Graduate Profiles

Melissa Bedinger

BSc (Hons) Combined Studies

Combined Studies has great news about a former student. Melissa Bedinger graduated with an Honours degree and has completed a PhD in Business Management and Human Factors. This was funded by our Centre for Sustainable Road Freight.

Like many Combined Studies programs – Melissa’s topic was interdisciplinary.– and supervised by academic staff in SoSS and EGIS. While studying for a Combined Studies degree, Melissa was able to study a range of subjects from different degree programmes. This led to her interest in Transport for her Honours Dissertation and – wonderfully – onto her PhD.

We are also delighted that Melissa has accepted a post as a Research Associate on Heriot-Watt's Water Resilient Cities project, and will be completing work to analyse and embed resilience into infrastructure systems. We are delighted to welcome her as our new colleague.

Andre Cottais

Combined: Finance / Statistics / Critical Writing

I came to Heriot-Watt via a partnership between Heriot-Watt and my home university in Vannes, France. I had the chance to achieve a BSc degree in Combined Studies (General Science).

Choosing to combine Statistics and Computer Sciences &emdash; essential in the 21st century &emdash; I ended up getting so much more. This environment, in which I thrived in, allowed me to challenge myself and make appropriate decisions in order to get closer to my goals.  Heriot-Watt, being a global university also allowed me to engage with inspiring people from all around the world.

Combined Studies allow students to pick courses from different subjects and build a unique path that correspond to both personal interests and professional ambitions. All along this process, the Student Support team and Director of Studies provided me with good support and advised me in the selection of courses.  I aim to pursue in this international environment a Master programme in Innovative Information Systems

Chao Duan (China)

Combined Studies: Planning and Development / Urban Studies

I came to Heriot-Watt from Beijing, China. I originally wanted to study Planning and Development. Although I enjoyed the course there was one part - Property Valuation - which I didn’t like, we use very different techniques to value property in China. I transferred to Combined Studies two years ago and I am now in my last semester of fourth year. I am combining modules in Planning and Development with Urban Studies – this means I don’t have to study property valuation! I hope to graduate with a good Combined Studies Honours degree and to continue my studies in London. I would like to go into Landscape Design and my Combined Studies Honours degree will enhance my prospects.

Ben Goff (Scotland)

Combined Studies: Electrical Engineering / Management / Information Technology

I came to Heriot-Watt to study Electrical Engineering. I discovered during my second year that I wanted to study other subjects, so I transferred to Combined Studies. The staff were very helpful and advised me on the range of subjects available and I chose to study sciences, management and information technology. I found out that I was better at these than Electrical Engineering and I found my time a lot more enjoyable. I graduated with a General Degree and hit the road. I have now been living and working in Taiwan for the past two years. I decided that I wanted to further my studies and applied for an MBA at the local university NCKU (National Cheng Kung University). My time in Taiwan has been really enjoyable and I think that I will be staying for a while to come.

Aine McGarry (Ireland)

BEng Engineering (Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering)

Present job: Field Engineer with Schlumberger, Indonesia

I had wanted to study Engineering at Heriot- Watt for many years; however as a subject with so many diverse and exciting options, it was very difficult for me to decide on which route to take! Typically I would have made a sacrifice and chosen a particular interest to focus on, however the BEng Engineering allowed me the freedom to choose a number of different engineering topics that fitted in with both my career ambitions and my personal interests, which suited me perfectly.

I studied Mathematics, Programming, Mechanical Engineering and Electronic Engineering to begin with, and concentrated on Electronic Engineering and Control Engineering in my final years with the help of an industrial scholarship.

My lecturers were very friendly and gave me all the help I needed, and I graduated with an Honours degree in Robotics. I received a number of job offers but made the decision to continue my studies and took an MSc in Petroleum Engineering at Imperial College, London. I am now a Field Engineer with Schlumberger, and based in Jakarta, Indonesia.