University of Sheffield Facilities

Sunday, 8 May 2016

The University of Sheffield boasts a wide array of facilities to cover the essential needs for any student. Before coming to Sheffield, I was not aware of even half the things that are on offer here. For this purpose, I believe that it’s essential that incoming students know what is on offer here and understand how this city works its magic on any student, making it extremely distressing to say goodbye upon graduation!

In my first two years, Sir Frederick Mappin building, which houses the Faculty of Engineering used to be my abode. Most of the laboratories were conducted in Mappin. The building had a computer room with hundreds of computers which used to be extremely full when nearing exam time. It also has a café called Mappin Café where you can go and grab a hot cup of coffee to suit your studying needs! However, in my third year, which was this year, the university has invested in a new state of the art building, called the Diamond. The Diamond has multiple lecture theaters where most of my lectures are now held. All the labs have now also shifted from Mappin to the Diamond, with new state of the art technology. However, my final year project involved testing wind turbine blades in a wind tunnel, and for this I used the wind tunnel facility in Mappin. The Diamond operates a 24 hour library with studying facilities that aid students in their educational experience.

In addition to the Diamond, there is also the Information Commons which is another 24 hour library facility. This used to be the go-to point for all students wishing to study into the late hours of the night; however, with the addition of the Diamond, students now have two options for late night studying. There is also the Western Bank Library which is centered more towards postgraduates; however, this is not a 24 hour library and closes down early.

Department of Computer Science @ Sheffield

Monday, 11 April 2016

By Muhammad Shuja

This blog is to give you more information about the Department of Computer Science at Sheffield and the variety of courses it offers.

Sheffield’s Department of Computer Science, hosting about 140 undergraduate students every year was founded in 1982 and is a member of the Faculty of Engineering. It’s situated in the Regent Court building.

The Department offers a huge variety of courses to both undergraduate and postgraduate students so that students can explore every opportunity possible. Though most of the courses might start of the same to lay the foundation for you, they do drift apart eventually.

Most students tend to go with Computer Science, a fantastic course which mostly deals with addressing a variety of problems in the field alongside understanding the theoretical concepts to tackle them. You are educated to graduate as an analytical thinker with an insight into working as a team.

Sheffield also offers more Computer Science courses with more emphasis on particular aspects of the field depending on your interests. You could choose Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science if you fancy working with robots or dream of building your own Baymax to fist bump you! Not sure about Baymax but Sheffield does have really cool robots you get to play with in some of the modules! You’re taught “biologically inspired algorithms” along with various specialization opportunities like robotics or speech recognition.

The Department also offers Computer Science and Mathematics, where you get a chance to realize and appreciate the role of Mathematics in Computer Science and how the involvements of Mathematics have resulted in huge advances for Computer Science. This course is taught in collaboration with the School of Mathematics and Statistics. In summary, you get to experience the mathematical and theoretical side of the field with a taste of hands on engineering as well.

Another course offered is Physics and Computer Science. As the name suggests, you study a combination of modules from both fields giving you a platform to showcase you skills in a multi-disciplinary and practical environment. This and CS and Mathematics are few of the dual honours offered at Sheffield.

If you think you’re interested in Computer Science but have an edge in management, we’ve got ITMB (Information Technology Management for Business). This course is Sheffield’s fascinating blend of Computing with business and project management skills where you get a chance to work in a business to get real-life experience of dealing with clients and building business management software. Another similar course is Software Development for Business, which deals more with marketing and business strategy.

Last but not the least, we’ve got Software Engineering, where you learn concepts like software design and work collaboratively in teams through project management techniques to complete projects for clients to develop your team-working skills. In your 2nd year, you get to choose in specializing in 3D graphics, computer security, forensics and many others.

Of course, most of the courses come with an option of a placement year, foundation year and also MEng and MComp degrees. Hence, there’s literally no limit to the number of options you can explore, and this applies to all departments including Computer Science!

More details on the department webpage: https://www.shef.ac.uk/dcs

The Course Choosing Conundrum

Tuesday, 5 January 2016

By Haider Janjua

One of the most important decisions that you make after your high school is to select what you want to study for your bachelors. This decision affects your whole life so it should be a well thought out and wise decision.

Having gone through the process myself, I have thought what advice would have been beneficial for me as far as choosing the course is concerned. So I have written the following points that should be taken into consideration.

In my opinion, the decision should be made during the summer after high school first year examinations. It would leave enough time for you to then concentrate on how to achieve the required grades for the chosen subject area.

The first thing that you have to ask yourself is, whether you are passionate about a particular course/ field or not? If you are passionate about something, already know a great deal about the subject area, you don’t have to go any further. Just work on getting the required grades and go for it.

But if you don’t have a particular preference then you have to follow a process to choose the right field of study. Most of the students already know the general area that they want to choose and have chosen their A Level/High School subjects accordingly. The most important thing that should be done is to research every possible degree course that you can apply according to your subjects. It would be a good idea to make notes for that. Write the degree course on top followed by a brief description. Add all of the modules that you will have to study and a brief description about them. In the end and it is an important parameter, you should include the details about the job prospects.

Research is important as you might find something that you never knew before but is quite interesting. Before coming to the university, I didn’t know that there were engineering courses such as Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, Materials Engineering and Bio Engineering.

