Chemical Engineering undergraduate
I’m studying Chemical Engineering and I’m in my fourth and final year.
As a kid, my mum would take us to the Science Museum, so I saw the Imperial South Kensington Campus a lot. I always thought it looked like a cool and interesting place. Then as I got older and I got more interested in STEM, I started to notice the university more. It just has this aura about it.
When I was doing A-levels, I was looking into the extracurricular things I could be doing. I went to a few Imperial talks that were open to the public which were really interesting. It was great to be able to interact with the university as a member of the public and it gave me a better understanding of what it was like.
I went to both Open Days for my year of entry and spoke to chemical engineering students while I was there. I got such good impressions of everyone, they were all extremely friendly and welcoming and answered all my questions about studying at Imperial. It really felt like a community where I could fit in.
On the day of my interview, I spent the whole day in the department. We had a tour of the facilities and even spent some time in the Carbon Capture Pilot Plant and in the labs. I took this opportunity to speak with current students and the staff and asked so many questions, and the responses I got showed that everyone genuinely cared and wanted to share with me what the university is about. It felt like my experience on that day really mattered to them.
I had a really good impression of the people, which was so important because I wanted to know I’d be in an environment where I could thrive with people I could align with. It all accumulated into a gut feeling that I really wanted to be here.
Those initial impressions I got when I was applying I still believe in today. Everyone who’s teaching me and guiding me wants everyone on my course to do well. They’re always honest and make sure they’re giving me all the necessary tools to succeed in my degree and industry.
I always liked maths, and in chemistry I realised that I mainly liked problem-solving, like determining mole and mass balances, figuring our yields, etc. So, I started doing some research to see if there was a course or subject that was more about that. I came across chemical engineering and thought it seemed interesting. I did some more research, looking at websites like IChemE and watching YouTube videos, and slowly started to piece together what chemical engineering is, what you learn, what people do with the degree and what industries it’s applicable to.
I also liked that the chemical engineering course was varied in what I’d be learning, with very different subjects to what I was learning about in school, but with all modules still specialised in engineering. There’s also a big emphasis on teamwork and understanding how to collaborate with other people in a professional environment. The assessments are nearly exclusively group projects, apart from exams, because in industry, even if you’re doing research, you’re always working with other people. So, a big part of the degree is teaching you the soft skills of how to work in a technical environment and collaborate efficiently.
I’ve always been very inquisitive, asking how things are made, where did it come from, why is it like that? I’ve also always lived in a city, so I’ve never had the visual of where things come from, it was always just there – you go to the shops and the food and clothes are waiting for you. Chemical engineering helps us understand the full life cycle of the everyday products we use.
I also knew I wanted to be involved in the application of science rather than discovery. With chemical engineering, you gain a set of skills that allow you to take a technology that has been developed on a lab scale, and only accessible to a wealthy few, and try to create a scaled-up industrial process which would allow the same technology to be accessible to all. That ability to increase accessibility is something that still motivates me today.
I’m really enjoying my degree, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been challenging or stressful at times. Overall, I know I’m learning about something I genuinely care about and have an interest in – when I’m trying to figure out a problem that I have no idea how to solve it can be really frustrating. But I know that I’m doing this because I want to be here and I want to learn. It makes it all the more rewarding when you figure it out.
I’m a big believer that being part of a club or society is important to making your student experience count. Throughout my time at Imperial I’ve been part of the Chemical Engineering Society – I’m the 22/23 Chair of the society. It’s an amazing group of people and I’m excited for this year as we have some great in-person activities lined up, both social and career events as well as the student magazine. With the Chemical Engineering Society, I really feel like I’ve found my community and my people. It makes being at university a lot more fun, because it’s no longer just a place for education, you also get to see lots of your friends.
I’ve also been in the softball club! We play in Hyde Park so it’s really convenient, very sociable and a great group of people. I also started knitting during the pandemic, so have joined the KnitSock society. That’s on Monday and Tuesday evenings and is a really nice place to sit with friends and chat in a relaxing place.
It's the people and my department that have made my Imperial experience. It’s such a lovely community and it feels like a second home.
In the Chemical Engineering Department, I’ve felt so well supported which really adds to the experience of the degree. When things get a bit much and you think you’re getting a bit too close to your limit, you know there’s a space where someone is there to listen to you and give you advice.
I am happy to say that I will be continuing my studies at Imperial as a PhD student. I will be, hopefully, developing paper-based biodegradable replacements for plastic packaging.
My motivation for doing a PhD was because I knew I wanted to be doing something that had an element of investigation to it, and I also knew I liked doing experimental lab work.
Prior to applying for PhDs I did have my doubts. I was often worried by the prospect of reading a lot of research papers; I have ADHD and so it takes a lot of time to focus on the reading. But during my third-year summer internship I spent weeks reading research papers, and I realised that I could do it, and that my neurodivergence should not be the reason I back out of something I genuinely enjoy!