Nick

From school to university

I have come a long way from the microchip-collecting 8-year-old trying to demystify the life force running so many devices around him – but the magic of what makes the electronics ‘tick’ has very much remained an enduring source of fascination for me. My first true milestone on this quest of ‘demystification’ was deciding to pursue a degree in MEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London. Throughout school, I had been laying the foundations that I thought would best set me up for this – choosing advanced classes in Maths, Physics, Computing, and Chemistry. My academic journey throughout university followed a progressively more specialized study of electronics – concentrating in parallel on the two fields of hardware design/verification and machine learning. I felt that, between them – one being at the ‘highest’ level of technological abstraction and the other at the lowest – I had largely succeeded in ‘demystifying’ a lot of the magic of modern computing technology!

Why I chose Siemens EDA

Firstly, on the technical side of things, the work the team does naturally aligns very closely with my interest in hardware – specifically, the niche branch of Embedded Analytics is a very exciting opportunity to not just witness but to actually be a part of cutting-edge work in the silicon industry. Flexibility to do both design and verification as well as other miscellaneous engineering work makes for a holistically enriching technical experience. More than that, working at Siemens, more broadly, puts you in close proximity to a wealth of technological innovations in many fields; the feeling of being part of that community is very exciting, in and of itself. Aside from the technical aspects, however, I could tell from my very first interviews that I would enjoy working with the people on this team – something which I came to confirm, first-hand, not long after.

My experience at Siemens EDA

I first joined the Tessent Embedded Analytics team of Siemens as a UKESF scholar in 2021 – and since then have completed a summer internship, 6-month placement, and now a full-time graduate role. The work I’ve done has ranged from UVM-based verification of modules in the company IP catalogue to using Python to create internal helper tools – and even automating the product release flow process to customers, which was a multidimensional and very exciting project that required communication with other Siemens teams across the globe.  From my time here, I can say the team culture is second to none. At every step of the way I’ve felt warmly welcomed, eagerly and patiently mentored, and generally included. There is no shortage of social opportunities, and the rapport is strong and close-knit – a welcome ‘artefact’ of the start-up beginnings of the team 🙂

During my free time

I have a range of interests outside of electronics. I’ve been an avid painter since I was young, having displayed artwork in exhibitions and art journals back home in Greece, and been an active member of the Imperial Art Club. I also have a strong interest in music production and vocals – which I got to pursue more seriously by taking a music technology class in my last year of university, where I got to write, produce, and record two songs. Besides art and music, I have also been playing tennis for many years now and enjoy going to the gym regularly. Lastly, having grown up in a multi-lingual environment, I’ve developed a keen interest in languages. Beyond English and my native Greek, I have taken French throughout school and university (although it also featured in my home environment growing up!), as well as Mandarin Chinese up to the HSK3 diploma and then Level 4, at Imperial.