Employee Profile: Junior Engineer
Get a glimpse into Menapia with an interview with our Junior Engineer, Nawami.
What is your background?
I come from a Medical Engineering background having achieved a BEng from the University of Bradford and then continuing my studies with an MSc in Medical Engineering from the University of Leeds. During my studies I had a strong focus on structures and joint mechanics which formulated a great interest in orthopedics and joint replacement technology. I then decided to pursue a career in the medical field by applying to study medicine and with great support from Menapia I was able to secure a place on the Graduate Entry medicine course at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. After completing my medical degree and foundation training I intend to specialise in orthopaedics and potentially robotic assisted surgery, the former due to my interest in the field harbored by my higher education and the latter due to working so closely with robots here at Menapia.
What made you choose Menapia?
Whilst I was in the process of applying for med school, I wanted to spend my time productively and use the knowledge and skills I had developed throughout University. Through a recommendation, I found Menapia as was inspired by their aim to improve the world through innovation.
What is your main role/ responsibilities?
My current role involves looking at developing offboard mode for the UAV. This is the ability for the drone to carry out a mission that has been written by a script. I currently write the scripts and test them in simulation to ensure that they are safe to use on the drone and I look for methods of improving the performance and safety of offboard flying. I also support the senior engineers here at Menapia with tasks such as investigating performance of components such as motors and propellers, building the drones and attending flight test days.
What surprised you/wasn’t as you expected when you started working here?
How easy it was to speak to everyone and how asking questions and discussions are constantly encouraged. The environment established makes it easy and comfortable to ask for help particularly when coming into difficulty. For me, a great deal was foreign to me and so this environment made the transition here significantly easier and allowed me to pick up concepts quicker than I expected to.
What’s one thing you’ve learnt from your time here?
To be open to learning new skills. Prior to working at Menapia, I had done very minimal coding and programming but with encouragement and teaching by my colleagues I was introduced to ROS and python mainly which has allowed me to work efficiently with scripts for offboard flying.
What do you most enjoy about Menapia?
The fact that we are able to see the outcomes of the work we carry out, from successful flights to accurate meteorological data. Also, the people are the best and I’m going to miss them most when I start my medical degree.