Chemical Engineering: 3 Students: 0

The biggest defeat in life is when you’re defeated by your own expectations...

After having an amazing first year studying Chemical Engineering, I was super excited to come back to university after my summer break only to find that it wasn’t even remotely close to what I had expected. All of last year I kept hearing seniors say that second year was the toughest year on the degree and slowly by slowly I too began to believe that. From the first day itself, 2^nd year made me live through things I had never imagined.

Now, I know you’re all expecting a tale of misery and torture that students often love to empathize with but my story is way different. My expectation of the course being tormenting was blown right out of the window when the course gave me 3 of the best experiences an engineering student could experience.

    1. Guest Lecturers from the industry.

We have all imagined ourselves having intelligent conversations with experts at some point in our future. However, for a 2^nd year Chemical Engineering Student at the University of Sheffield this is a dream that comes true so quickly. As part of some modules such as particle science, we had the opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge from industrial experts like the lead researcher from Nestle and Astra-Zeneca. As an added incentive, we got insight into some of the projects and research that they and their representative companies were working on. Be it zero-water consuming process plants in Mexico or innovation and design into producing machines that provide the correct consistency and temperature of baby food. The guest lecturers introduce a new style of teaching and relieve us from the monotony of having the same lecturer week-in-week-out.

    2. Joining the Sheffield Engineering Leadership Academy.

SELA is a prestigious extra-curricular program that runs for two years alongside your course. This program is focused on bridging the gap in the engineering industry by equipping the future engineers with skills and resources. Entry to this program is highly competitive and thanks to the various team work challenges and soft skills that I acquired in year 1 of my course, I was able to get into the program alongside 19 other individuals from various engineering disciplines.

    3. Extensive career planning sessions.

An ancient saying says, ‘The early bird catches the worm.’ Here, at TUoS, not only do they wake you up early (all pun intended) but also they ensure to instill in you all the skills you need to sore high up in the skies of your success. As a second year student, I am constantly engaged in one-on-one sessions for careers development with my personal tutor. In addition, we had the opportunity to get advice from individuals from the careers service department and have them review and assess our cv’s.

If that was not enough, we have a dedicated careers advisor who sends in emails for intership and placement opportunities. Also, we get to attend several networking events with industrial experts and alumni that are able to then give us more insights into our choosen fields. Basically, it is like a real life version of LinkedIn isn’t it?

It’s been 9 weeks into my 1^st semester and even though I sometimes feel stressed about deadlines and my future as a whole. I know for a fact that my department has got my back and they are more than willing to go the extra mile in the name of my future.

The biggest defeat in life is when you’re defeated by your own expectations... So, in as much as I had expected to be defeated by the intensity of 2^nd year, all I failed at was my expectation; which in my view is one of the best defeats ever. 

SPRING IT!

Now that the long dark times are over, it is time for all of us to ‘spring’ out of our warm cozy blankets and kiss adventure. Spring is the season for rebirth, regrowth and renewal not just for the flora but also for the fauna like you and me.

Now that spring is here, I have compiled a list of my top 5 suggestions on how to kick start into a brighter lifestyle.

Weston Park - Photo Credits

1. Grab a book

As we all know Sheffield is home to some amazing scenic places. Just grab one of your favourite novels and read it in utter tranquility- be it reading a romance novel while sitting at the Endcliffe Village pond or be it reading an autobiography at the Weston Park. Be it imagining yourself at a crime scene in the Whiteley Woods or escaping imaginary horror at Agden Reservoir. Just grab a book… and read it good. 

2. Support team Wednesday

Again, something that being at Sheffield that excites many is being able to watch one of the matches and make ever lasting memories. Now, I have no opinion on football and I know as much about it as Einstein knew about art – if you know what I mean. Yet, whether you like it or not, I am sure it would be a fun experience. Just tagging a few friends along can give you a break from the struggle of studying and it will refresh your mind; of course, you will have vented out the frustration by commenting on how the game should have been played in the first place... like a true fan.

3. Get to the Peak!

Its spring and that means, warm sunny morning and longer days. Hooray! Take a day trip and please your mind and soul to the vibrant images of the Peak district. Hiking or even cycling at the peak will give you an escape from the tall buildings and busy lifestyle of the city centre. Not every city can boast to be modern and yet close to nature like Sheffield. So hold this opportunity by the hand and bring out the boots and cycles.

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      4.It is time to empty your pockets.

This is probably one of those necessary evil suggestions. Spring means time to pack up the coats and get some new shorts. With the warm weather approaching all a girl or even a guy needs is new outfits. Spend the day in the company of friends jumping from one store to another and bagging all the new spring collection – after all even Cinderella teaches us that any problem can be solved with a new pair of heels.

5.       Be a tourist in your own city.

Take a ride to the Kelham Island museum, ride on the Wheel of Sheffield, picnic at the Botanical Gardens, visit historic buildings like the Cathedral and Beauchief Abbey church or if you are too nifty on the pocket, just walk into the Weston Park Museum and enjoy the history of the city of Steel.

