Niamh, Graduate Design Engineer

Lifelong passion turned into work

My passion for robots and space turned into a career at Fugro. I've been working at Fugro for almost three years now. I started the Fugro Australia Vacation programme while still studying. Then, last year, when I graduated in Mechatronic Engineering I started working with Fugro full time.

I am a robot nerd, but I'm also a space nerd. I'm really into anything to do with space and robots. About three years ago, I heard in the news that Fugro had projects related to space in Perth. Perth feels like a small city, so you would never expect anything like this to happen here. That's why, I applied to just any job I could get at Fugro because I wanted to be closer to where this was happening, and I found a project engineer role as part of a summer vacation programme.

Fugro Australia Vacation Programme

During the vacation programme, we visited the Workshop, where all the ROVs and USVs were, and I fell in love with it. It was exactly where I wanted to be. The following year, I asked if I could work part-time at that Workshop. So, I started working one day a week as a design engineer student, and once I graduated, I was offered a full-time position there. I've been working as a graduate design engineer ever since.

The extremes of robotics

I'm really excited about what I do because I've always been a robot nerd. When I was nine, I had a YouTube channel where I uploaded videos of Lego robots. I've always been into it, but this is the next level. Putting robots under the sea in harsh environments with water, pressure, and salinity, and controlling them through a satellite, is incredible. It's the extremes of robotics.

In my role, I think about what kind of camera to use, how to send the data, and how everything will work together. We start with planning and concept, then move to testing in a big pool in our Workshop, like a huge swimming pool. We build the technology, test it on the ROV, make tweaks, and if it's good, it goes offshore. I love my role because it is a sweet spot where I get to do a bit of everything. It's not just structural; you need to know about everything else that is happening.

A big company with a tight-knit team

Fugro is a big company for the resources, but it feels like a small company at its heart. No one is going to turn you down and say you can't explore an opportunity or training. We have all these resources of a big company, but you also know everyone on the floor and you can have a chat with them.

My dream would be to end up in the SpAARC team. I really love the engineering role. I'd love to pursue design, stay with it, and keep going more and more extreme. Now we're going underwater, then maybe to space. Just continuing to learn those design details is what I'm about. I want to keep growing and learning, and I feel like there isn't a full stop. There will never be a limit to what you can do and where you can go. You can keep going and developing.