Hi everyone! My name is Simon and I’m now in my eighth year at the University of Bath; yes you read that right, I love it that much. I’m now in my final year of my PhD in Electronic and Electrical Engineering, but before that I did an MPhys Physics degree and I’m going to write mostly about that.

At high school and sixth form I was the only person in my year that truly enjoyed science. I just wasn’t challenged academically, I was bullied quite a bit and my existence was a fairly lonely one, despite having a few loyal friends.

After finishing my A-levels in the summer of 2006, Mum and I moved from the north of England to Bath to live with our family members there. Living 200 miles away from everyone I knew outside of my family (not just for University terms, for good!) was a terrifying prospect.

All my immediate family, myself included, vividly recall a conversation I had with them before starting my degree, where I expressed my fear that I wouldn’t make any friends and my life would be even lonelier than before. My circumstances are different to most of yours, but I had that same fear of the unknown most of you had.

How quickly that changed! In just a few weeks I was an active member of four different Students’ Union societies, had started learning Japanese, had several dependable friends and for the first time felt truly challenged academically.

How did I do that? Basically, I dived straight in: I talked to people, I engaged with my subject, I took advantage of some of the hundreds of extra-curricular opportunities the University and Students’ Union had to offer. No-one is a stranger on this campus; many a time I’ve added people on Facebook after random meetings! Of course there’s no guarantee people will be interested in talking or staying in touch, but they won’t take offence if you say hi.

For the first time, you’ll be surrounded by people who share your intelligence and love of learning; take advantage of that opportunity, it won’t last! Get stuck in to your subject; speak to the lecturers, read further, ask the hard questions, ask the silly questions. It’s always those that ask questions, take the initiative, go the extra mile and most of all love what they do who are the lecturers’ (and employers’) favourites.

At our age, childlike optimism and curiosity mix with adult experience and intelligence to form a powerful engine for social and scientific change. The reason society values us is because we have that ability to see what others can’t, as well as the courage to fix what’s wrong with the world, as opposed to stoic acceptance of what shouldn’t be. Throughout modern history, students have been an engine in social change in many nations; the UK is no exception.

In my second year I was introduced to some of the loveliest people I ever met through RAG (Raise and Give), the SU’s charity fundraising group. By helping out with events such as Fireworks, the sponsored Sleepout and RAG Week, as well as going on street collections, I’ve raised thousands of pounds for charity over the years while having so much fun at the same time. Did I mention it attracts the loveliest people?

University education is a partnership between staff and students. That’s why in my third year I was elected to be an Academic Representative and successfully campaigned to get the syllabus changed so that quantum mechanics was taught after the mathematical skills required to do it. I’ve never stopped Repping since.

Most degree courses have a project/dissertation phase towards the end that gives you a chance to use what you’ve learned to make an original contribution to your field. The MPhys degree I did contains a semester-long research project/placement, in which I did some work that ended up being published in Physical Review B [1], a journal read by physicists across the world! Not everyone gets published though; it requires a large amount of luck as well as skill. But it’s worth aiming high!

When I first came to Bath I being a researcher was just a dream, while I couldn’t even dream of doing charity fundraising, being an elected representative or regularly attracting the comment “you know everyone”. Four years later, it was all a reality.

To postgraduate freshers and continuing students, I say exactly the same thing: engage. Postgrads of any discipline can join the same societies and student groups that undergrads can. Since starting my PhD I became a regular contributor to the student newspaper bathimpact; indeed, this article is adapted from something I wrote for its pull-out magazine bite [2]. Another article I wrote about my experiences as an autistic student [3] was shortlisted for bathimpact Article of the Year 2010/2011.

So that was my journey, along with my advice for anyone wishing to make the most out of their time at Bath. If you’re involved with the SU in any serious way, we might run into each other sometime. Until then,

Simon O’Kane, MPhys
PhD Student, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering
 

References

[1] Robin Kimber, Ed Wright, Simon O’Kane, James Blakesley and Alison Walker (2012)
“Mesoscopic kinetic Monte Carlo modelling of organic photovoltaic device characteristics”
Physical Review B 86 235206
[2] Simon O’Kane (2011) “Why I never left University” bite 13 1 3 Available online via Issuu http://issuu.com/bathimpact/docs/2011-12issue1/1 (retrieved 08-09-2013)
[3] Simon O’Kane (2010) “I’m autistic, so what?” bathimpact 12 1 6 Available online via Issuu http://issuu.com/bathimpact/docs/0679-imp-e04-s2-combined-1005-cs/1 (retrieved 08-09-2013)