Welcome to the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing
You are about to join a vibrant, diverse, and supportive community. There is a vast range of groups and activities that you can get involved in during your studies and a number of initiatives aimed at enhancing your student experience.
A few things you might want to look out for:
Faculty of Engineering: Solving tomorrow's problems, today
From buildings, infrastructure, and transportation to innovative technology, as an architect or engineer you will love to influence the environment around you.
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Education and Student Experience Hub
Students from the Faculty of Engineering come from all over the world and have varied backgrounds and this diversity creates a unique community of students. The Education and Student experience team have created a one stop site which has been designed as a hub for all undergraduate and postgraduate taught students to find out what is going on within the Engineering and Architecture Community.
Engineering and Architecture SharePoint
Engineering and Architecture SharePoint
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Welcome to University of Nottingham Libraries. We are here to support you with your studies, research, and teaching.
ALCAS: Academic Language and Communication Skills
Every year our courses and one-to-one consultations help thousands of students to achieve their academic potential in their degree studies.
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Support and Wellbeing Service
Every University of Nottingham student can contact the Support and Wellbeing Team. The Support and Wellbeing Team are using the StudentLife platform to offer a self-service in-person or virtual appointment booking system
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University Counselling Service
The University of Nottingham Counselling Service provides a year-round service for all students and staff. We offer a range of services including groups and workshops, self-help resources and individual counselling.
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Connect with the University of Nottingham through social media and our blogs.
Student Societies
The Students' Union is home to over 470 societies. Here are a few engineering specific societies that you might want to consider joining.
MechSoc
At MechSoc we are a course-based society for Mechanical Engineering students – but everyone is welcome to join! We host a variety of events, ranging from the annual Engineering Ball to sporting fixtures. With MechSoc, students can meet a wide variety of people at our various social events, including bar crawls, boat parties and bonkers bingo! We have football, rugby, netball, volleyball and hockey teams all competing in IMS leagues which anyone can join.
Feel free to talk to us and keep up to date with events on our Instagram:
AeroSoc
Run by Aerospace Engineering students, we hold socials and events that are the perfect way to socialise with your Aero course mates. We also welcome any students who are interested in aerospace and want to make some new friends and have fun.
Check out our social media for more info:
Design Society
We are the course society for Product Design and Manufacture students. We host a variety of events such as socials, welfare events, workshop/additional lecture events and alumni talks. We post #MotivationalMonday and #TutorialTuesday posts every week on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Join us to get to know your course mates much better, have a great time and gain some additional skills in Product Design.
Contact:
Women's Engineering Society
As a society we aim to:
Create a community of female engineers across all engineering disciplines and related STEM sectors at the University of Nottingham.
Promote women in the engineering industry, support women who have already chosen a career in engineering and encourage girls to consider studying engineering at a higher level.
Organise social and professional settings so that our members have the opportunity to make contacts with their peers and network with industry sponsors.
Host fantastic careers events throughout the year, working directly with the Faculty of Engineering to make sure our members are always the first ones to hear about the latest sponsorships, days out in industry, workshops and career opportunities to ensure that you stand out from the other applicants.
Find out more by following us on social media:
OPAD Society
OPAD is a student-led engineering group made up of University of Nottingham students, academics, and researchers who volunteer their time to design and manufacture bespoke assistive devices for individuals with physical impairments. Our groups work directly with their clients to provide design solutions which aim to improve their quality of life.
What can you do at OPAD?
- Meeting like-minded people from different disciplines - learning skills from each other that students would not learn in their course, but also gaining a new viewpoint on how to solve challenges.
- Working on real life projects - students have the chance to work on a project that might be used, instead of a theoretical project as they would in their degree course.
- Helping people in our community - through our links with various partners in the community, students get the opportunity to create something that might change someone's life for the better.
- Gaining and/or improving a wide range of soft skills - such as communication skills, team working skills, problem solving, project management skills, meeting deadlines, etc.
The type of projects that students can work on are very varied. Here are some examples students have worked on since OPAD was started:
- Adaptors for a controller used by the Able Orchestra to make the use more comfortable
- 3D Prosthetic hand
- Ear defender for premature babies
- Glove removal device for medical staff
Find out more by following us on social media:
Engineers Without Borders
Engineers must play a fundamental role in designing solutions that will ensure humanity and the planet thrive. To achieve this, we are inspiring and upskilling individuals and organisations to put global responsibility at the heart of engineering. Engineers Without Borders Nottingham is an official EWB UK university chapter. We are an affiliated SU group that works in collaboration with EWB UK.
