Charlotte’s story
Sussex fosters an enormous sense of community, with lots of organic opportunities to meet people through student societies.” Charlotte Richardson
Computer Science and AI (with an industrial placement year) BSc
“I became interested in computer science at primary school when I learned ‘Scratch’, a pretty basic form of block programming. By my A-Levels, I’d started exploring web development, and even secured an apprenticeship. However, when my plans fell through, I accepted an offer to study at Sussex because I liked its interdisciplinarity and the fact I could personalise my degree.
Teaching on my course is very interactive, which is great as I learn by doing. In my second year, our Computer Vision module explored how computers can use algorithms to manipulate and analyse images. I played around with these concepts to develop a tool to play the Google Dinosaur Game without a keyboard. The tool I used had a dataset of numbers in British Sign Language (BSL) available so I decided to create my own AI model to detect sign language numbers.
Expanding into letters felt like a natural progression, particularly as this opened the possibility of creating a learning tool to help users practise and receive feedback on BSL fingerspelling. However, suitable datasets for sign language letters do not readily exist. With encouragement from my professor, I applied to the Junior Research Associate (JRA) scheme to research and develop my own prototype learning tool. It was an intense application process, but it’s easy to write about something you’re fascinated by. I then spent eight weeks developing my project, scoping possibilities and gaining lots of useful critical thinking skills.
Developing industry experience was important to me, so I decided to take a Placement Year. My department offered lots of support, including a two-semester module which gave guidance on where to look for placements, interview techniques and CV-writing tips. I then spent a year at one of the UK’s largest high-tech engineering companies, and I feel like I’ve prepared for my next steps before I’ve even graduated.
Sussex fosters an enormous sense of community, with lots of organic opportunities to meet people through student societies. Alongside MineSoc and Sussex Racing, I joined HackSussex in my first year, and I’m now Society President. I also tutor part-time through our Peer Assisted Learning programme, PAL, which is so rewarding and a great revision tool – after all, if you can teach a topic to someone else, you know you understand it!
In the future, I’m hoping to study for a PhD. It’s ironic that going to university wasn’t my original plan – but now I’m at Sussex, I don’t want to leave!”
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