How were you involved with the Formula Student competition?
I took part in Formula Student as a member of Liverpool John Moores University’s LJMU Racing Team from 2011–2015, being involved in the design and construction of combustion cars from 2012-2015, taking part in 6 competitions including the UK, Spain and Germany. In 2013/14 I was co-leader of the electrical department within the team, responsible for the design and build of the electrical system, and was a driver in 2013 and 2014. In 2015, I took a step back to focus on my MEng year, while still remaining as an advisor to the design teams.
What's your current role and with which company?
I am a Graduate Railway Electrical Engineer at Transport for London, rotating on a three monthly basis around all areas of the company, working on projects from their inception phases, all the way to delivery and handover. I have worked on cabling and room design for the Northern Line Extension to Battersea Power Station, fleet maintenance and optimisation for the brand new S8 Metropolitan Line Fleet, as part of the Four Lines Modernisation Upgrade Project (4LM), Signalling Performance Design and Modelling, designing the speed, acceleration and braking profiles for S7 District Line trains, so when they go automatic in the near future, it will be me driving the trains; system test designs for a brand new, in-house signalling system for the Piccadilly Line Interim Control Upgrade (PICU), and am now working in the Director’s office as Advisor to the Director of TfL Engineering, a placement I will stay in until I leave the graduate scheme in September to take on a full time engineering role. I love that you are free to move where you want, and gain the experience and knowledge you want, you are never “stuck” in a placement or role you don’t want to do. This flexibility means I have not had one day where I did not want to go to work in the 18 months I have been here, work is something I enjoy, and look forward to doing. The other incredible thing is being a bit of a geek, I have the opportunity to see parts of London, hidden to nearly everyone, and work on projects and in places that nobody even know exist.
What was your first full time role post-grad (including apprenticeships)?
This was my second role after graduating in 2015. In 2015 I joined M-Sport Ltd in Cumbria, as an electrical design engineer. In this role I designed cars like the 2017 Constructor’s and Driver’s FIA World Rally Championship winning Ford Fiesta WRC and the Ford Focus RSRX, used by Ken Block in his Gymkhana Nine YouTube video and the FIA World Rallycross Championship. After one year with M-Sport, I took the plunge to move to London and work for TfL, it had always been my dream to live and work in central London, and this was an opportunity I couldn’t miss. Motorsport is still in my heart, and aside from working on projects on weekends for friends and family, I know one day I will end up working back in motorsport.
What made you join the competition?
I was always a huge Formula OneTM fan, and the opportunity to be a part of this world, where I could design, build and then race a car around the world, at Formula OneTM tracks with other teams from all over the world was a dream come true.
How did your experiences at Formula Student help prepare you for your first role?
Formula Student gave me the opportunity to apply the knowledge I had learned in my lectures, and see it in action in the real world. It showed you how to truly work as a team, working on a project as intense as this, you live in each other’s pockets, day in, day out. You do get on each other’s nerves, and fall out, but you end up becoming one big family and make friends for life, I was even best man for one of the guys on my team. The experience was incredibly important for interviews and my career, whenever anybody says: “Describe a time when…”, I have all the answers, I was dedicated when I worked for four days without sleep to get a car ready for testing, I worked as a team and showed determination when we destroyed an engine the night before testing, so stripped out the engine and rebuilt the car in three hours before running more dyno runs before testing. You never run out of examples or things to talk about.
What advice would you give to young engineers seeking employment post-grad?
I am incredibly proud to have been a part of the FS competition, and the majority of employers know what it is, and how demanding and impressive it is, regardless of the industry. General advice for interviews, be honest and be concise, if you don’t know the answer to something, tell them that you don’t know, but make it clear that you are more than willing to learn. Graduate employers don’t expect you to know everything, that is why you are entering a development scheme or junior engineering role. I knew nothing about rally cars when I started M-Sport, and it turns out there is a lot more to trains than the carriages and some track. Just be confident and let your enthusiasm shine through. When you are on site at competition, speak to other teams, everyone is incredibly friendly and always willing to help. It is a perfect opportunity for networking, a lot of the judges and spectators, and even competitors parents probably work in an industry you want to get into, just talk to people. After all, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
What is your fondest moment of the competition?
It is hard to narrow down my fondest memory of FS. I have been able to narrow it down to two. The first would be at Silverstone in 2012, standing in the pavilion in the paddock awaiting the awards from the competition, finding out that the first car I had built came 12th overall and 2nd out of UK teams, that was an incredible achievement for such a young team in the competition. The second would be the whole of Spain 2012 at Circuit de Catalunya. That change my perspective on everything, the racing was relaxed, the views from the track were incredible, but most of all the competition was intense. The top European teams took part, with only around a third the number of overall teams that are at Silverstone each year, it just remains one of the best things I have taken part in to this day.
What are you most looking forward to seeing in the next 20 years of Formula Student?
Technology is changing faster than ever, and owing to FS having such open regulations, these cars remain at the forefront of motorsport technology, way beyond that of F1, WEC and WRC, I want to continue to see this as an open formula, to keep encouraging the development of technology at an even faster rate than we have now. The biggest development I’d like to see would be the introduction of true hybrid power units, such as the MGU-K systems found in formula one, or the use of E-Superchargers on combustion cars.
Please can you provide a recommendation for anyone thinking of taking part in the competition!
The best piece of advice I was given, was from Mark Wild, MD of London Underground on my first day here at TfL, and that was to “just say yes”. Any opportunity given to you, do it, you have no idea how much it will change and enhance your life. If you said to me on my first day of university back in 2011 that I would design a car that was watched by millions of people, winning the WRC, or that I’d be living in central London working on the world’s oldest and best metro railway, I’d have laughed at you. But I wouldn’t be able to say I had ever done these, without being a part of this competition. Just say yes.