Currently browsing category

Electronic Engineering, Page 4

Work Ethic

Work Ethic Now that the deadlines are starting to pile up I am able to see how my habits as a student have changed since I left for Spain in July 2008. The drive and motivation to work throughout the day is not something that had come naturally to me before that, but having worked 9 - 6 in an office for more than a year, now I just feel lazy if I'm not constantly doing something. Continue reading →

My First Two-Cents

To this day, it's been three weeks since Computer Science has officially started, and I'm liking it. The programming labs are suitable for everyone of all abilities, even for Java Junkies like myself, there are additional tasks which stretch your abilities. Of course there are also easier tasks for the complete newbie. My last lab session involved me programming a virtual ATM. The basic task was to write a program which does a few very simple sums to deposit or withdraw money. Continue reading →

InterFace 2009

InterFace 2009 One of the things that has been keeping me busy recently is being on the organising committee of a conference: InterFace 2009. My friend Leif (who I met on a training course way back at the start of my PhD) is doing a PhD in ECS department, but with a co-supervisor in Archaeology, due to the nature of his topic. Continue reading →

A Cabinet Minister visits, Student Robotics and Exams

A Cabinet Minister visits, Student Robotics and Exams Last Monday, the UK Governments’ top Ministers all descended on Southampton for a historic first meeting of the Cabinet in the city. After it was over, Lord Drayson the Minister for Science and Innovation, came to ECS and I was one of a privileged few invited to hear him speak and give my views on the state of science, and in particular science education in the UK. Continue reading →

You know you’re an engineer when: You start to lose your audience…

You know you’re an engineer when: You start to lose your audience... I was at home in Marlborough the other weekend, while the country was still being inundated by snow. We were enjoying Second Christmas, a hobbit-esque celebration invented so we could celebrate Christmas as a family; my brother, Will, having returned from New Zealand that week. We were sitting round the table before supper and I took out my new smartphone to send a text message. Continue reading →

End of Exams

End of exams! It’s the end of exams! Yay! Whilst as first years they might not count towards our final degree classification, we all still wanted to do well and getting used to a new exam system is always daunting, so it’s a great relief now they’re over. And I don’t think they went too badly either, which is good. Logic and Maths were both fine, but there was a nasty surprise in our next paper, as it had been made 25% longer than in previous years, but in the same amount of time. Continue reading →

The Rover Project – A Technical Victory

Ok, so I guess it must be pretty clear now how bad I am at this
 it’s been an obscene amount of time since I last sat down to write an entry for this blog, and I can’t really work out why. Of course, I’ve been very busy (how’s that for an original excuse). The Rover project took up most of my time at the beginning of the second semester – having finished our robot over a week early, we spent the rest of the allotted time tweaking it, and priming batteries for the final race. Continue reading →

Time is Always Against Us

“Time is always against us”. By Morpheus, in one of my favourite movies - Matrix-Reloaded). The beauty of the quote is – you can easily replace “us” with “students” and still enjoy it ;) I would never be able to understand why we are given such a “short-time” to complete our coursework ( e.g. “just” two weeks to write one-page table, three weeks to prepare a 15-slides presentation and a month to read 20-pages standard specification). Continue reading →