An engineering student who joined a group of other students helping to rebuild a village in Nepal which had been decimated by the tragic earthquake in 2015 had a great story, which highlights what a connected world we live in. A machine which was being used to make bricks to rebuild the village stopped working, and repeated attempts to fix the problem failed. A 6 hour trek from the nearest town in remote, WIFI-less Nepal, he walked an hour to the top of the nearest peak, got a mobile data signal, translated the user manual from Mandarin, walked back down and fixed the machine, and secured himself hero status!
I'd have to vote for our Ethical Hacking and Cyber Security program. In fact, were I to do school all over again, it might well be what I'd want to major in. The program teaches students an offensive, attacking approach to hacking - in essence, in order to defend systems from nefarious hackers, you're taught to think like a hacker, and to break into systems, stripping them down and then rebuilding them stronger. It's an area with a world-wide skills and employment gap, that our program is seeking to address. And it's only going to get more important!
I've been at Abertay for just over a year, but it already feels much longer - and in a good way! Reason being is how much we've achieved in that time; the small and personalized culture we have here makes the college feel like a start-up - totally stripped of bureaucracy. Whether you're staff or a student, you're encouraged to get on and do. Try things, if they work - fantastic; if they don't, you know what to change next time. My team embody this ethos, and their creativity in meeting challenges is truly inspiring.
That's easy. It's your people. Companies can plan strategy, goals and values which are perfectly well-intentioned, but it's their people who have to embody and execute them. I feel incredibly lucky to have landed at Abertay, where - cliched as it sounds - we all know what we're about. Small, specialist and supportive.
