individual modules, the number of contact hours out of which how many will be lectures, practical sessions or tutorials and also how each module will be assessed; either through quizzes, assignments or a combination of both. You can also expect a department meeting in the first week of lectures where you get to meet your personal tutor. They’re just awesome people who will be your first point of contact if you have any issues regarding your studies, or your course in general. Oh, and you get free pizza and drinks as well! Apart from lectures, the Students’ Union hosts a number of fairs throughout the week, like the Activities Fair where you get a chance to explore all the societies there are (Faith, Nationalities, your course or a hobby, we’ve got it all!), the Sports Fair if you’re really into sport, Freshers’ Fair which is everyone’s favourite because of all the freebies you get (another chance to grab a free Domino’s pizza!), and the Jobs and Volunteering fair where you could choose between earning some extra pounds or a chance to serve the community (there are tons of options and sometimes, you can do both!)

Settling into student life:

Never lived on a budget? Had a hard time living with total strangers? Been horrible at making friends? Never knew your way around or experiencing a culture shock being an international student? Your first semester is your chance to deal with all these problems since you’ll get really busy with studies to worry about these things later in your course. The first thing you should do is join as many societies if you can or if you have a hard time choosing between them, opt for the Give-it-a-Go scheme where you can try out new stuff which might turn out to be your favourite hobby. Go to the

Exploring the city with bunch of friends!

Student Advice Centre to get advice on various issues like homesickness, budgeting or settling in. Use your free time to explore the beautiful city, try different routes to get from your accommodation to campus. Don’t worry if you get lost. Ask the people around or you could always use Google Maps. Who knows you might stumble upon your next favourite restaurant?! Get used to the fact that you’ll be called “love” and “darling” a lot more than you used to be back home. Speaking of you getting called that, I’d avoid using that when you go back during semester break (females back home won’t appreciate it that much). Make sure you set up a bank account as soon as possible but be thorough with your choice. Explore all your options before applying but make sure you do that before you run out of the cash you brought with you! If you’re on a budget, explore options like cooking your own food or using less public transport. How about a part-time job? The JobShop will help you out in that aspect. The point is, you’ll always find someone to talk with no matter what your worry is. The fact can’t be stressed that the University does everything to support students.

Have a great time in Sheffield! 

The Student’s Union website: http://su.sheffield.ac.uk/