Ashley Oldershaw

Ashley Oldershaw studies Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence MEng, BEng and has really enjoyed having an individual project at the end of the first year.

Computing at Leeds

Ashley chose to study at Leeds as he felt the course had a good mix of what computer science is all about. He also wanted to be able to get involved with some robotics, which our specialist facilities include.

We asked Ashley what he has enjoyed about the course so far. He said “I've really enjoyed the content. I liked that we had an individual project at the end of the first year where I got a lot of freedom as to what I could choose to do. I learned so much and I've got some really useful skills - I hadn't done much programming before I started but now, I've worked on some great projects.”

I learned so much and I've got some really useful skills - I hadn't done much programming before I started but now, I've worked on some great projects.

Project work

We asked Ashley to discuss further the projects he’s got involved with. He said, “For my first-year programming project, I made a game called 'The Cave', which is basically about someone rescuing a baby from a cave full of demons. It's a bit like PAC-MAN but a little more sinister.’

As well as that I've been working in the robotics lab as an intern this summer. I worked with an awesome robot called TIAGo who was new to the lab. I managed to start from having TIAGo fresh out of the box to get it to move around the School of Computing on its own. Soon we should have him able to deliver packages to peoples' desks, and responding to speech commands, which will be fun. My supervisor and I started the new Leeds RoboCup team, and we're working on qualifying for the RoboCup for the 2019 competition in Sydney.”

Student life

Leeds is one of the country's largest and fastest-growing cities and whatever you interest, there is plenty to explore. We asked Ashley what Leeds has to offer students. He said “Loads! There are so many places to go and do whatever you like. I like some of the pubs in the city centre, and there are some great places for music and nights out. I think with my stomach, so I've found some good places to eat as well. Leeds is geared up for students so there's lots of events that have students in mind. It makes Leeds a great place to live.”

Looking forward 

Studying computing enables you to go into careers in all kinds of exciting industries. Ashley is currently applying for placement years in industry and hoping to do some work with AI.

Our dedicated faculty Employability Team are on hand throughout your studies to help you with whatever path you want to take once graduated. Ashley said “The Faculty of Engineering employability team are really helpful. The employability lectures are really useful and gave me the skills I needed to apply to my internship this summer and for placement year applications.”

Advice and tips

“If you're interested in something, go talk to someone about it. I was scared to go into the robotics lab for the whole of the first year. I thought nobody would want to talk to me in there, but now we've started the RoboCup team we've got people from years 1, 2 and 3 across computer science and other engineering subjects.”

Find out more about our Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence MEng, BEng here.