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My journey so far…
Hello all!
Today I am starting a blog to talk about two things; firstly, I am going to be sharing my experience of research as a materials science and engineering student and secondly, I will be blogging about some materials topics which happen to float my boat. I’ve never actually written a blog before though, so you’ll have to be patient with me.
Image source: Sheffield.ac.uk
To provide some context, I am in the third year of a 4-year MEng degree at the University of Sheffield. At the end of my second year, it was announced that students could choose to either continue with the traditional masters course (geared towards industrial training) for the next 2 years, or they could have the option to choose a research masters. Up until the start of this year, I thought that I would be diving straight for the industry option but when it came to the crunch, I surprised myself and switched from industry to research at the start of semester. I had spent the summer of my second year in the Materials Department (above) undertaking a research placement on the additive manufacture (or 3D printing to the media-savvy amongst you) of titanium alloys, and it had drastically changed my previous view of research. Below is a picture of a stainless steel Minion which I printed – just one of the benefits of my summer placement in the Department.
I am currently well into my third year and I’ve been lucky enough to have the chance to do 4 research projects – each of 6-weeks long – with completely different supervisors. It’s been a tough learning curve to say the least; but then what else should I have expected from a crash course in four different research fields, all within the space of 9 months?? Since doing research has been unexpected in so many different ways, plus the fact that it’s quite rare to get so much hands on experience in many undergraduate programmes, I want to share the process with those of you who are interested in what research is like – should you be wanting to do a research summer placement, a PhD, or simply because you’ve accidentally stumbled upon my blog. It’s also probably important to note than in my final year I’ll be spending my time on a whopping 80 credit research project (out of a possible 120 credits for the year) as part of the research masters course. So I might find myself looking back at this blog, full of youthful reflections, at the end of year 4 when I’ve decided that I absolutely love or detest research.
As well as talking about the research process in this blog, I’ll also be mixing things up a little bit with some posts about whichever random materials-related topic that has caught my eye in order to relieve any monotonous tone which might be forming.
Well there we have it, that’s what you can expect from me in the coming weeks, months, and maybe years!(?) Please leave any comments or burning questions in the box below as I’d be delighted to hear from you.
