Strive for better world

The official exam period is about to end. Apart from few students, others are now rejoicing. Undergrad students will now either be on vacation or internship. But, the university will continue for poor souls like us – the postgraduate students. We, the Masters(Taught) students, have our dissertation deadline in September first week. Basically, we have just three months to complete our dissertation. This is very valuable for all of us, as the dissertation alone has 60 credits out of total course credits of 180. Including the ‘Research Methods’ module, this increases up to 90 credits, half of total course credits.

All students may not do well in exams. But, everyone aims to do well in dissertation. Three primary reasons behind this is –

  1. It is your own dissertation, you chose it yourself.
  2. The problem is there to solve since January, you got plenty of time. In reality it is not, I have started to realize that. And…
  3. It is not boring theory anymore, it is practical. One senior interviewer at Google wrote in his blog that he rejected one postdoc just because the interviewee started his answer with ‘well, if i must do coding’. The point is, learning theory is not worth unless you can apply it practically.

These dissertations are all research projects. Consider the Masters students, PhD-s and Postdoc-s and figure out yourself how many research projects are going on in the university. All these research directly improves the academic value. It improves the university ranking. It also generates lot of revenues and even spin-off companies come out of these projects. Exciting research is going on with Graphene, with the university driving it forward. SpiNNaker is another project which is ranked among top projects to watch out for in recent future. And there are many more…

It is interesting to note that many of these research problems deal with interdisciplinary subjects. Expert collaborations often happen in these projects. Sometimes, we wonder what if someone knows all necessary subjects well. At least, a solid background would help very much even in case of collaboration. Now, most universities acknowledge the importance of flexible courses. Depending on student interest, he/she can choose a subject from Science and another from Arts/Humanities for his/her graduation. Double degrees, if selected judiciously, often help later. There are holistic courses launched like Science One in UBC Canada, where students can experience all science subjects in an integrated format.

Far away from Manchester, a ghastly murder took place in Woolwich. It was a sick murder first. And then using hungry media outlet, murderers preached words of terrorism. Sadly, terrorism is happening through out the world, mostly based on radical religious views. Honestly, I don’t get it. I have come from a country which probably has followers of every religion in the planet, and yet there is a strong secular fabric in its social structure. Thankfully even here, I get open-minded people around me. I have been to Temple, Gurdwara and Church with my friends here in Manchester. Everywhere, I received sincere warmth and each time I came out those places, I felt absolute peace of mind. Life is a bliss and the world is beautiful. Let’s keep it like that!