The next thing to do is to think about your strengths. Which subjects do you find the easiest? Even decide between subjects like maths and physics. Now choose the courses from your research which have the related modules to the subjects that you like. For example, if you find maths and chemistry quite easy the related courses that you can choose are maths, chemistry, chemical engineering, civil engineering and material engineering. If you like biology and yet you like maths bioengineering could be chosen.

For the next phase, in order to further narrow down your options, think of what would you like to do? Never choose a particular area just because your parents might want you to do that or you think that it would have better job prospects or it is termed as a worthy subject. Never choose something just because you feel like choosing that, always do research about the subject and choose accordingly.

By this time you would have narrowed your options down to two or three areas. If you know someone who is studying /has studied the particular courses, ask their opinion. It is because the person already studying the particular course has more knowledge about the area than you can have even after doing extensive research. Also think about the job prospects at this stage. Is it easier to get a job or not? Think about your home country and whether the course has good scope in your country.

In the end, use your gut feeling to choose from the final two/three choices and may the odds be always in your favour!

Bits and pieces about the first semester

Wednesday, 5 August 2015

By: Hui Choo, Tan – BEng Aerospace Engineering

I had been studying in Singapore before coming over to Sheffield for my BEng. To those who do not know where Singapore is, let me share some fun facts about her. Singapore is a tiny little country beside Malaysia. It is a country and also a city. There is only one season, which is summer all year round, with lowest temperature of about 24 degrees Celsius.

Why did I choose the University of Sheffield? I did some research before choosing the universities and I found out UoS is known as one of the best engineering universities in UK. In addition, a friend of mine who is studying in London suggested UoS as it is known for aerospace. Apart from these, UoS is ranked the top 100 of the 2014-2015 Times Higher Education World Universities Rankings’ Engineering and Technology.

University is about independent study although there are many hours of lectures, tutorial and laboratories. You will have to spend time doing revision to keep up with your work. It is all about time management so that you can play and study. UoS has many professors who are top in their engineering field, which is beneficial to the engineering students. Never be shy to consult them because they will be able to share their knowledge and experience.

What are the benefits of UoS?  There are many places that you can seek help from, as well as to get involved. The best place to seek help is the Students’ Union. The Careers Service is one of them and it is a good place to apply for future summer internships and placements. The school has various societies such as Engineering without Borders and Simurq UAV which are related to engineering.

What should you do before coming? Do lots of research! Check out the various stuffs and documents that you will have to prepare, the events that UoS organised for the prospective students and a little research about Sheffield. Get yourselves involved in various events during the Orientation Week and Introduction Week to make new friends. Lastly, be mentally prepared that you will feel homesick as you are far away from home. But this will shape you to be a better person as you will pick up new skills and gain valuable experiences.

Scouting for All

Monday, 16 March 2015

By Haider Janjua

During my first year, I came to know about the Part Time Jobs and Volunteering Fair from one of the countless E-Mails we get (I think I am the only student who somehow takes time to at least read the subject every day and then delete! :)). The fair takes places usually in the 2^nd or 3^rd week every semester.

I had a great time during the fair while lots of freebies, signing up for almost everything and somehow managing to evade the countless dominoes people trying to bombard me with vouchers. Soon  I came to this stall which was of “SCOUTS” and, being interested in outdoors adventure sports, I signed up to volunteer.

After a few days, I was contacted by the 142^nd Fulwood Scouts and I decided to volunteer as an Assistant Scout Leader. Scouting is a worldwide organisation which helps young people to develop physical, mental and spiritual skills through different fun activities. It has a strong focus on outdoors and survival skills. I chose the beaver scouts on Wednesday (because Aerospace people have this gigantic amount of classes, especially first years, so a free Wednesday afternoon is lucky). Beaver Scouts are children between the ages of 6-8 and it is the smallest group.

The main job of Assistant Leader is to help the group leader in organising various activities and then, in turn, help the beavers during these activities. Sometimes you are given the task of managing the record as well.

Lego Night with the beavers

We meet on Wednesday evenings for an hour. The session starts with a short game while the beavers are arriving. Then there is the main activity and near the end, beavers are given some biscuits and juice. In the end there is a closing ceremony after which parents have to drag the beavers home (literally).

Pet Shop visit

Closing ceremony

Let me tell you about some of the activities. Last week, we did tie dyeing (I am so excited to get my handkerchief this week!!) and the week before, we made towers from waste bottles and boxes (it’s hard to convince a beaver to not take the tower home when he is clinging to it and wouldn’t let it go). The best thing is that you also get to do separate things. I have played Quasar (Beaten easily by children), helped them decorate Christmas bulbs, went for a walk and to a pet shop, made a mini movie to send to Aussies and even wrote a script for a beaver’s puppet show.

Puppet show and Bell ringing

It is not only a way of relieving stress from all the university deadlines looming but also a lot of fun. It actually builds your confidence, teamwork and leadership skills which are quite essential for any job. It can also be included in the HEAR (requirement is 10 hours in an academic year which is quite easy) + being an international student, you learn a lot about English culture (Guy Fawkes Night, Pancakes Day etc).

And this is not all. You also get to know some amazing people. So I would advise you to try and squeeze in some time for volunteering. And scouting is not the only thing you can do. There are countless other activities and stuff that you can choose from. Just go to the volunteering office in student union and get to know about all the exciting stuff or go to the volunteering fair at the start of the term like me!

Haider aka. Woodpecker (Yes we also get to choose animal/birds names as well!)