A week in the life of a postgraduate research electronic engineering student
PhD Electronic Engineering student, Xin Yang, shares a typical week for him as a postgraduate student at Surrey.
Typical timetable
The following timetable is a personal example - for the latest course information, explore our electronic engineering courses, including our PhD Information and Communication Systems.
Monday
7am - Wake up, shower, prepare and eat breakfast. Have a phone call with my family in China.
9am - Arrive at 5GIC, check emails and latest research trends.
11am-1pm - Do demonstration work for lab: Principles of Telecom and Packet Networks.
1pm-2pm - Lunch break with friends.
2pm - Get back to my own work. Sometimes coding, sometimes writing, depends on progress.
5:30pm - Leave for home.
6pm - Cook dinner, have dinner, clean up.
7:30pm - Play video games, watch a film or YouTube.
10pm - Time for bed.
Tuesday
6am - Wake up, have some milk and a cereal bar.
6:30am - Head to Surrey Sports Park gym.
8am - Head back home, shower, prepare and eat breakfast.
9:30am - Arrive at 5GIC, check emails, check technology news, summarise recent progress and findings.
11am - Regular meeting with supervisor.
12pm - Make a brief plan for this week based on the meeting, read relevant research papers.
1pm-2pm - Lunch break with friends.
2pm-4pm - Do my 'Student Ambassador' stuff (blogging, updating Weibo and WeChat, interacting with prospective students, etc.)
4pm - Get back to my own research.
6pm - Leave for home
6:30pm - Cook dinner, have dinner, clean up.
8pm - Play video games, watch a film or YouTube.
10pm - Time for bed.
Wednesday
7am - Wake up, shower, prepare and eat breakfast.
9am - Arrive at 5GIC, check emails.
9:30am - Focus working on my research.
1pm-2pm - Lunch break with friends.
2pm - Get back to my research.
5:30pm - Leave for home.
6pm - Cook dinner, have dinner, clean up.
7:30pm - Play video games, watch a film or YouTube.
10pm - Time for bed.
Thursday
6am - Wake up, have some milk and a cereal bar.
6:30am - Head to Surrey Sports Park gym.
8am - Head back home, shower, prepare and eat breakfast.
9:30am - Arrive at 5GIC, check emails.
10am - Focus working on my research.
1pm-2pm - Lunch break with friends.
2pm-4pm - Do my 'Student Ambassador' stuff (blogging, updating Weibo and WeChat, interacting with prospective students, etc.)
4pm - Get back to my own research.
6pm - Leave for home
6:30pm - Cook dinner, have dinner, clean up.
8pm - Play video games, watch a film or YouTube.
10pm - Time for bed.
Friday
7am - Wake up, shower, prepare and eat breakfast. Have a phone call with my family.
9am - Arrive at 5GIC, check emails and technology news.
10am - Focus working on my research.
1pm-2pm - Lunch break with friends.
2pm - Get back to my research.
5:30pm - Leave for home.
6pm - Dine out with friends.
10pm - Get back home.
When task deadline approaches, I may get back to 5GIC to work overtime after having dinner at home, till around 9:30pm. This happens occasionally.
I will also spend some time with my society (the Chinese Society) members to plan events and other stuff.
Weekends
- Short trips (London, seaside, surrounding areas, etc.)
- Wander around the town
- Shopping (at shops and supermarkets)
- Home cleaning and launderette
- Hang out with friends (for trips, for dinner, for playing sports)
- Do overtime study and research (when task deadline approaches, or simply when I have the mood to do so)
- Rest.
Explore our PhDs in electrical and electronic engineering, including our PhD Information and Communication Systems.