I chose to do Physics with Astronomy because I have always loved learning about space and really enjoyed physics in secondary school. I did the physics general entry course and chose this specialism at the end of first year.

It’s really interesting. As expected, most of our modules are physics and maths. We’ve also learned programming and electronics skills, which have been useful in the physics modules. I find it really engaging to learn a skill in one module and be able to apply it in another. 

The lecturers do a great job of teaching the material. They give great explanations and can suggest other resources that might help you understand. DCU also has the maths learning centre, which is helpful for the maths modules.

Working with real-world data

Recently, we have had a few projects that involved working with physical data. For example, in our astronomy labs, we got to analyse data from an X-ray telescope. This data relates to pulsars, which are seen as pulses of X-rays. We can clean and process this data to find out information, such as how long each of these pulses lasts.

We have also had some workshops about CVs, cover letters and interviews, which will definitely come in useful in the future.

DCU Prospectus - Go back to Physics with Astronomy