"I decided to do a year’s work placement before starting my final year and was fortunate to be offered a Technical Engineer’s post at Aardman Animations. I was involved in a wide range of engineering tasks including making parts required for animation, maintaining and setting up robotic camera rigs and generally solving problems which may occur.
My placement was invaluable. The experience of practical work was perfect to complement the academic studies on my course and helped me focus my ideas for my final year project. Plus, I also managed to get my name in the credits for the BAFTA winning film Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death.
I worked for Aardman Features Ltd as a Production Engineer. This involves designing and manufacturing parts or assemblies of mechanical components, maintaining and setting up robotic camera and lighting rigs and generally caring for the equipment used for the motion control both mechanical and electronic.
I have worked on the animated feature ’The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!’ where I was required to develop production specific equipment such as a robotic rig to move the 350Kg, 3m long pirate ship set in 5 axes (tilt, pan, rise, rotate and track), using CAD software for the design.
I am interested in a wide range of engineering: electronic, mechanical and computer. The BEng (Hons) Robotics degree incorporated all these disciplines as well as being a very forward and future thinking course. Plymouth also offers a very impressive pedigree in robotics research including the very successful robot football team and great facilities."