Inside the Weston Park Museum - Photo Credits

Bottom line, get up and get going… because spring is nature’s way of saying lets party!

The Ghost of Western Bank Library

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On the night of 2^nd March 2016 at precisely 11:47 p.m. a terrifying warning surrounded the silent dark room on the 4^th floor of the Western Bank Library. ‘Leave because if you don’t the WBL ghost will haunt you for the rest of the night,’ resonated throughout the space.

Sometime in mid-November 2015, I came across a job opportunity – little did I know that this would turn out to be a chapter of my university life that I would never dare to forget. ‘Naïve’ as I was, I applied for the post and then successfully went through an hour long interview to land my first job as the facilities assistant at the Western Bank Library. The timings worked well with my university schedule as I had to work later in the evenings rather than to compromise my study time.

On a Friday afternoon, I met with my supervisor who first asked me if I would like some tea. I politely declined because I had never tasted tea in my life – yes shocker of the year! He then explained to me the role and suggested I come for some observation sessions before I can undertake the role by myself. Part of the job included locking up the facility after ensuring that all library users had vacated the premises. That meant I was going to be the only person lingering around the empty library in darkness once I switched off the main lights.

I had never used the facilities at the WBL – after all who would want to leave The Diamond anyway? On my first day, like any other good new employee would, I showed up almost 30 minutes earlier. I met up with another senior from whom I was to take over the shift when time came. Again, the first thing he asked me was if I would like some tea. We chatted for a while until Chris, the senior I was supposed to ‘shadow’ for the evening, showed up. The first question he too asked me was – yes, you guessed it right – ‘Would you like some tea.’ Clearly, the British love for tea is as real as it can get.

Once he had emptied his hot cup of tea we got to business. He took me around for a quick tour of the facilities. For those who say the Mapping building is the mother of maze buildings, I’d like to say I just met her favourite son. The WBL is filled with 5 floors of endless racks and shelves of books. While walking through the second floor I momentarily recalled the scene from the famous Harry Potter series where the trio walked through the Hall of Prophecy. The library has everything – from Japanese newspapers from the 1980s to books on modern technology. It is like a catalogue of knowledge that simply awaits being read.

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One of the best parts about the University of Sheffield is that here the students and locals integrate into each other’s lives so effortlessly and the WBL is it best example to give. The library is open to both the university students and the locals. In fact, many a times, you can find the students having a nice chat with the locals in the lounge area.

Anyway getting back to my story…

Before I knew it, all the ‘chilling’ was over and it was time to start the hour long routine that ensured the safety of the premises and more importantly, the precious books it has beheld for all these years. We jumped floor to floor in a rather complex mechanism; the details of which I will spare you. After ringing the last alarm at 11:45, we made way to the fourth floor; the most popular floor amongst students. Surprisingly though, it was as empty as my wallet before pay day. We had just finished closing the curtains and switching off the lights and were making way towards the central door when my eyes caught a glimpse of something strange.

Within a split second, everything we had done in the past hour quickly flashed through my mind and I also did a quick mental check to ensure that no one was missed out while vacating. Then a sudden alarming sentence rang in my mind as my eyes moved left to right reading every word that I saw in front of me in the dim light coming from the hallway.

‘Before you leave, shout into the room to ensure that no one is left back,’ were the instructions my eye had just caught onto from the lock up procedure written on the paper I was handed earlier that night. I immediately turned back rolling my eyes.

‘Leave because if you don’t the WBL ghost will haunt you for the rest of the night,’ I shouted sarcastically into the pitch black void. Chris who was quietly observing me since I had made a sudden stop while exiting the room burst into laughter and commented on how hysterical I was.

I know this is such an anticlimax for all you thriller lovers. However, the point of this story was not to waste your time but to rather share yet another amazing chapter of my university life. Here at Sheffield, all that I could ask for, except for the cold weather to disappear, is being served right into my plate. I wanted a job that fitted around my university schedule and to work with some fun loving individuals. All my needs were matched exactly thanks to the array of services offered by the university. Further, my supervisors and the people I work with are warm – just like their tea – and welcoming. I didn’t need to worry a single bit about how I would manage the role because I received first hand on-the-job training from experienced peers. Lastly, the job is within the campus which makes it more credible and my safety is kept at the top of the priorities with the women night safety bus that drops me right at my door step at 0030 when my shift gets over.

Now, if you ever happen to come to Sheffield or to come across this ‘big fat’ rumor about the ghost that haunts the WBL you know how it started – then again, who knows?

Space, Time and Engineering By Hemanshi Galaiya

On Thursday the 11^th of February 2016, the world was taken aback – 101 years back; to be precise. In 1915 Albert Einstein proposed the theory of General Relativity – and stirred the biggest ‘controversy’ in the scientific community of his time. He suggested that the universe consists of space and time which are interwoven and dynamic, able to stretch, shrink and jiggle; contrary to what the world had accepted for nearly 200 years when Newton had laid out the framework of the universe as static and fixed.

