Mya W.

What do you like about your course and why?

I really like that I get to apply the theoretical knowledge taught through my course to projects. It was exciting to get to design and build a UAV for a group project in my second year and felt really rewarding at the end of the semester when we got to see it fly.

What do you enjoy most about Surrey?

Getting to be a part of the student society Peryton Space. I led the UKSEDS Satellite Design Competition Team for Peryton Space this year after being a part of the team last year, and we’ve gone on to win the competition for second year in a row.

It was really fun to get to work with a team of students from a range of different courses and backgrounds, and to be able to learn new skills from each other. We all really enjoyed getting to build our CubeSat in Surrey Space Centre.

It’s a really cool experience to get to go to the competition day at Airbus Space & Defence in Stevenage, where we got the opportunity to compete against the other teams that made it to the final and see the designs that they came up with. We also got to do additional TVAC testing and vibration testing on our satellite.

I’ve really enjoyed being a part of Peryton Space and would really recommend joining to any students with an interest in space. I think that the skills and experience I’ve gained from it have helped me when applying for other opportunities such as the ESA Academy Fly a Rocket! Programme, that I completed earlier this year.

What do you want to do when you graduate?

Leading the Satellite Design Team as a Systems Engineer has made me interested in going into a career in Space Systems Engineering. I haven’t decided exactly what I want to do when I graduate yet, as I have only just finished my second year. 

I am going on a Professional Training Year now as a Systems Design Engineer for MBDA, and I think that getting to work in industry for a year will help give me a better idea of what I want to do when I finish my degree. I’m really excited to start my placement and to get to experience what it’s like working as a Systems Design Engineer.

Your advice to new students

I would really recommend getting involved in competitions and projects outside of the course. 

There’s a lot that you can get involved with and the experience that you can gain from these opportunities is so valuable. I have found that it has really helped me with applying for placements to be able to talk about projects that I have worked on. It was also really useful to have this experience when it came to doing group projects in the course and helped me feel a lot more confident when working within a team. It’s a great way to make friends when joining the university too!

Find out more about our BEng in Aerospace Engineering