Meet Our International Engineering Ambassador: Vimanyu Beedasy

Name: Vimanyu Beedasy

Department: Mechanical Engineering

Course: BEng Mechanical Engineering with a Year in Industry

Nationality: Mauritian

Year: Second

• What was your favourite subject at school?

My favourite subject was Design & Technology. I spent two years studying Design & Communications for my O-Levels and the next two years studying Design & Technology for my A-Levels. I loved every part of it as it was different from the standard writing and calculating in other classes. I had to draw technical drawings and spend time in the workshop to actually construct an artefact I had designed all by myself from scratch.

 My A Level project - wine barrel comprising of a glass hanger, wine bottle rack and cooling drawer.

• How did you decide which degree course to take?

Since I really enjoyed Design & Technology, I was sure to go in the engineering field. However, choosing which one specifically was hard as I want to work in so many different fields like aerospace, mechatronics or even biomedical. I spent a lot of time talking to friends studying different engineering courses, relatives and people in the engineering field besides doing my own research and reading on whatever pieces of information I gathered. Eventually, I chose Mechanical Engineering as I believe I can do almost any other degree afterwards to specialise in one specific field (which I hope to have already chosen before I complete my degree in mechanical engineering).

• What advice would you give to people about choosing a university course?

Gather as much information as possible: speak to students studying the course, have studied the course and also to people who work within their field of study. Moreover, read the module description to see if there is anything specific you’d like to do or not. And finally, look out for ‘year in industry’ courses.

• Who inspired you to follow this route?

My father. He is a highly qualified engineer and he inspired me to follow his way. As a kid I was always amazed by the way he fixed things and knew what was wrong with something which stopped working. He always finds something to work on during the weekend and I enjoyed helping him. I aim at becoming as good as he is, if not better.

• What do you particularly enjoy and why?

My course: It is very well-balanced with not only lectures and reading but also labs, group works, project works and workshop practice. I believe it is the best way for a student to learn and he both learns the theory as well as the practical work involved. Throughout the first year I met people from different cultures and backgrounds and I enjoy making friends, especially through group work and recognising a familiar face in extra-curricular activities. 

• How is studying your subject or methods of learning different at university than at school?

The fact that everything is available online and viewable on a laptop, tablet or even the mobile phone is easier to stay updated with the lecture notes and workload. In addition to this, the polling system during lectures definitely spices up the lecture theatres as we are able to interact with the lecturer himself and therefore prevent us from falling asleep!

• What are your plans for the future/dreams/goals?
  
  Get at least two degrees, secure an interesting job, tick off all the items in my bucket list, open a small business and finally get back home for the old days. And oh, watch Ronnie O’Sullivan play the World Snooker Championship Final live at The Crucible in Sheffield!
  
  
• What do you like to do when you are not working on your degree? Any pictures?
  
  I like to explore and adventure around, especially away from the city centre. Sheffield has some interesting places to visit away from town. I also like to volunteer: the University offers so many opportunities here at the volunteering office! Imagine spending a day among some of the cutest labradors for Guide Dogs in Sheffield. Another hobby of mine is paper-crafting (I ❤ Paperchase) and learning to cook new meals almost every weekend.
  
  
  

Engineering You're Hired Week 2014 - 2015

By Vimanyu Beedasy

Engineering You're Hired is similar to the Global Engineering Challenge, except that second year engineering students take part in it while GEC is only for the first year students. It is an intensive week where students from every engineering discipline get together to work on a project which they have to choose beforehand. Our project title was 'Scavenging Energy from Sewers', one which I chose since it is related to another project I am currently involved in with Enactus Sheffield.

During the week, we had to get up early to reach the university at 09:00 from Monday to Friday. EYH differs from GEC in a way that we are left very much on our own during the day as we work in a team of 6 people towards finding an optimum solution to our project. We were placed in a hub where there were a total of 6 groups, all working on the same project individually.





Our hub room, one large enclosure which lacks oxygen flow, but still one where many laughs were heard across the walls...

The first day, we engaged in some activities to get to know the other members in our hub. I recognised a few faces from the Mechanical Engineering department as well as some other people who I met during other extra-curricular activities, so I knew that I was on track for a pleasant week. I was glad to learn that in our group of 6 people, 3 of us were mechanical engineers and the other 3 were from either the Chemical Engineering or the Civil Engineering department. All of them were very friendly and quite enthusiastic for the project.

Brainstorming - the only limit is your imagination and creativity.

We started our project and had some crazy ideas at first but at the same time we were having a good time talking and getting to know each other. The first day was spent mostly talking about ourselves and our course, and deciding how we wanted this week to go and what we aimed at. After every day we had hub boardroom meetings to discuss about the progress of our project. Our board directors were quite strict and harsh with us the first day, but we were told it was for a good cause – not often do interviews go pleasantly.

Our storyboard - Summary of our project plan for the whole week.

In addition to boardroom meetings, as a group we were given a question to answer every afternoon. These questions came directly from the website of some companies who are recruiting students or people to work as part of their application process. One of them was: “Describe a situation where you had to negotiate with and convince an individual/a team of people to see a different point of view or develop an idea they were not initially in favour of. How did you communicate your point of view and go about convincing them?” As someone who is still currently applying to some companies for internships, I believe that it will be very helpful to those who will be applying in the future.

Our hub director, going through the questions we answered in the afternoon and spotting what could be improved. And the much needed coffee for the 09:00 every day.

As the days went by, it got tiring to wake up early and stay at the University until 17:00, but in the end I believe that it was worth it as it was a new experience where you meet people from different backgrounds and departments. Additionally, it helps build up your team working skills as well as your communication and presentation skills.

Towards the end, on Thursday we had to submit our final report of the whole project. It was a task which put some pressure on the other members of the team but altogether using online software such as Google Docs, we managed to work efficiently to finalise the report. On Friday, we had to present our final solution to some industrial experts as if we were to sell our idea in the real world. It was a different way of presenting a solution as this time we needed to be even more convincing and be ready to fight-off every drawbacks.

Snapshot of the presentation and the industrial mentors paying attention to the group presenting - they were harsh.

Even though some of us thought that this week would not be so useful, we were quite pleased with the outcome in the end. In some way or the other, we had learnt something which will be helpful to each one of us in the future and, best of all, we broadened our network of friends. I asked a couple of my team members about their experiences and they said:

“I was initially sceptical about the whole week, especially after finishing exams a couple of days back, but I actually enjoyed it.” – Kyle Farrell

“It offers people with a chance to improve their application to placements and also improve their group working skills.” – Alexander Hesketh

“Awesome." – Lik Hang Hugo Tse