Ibrahim Gabol

Tell us a bit about you. 

Hi! I am Ibrahim Gabol. I just finished my 2nd year at UCL for Computer Science BSc. I was born in London, but my family is from Pakistan. I studied Maths, Economics and Computer Science at A-Levels. It’s been an amazing 2 years so far, really challenging and rewarding. I have started feeling like an adult, making decisions about my career, personal life, planning ahead, and planning holidays. It’s been a learning process doing all that while balancing university.

Why did you choose to study Computer Science at UCL?  

It’s got a perfect blend of practical and theoretical. Our modules include Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, Engineering Challenges, but also Computer Architecture and Concurrency, Theory of Computation, Algorithms. I really feel like I am getting a breadth of understanding of my field. 

We also have our Integrated Engineering Program (IEP) for all engineering students. I chose Modern Applications of Engineering Mathematics, so I get to do modules that cover financial mathematics, data mining and machine learning. There’s others too, some of my friends chose robotics, you could do nanotechnology, ocean engineering, there’s a lot! 

What has/have been your highlights so far?  

There have been a few, so here are my top 3: 

Spring Week with Deutsche Bank
In my first month of first year, I remember the Faculty pushing for us to apply to Spring Weeks early on. I remember going up to a third year and asking about how they got into Amazon for their summer internship.  

They offered to meet with me to discuss how to improve my CV. I would not have gotten that Deutsche Bank Spring Week without their really specific feedback on my formatting, content and presentation of my CV, and tips for applying. I’m really grateful to have had that initial springboard. 

I got to do a presentation at the UCL Open Day
Towards the end of my first year, I got to attend the UCL Open Day, talk to prospective students, their parents, and do presentations on my department, talking about the course, the modules and my highlights. I met some really nice people and students who still message me on LinkedIn about the open day, and ask for advice. 

I got to showcase our work at IXN. 
Finishing our Industry Exchange Network (IXN) project with NTTDATA for one of our modules in second year, I got to present our finished application to industry members at a presentation in March. My team and I presented the technologies we worked with, why we chose them, and what our project was aiming to achieve.  

What has been the biggest challenge? 

In the second year, the biggest challenge has been balancing the large number of new plates. University is tough!  From programming tutor, internship applications, group coursework, personal life, family life, personal projects, it’s a lot.  

It’s really easy for me to overthink too far ahead and stop moving because I’m worried I won’t live up to these expectations and responsibilities. The great thing about this point of my life is I have a lot of opportunities in my hands, but also a lot of responsibilities. To solve that, I try to embrace the hardships and remind myself that they are part of the journey. 

At this point, I have learned a lot, have a lot to learn, and it’s going to be a trial-and-error process. But if I take it day by day, one foot in front of the other, the general trajectory is going to be upwards.  

What has been your favourite module so far and why? 

That’s a hard one! I’ll go for Systems Engineering. It was a full experience, two terms, so a lot of time to deliver a large project.  I learned a lot from this module. It was always on my mind throughout the year, even when I was doing other work, so I got that experience of balancing it alongside other things. But it was also really fun! I got to stretch my muscles a bit in terms of working with new technologies, experimenting, not really being sure where something might end up, but seeing how it could be applied.   

My team and I made a Community Impact Report Portal for NTTDATA. We created an in-browser AI that was used on multiple sections to enhance the experience, searching, summarising, recommending, and I was super proud of implementing a large part of that, as it was initially just an idea I had while walking to the tube station!   

It required a lot of weekly team meetings. We made a lot of sketches, designs, proposals, plans, it was difficult, rewarding and I feel like I learned a lot of technical and communication knowledge this year. Here’s the website report. 

What is the workload like for UCL Computer Science students?  

It’s manageable for me, because it’s the main thing I think about during term time. If you apply yourself, you can get the grades. But they won’t come easy! Balancing my time has been really important. 

We have assistance from the department, and can apply for delays on work, which I did towards the end of my second year, where I needed time to finish off a certain coursework before starting the next one. I rarely felt like it was work though! There’s a wide range of work we do as part of our degree, including presentations, group projects, essays, lab sessions, exercises, and exams.  

Can you tell us about the Programming Tutor scheme you’re part of?  

It’s a department-wide scheme to assist first-year students in their programming. In your first year, senior students meet up with you weekly to assist you in your programming, and you can come to them with any questions or bits you might be stuck on.  

For me, my tutor helped me with C and Haskell early on, learning about pointers and data types. And then in the second year, I got to be one! In the beginning, quite a few first years talked to me about a lack of programming experience, Computer Science knowledge... and then by our last session, they were explaining things to me!  

It was really nice seeing that progression from novices to experienced programmers! Being able to do joint sessions was fun too. There were other tutors in my cohort who I got to collaborate and work with.  

How does living in student accommodation compare to commuting/living out?  

There’s pros and cons, and adjustments needed for both situations. Living in student accommodation in my first year, I was really close to uni. It was only a 10-minute walk and I could get to lectures and events quite easily. But living in accommodation also means you have to prepare meals, do washing and cleaning, and it’s more costly. Commuting this year takes me about 1 hour and 30 minutes to get to a lecture, so I have to plan ahead quite a bit!  

I hope from my answer it shows that it is a double-edged sword, and there’s not necessarily a better option. I felt like I could make them both work, e.g. reading up on work on the train commute or doing weekly meal prep in accommodation.   

How easy has it been to make friends?  

As easy as breathing! And that’s because of how many people you meet at UCL, and how kind they are. From society events, guest lectures, hackathons, sports events, lab sessions, it all just happens, and you get to meet people who all have these different backgrounds and sparks.  I’ve gotten to know some great people in my cohort and outside of Computer Science as well. We meet up every week to play board games or just hang out, and we also planned a holiday together. 

How are you building up professional experience alongside your studies? 

A lot of it goes hand-in-hand. We learned how to use a certain technology as part of our modules, so I used that to make a portfolio website for myself.  We got to do a presentation on ethics as part of Design and Professional Skills, and what I learnt and experienced there helped me present at a company the next month!  There’s also UCL Careers, who post vacancy opportunities, and you can do mock interviews with them. I’m really looking forward to my summer internship at Deutsche Bank this year. 

The information on this page reflects the student's status at the time of publication (June 2025).