Electronic and Electrical Engineering undergraduate is a panellist at Cisco event

‘University 2021: What lies ahead?’ was an event where Cisco presented new research looking at the impact of COVID-19 on the student experience and the ways in which higher education must evolve to meet student expectations.  

Cisco CTO Chintan Patel spoke to:  

• Yolanne Lee, Electrical and Electronics Engineering student at UCL about her experience learning in lockdown, 
• Professor Michael Rovatsos, Director of The Bayes Centre at the University of Edinburgh about his experience recreating the workplace environment online 
• Gary Quigley, Higher Education expert at Cisco about the role technology will play in the future of learning 

Yolanne’s experiences of pivoting to online learning is documented in this film and her experiences have helped form the basis of the report that Cisco put together. The report outlines the experiences of university students and staff, as well as research on how to protect and improve the student experience with technology. 

Of her experience working on this project, Yolanne said:

Representing the Faculty of Engineering Sciences comes with its responsibilities and perks, one of which was the opportunity to shed some light on student lives during this pandemic with Cisco. To be honest, there was a decently large probability I wouldn't have taken the chance - I was preparing for exams and wanted to keep my free time, but I think we all know that this has been a challenging year and that's a story I wanted to share. Working with Cisco to deliver a campaign was daunting, but they gave me ownership over my own authentic experience. I got to film part of their spotlight series and they kept clips that I took purely for fun (which I ever-so-slightly cringed at) but also gave me great prompts and ample freedom to convey what I wanted to. One of the most important driving factors that helped me through this year was to find opportunities like these. When I was attempting to put to words the collective stress, outrage, determination, and flexibility the student body has demonstrated over the past year, I never expected that I'd be asked to sit on a panel live with Cisco UK's CTO, Chintan Patel, or running around London with my phone on selfie mode!