Diary of a budding engineer

THIS SEMESTER has been very chemical processingfocused for third year Chemical and Materials Engineering students, with the courses being based on reactor engineering, particle technology and multiphase flow. Reactor engineering is a very interesting course as it is the only course where the content is strictly taught only to Chemical and Materials Engineering students, as most other topics in our specialisation are also taught to mechanical students.

Our first chance to pick an elective also took place this semester, where I chose new developments in process engineering. This course featured assignments and presentations with the focus on a range of topics from oil and gas processing to building integrated solar cells. Other electives that were available included electronic and biological materials for students who want to follow the materials pathway of the degree.

In order to complete my work experience hours

I need to have both general and sub-professional experience. As my current job only counts towards my general hours, I will be starting a new job at an engineering consultancy firm over summer to gain these sub-professional hours and see if this is a possible future career choice for me. It will be very beneficial as I will get to work on a range of projects and get a better understanding of real life applications of engineering.

As the third year of engineering ends, it also means that we must start thinking about our fourth year project. This is a full year engineering paper that all engineering students do in their fourth year, which involves completing a research project. At this stage the focus is on determining who would be the best supervisor for your project based on their area of expertise and how you would work together. At this stage I know that I want to do a processing based project and am deciding which supervisor would be the best fit.