Bioengineering is a bridge between engineering and medicine

In high school, deciding exactly what to study at university wasn’t easy. I knew I enjoyed maths and biology, however, I didn't want to become an engineer at that time – mainly because I didn't know how diverse the disciplines were. My aunt suggested Bioengineering and that was how it all started for me. I fell in love with the subject after watching the film Robocop (2014), where Doctor Norton helps a patient playing the guitar with a robotic arm. I loved that the Doctor wanted to restore the patient back to society, giving him the ability to do what he loved to do before the accident, and I wanted to be able to do that too.

Bioengineering is a bridge between engineering and medicine. It involves designing medical equipment, devices, prosthetics and artificial organs to name a few. It provides doctors with equipment needed to save lives, restores amputees to the society by providing them with legs to walk or hands to use and it aims to save lives by designing artificial organs, eliminating the need for donors.

My long-term goal is to help ensure that there is a well-functioning medical and bioengineering field in Africa to improve the quality of healthcare all across the continent.

Ifedayo Ayodeji

BEng Bioengineering

On the first year of the course you get to experience various engineering disciplines, in the second year, you get to choose what streams to specialise in and in the final year, you get a greater understanding by applying what you have learned to your final year project. I think the best thing about studying an interdisciplinary degree, like Bioengineering, is the chance to work together with people from other engineering departments and learn from them. It teaches you how life in industry will be – a group of diverse engineers working together.

Sheffield is a really beautiful city, there are beautiful parks close to the University that are perfect for barbecues with friends and "the weather is looking great today" picnics in the summer. The best thing about being a student here is being surrounded by so many lovely people from different parts of the world with different backgrounds. People are open to share their culture and learn from other people's cultures too.

I am part of the Women in Engineering Society. Our aim is to encourage more girls to study engineering. We attend STEM events targeted at children and show them the amazing jobs women are doing as engineers (like the virtual reality game designed by a group of students) encouraging the girls to be open to the idea of becoming an engineer and the boys to support the girls.

Unfortunately, all over the world today, people attach unnecessary limitations on the ability of females and girls are raised believing those limitations to be fact. Growing up, I heard people say "Science is hard, are you sure you want to do it?" and "Engineering is for boys. You like to argue, why don't you do law?" and subconsciously, at the age of 11, I had mentally categorised professions as "For Men" and "For Women". Unlike some, I am lucky to be part of a family that believes you can achieve anything you set your mind to regardless of your gender. Those categories faded slowly as I decided to become an engineer.

After graduation, I plan on working towards becoming a Chartered Engineer, gaining experience and hopefully working with other great minds to help develop the bioengineering field in African countries. The healthcare systems in many African countries are not standard quality. My long-term goal is to help ensure that there is a well-functioning medical and bioengineering field in Africa to improve the quality of healthcare all across the continent.