Empowered to succeed – a lifelong passion for technology

Starting university is always a mix of excitement and uncertainty, but for Adrians and Damian, the Alumni Scholarship has made all the difference.

Both have overcome challenges along the way, but with the scholarship easing financial pressures, they now have the freedom to focus on their studies and pursue their dreams without limits.

What brought you to the university?

Adrians Fedorovics

“I was born in Latvia but lived in Essex, Harlow, since the age of six with both my parents. My mom bounces around odd jobs and my dad works in a night shift store. Two sisters later on (I’m the eldest sibling) and I’m the first person in my family to attend a university.

“I attended a school called St Mark’s, which ended up being my Sixth form as well, where I studied physics, maths, product design, Russian and chemistry (later I dropped to just an AS-level). Due to Covid, my A-levels haven’t been the best - struggling to keep up with online learning and adjusting back to classrooms has been difficult, which affected my results towards the end. I only got ABCD, which was just enough to get into foundation year at Nottingham. As I went through foundation year, I’ve managed to catch up on where I’ve been affected in my A-levels and learn extra information to start my Year 1.

“At first, I grew an interest in mechanical engineering, due to enjoying mechanics throughout physics and maths during my A-levels, and my other interest in materials and how cars, aircraft and other mechanical objects work. However, I’ve started to lean more towards electronics, as I started to realise I’ve been surrounded by them my entire life.”

Damian Keller

“I have lived most of my life in the northwest of London, after I moved to England from Poland at a young age. I lived with my mom and two brothers until they left for university. My mom for the last 20 or so years has pursued a career in teaching in primary school, and occasionally being a private tutor specialising in maths. Due to my mom’s career, me and my brothers had a keen interest in mathematics.

“As I progressed through A-levels I decided to switch to my second favourite subject, physics. In school if we finished learning the topic and we had spare time, my physics teachers would organise a few hours for us to design and create a project using their personal 3D printers. The project I tried to make was an automatic sprinkler system, which didn’t work, yet it sparked an interest in electrical engineering.”

Favourite module and campus life

Adrians Fedorovics

“My first accommodation was St. Peter’s Court for foundation year, where I found my current roommates for the house we rent in Beeston.

I’ve most enjoyed the lab weeks as this was the practical hands-on section of the course, where we’ve built and coded a car, at this point to go 10m using an encoder. The most fun subject is coding for me, as I can manipulate programs to do equations and make all my electronics work together properly. I joined Airsoft Society in my foundation year and have continued being part of this, as it lets me enjoy both the electronic side and mechanical side as it combines both using motors, gears and springs.”

Damian Keller

“So far, my life at the university has been quite fun, making new friends and gaining new knowledge. I am most surprised with the size of my room - the way my brothers described their experience made me worry.
In the first few weeks the content wasn’t too difficult, it was more of a reminder than actual learning. However, once the first lab week was over the difficulty skyrocketed - even after practicing Norton and Thévenin's theorem I’m not completely confident in my application of the theorems.”
 

How the sponsorship has helped

Adrians Fedorovics

“I’m very grateful for the scholarship as this has greatly benefited my stay at university, allowing me to not worry as much about finances in my day-to-day life, and invest in passion projects, such as getting a 3D printer to design and create my projects. This includes an RC two-wheel drone that I worked on. With the help of the scholarship, I hope to invest more into creating things to benefit my knowledge and studies.”