I must admit that I have so far needed to put more effort in to survive my final year compared with the second year.
It seemed that I would have more free time when I first saw my timetable at the beginning of this year – one compulsory module and two other optional modules out of four choices, plus one design module and my final year project. The last two design-based modules are focused on group work and individual study respectively, thus you can hardly find the formal arrangements of them on timetable. This doesn’t mean that they are not important, they account for half of the credits of the final year. Generally, the contact time of those modules is around 10-13 hours per week as it changes due to different tutorial and laboratory arrangements; another 10-20 hours per week are for final year project ideally. There are also regular group meetings for IDP3 every week (a design module).
The compulsory module – Electronic Engineering has been very interesting. I have learnt knowledge of Computer Hardware and Digital Design and Analogue Electronics on the course. The weekly labs have also enhanced my understanding of basic operation principles and have been useful for my assignment as well.
There are four optional modules we can chose from in the final year. I chose Power Electronics and Power Systems and Advanced Communication Systems. The former let me know more about the electronic devices used in power systems such as converter and rectifier. We simulated how they work using Simulink and implemented control loop to maintain their performance. Sometimes the lectures seemed as if they were going to be boring because of several of the formulas listed on the slides, but when I started simulations on the computer and saw the theoretical principles work in the real world, I could feel a sense of accomplishment.
The communication lectures are interesting as well and they are related to my final year project, so I feel they are very useful. Part of my final year project is to set up a communication system. I can still remember how excited I was when I first received the signal I transmitted. My supervisor is very responsible and patient. During our regular meetings he helped solve any questions I had without restricting me too so I could have much room to research by myself. He always says ‘This is your individual project not a course lab, so you need to find out what you are going to do…’ Although sometimes I felt like I have no direction, he would give some suggestion alongside. This experience is a good opportunity for me to have a look at what a research project looks like, which is helpful for me when I consider whether I should do a PhD in the future.
Life in my final year is busy and full of study. But when I am feeling stressed it makes me happy to see the green heart in the campus has finished its construction. I feel very relaxed walking through the beautiful green heart and seeing people sit on the grass on the pleasant and rare sunny days after the long cold winter. At the moment I am working on my project report, and I am looking forward to having a picnic with my friends at Winterbourne Botanical Garden which is just within walking distance of the School of Engineering.
