• Question: What inspired you to become a engineer and was there anyone in particular who inspired you?

    Asked by anon-20380 on 26 Mar 2022. This question was also asked by anon-20332, anon-20336, anon-20383, anon-20690, anon-20659.
    • Photo: Nicola Marchetti

      Nicola Marchetti answered on 4 Mar 2022: last edited 4 Mar 2022 2:28 pm


      What I love about engineering is that you get to change the world around you, and not only study it. Amazing engineers like Claude Elwood Shannon (one of the fathers of logic circuits and information theory) inspired me to follow in their footsteps.

    • Photo: Kyriakos Kourousis

      Kyriakos Kourousis answered on 4 Mar 2022:


      Understanding on what is involved in designing and making an aircraft and my wish to work on aircraft. Inspired by many aeronautical engineers who developed wonderful aircraft and innovative systems for them… such as Richard Whitcomb, who invented not one but three technical solutions: the area rule (reducing the air resistance in supersonic flight), the supercritical wing (again, improving supersonic flight performance) and the winglets (used on all airliners and enabling them to save lots of fuel). Also, a great book I read when I was in secondary school (found that in the school’s library) was the LIFE Science Library ‘FLIGHT’… I still have it!

    • Photo: Brendan Mullane

      Brendan Mullane answered on 4 Mar 2022:


      My maths teacher in secondary school was one person who inspired me to take up engineering. He was very good at explaining new concepts to our class. A French mathematician and physicist, called Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier, who was born in 1768 was an incredible person who investigated how to describe signal properties. Lots of engineering concepts and smart devices in use today use his founding work.

    • Photo: Diana Abrunhosa

      Diana Abrunhosa answered on 7 Mar 2022:


      I always like looking at big buildings with strange shapes so I knew I would like to be involved in the built environment so the idea of Architecture and Engineering seemed like a good choice! I didn’t have anyone particular to inspired me, I think I was inspired by the cities I lived in and their buildings!

    • Photo: Somdatta Bhattacharya

      Somdatta Bhattacharya answered on 8 Mar 2022:


      I never planned on becoming an engineer but a simple Scientist, trying to make my concepts work.

      It was only then, that I realized that …. to make concepts into a reality, you need to design, build and test it!

      So, now I am an Engineer!

    • Photo: Ivan Merrick

      Ivan Merrick answered on 8 Mar 2022:


      My Family have been involved in engineering since 1853 so I guess it is ‘in my blood’. We had workshops what had a large number of machines for shaping metals into useful parts that were then assembled into a useful machine. We also have an Iron Foundry which made round manholes, shores and gullies that you seen in the road. They carry away waste water and rain water to stop the road flooding.
      I was always fond of making things from metal and wood and played with a type of Lego when I was young.
      Great engineers like Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Richard Trevithick, and Robert Stevenson were pioneers of great bridges, metal ships and trains were inspirational to me.

    • Photo: Aisling Lee

      Aisling Lee answered on 25 Mar 2022:


      Ive always been surrounded by people who could solve problems when they came their way, I liked the idea of being able to look after myself and fix things when i needed to with no help or being able to use my brain to solve stuff/get out of difficult situations.

      The type of work I like to do as part of my research now days is thanks to my grandparents, i really enjoyed seeing how technology and things i made could help them and others like them.

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