MAC Ltd

Meet one of our Scholars

What appeals to you about Electronics?

I have always viewed electronics as a hobby and was lucky enough to study it at GCSE and A Level. It was during my time at school that I learned about the components of analogue and digital electronics and their wide range of uses, many of which I realised when building projects. Since I started studying Electronic Engineering at the University of Southampton, I have taken particular interest in wireless communications, digital system design and mixed signal electronics.

Why did you want a scholarship with MAC?

The opportunity to apply for an internship with Multiple Access Communications Limited (MAC Ltd) came at a perfect time for me. I had just begun my 3^rd year communications project, and independent studying helped me see future potential in modern communications standards. MAC Ltd were offering a placement that would help me to further explore this field, and I am very glad I took the offer.

What type work have you been involved with during your placement?

My target for the placement was to learn more about field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and hardware description languages (HDL) and to gain experience using relevant software tools. During my placement I was able to meet all 3 goals!

I was tasked with creating an Advanced Encryption Standard – Galois/Counter Mode (AES-GCM) encryption and decryption system in Very High-Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL): first by creating a MATLAB model, and then implementing that model in a “hardware sense”, prioritising logic speed and area. I also got to create block designs for the FPGA development board using Vivado to implement the encryption core on the FPGA. Having never used VHDL and Vivado before, I was surprised how quickly I got the hang of it, and I have my MAC Ltd mentors to thank for this.

What are your interests outside of work?

My interests outside of work include long hikes in the countryside, watching TV and the occasional chess game.

And another

What appeals to you about Electronics?

Electronics is always at the cutting edge of the engineering industry, which makes it an exciting sector to be a part of. Since electronics encompasses such a wide range of constantly developing engineering areas, you can be part of many different types of projects through a career, which I find rewarding and exciting.

Why did you want a scholarship with MAC?

Through my research before coming to MAC Ltd, I realised that the company was at the cutting edge of embedded systems and signal processing, whilst maintaining a friendly and supportive atmosphere. I have a particular interest in field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and networking, so the projects at MAC Ltd seemed like the perfect fit for me.

What type work have you been involved with during your placement?

Throughout my placement I have been working on an FPGA deployment of a standard encryption library, to increase the data transmission rate. I have gained experience in using networking protocols, C coding, Unix command line tools, Makefiles, Matlab and Very High Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL). These different tools were all used through the research, design and deployment phases of the project to understand and modify the original source package.

With the support of my colleagues at MAC Ltd, I learnt a vast amount of skills and gained lots of experience throughout the internship, and enjoyed the work thoroughly.

What are your interests outside of work?

Outside of work, I’m a big football fan, but I won’t reveal which team I support… I’m also mad about cars, especially those from the 80s and 90s, so I’m always dreaming about my future garage in my spare time.