This academic year started off with a bang with socials, families, industrial visits and careers events. Now the Spring Term is set to be even better with the launch of the BUMS-led, College-wide EPS Trophy! Media Secretary Hannah Lord tells us more.
This academic year started off with a bang with the annual BUMS vs NucSoc social to Vodbull. A new concept introduced by co-presidents Zak Viney and Bee Rich was a ‘families’ programme for new students. He we gave freshers a chance to make new friends in higher years straight away, giving them ‘parents’ and make sure everyone felt included and welcome from their very first day at University.
More socials followed last term included bowling and a trip to the infamous Fab at the Guild, with some ‘family time’ included. Following on from the success of previous years, NucSoc and BUMS organised a Charity Quiz with the money raised donated to Mind, a mental health charity. Towards Christmas and in celebration of the freshers surviving their first term at university, we held a families night with pizza and lots of games to play.
Student Placement Talks in November kicked off BUMS’ Careers Month with current students giving an insight to their placement experiences. The annual Metallurgy and Materials Careers Fair was held on 8 November with 20 companies present including Morgan Advanced Materials, the National Composites Centre and Rolls-Royce. The companies were available to offer students careers advice and information about summer internships, industrial placements and graduate schemes. Throughout the afternoon there were also talks from different companies. It was a huge success thanks to the hard work of BUMS’ careers representatives and very useful to everyone who attended. Also in November was a trip to the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry, which involved a tour of the facilities and talks from research engineers and placement students.
On the last day before the holiday break we had our traditional Materials Christmas Party with music, mince pies and lots of mulled wine for everyone, concluding a satisfyingly eventful first term!
So far in term two there has been a social titled ‘BUMS vs NucSoc 2.0’ – a repeat of the highly successful first social in term one, and coming up is the highly awaited first ever open mic night, with performances from students. Definitely not one to be missed!
After an incredible campaign headed by Zak Viney, BUMS secured Hands Up funding for the EPS Trophy, the first multidisciplinary sports tournament in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. A beautifully crafted YouTube video also saw us achieve #doubleUOBmoney and a brilliant amount of funding to make the competition truly spectacular. Thank you to everyone who donated and supported us! The tournament is on Saturday 17 February and as well as football and netball trophies, the combined points winner will be awarded the EPS Trophy. This is promised to be one of the highlights of the College calendar and we hope this will be the first of many EPS Trophy events. BUMS is also competing in the University’s intra-mural sports leagues with netball, football and basketball and there’s a great effort from everyone involved!
On Saturday 24 February will be the much-awaited Materials Ball in the Great Hall. It’s promised to be an incredible night, living up to the high expectations from previous years. The EPS Societies’ Awards will also be coming up later in the year – we hope everyone will be voting for BUMS! Watch this space for information on how to nominate us!
To close off our next careers event is going to be a visit to Airbus Defence and Space at Stevenage, with a site tour, talks, and an engineering workshop. We’re really looking forward to it.
If the second term goes as well as the first, it’s going to be an incredible year for BUMS!
Hannah Lord
Media Secretary 2017-18
