Team Profile - Jeremy Robinson
Mechanical Engineer Jeremy Robinson from the Tasmania office spoke about his time at BTT Engineering:
“I was in the break before my final year of study when I saw an advert come through from BTT Engineering. The opportunity sounded exciting to me, so I submitted an application. Within a couple of weeks I was Eddie’s first employee at BTT. Having not worked as an engineer before this, I wasn’t quite sure what I would actually do in the workplace. It was a steep learning curve early understanding the various aspects of certification and legislation but I really enjoyed the challenge, especially the opportunity to use my CAD and FEA knowledge from university, which I had developed through my time in UTAS’ Formula SAE team. I was working around my studies and Eddie was getting calls about work at some pretty interesting times during the week as I completed work whenever I could. Eddie was pretty keen to get me on full-time so as soon as I graduated I was straight into working at BTT. It was initially just myself and Eddie working from his home as the business was growing, which did have its perks such as being able to take my puppy with me to work! We were getting more and more busy so we needed to add staff to our team, which has led us now to a business with two office locations and some really exciting and interesting projects to work on. In January I will have been at BTT Engineering for 5 years full-time (6 years total) and am very grateful for the opportunity presented to me to be an important part of a thriving engineering consultancy business.”
Jeremy was asked some questions about him and his time with BTT Engineering:
What is your favourite or most satisfying project you have worked on while at BTT Engineering?
I have loved the variety of work I have been involved in, whether it be physical testing, simulations or getting out and about to meet clients. The particular highlight for me was designing a trailer fleet and towbars to suit for a government department in Victoria. They came to us with a number of issues with their current fleet and we were able to design a new trailer model to suit their needs and see it all the way through to quality assurance post manufacture. The trailers were analysed computationally and showed excellent characteristics under load while the towbars were tested at our test facility and proven to withstand the loading of the Australian Standards. At completion it felt like we had made a positive difference by completing these new designs which certainly makes the work more satisfying
What do you see as your best asset as an engineer with BTT Engineering?
I do like using computers, so CAD modelling and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is something I am always keen to get involved in and something I feel like I am good at. Other than that I love a good spreadsheet and can communicate well with clients as we work through their projects.
If you were a client interested in engaging a business for engineering consultancy, why would you choose BTT Engineering to do it?
I think the team is really down to earth to work with and this extends to how we treat our clients – we pride ourselves on keeping communication constant and working closely with them to meet their requirements. Our team has a wide range of background knowledge so there is always someone within the team able to help on any particular project
Where do you see the industry heading in the future?
Aside from the talk of renewables and alternate forms of energy, the industry will continue to improve their safety systems so that driver assistance is maximised in order to mitigate incident, whether this be automatic braking, collision detection or even autopilot! We do still have a way to go in this industry with changing attitudes towards doing work on vehicles – too many go straight into doing work without knowing or thinking about how it may affect the vehicle’s safety.
If you could go back to the time you graduated and give yourself some career advice, what would it be?
My advice would be to back yourself when explaining yourself to clients. Early on in my career it could sometimes be intimidating when as a fresh face to the industry I had to explain to clients why their vehicle was not compliant, even though “they had been doing it for 30 years”. While important to respect and listen to those with experience, rules and regulations exist for a reason and are readily available for anyone to access. Eventually I learnt how to work through these situations with the client but it certainly wasn’t something I was prepared for starting work!
What are your interests outside of work?
I am a sports tragic, so you will find me up at all hours of the night watching the Australian cricket team and Liverpool FC. I play golf regularly (even though I am a bit of a hack) and currently coach 2 hockey teams as a volunteer, one as a player-coach. Aside from that I enjoy spending time with my wife Josie and our 2 retrievers getting out and enjoying the fresh air all over Tasmania.