Tell us a bit about yourself – What is your current role? What other roles/areas have you worked in?
I currently work as a mechanical engineer in ResMed’s Pressure System team. We are responsible for designing the part of the system that creates the pressure required for therapy. In my job I get to work across 4 key phases of development – research, technology development, product development and post market sustaining. In the research phase we are trying to understand the founding science behind an aspect of the system. We then take that science and develop it into a technology pack. Once the idea and the science is developed enough, it moves into product development to become a real product. After we launch the product we have to keep supporting it often by fixing issues that come up as complaints.
Within the pressure system team, we are responsible for managing things such as noise, pressure budgets and sensing. We do all of this by combining experimental testing, simulations and theoretical analysis. My previous roles have been working in teams that do one of each of those phases of development and I’ve also worked in a team that exclusively work in simulations.
As a child what did you want to be when you grew up? Were you always destined for a STEM career?
I always enjoyed maths and science subjects at school and was pretty good at them but I also loved subjects like art and textiles. There is actually a lot of parallels between the two streams and textiles in particular has a lot of the special awareness and problem solving skills commonly required in engineering. I grew up with two parents who were engineers as well so they encouraged me to stick with the harder maths through school. When it came to picking a uni course, I actually wanted to do a science degree and really only signed up to a double with engineering as a ‘back up’ degree as I knew they were very employable and ended up loving the engineering more.
What is your favourite part of your job?
I can’t narrow it down so I’m going to pick two! The first is when I get to either investigate a problem and try and understand why the system is behaving like it is from a scientific perspective. On the other hand I love when I get to think of creative solutions for the problem or generating concepts in early phase design work. I also love any work that involves a bit of ‘cool technology’ which is normally something quite innovative that we haven’t done before.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Outside of work, I’m pretty sporty. I love rowing and do the whole early morning wake up and weights training thing so I can race. Even though it’s very early, and in winter sometimes pretty cold, it’s such a nice way to start the day and I get to see the sun rise over the harbour 3 or 4 times a week which is special. I also play netball, and I love baking and reading.
Are you an early bird or a night owl?
The rowing makes me an early bird!
Would you rather have a completely automated home or a self-driving car?
Absolutely a self-driving car so I could read or watch TV or have a nap on my way to work.
Would you rather go 500 years into the future or 500 years into the past?
I am fascinated by the past but the 1500s were a pretty grim time in history so I would probably choose to go 500 years into the future and hope it’s a bit brighter.
