Student Profiles

PAUL CLARK - COMPUTER SCIENCE
My time at Lancaster was very enjoyable. It's an up-to-date Computing course that was very practical and applicable to the world of work. The Embedded Systems course was a particular high spot. This included programming a robot to seek a "rat" whilst avoiding obstacles. Another interesting period was my final year project for which I developed a traffic simulation of the M42's new Active Traffic Management system.

As a result of my work at Lancaster, I have achieved several awards; two from Microsoft, the Chancellor's Medal and the William Pickles Prize. I am now working as a Software Engineer, developing software for Call Centres. Lancaster's Computing course prepared me well for the job and I'm already putting the theory into practice.

SARAH STYLES - COMPUTER SCIENCE WITH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Upon my visit to the University, to look around the Computer Science department and the campus, the range of facilities available immediately impressed me, and the friendliness of the staff and students, as well as the range of topics covered in the Computer Science course.

Within the first few weeks of lectures I was elected 1st Year Computer Science Representative along with another student. This involved attending Student-Staff meetings once a term, where I was to raise any first-year issues. I felt that I was actually making a difference to the environment that my fellow students and I had to work in. As such when I moved into the second year, I applied to be Computer Science with Software Engineering Representative and I got to represent the Students with whom I was directly studying.

In 2004-2005 I took an Industrial Placement, working as Software Tester within the Websphere Voice Testing Team at IBM Hursley. Although there are no Computer Science degree schemes which directly incorporate Industrial Placement, I found that there was plenty of advice from tutors and lecturers about how to get the placement that I wanted. I would definitely recommend Lancaster University to any student, especially Computer Science students for the sheer range of facilities and friendliness of staff.