The Department of Automatic Control & Systems Engineering in the University of Sheffield is a top-grade establishment for both teaching and research. The maximum grades of 24 for teaching and 5* for research awarded by UK Government Agencies are testament to this. It is therefore not surprising that the Department is at the top of the list for any student wanting to study systems and control engineering.

I joined the Department in September 1999 reading for an honours degree in Electronic, Control and Systems Engineering. I didn't enter by the traditional A-Level route and, at first, I thought I would be in a very difficult position academically. The facilities and help provided by the Department meant that I was quickly brought up to speed and found that I was soon able to cope with the work and actually enjoy it.

The course has a wide variety of subject areas that enables students to specialise in a diverse array of systems engineering disciplines in the latter years, such as mechanical, software, control, electronic and medical systems. I found the teaching quality of the lecturers to be of top quality and they were very approachable and helpful with areas of difficulty.

After completing my first degree I decided to increase my knowledge of systems and control at postgraduate level so I stayed on to take the MSc course in Control Systems. This was compact and modular in structure, providing for an interesting and challenging year, and dealing with increasingly advanced techniques and up-to-date topics. The course also allowed me to carry out an in-depth individual project over four months where I put more sophisticated ideas and tools to the test and worked with industry as well in the Department. I found the MSc course to be a comprehensive study of classical and modern systems ideas delivered over one calendar year. In short, my time here at Sheffield in the Department has been interesting, challenging and extremely worthwhile.