Tuesday 9th September 2025 marked my graduation day. A day that posed as a culmination of my work and efforts across my time in education. I have always envisioned what the day would look like, but it defied expectations in all the best ways.
As I made my way to the Royal Festival Hall, I coincidentally passed by my old secondary school. I reflected on and felt gratitude for the places and people who contributed to my personal and academic growth. As the journey continued, in true London fashion it began to rain. I passed by several landmarks across the way: Buckingham Palace, the London Eye and Big Ben. It felt fitting that London’s Global University graduation venue is at such a location, overlooking the River Thames and landmarks that its students have explored in other periods of their personal timelines.
After finally arriving at the Royal Festival Hall, I began to see familiar faces and my excitement grew. Greetings and smiles were exchanged with my fellow colleagues and their families who came to celebrate from across the world. With my 3:30 pm ceremony approaching, I rushed to collect my cap and gown so I could get photographed with my loved ones. I hurried up the stairs to the hall, where I was seated with my classmates and students from across the Faculty of Engineering. As I looked back, a sea of caps filled the room. Name by name, people crossed the stage and cheers echoed throughout the hall. Suddenly, all the stress and deadlines were worth it and the four years seemed to have flown by so fast.
Looking back to my first year, I used to be intimidated by electronics. I even had an embarrassing moment where I melted my circuit board and split an operational amplifier in half (I learned my lesson). But that fear became one of my biggest areas of growth. Fast forward to my group master’s research project, electronics became one of my strengths. My team and I built a smart doorbell for visually impaired individuals from scratch using 3D printing, digital electronics, and accessible design principles. Our project was even nominated for two awards in the Centre for Engineering Education – Faculty of Engineering Sciences (CEE-FES) Student Project Prizes! It’s moments like these that show me just how far I’ve come over the past few years.
My time at UCL has been shaped by community, whether through group projects, extracurricular activities, or my roles as a departmental ambassador and mentor. Serving as President of the Arab and North African Society, one of the largest cultural societies in the UK, taught me how powerful representation, collaboration, and cultural celebration can be. I was also part of Project Impactive, a volunteering society at UCL that uses engineering to create assistive technology for people with disabilities, reminding me of the real human impact our field can have. Through my internships and research roles, I saw how our department and UCL give students incredible opportunities and immersive learning experiences that push us to grow as engineers and as people.
As the Provost mentioned during the graduation ceremony, ‘It is not much to know everything but not to serve.’ This statement deeply resonated with me. Biomedical Engineering is centred on using technology for good. This can take many forms: designing accessible healthcare solutions to reduce disparities in healthcare, improving the autonomy and independence of individuals with medical conditions, or using innovation to improve quality of life.
This is exactly what my studies at University College London have taught me through various scenarios and projects. Some of the most exciting ones included designing an EMG-based mouse controller, developing AI-based healthcare applications, and creating algorithms for medical image filtration. The Integrated Engineering Program (IEP) further reinforced this through collaboration across disciplines in the engineering faculty, most notably in the ‘How to Change the World’ project, where we worked together to propose solutions to real-world problems. My minor in management science exposed me to the project management, financial and entrepreneurial aspects of engineering, broadening my understanding of how to guide innovation from prototype to real-world impact.
Building on this, as the global landscape continues to change, I hope that my cohort, and those who follow in the future, carry this essence of biomedical engineering with them. I hope we all use our knowledge of science and engineering, and our commitment to accessibility and equality, to do good, to help others, and to make a positive difference in the world, while being stewards of the responsibility that comes with what we know.
Congratulations to my fellow colleagues in UCL Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering and the wider Faculty of Engineering. I would also like to thank all the professors, lecturers, lab technicians, and mentors I’ve had during my time at University College London for their unwavering support.
As I step into this next chapter, I carry the lessons, memories, and friendships from my time here with me. Looking forward, I’m excited to see how we’ll push boundaries, lead with empathy, and use what we’ve learned to shape a better future. A future driven by innovation and inclusion.
