Thank you from your winner, Connor

I’m delighted to have been chosen as my zone’s winner! Thanks to all the students for their interesting and often challenging questions, thanks to my fellow engineers for making it an enjoyable competition and last but not least, special thanks to the I’m an Engineer team whose work makes the event possible.

As someone who is concerned about climate change and knows how critical it is that we have energy engineers to implement the solutions, I enjoy giving quite a bit of my time to outreach activities. This is hugely beneficial to me personally as it is a great test of my knowledge and expertise, while also keeping me grounded.

Firstly, if you want to be an expert in a topic then you should be able to explain it in a simple manner to any audience. Secondly, interacting with people from outside the university who don’t work in energy or climate change related jobs ensures that you stay in touch with what people think of the problem. I’m constantly surrounded by people working on climate change solutions so it is easy for me to forget that not everyone is concerned about the issue or knows as much about the issue as I do.

I’m an Engineer was an excellent opportunity to hear what kids concerns are and the areas that they are curious about. Some of the common questions asked by a number of different students; “What are you doing?” “What can we do?” reminded me why it’s important to go out and talk about climate change.

Discussions in the media can be very negative and worrying, which is apparent when you hear the anxiety among young people. Therefore, it is extremely important that we highlight the solutions available to build a healthy happy planet, and the jobs that would allow you to work in this exciting field.

Finally, thanks to MaREI the SFI Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine who have supported me throughout my PhD and allowed me to be involved in great initiatives like I’m an Engineer.

 


Posted on March 18, 2020 by modem in News. Leave a comment

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