Can you tell us what does Biomedical Engineering entail at Imperial?

Well, it’s mostly engineering-related material. You do modules from nearly every department, such as Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and etc. You can choose your stream in your third year, and focus on Mechanical, Electrical, or Bioengineering. For me, the most interesting and practical subjects were the Computer Science and programming as these are used a lot in other areas as well.

Reflecting on your university experience, what did you learn?

Looking back, I actually found both the university and the course slightly unsuitable for me. It was a really dry and research-oriented field, which is not what I want to involve myself in; I find myself being drawn more to fields such as application design and not so much engineering. Now I’m studying Information Systems as part of my course in NTU (Nanyang Technological Institute) and I’m enjoying it a lot more as it enables me to interact more with more interesting fields such as sociology and psychology.

Oh that’s interesting. Would you say it’s because you didn’t research the course well enough before going into Imperial College? Or was it something else?

Well, I would say I did my research pretty thoroughly before entering; my main attraction to the course was actually to involve myself in doing interesting stuff but the heavy focus on research really wasn’t a good fit for me. This is my personal opinion, but I find the lecturers also kind of taught for the sake of teaching.

They really take the time to get to know us and enrich our knowledge.

I’m enjoying my time here (in Singapore) much more as we have very thought-provoking discussions and the lecturers are quite passionate about teaching, they really take the time to get to know us and enrich our knowledge.

Another aspect is that coming out of research, the job prospects are really not that abundant especially in the business sector; that isn’t to say that the whole course is bad, it does cover a very broad range of topics like Computer Science and coding. Just bear in mind that you really should consider your job prospects after university as (in my case) out of the 10+ Malaysians and Singaporeans that came out of the field, only one went on to do biomedical-related work while the rest exited the field.

What about living in the United Kingdom? How was your “London experience”?

Travel a lot and take all the time you need to do so!

I really enjoyed living in the United Kingdom actually. My advice to younger students would be to make full use of your time here, and get to know people of the same interest! Travel a lot and take all the time you need to do so; you’ll rarely have time after you start working. In terms of travelling, I would highly recommend Iceland, especially since I love the outdoors and nature in general, Iceland is really awesome for that! Spain as well, the food there is extremely good and cheap.

Initially during my first year at university, I felt really scared of trying new stuff alone; I would say you should just dive in head first and try new things. Perhaps something outside of Msoc (Malaysian Society) would be good; I personally enjoyed the Funkology club at Imperial College as I feel they’re extremely friendly towards outsiders and are really nice people in general.

Are there any major regrets about your university life?

Well, I would say not joining Funkology in my first year, haha. Another one would be that I didn’t get the option to explore courses outside of my degree; I would have loved the chance to explore liberal arts, psychology, and film. Sadly, these aren’t available to an engineering student. The Imperial Horizons program does mitigate that to a certain extent, however I would really like to explore them in depth.

Can you elaborate more on what you’re studying now?

Well, I’m currently studying about Information Systems. Information Systems is the more practical side of Computer Science. Computer Science focuses more on the technical aspects and building algorithms, which I’m not interested in, whereas Information System focuses more on applying the knowledge, how to manage it properly, the impacts of it in relation to business, society and etc. You can choose different areas to focus on, from management, design and user experience, and more technical stuff such as data mining. Hence, it’s a system of information.

I would say the United States or Singapore are very good places to study this field. I personally chose to study in Singapore, and I’m quite glad as I’m doing something I like and find useful in the future. One thing I found is that people who are doing their Masters in Singapore are mostly working people; they mainly do it to gain additional qualifications and not immediately after they finish their Bachelor’s unlike in the United Kingdom, United States and other places where students usually continue doing their Master’s directly after graduating from undergraduate studies. I think this is definitely something to consider.

Thanks Jason! Hope to hear from you soon.