• Question: What do you think was the most challenging thing you have done?

    Asked by talha to Alex, Claire, Kate, Marcus, Neil on 19 Jun 2014.
    • Photo: Marcus Johns

      Marcus Johns answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      Mentally, I think having to design a reactor for my undergraduate final design project – a waste disposal unit for a nuclear submarine – in under a week was pretty challenging; I only got a couple of hours sleep each night…

      Physically, I’ve done a 200km hike on roads over 4 days in the Netherlands twice. It was originally an exercise for the military that they opened to the general public. Every morning I’d wake up at 4am with my legs aching and all I wanted to do was roll over and go back to sleep, but instead I’d get up and then spend the next 7 hours walking non-stop. Fortunately there were crowds of people lining the route to cheer the walkers on!

    • Photo: Alex Lyness

      Alex Lyness answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      Hey talha,

      The most challenging thing I’ve done was writing up my PhD thesis about needle-free drug delivery. Trying to write a 90,000 word book and capture all my research over three years was really tricky. When it’s finished you have to pass an interview with two Professors (called a ‘viva’) which lasts 2-4 hours. If/when you pass it proves that your work is a valuable scientific contribution and that you’ve research that no one else in the world has done before! There are only 3 people with PhDs worldwide in my engineering field, my mum and dad were very proud. 🙂

      Physically, I did the London Marathon a few years ago and am training to run a Tough Mudder race next month: https://toughmudder.co.uk/ I’ll know which was the most challenging after that!

    • Photo: Claire Brockett

      Claire Brockett answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      Hi talha.
      When I was at school I absolutely hated public speaking. So much that when we had a public speaking competition thing for English GCSE I had to do my talk from the back of the room with everyone looking forwards so I could do it, I was so scared – and I was sick afterwards.
      Now I will give hour long lectures to hundreds of students, or present my research at conferences to experts in my field – and I still find it scary. Although it has got much better as I’ve done more of it, it’s still not easy, and I think overcoming my fears for the first presentation I gave as an engineer is easily the most challenging thing I’ve done. It’s not engineering exactly, but it’s really important that I’ve overcome it as it’s a big part of my job.

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