Hello and welcome to the second half of my March blog! Last time we flew through space (metaphorically), got chilly with the fountain and became accessory to murder, great(!). This time, we’re going on an adventure into the world of human testing, butterfly catching Lacrosse, and the life of a mechanical engineer…

Mechanical Engi-meme-ing

You may wonder if I have time to do my degree at all with all this gallivanting around campus (pretty sure my course mates wonder the same thing), but I can assure you I’m still studying and doing the whole student thing. I appreciate it’s not the freshest of memes, but this is perhaps the best way I can convey the workload of a final year engineer to you:

Take last weekend, when I needed to do a lot of CAD (Computer Aided Design) for my final year Total Product Design group project; we’re trying to make a hot flow rig that can handle exhaust gas at over 400°C for our industry partner. Coffee in one hand, laptop in the other; I set about my impending date with 3am. After smashing out 106 models / drawings in the last 48 hours, I am now cross-eyed a pro at NX, and our project can finally be manufactured!

Speaking of manufacturing, the left gif below is what machining should look like, on the right is what ours actually looked like… (Note: this is really bad, don’t do this, the technicians will shout at you).

Nonetheless, progress!

Human Lab Rat

Next up, last week I got the chance (just kidding, I was voluntold to do it) to help my friend Mel by being a victim test subject in her medical trial investigating the accuracy of wearable heart rate monitors and pedometers, based in NCSEM. I’m particularly interested in the accuracy of the calorific estimates, because according to my FitBit I’m burning over 4,000 calories on some days, and I really want to use that as an excuse to chug an entire tub of Ben & Jerrys without feeling guilty… Having done a few medical trials like this now, I would thoroughly recommend volunteering for a few because the results are really interesting and the people running them really need volunteers so they don’t fail their degree!

Nothin’ But Net

Last Wednesday the Lacrosse Men’s 2^nd team had our second game against Birmingham M1’s, our first game in over a month and our penultimate game of the BUCS season. The game was always going to be tough (Bham are top of the league), but considering we lost to them 13-1 at the start of the season, to come away four months later with an 8-3 loss shows just how far this team has come – we gave everything out on the pitch and left in high spirits – we’re happy with that result. To top it off, in the last five seconds of the game I managed to score, my first ever goal in two seasons of BUCS lacrosse! I was buzzing for the rest of the day; I might have to go and score again in next week’s match…

Hello, May I Take your Order?

I somehow never thought I would work in a call centre, but my plummeting bank balance (anyone interested in a student budgeting blog?) decided otherwise. However as call centres go (I presume, I have experience one 1 so far), this was a pretty fun deal. Over the last two weeks I have spent my evenings calling prospective Loughborough engineering students and answering any questions they may have about Loughborough, from campus life to their course, the LSU, or even the best bar in the union (Victory Bar aka Telford Corner, obviously). There are plenty of answer machines, but the candidates who they pick up are pretty engaged and in one case I was on the phone for 40 minutes, trying to answer questions as fast as I was asked them.

It was really exciting to get to talk to some future Loughborough students, wondering what they’ll get up to in their three, four, or five years here, and I wish all of them the best of luck in their A-levels. If you would like to take part in conversion calling next year (do it, its super fun), you’ll need to sign up as an Ambassador next year, keep an eye out here.

(please excuse the lacrosse attire, I’d come straight from our Birmingham game!)

So you’re finally up to date, and hopefully not too nauseous from the speed at which we went through everything. There’s going to be plenty to talk about in next month’s blog (including a possible country #29 as well as #28!), so you may want to invest in a five-point harness for that rollercoaster. See you then!