James Rawlings
- Subject area
- Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering
I graduated from Loughborough University with a first-class degree in Product Design Engineering.
My experience on the course gave me a broad engineering outlook, as the projects I worked on were very different from one another. I found this really beneficial in my current role as a Mechanical Engineer at one of the UK’s leading design consultancies, DCA Design International, as the projects I work on now range from trains to autoinjectors.
Throughout the course, we had multiple group projects each year and sometimes they ran simultaneously. This really helped with my time management skills as it allowed me to balance having several tasks in various areas or on different projects. Additionally, being exposed to and working with people from industry throughout my degree helped me settle into the company environment faster allowing me to hit the ground running.
In my current role, I am an integral part of a team delivering a new medical inhaler.
I joined the project at an early concept stage and helped it progress to final tooling. This involved experimenting with prototypes and doing a whole load of varied tasks, including finite element analysis, design for manufacturing and tolerance analysis chains.
My advice to anyone considering studying the course would be in your part C project chose something you enjoy and are interested in. This is because you invest a lot of time into it and I've found is a great project to discuss in interviews.