Meet Our IEA Alumni: Wu Xin

Department: Aerospace Engineering

Course: BEng Aerospace Engineering

My name is Wu Xin. I was studying in BEng Aerospace Engineering at the University of Sheffield.

From young I have a fascination with aircraft and always in curious about latest technology introduced in the aviation. I completed a Diploma in Aerospace Electronics in Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore. During the time, I developed interests in the aviation, in particular the aircraft propulsion, namely gas turbine engine. So I decided to switch from aerospace electronics (avionic) to aerospace engineering which more related to propulsion.

Sheffield is well-known in its mechanical, electrical, auto control and material engineering in the UK. In my course, I am greatly benefited by learning different modules offered from those departments. As aerospace covers a wide range of knowledge that many people described aerospace engineering graduates as ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’. But I strongly believe this knowledge is essential to aerospace engineers. As aviation is one of the most innovated industries, aerospace engineer needs to be resourceful to solve a problem efficiently regardless it’s a mechanical problem, or electrical or in combination.

I would like to work in the aviation industry in the future. Another reason for me to choose Sheffield is that the engineering faculty has a closed relation to industry and provides lots of placement and internship opportunities of world-class companies for engineering students. For these reason, I chose aerospace engineering as my major in the University of Sheffield.

I love Sheffield.

Sheffield is a cosy place to live and quiet place to study. If you want to calm down and study, here is a great place. I enjoy studying at school library (Western Bank) and occasionally relaxing myself at the lovely Western Park just nearby. But it doesn’t mean it is a boring place. There are plenty activities you can do here!  Our student union provides a whole range of activities like: clubbing, café social event, weekend tour, hiking etc. You can always find interesting activities going on whenever you want.

Life in Sheffield is easy. I could found daily necessities in the city with only 15 mins walk and my favourite restaurants in 20 mins walk. Tram and bus services lead you to everywhere in Sheffield city. Meadowhall is an amazing one-stop shopping centre which only 20 mins by tram from city.

Sheffield is really international. Personally, I like to socialise with people from different culture backgrounds as I could make friends from every corner of the world. Furthermore, in the future, working in an international company requires cooperation with colleagues from all over the world. Sheffield with a wide global community provides this opportunity for us to enhance communication skills and culture awareness before we join the society.

The only difficulty I found live in the UK is the weather. Since I lived in Singapore which is a fully tropical country (only two kind of weather: hot and rain) for 7 years, it was a hard time for me to adapt with the winter.