My name is Tom, I studied at Birmingham
where I studied Physics which I
graduated from in 2015 and then I did a
Master's in Computer Science which I
graduated from in 2016.
I've been working with the Science and
Technology Facilities Council which is
one of the research councils as part of
UK research and innovation.
I'm working on authentication authorisation
which basically means making sure people are who they say they are and they have
access to the stuff that they get as
part of being who they are
The aim is to give access to researchers
from across the UK to access all the
different computing systems STFC
provides.
The Graduate scheme at SCF
in computing you do for six-month
rotations and so it was almost sort of
like doing different course modules at
university where I got to spend six
months working in a specific area picking
up skills to do with that so be that
working on a supercomputer, working
out a new testbed for it be that in the
software engineering group doing some
new pieces of software for them, working
in the muon spectroscopy group doing
some muon simulation work there was all
sorts of stuff I could try out all
different areas in the computing that SFC
does before picking the area I wanted
to work in.
Alongside the day-to-day work at
STFC I also have opportunities to get
involved in the broader work STFC does
so a lot of that is through the
outreach work. As one of the Research
Councils we do a lot of work to support
science in local communities. Even when I
was at university I got involved in the
open days and stuff like that to talk
about the cool things about them going
on the physics and computer science and
so being able to do that as part my job
it's just super exciting. Being able to
when school kids come to site and don't
know anything about the computing
systems or the big experiments being
able to talk to them about them and
explain what we're doing to try and
progress science it's just really cool
and really satisfying
I came here on an open day as I did with most of the top
physics universities and of all the
universities I visited Birmingham was
the one I could immediately see myself
studying, it was something about the
campus when I was walking around like
even when I left immediately telling my
parents that's the one for me.
Fondest memory of my time here, well my lecturers
would probably like it if I said the
classes and the tutorials but it'd have
to be the people I met whilst I was here
and that does include the lecturers so
no hard feelings but
the friends I made throughout my time
here they are firm friends for life like
the people I lived with people as on
societies with the people I had classes
with
During my time in Birmingham I did
definitely get involved in a number of
activities and groups and societies
probably most notable was PPS the Poynting
Physical Society so this is the
department society for Physics I was a
year rep in my first year, I was a year rep in
my second year, third year I did become
President and had a glorious year of
leadership being involved in organising
events, bar crawls, quizzes, the big
yearly ball just was really satisfying
to know that there's something I put my
time and effort into was something that
a lot of people hopefully viewed as the
highlight of their year.
But alongside that I did also get involved in a few
other societies as well,
I spent some time with the Gaming
Society, I also got involved with the EPS
Awards committee I was on the very
first committee for that, I was on the
committee every year till I left and I
still try and come back and help where I
can.
My time university, the people I've
met the opportunities to present, the
opportunities to meet people, the
opportunities in society is to yell at
people about coming to our quiz next
week like without having those chances I
definitely wouldn't be able to talk in
this way and communicate and I think
that's one of the biggest things
university really helped bring out in me it's
helped to develop those sort of
soft skills that every business is
looking for as well as giving me the
actual science and computing skills
underneath that means I can do the job I now do
One thing that's sort of been a
constant source of inspiration for me
both through my university time and my
work time is just working alongside the
research, there's been so many exciting
discoveries in physics and over the past
few years, from the Higgs boson to
gravitational waves and studying at a
university that's involved in that and
working at an organisation that's
involved in that just knowing that even
if you aren't directly working on that
research the bit of work you're doing
supports that discovery even in some
small way is just super inspiring.
If I was to give one piece of advice based on
my time at Birmingham it would be well I
guess two, go to all your lectures but
really what I'd say is make sure you get
involved in societies to make sure you
meet people. It may sound cheesy but the
friends you make at Birmingham will be
friends for life, both among the
lecturers and among your peers
