• Question: Who inspired you to be an engineer?

    Asked by Tom to Andrew, Lizzie, Nick, Sonia on 15 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by dsa2545, 307artc24, Ashleigh, Nabeel, Chirag6000, FAHADKHAN, Nabeel, @lucyy_walkerr.
    • Photo: Elizabeth Kapasa

      Elizabeth Kapasa answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      I don’t have a specific person who inspired me, but I just wanted to help people by making things.

    • Photo: Nicholas Hitchins

      Nicholas Hitchins answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      That is a difficult question, the temptation is to mention great engineers like Brunell, Stephenson or Watt, but in reality they are just engineers from history who designed/invetned great things. When I was doing my A-levels I had a mathematics teacher who taught the mechanics modules of the A-level maths slybus, who re-newed my intrest in engineering. While at this point I had already decided to do engineering, halfway through my A-levels I was definitly at a low point and was very tired and bored of revision. He renewed my interest, he had been an oil engineer for years and then retired early and become a teacher his ability to provide very interesting real world senarios to mundane mathematics was very good. His examples were very good and he often used props in his teaching which really helped me see the light at the end of the tunnell. I think my real inspiration came from the technology its self rather than a specific person, there are many unsung heros of engineering whos technology is their own legacy.

    • Photo: Andrew Phillips

      Andrew Phillips answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      This is a tricky one! I don’t think there is anyone I can point to specifically. I’ve always just been interested in making and understanding things.

      When I was doing my A-levels I found they were interesting but didn’t really allow me to make anything, although the practicals in physics and chemistry were good fun. I did get to make a small(ish) trebuchet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trebuchet) for a physics project.

      I signed up to a course to make a steam engine at an engineering college near my school. That and work experience with an engineering contractor convinced me that engineering was for me. The steam engine sits in my office today, although it’s been a while since it was running!

Comments