Eight international engineering students who have undertaken internships of outstanding significance to their academic study and career development have been awarded scholarships by the University’s Faculty of Engineering.
The students who have received the award are: Sahaj Sawhney (
Computer Science – Notion Ink Design Labs, India); Andrey Smirnov (
Civil – Arup, Russia); Shivam Chauhan (
Aerospace – Air India, India); Brian Li Kam Wah (
Mechanical – GIBB Ltd, Mauritius); Chung Sing Yuen (Mechanical – MTR, Hong Kong) and Yiheng Chen (Civil – SMEDI Group, China); Ambuj Agrawal (Computer Science – Srei Equipment, India) and Gurashish Singh (Mechanical – American Completion Tools, India).
The scholarships, launched last year to encourage and recognise high achievement in internships overseas from international students, saw an extremely strong set of applications from a diverse range of countries and industries – from a student working on the design of a building in St Petersburg with Arup in Russia, to students working for Toyota in Pakistan and working on development of a traffic database and transportation models and planning with SMEDI in China.
This initiative is led by the Faculty of Engineering’s Industrial Liaison Office and seeks to build on the Faculty’s strong links with industry to benefit home and overseas students from across the Faculty.
Professor Nishan Canagarajah, congratulating the scholarship winners, said: “This year saw another set of excellent applications for these awards. Once again it’s great to see our students doing real engineering work all around the world over the summer. What these students have done will be a huge help in their academic studies as well as in their future careers.”
Professor David Clarke, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, who presented the students with their certificates, added: “International students enrich university life enormously and these students doing internships overseas make fantastic ambassadors for the University as we continue to work more internationally.”
One of the employers, Rajeshh Soi, from Srei Equipment in India, commented: “This was the first time that we got an intern from Bristol. I was delighted to interact with Ambuj on his first day. He was very clear that he wanted to start his own business, which helped me as a mentor to guide him. This is a great initiative which gives healthy competition and an innovative environment.”
The students themselves were enthusiastic about the benefits of their internships, one said: “This has greatly increased my financial knowledge, team-working skills and marketing skills, which will give me the skills required to further progress in my career. For example, I learned about HR department during my insight day on HR. This will help me in my start-up company and will help me to lead the company better.”
Another student said that the internship: “Helped me in converting the knowledge gained at University level to solve real engineering problems.”
Further information
About the Industrial Liaison Office
The Industrial Liaison Office manages and develops relationships with the Faculty of Engineering's many industrial partners across a range of activities.
If you would like your company to get involved in this scheme, please contact John McWilliams, Industrial Liaison Manager on email john.mcwilliams@bristol.ac.uk
About the Faculty of Engineering
Engineering at the University of Bristol is committed to producing leaders and entrepreneurs of the future and to advancing the knowledge and technological innovations required to address global challenges.
Our academics are internationally recognised research leaders who have led the way in some of the most ground-breaking developments - from establishing the equation for the wing design on the Spitfire in the 1930s, to inventing the technology that led to the first mobile phone in the late 1970s. Today, our world-leading research continues, from the development of wallpaper that will protect buildings from earthquake damage, to developing power efficient technologies that will reduce carbon emissions from mobile phone base stations, reducing the environmental impact of communications systems.
Bristol is proud of its interdisciplinary culture where our academics have established lasting global partnerships with other leading universities and industry. We apply our research through successful technology and knowledge transfer, and our work is always engaged with industry, allowing us to add value to the national and global economy.
The engineering disciplines at Bristol empower our students to think creatively and challenge existing practice. This nurtures a culture of enterprise, providing the world with graduates who are best equipped to succeed in a career of their choice.
