Yesterday I was fortunate enough to make my live Surge Radio (the Students’ Union radio station) co-hosting debut with my brilliant (and thankfully well musically learned – I have a pretty dodgy taste in music!) friend Caitlin. Her wit and naturally amiable character seemed to complement my cheesy jokes quite well for the hour, as we winged our way through the first edition of “The Performing Arts Show”. This slot is dedicated to broadcasting all the latest news from across the Union’s Performing Arts departments! Next time we’re planning to actually prepare content in advance to give the whole show slightly more structure; we improvised games this time, including a Shakespearean quotation contest and an American “spelling bee” style quiz! However, for a first shot, we think we did pretty well – and I had a fantastic time in the process, so I can’t wait for the next show!
I was also lucky enough to this week be cast in another production (after a week entirely out of them!), following a couple of rounds of intensive auditions over the weekend which really showcased the levels of talent that exist within the Performing Arts. It was a fairly intimidating prospect going into the audition room knowing that five or six other extremely talented individuals were going after the same roles as you, but I’m delighted to say that (somehow!) I managed to come away with the role of Prince Escalus in the Theatre Group’s production of the Shakespearean classic “Romeo & Juliet”, to take place on the professional Nuffield Theatre stage in February 2015. This is hopefully another final opportunity to make the most of, as my investment in the Performing Arts in Southampton slowly winds its way to an end!
The main thing at the centre of my thoughts this week has been getting off to a good start as I enter the fourth year of my MEng Software Engineering course. Most importantly of all to this, all hands have been to the pump to kick start the Group Design Project we are to undertake, which in turn makes up a significant portion of our assessment throughout the entire year – so no pressure, then! The project (or “GDP” as it’s affectionately known by all of us who have to type it each time!) is in itself yet another fantastic opportunity for us to gain experience in the field of project development and in turn boost our employability, which is obviously something at the forefront of every final year student’s mind right now!
This is because not only does the project we are assigned stem from an industrial specification (and hence is likely to be applied within a professional context), but it also tests the depth of our personal, managerial and skill-based development as both engineers and computer scientists since our very first year. We are expected to employ skills and knowledge we have acquired over the course of our degree programmes across the entirety of the project’s lifespan to accurately simulate a development process we might undergo in a job. This gives us plenty of practice in this kind of context before we move into the wide world next year and potentially do it for real – eek!
For example, we will be formulating specifications, formalising designs and carrying out evaluative testing (to make sure it works!). These are skills which we have been given the opportunity to hone across a multitude of various design projects over the years, and now are left to independently apply in this particularly challenging situation. Now that we’ve had plenty of practice in an academic environment, it really feels like an opportunity for us to take a (tentative – it’s still quite difficult to even know where to begin, after all!) first step into breaking into the technology industry!
With regards to my group’s project, ours stems from the mobile application of Digital Behaviour Interventions (for example, phone messages or alerts) which psychologists can design to help encourage people to lead healthier lifestyles or, for example, to undertake anti-smoking or fitness programmes. We’re also working closely with an on-campus client to extend an intervention’s functionality into allowing people to test the potency of any personal cochlear implant (devices which improve hearing) they might possess through their mobile phones, potentially saving them a lot of money in reducing the need to travel to their nearest implant centre.
We’re hugely happy as a group with the specification we’ve been allocated. Not only has it already stimulated a number of fruitful discussions about how we’re going to go about supporting all the relevant factors and requirements of the project, and incorporate such hearing tests sufficiently accurately, but it also has the potential to have a strongly positive effect on real people’s health, routines and lives if it works well. This is a wonderfully inspirational goal in itself and hence something additional to strive after - so here’s hoping (just as an aside: it will be rigorously tested before deployment, of course)!
Looking forwards, it’s weird to think the clock is counting down on my time in Southampton, and quicker than I might like, but given all of the events going on at the University at the moment, it’s looking like it’s going to be one heck of an academic year to bow out on – fingers crossed I can make the most of it!
Robin
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