By Claire Parker

It feels as if time has passed very quickly since starting engineering this year. I have completed multiple assignments, tests and exams and have come out the other end excited to continue this journey. 

Recently I finished my first group assignment for design where we designed and built a truss bridge out of popsicle sticks. We came second in our tutorial with the truss holding 425N before failure, which was due to the constraint of using PVA glue to attach the cross members. 

Exams went very quickly due to the tight schedule but I feel prepared to choose my specialisation. This was extremely stressful for me as there are nine choices and I struggle to make small daily decisions whereas this decision will impact my life greatly. The papers selected for first years helps to narrow down this search as you discover what you love but also what you really don’t enjoy, which I found to be circuit theory. 

Therefore, I made the tough decision and chose Chemical and Materials Engineering as my first choice with Civil and Environmental as my second choice. The materials paper was one of my favourite papers and I already had a love of chemistry, which cemented my choice. ChemMat also has the highest proportion of girls – almost 30 percent I believe – and is one of the harder specialisations to get into with only 80 places available. Due to its 90 places available and the peaked interest, I believe Software is going to be the most popular specialisation for 2017.