Women in research (My story)
Graduated in 2010 in Civil Engineering from the University of Salford. After my degree, I applied for a master degree at the same university in Structural engineering. However, at the time I was unsure of the part I wanted to take after my degree. I have search for graduate job but with no avail. I went to the University one day with my best friend, and spoke with a lecturer Prof Clive Melbourne (now retired) and he mentioned a research current ongoing which both involved structures and geotechnical engineering. I got interested because it sounded challenging. So I spoke with the geotechnical engineer lecturer in charge of the research for more information. After I gathered all the information I needed, I switch my master application to PhD but did not start my research till 2012 due to funding.
When I started my research in 2012, I was so exited for the new challenge and very energetic in finding a solution. The first 6 months was challenging as I needed to find a new research topic as the one I originally applied back in 2010 was no longer available. With the support of my supervisor and laboratory technician, I came up with studying compressible soil and implemented modelling using PLAXIS at a later stage. This was a great topic and something new to learn and acquire new knowledge which I personnaly enjoyed. After I pass my first years examination, I had to put the modelling on hold due to laboratory data needed. I conducted numerous laboratory test and at this stage I change my topic from using compressible soils to fine-grained soils due to sample availability.
At the end of my second year, I had to repeat my second year exam due to poorly written report. This was a very difficult time as I was face to re-writting my report and adding more references and sorting laboratory data in three months. This was a challenge as I had to re-organised my time to implement all the changes re-quired. It involved, researching on previous thesis layout (how other students tackle wirting their thesis). After the three months of corrections, I pass my second years exam and I had my supervisor changed as my main supervisor left the University. This was very emotional as I was coming to the end of research to have supervisor changed. However, the change was for better not worse. With my new supervisor, we implemented both the finite difference ad finite element method to validate my experimental data. With little or no experience with the modelling FDM, I spend most of the beginning of 2015 to learn the principles. After which I applied numerical analysis to my thesis. During my VIVA (which took place 12/2015) and lasted 2hours, the examiner appreciated the fact numerical analysis was included as it was the strongest part of the work as it supported and validated my work.
Hence, I had an amazing experience and I have developed new skills such as: problem solving, report writting, modelling, presentation skills, research, data analysis, communication skills and laboratory testing. Now I am to set up a tutoring business to build up my teaching skills while looking for lecturer and civil/geotechnical engineering.
