Ngan Le
"All the academic staff in the School of Mechanical Engineering Sciences are very friendly and they want us to do the best we can."
Course
Biomedical Engineering MEngPlacement company
Abbott Diabetes CareI decided to study biomedical engineering because the application of engineering to medicine and healthcare really interests me – from learning about the future possibilities of 3D printed organs to watching how prosthetics are enabling Paralympians to succeed.
What I most enjoy about my course is the balance of design, problem solving and research across the modules and how they link together. At Surrey, the tutors give us the foundations of engineering and allow us to build upon it. For example we learn to code on Matlab in Year 2 and then in our final year, we apply our coding knowledge with what we have learnt in electronic instrumentation to biomedical signal processing and analyse diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
I find that all the academic staff in the School of Mechanical Engineering Sciences are very friendly and want us to do the best we can. They often post about special lectures, scholarships and placement opportunities and this really encourages students to go the extra mile.
Aside from my course, I’m a member of Surrey’s String Orchestra Society. It’s nice to be able to take my mind off my academic studies by doing something I enjoy and, as treasurer of the society in my second year, I got the chance to pick the orchestra’s repertoire.
"I definitely improved my communication skills on placement, as well as my technical skills such as data analysis and report writing. Working in a professional environment pushes you to go out of your comfort zone and be confident."
In addition, I put myself forward to be course rep in my second and third years – which involves liaising with the lecturers on any problems that the cohort experience and trying to resolve them – and I act as a student helper on open days, giving tours to prospective students.
I am also a member of Surrey’s Women’s Engineering Society (WES) and through this, I discovered the two-day student conference run by the professional WES network. I was fortunate enough to attend this event which enabled me to meet fellow young aspiring female engineers from different universities and backgrounds.
One of the highlights of my degree has been my Professional Training placement year, which I spent at Abbott Diabetes Care (ADC). I was mainly involved in analysing production and testing data of blood glucose test strips, which must be as accurate as possible in order to avoid incorrect readings of a user’s blood glucose levels. I was also responsible for supporting the manufacturing line.
I definitely improved my communication skills on placement, as well as my technical skills such as data analysis and report writing. Working in a professional environment pushes you to go out of your comfort zone and be confident.
It was a rewarding experience to work on a product that greatly improves the lives of diabetic people. In the future, I hope to improve patients’ lives by using my knowledge to help create innovative and sustainable healthcare solutions.
Discover our courses in mechanical engineering sciences, including our BEng (Hons)/MEng in Biomedical Engineering.
