IET Ambition and Achievement Awards

Money is a major issue when it comes to university, but there are opportunities available to get support from companies and other organisations. I applied for a scholarship from the IET which initially entailed copious form-filling and writing many UCAS-style personal statements. After a few months I was fortunate to find I was one of the 20 selected to attend interview from an initial batch of around 400. The interview was tough but I was happy with how it went. I’d just have to wait and see. And then – just hours before I arrived in Southampton – I received the very exciting news that I had been awarded the prestigious IET Jubilee Scholarship!

Zoom forward five weeks and on Monday I was invited up to London to attend the IET Ambition and Achievement Awards Ceremony. The other award- winners and I (including fellow Southampton student Andrew Busse) were presented with our awards and there were plenty of other prizes for professionals right at the top of their game. It was very exciting to be invited to such a posh ceremony amongst so many distinguished individuals and there was plenty of time for networking afterwards!

I was introduced to someone claiming to have designed “the future of electronics” – a specially formulated fluid that can be used with an inkjet printer to print working diodes and LEDs. It sounded very interesting but unfortunately I couldn’t quite stretch to the £500 he wanted to pay for a home trial kit!! If it does catch off, you heard it here first……

Back at ECS and it’s been another week full of fun and games; coursework and labs; Halloween fun and fireworks. Lots of fireworks! I can’t say I was exactly expecting much from the display at Archers (the bar next to my halls) but it was actually extremely good and its rumoured they spent about £3000 on it so we really can’t complain! I’m looking forward to plenty more colourful explosions next week too when the QE2 sets sail from Southampton for the very last time. The council are promising a real extravaganza!

I’ll finish this blog with a quote from the president of the IET, Chris Earnshaw, in his closing speech at the awards ceremony:
“Sitting here watching the award winners come up, it’s very difficult to tell who has won an Ambition Award and whom one for Achievement. The young people here have certainly already achieved a lot, and the more experienced amongst you are certainly not lacking in ambition either!”

I think that sentiment sums up ECS pretty neatly too.