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I am currently doing an engineering doctorate which is partly paid for by the government (EPSRC) and partly by Heineken. My job is to spend time at the beer and cider factories and look at ways to save money on the processes. I also look at ways to make them more environmentally friendly eg. using less water/energy and minimising waste.

I do all sorts of things! Some of the activities have included: working on a team which runs the plant to make beer and cider, making my own cider at home (but it counted as work time!), tasting beer and cider to make sure the product is good quality, doing experiments in a lab, doing experiments on a pilot plant, doing full experiments on 700,000 litre tanks, spending time in management, doing professional courses to gain management level qualifications, presenting my work at conferences around the UK, France, and Vietnam. Every day really is different and I get a lot of flexibility in what I want to do. If I can justify that it will benefit the company, then I can probably do it.

I have two ideas of what to do. I’ll write them both here and maybe you could give me feedback on what you think would be best?

1. Run a national engineering competition for students in the UK and the money would go towards a fun engineering activity day for the lucky students.

2. I’m going to do some engineering volunteering work in Africa soon. I could use the money to give some African students some engineering experience and help to encourage them to get into engineering careers for their future.