It’s been a pleasant ride so far in the first year of my UK experience. The 1st semester is now long gone and after all the excitement of settling into a new environment, most 3rd years are training their guns on their Individual Projects. Now, if time had weight and this weight was allotted to all the modules that we covered this year, the Individual Project – ‘affectionately’ called the IP – would be a monstrous heavy-weight champion. During my experience, I have learnt several things that might be of use to future 3rd years.
Your choice of IP could come back to give you a nice bite in the …
During the time when I was choosing my IP, there was a lot of focus around their topics and the supervisors in charge of them. My advice on choosing your IP would be to solely focus on its topic or subject area. It is true that your supervisor eventually grades your work and helps you through the process, however these reasons should not outweigh the fact that you will be putting in a lot of hours working on this and for you to get a good grasp of the work required, the subject area must be one that you enjoy spending time on. Ideally, choosing your IP requires a little more insight. This brings me to my next point regarding anticipating the number of minor tasks you actually have to do to get your work done.
Project choice usually goes beyond plain awareness of subject matter
When choosing your IP, think about the many elements that need to come together. Think about how many and how long. For example: a computation based project only requires the power of your computer in your own room. On the other hand, an experimental project requires time spent in labs gathering data and analysing it. What most people overlook is accounting for time spent devising this test rig, figuring out where it can be done, and who you need to get in touch with to gain access to these facilities. “Where is this facility? Oh! Right. Now how do I operate this thing without burning the place down?! DARN project” And believe me, when you say you are a 3rd year reporting for IP duty, you have Safety Risk labelled all over you. Some of you might enjoy having a lot of different activities to do during your IP, and that’s completely fine, but remember that the process gets a lot more intricate and will require a sounder plan.
Your IP is yours and yours alone
Some of you could choose an IP that is a part of an overall group based activity, but that is a different issue. For the most part, progressions in the IP are going to be dependent on your ability to digest material that’s usually very alien to you, and there is going to be lot of it too. Remember wading through acres of marshy – next to indigestible technical material during those literature reviews? That gonna happen again.
Your supervisor plays a significant role in your overall IP experience: you will be guided and advised during the process but there will be several situations where you will have to make independent decisions that could affect the result of your work. To put it bluntly it’s usually up to you, mate.
Sometimes I get to collaborate with a PhD student or a lab/ workshop technician during the project work and I quite look forward to these meetings as they are always informative and there are always a couple of tricks or cheats regarding experimental work to learn from them. They are usually your go to person for any quick and potentially silly doubts.
And of course…. there is the fun and the epic satisfaction!
There will definitely be several breakthroughs that you make during the project and when they come – considering the time and effort put – they will feel absolutely marvellous or sometimes in my case: miraculous. There is just something beautiful in seeing all the theory you have learned and the numbers you have crunched come together practically to deliver results you can call your own.
[1] A Heath Robinson Cartoon ; https://www.pinterest.com/pin/473440979554334079/