• Question: What would you say to inspire teenagers to be an engineer

    Asked by Catherine to Aisling, Colin, Laurence, Ned, Niamh on 2 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Aisling Shannon

      Aisling Shannon answered on 2 Mar 2016:

      Hi Catherine, If you look at the 5 of us, just a sample of Irish engineers in the Space Industry… all doing totally different things, some in Ireland, some abroad. I could tell you of 100 more Irish engineers doing so many different things. Engineering can open so many doors, not just for spacecraft engineering but also hundreds of other areas too.
      If you enjoy Maths and Science, are (thinking of) doing Applied Maths, and like solving problems, then Engineering might be a good choice for you. I hope that helps 🙂

    • Photo: Ned Dwyer

      Ned Dwyer answered on 2 Mar 2016:

      Are you curious about how things work _ Have you ever asked yourself what is inside a smartphone, what makes that bridge stand up, how the Internet works, how does light come out of a small bulb, how I can get a map on my phone and it knows where I am, how a microwave bakes my potatoe much faster than an ordinary oven, how I can send a picture to my friend on a smart phone? If you are curious about some of these things, then maybe engineering is the thing for you. You can be the one to design and build things for the future that we have not even yet thought could exisit!

    • Photo: Laurence O'Rourke

      Laurence O'Rourke answered on 3 Mar 2016:

      If you are interested in pushing the limits of what you believe is possible in this highly engineering driven world while at the same time being challenged on a day to day basis, then become an engineer. Like any career, it’ll start off slowly and you’ll have ups & downs, you’ll have days where you prefer to stay at home, but you’ll have many many more days where you’ll not wish to be doing anything else – those are the days where being an engineer is worth it.

    • Photo: Niamh Shaw

      Niamh Shaw answered on 4 Mar 2016:

      Are you curious about how things work? Do you like taking things apart to figure out how they work (but then sometimes not bother putting it back together?)? Do you enjoy that headspace to think about how to solve things? Do you spend hours thinking about things and HATE when you can’t figure it out? Do you want to contribute to your community and help make peoples lives a little easier? Do you get a kick out of fixing things for people? If you say yes to any of these questions, then you would make a fabulous engineer. If you are passionate about understanding how things work, want to make a real impact in the world and would like to contribute to your community, then you are a born engineer. You don’t need to be a maths genius to be a great engineer- you just have to have a desire to innovate, inspire and lead.

    • Photo: Colin Shirran

      Colin Shirran answered on 8 Mar 2016:

      If you’ve ever wondered how something works or enjoyed the journey more than completing the task then engineering is for you! Engineering is all about solving problems and creating things that help make us actually do things which were once thought impossible. Engineering bursts open the boundaries we set for ourselves and help further mankind here on earth and out there in space. What’s not to love about it?

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