100 not out, but nearly

Over the past few days, I’ve found that, whenever I’ve been asked, the easiest way to describe the feeling is “weird.” But in truth, it’s also probably the only term I’ve been able to come up with that encompasses the sheer number of the thoughts that have come with finishing my degree last week – it’s difficult to believe that it’s all over!

After seventeen years of education, it’s one of those moments you have never really imagined you’d experience until you’re there in the situation yourself, but I couldn’t have asked for a better rounded, mind-blowing and ultimately more enjoyable experience than that which my course in Software Engineering has provided.

Putting my pen down after my final exam was greeted by firstly a wave of euphoria, a slight tinge of sadness – and then finally a huge wave of tiredness, as I headed home for what seemed like a well-earned nap!

By some twist of fate, the exam took place in the Annex Theatre on Highfield Campus which, if you’ve read any of my other posts, you’ll know has been a place I’ve spent probably far too much time in. I had to do my best not to get distracted by the reams of nostalgia-inducing show posters displayed all over the walls! But also quite fittingly, the exam took place just a few days before this, my 100th post for the Life at Southampton blog.

When I first started writing on here and keeping count of my posts nearly three years ago now, I don’t think I expected to be hitting triple figures, but as the experiences, stories and memories have flowed in, there’s been an incredible amount to write.

I’m lucky, therefore, to have had have some kind of avenue through which to write them down and share with everyone just how inspiring a place I’ve found, and continue to find, the University to be - so much so I’m still writing about it after three years.

I wouldn’t really know how to even begin articulating the effect of such a journey, so instead, I’ve tried to summarise a few highlights from each year, although this is really only scratching the surface – please feel free to have a look back through my posts to see plenty more!:

First Year (September 2011 – August 2012):

• Moved into Montefiore 4 Halls, learnt to budget for myself, bought (and burnt) my first self-cooked food, did my own laundry, and met my incredible flatmates, later to be my housemates of three years.
• Became overwhelmed by the Students’ Union (SUSU) Freshers’ Fayre and Bunfight, accidentally signing up to over 50 groups – eventually narrowed down to five!
• Acted at University for the first time, meeting many a theatrical great friend-to-be.
• Worked on a live SUSUtv broadcast to a national student audience within two weeks of arriving – crikey! – and acted in/presented several others.
• Took part in a pillow fight flash mob outside the Union.
• Watched the mighty Southampton FC at St Mary’s Stadium a few times as they gained promotion to the Premier League!
• Went to the London 2012 Olympics after the end of term – a truly unforgettable occasion.
• Undertook my first University assignments and exams – with many more to come!

Minutes into arrival at Southampton – I was incredibly nervous!

St Mary’s Stadium matches are rarely boring, to say the least!

Second Year (September 2012 – August 2013):

• The year when the performing bug really took hold: six shows, including one in the professional Nuffield Theatre on Highfield Campus, along with my first taste of the craziness of the charity 24 Hour Show (exactly what it says on the tin)!
• Got my first taste of the world of directing a show too – a very different, but equally satisfying experience (if not more so)!
• Undertook the step-up to Second Year in terms of the course – things get a bit more serious when assignments and exams count for slightly more, so it was great to have some momentum from First Year!
• Tried stand-up comedy for the first couple of times: a great experience and it seemed to go okay, but never have I been more terrified…!
• Had the honour of taking part in Open Day talks in the Nuffield Theatre with the Pro-Vice Chancellor – again, terrifying, but rewarding!
• The absolutely astounding experience of touring to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2013: from fundraising in Southampton to rehearsing in July, random trips to Bournemouth beach and film nights aplenty, to actually attending the Festival for the first time and participating in the largest arts event in the world with another magnificent group of friends. This trip really was something! 

Being invited to be part of the Pro-Vice Chancellor’s Open Day talks in second year was a huge honour!

The first Gone Rogue Productions team I toured with to the Fringe, spawning innumerable memories and in-jokes!

 
 

Third Year (September 2013 – August 2014):

• The performing highlight of my Southampton career, where I got to direct my favourite text, Peter Shaffer’s thriller play Equus, which went on to receive 6 Daily Echo Curtain Call (the amateur awards for Hampshire) nominations including Best Director and Production of the Year – I’ve never worked with a more enthusiastic, creative and amicable team, and the result was something I’ll never forget!
• Took a first lead role on film with the award-winning SUSUtv drama The Society, learning how difficult film acting is in the process!
• Acted as the Chairperson of the 2013 Interactive Multimedia Systems Conference as part of a module, being granted a £1,000 budget to lead the organisation of an academic conference on Highfield Campus – talk about experience!
• Served a term on the SUSU Theatre Group committee as Webmaster, a fun experience in itself!
• More shows galore, and another amazing trip to the Edinburgh Fringe – this time featuring an on-screen BBC appearance on Great British Railway Journeys!
• The year of the Third Year Project (the Computer Science equivalent of a dissertation), in which I somehow merged the fields of theatre and image analysis to create an automatic video editor and attain a First – although I’m not sure how well it works!
• Third year: exams aplenty!

