• Question: how old were you when you found an interest in engineering

    Asked by rocket pop SC to Alison, Stephen, Rory, Brian on 5 Mar 2019. This question was also asked by 594speq48, chloe.
    • Photo: Alison Dufresne

      Alison Dufresne answered on 5 Mar 2019:


      I think I was about 15 when I realised (or maybe, more accurately – was told by a guidance counselor) that I liked engineering. It’s because of them that I went to a summer camp in engineering and got a good feel for it. There were a lot of team activities and playing around with electronics. We built egg protecting contraptions and threw them off a ten story buildings, we played with gliders and see who could design the fastest one.. I got hooked on the fun team work side of it.
      That being said, I still had two non STEM related option ticked on my CAO/UCAS! Are you thinking of going into engineering?

    • Photo: Stephen O'Connor

      Stephen O'Connor answered on 6 Mar 2019: last edited 6 Mar 2019 9:24 pm


      When I was about 11 or 12 years old.
      I saw photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope – which is a giant telescope orbiting the Earth.
      The photographs were of planets, stars and galaxies – in different shapes, colours and sizes.
      I was amazed and wanted to find out what I was looking at.
      Why that colour? That shape? How big are they? Where are they? So many questions…
      Check out this link to see some cool photos from Hubble: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/

    • Photo: Rory Scarrott

      Rory Scarrott answered on 7 Mar 2019:


      Specifically engineering, when I was about 26 as the A380 lifted off on it’s first test flight. My family were so psyched as my younger (engineering) brother had worked on a piece that went on the wing. But having been a part of this competition made me realise I’ve actually been interested in engineering skills and problem solving since I can remember.

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