Hi! My name is Victor, originally from Belgium I joined Imperial in September 2017. My course was the MSc Environmental Engineering with Business Management. Prior to joining, I studied Civil Engineering at the University of Bath. I also interned at a construction company, a real estate developer and a consultancy.
Why did you choose to do your MSc with us?
Full disclosure: I was not certain what I wanted to do. This is what led me to environmental engineering. I very much enjoyed its multidisciplinary nature of the course which touches upon chemistry, biology, programming and business management. This department is also one of the worlds best institutions in its field, but given you are reading this my guess is that you knew this already.
What are you hoping to do after your studies?
I am currently doing two things. I created a spinout company out of my thesis project (Recycleye) which is now commercializing a machine vision system helping waste facilities sort their recyclables. I balance that with working for a bank called Goldman Sachs. A bank? How does that relate to environmental engineering you may ask? Environmental engineering teaches you how to model environments, understand probabilities of events, the impact of changing a given variable or the risks associated with a given path of action. Finance is the exact same but instead of modelling ecosystems you model markets.
What have the highlights been so far?
The learning, the people, the facilities.
What does a typical week look like for you?
There is no typical week. Since a lot of the lectures were concentrated on just a few days it gives you a lot of room to structure your week the way you like.
What advice would you give to someone considering doing an MSc with us?
Just do it! I won’t deny that it was challenging but if you like mental stimulation I can assure you that you won't regret making Imperial your new home for the next year.