 The cast and crew of Equus!

 … and that we toured with to Edinburgh 2014!

Fourth Year (September 2014 – Just Now!):

• Had the honour of serving a term as President of Showstoppers (the musical theatre society), learning an incredible amount along the way about budgeting, strategic management, personal skills, and so much more… it’s been one heck of an experience!
• Also acted as Web Officer for Performing Arts as a whole!
• Probably the most humbling moment of my University career as I was awarded with the Award for Commitment to the Performing Arts at the recent PA Ball – thank you so much to everyone!
• Successfully took on the challenge of the Fourth Year Group Design Project with my team, attaining a First by designing a remote hearing test mobile phone application which we hope may form the basis of life-changing research elsewhere – crikey!
• Made a musical directing debut with The Drowsy Chaperone, which thankfully seemed to go down well!
• Performed for the final time with Theatre Group (Love Song in the Annex and Romeo & Juliet in the Nuffield!) and Showstoppers (Into the Woods) – all classic shows which I’ll never forget, and great ways to bow out!
• Exams, exams, exams!

The final Performing Arts Ball with some of the incredible friends I’ve shared University with – thanks guys! Credit: SU Photographic Society

And that’s omitting so, so much more – it really has been a packed Life at Southampton so far, and there’s plenty more to come before I graduate next month!

Freshers 2015/16 and beyond: you have so much to look forward to!

Robin

Into the woods

So in this season of finals – and not just the exams! – it has finally come to this: one final appearance in a fully-fledged Annex Theatre-based, University of Southampton, Students’ Union society, show. And what a production to go out on: a large-scale project bringing to the University the classic Stephen Sondheim musical-turned-Disney-film, Into the Woods!

 Although I’ve probably attempted to do so in previous blog posts, I can’t begin to describe just how much the Performing Arts has changed my life since I discovered it as a trembling fresher in first year. My first set of auditions for a show is a stand-out memory for me, as, being extremely shy, I can remember being aghast at having only just met some people for the first time – and then having to pretend to be married to them!

 Back then just being on stage seemed a terrifying prospect, and I wasn’t sure why I subjected myself to it. Four academic years and twenty-five shows later, and the (admittedly still extremely nerve-racking but electrifying) buzz, coupled with nerves and adrenaline galore, is still there - but I’ve learnt to enjoy it along the way!

Of all the shows, it’s definitely the best costume I’ve had to wear!

It’s not just the time on stage, though, or indeed even time off stage – it’s the experience, the journey (if I’m going to be theatrical!) that you go through as both an individual in your role, and a collective with your fellow students within casts, teams or committees, that makes being part of the Performing Arts (or any student group) so special.

I’ve picked up an incredible number of skills from societies, be it public speaking (including dealing with nerves!), project management and co-ordination (of pretty large teams over several months), budgeting, scheduling, touring, designing, teamwork exercises, application writing, communication, and most of all, learning how to relax and trust your instincts. All of these complement the excellent academic groundings that I’ve picked up through my course in Computer Science and Software Engineering.

A far cry from that trembling first audition, definitely!

Along the way, I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting the most inspirational set of people I think I ever will. There’s some innate quality within the casts, crews and production teams I’ve got to know over the past four years that makes them so radiant, enthusiastic, full of quite breathtakingly brilliant ideas, and just great fun to be in the company of . Or maybe it’s just the number of times we’ve acted weirdly with each other in rehearsal rooms (which we always explain with “theatre!”)!

Over the course of the four years, I’ve seen plenty of these people come and go, and formed some fantastic friendships which I know will ensure we’ll keep in touch. Being part of such a strong community, as is the case with being part of SUSU, the Students' Union, in general, has been an honour, and has allowed me to achieve things which I couldn’t have imagined ever having the confidence or ambition to even dream of at first, let alone implement.

I couldn’t have imagined singing publicly at the start of University, let alone wearing eyeliner!

Being part of a show is truly a team effort in all senses, and as a result never fails to be a privilege – even if it does take time away from studying every now and again (although doing both is very doable)! It’s this sense of community which has made me feel so at home during my time here, at ease and enjoying myself at the University, and for anyone coming in September, it’s very, very easy to get into – all you have to do is turn up to a meeting and say hello, and things will go from there!

