My name is Laura, and I currently studying at sixth form. I have been settling into the first year well. I am enjoying my subjects and am doing well at managing my workload, achieving all A/A* grades in my most recent predictions. I am particularly enjoying physics and maths.
This term I have entered a competition run by Homerton College, Cambridge to design a product to improve sustainability and health. My team are deciding to focus on sustainable energy problems and are planning on focusing on how sustainable energy management can be implemented in developing countries. I also think this may be a good opportunity to use some of my scholarship money to buy any resources or materials for research or modelling ideas.
I am also participating in the UKROC competition and was one of three teams selected from my school to be sent to the national competition. We have designed and modelled a rocket using OpenRocket Simulator to design a rocket that fulfils the spec provided by the competition. We are now beginning to construct the rocket and source parts, and it is really exciting to see it all come together.
I have also regularly attended physics extension sessions at school and attended the ‘building a sustainable world’ webinar run by Arkwright which was a great opportunity to hear about sustainable engineering in relation to research areas and sustainable energy careers.
I also entered the BPhO Senior Physics Challenge recently and am awaiting the results of that. Furthermore, I am in the research stages of writing an essay on how engineering can be used to mitigate the environmental impacts of AI usage. I am really looking forward to getting to write this essay and carry out the research as I think this will be a good skill to learn before university.
I have also been researching different courses and open days at universities and I am hoping to visit these over the course of next term. I attended a materials science open day at Oxford University, which was really interesting as I got to see the specialist equipment and even received a taster lecture on materials for space design. Saying that, I prefer the larger scale applications of physics and maths, so am looking at an engineering degree either in general, civil or mechanical disciplines.
I’m very grateful for the ongoing support from Rochester Bridge Trust that I receive as part of my scholarship.