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About UCL Engineering: Holographic Video

Nigel Titchener-Hooker: Welcome to UCL Engineering, the world's leading community of engineers, students, academics, technical and professional staff set in one of the world's leading
universities and in the very heart of one of the most vibrant cities in the world. 

This is where the first internet connection in Europe was made. It's where we developed the processes for the manufacture of vaccines for global vaccination programs. It's also where the thermionic valve was even created which led to the revolution of electronics. 

We've been changing and shaping the world since 1827, developing our knowledge and understanding of complex problems and bringing solutions to the lives of many millions across the world every day. 

Whether you're a UCL Engineering student, a collaborator or a visitor you'll be amongst the world's best and brightest minds in an environment deliberately designed to cultivate leaders, innovators and to shape the game changes of the future.

At UCL we changed the world and we want to inspire you, to work with you, to change the world too.

Why Study Information Management for Business at UCL?

Barry McCarthy: My name is Barry McCarthy. I'm the Programme Director for the Information Management for Business undergraduate degree programme and also the Admissions Tutor for that programme as well. 

What this programme is all about, is a marriage between technology and business and management. This is what makes it special. The focus is about making our undergraduates future-proof or future-ready. They're learning different skills that they wouldn't normally expect to learn on studying either a computer science degree or a business studies degree. It's very specialised, and what it does, is it allows them the opportunity to link with employers. 

There are three or four key areas where our graduates tend towards.At the top of the list would be investment banking, but of course, consulting in its many guises, software engineering and marketing along with a large range of other areas in which they work including the voluntary sector, NGOs etc. and the NHS of course.

Why study Management Science at UCL?

Andrew Whiter: I'm Dr Andrew Whiter. I am the Deputy Director of the Management Science programme in the UCL School of Management and part of that role includes being the Admissions Officer for that programme as well.

Students should certainly expect a much more engineering, scientific-like approach to management education. Along with that, they will actually have the opportunity, as part of our integrated engineering programme, to actually take a minor subject in an engineering discipline, that can range from ocean engineering to further programming to entrepreneurship. 

Something that is particularly unusual and special about the Management Science programme, is our use of what we call 'scenario weeks' - working in teams on open-ended business challenges where students are expected to research and find their own evidence, their own data; explore, for example, latest developments in disruptive technologies and actually study a particular company and then make recommendations as if you were talking to the Chief Executive Officer of that business. I think the students get a lot, in particular, from those scenarios.

Why study Security and Crime Science at UCL?

Toby Davies: My name is Dr Toby Davies and I'm the admissions tutor for our undergraduate programme in Security and Crime Science. 

What our students can expect from the programme is an education which is themed around the topic of crime and security, but actually we would like to think that our programme teaches them much more general problem-solving skills and analytical skills, which can be applied in a wide variety of careers. 

Students on our programme have a work placement in the second year of the programme, in which they are placed with an organisation which could be an organisation such as a police force, directly involved in crime prevention, or, more generally, a corporation which has some interest in security, that might be a retailer or architecture or someone involved in the field of cybercrime, and they get a lot out of applying the kinds of skills that they learn in our programme in that kind of context, and of seeing exactly how these ideas are relevant in the real world.

Why study Medical Physics at UCL?

Peter Munro: I'm Peter Munro and I'm the Admissions Tutor for Physics and Medical Physics at UCL. 

What makes UCL genuinely a unique place to study Medical Physics is our close affiliation with numerous specialist hospitals in London. Most people will probably be aware of UCLH but there's also a number of specialist hospitals like Moorfields Eye Hospital, the Eastman Dental Institute - there's actually very many of them. What that means, is that students, certainly when they do projects, are very likely to have the opportunity to work with leading medical researchers and get very very close to a likely area where they may work later on. 

The students really enjoy being able to do projects and also be taught by people who are integral to these very important areas of medical physics, and this combined with our programme, it's reasonably small and that enables us to have a lot more intense interaction between academics and students.

Why study Biomedical Engineering at UCL?

Bradley Treeby: My name is Bradley Treeby and I'm the Admissions Tutor for the Biomedical Engineering programme here at UCL.

As well as attending lectures, the students will undertake tutorials and practical work, and that includes projects. These projects are conducted in very active and well-equipped research groups and often involve collaborations with local hospitals.

Many students comment on how they enjoy the small class sizes within our department, and the significant amount of contact that they have with the academic staff. I think this provides the students with a more interactive learning experience, and that allows them to develop their social and teamwork skills that are also essential to being a successful engineer. 

There's a really strong demand for UCL graduates in biomedical engineering from employers working across a huge range of healthcare technologies and sectors. Previous graduates have gone on to work for major med-tech companies, biomedical engineering startups, within hospital medical physics departments and also to pursue PhDs.

Why study Biochemical Engineering at UCL?

Brenda Parker: I'm Dr Brenda Parker, I'm the Admissions Tutor for Biochemical Engineering and I'm also a Lecturer in Sustainable Bioprocess Design at UCL. 

