Time to try out something new

I have therefore decided to try something new and joined triathlon and ice hockey. Last weekend I finished my first duathlon race in 29th place out of 54: perhaps not bad for a first-timer? Our university floorball team has significantly increased membership this year and we get around 25 people at practices on average which is why I have moved from the role of chairman which I held last year to coaching our training sessions. I am really happy about how well the club is managing to promote this ‘Czech’ sport and I get great satisfaction from seeing our players, some of which have little experience with floorball, improve from practice to practice.

The four modules that I am taking this term further develop our knowledge of aerodynamics, structures and numerical methods. On top of that, we are working on a group project in which our task is to design a miniature jumping robot which can jump as far as possible at minimum weight using an electronic actuator and a spring. This task is biologically inspired and the goal is to emulate the mechanisms that insects use when they jump. Aerial robotics and unmanned aerial technology is a really interesting niche of aeronautics in which the research conducted at Imperial is world-leading. A £1.25 million pound specialized centre is actually currently being built in our department.

Personally, I prefer to work on such open-ended projects, which do not have a single best solution, rather than doing test questions. I really appreciate that the amount of independent work and projects on our course increases year on year.