• Question: Who has inspired you to begin engineering? @stu @mel

    Asked by ayshak_ to Abbie, Melanie, Paul, Stu, Tom on 9 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Abbie Hutty

      Abbie Hutty answered on 9 Mar 2016:

      My physics teacher, Dr Febvre, and Colin Pillinger, who was an engineer on the news a lot talking about the Beagle II mission (a British Mars lander mission that was going on while I was doing my GCSEs). My teacher suggested engineering, but I didn’t really know what it was. Then I saw this cool mission to Mars and this Colin Pillinger guy was explaining that it was built by British Engineers. And I thought, wow, if that’s engineering, then it sounds like engineering is pretty cool!

    • Photo: Stuart Inglis

      Stuart Inglis answered on 9 Mar 2016:

      That’s an interesting one, thinking about it I’ve actually got a few. The first would be James Dyson of vacuum cleaner / hand-drier fame. I remember doing a topic in primary school on inventors and his inventions highlighting to me that we don’t know everything and inventions were still being made to that day.

      The second would be my Tech Studies teacher at school who just made the subject so interesting, and also let me do my own thing and play about with the kits we had, making up my own problems and solutions…once I was finished our set coursework of course!!

      And the final one would be my old man who was also an engineer and has always been “futtering” (as he’d say) with bits and pieces throughout my life. More often than not calling me in to help put something back together once he’d ruined it!!

    • Photo: Melanie Zimmer

      Melanie Zimmer answered on 9 Mar 2016:

      My parents, especially my dad. My parents were both really supportive when I told them I wanted to study maths, my dad was even so proud that he told his coworkers about it, which I found out just a few years ago! My dad was an electrician who later worked on an assembly line (and my mom is not really a technical person, but she knows how to send e-mails and use Skype) and talking to him and helping him doing some DIY things at home really brought me onto the path of engineering, you could say. It was probably the way he explained things and he would always be so patient with me (which can sometimes be challenging). Unfortunately, he died before I finished my Bachelor’s programme, but I know he would be proud of me and that is probably my main motivation and for some reason still inspiration actually. 🙂

    • Photo: Paul Webb

      Paul Webb answered on 11 Mar 2016:

      My dad massively I alwYs wanted to make him proud ever since I could remember

      I used to take things appart to see what’s inside all the time lol

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