What to Bring
Clothing
It’s a bit of a social faux-pas to go without it and the subject of one of our most commonly asked questions and most frequently expressed regrets! The UKSDC is an industry simulation game and so we recommend that you dress and present yourself appropriately for the industry in which you are working.
This is only partially helpful, as engineering workplaces can range from formal to extremely casual! At the UKSDC, we lean towards smart-casual: e.g. jeans with a shirt is appropriate but ripped jeans are not (whether intentionally ripped or not)! Everyone dressing professionally helps to promote professionalism without your company, which really does help your proposal come together.
At the national finals, you will be competing over two days, so you may want to pack a change of clothes and comfortable clothes for the evening.
Do not wear school uniform: you will be joining a company with teams from other schools and science clubs, and we have found that school uniforms can reinforce artificial divisions within your company. You will all be winning together so it’s best to facilitate an easy integration!
Food and Drink
At some of our events, you may be asked to cater for yourselves at lunchtime (only on the first day of the national finals): please review all information emails a week in advance of attending any event to ensure that all team members have adequate time to prepare. Do not hesitate to email us with any queries or dietary requirements (we cannot take responsibility for things we don’t know about!).
Beyond this, you may want to bring some snacks for yourself or for your team. We cannot ensure easy access to refrigerator or freezer space at our venues, so please check with us first (it’s unlikely but we can check in specific cases). Please do not bring any food which is likely to make a significant mess or leave a bad smell in the rooms: we would like to a good relationship with our generous hosts and you probably want to stay on good terms with your coworkers, so leave the pickled onions at home!
Bring a refillable water-bottle and remember to stay hydrated.
Technology
Making renders to show off your design, spreadsheets for calculations, and slides for your presentation tend to require some access to a computer or tablet. We cannot provide these for the huge number of students that we have at each of our events and students would spend more time troubleshooting than working! For this reason, we strongly recommend that you bring a device with you, either your own or borrowed from your school, if possible. Some students have brought tower PCs and monitors with them to the competition before: this is over the top, but we’re not going to stop you!
Please check and update your devices before the day of the competition, as you do not want to be out of action doing a Windows update over highly-contested WiFi! Don’t forget chargers and other accessories.
Don’t forget, it’s important to have experience with the software that you intend to use before arriving at the competition and that it’s downloaded on the machine that you want to take with you. If you don’t have experience with the software or machine, it might be better to prioritise analogue techniques, such as hand-drafting of designs. Install and test a scanner app on your phone before the event: they are the best way to get hand-drafted images onto your presentation.
The UKSDC is not responsible for loss or theft of any materials or equipment that you bring with you to our events, so plan and act accordingly.
Miscellaneous
- Wash-kit - a must for national finals but a toothbrush might be a good idea for regionals
- Power strip - some of our rooms have fewer wall-sockets than we would like, and we only have a few strips in our stock
- Calculator - great for the concept stage of design to make sure an idea is sound before moving to a spreadsheet or code
- Drafting tools - when discussing ideas, paper to sketch on is the way to go
- Notebook/Sketchbook - the best way to keep track of your responsibilities and dependencies within your company
- Board pens - some of our rooms have whiteboards but pens might be thin on the ground
- Headphones/Earphones - you'll reach a point in the day where you just need to knuckle down, and if your prefer to work with music, your colleagues will prefer that your have these