BLOG POST FROM MEng ’14 Sunil shah

Arriving from the UK, where students typically study either in a library or in their rooms, it was interesting to observe how Cal students spend their days. Coffee shops aside, there are several great places around campus to hang out and study – walking around in early afternoon on a sunny day, something would be amiss if you didn’t see a number of MacBooks out.

Memorial Glade is a favourite for many students but after one bad experience involved mud-soiled jeans, I’ve started taking my MacBook to a location with drier seats. The terrace near the Davis Hall, on the North Side of campus is a hidden treasure and it’s only by accident (i.e. getting lost) that I found it.

Davis Hall is one of the older of the engineering buildings, housing the civil engineering department. The terrace just outside Davis is a concrete marvel interspaced with copious amounts of greenery that is very reminiscent of the post-war housing estates in London.

There are several wooden benches in arranged ‘cubicles’ and a chess board. While it can be a little chilly, there’s a great view of the campus from the edge most benches and it tends to be more serene than most of the campus. On a recent sunny day, I was pumping out an Engineering Leadership written assignment when a sandal-clad man sat down with his guitar and amplifier. For his brief lunch break, we were serenaded by the sound of his acoustic guitar and the quality of my assignment was much better for it.

Sunil’s concentration is Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). His capstone project is titled “Drones: The Killer App?” with Professor Raja Sengupta. Learn more about Sunil on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/geekonabicycle