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An education at Imperial College London’s Department of Chemical Engineering is enriching and rewarding. The same can be said of an Imperial ChemEng experience — as over 90% of its students did in the National Student Survey 2020. This made the department #1 among Russell Group universities — a group of 24 world-class, research-intensive UK universities — for student satisfaction and third overall out of the 30 UK higher education institutions in the Chemical, Process and Energy Engineering subject area.
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By many measures, Ahmed Dalmar, a first-year student of Somali heritage from East London, agrees with the survey. He had chosen Chemical Engineering because of how vast and dynamic the field is. Being able to study differential equations in one class, then delving into the principles behind heat conduction in another lab and learning about the separation of liquids in a process plant — all in one day — was exactly what he wanted from a university degree. Dalmar could not imagine doing any of this anywhere apart from Imperial. There were well-established industry links and plenty of research opportunities for undergraduates, including at its very own carbon capture plant. He set his sights on making the most of these.
Going into Dalmar’s eighth month here, Dalmar is well on his way to “becoming the best version of himself.” His days are productive and fulfilling. They often start with lectures in the morning, followed by self-study, laboratory or group work. In his first term, he had a design project based on a real-world challenge. In his second term, his group had to work out the expected pressure drop of a viscous heating oil in a plant operation. “There are also academic tutorials in first year, which occur every other week and are presented in a classroom setup, usually numbering around 20 students,” he says. “They’re used to help solidify what’s taught in lectures and are typically delivered by a PhD student, who’s there to help guide through that week’s problem sheet.”
As Imperial is one of the best universities globally and located in London as well, there’s no escaping the many things to see, explore and do. Dalmar got to know his coursemates better through the Chemical Engineering Society’s games nights, ice skating and karaoke. He’s a member of the African Caribbean Society and the Somali Society too. “Going to spaces where you can see a lot of people that look just like you and have similar experiences in life has made it easier for me to settle at university,” he says.
Dalmar balances it all by being disciplined with how he manages time. He never procrastinates and completes all coursework as soon as they’re assigned to avoid all-nighters. As his final MATLAB coding project was due on the same week as the spring exam, he got the project done three weeks in advance to avoid eating into his revision time. “This gave me room in my schedule to focus on my exams, leading to less stress when the week of spring test comes around,” he says.
When Dalmar enters his second year, more diverse coursework and added responsibilities await. For MEng Chemical Engineering student Alice Zhu from Nanjing, China, there was a significant increase in the amount of coursework and how much they count towards her final grade. As they are mostly group projects, she’s enhanced her teamwork and communication skills a lot.
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Transitioning from a first-year representative to one of the two departmental academic representatives, Zhu is now the voice of not just one cohort but four. Her purview is to consider whether any new teaching approach would benefit students, whether the implementation would lead to more stress, and more. She often speaks to peers and staff within the department, including its head and the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Similar to her coursework, these changes have made her better at working in teams and managing time.
Zhu sits on several other committees, such as the Taught Course Committee, the Safety Committee, and the Student Staff Committee. One of the major responsibilities of her department rep role is to organise the Newitt Lecture and Dinner where an Imperial Chemical Engineering alumnus is invited to deliver a presentation on their roles after graduation. “The planning can take up to five months: the invitation, settling on the topic of speech, the back and forth of the script, the advertising amongst students and staff, and the booking of restaurants. These greatly improve my organisation and leadership skills,” she says. “All the conversations, meetings, and organising events have given me soft skills I could not have acquired elsewhere.”
It’s in well-equipped facilities that students like Zhu get to hone their new knowledge and skills. The department’s ChemEng Discovery Space includes a four-story carbon capture pilot plant designed to mimic real-world chemical engineering plants. Its laboratories are some of the best in the world, with an undergraduate teaching lab that serves as a pivotal hub to apply theoretical knowledge attained in lectures to real-world problems. This lab was recently awarded the LEAF Gold award for sustainable practices, a first in Engineering and only the sixth across the university.
For Juproop Singh Lalli, it was the chance to work in these facilities that drew him to the department. But what he’s achieved in his three years here has surpassed his initial expectations by miles. “At the beginning of the degree, I was less sure of myself and had less confidence than I do now, and this is a testament to the environment of Imperial Chemical Engineering that I was able to fully come out of my shell because I feel supported by my peers and the department.”
Through the alumni mentoring scheme, Lalli meets with a graduate once a month to get specific insights into the day-to-day of an industry professional. Through a lab project, he innovated a novel idea to inform the design of a biochemical sensor product that would help to give accurate readings of caffeine levels in sweat. Through the Punjabi Society and the Imperial Chemical Engineering Society, he has had “fantastic experiences” helping first-year students transition into university life, organising events for new students to socialise with more senior students, and even attending regular bhangra lessons to get fit and closer to his culture. “There are plenty of extracurricular activities to do here with over 350 clubs, societies and projects at Imperial that you can join (which is one of the highest of any university in the UK!), so there is definitely a great selection to choose from!” he says.
Want to achieve the same kind of personal and professional growth like Dalmar, Zhu and Lalli? Find out what else is on at Imperial and discover what student life at Imperial is really like.
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