Outside of my academic work, I have been a member of the cycling team and went on many group rides exploring the rolling hills of Leicestershire. Whilst on the team, I went on a training camp to Majorca which was an incredible experience, with some insanely fast descents down mountain roads. I am a member of the sailing club as well and went from being a complete novice to a fairly competent sailor in the space of a year, under the expert guidance of the more experienced club members.
I also had the opportunity to complete a year-long internship at Cambridge Consultants, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The breadth of projects I worked on was vast, ranging from the creation of a fluidic circuit to pump blood around a synthetic human arm, to the development of an innovative beverage dispense system.
From day one I was treated like any other employee, and I was given big responsibilities that I do not think many other companies would give, such as overseeing the mechanical design for a machine vision kitchen project. I was consistently challenged and whilst there was a steep learning curve, I learnt so much and gained so many new skills, such as my ability to confidently present information to clients. I could not have done this without the team-based project experience and technical foundation gained at Loughborough.
After I graduate, I want to work at an engineering consultancy for a few years. The skills I have gained at Loughborough will help tremendously with this, including experience following the engineering design process which involves starting with a problem and finishing with a working prototype or product. This is the same process used in industry and having practised this at Loughborough will give me a head start. Studying Mechanical Engineering at Loughborough University has given me a broad overview of all the engineering disciplines, so I am able to integrate myself into a multi-disciplinary environment comfortably.
I would also love to start my own business and studying at Loughborough has inspired me to do this by giving me the confidence to tackle difficult engineering challenges in an innovative and creative way, which is vital for a successful engineering company.
To anyone considering studying Mechanical Engineering at Loughborough, my advice would be that although it is not an easy course, if you are prepared to put in the work then it is incredibly rewarding. If you have a strong foundation in mathematics and enjoy using creativity to solve practical real-world problems, then you will find it very enjoyable. The first two years give a comprehensive overview of mechanical engineering principles with the opportunity to specialise later. Optional modules I have chosen include robotics, machine vision and sustainable engineering, which are tailored to my engineering consultancy career.