Blog posts

Busking in Covent Garden

Yee Tong Siow

MEng Mechanical Engineering

Central London is very well-known for its diverse street performances ranging from street mimes, dance performances, all the way to opera singing. Watching these street performances was definitely one of the memories that stuck with me most during my first strolls around Covent Garden. Looking at the professionalism and creativity of every performer, it has never occurred to me to consider any possibilities of potentially busking around Central London.

If you’ve read some of my blogs, you would have probably heard me rave about my experiences being involved with Imperial A Cappella society. After a series of lockdowns and preparation for competitions, we finally got the chance to spare a weekend to head out to busk at Covent Garden!

Picking my Degree: Round 2

Anya Nanchahal

Medicine

Most people choose which degree they want to study in sixth form and then don’t need to think about another one until they graduate. Medicine at Imperial is a little bit different. One, in my opinion, asset of the medical programme at Imperial is that it gives us the opportunity to undertake an intercalated BSc. This basically means that our fourth year at university is spent studying another subject within which we then receive a BSc (Hons) degree. Seems like a pretty good deal for just one extra year of work.

However, I’m discovering one problem with studying for an MBBS (BSc) programme.

Navigating life at university as a LGBTQ+ student

Written by Calyste Revel, MSc Investment and Wealth Management, Imperial LGBTQ+ Officer

[Sidenote: LGBTQ+ means Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender-Queer/Questioning, and the + is for all individuals that do not identify with the previous categories]

Letting go and finding yourself

What I found very peculiar in my transition to university was the fact I suddenly could be totally myself. I come from a small village in France and my sexuality, although not something I was ashamed of, had never been something people were willing to discuss back home. So, arriving in London, where the opportunities to express my identity and be recognised for it suddenly felt unlimited, was truly overwhelming at first.

Major Event – Imperial Singapore Society

Yee Tong Siow

MEng Mechanical Engineering

Having been highly involved with Imperial College’s Malaysian Society in my first two years at Imperial has led to a deep appreciation for the purpose and goals of cultural societies. Imperial College is one of the most diverse universities in the UK. With more than 50% of its students coming from out of the UK, it is no surprise that cultural societies play a big part in helping students settle into this new environment. Besides organising events to help students settle into London, many cultural societies also put on an annual performance to showcase their culture to anyone who wishes to appreciate it.

The ICCAs 2022

Yee Tong Siow

MEng Mechanical Engineering

As someone who is involved in the A Cappella community, The ICCAs (International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella) is one of the most exciting events in the year for collegiate A Cappella groups around the UK and US. For those who are wondering what exactly is the ICCAs, it is a competition for collegiate groups to showcase a 10 minute set of A Cappella music. This allows the groups to unleash their creativity in creating diverse arrangements and wicked choreography, allowing the audience and judges to appreciate a night of constant surprises. In other words, it is basically the competition seen in the movie Pitch Perfect.

5 ways to boost your productivity with tech

MEng Mechanical Engineering

We all know time can easily be whittled away by scrolling through social media or falling down a YouTube rabbit hole (may or may not be speaking on personal experience…).

But technology is a double-edged sword and can be also be used to boost our productivity – here are 5 ways to do so.

Disclaimer: I have recommended apps that I use, though please research them before downloading/purchasing as I am by no means a technology expert.

1. To-do list (Microsoft App)

What is it?

An app to write to-do lists in

Why do I use it?

It seems too obvious to state, but a good to-do list app can be extremely helpful in not only keeping track of tasks but also in achieving them.

5 Best Places to Study (on campus and in London)

MEng Mechanical Engineering

Staying in one room to sleep, study and live in can be difficult. Studying elsewhere can help maintain a healthy separation between work and rest. Here are five of the best places on our South Kensington Campus and around London to study.

1. British Library

The British Library was founded in 1753 and contains one of the largest collections of literature in the world.

Beyond being a tourist sight in itself, it also offers many ‘reading rooms’ where (if you register and have a ‘reader’s pass’) you can study in for free.

The many exhibitions and general array of literature available also provide a welcome break, whilst the large capacity means there’s ample opportunity to change your settings as and when you need to.

Materials Science Myth Buster – sorting the fact from the fiction to quite literally get to the matter at hand

Written by Susannah Lea, PhD Student, Department of Materials

Whether you have heard of Materials Science or not there are often key misunderstandings about what it’s actually all about. While the concept of studying how to improve and even make new materials may start to sound like alchemy or even magic I can assure you that it is very much grounded in scientific principle (and it may well be the next best thing to the Hogwarts letter you waited for). Having studied Materials for my undergrad and continued on to do a PhD I’m hopefully in a good place to help dispel some of the myths and let you know what a degree in Materials is all about.

Organising a Plastic Surgery Skills Day Conference as a Medical Student

Anya Nanchahal

Medicine

At university, student societies make up as much, if not more, of your overall experience than the degree you choose to study. On balance, they can also take up just as much of your time. For the past few years, I have been a particularly active member of ICSM Surgical Society (SurgSoc). This year I had the privilege of being tasked with organising the annual ‘Plastics Skills Day’ conference. I say annual, but the truth is that this event had not taken place in-person since 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, no SurgSoc conference had happened in person since 2020.

Clinical Medicine- what’s it all about?

Anya Nanchahal

Medicine

At Imperial, Medicine is not coarsely divided into ‘pre-clinical’ and ‘clinical’ blocks but instead we are exposed to a clinical environment from our first term at medical school. However, during first and second year this exposure is scattered throughout the year which makes third year the first purely clinical year of the degree.

I have just finished my first of three placements during which I was based in General Surgery at St. Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. Therefore, I felt now would be a pertinent time to share a couple of reflections on my most substantial clinical placement to date.

While I had already been primed to expect third year to be less structured than first and second year, no longer being in my comfort zone of a lecture theatre still took some getting used to.

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