Aboobakar Shahjahan

Moving away from home to study at USW 

Aboobakar Shahjahan from Kumily in India is a graduate of the BEng Aeronautical Engineering degree at University of South Wales. He now works as a Senior Components Repair Coordinator for Emirates. 

"I first went on a plane when I was 21 years old. Like many other kids, I was fascinated by the roar of an aircraft as it soared through the sky. I never lost that love of aircrafts and as I grew older, I became just as interested in the engineering aspect of planes. 

By the time I completed my schooling, I was sure of where I wanted to be. Working with aircrafts is both thrilling and a big responsibility. As the old joke says: A surgeon might be holding a single life under his knife at a time, but its hundreds of lives that rely on the ability of aeronautical engineers during a flight! 

I chose to study abroad and get a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from a British University.” 

Making the most of industry-standard facilities and embracing opportunities 

Throughout my studies, I benefited from USW running simultaneous courses in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering and Aeronautical Engineering on the same campus in Treforest. Well-equipped labs with facilities to conduct test on aerodynamics, fluid dynamics structural dynamics helped me to build a strong foundation in engineering. 

Industry standard computational software's like ANSYS and PHOENICS and designing software's like AUTOCAD and SolidWorks helped me to advance my skills even further. 

The flight simulator helped me to simulate flight conditions and study how the design of aircraft has an impact during its flight. What's more, the library was well equipped with book and articles on both aircraft design and maintenance. 

I secured a placement with GE Aviation Wales as an Operations Intern. The placement formed part of the sandwich programme in Aeronautical Engineering at University of South Wales. I worked in the strip and assembly line of GP7200 commercial aircraft engines, managing the daily shop operations. It was an incredible experience, learning how thousands of part come together to form an aircraft engine. 

Being an international student in a country less familiar brought a lot of exciting challenges. The community of students in USW is multicultural, which means I mingled with people coming from different parts of the world. Wales itself is a place to be explored for its culture, tradition and beautiful landscape.