Blog posts

Hitting The Right Chords In Life

Yee Tong Siow

MEng Mechanical Engineering

Looking back at who I was two years ago, it scares me to see how much that person has changed. Imperial has challenged me in ways that I could not have imagined before coming to London. People around me are constantly driven to create changes and to do great things. It is only natural for me to feel the need to constantly keep up with everyone’s progress and to give my all in everything as well.

What Went Wrong?

During my first year, I had no expectations of what to expect coming to Imperial. I submerged myself in my course and in various societies which I felt could help me develop as a person.

A Mini Throwback to My Biochemistry Days

Bianca Khor

MSc Management

Why hello there! A big welcome to my writing space and I hope that whoever reading this is coping well with the second lockdown and staying safe!

A little bit about myself

Since I’m new to the student blogger life, I thought it might be best for me to first briefly introduce myself!

So, first things first, hi – my name is Bianca, I am currently an MSc Management student at Imperial College Business School. I previously graduated from the BSc Biochemistry course at Imperial College London, so you can technically say that I’ve just switched buildings when I transitioned from my Bachelor’s to my Master’s.

What Campus Life Used To Be Like

Yee Tong Siow

MEng Mechanical Engineering

As I’m writing this blog now, I am sitting in one of the tutorial rooms on the sixth floor of the City and Guilds building in Imperial. Normally, this is where I would be working on my tutorial sheets with my fellow course mates, and the whole room would be filled with ideas. But now because of the pandemic, I am here alone in this room with my own thoughts. Walking around campus now feels completely different, as I have seen more people here in normal weekends as compared to what I see now. Most of the shops are closed, but the library still remains open as long as everyone practices social distancing.

Thank you Imperial

Mathematics and Statistics

From an Imperial Survivor, I mean Graduate!

It’s crazy to think that its already been 3 years since I was moving into halls to begin my Mathematics degree at Imperial. Carting box after box into my new room at Beit hall, to say I was nervous would have been an understatement. Coming from a small all girls school I didn’t know what to expect and I didn’t even know if I remembered how to make friends… but not for long. Life at Imperial was so busy, from a challenging academic course to tons of clubs and societies there was hardly any time for me to even spend worrying! 

Bring Sally Up: The role of exercising in self-isolation

Marek Cottingham

Physics

Unfortunately, the current pandemic means that many students returning to the UK or arriving in halls for the first time will have to self-isolate for two weeks. This is a particularly difficult experience if you are a fresher, being cut-off from almost all in person interaction at a time when you are leaving your old social support network. Additionally, we will all be spending a lot more time secluded in our rooms this year, a place where, at the best of times, it is easy to fall into a slump, forgoing your work in favour of binging video games or television.

What to bring to Halls

Mathematics and Statistics

A checklist for moving day

Sitting in my uni flat bedroom, facing the daunting task of packing up essentially 3 years of my life, it felt appropriate to actually assess how much of this stuff I needed to being to university and how much I could’ve left at home. So here are my top tips of what to actually bring when you move into halls in first year. It’s important to remember that you will only be in halls for 9 months in first year and then you’ll be moving your stuff back home, into storage or straight into your accommodation for the next few years, so don’t overpack!!

Reflections from my year as a postgrad student

Emma Tipton

Enviromental Technology

We have reached the end of what I’m told is summer term (it’s different for PG students, since we keep working through to September) and with it, the end of this blog. It’s been quite the journey, even before the disruption brought on by the coronavirus, and so I have some final thoughts to share.

On London

There is no doubt in my mind that coming to London was the right decision for my master’s degree. Beyond the practical reasons to leave the US—program length, cost, not having to take the GREs—London in particular has been a special place to me.

What was my remote studying like this term?

Max Gracyk

Computing

As the summer term draws to an end, it’s a good idea to summarise what it was like for me. This time was exceptional since it was my first encounter with full remote studying (apart from pre-pandemic self-learning episodes with text tutorials and YouTube educational videos).

Modules

Compared to autumn and spring terms, the number of modules for second year computing students was much smaller. We only had to work on a group project and the introduction to law module.

The project was called “Designing for Real People” (DRP). In groups of 4, we had to create a web or mobile application that solved a real-world problem.

Remote Group Project in EEE/EIE (First Year)

Ritvik Shyam

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

I had mentioned on my previous blog that I would share my experiences with the first-year remote group project. Unlike previous first years who would have worked on building the ‘EEE Bug’, this year the nature of the group project was completely transformed and the cohort was given a choice between designing an analogue music synthesiser, designing a CPU with computational abilities and programming a circuit simulator package in C++. My two teammates and I (each of one of us in completely different time zones, with the maximum difference being 6 hours!) decided on the option of designing a general-purpose CPU on Quartus Prime, with the ability to execute a vast majority of computational algorithms.

Thesis dispatch – my experience so far

Emma Tipton

Enviromental Technology

I have completed my share of long-term projects before, but I still felt nervous when deciding to apply for my course and seeing the research project at the end. Now, a month in, I am still a little apprehensive about the final result but also feel fairly capable of producing a decent work. For those curious about what the research process entails, I offer a few tips below:

Actively build new skills

Four months is a long time to be working on one thing and boredom can start to set in, so choose a topic that lets you learn something new.

Learn more about life at Imperial

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