Ruth Mackay

Ruth received a BEng in Mechanical Engineering & Mechatronics in 2007, and is currently working on her PhD.

First impressions

I first came to the University of Dundee in 2002 to study Mechanical Engineering as an undergraduate. I visited Dundee on a warm sunny day which gave me a great impression of this up and coming city. On visiting the department I was most interested in how Mechanical Engineering was used to find solutions to medical problems. The whole department seemed a very friendly place to be. During my undergraduate years I feel I benefitted greatly from the small class sizes. Lecturers got to know the whole class and this made them much more approachable when any problems were encountered. As the 1st and 2nd year modules are common amongst the engineering and physical scientists it gives undergraduates the opportunity to interact with different disciplines, something which I particularly enjoyed being the only girl on the Mechanical course.

Studying here turned out to be better than I imagined, the department really has a positive atmosphere, with friendly staff, and classmates who were both local and from all over the world, with whom I have since formed lasting friendships.

My research

After finishing my undergraduate degree I was very fortunate to be offered a fully funded PhD position within Mechanical Engineering. I was particularly pleased as the research was in a field I am interested in, Medical Engineering, as are the majority of postgraduate research positions within the division. I enjoy working at the cutting edge of technology, pushing the boundaries of what can physically be done with materials in the micro world. Due to the diverse subject area of my research I have had to branch out of our division carrying out a lot of work within the Electrical Engineering and Physics, all of whom have been incredibly helpful and allowed me to use a lot of their equipment, without which it would be impossible to carry out this research. The research has also allowed me to publish conference papers and I have attended two conferences in Belgium and Germany to present papers along with other PhD students from our department which was great fun.

Closing thoughts

Dundee is also great as it gives young researchers the opportunity to take tutorials, labs etc. This is really good for young academics as it gives them a feel for what lecturing will be like and can help with ideas of future careers. I still have one more year at Dundee, I plan to go into Academia once I have finished and I feel the University of Dundee has given me an excellent introduction to academic life.