Student’s research on iPhone photography gets recognised by professional body 

A GCU student has had her passion project recognised by a professional engineering body, after expanding her dissertation topic into a research paper.

MEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering student Afia Kazmi had the opportunity to discuss her favourite topic for her undergraduate dissertation, which lead to her creating a research paper thanks to encouragement from her lecturers.

Afia, who has a passion for iPhone camera photography, created a dissertation titled “Comparative Image Analysis of Apple and Samsung Devices: A Technical Perspective”. Despite being initially unsure about what her dissertation topic would be, her dissertation supervisor recognised her enthusiasm towards iPhone photography and encouraged her to choose it as her research topic.

Once her Honours Project was submitted, Afia had to present her findings to a panel of lecturers as part of the grading process. The presentation was so well received that Afia was encouraged to develop her project further.

Senior Lecturer in Electric and Electronic Engineering Elaine Smith was pleased to see such a positive outcome for Afia. She explained that Afia's result was the highest mark that she had ever seen and that it was a first class submission. She said: “When Afia asked me to be her project supervisor and came to discuss project ideas with me, I encouraged her to speak about her future career aspirations.

When she mentioned her interest in mobile phone technology it was clear that she was passionate and excited about the topic. I then designed an honours project to capture her enthusiasm. Our weekly project meetings were a delight and the outcome was a first class project.”

Afia’s topic was then expanded into a research paper, it was submitted and recently accepted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Now, nearing the end of her Masters degree, Afia has reflected on what has been a positive journey with Glasgow Caledonian University:

Afia’s introduction to GCU

“I love telling this story! I will very often tell people the story when I’m out doing Student Mentor shifts, because I genuinely love being at GCU and sharing that with people.

When I was studying my National 5 classes in school, I had no idea what I wanted to do. In school, I chose Maths, Chemistry, English, Physics and Art. Later, I completed my Advanced Higher subjects in Maths and Physics, which took place at the Advanced Higher Hub at GCU.

When I was in S5 in school, we had the chance to engage with the Student Mentors through the Outreach programme at GCU. I remember that they visited our school and they all seemed genuinely happy to be there and to share their experiences of university. Since GCU is an open-access university, we were able to use the campus to study our Highers and we all thought that it was so cool!

Our school had plenty of opportunities to visit the campus for tours through GCU’s Caledonian Club, so we got to be on campus a lot.

Choosing to study at GCU

“When it came to choosing what I wanted to do, I really didn’t have an idea. I knew that I enjoyed maths and physics, so I decided to apply for a combined maths and physics degree at five different universities. I remember looking at my phone to see the progress of my applications, and I suddenly realised “I love phones, why didn’t I not choose something like electronic engineering?”.

I thought that I was too late to apply for something else, but UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) had an option called UCAS Extra which allows you to choose an additional course if you decide not to accept any offers. At the time, my friends all thought that I was crazy; our school doesn’t see many pupils go to university so the fact that I declined an offer was baffling to them. I knew that GCU had an Electronic Engineering course and when I received an offer, I accepted it straight away! GCU appealed to me for many reasons, especially as it’s a modern university with courses on modern subjects. Even small details like the study pods, it just has so much to offer.

My mum wanted me to go down the artistic route and go to the Glasgow School of Art, but I really wanted to do Electronic Engineering.”

Researching her passion as part of her Honours Project

“When it came to choosing my dissertation topic, I had no idea what I wanted to do it on. I decided to approach one of my favourite lecturers, Elaine Smith, who is really supportive. I told her that I wasn’t sure about what I wanted to focus on my dissertation on and told her about my reason for choosing the course in the first place. At first, I thought about choosing a topic that a lecturer would recommend and I could easily ask for help with it. Elaine actually suggested that I choose something that I’m passionate about and it made me think ‘What are my passions?’.  I came to the realisation that I love photography, which is something I do for parts of GCU and the Students’ Association. I also love the technology brand Apple and I hope to work there one day. I especially love photography using iPhones and Elaine told me that she could see my eyes light up at the mention of it. She said “You should do your dissertation on iPhone photography”  because of how enthusiastic I was about it.

I decided to do exactly that and I felt that I already knew what I was going to write about – I live and breathe Apple. For our dissertations, we have to produce an interim report which counts for 15%, the actual dissertation report which counts for 70%  and then 15% for your poster presentation. The presentation involves delivering a summary of your dissertation. I really hoped that I would get the chance to present to two specific lecturers, and luckily for me I did!

When I did the actual presentation, I had a poster displayed behind me but I didn’t look at it once for reference – it was all in my head already. It was a good moment for me; I have debated the benefits of iPhones for so long and now I had official data to prove my point.

At the end, the lecturers get the chance to ask questions during a 10-minute Q&A but my lecturers had no questions to ask! One actually asked if I could send them my dissertation for them to show their students. I was delighted!”

Receiving positive feedback about her passion project

“I felt so happy! Of course you would be happy to hear that sort of feedback about any piece of coursework, but to hear it about a topic that you’re incredibly passionate makes me feel over the moon. I’d love to work for Apple one day, so my dissertation would be a good example to discuss if I were to get an interview. I imagine seeing people in the future with the most up-to-date iPhone and thinking ‘Yeah, I helped make those cameras’. “

Afia’s advice to current students

“The best piece of advice that I could give to students is to not leave any work to the last minute, because you never know what might happen. Life can be unpredictable, so I’d recommend for students to get ahead of their work as much as they can.”

By Rachael McAlonan

Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media here