‘Thanks a million’ say engineering students

Postgraduate engineering students at the University are set to benefit from state-of-the-art expansions to teaching spaces and new research equipment, following the donation of one million US dollars to the Faculty of Engineering from a former student.

Graduate Sir Sze-yuen Chung, affectionately known as Sir SY, who studied engineering at the University from 1948 to 1951, donated the generous gift. It will now be used to provide more top-class facilities for the University’s engineers of tomorrow.

The money from the gift will be invested in the University’s new Engineering Graduate School, in addition to the £20M already committed by the University. This brand new building will be sited on the corner of Broad Lane and Newcastle Street with construction scheduled to start in early 2012 and completion due in mid 2013. Conditional planning permission for the building was granted by Sheffield City Council on 7 November 2011 as the first stage in a 15 year plan to improve and extend the existing estate.

Following consultations with postgraduate engineering students over how they would like the donation to be used, the faculty will now feature innovative facilities that reflect the maturity of postgraduates. Many of the postgraduate courses are taught in intensive one-week blocks so that practicing engineers can take part as students and teachers. This creates the need for different types of facilities more like the 9-5 world of work and less like a seminar room designed for lessons of 50 minutes.

The faculty will also be able to invest in its strategic research priorities, creating world-class laboratories that will attract the best researchers and students in the world.

This boost to postgraduate teaching and research will in turn increase the University’s capacity to share its expertise with the local manufacturing industry.

Sir SY Chung was awarded a British Council Scholarship to study in the city and arrived in Sheffield following a 28 day journey at sea. During his time in the city, he lodged with Sheffield couple Mr and Mrs Dixon on Lydgate Lane for the first year, before moving into a rented house with another postgraduate student and his wife in South West Sheffield for the rest of his studies.

During his time studying in the city, Sir SY published ten research papers, one of which was awarded the prestigious Whitworth prize of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Following this, Sir SY returned to Hong Kong to become a leading member of the business community and played a key role in the 1984 Sino-British negotiations over Hong Kong’s future.

It was Sir SY’s experience of living and studying in Sheffield and his gratitude to the education he received here that prompted him to make such a generous donation to help the next generation of Sheffield engineering students.

Professor Mike Hounslow, Pro Vice-Chancellor for the University of Sheffield’s Faculty of Engineering, said: “With increased competition in the university sector, the investment in facilities which this donation will enable will help strengthen Sheffield's long tradition in engineering education attracting students to study and live in the city. At the same time we will be creating jobs in the University to support our students and lead their research, and adding value to local businesses, creating high value, long-term employment in the Sheffield city region.”

Miles Stevenson, Director of Development in the Alumni Relations Office at the University of Sheffield, said: “Sir SY Chung has been a long standing friend of this University and we are extremely grateful for his generosity. The fact that he has made the gift untied to the Faculty of Engineering gives it enormous value as it enables the University to use the money strategically and will really help the engineers of tomorrow.”