Our Alumni

Charlie Wilson

What was your role on the SD Squared team?

What were the key skills that you developed as a member of SD Squared?

Leadership and project management/planning skills, public speaking, technical knowledge surrounding bike design

What have you gone on to do after leaving the project?

What aspects of the project have been useful in your current job?

The project gave me lots of experiences in leadership and team management that were useful throughout the interview process for me current role, I have only started the position on 25/09/23 and foresee the public speaking, project management and time management experience I gained through SD squared being particularly useful in the new role

Is there anything that you wish you had the opportunity to learn or gain more experience of?

I think it would have been cool to have done some linkage myself out of personal interest however I didn't have the time due to other requirements of my role and uni work in my final year. I also would have liked to have seen some 3D printed prototype work however again didn’t due to the timeline of the project

What was your role on the SD Squared team?

I started the project alongside Charlie, then acted as a Student Lead, running meetings and steering progress.

What were the key skills that you developed as a member of SD Squared?

Helping start a project from scratch and building a team were completely new for me. Taking what started as an idea over a pint to a sizeable project backed financially by the university and industry involved a lot of learning along the way. I gained a newfound appreciation for the supporting work done behind the scenes (organising meetings, planning work, documentation, budgeting, resourcing equipment etc.) so the fun bits, design and engineering, can happen.

What have you gone on to do after leaving the project?

I’ve joined the graduate engineering training scheme with SSE Thermal. I am currently on placement as a mechanical engineer on a CCGT power plant, and will soon be moving into a role developing low carbon flexible generation projects.

What aspects of the project have been useful in your current job?

I think the project was a rare opportunity to develop soft skills (leadership, communication, presentation, planning, organisation etc.) on a really fun project you’re genuinely passionate about, alongside your mates. To see something we started running successfully and continue to grow and improve has helped my confidence massively!

Is there anything that you wish you had the opportunity to learn or gain more experience of?

Answer just for feedback …. getting academics to come in and give a talk on specific topics - FEA, material integrity (Rachel Tomlinson?) - such a wealth of knowledge and expertise to be used. Even if it doesn’t directly help the project, it’s invaluable for your own knowledge and development and the project can be used as a good excuse to get people to give you their time.

What was your role on the SD Squared team?

What were the key skills that you developed as a member of SD Squared?

Starting up SD Squared from scratch while also finishing our final year masters meant the other leads and I had to develop our time and project management skills pretty quickly to ensure we kept to our goals, and worked well as a collaborative group. Also, developing communication and presentation skills to effectively teach and apply techniques and processes we'd learnt from our industrial placement experience, was a great help.

What have you gone on to do after leaving the project?

I'm currently taking a break before choosing my engineering path in the next few months! In the meantime I'm doing some travelling and learning some new skills. Excited to see what the future holds!

What aspects of the project have been useful in your current job?

While I'm not currently at an engineering job, from placement, I know the project management and multidisciplinary collaboration aspects of the project are great experiences to have in order to prepare for industry. In addition, the insights into how companies and engineers operate within the bike industry gained from site visits (eg. Hope Technology) and industry interviews were fantastic.

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