I applied to the
Innovation Design Engineering course after studying an Engineering Degree at
Nottingham University. It was the course I had been looking for my whole
educational career as it finally gave me a way to apply my engineering skills
to solve real-world problems. There they encouraged me to follow my own
curiosity and work on projects that I found inspiring. An 1851 Industrial
Design Studentship supported me financially during my two years of full-time
study, I do not know what I would have done without it.
My final year
group project was a fire safety system called Automist, an easy to install fire
sprinkler system which uses 10x time less water. It came about off the back of
talking to firefighters, who highlighted the need for more ways to protect
vulnerable people in their homes. Automist went on to win the James Dyson Award
in 2009 and subsequently, we formed a company called Plumis to commercialise
it. We now employee over 44 people in London and manufacture our product here
in the UK. Plumis recently won Make UK Manufacturing Awards Innovation Winner
2020 and Automist has saved at least 6 lives, all off the back deciding to join
the course all those years ago.
