“The biggest highlight of my course was the final year. It’s a chance for you as a student to prove to yourself and others what you can achieve. Also, with your final year project you can steer it in the direction you want. This paired with more practical work – there isn’t much better.”
My project is looking to improve the steering of a F24 Greenpower kit car. These kit cars are currently used by the university as an outreach activity for local school children aged 11-16, the purpose of this is for each student to get an insight into engineering and what can be done with certain skills. I chose this project because I have been involved with Greenpower for almost a decade now, participating in Greenpower events throughout upper school and now university also, due to this I know what activities like this can do for people and it’s part of the reason I’m an engineering student today.
Approaching this project, it was key to ensure I solved the important issues first and left the small problems for when there is more time, as there is a lot of development potential with these kit cars. I had observed that the force required to operate the steering was an issue and the students who had taken part in previous years made it obvious this was an issue with a series of small crashes (no one was hurt). From this I identified multiple mechanisms which were suitable for the car and narrowing down the list with decision metricises.
The support received while doing this project has been perfect, lecturers ensuring I have space to work, the outreach team providing me with one of the four cars to work on and the technicians providing expert help when required and all the materials that I needed. All the uni facilities were available, the 3D prototyping suite was especially useful in the early stages ensuring parts fitted before fabrication.
The biggest highlight of my course was the final year. It’s meant to be stressful and difficult, and it was both of those at times however its also a chance for you as a student to prove to yourself and others what you can achieve. Also, with your final year project you can steer it in the direction you want, this paired with more practical work there isn’t much better.
I have enjoyed my time at Brighton, and I believe it has prepared me for industry. During my time here I have taken key skills in engineering and applied them in other areas working with the welfare department and outreach teams for three years developing these skills in different environments. While I have been here, I have also completed a year in industry with a well known medical/ dental company which showed how well what I had learned applied to industry. The course is a good mix of practical and theoretical learning with plenty of opportunities to go into what ever topic you wish to.
I believe the course has prepared me with the knowledge to succeed in industry. After graduation I am moving forward studying for an MEng which University of Brighton offer also.
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