Biochemical engineering is changing the world. We are instrumental in making pharmaceuticals more affordable for a wider range of people; we're also involved in contributing towards making the world a greener place, through making more sustainable chemicals. 

What students can expect when they join Biochemical Engineering, is to really experience both sides of the discipline from the very get-go. From day one, you'll be taking lectures and doing practicals in biochemistry and molecular biology but you'll also be learning the engineering fundamentals. 

No engineer ever works in isolation and I think that's the most wonderful thing about the Integrated Engineering Programme in UCL, is it really encourages our students to look at engineering as a network of people who always collaborate on real-life projects. Very quickly you can begin to see how you can contribute the real world.

Why study Mechanical Engineering at UCL?

Adam Wojcik: I'm Dr Adam Wojcik, I'm the Admissions Tutor for Mechanical Engineering. 

I mean the exciting thing about UCL is given that we're all involved in mechanical engineering research, we fit some of that into our teaching. That's what makes us special. A lot of the academics here are working in what you would regard as biological subjects, sort of allied to engineering. We're studying how to treat tumours, for example, how the eye works, how the heart pumps blood around the body, how you can design artificial heart valves, for example. Then we've got people that are working with materials and in the more traditional sense really, of what you regard mechanical engineering to be. So engine technology, finding better fuels, more efficient engines new forms of motive power, engines for space vehicles. 

The students that are here, enjoy most content where they actually get to play a little and apply some of the theory that we've taught them. That's what they really, really like and that's where they can actually shine.

Why study Electronic and Electrical Engineering at UCL?

Sally Day: I'm Professor Sally Day and I'm the Head of Teaching for Electronic Engineering at UCL. 

In electronic engineering, you will have the things that you'd expect. You have the maths, which is the underpinning language that we use in engineering. It'll have some science, but it'll also have the idea of how we use that in order to solve problems and they're real problems that you'll get exposed to as part of the degree. We use what we call scenarios as week-long design projects which are open-ended problems that you have to solve during that time, based on the material that you'll have been learning in lectures and in lab classes.

And then in our third and fourth year, you do projects which again, are very much based in real problems. Sometimes students suggest those projects themselves, sometimes they're suggested by companies and often they'll be very much embedded in the research activity that's going on in the department. You'll be working with PhD students and researchers and academics who are at the forefront of their field. And I think that's something that's really quite special about the degree that we have in UCL.

Why study Computer Science at UCL?

I'm Graham Roberts, I'm a Principal Teaching Fellow in the Department of Computer Science. 

What our students can expect is to get a really great combination of the science, the mathematics, the theory combined with the practical application of that to solving problems. That's what the department is primarily built on. 

I think what makes us very special is the Industry Exchange Network programme. The student has to go through the process of meeting, interacting with somebody, typically outside of UCL, who's got some kind of software system, application they want developed, and they have to start from a 'back of the envelope idea', turn that into requirements which are actually plausible, then go through the research discovery process, what potential solutions, on the way learning about what's relevant to that and then building a prototype or proof of concept design that demonstrates that you can actually make this thing work and that proved to be really motivating.

Why Study Civil Engineering at UCL?

Manni Bhatti: My name's Dr Manni Bhatti, I'm in the Civil Engineering department. I'm the Admissions Tutor for the department, but I'm also the Careers Liaison Tutor as well. 

The students do, for the full year, they do a lot of practical work. The diversity that we have within our department makes it such, it's very interesting because we have things like transport and we've got things like soil mechanics, we've got things like oceanography- it's very diverse. 

They're going to do a lot of practical work and in the fourth year, students do a project in large teams where they actually work with industry. They do a massive project with industry. It's the real world that they see. 

So what our students go on to do is quite a few of them do stay within civil engineering, but quite a number are then sort of snapped up by places like law firms and they go on to do law, quite a few also go on to have their own company. We have a couple that have got startup companies. There's a number that go on to do higher degrees as well, so going to do PhDs, and finance as well, so lots of engineering students go into finance.

Why study Chemical Engineering at UCL?

My name is Federico Galvanin, and my role is Undergraduate Admissions Tutor for Chemical Engineering at UCL. 

My students frequently tell me that they really enjoy the multidisciplinarity and the variety of chemical engineering. They like also the idea of being able to apply maths, chemistry and physics principles and basically to learn by doing. 

Here at UCL Chemical Engineering, we are really changing the world by facing and proposing actual solutions to high impact global problems. These global problems can be related to, for example, sustainability, energy demand, healthcare. 

Our students, for example, asked to design a strategy for the production and distribution of a vaccine in Africa. This is clearly a global world problem as it has an impact on society and also on the lives of many individuals. And also, designing for example, new fuels and new chemicals and new energy storage solutions is something at the forefront of innovation, as this is affecting also your everyday life. This is, I believe
the way in which we change the world.