We currently offer the following events and activities:
- Reshaping engineering design challenge
- Solar cart challenge
- Consultancy project (new 2023/24)
- Talks with academics
- Opportunities to go to national EWB UK events
- Outreach
Contacts:
PGES
We are the Postgraduate Engineering Society ("PGES" for short!), run by and for postgraduate Engineering students at the University of Nottingham. Our aim is to help create a sense of belonging in the diverse PGR and PGT community.
We organise regular social events, from chilled games and movie nights to the highlights of our year: the Christmas Dinner and the May Gala. We are part of the wider Faculty of Engineering effort to provide wellbeing and careers support to our members. We also support involvement in university-wide intra-mural and non-competitive sports.
PGES is a great way to meet other engineers across different courses and research areas – drop us a message on Teams or on pg-engineer@uonsu.com, if you have any questions or ideas for the committee to consider! Membership is subsidised for postgraduate Engineering students, and £3 for everyone else.
Find out more by following us on social media:
Postgraduate Students' Network
The Postgraduate Students' Network is the representative body for all postgraduate students at the University of Nottingham. Sign up with the free membership to receive news and info on events to your university email. Throughout the year, the Postgraduate Students' Network plans events, activities, sports, conferences, and Balls to help make your time here at Nottingham as rewarding as possible. We try to make these as inclusive as possible - if you have any ideas, send them and we will try our best to plan them!
Contact:
Student experience initiatives
There are a number of opportunities available to help build your skills and enhance your experience at university. Have a look at our dedicated website for additional opportunities.
An initiative that is particularly useful at the start of your course is our peer mentoring scheme.
Peer mentoring
The Faculty of Engineering Peer Mentoring scheme is designed to help you settle into life at the University of Nottingham. Current year 2 students and above act as our mentors, as they are in the best position to offer advice and support, as they have been where you are right now. This scheme is designed to offer you 1:1 support as and when needed so that your transition into university is smooth and comfortable.
How your peer mentoring programme works
There are two ways in which you are assigned a peer mentor. The first thing would be signing up which can be done here to request a peer mentor. You will then be matched with a mentor before you start in September, and they will contact you directly. Secondly If you decide at any point through the year that you do require a peer mentor or could do with having one as your circumstances change, this is also possible and you can simply email ez-peer-mentoring@exmail.nottingham.ac.uk or use the above form and request for some support and the Peer Mentor Project Leader will assign you a mentor at that point.
In an event you decide not to be assigned a peer mentor or do not have one, you'll have many opportunities to interact with one during Welcome Week, other events, and some specific department sessions. Your peer mentors are always happy to support you in a way that suits your needs. You will also be given admission to a Teams site in which all our mentors and mentees will have access to and other online communities we have here at Nottingham to feel part of our mentoring community.
Why would you want a peer mentor?
Having a peer mentor is a chance for you to be paired with a student who has completed at least one year of study on a similar course to you. They'll share their experience with you and give insight into what lies ahead of you, whether that is tips on how to revise for exams, enjoying the various parts of university life or just being a friendly face. A peer mentor is someone you turn to when you need advice or just a chat. Peer Mentors are a good support to have if you feel you have any questions that are not being answered in relation to your course, structure or generally your time at the university.
We have had some fantastic feedback over the years in relation to peer mentors and the scheme in general. Some of the comments are below:
Meeting the peer mentors at the start of term was really helpful. I felt more relaxed and informed about the course and student life.
- First year student
You can also find out more about peer mentoring and the positive experience it offers for both the peer mentor and the mentee, alongside finding out more about how to get involved and some of the benefits on the website.
UoN Racing Team
The UoN Racing team designs, builds, and races electric vehicles. We are focused on sustainable motorsports, and we have two projects: Formula Student and Solar Challenge. Read on to find out about our team and how you can get involved!
What can you do in the Racing Team?
- Learn and demonstrate interdisciplinary design and manufacture.
- Build our team's brand and develop the skills to pitch for sponsorship.
- Get involved in business plan development and manufacturing management.
- Experience motor racing competitions, either on F1 tracks or across the Australian outback!
- Network with industry experts and teams from around the world. Join a likeminded community who are passionate about innovation, sustainability, and cars!
What is Formula Student?
We build a fully electric single seat F1-style car to compete in Formula Student. The team is approximately 300 strong, covering everything from chassis to battery, wiring to wheels. We are a leading electric car team in Formula Student, coming 3rd overall by beating all the other electric car teams in 2021.
In addition to racing on track, we also participate in the prestigious business and cost competitions. Here, we demonstrate the future potential of our team's work – our 2021 team won the Business Plan competition, beating 100+ other universities!
Find out more