scoobyster

Hi all.

I'm coming to the end of my BEng in Aerospace Eng and am panicking that I have no plans for what to do next! An MSc seems the sensible way forward as it opens up the possibility of becoming chartered and working for a big engineering co. Although there is a part of me hankering to sell my flat, car and soul to go off to train to be a commercial pilot; paying for an MSc first would put this out of the question for the forseeable future.

Has anyone done a course in Environmental Engineering or Sustainable Energy Systems? What did you think of it? I'm hoping it would be pretty interesting; aerospace has been a bit disappointing basically being a hash of every sector of engineering - the only bits I've really enjoyed being the specific aerospace modules and materials. I'm concerned Environmental Eng might be all electronics and control systems - neither of which I like or do well in! Also I'm not too hot on chemistry not having done an A level in it, I seem to have muddled through the chem aspects of materials modules so far though.

I'm currently thinking of Manchester or Edinburgh. The former I might commute to from Sheffield and the latter I'd have to let out my place in Sheff and live in halls - but a fresh start somewhere new isn't unappealing.

My other option is Automotive Eng in Sheffield or Leeds. I think this looks like being more of the same as aerospace really - but perhaps some interesting modules and I could do a fun research project.

Anyone with any views then? SN helped me choose Sheff 3 yrs ago so I'm relying on yah

Cheers,

Ben

Butty

iTrader: (2)

Ever considered Cranfield?

http://www.ccoa.aero/courses/msc.asp
http://www.ccoa.aero/courses/pg.asp
http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/schools/crancampus.cfm

Many of the courses are a bit more imaginative then the std engineering stuff that the others offer.
Its in the sticks compared with your other choices though - but has a flying club on site.

Nick

Jap2Scrap

I work at Leeds and we've got some nice kit in the Mech Eng dept. Certainly better than at Southampton where I got my degree.

scoobyster

Nick - they do look like interesting courses but I'm afraid the location does put me off. I went there earlier in the year to do a short flight testing course in a Jetstream 31 - mucho fun

J2S - Good to know they have some good facilities. Do you think commuting into Leeds from Sheff would be practical? What's parking like? Sheff offer cheap permits to commuting students but it doesn't look like Leeds do. I'd want somewhere safe for the scoob so is it going to cost me dearly? Easier if I got a bike?

Jap2Scrap

Definitely get a bike. It makes the journey a lot easier cos the traffic in and out of Leeds is a nightmare. I take my car and I leave at 7.20 to get there for about 8.30 from Pontefract which is 20 miles off. There's plenty of free street parking round there but NO WAY should you leave a Scoob there if you wanna see it again. Bikes can park on campus for free but there's not a cat in hell's chance you'll get a permit for the Scoob and the closest car-park with one security guy is £2.60 a day and the one time I parked there I must have heard half a dozen alarms going off when I got back at 5pm.

As for facilities in the Uni, there's some real top stuff, plus they run an open wheel race car in the Formula Student champs. I've been making some fuel rails for it this week on the Rapid Prototyping machine I look after. The RP machine is one of only 3 of it's type in the country (One is at Renault F1 and one is at a company which makes parts exclusively for Lola cars).

The student projects have been coming through the machine this last month and they seem to do some really interesting stuff. On the basis of what I've seen, I'd not hesitate to recommend you check it out on an open day.