I knew I wanted to be an engineer from a young age, but I didn’t quite know what discipline to dive into. I decided to do a Mechanical Engineering degree at Heriot Watt University because it was quite a broad engineering discipline with a lot of potential outcomes. After finishing my MEng, I decided to stay in university a little longer to carry out some research.
It was during this time, that I stumbled upon Royal IHC. After seeing the variety of projects that IHC was involved with, I decided to apply. I always wanted to steer my career into working environments where I could design, improve, manufacture and maintain machines, and IHC did not disappoint.
I joined IHC’s graduate program and I did a three rotations before I decided what to specialise in. During my rotations I gained experience as a Mechanical Design Engineer, as Software Engineer and as a Hydraulics Engineer.
I am now primarily a Mechanical Design Engineer, but the nature of the mechatronic projects have led to my involvement in control/simulation duties to ensure the mechanical designs can be effectively controlled by software.
IHC is a rather pragmatic and flexible company that has allowed me to peruse my objectives with a variety of large scale projects. Since I have been working here, I have involved in the design and programming of giant robot arms, a plethora of mechatronic projects and I have been part of teams that have designed extremely large metal structures that have to move and survive aboard vessels.
My day-to-day role is to develop pipe/cable laying machinery for the offshore industry. This work includes product design, creating theoretical models, CAD modelling and preparing drawings for manufacture.
With the control systems/software team, the work involved using multiple programming languages (PLC, C#, MATLAB, Simulink and MathCad), creating theoretical models for the automation of large-scale machinery and creating simulations to develop control systems.
One of the great things about IHC is their cradle to grave approach. Whilst working here, I’ve had the chance to see my designs come to life, and I have been involved in the installation and commissioning of various projects. The scale of the things we have designed still manages to surprise me.
