Blog posts

Second-Year Projects – WACC and PintOS

Hi, I’m Hamish; I’m from Watford, UK, and I’m in the second year of Computing. In my free time I enjoy studying foreign languages, playing water polo and doing Competitive Programming. This year I’m behind Imperial CyberSoc and CTF Team. Let’s connect on LinkedIn!Hamish photo


Amongst computing students there is a definite consensus that the second-year projects of WACC (writing a compiler from scratch) and PintOS (adding features to a barebones OS in C) are among the most formative experiences of the degree, though we haven’t had a blog post on them, so I want to give an overview of this term and last, and what I’ve learned (incredibly hard to sum up in only a few hundred words!) 

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Internships for First Years!

Hi, I’m Hamish; I’m from Watford, UK, and I’m in the second year of Computing. In my free time I enjoy studying foreign languages, playing water polo and doing Competitive Programming. This year I’m behind Imperial CyberSoc and CTF Team. Let’s connect on LinkedIn!Hamish photo


It’s no secret that internships are the most common method of tech graduate recruitment, with nearly all Imperial students undertaking one before graduating. Nonetheless, the success rate in acquiring a first-year placement is lower, as firms often prefer students closer to graduation.

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Perk-ademy Awards 2022-23

Hi, I’m Hamish; I’m from Watford, UK, and I’m a first-year student in Computing at Imperial. I like programming, Linear Algebra and modern foreign languages. I play water polo for IC 2s and hope to represent Imperial in Competitive Programming next year. Let’s connect on LinkedIn!Photo of Hamish


In a previous post on reasons to be happy I mentioned the perpetually puzzling fact that people actually want to hire us (!), but not the important ramifications of this.

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Min-Maxing your Groceries and other Computing Problems

Hi, I’m Hamish; I’m from Watford, UK, and I’m a first-year student in Computing at Imperial. I like programming, Linear Algebra and modern foreign languages. I play water polo for IC 2s and hope to represent Imperial in Competitive Programming next year. Let’s connect on LinkedIn!Photo of Hamish


Often while wandering around doing whatever students do, I discover a relationship to what I’ve learnt in Algorithms or Competitive Programming, so I wanted to share some cases I’ve thought about recently where computing is Here To Help with student life.

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n Reasons to be Happy in Imperial Computing

Hi, I’m Hamish; I’m from Watford, UK, and I’m a first-year student in Computing at Imperial. I like programming, Linear Algebra and modern foreign languages. I play water polo for IC 2s and hope to represent Imperial in Competitive Programming next year. Let’s connect on LinkedIn!


As is to be expected at this time of year, the Imperial exam season is well underway, which could be a source of worry for many students, whether fretting about achieving top marks or just hoping to pass onto next year. Therefore, I think now is a great time to take a break from revision and share my top n reasons to be happy in DoC. Writing this in my room in Imperial’s Kemp Porter Buildings I feel genuinely overcome with positivity, so why is that? Let’s dive in:

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From Programming Languages to Modern Foreign Languages and back again with Imperial Horizons

Hi, I’m Hamish, a first-year student in MEng Computing (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning). So far this year I’ve enjoyed discovering set theory in our discrete maths module and learning to build a processor in Computer Systems, while at the moment I’m relishing Kotlin. I particularly like honing my competitive programming skills through algorithmic problem solving, and outside of my degree I play water polo once a week.


One of my most eye-opening experiences in secondary school was learning foreign languages. Having limited experience of Spanish from primary school (merely memorisation of set phrases), I was amazed and delighted to uncover a world of well-defined grammar rules, enabling me to construct my own sentences and express myself.
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What it is like to be a first year Computing student at Imperial

Dhruv-JimuliaHi! I’m Dhruv, and I’m a first-year Computing undergraduate here at Imperial. I was born and raised in India and recently moved to London for my higher education. I love meeting new people and I enjoy playing the keyboard in my free time.


As someone who is currently revising for (read: rewatching entire lectures and stressing about) my end-of-year May examinations, I thought this would be a great time to share my experience of studying first-year Computing at Imperial. Jokes apart, I think my experiences at the Department of Computing will really help incoming students and prospective students (and others of you reading this) understand what an Imperial Computing degree is like. (more…)

So what about job searching in DoC?

Hi! I’m Chloe, a Final Year BEng Computing student at Imperial! Coming from a Hong Kong and Welsh background, I’m a very diverse person and I like to meet new things and people! I also dabble into various branches of Technology – currently some NLP and Computational Linguistics for my final year project.

In DoC, many of us are very career-focused, it’s great knowing how everyone is doing, and that there isn’t much competition within the department, everyone is helping everyone to reach further. We also have DoCSoc and DoC Opportunity Liaisons, which loop us in available job opportunities. If you need help with applications, just ask a mate within the degree, they will be able to provide a steady number of application sites 🙂

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A Clinician-PhD Candidate’s Journey as a ‘Data Science For All/ Women’ Fellow

Hello, my name is Aizaan and I’m a UKRI AI4Health PhD Candidate in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)I’m a Malaysian-born, British-trained physician with previous experience in neurology, medical education, epidemiology, and public health. My research project looks at using AI to diagnose disease progression in brain tumours from speech data collected from a mobile app developed by The Brain Tumour Charity

In September 2021, I was successfully selected as a Data Science for All/ Women (DS4A) Fellow and was invited to participate in their Fall 2021 training programme. This free technical programme is open to candidates in Europe and North America and less than 5% of ~5000 applicants usually get admitted. The programme is geared towards empowering women from underrepresented groups to pursue careers in data science and the Fellowship consisted of two tracks: Executives (for those planning on pursuing formal leadership roles in data-driven teams) and Practitioners (for those intending to become data scientists/ analysts/ quantitative researchers). Executives receive training using no-code cases, whilst Practitioners are trained to use Python, SQL and Tableau in real-world cases.  

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Summer update

Hello! I am Chloe and I was born and raised in Hong Kong but went to Sixth Form in Cardiff, Wales.

I am currently an undergraduate student here at Imperial College London for MEng Computing. Having been exposed to both sides of the globe, I would like to bring you Imperial College London, in a “when East-meets-West” approach. I am massively into anything tech-related, mathematics, and diving (SCUBA).


Hello World!

Since first year, the variety of events that DoCSoc hosts, no matter from Industrial to Social Events, Ice-Skating to Hackathons, have all attracted me and helped me to stay connected with my peers and colleagues in the tech industry. Recently I have been deeply engaged with organising some of the larger events like IC Hack 20 and IC Health Hack 20, and to pass it forward, I am now part of the DoCSoc family for both 20/21 and 21/22 academic years.

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