Abd Al-Rahman (Al-Remal)

Why did you decide to study at the University of Edinburgh? And why did you choose to study Engineering? 

I chose to study at the University of Edinburgh due to its strong reputation, as well as the general atmosphere of the University. I had been to the campus a few times and really loved (and still love) Edinburgh as a city so all those factors came together into a decision to study at the University of Edinburgh. 

As a career path, I felt Engineering suited me largely due to my interests in school and where I thought I wanted to end up after university. The renewables (especially wind) industry was getting a lot of attention, and I decided I wanted to enter this industry. Engineering seemed like a great way to get into the industry and contribute to it whilst applying mathematical and scientific principles (which I enjoyed). 

How did you get where you are? 

Upon starting University, I joined different societies and clubs to get to know other people and explore my interests further amongst like-minded folks. One of the societies I joined was Engineering for Change (E4C), which is a society that focuses on working on small-scale renewable projects as students. This was great as it gave me an opportunity to learn amongst others and I still look fondly back to my times with E4C.

In my penultimate summer, I did an internship with the School of Engineering, supervised by Dr Michael M.C. Merlin, which combined machine learning with renewables. It was massively interesting and gave me more in-depth knowledge into the renewables industry as ‘real world’ experience. I also had Dr Merlin as my supervisor for my final year project, and similarly to my internship, I learned a great deal from him. I’d like to extend a massive thanks to him.  

As I approached the end of my final year of university (and many job applications, interviews, etc.) I accepted an offer with a company called Worley, with an office based in Aberdeen, on offshore wind design. This gave me fantastic exposure to the renewables industry and practical engineering design experience.  

I’ve recently moved job to Bureau Veritas Solutions where I’m working on DP (dynamic positioning) systems for ships. Day-to-day this has me analysing all the relevant electrical and control equipment on a vessel, and then going to the vessel in person to conduct trials and tests. It’s an exciting space to be in as there’s always many developments and changes in the marine industry! The main thing I’ve taken away from all my experiences is to be proactive and keep asking for more opportunities. I personally don’t like sitting idly so just having conversations with different kinds of people and seeing how you can learn about new things is a good way to keep yourself engaged.  

Can you tell us of any personal or professional achievements in your career so far? 

During my time with Worley, I had the opportunity to manage my own project. This posed an interesting challenge as I had to maintain and manage client relationships, as well as carry out the technical engineering work. I learned a lot regarding proper ways of work, project budgeting, managing timelines and deliverables.  

I was involved with internal groups within the company – STEM, graduate development and the wellbeing groups are where I dedicated most of my time. This allowed me to work and talk with people from all around the world and from all sorts of backgrounds.  

What did you gain from your time at the University and were there any experiences during your time at university which particularly helped prepare you for life after graduation? 

The internship with the School of Engineering and working with the Engineering for Change society has helped me to take a deeper dive into specific areas of engineering (in this case, power generation and conversion). This proved valuable as it gave me an additional strength to talk about in job applications as well as giving me a practical application to theory that I had learned during modules.  

Though not directly related to Engineering, one of the experiences that I found to be the most insightful and valuable was having the opportunity to work with the Widening Participation group in the YourEd project. The project focused on bringing in pupils from surrounding high schools to the University and offering them experiences of student life, aiming to tackle socioeconomic inequality in higher education. I was involved in this during my honours years so was able to develop my soft skills and time management. Learning more about social issues helped me to understand my impact as an individual in society and as an engineer – it can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day duties of work, so thinking back to how you’re contributing personally can help me feel more satisfied and content in my work.  

Finally, working alongside the Sports Union greatly enhanced my organisation and management skills. I was fortunate enough to be on the executive committee for a year and work on the running of one the programmes. Similar to my experience with YourEd, though this didn’t help my ‘technical knowledge’, it greatly enhanced other skills that I have taken forward with me to this day.  

Do you have any highlights or a favourite memory of your time at the University? 

I think my favourite memories from university stem from spending time with friends. I’m fortunately still in contact with my close friends from university and it’s always fun to remember what we got up to. The societies and clubs I joined also gave me lots of fun experiences, I really enjoyed being involved with the Sports Union and got to meet great people through that. The things I find I’ll likely never forget are the memories I made with those around me, hence my biggest advice is to make as many of them as possible in as many different settings as possible – that way you when you look back on your time at university, you’ll have no regrets.  

What advice would you give future students who are considering studying Engineering at Edinburgh? 

Engineering is a very broad field and due to the size of the School of Engineering at Edinburgh, there are many options to learn about a real variety of subjects. If you have some interests, then you lose nothing by attending an open day or an offer holder’s day and finding out more about how you could potentially further these interest at university. There are also opportunities at Edinburgh that you don’t get at all Universities: going abroad, industrial placements, summer research internships and much more. These can enrich your general university experience and will last you a lifetime.  

King’s Buildings (the campus where Engineering sits) is also a nice change of pace from the central campus and gives you more space to spend time with friends – this is bettered with a wrap from the Wrap Place!