Studying with UCD Mechanical Engineering - Michaela Begley

My name is Michaela Begley and I have just finished 2nd year Mechanical Engineering and currently on a year long exchange with ANU, in Australia. I like many 6th years with CAO deadlines looming, had no idea what I wanted to study in college, only that I wanted it to be a broad subject, with many career pathways. I had always been interested in maths and science, but beyond that had no clue what to study. It wasn’t until a friend suggested engineering, that I researched it – I had absolutely no idea what an engineer did! Short answer – they do everything from building spacecraft to designing microchips, market analysis, entrepreneurship, teaching, the list really is endless.

I choose UCD because of its academic reputation for engineering and its course structure. I really liked the range of electives that could be taken – like roborugby, a brilliant robotics module! UCD Engineering’s links with industry was another reason for me choosing to study there. There are always talks from companies like Bentley, Intel and many other industry leaders.

I chose mechanical engineering because after first year I found was really interested in the material science side of engineering. I found the general first year was great because if I had to have picked my major in first year I would have had no idea what to pick! I also liked how mechanical has a broad range of application and the topics studied vary from manufacturing engineering, material science thermodynamics and mechanics.

At the moment, I am midway through my first semester at the Australian National University in Canberra, as part of the UCD global exchange program. I chose to do study abroad as an opportunity to study in another country, meet new people and explore Australia in the process! It has been very interesting to see another college’s approach to teaching engineering, the course load being mostly continuous assessment. I think this will be a great learning experience and advance my studies. So far the experience has been extraordinary! I have met people from every corner of the globe, learning about many different cultures. I have had unforgettable experience like seeing Australia take on New Zealand in the Bledisloe cup, having breakfast with some adorable koalas and hopefully many more!