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If you are an engineering or medical sciences student looking to branch out into a new discipline for your final year project, we can help find the right project and supervisor.
The Institute of Healthcare Engineering is a research institute that spans across all UCL faculties. Our interdisciplinary nature allows us to connect and work with people outside of their subject discipline in order to achieve common goals.
Experiencing subject disciplines outside of our main area of study broadens our horizons and stimulates innovation. In fact, this is actively encouraged across the college – not only for staff, but also for students.
As a student studying at UCL, have you ever thought you’d like to try branching out yourself? Have you always had a passion for a subject outside of your degree programme, but related to it?
We have created a project exchange scheme to help facilitate those students looking to branch out of their parent degree subject area during their final year project.
UCL has always allowed final year students to look for project supervisors outside of their parent departments, but not everyone is aware of this option and it’s not always easy to organise. So, for example, if you are a student in Mechanical Engineering but have an interest in Electrical Engineering and would like to do your final year project within the subject, we can help make it happen for you.
You will need to find a potential project supervisor yourself – you may know of someone, or you may need to do some research using the UCL website. Tips for finding a project supervisor from outside your department can be found below!
Once you have found a potential supervisor in an area you are interested in, fill out the application form detailing which project you have chosen and why.
Then, providing you have the pre-requisite knowledge (we don’t want to connect you to a project you’re not able to do!), we will facilitate the process of getting you started on the project.
Apply for for undergraduate students
Apply for for postgraduate students
How to find a potential project supervisor from outside your department
Time to do some groundwork from your end!
1. The first thing you should do is think about the topics you have covered in your degree (or are going to cover). Were/are there any bits of research or information that specifically inspired your interest? Did you have any classes from tutors outside of your department that you found really exciting? Focus on these topics to spearhead your search.
2. Now look at the UCL website to find areas of research being carried out by the various departments in the IHE. However, make sure you stay within reasonable alignment with your current knowledge set – for example, it’s not very wise to think about doing a project in chemical processing if you’ve only ever studied within computer science-based modules!
3. You can start your search by looking at the various departments, and learn more about the type of research being carried out.
4. All departmental web pages have a “Research” section where they explain the work being carried out. Click on this area and start to explore the department’s research and just following your nose.
5. You can also use the departmental web pages to look at the “People” section to get an idea of the academics in the department and who does what. If you find someone carrying out work that interests you, look up their research papers to get an idea of the type of work they produce.
6. Once you have found the supervisor (and their work) that you are interested in, fill out the application form and we’ll do the rest.