My Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering degree prepared me to thrive in the professional world

Where I needed to be

I have always wanted to be an inventor. Someone who looks at problems and builds the technology that solves them. When I found out there was a degree called Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering, I knew that was exactly where I needed to be. Getting my admission letter to Middlesex University felt like the beginning of everything.

Engineering in practice

I came in not entirely sure what to expect - I knew I was going to become an engineer, but I didn't know what the journey would actually look like. My first year answered that quickly. We covered the fundamentals: mathematics, programming, CAD, electronics. But what stuck with me wasn't just what we learned in lectures - it was what we did with it. By the end of first year, my team was representing Middlesex at the 2024 IMechE Design Challenge, competing alongside universities like UCL and Imperial. We applied everything we had learned, built connections, and came back with a completely different understanding of what engineering looks like in practice.

That was the moment that I knew I was in the right place.

I still remember walking into the Mechatronics lab for the first time and seeing the Siemens Festo stations - PLC, MPS, sorting - and then stepping into the Robotics lab and seeing the UR10 robotic arms and TurtleBots lined up. I wondered whether I would ever actually get to use any of it.

Competitive edge

The second year pushed us deeper into the core of the discipline, and my team carried that momentum into the WorldSkills UK 2025 competition, Automation category - reaching the national finals. The tension in that room was something else. But more than the competition itself, it was a reflection of the quality of teaching and facilities we had access to. I have made a habit of boasting to students from other universities about the labs at Middlesex. It never gets old.

The third year brought a new challenge entirely. I became Technical Lead of the Formula Student AI society - a society founded this year - and we are currently preparing to compete at Silverstone in July 2026. Building the software and AI systems that make an autonomous vehicle think and operate, with a real team under a real competition deadline, is an experience that is very difficult to find anywhere else at undergraduate level.

Passion projects

Alongside all of this, I have worked on a number of personal projects - things I could only have built because of the facilities and environment MDX provided. The access to equipment, combined with what was being taught in the classroom, made it possible to go beyond coursework and produce real engineering solutions. By the time I was finishing my final year, I had run more projects on that equipment than I could count.

A place to belong

Middlesex also gave me something I didn't fully anticipate: a sense of belonging. The culture here is one where everyone genuinely feels included. I never once felt out of place, and that mattered more than I expected. When the weight of the work got heavy - and it did - my favourite reset was sitting on one of the benches on the campus field. Something about that space just cleared my head and let me get back to it.

I came into Middlesex with a vision. This university gave me the tools, the experiences, and the environment to turn that vision into something real. I am graduating soon, and I feel more prepared than I ever expected to step into the professional world - genuinely confident that I can thrive in it.

About the author

Oluwatunmise Raphael Shuaibu studied BEng Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering, graduating in 2026. He received the Outstanding Achievement in Engineering award.

Find out more about BEng Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering at Middlesex University.