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Einstein claimed that matter and energy distort the geometry of the universe. Just like the way a heavy object could cause a dimple to arise when placed on a sheet of fabric – producing an effect we call GRAVITY.

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Now, if two very heavy objects – and by heavy I mean black holes and neutron stars, not obese teenagers and large built wrestlers – were to orbit around each other (like a pair of twin star systems) and therefore accelerate towards each other, their ultimate  fusion would result in an enormous amount of energy being rapidly released. This energy is what propagates outwards into the matrix of space and time as what we now call GRAVITATIONAL WAVES. According to the equations physicists have settled on, gravitational waves would compress space in one direction and stretch it in another as they traveled outward.

A team of scientists based in Washington State and Louisiana called LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) announced that they had recorded the sound of two black holes colliding. Thereby, providing evidence to the the last set of Einstein’s theory of relativity. Honestly, was there ever anything that this man said that would someday not come true?

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This discovery rapidly became the talk of the world, not just the town, and is being called ‘the scientific highlight of the century’. All of this ‘sounds’ reasonable - right? I mean, of course, where there is a collision there will be a ‘thud’. Yet, here is the catch - the two black holes are a billion light-years away from us so how loud could the ‘thud’ have been that we ‘heard’ it on earth? Also, we all know that sound being a longitudinal wave does not propagate through a vacuum. Now, the question remains – HOW?

The answer is simple… taking engineering to the next level.

The science behind all of this was published in a paper with over a 1000 authors – some team I must say; I am sure they are glad the alphabetical order is widely accepted or I would be worried as to how they would decide the order of citing the authors. The LIGO team consisted of engineers and scientists from all over the world but what gives me great pride as a student at UoS is that some of the members belonged to our University – and you can view this as front page news for now on the University website.

I know all of you may be immensely eager as young engineers to know some neat details. Yet, I will need some time to write the next series of this article. So, hold your breaths – or don’t because both space and time are now at the comprehension of mankind and who knows how far this discovery can take us.

Until next ‘time’,

Hemanshi Galaiya

Meet our International Engineering Ambassador: Hemanshi Galaiya

I AM INTERNATIONAL!!

Born in Kenya; Indian by ethnicity; British by curriculum; and International by choice. Hi, I am Hemanshi Galaiya and I am an International Engineering Ambassador.

19 years ago I embarked on a journey called life. I was born in an Indian family in the exotic country of Kenya; the land of the Masaai’s and yet the home to over 100 different ethnic groups. It is one of the fastest growing nations in the world and yet is world renowned for its wildlife. The land famous for its world class athletes and yet the nation that gave Simba, Rafiki, Timon and Pumba to the world. The land where the people are bound to their soils and yet the place where we have an anti-gravity point.  The country that boosts the world with their daily tea and coffee needs and yet the country where the best meal is home cooked ugali and sukumawiki. Kenya as our national airlines claims is truly ‘the pride of Africa’.

While living in Kenya I was still raised to acknowledge, appreciate and stay true to my roots back in India. Being a hard core Gujarati, I am a total foodie and as the entire India claims, we have both the sweetest language and the sweetest food. My education history on the other hand was always associated with the British Curriculum and at the end of my A-levels, I chose to embark on a different journey; I opted to do Chemical Engineering at the University of Sheffield – a city 10812 km away from my homeland.

One of the first questions people ask me is why I chose this particular career. I read somewhere that a Chemical Engineer is an individual who knows enough Chemistry to confuse a Mechanic; enough mechanics to confuse a Chemist and enough Mathematics to confuse himself. 

Now, I don’t mean to prude about my fantasy for complexity – in as much as it is true. The course to me is a straight forward approach to unlocking a lifetime full of opportunities to acquire knowledge of various kinds. It may sound challenging – which it by the way is – but at the same time it is an experience filled with zeal and zest. I believe that chemical engineers are a bridge between the dreams and the realities. When someone comes up with a micro scale idea it becomes our job to turn it into a macro scale reality; and who doesn’t like to play fairy God mother? 

The next big question is why I chose Sheffield and in particular the university of Sheffield. I can sum up my decision in 3 words – quality, diversity and adventure. UOS is a hub for quality education - what more could you I ask for when my degree would be IChemi certified and world reckoned for being top notch. To add to that, Sheffield proudly boasts to be the host to students from all over the world. Each day I get the chance to interact with a person from a different part of the world and each time I learn something new about cultures, cities and beliefs across the globe. This has proven to be one of the best features of my university life as it is building me into both a better intellectual and global citizen. Lastly, there is no way one can miss out on all the adventure that UOS has to offer. 

There is something for everyone; from nature trails and hiking in the peak district ...

... to parties and endless activities in and around the university - Sheffield has it all. 

All in all, I would like to say that I am still somewhere in the middle of ‘the journey called life’ and University of Sheffield is proving to be the most enthralling chapter so far. 

Images taken from www.chemicalprocess.com