If the stage isn’t your thing, this experience is replicated in all forms of student group, be it media (the SUSU has its own entertainment magazine, newspaper, and radio and television stations), sports (… far too many to list!), RAG (Raising & Giving), academic clubs, lifestyle groups, and many more. Going along for the first time is probably the most nerve-racking experience of all at University, when you know nobody and everything is new – but if you do take that step, I can promise you that you won’t regret it!

As for Into the Woods, it’s really been one of the best experiences of my life – as every show seems to have been! Spending time with such a brilliantly talented cast and crew over the last few weeks, playing Ultimate Frisbee on the sunny University campus during our breaks, and having movie nights and meals together to give us a break from revision for impending exams (the next priority!). It’s summed up what life in the Performing Arts has been for me: better than I could ever have foreseen, thanks to the people around me.

Oh, and as I’m playing a Prince, I guess getting to dress up as royalty and over-dramatically prance around has been fun, too!

It’s going to be a strange feeling stepping off stage come Saturday evening in light of everything, but I know I couldn’t have asked for (or indeed fit in!) more. I’ll only be able to thank SUSU Performing Arts for making my life at the University of Southampton an extraordinary experience – or a journey 'Into the Woods', if you will!

Robin

Into Industry: the Software Engineering Group Design Project

Phew! Just days after the (thankfully pretty successful!) conclusion of the performances of Romeo & Juliet by the Students’ Union’s Theatre Group in the Nuffield Theatre last week, I find myself thrown back into the directing chair for the next project, the Spring season show for the musical theatre society, Showstoppers. Called The Drowsy Chaperone, it opens in two and a half weeks, leading me to ask:

“Where on earth is the time going - and how is it nearly the end of February?!”

I know it’s a cliché, but I’ve found that time really does fly when you’re at university, particularly when there’re so many interesting things to be absorbed by along with so many ways to fill every day. Be they shows, projects, trips away or coursework assignments, it always seems that one day you’ll find yourself agreeing to take something on . Weeks of planning, meetings and effort later, you’ll be finishing it off, eventually leaving you wondering what actually filled all that flash of a time in between!

This was recently the case for me and my group with our Group Design Project, the Electronics and Computer Science equivalent of a Masters’ dissertation. As I wrote last time around, last week saw the conclusion of everybody’s projects with final presentations and Q&A sessions. Afterwards, we all headed to the Turner Sims Concert Hall on campus for a poster display and buffet event, where we got to chat to other groups about their achievements as teams since the start of the year.

As ever, the lure of a free buffet also helped bring people along to the session!

One common theme subject amongst these talks was just how quickly the overall timescale had seemed to shoot by. Given how we were assigned our project briefs at the end of September, all derived from problems in various scientific or commercial industries with real-world clients providing professional specifications, you’d think three or four months is plenty of time to put together a product.

However, if there’s one thing the project taught us, it’s that it’s seemingly impossible to account for just how much else goes on in that time, both in terms of academic activities, other commitments, and unexpected delays, and just how quickly time passes when all you need is for it to slow down!

Therefore it was incredible to see just how much people had achieved, with many a display of excellent work on show at the event. From interactive advertisement performance monitoring systems - which were positively stuffed with features - to electronic implementations of safety inspection forms which had already been put to practical use around buildings and worked to splendid effect, as well as others like systems for improving communications within airports (on an incredible scale!), the variety of work at the event was huge and made for many an intriguing conversation, particularly as, three months into beginning developing, we were all talking in terms relevant to our new found industries and thus had a lot to explain to one another!

On the whole, it was inspiring to see, with teams showcasing commendable levels of creativity, diligence and professionalism in delivering some outstanding systems in such a short space of time. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to suggest that the majority of projects will end up going forwards commercially, which is a testament to just how well many groups performed, and just how close to industry the experience of the Group Design Project really is.

A huge number of brilliant projects were on display at the Turner Sims Concert Hall on posters abound!

As for our group, we were ultimately very pleased with the end result and had a brilliant experience in putting it together. With a few tweaks here and there, we believe we've provided a firm basis for future work in the development of a remote hearing test phone application. This was done through liaison with the on-campus Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) Centre, and hopefully will go on to have huge benefits for clients’ quality of life in the future – fingers crossed!

So as I head now firmly into job application season, and potentially thence into industry, it’s been a great experience having a taste of what a professional development life is like, providing another string to my metaphorical employability bow and another project to place in the portfolio. Thanks to all involved with the Group Design Project’s organisation and that of the wrap-up event itself – and congratulations to everybody on its completion!

Now, back to directing those Chaperone rehearsals…!

Robin